Can You Trade With A Mobile Phone?

 

 

The main question is not “can you trade with a mobile phone?” It should be “should you trade with a mobile phone?”

This article will attempt to answer that question, not to make a decision for the reader, but to present the facts.

Mobile trading is already very popular; there is nothing this blog – with its 7 weekly readers – can do about it.

Mobile Trading – Trend Or Trap?

Every broker worth its salt overs some form of mobile trading; it is like a standard product. As technology has become smaller, financial services have also become more portable. While desktop and laptop computers are still very much in use, mobile phones have become the staple for getting information, including financial information.

It is also natural that people should want to act on that financial information, especially because information such as this may require quick action.

There are advantages; the millions of people who have downloaded these apps certainly think so. One app has been downloaded 15 million times, another 2 million times, and one has 500 thousand downloads. There is no doubt that professional traders are part of this number.

Professional traders also use very large screens, computers with multiple screens, and computers packed with lots of processing power. The mobile thing is just for times when they absolutely have no other options.

Why?

Very Little Details On The Charts

Mobile phones usually have screens that are less than ideal for trading. There is very little historical data available, and most times it is not always easy to see the trend. The signal may be clear, but not the trend.

A buy signal can appear on a downward trending asset, or a sell signal on an upward trending asset. On mobile, a trader may see the signal, but not the trend.

For the purpose of analysis, it could amount to suicide to try to use a mobile device; analysis often requires historical data which is not available on mobile. You need to see chart patterns, and how frequently they produce the expected results.

Used alone, there is very little chance of success. Mobile phones produce very little more than an emotional rush.

Mobile Phones Are Addictive

Studies are ongoing about how mobile phones affect our brains, but one thing is for sure; we LOVE to use them. That presents a challenge because overtrading has been identified as one of the biggest reasons why traders lose their money.

Mobile phones + Trading = Disaster. It does not take an Einstein to create that equation because when you mix something addictive with another thing that requires the highest form of discipline, the result has to be bad.

I must be stupid because I didn’t know this. I embarked on a trading journey to see if it was possible to trade with a very small amount of money. For 3 months I was successful; small but steady profits came in.

But then something happened that ruined everything!

I decided to buy a new mobile phone so that I could be more efficient; trade on the go. I lost my balance the very next day. The next week, I funded the account again, and still lost it all in a day.

Then I took a step back to find out what went wrong. I didn’t understand; I had seen these kinds of charts before, and I didn’t lose.

Then it hit me. I asked myself; “what changed recently?” and then I finally understood. The problem was in my hands. It was my new phone. Unconsciously I had changed by trading pattern – a pattern I have written down in my secret trading book as a vital key of success.

Why did I change it; I liked operating my new phone. I was addicted to the phone, and addicted to the trading. It won’t happen again!

It won’t happen to me, but it will happen to others. Why?

Marketing Targets Newbies

Brokers are just evil. When advertising their new trading apps, they don’t target professionals, or semi pros like myself. They target newbies; people with little or no experience in the business. They make it seem like the app is just what they need to make a lot of money – consistently.

It hits them hard a few months later when they lose all their money; they realize it was a trap all along.

It’s just the way the world works; the strong take from the weak.

The Bottom Line:

When used in combination with computers, mobile trading apps can be quite beneficial. However, that is only when the trader has already established a system in place; a way of trading the markets successfully.

Learning to trade with mobile apps is not the way to go. It just cannot and well.

If you think this article is rubbish, then let’s hear it in the comments section.