Thanks to Tradier and their brokerage API, a recent trend taking place are technology developers integrating brokerage services within their platforms. Examples are social trading communities, options analysis platforms, stock monitoring systems and automated strategy building technology. Connecting with brokers, these platforms can provide brokerage services directly on their platforms without the need of using one platform for trading and another for market analysis.
This trend though, is in contrast to licensing deals, where brokers embed third party technology on their trading platforms. In regards to which model is better; licensing or direct to consumer, they each have their pluses and minuses. For developers, depending on their Marketing channels, the ability to add brokerage services provide an additional revenue source to their offering.
Following this trend, VectorVest announced that their platform has integrated with TradeKing brokerage accounts. A provider of stock analysis software, with this integration VectorVest users will now be able to click on desired stocks, with a TradeKing open order ticket appearing directly from the VectorVest platform.
According to VectorVest, among the forces behind the partnership was their interest in reducing friction between analysis and trading for their users. About this, in announcing the partnership, VectorVest stated, “In the past, a user had to leave the software once he or she knew which stocks to trade and go to a different brokerage platform to actually make their trades. This sometimes resulted in confusion and frustration trying to find the right stock in a different system and potentially cost them valuable time.”
