| 30 July 2010

TD Ameritrade (AMTD) announced that it has re-vamped its line of mobile trading applications. The move is meant to tap into the already successful mobile trading applications developed by subsidiary thinkorswim and the few developed for TD Ameritrade and consolidate them under the brand "TD Ameritrade Mobile." The applications offer advanced charting, technical analysis, and trading for stocks, ETFs, futures, forex and complex options trades.

According to the company, "TD Ameritrade is the only online brokerage with five homemade mobile platforms, including a simple Web browser and four proprietary operating system platforms." The platforms refer to the operating platforms of Android, Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Mobile. But the statement is a bit premature, we think, given their website claims the iPad and Android apps are "coming soon." The firm also offers a web-based trading platform that serves up mobile-friendly screens to any phone capable of accessing the internet. 

"We continue to push for innovative ways to deliver accelerated technology for both novice and experienced traders alike. TD AMERITRADE Mobile, features trading tools, account management, advanced charting, technical analysis, paper trading and other essentials for traders and investors," said Nicole Sherrod, managing director of the Trader Group at TD AMERITRADE.

We have to admit the feature list is impressive and about as rich as we've seen. The mobile applications allow users to:

• Trade stocks, ETFs or options;
• View real-time quotes including futures and forex, market news and watch lists;
• Create and view "hundreds" of customizable charts with studies;
• Monitor open positions;
  
• Set alerts to email, text or vibrate;
• Access various linked accounts from a single login;
• Practice investing strategies using paperMoney®; and
  
• Stream exclusive audio on supported devices.

We've wondered in the past whether mobile trading applications were really necessary. Checking news and quotes is all fine and good but is it really necessary to make trading decisions on the fly? We know that brokers like them, and in fact that is our chief concern. Brokers like mobile trading applications because they tend to encourage more frequent and perhaps frivolous trading activity. That combination is always good for commissions, bad for results.

That post was met with not a few criticisms and we began to suspect a re-energized mobile trading movement was afoot. (Plus, admittedly, we bought some seriously cool Android phones.)

We later reported that Fidelity had seen triple-digit growth in actual trades through mobile applications, not just use of mobile applications. Fidelity is serious about their mobile efforts and have even appointed an officer primarily responsible for all things mobile. The growth in trading activity was proof that, whether or not they believed in the efficacy of mobile trading applications, brokers needed them to compete.

Finally, in a sign of our slowly, but we think "appropriately" evolving take on the subject we wrote that we actually liked the E*TRADE (ETFC) Mobile Pro application for the iPad. The larger, more user-friendly device could finally offer traders the perfect mix of readability and functionality in a portable package.

With this latest announcement from TD Ameritrade, Schwab (SCHW), it seems, is the odd man out among the larger brokers. No word yet on any extensive mobile development from the world's largest online broker.


         
Image by rednhut                                                                                  Image by mikemol

In a sense, the evolution of mobile trading is not unlike the evolution of computing itself. The line is blurring between definitions of mobile and stationary as laptops shrink and smartphones get bigger. For example, take the ratio of a typical desktop computer monitor five years ago (18 inches) to the size of a cell phone screen (2.5 inches). Now compare that ratio to the size of a Netbook's screen today (10 inches) to that of, say, an iPhone or an EVO 4G (4 inches). For you math geeks, that would be a 65.3% decrease in the "portability screen ratio," from 7.2 to 2.5.

This comparison doesn't take into account processing speeds (more than double), network speed and the proliferation of Wi-Fi. An impressive development, to be sure. But in the end doesn't it all comes down to personal preference? We have to believe that, while serious traders may toy around with mobile trading applications, they still prefer a world of multiple 21-inch monitors to manage their activity.

But tell us, how do you use mobile trading applications? What would you like to see from the brokers?