Online brokers are taking their fast-growing market one step further with mobile trading apps, available for Android, iPhone, and even the new Apple Watch. These apps make online trading easier and more accessible to more people. Big names such as IG and OptionsHouse are getting into mobile apps as a way to help their clients stay up to date on the market and trade securely, anytime, anywhere.
Access and options are the most popular elements of the trend. OptionsHouse, whose board includes Rene Kern, provides clients with apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices that allow users to make trades, look up prices, and access their accounts while on the go. Customization options and streaming real-time quotes give clients more power over their portfolios. In fact, OptionsHouse earned five stars from Barron’s for its mobile offerings.
The move to mobile apps also does a great service by encouraging people who otherwise might be too intimidated to get into the stock market. Regarding TradeHero, a financial learning and stock market simulation app, Gavin Ward, Head of Greater China and OANDA said, “Forex trading is traditionally driven by banks and large investment groups and is mostly shut off to small, individual investors. The partnership with TradeHero opens us to millions of app users who are engaged and willing to learn the fundamentals of currency trading.” The TradeHero app is used by 2.5 million people in 127 countries. As of November 2014, the Chinese language version had been downloaded over a million times by users trading in ten major global currencies, as well as in gold and silver.
IG, who were the world’s first financial spread betting firm when they began in 1974, have moved into apps as well. Their Trading App, available for iOS, Windows 8, and Android—and the Apple Watch in the future—provides a broad range of international stocks to buy and sell. It also provides access to live, real-time prices, all protected by 256-bit SSL encryption.
As technology progresses and becomes ever more important to the financial sector, companies will need to incorporate more of these kinds of digital options.
