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With the increasing omnipresence of various mobile devices, forex trading, like many other activities, is ever more carried out on them, instead on PCs and laptops. Most of the brokers have already embraced them, either by developing their own applications, or using white-label solutions.
SMN had a look at how the mobile applications of the major trading platforms and the major brokers are faring, based on number of installs. Naturally, the forex trading applications cannot match the popularity of ubiquitous applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Viber, Twitter and Skype, used by pretty much everyone with a smartphone or a tablet, but still some are faring better than others.
Part 1 of the series examines the applications for Android devices, as this is the most popular mobile operating system. We have provisionally divided them into proprietary trading apps and universal trading platforms.
Our research found that, somewhat surprisingly, the major forex brokers in terms of market capitlaization and trading volumes are lagging behind in the mobile application technologies and seemingly fail to promote their own applications.
For example, the leader Interactive Brokers, has four mobile applications, of which the best performer is the trading app IB TWS for Tablet, which has been installed by between 10 000 and 50 000 users. A much smaller broker, like Avus Capital, on the other hand, has accumulated between 1 and 5 million installs of its Trading 212 Forex & Stocks trading app. GMO Click, a major forex broker in technology obsessed Japan, offer six applications, of which only two have between 50 000 and 100 000 installations.
Here are the most popular forex broker in terms of own mobile applications:
PROPRIETARY TRADING APPS
Plus500
Developed by: Plus500 Trading
Installs: 1,000,000 – 5,000,000
Offers trading in CFDs on stocks, indices, forex, ETFs, gold, oil and silver; buying and selling orders, real-time market quotes, practice accounts, charting.
Trading 212 Forex & Stocks
Developed by: Avus Capital
Installs: 1,000,000 – 5,000,000
Trading in over 400 financial instruments, charts, optimized for Android, financial news and analyses.
IB TWS
Developed by: Interactive Brokers Group
Installs: 100,000 – 500,000
Offers trading in stocks, options, forex, futures and futures options. It gives access to real-time financial data and charts and lets users place orders, monitor their trades and access their account balances and portfolio data.
Forex.com for Android
Developed by: FOREX.com
Installs: 100,000 – 500,000
Offers trading in 50 currency pairs, spot gold and silver; placing and stopping of orders, charts, rate alerts, economic calendar, market analysis and commentaries.
OANDA fxTrade for Android
Developed by: Oanda Corporation
Installs: 100,000 – 500,000
Designed for professional traders, for institutional-level trading. More than 90 currency pairs, precious metals and CFDs, charting tools, real-time news feeds from leading financial information providers, economic calendar.
FXCM Trading Station Mobile
Developed by: Forex Capital Markets LLC
Installs: 100,000 – 500,000
Trading in forex, precious metals, stocks, indices, oil and gas. Offers live executable exchange rates, interactive charts, chart indicators, market news.
SaxoTraderGO
Developed by: Saxo Bank
Installs: 5,000 – 10,000
Trade in forex pairs, forex options, CFDs, stocks and futures. The app offers charts, real-time data, direct placing of orders, demo account.
On another hand, here are the mobile applications of the most popular forex trading platforms:
TRADING PLATFORMS
MetaTrader 4 (MT4)
Developed by MetaQuotes Software Corp.
Installs: 1,000,000 – 5,000,000
MT4 is the most popular trading platforms and is used by hundreds of brokers. Not surprisingly, it is among the most popular forex trading applications. It has the functionality of the “regular” MT4 platform. Trading can be done in a regular manner with full set of trade orders and all types of trade execution. The app also offers real-time quotes, trade orders, trading history, charts, technical indicators, analytical objects.
MT4 is used by many forex brokers, but among the major ones are Oanda, FXCM, Gain Capital, FXTM, Alpari, etc. Some of them also offer their own proprietary trading apps.
MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
Developed by: MetaQuotes Software
Installs: 500,000 – 1,000,000
MT5 is another popular trading platform, developed by MetaQuotes Software Corp. Since it was launched more recently, it is being used by less brokers and understandably, has less users.
It has the functionality of the desktop version of MT5. Users can use it for trading in forex, CFDs, futures, options and stocks. The app offers real-time quotes, charts, technical indicators, analytical objects, chat with other users of the MT5 platform.
MT5 is offered by brokers such as RoboForex, Pepperstone, FXTM, FXPro, Alpari, EXNESS, etc.
cTrader
Developed by: Spotware
Installs: 1,000 – 5,000
cTrader is also a popular trading platform for trading in forex, CFDs, stocks and indices, though this cannot be surmised from the number of installs. The reason for this is that Spotware lets brokers brand the app. One such example is the UK-based forex broker FXPro, with the FXPro cTrader, which has 50 000 – 100 000 installations. Another is Pepperstone cTrader, with between 1000 and 5000 installations and a third one is IC Markets cTrader with installations in the same range.
cTrader is for trading in forex pairs, CFDs, indices, stocks, precious metals and oil. It offers indicators, objects, charts, technical analysis and object tools, live streaming of news, etc.
