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Brokerages Race To Find Speed And Depth With Smart Phones
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Looking to get alerts on your mobile phone when a stock hits a buy or sell point? And then quickly execute a trade with a few taps on your handset based on that data? "There's an app for that," says Apple's marketing campaign for the iPhone.
Indeed, software applications, or apps, are popping up on all sorts of smart phones, including Research In Motion's (NasdaqGS:RIMM - News) BlackBerry and devices running Google's (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News) Android mobile operating system.
Brokerages and other financial services firms are racing to offer mobile apps for accessing accounts and market data on the go.
Before the current generation of apps for mobile phones, many investors felt chained to their PCs during market hours. Now, with smart phones such as Apple's (NasdaqGS:AAPL - News) iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry Storm along with mobile apps from E-Trade Financial (NasdaqGS:ETFC - News), TD Ameritrade (NasdaqGS:AMTD - News) and others, they can easily keep abreast of market trends, get alerts and stock news, and execute trades while outside of the home or office.
E-Trade thought its Mobile Pro app would appeal primarily to customers who are active traders.
It turned out to have much broader appeal, says Paul Vienick, senior vice president for long-term investing and customer experience at E-Trade.
Vienick says E-Trade's mobile app has proved popular with many customers who just want to look at their portfolio and watch what's going on in the market.
"It's more expansive than we ever thought it would be," he said.
About half of iPhone users surveyed by E-Trade say they plan to use the mobile app more often than E-Trade's Web site as their primary access point.
Anywhere, anytime access to their brokerage accounts gives investors the security to go about their daily business without missing a beat.
Naturally, they want a system that works. Fast.
Avi Greengart, an analyst at research firm Current Analysis, recognizes that investors expect a robust mobile trading and information platform from their brokers.
Financial firms are responding by gravitating to the iPhone and BlackBerry to offer mobile apps. "If you're going to reach investors, you have to consider the platforms that they're working on," Greengart said.
E-Trade and Ameritrade are working on mobile apps for Google's Android operating system, which is used in the Motorola (NYSE:MOT - News) Droid smart phone, among others.
The market for smart phones is sizzling, with the potential for popular devices emerging all the time, says Steven Quirk, managing director of trading for Thinkorswim, a subsidiary of TD Ameritrade.
With most customers on two-year service plans with their smart phones, they have an opportunity to consider a new handset fairly frequently, says Quirk.
Thinkorswim will have a version of its iSwim mobile app available for the Android platform in the first quarter of 2010, Quirk says. It's also keeping an eye on Palm's (NasdaqGS:PALM - News) webOS platform and Microsoft's (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) Windows mobile operating system, but neither of those has much traction now.
"It's such a dynamic space," Quirk said. "You've got to stay on top of it because it changes so quickly."
Kevin Burden, research director of mobile devices at ABI Research, says one of the great things about the mobile app space for financial service companies is the chance to get your own icon button onto a smart phone screen. That's valuable real estate.
"You want to be one of those buttons," Burden said.
If you are, you can form a closer relationship with a customer.
The iPhone and BlackBerry are neck and neck in terms of popularity with investors, according to a recent survey of visitors to IBD's Web site, Investors.com. Apple's iPhone is No. 1 with 15.7% of respondents, followed by BlackBerry with 15.1%.
Investors.com surveyed 1,149 online visitors Nov. 12 and 13.
Of those surveyed, 26% use their mobile device to get investment news; 24% use it to receive price and news alerts; and 15% use it to trade stocks.
Financial apps on Apple's App Store include not only those from E-Trade and Ameritrade, but also apps from news services like Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business and Yahoo Finance. Investment research firm Morningstar (NasdaqGS:MORN - News) also has an iPhone app.
Mobile apps have joined investment Web sites and social networking services as ways for do-it-yourself investors to get information.
A number of sites offer stock charts, ratings and analysis. New sites include Alacra.com's Alacra Pulse, where investors can see recent articles mentioning companies and get summaries of analyst research.
Another buzzed-about site is StockTwits.com, which leverages the microblogging service Twitter to disseminate thoughts on stocks.
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