Mobile trading has become a buzz word for the Forex industry for the last couple of years as more and more brokers and technology providers try to find the golden path that will funnel traders into mobile trading platforms. However, as the Finance Magnates Intelligence index shows, mobile trading still drags behind desktop trading by a ratio of 1:3.
One of the many companies that tries to close this gap is TradeIt, an American based technology firm that specializes in behind the scenes execution platforms which connect popular financial mobile apps with retail brokers, mostly equity oriented.
Nathan Richardson, TradeIt founder and CEO
Among TradeIt’s partners one can find Benziga, StockTracker, Tradingview and Nasdaq. Last week TradeIt announced a new partnership signed with two of the biggest retail forex brokers in the industry. Finance Magnates sat down with TradeIt founder and CEO, Nathan Richardson, to try and understand the ways that brokers can reinforce their mobile reach.
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What are the main difficulties in developing a mobile trading application?
Navigation between apps remains one of the biggest challenges facing consumers. Time is money, and users don't want to lose time having to leave one app to open another to order a trade. Our solution is to provide one-click, secure portfolio and order management directly within the top investing apps.
Navigation between apps remains one of the biggest challenges facing consumers
How many traders trade on TradeIt's platform and how many and which mobile apps do you currently support?
TradeIt has distribution arrangements with the majority of the top investing apps and websites with more coming soon. We don't disclose the number of traders who order via TradeIt, we can say that in the last quarter we did over $250 million in orders via the technology. We know that we reach the most sought-after active investors, with average portfolio sizes of over $125,000, who are more likely to carry a margin and to continually fund their accounts.
When choosing/developing a mobile Trading Platform , what does the broker have to be aware of?
Brokers realize that the average investor uses a variety of apps for tracking the markets, research and social information gathering. We enable brokers to reach their customers in the context and environment that they've chosen to interact with investing information.
Users' expectations to be able to transact where they choose is more important than ever
Moving towards high frequency trading, what kind of tech adjustments did TradeIt have to cope with?
The challenge here was to identify solutions to help retail investors compete with high frequency traders. Retail investors can't watch their portfolio all day every day, but they can set custom alerts and pre-programmed orders to protect themselves, through apps like Trigger Finance. We're always excited to power the products that protect investors.
Trading forex on TradeIt
What business opportunities does TradeIt see in the forex industry, and is expanding to the binary options industry the next step?
Forex has been the top request from TradeIt user’s feedback. We published last week that new markets like Japan account for 30% of forex trading, so it is important that as we expand geographically, we have products that support these emerging markets. For this reason, we’ve recently partnered with the top two forex brokers and expect our roster to reach full market coverage by the end of the year.
How does TradeIt monetize?
Currently we have three revenue streams: graphical advertising, licensing our technology and fees per order. We are currently focused on monetizing through advertising.
What does the future hold for mobile trading?
The numbers and trends indicate that users want mobile trading that is fast, safe and secure - where the investor can interact easily and without friction. The time spent trading within mobile will only continue to increase, and users' expectations to be able to transact where they choose is more important than ever.
