Is Mobile Trading The Next Big Thing? Millennials Would Tell You Yes!
Remember back in the 1980s and 1990s when the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was flooded with ambitious traders representing individuals and firms? When 11 Wall Street New York, NY was the epitome of capitalism, but now all the individuals who once inhabited this famous location are now replaced with computer devices, and the floor of the New York Stock Exchange is nothing more than a museum of what was. Wall Street firms now have monitors on every desk, and there is no longer a trading floor, but a trading desk. The state of the art Bloomberg terminal priced at $24,000 per year is what fills Wall Street, and home day traders use two, three, six, etc monitors to successfully trade stocks as a day trader.
But now, a new regime of traders are beginning to dab in individual trading. The millennials, aging from 18-25, who don’t have the sufficient funds to get a fancy trading desk, but are equipped instead with nothing more than an account under the pattern day trader rule of under $25,000, a huge market for brokerage firms. But the question is how will these new traders be trading? Is mobile trading the next big thing?
We’ve seen the evolution from floor trading, to trading terminals, to laptop trading. What is next? Today’s smart phones and LTE speeds enable us to get trading quotes, charts, and L2 from a mobile device, making it a reality to now place trades from a smart phone.
Headlines like this demonstrate that success as a trader from a mobile device, where nearly 90% of their trades are made from a smart phone, is possible. Could this be the start of a new way of trading amongst millennials? A popular startup called RobinHood, which is a brokerage firm only available on an iOS device, appeals directly to the next generation of 18 – 25 year old, limited fund traders and investors. RobinHood offers no trading fees, so $9.99 trades are a thing of the past. Remember the very comical, and famous advertising campaign by E*Trade, of a baby trading stocks, and options from a mobile device? While it was an appealing advertisement, it might also have been the start of a revolution amongst the next wave of investors and traders. A generation totally glued to their phones.
If millennials are glued to their phones, and have forfeited the PC or laptop as a primary device, completing everyday tasks from a mobile device instead, it would only make sense that financial services are next to fall in line. While there are currently only a few individuals known for successfully trading large dollar amounts of stock from a mobile device, it is the start of a revolution in the brokerage industry.
While there are no expectations of a massive change to Wall Street trading systems, the future of trading lies in the hands of the next generation… and they are mobile! As such, it’s creating an entire revolution and change to the online trading space. So, get ready to throw out your laptops, and monitors and get ready to trade on the go from a smart phone.
