Mobile trading is steadily taking the spotlight in the global financial arena, thanks to the evolution of mobile apps and the proliferation of smartphones. With the overall number of smartphone users hitting a record 7 billion, smartphones are disrupting society’s status quo and simplifying daily routines. With the tap of a button, we can activate a CCTV camera in the garage, launch and fly a drone, authorize funding for a major project, or monitor the progress of shares on the stock market, all on a mobile device. The 20th Century is undoubtedly the age of mobile phones, and this is even clearly noticed in the volume of data moved by smartphones. In the second quarter of 2022, it is recorded that approximately 59% of the global web traffic was generated by mobile devices. The trend is expected to pique.
In addition, the high adoption rate of mobile apps is creating a stunning ripple effect on the revenue of the market. Each shift in the mobile app user base is causing a corresponding push in the commercial market. In 2020, global revenue from mobile apps increased by over USD 60 billion and it is expected to generate more than USD 900 billion in revenue by 2023. Mobile app developers and companies are obviously noticing this progress and striving to catch up with the wheel of time by designing services that are tailored to the needs and demands of the changing digital population. As a matter of fact, it is reported that many emerging digital markets moved straight onto mobile internet via smartphone and tablet devices.
What has this to do with the principle of mobile trading? A lot, actually. In the modern world, forex traders, investors, and investment advisors are realizing the need to embrace the fluid digital landscape – and that includes following the trend. Besides that, the large population using stock trading apps presents a blooming market that traders can tap into. For instance, over 130 million people used stock trading apps in 2021, representing a 49 percent increase from 2020. Traders are fast becoming proactive and quick to acclimatize their services to target the market.
This is where mobile trading fully punches in. Mobile trading is probably the best form of online trading to ever grace the internet. For one, it empowers the user to transact everywhere and at any time of the day. Gone are the days when the stockbroker would have to physically be present at the trading points or wait for long hours just to merely place an order. These days, time is a deciding factor in the forex and stock trade and profits or losses are determined by the ability to move faster and quicker. Mobile trading accords the user that elasticity. The portability of mobile devices means that the investor can make equity, receive quotes, access account balances, and manage investments in real-time.
What is more, with the mobile trading app, the trader never misses important updates and is always up to date on the current activities in his account. Mobile apps are best known for their push notifications and alert functionalities which keep the user in the loop. Similarly, investors dealing through mobile trading leverage the same notification features to stay up to date with fresh information. In the world of forex trading, the value of current data cannot be overemphasized.
Additionally, the speed and agility offered through mobile trading put trading apps as the priority for the investor. Mobile systems are designed to be lightweight, load fast, and respond quickly to operations – and the same efficiency trickles down to mobile trading. Access to market information and investment charts is fast and instant in mobile trading which is critical to the modern-day forex trader as it allows them to transact at a much faster rate. The same efficiency is nearly non-existent in other trading platforms, such as desktop apps for example, which usually have heavy and complex software that takes time to load. Moreover, mobile trading apps have a wide range of online payments that facilitate the effortless transfer of funds between accounts.
Mobile trading is further attributed to have contributed to a decrease in brokerage charges. Unlike in the call-in trade, there is no need for a third-party member to mediate the transactions for the investor utilizing mobile trading. This has also reduced the overreliance on external personnel, thus giving the broker or forex trader full autonomy over his transactions. The elimination of the middleman allows the investor to gain an in-depth understanding of his transactions without any interference empowering him to deal with confidence. This also allows scalability of investment for the small trader wishing to put every penny to maximum use.
The significant growth in mobile phone penetration coupled with cheaper data plans across the globe is creating a domino effect on the adoption of mobile trading platforms by forex and stock brokers. It is said that mobile trading is becoming a preference for most discount brokers because it reduces overhead costs incurred in hiring full-time customer relationship managers and dealers. With smartphone penetration showing no sign of slowing down, many brokers are expected to demonstrate their agility by joining the mobile trading bandwagon.
The popularity of mobile trading has also been accelerated by the ability to provide complex yet easy-to-use features that make forex trading a much more interactive and worthwhile experience. Sophisticated mobile trading apps have additional features to improve functionalities such as market updates and live portfolio reviews, as well as analysis and charts which lets traders go through and analyze past indices data.
What’s next?
Traders who are looking forward to exploring the might of mobile trading can try the MetaTrader 5 web terminal from MetaQuotes. The MetaTrader 5 was developed from the ground up to incorporate new and emerging trends for the new-age trader.
The MetaTrader 5 web terminal is a multiplatform compatible mobile trading tool that individual investors can use to trade financial assets – currencies, commodities, precious metals, and indices through any web browser. Mobile trading on the web could be the future of trading according to a report from Amplitude which shows that web usage grew significantly more than mobile apps in 2021. These starts can also be one of the critical factors why brokers are likely going to migrate to web terminals to meet the growing number of web users.
The future is nigh
As the demand for more features and automated functions in mobile trading soars, companies in mobile trading apps are pushing the boundaries to adapt to emerging technologies. As these companies strive to stay one step ahead, they are integrating cutting-edge tech like robot trading into their services. It would make perfect sense for mobile trading apps to have fully fledged features such as robo-advisory to automate portfolio management and initiate the intelligent analysis. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also come in handy in the analysis of large volumes of data for quantitative trading. In the unforeseeable future, AI may be fully automated to run comprehensive risk analyses to minimize preventable losses.
