Your financial future can fit in the palm of your hand.
Is this a good thing?
E*Trade
Neat? Let's see.
Apple's
Neat? Again, let's see.
I am all for the convenience of access to information. I can't imagine what life was like before I had a Web-tethered smartphone, which I can use to look up baseball scores, find weather updates, and end any "are you sure so-and-so was in that movie" debates. So why am I not entirely elated that CrackBerry addicts will be able to peck away at their tiny keyboards as they trade in and out of their investments? I guess my concern comes from the potential for skimping on due diligence.
Buy, sell, or “please hold”
Smartphone users have access to market research. I just wonder how patient they will be, given the notoriously slow loading times for Web pages on many smartphones. I also wonder how many potential shareholders will be able to truly grasp the big picture using such small screens.
I'm not suggesting that screen size is the biggest factor in dictating market success. If it were, WebTV subscribers would have all been billionaires. However, are most people really using their Research In Motion
Screens keep getting smaller, especially with the surging popularity of mini laptops that would fit in a Paris Hilton pooch bag. I'm all for evolution and paperback-sized portability. I'm just wondering if wireless-cell-phone users -- who are so used to cutting corners that even words lose letters in the text-messaging process -- are the best group to make "by, cel, hld" calls on the fly.
If the phones are smart, the traders should be, too
As a data junkie, I love many of the features in the E*Trade Mobile Pro solution. If I had a BlackBerry (which I don't) or an active E*Trade account (which I don't), I would be all over this, given the easy-click access to account information, portfolio balances, and real-time quotes.
There are no additional charges for the platform, so this is going to be a great feature when it goes live next month (it is in beta right now).
Discounters have always been on the leading edge of online trading. I consider myself one of the earliest clickers. Back in the early 1990s, before Charles Schwab
The discounters have come a long way since then. Schwab, E*Trade, and TD AMERITRADE
I hope that the new generation of smartphone investors doesn't settle for shallow dives. Individual investors have come a long way. Two decades ago, the little guy was pushed around by broker-controlled market data and selective disclosure. Now that the Internet has helped tear down the walls, the level playing field gives anybody willing to roll up those sleeves and commit to due diligence an edge in beating the market.
Let's not roll down the sleeves. Your financial future really does fit in the palm of your hand these days. Handle with care.
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