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How to Build an Online Stock Trading Apps for Mobile Users?

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11 min read

According to statistics, there are approximately 15 billion mobile phones in use worldwide. This amount is expected to exceed 18 billion by 2025. You can do anything with your smartphone – pay your bills, get groceries, buy tickets for your next vacation, and even trade stocks! And guess what? There are even more users of stock trading applications than you would believe! So it’s a great time to enter the world of stock trading and even build your own best app for trading stocks.

For instance, Robinhood, which is one of the best mobile apps for stock trading today, has over 22 million users and a $565 million total net income in 2021. WeBull, which came in second among good stock trading apps, had around half of that number. In 2021, there will be around 150 million users of stock trading applications. These are large amounts that demonstrate the industry’s demand and profitability. As a result, we are certain that the numbers will continue to rise.

According to financial analysts, 2023 will be a very promising year for investments and stock trading. Consequently, as a business owner and entrepreneur, you should keep an eye on all trends, developments, expectations in stock trading app development, and, of course, to be familiar with the best online stock trading apps in 2022. DashDevs has compiled the most up-to-date information on potential benefits, drawbacks, costs, and features for you to consider in the future. Let’s begin!

Stock Trading App: Is Its Development Worth Your Resources?

The stock trading app sector had the greatest spike in popularity in 2020, when the pandemic started. It was a period when huge numbers of people were stuck at home and had to figure out how to make money online. That’s when no-fee stock trading applications come to the rescue. Users’ interest has only grown since then, as the advantages they receive are vast.

Benefits of Using an Investment App to Trade Stocks

DashDevs has highlighted a few reasons why investors choose stock trading applications over traditional brick-and-mortar brokerage services and the features the best mobile stock trading app include.

  • Zero commission. This is without a doubt one of the most visible benefits of Internet trading. Initially, investors had just one option: pay stockbrokers (whose services were usually high-priced). They may now invest in the stock market for free.
  • Accessibility. When trading stocks, time is frequently the most important factor. You don’t have to make appointments to start a transaction when you use an app and can virtually instantly do it yourself.
  • No brokerage prejudice here. You have complete control over your investments. The point is that brokers aren’t always as attentive; they may advise you on something that benefits them but not you.

Drawbacks of Using an Investment App to Trade Stocks

Nevertheless, trading online isn’t without its drawbacks. When contemplating stock trading app development, you should be aware of several constraints.

  • No backing. From one angle, you are your own manager and have complete control over all deals. All investments, on the contrary, are entirely your responsibility. This takes a lot of investigation, time, and effort, especially if you’re new to trading.
  • High velocity. Similarly, it is a great advantage to be able to buy stocks fast and easily. However, if you don’t allow yourself enough time to consider it all through, you may end up overinvesting and making poor financial judgments.
  • Stable network. Not everything is up to you. Things might unexpectedly go wrong when your internet connection looks extremely sluggish or you are disconnected fully. This may result in financial loss.

What Is The Best Stock Trading App?

To develop your own product, you need to know the competition. Look at the list of top stock trading apps by DashDevs and let’s find out why they’re so successful!

1. Wealthfront

Undoubtedly, this is one of the greatest stock trading apps and platforms available these days. It is appropriate for both investing and banking, as well as goal-setting and planning. The management cost is only 0.25%. There are no trading or withdrawal charges or transfer fees. Furthermore, it is exceedingly simple to use and requires practically minimal typing.

Users select it for more than just investment. Wealthfront has created a fantastic interactive Financial Health Guide to answer customers’ specific issues. Furthermore, users may link all of their bank accounts to Wealthfront, which is very simple.

2. Ameritrade

Ameritrade is often regarded as the safest stock trading app available today. What are its additional benefits? First and foremost, it is great for newcomers since it is incredibly user-friendly and offers industry-leading research and education. Clients may learn to invest through live webcasts, news, and analysis on any topic.

Secondly, there are various key features that people enjoy. For example, an Ameritrade simulator, commonly known as paperMoney. Customers can use it for free to test their investment strategy. Furthermore, Ameritrade does not require a minimum deposit. There is no management commission either. However, trading penny stocks still costs $6.95.

3. Charles Schwab

In 1971, Charles Schwab began as a standard discount brokerage. It now offers investment and banking services to clients in the United States and throughout the world. According to the company, your happiness is assured, and your security is their first priority. And it appears that they are following through on their promises, as they are now assisting over 33 million customers. What are its additional advantages?

First, the extremely low prices. The vast majority of services are completely free to use. Second, Schwab can help you manage your finances. Third, robo-advisors can assist you in creating and maintaining your portfolio.

4. Fidelity

Fidelity, as previously mentioned, is considered to be the best online stock trading mobile app in certain areas owing to the multiple benefits consumers enjoy. For example, low cost robo-advisor services provide competent investment management. There are many helpful resources for preparing for retirement. But what distinguishes it from the competition?

Pricing. Fidelity has the lowest stated margin rates (just 4%) and index funds with no cost ratio. They also offer analytical services to aid you with your trading strategy. There are indeed additional useful tools, such as a Fidelity Estate Planner, which guides you through the estate planning process and assists you in locating a lawyer.

5. SoFi Active Invest

SoFi’s investment app goes above and beyond your expectations. Their main benefit is that you do everything yourself, but not alone. The app has a community of other investors as well as integrated instructional features. The app’s support crew is absolutely outstanding, and it allows you to quickly learn by doing while incurring no commission expenses, enabling you to become a better investor. That is why it is so popular among its users!

That is why it is so popular among its users! In addition, when you create an account with SoFi and begin investing, you will receive a rate discount on other SoFi products. There are various brands that you are probably familiar with and may regard as your finest assets.

What Features a Good Stock Trading App Should Possess?

To ensure that potential investors pick you over other trading sector rivals, your app must have unique features and technology, as well as be trendy and easy-to-use. In this instance, in-depth market research and a marketing plan are essential. DashDevs has specified the features and functionalities that a good stock trading software should have in order for your app to thrive.

How do Stock Trading Apps Work?

1. Authorized login. Users will abandon your app if the registration procedure is time-consuming and onerous. Use a range of check-in methods, such as biometrics and social media networks.

2. User profile. The owner should have easy access to change and update info.

3. Transaction monitoring. Order executions (such as currency deposits and withdrawals) may be safely tracked and managed with assistance.

4. Investing in equities or cash pools. This is undoubtedly one of the most crucial characteristics. Clients must be able to access and change the information they require.

5. Stock hunting. Users earn more when they are able to look for available stocks and trending stock market rates. This will result in the app’s rating increasing.

6. Market tendency. The functionality enables an app to collect statistics on the trades and transactions of its users. It is then analyzed and can be used as a foundation for future financial choices, investments, and so on.

7. Control lists. They are required for stock monitoring and future investment planning. Your software will be useless if users cannot discover trading opportunities.

8. Push notifications. Users of stock trading apps often desire to be up-to-speed on all industry trends and updates. That is how your company can stay in touch with its clients.

Without a doubt, these are only the fundamental elements to observe. A decent stock trading app is far more difficult and requires a large team of different professionals to build. Now, given DashDevs’ extensive experience in bespoke app creation, let’s have a look at the methods we use to achieve such a goal.

How to Build a Stock Trading App?

DashDevs knows the ins and outs of the whole application development process, having completed over 500 projects to date. Furthermore, in just one year, we created a top UK fintech app. So, let us tell you what to expect if your aim is to create a stock trading app that conquers the market.

1. Collecting requirements. In other words, you must fully know what you want so that the final product’s concept may be evaluated by professionals. A business growth roadmap may be created after you and the development team are on the same page. Once you and the development team are on the same page, a development roadmap can be created.

2. Developing a design. Users typically demand numerous charts, tables, and other visual elements. That is why convenience is so important in this case.

3. Development. At this point, you’ll require a team of iOS/Android engineers as well as back-end developers. They choose the most appropriate programming language, tools, and begin working on your project. By the way, DashDevs uses Agile approaches throughout all phases of the SDLC, allowing them to be flexible and react quickly to any needed changes.

4. Deployment and testing. Quality assurance engineers rigorously test the product to find and correct issues. Subsequently, the software is deployed to the production environment.

5. Upkeep. Once the app is available in stores, the team will maintain it, fix any errors, and update it as needed.

This is a simplified version of the whole process. Of course, there are various details to mull through. However, as a business owner, you are undoubtedly interested in how much it will cost to build a stock trading app, regardless of the development process itself. Since we are aware of the best project cost estimating techniques, DashDevs has taken care of everything.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Stock Trading App?

A new stock trading app’s price is determined by a number of factors, including the app’s features, complexity, operating system, cloud solutions, production time, and so on. What is clear is that developing a finance app is a difficult task that must be made as user-friendly as possible. As a result, the process will necessitate resources, but it will set you apart from the competitors.

Yet let’s get to the numbers and evaluations. It typically takes 6–12 months to make a stock trading app. Hourly wages vary from $20 to $100. We calculate that the overall cost of the development process might range between $25k and $300k. Absolutely, it varies, and as previously said, it is dependent on a wide range of things. However, on average, the entire cost of developing a stock trading mobile application is between $25k and $55k.

How do Stock Trading Apps Make Money?

As you may have seen, each best trading stock app we discussed before is free, does not require a commission or has a minimal one, which is suspicious. As a result, it’s unclear what the purpose is for these apps to assist others earn rather than get income from customers. Let’s dive into the dark aspects of trading stock apps and attempt to comprehend what’s going on.

In fact, there are four fairly easy ways in which the best mobile app for stock trading can still cost you.

  1. Although you don’t pay commissions with these brokers, you do pay a trading charge when you purchase or sell. And it’s all because of something called the Bid-Ask Spread.

You may have observed that anytime you purchase a stock through your brokerage account, you instantly incur a modest loss on the investment. This means you do not purchase or sell a stock at its market price, but rather at the bid and ask prices. These prices reflect what market players are willing to pay and offer for a certain stock. The bid is the price at which the market will buy or share the stock, and the ask is the price at which you must pay for the stock.

Unfortunately, but expected, there is a price disparity between these two: the bid price is always lower than the ask price. In other words, while dealing with security, you must always pay more and receive less. This spread is essentially a transaction charge paid when you trade.

  1. You could believe that the following approach is a premium version of the service for a monthly subscription or margin accounts. However, one fee that is sometimes overlooked is Foreign Exchange. If you ever buy a stock in a currency other than your account currency, you’ll almost certainly be charged an arm and a leg for the forex. As a result, it frequently passes unnoticed and is quite opaque.
  2. Payment for Order Flow, or PFOF, is the next contentious practice in which a broker routes its clients’ transactions to a Market Maker—a huge financial institution that trades its own inventory of shares in order to benefit from the previously stated bid-ask spread.

This essentially indicates that the broker is allowing the Market Maker (who may really take the other side of the order) to execute the transaction for the customer. And the issue is that brokers may be encouraged to place your order at a lower price in order to make more money.

  1. The next critical step is Trade Incentivization. Stocks, as well as more complex derivatives like options, may now be purchased and sold at the touch of a button on your phone, making it very easy to succumb to trading urges. These applications offer various elements to keep you engaged in the market, such as social networking features and phone notifications.

When you combine enticing smartphone features with the human incapacity to sensibly handle money, you get a lot of individuals trying to day trade rather than focusing on long-term purchase and hold tactics.

How Can DashDevs Help You With Developing the Best Stock Trading App?

Through the years, DashDevs has assisted hundreds of companies in locating a digital solution to their business issues. We’ve created products that are today regarded as the best in the financial industry. So, if you have an idea for a stock trading software and need support, direction, or simply a piece of advice, please contact DashDevs. Our specialists will answer any questions you have and enlighten areas that may be unfamiliar to you.

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