Keeping money in cash under the bed or in a lockbox is neither a safe nor effective way of keeping your savings. That’s why millenials found a better option of not only keeping but making more money from your savings – online stock trading apps. They have been around for several years and still remain popular among people who are risky enough to try to play on a stock exchange. According to statistics, investing and stock-related app searches, such as “penny stock trading app” and “investment apps,” have risen 115% year over year. With the pandemic, numbers are growing even more rapidly.
This sphere is such a good option to invest in that even traditional banks have developed mobile banking apps and some are already adding investment features into their mobile apps (e.g. Bank of America – MyMerril App). People are interested in investing and you can profit from it.
In this article we will tell you how to build a stock trading app in 3 main steps, what are the key features and what else is on the market.
What is a stock trading app?
Basically online stock trading enables you to play on a stock exchange from any spot on Earth if it has an internet connection. Remember stressed Wall Street brokers who are dealing with phone calls and broken deals from early 2000 movies? Nowadays you can trade from home, public transport or vacation with the help of a stock trading app. It’s a user-end platform where users can invest in stocks and track the market in real time from their phone or even AppleWatch (e.g. TD Ameritrade Mobile). There are two kinds of stock trading apps: traditional and cryptocurrency oriented ones with Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, and others.
What else is on the market?
E-Trade is the oldest on the market. It’s users can manage their stocks and have updates on the market from both Android and IOS. The user does not pay commission on stocks or exchange-traded funds. However, E-Trade has fees for investors and it’s cost depends on how frequent you trade.
TD Ameritrade is another top-rated trading app. The basic app is great for newbies on the stock market and average traders. Professional traders can use the upgraded thinkorswim mobile app. The account requires no minimum balance and no fees to trade stocks and ETFs as well.
And the most well-known trading app is probably Robinodhod – a free trading platform that allows compiling personal lists of financial credit documents and security papers, getting real-time information about quotations, and trading shares of companies without having to pay for the transaction. From 2018 users can also trade with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Litecoin.
How do stock trading apps make money?
- Interest
Some trading apps collect interest from the unused money reserves. However, the majority of them are being criticized for that.
- Premium subscription.
Some companies have premium accounts where the user gets access to extended hours of trading, extra stocks and other additional tools for trading.
- Service fees.
The app charges a percentage of the amount of money in the user’s balance as an account maintenance fee.
Building a stock trading app
Key features
Basically before building a stock trading app, you should think about key features first.
- Essential pages
Registration and authorization; user profile with such options as trading history, settings and subscriptions; a dashboard where users see the amount of money they’ve invested and if their investments are successful or not; and the main page – trading with such options as search and filter.
- Account and trade protection
The most important task is to persuade the audience that the software is safe and reliable in every possible aspect as all users have concerns over security, especially during finance-related online activities.
- Orientation on both experienced and new traders
A great way to attract inexperienced traders is to offer any kind of tutorial or a guide on stock trading. New users may watch educational videos, read blogs or even complete some sorts of quizzes or tests. While professional investment tools can offer advanced options, such as custom, four-legged spreads or dividend reinvestment.
- Great UI/UX design
Everything from a registration form to a dashboard should be not only functional and convenient, but visually attractive as well.
You can add other options that are necessary in your opinion: various payment options, analytic reports, push-notifications when stock changes, news feed, etc.
Developing process
Once you figured out all the core options it’s time to begin the developing process. There are 3 key stages:
- Working on UX/UI design to execute the app perfectly
In order to be successful among the market you have to be as user-friendly as possible. That includes convenient design and interesting features that will make your app unique. This stage takes about 1 month.
- Building an MVP to test the app and collect feedback
That includes working on mobile development (both IOS and Android) and backend development. It takes 2-3 months.
- Improving technical aspects
That includes working on API integration to link the app with a stock market data feed to get real-time stock quotes, charts, indices, currencies, etc.; admin panel development and other technical aspects. This stage can take from 1 to 3 months as well.
Total duration – from 4 to 8 months
To sum up
Now, when millennials are the drivers of a new consumer era, stock trading apps are coming to the fore. If you are still thinking whether you are ready to invest in building stock trading app, look at the numbers:
- Stock trading apps do make money. In 2020 Robinhood generated $682 million in payment-for-order-flow revenue. That’s a 514 percent increase year-on-year
- The user base is rapidly growing. From 2 million users in 2017, Robinhood went to 6 million in 2018, and then to 10 million in 2019. In May 2020, Robinhood revealed it had 13 million active users. The number of current active users is probably about 20 million
- Stock trading apps are valued among the market. Robinhood was recently valued at $20 billion pre-IPO and $40 billion at secondary shares
Think about your future, invest in stock trading apps and we will answer all your questions on how to build a stock trading app and provide you the best developers to make the development process fast and efficient.