optionsXpress Mobile Now Available on Palm and Android; OXPS, ETFC, AMTD
| 15 December 2009

Pixies and Droids, feeling left out? Not on the invite list? Eating at the little kids table? Your time has come. optionsXpress (OXPS) announced today that its mobile trading app is now available on both the
Palm and
Android platforms. You can pick up the apps in their respective app marketplaces today.
Most brokers support at least some form of mobile browser-based trading and account management. But the optionsXpress mobile application goes beyond hte browser and is one of the more robust platforms available for traders. In addition to the typical quotes, watchlists and trading windows, uber-traders also have access to oxps tools like The Dragon, options chains and Reversals.
optionsXpress's ability to support the Palm and Android markets is also unique.
E*TRADE mobile pro is only supported on the iPhone and Blackberry. TD Ameritrade's (AMTD) thinksorswim group with its
iSwim and
thinkMicro applications.
Despite our earlier
ponderings, mobile trading application have continued to take off and become almost de rigueur among active investor platforms. Even Fidelity has long supported mobile applications with a Chief Wireless Officer and they have seen triple-digit growth in their wireless trades in the last three years. We also find it interesting to note that a recent
Scottrade survey indicated that mobile services appear to be more important to Generation Y investors.
Many mobile trading applications have been developed by third parties. optionsXpress relies on mobile trading tools from
Market Simplified. E*TRADE Financial (ETFC), however, which leans heavily on its E*TRADE Mobile Pro application in marketing campaigns, developed its iPhone application entirely in-house. Their Blackberry product was a collaborative effort with
Vaultus (leveraging their Mobility Server).