Few of us have time to really play the stock market. We are always on the go. Here are a few reason you should upgrade to a smart phone to become a better investor.
1. Text Message
You can set up text alerts with most online brokerage companies. Yahoo has a free alert service. Set your buy/sell price and have the service text you when it reaches its limit.
2. Stock Market Apps
Most smart phones have apps that allow you to analyze stocks. This is useful when you load your wish list on to the phone and can check each stock as you have time. Waiting at the doctor’s office, in line at the grocery store and waiting for the kids are all now investing research time.
3. Notes
Most smart phones have a note application. List your wish list with the buy/sell prices. You’ll never have to worry about not having your list with you.
4. Buy/Sell
All the major brokerage companies have a mobile website. You can buy and sell from your phone. I’ve bought stocks at 3:30 while waiting to pick my kid up from school. This handy option will give you many more opportunities.
5. Education
Most smart phones can play video, podcasts and audio books. Use this option to educate yourself on how to be a better investor.
I sat down at one of my favorite restaurants and had one of my all time favorite meals. I love buffalo chicken fingers and fries! While I was sinfully gorging myself on non-rabbit (i.e. diet food), I took the time to play with a truly awesome free iPhone/iPad app. The iStockManager from T.D. Ameritrade is worth the download.
On my ridiculously short lunch break, I was able to analyze over a dozen stocks from my iPhone. The developers add some amazing features that are useful for those of us who like to trend stocks.
Features Include:
• Batch input of stocks (enter them in one time and click add).
• Various preset date ranges (day, 5 day, 3 months, etc.).
• In the configuration (the gear symbol to the right of the time range), you can set the frequency of the bars in the graph (daily, weekly, etc.).
• Fast and quick application, I was able to switch stocks quickly and view the chart. It didn’t reset the chart configuration each time I viewed the chart (like some apps do). I was able to set my preferred time frame and go.
• Options of line, candle and OHLC.
• Zoomable charts. (Use the “pinch” figure technique to zoom in and out).
Cons:
• I like to see the weekly stock total on my bar charts; this only gives the option for the 3 month time range. There is a work around for this. Just “pinch” your figures outward to zoom the chart out.
• It did crash a few times while I used it.
• To take advantage of all the options; you will need to be a T.D. Ameritrade customer.
Things I would like to see in this app:
• Clear all feature. I put in a dozen stocks to analyze in a batch mode, but then had to delete each individually. It would be nice to be able to start over with one button.
• Allow the stock frequency to show weekly on the other time ranges. Three months is nice, but sometimes it’s important to see more.
I would recommend this to anyone who has an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. This app almost tempts me to change over to T.D. Ameritrade. Well, almost.
Get the app here: iStockManager (Opens in iTunes)
I gave this free app a spin for a week and used it to do most of my stock research on my lunch break. For a freebie, it’s got a few good features.
Features:
• Major Indices
• Top News
• Imports existing Yahoo! Finance portfolio (very nice feature!)
• Good break down of categories in the research tab
• Videos
The stock quote part of the app included:
• Last trade amount (delayed by 15 minutes)
• News
• Stock fundamentals (open price, high, low, 52 week high/low, EPS, etc.)
• Industry news and competition
• Twist for a full screen chart (1d,5d,1m,6m,1y,2y)
Pros:
• Good easy to use interface.
• Can rearrange stocks and give different details for each of your stocks in your portfolio.
• 15 minutes delay isn’t bad.
• Stable (only crashed once in the week I used it).
• Remembered previous stocks that I looked up.
Cons:
• Doesn’t remember my chart preference. I had to choose 6m each time I looked at the chart.
• No Loss/Gain information.
• Slight delay on searching for new stocks I had not previously searched for.
• Basic chart information. Does not have any market indicators like simple moving average.
• Had some trouble with the video playing on a Wi-Fi network.
Overall it’s a nice IPhone application. Could improve by adding some basic features like gain/loss and chart preference. It’s free, so no harm in trying. If you already use Yahoo! Finance, then you can skip the horrible part of having to manually enter your stocks on the IPhone.
