Self-directed means trade executions are done online, either through a desktop/web-based platform or a mobile app. Broker-assisted refers to the more traditional way of calling your broker/remisier to place the order/trade for you (and naturally attracts higher commission since the middle-man needs to be paid too). It is pretty common these days to see more self-directed trading, however in cases of emergency, you can usually still call their hotline for assistance at no extra charges for most.

First, what is the definition of "good"? If you mean to ask whether it is ethically good, it runs in the same vein as "Is AI good?" If it means amplifying developing trends, then yes it's good. Now to address the flash crash, I wouldn't say it is "responsible" for the flash crashes in the sense that it doesn't exactly starts one (the "trigger"). Thus the trigger is usually something else, be it a comment made by a political figure, an economic data release, etc. Once triggered or ignited, a new trend is now set in place. What the algos does is that it recognizes that either instantly or after some other confirmation from other readings/indicators/signals etc, and pile in on the new trend, causing the new trend to accelerate. Once this acceleration reaches critical mass, it gains enough velocity to what the general public deems as a "flash crash". Now, there are also other algorithms that reads into whether the market is shifting too much away from its expected value (mean reversion algos for example). When the move is deemed too much, these algos kicks in to trade the reverse direction, hence slowing down the flash crash, and then causing a sharp recovery move back to the perceived expected value. So you can also say that algos "saved the day" after a flash crash. So there is no good or bad to algos really, they just created new ways for markets to move, that's all. We just need to recognize that, and suit our trading styles to take into account these new phenomena.

Definitely can't, as a full-time contract will state that you cannot be working for someone else. If you do, you need to declare to your full-time company (will you even want to do that?) And after the declaration, what do you think will be the response of your boss? (will he allow you to part-time somewhere else?) And if the answer from him is "no", have you practically ruin your chance to stay in the bank for long (will your boss start looking for a replacement and fire you once he gets one)? Lastly, you will need to be licenced to represent the insurance company, and the licence requirement is that you only represent one principal (the insurance company in this case). So, you now work full-time at the bank, while you fully represents the insurance company. So yes, your finding it puzzling is correct, the recruiter is just trying all means to get you in for strange reasons.

Do 50/50 SSB and a savings account somewhere. The started SSB will grow into something more which you can allocate to other investment pots in years to come, and the savings acc will be there for the really rainy days (and if really need to cash out the other SSB half, i'm sure the savings acc half can buy some time :)

Totally agreed with the previous answer by Billy. A virtual or demo account is simply for you to test out new products or hypothesis of trading strategies/systems (of which you can also simply just run simulations in some environments instead). Nothing beats trading real money, thus do yourself a favour, open and fund a small real account somewhere, and trade it. See and learn about your own trading psychology, learn about risk management in addition to the usual more interesting trading strategies, and you will find consistent profits coming for you earlier than your friends who have gone the virtual account route.

Indeed, desktop with two monitors here, using two Samsung 27" non-curved. A good price reference is http://www.fuwell.com.sg/ (download the price list). Strange enough that they only have the curved ones now at the bottom end for Samsung. And get loads of RAM (2x 16GB), Samsung 1TB SSD, and if you need more space to store historical data for crunching algo models, another non-SSD harddisk (hunt for HGST ones if you can, though seems like they are getting rarer).

There will always be risks involved, and higher so for P2P lending. Always go in with your eyes open, diversify instead of putting your eggs into just a few baskets, and expect some negative surprises in a small percentage of the P2P deals.