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In the past few years, everything seems to be going mobile and investors know that very well. As more and more traders and investors turn to their phones and tablets to keep an eye on their accounts, online brokers have started offering their clients applications that can be used on mobile, along with their traditional desktop platforms.
Apart from trading or investment apps, investors also need a way to always keep themselves up to date with the news that could influence their next moves. Fast reaction time can sometimes make or break the career of an investor, given how sensitive the market is. This is what determines brokerage firms to turn to a software development company in order to create the best possible app to help their clients invest in an educated and safe manner.
CNBC: Stock Market & Business News
NBC’s financial news website now has an app that is available on both Android and iOS and it has become the go-to application for most investors and traders. The app gives users access to business news and financial information, as well as market data. Users are always up to date with the most important news, as the app can send push notifications even when it’s closed.
It provides users with the possibility to monitor real-time stock quotes, view interactive charts, receive global news regarding the business world and watch episodes of NBC shows. The app leaves a good visual experience, it is very neat and user-friendly, allowing users to navigate through the news naturally, with just a few gestures. The app is free to use, but does offer paid memberships in order to unlock more features.
Scout Finance
The app was developed in 2015 and was purchased by Money.Net in 2017. It provides financial news, as well as real-time stock tracking. It includes transcripts and presentation, allows users to import tickers from their existing broker accounts and check out financial statements. Scout Finance is one of the best apps for professional-grade stock tracking, providing stats, charts and presentations, as well as transcripts and audios for when you are on the road.
Scout gives its users access to companies’ historical financial data, balance sheets and metrics for the past five years. The documents are auto cached and can be read offline, when you don’t have internet access. Users can customize their watch list and choose what data they want to receive notifications about, based on their interests.
The app was designed with Wall Street professionals in mind, thus providing 24/7 access to the most useful stock market data and documents, such as Investor Presentations, Earnings Releases and Fillings. While the app is free in the app store, you will need a Moneyt.Net subscription to access it.
The Wall Street Journal App
Throughout the years, The Wall Street Journal has established itself as one of the most reliable and reputable sources for any type of financial information. Now, they are offering investors a eat way to always keep up to date with the latest articles regarding finance, business, technology and even sports. It provides in-depth analysis and real-time stock quotes, as well as business news with economy coverage.
The app has kept quite the traditional newspaper layout, is easy to use and appeals to anyone. When it was first launched, The Wall Street Journal app was free to use, and it is still free to download now, but in order to gain access to the full spectrum of functionalities, you have to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee. The subscription fee can get a bit pricey, but getting news from a reputable newspaper that has been doing business since 1889 is worth the price.
TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade has become one of the largest brokerage firms in the US. Over the years, the TD Ameritrade has received multiple awards, including Best Overall Online Broker, Best Web Trading Platforms and Best for Beginners. The company’s goal is to help new investors become more confident and develop their skills as they continue to trade.
The platform is extremely customizable and allows clients to choose various layouts, color schemes and trading defaults. Investors can customize their dashboards, access research, look for advice, transfer funds and get market alerts. This kind of customization is exactly what makes the app good for every type of investor.
Ameritrade took things a bit further by offering two smartphone apps, to satisfy the needs of both beginner or passive traders and for the more active ones: TD Ameritrade Mobile and TD Ameritrade Mobile Trader.
TD Ameritrade Mobile can be considered an extension of their website and had comprehensive functionality. Besides trading options, the app offers traders and educational experience as well, by sharing news and research. TD Ameritrade Mobile Trader, on the other hand, offers more features for advanced investors, such as charts, technical indicators and analysis.
Robinhood
Named by many as the best free stock trading app, Robinhood started out as an ambitious start-up that wanted to offer people a place to trade without commission. The company first launched the platform as a mobile app only, but since 2017, they also launched a website.
The app is simple to use and charges zero commissions, a thing that appeals to many cost-conscious investors who don’t trade big quantities. Being designed with small investors in mind, the app does not give users access to a full range of investments, such as mutual funds, but it offers great deals for stocks, ETFs and, most recently, Bitcoin. It does, however, offer a Robinhood Gold account, where you can gain access to extended trading hours and margin accounts, in exchange for a small fee.
When it comes to trading experience, the app is quite simple to use and all users have instant access to deposits, and funds after closing position. A soon as they initiate a deposit into their account, their buying power is also increased.
When it comes to news and research, the app does offer articles form Marketwatch, Seeking Alpha and other sources, but the research capabilities are quite light, compared to other apps. Given the fact that the app is free, you can, however, look for more meaningful research from other sources.
Acorns
Dubbed as a “spare change investment app”, this app is the best option if you want to invest, but don’t have any idea how to do so. All you need to do is link your bank account and Acorns will track your regular spending and transfer the remaining change until the nearest dollar to your app account for you to invest. Based on a simple questionnaire that you have to complete when signing up, Acorns will then build a portfolio of stock and bond investments. The app invests exclusively in ETFs, in order to build a diverse portfolio for you. An important factor that influences the was Acorns chooses your portfolio is the timeline until retirement (calculated as 59 and a half years old). As you approach that age, the portfolio becomes more conservative.
This app exactly what you need, if you don’t want to focus too much on your investments, but still want to contribute. In terms of fees, Acorns charges $1 for accounts with a balance up to $5,000 and 0,25% fee for accounts with a balance over $5,000
The app is very intuitive and easy to use, just create your account, answer the questions to build up your portfolio, connect your bank account and you are good to go. Acorns provides portfolios that range from conservative to aggressive, based on bond or stock investments. The more aggressive your portfolio is, the more money gets invested in stocks.
Acorns has no withdrawing fees and funds take between 3 and 6 business days to reach your checking account. However, there are no tax benefits for Acorns users and the app does not offer any type of tax assistance either.
Stash
Another application for beginner traders, Stash is a great choice for someone who’s been wanting to make their own investment decisions, but don’t have the knowledge. The app lets you invest as little as $5 and helps you pick your investments, while educating you at the same time.
The app also provides news, articles and tips to help you gain knowledge each time you access your account. It provides ETFs and single stock investments, all grouped in themes, such as environment or innovation. You can choose between portfolios that are focused on those themes, or you can go ahead and build your own custom portfolio.
When you first sign up, you will have to answer a series of personal questions, in order to help Stash evaluate how much you tolerate risks and suggest portfolios. In terms of fees, Stash charges $1 per month for investors with less than $5,000 balance and 0,25% of your assets for investors with more than $5,000 balance.
Being designed with the purpose of teaching beginners how to invest, the app does not give the same depth of research on companies that more “advanced” brokerage platforms do, but if you are not accustomed to all the terms and acronyms of the investment world, this is a good place for you to start.
