The entire process of buying and selling stocks has been digitized and moved to the mobile world, which means that anyone can invest on their own time, without guidance, on the move. It has influenced the whole financial services industry.
In this article, we will guide you through the entire process of creating a stock trading application, which consists of many key steps, and we will also explain how you can make money from them.
Table of Contents:
1. What is a Stock Trading App, and How does it work?
1.1. How is FinTech changing the stock Trading Market?
2. Basic Steps in Building a Stock Trading App.
2.1. Initiate the Project: Define Goals and Validate the Idea.
2.4. Design the Core Features.
2.5. Chose the Right Tech Stack and API Integrations.
2.6. Develop Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
2.8. Release Minimum Viable Product.
2.9. Maintain the Stock Trading App and Upgrade it regularly.
3. Ranking of The Top Stock Trading Apps.
4. How to Monetize Stock Trading App?
What is a Stock Trading App, and How does it work?
A stock trading app is a platform where a user can buy or sell stocks.
The main purpose of downloading the application by users is the possibility of investing in long-term, but also short-term stocks. Thanks to the mobility of this type of app, the user can follow the market in real time on the selected device.
How is FinTech changing the stock Trading Market?
FinTech has a significant impact on the trading market because it makes data analytics more accessible.
Thanks to financial technology, investors can make strategic investments due to accurate calculations and predictions - available data makes investments less risky and more profitable.
FinTech has greatly simplified the investment procedures because customers are not required to fill out any forms, the shares can be purchased immediately.
In addition, applications-based on financial technology inform investors and update current data around the world, thus providing them with immediate tips and proposals.
Basic Steps in Building a Stock Trading App
#Initiate the Project: Define Goals and Validate the Idea
To begin with, you need to analyze the problems that your custom trading platform can solve.
First of all, it will help you define your key goals because then you will be able to understand what final result you would like to achieve by creating a stock trading app from scratch.
We have put together some examples of goals that you can be inspired by and calmly analyze:
-
Personalized trading algorithms.
-
Increase the speed of making orders.
-
Improved user experience.
-
Useful notifications.
-
Additional payment gateways.
At this stage, it is important to conduct a business analysis to validate the idea, study the market and analyze whether the idea has a chance of being successful.
You also should choose the best suitable development team for your project - in our article we touched the issue regarding the impact of estimate on partner choice.
#Plan to Secure a Stock Trading App
The stock trading app belongs to the FinTech family of platforms. Due to the fact that stock market applications mainly deal with users' money and confidential information, the protection of personal data is one of the most important things you should pay attention to when developing an application because if you neglect the security aspect, the whole project is doomed to failure.
The key aspects that are worth taking care of is protecting the application against cybersecurity threats so that the user can feel comfortable and, above all, safe in your application. To accomplish this, use advanced methods of data encryption, improved firewalls, cross-site scripting, hybrid cloud implementation or secure APIs.
Protection related to the user is also important, so at this stage you should not think about implementing solutions such as biometric or multi factor authentication.
#Create UX/UI Design
At this stage, you should consider how you can help achieve business goals by creating UX / UI Design.
It is necessary to analyze business requirements and analyze what the users expect in order to create the first mock-up of your trading platform.
The well-thought-out design of the application provides a number of additional benefits for your stock trading application.
With the right UX/UI, you can increase usability, increase user engagement on the platform or even build a highly valued brand image.
#Design the Core Features
The basic core features your app should include:
-
Online Dashboard - user has the possibility to see all sortable data, which allows for the analysis of the progress. It also affects the perception of user experience.
-
Watch lists - allows monitoring stocks in order to plan future investments and display real-time market data like changes in prices, volume, rates, and percentages to users. Watch lists are essential for conducting in-depth stock market research.
-
Streaming of stock quotes and charts in real time - the data on modern systems updates automatically every second to generate the most accurate analysis, price patterns, and effective strategies.
-
Newsfeed - thanks to this feature, the user receives relevant market news and up-to-date messages tailored to the list of his interests.
-
Push notifications - with this feature, the user is notified of how their stocks have changed.
You also should keep in mind to design non-core features because they also might have a positive impact on reception of your application by users. For example, the educational modules in which users can expand their knowledge of the stock market and learn how to invest are currently very popular.
#Chose the Right Tech Stack and API Integrations
You have to decide together with the developers what programming language will be the most suitable for your stock trading app development, that meets all the needed requirements.
Because trading platforms must have numerous useful features and integrations with other services, it is also advised to select the necessary Application Programming Interface (API) integration.
#Develop Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
The first step is the comprehensive development of your first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) release, i.e. the first version of your product.
It should imply a minimum number of features to achieve basic business goals.
When using an Agile approach to product development, the development of the trading platform must start with the creation of a task backlog sprint. As a result, developers will receive a set of tasks for a certain period of time.
Agile is a well-known software development methodology. It helps to establish an iterative product development process. Developers must evaluate their progress at the end of each iteration.
At this stage, we recommend you a Discovery Phase Process, which is focusing on each piece of the project and nailing down all the details of it. If you are eager to know more about this process, be sure to check out the article that we have prepared for you - "Agile Discovery Phase: a Must Have for Your Business".
#Test Stock Trading App
At this stage, a selected team of quality assurance (QA) engineers through a meticulous check of the developed MVP.
Each of the functions that the application has must be checked to ensure that it works as intended.
When Minimum Viable Product fails acceptance testing, QA engineers must prepare reports and provide them to software engineers so that they can resolve all detected issues.
If you are wondering why Quality Assurance is that important, read our article on this topic and become familiar with the benefits that QA brings to your project!
#Release Minimum Viable Product
After successfully passing the application acceptance tests, developers should set up a working server and release the MVP.
When everything is ready - you can share your stock trading app with users!
#Maintain the Stock Trading App and Upgrade it regularly
Once your app is in stores, you must provide quality technical support and regularly update your product to remain competitive.
At Railwaymen, they offer maintenance services for the products they create as a natural continuation of cooperation.
This ensures fast updates, high-quality technical support and troubleshooting, and easier implementation of new features.
Ranking of The Top Stock Trading Apps
#Robinhood
Robinhood is a financial services company based in the United States that allows users to invest in stocks and other securities worldwide commission-free and open a low-cost brokerage account via a mobile application. This FinTech startup is worth around $5 billion, making it a unicorn. Robinhood is also one of the Top FinTech Company that is worth watching in 2023.
Source: 1000logos.net
#E-Trade
E-Trade was once a pioneer in the world of online investing.
Currently, the app allows users to view investments or trade ETFs, stocks, mutual funds, etc.
The app also includes additional features such as livestreaming, extensive market news and detailed analytics tools that create accurate charts.
Source: businesswire.com
#Stash
Stash was founded with the mission of helping you invest and grow your wealth. This FinTech solution is focused on helping younger investors manage their money efficiently.
Stash has also built its platform focused on educating users on a wide range of investment and financial topics. The application is characterized by investment flexibility, allowing users to choose investments themselves or select a fully automated smart portfolio option.
Source: investopedia.com
#TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade enables all app users to follow their preferred trading strategy, regardless of experience level. It also contains special educational content for users who want to better invest and understand the market, which is why it is recommended especially to people at the beginning of their way to invest in stocks or other securities.
Source: kb.riskalyze.com
#Acorns
Acorns is an app for mobile devices for investing small amounts of money to increase your wealth. The company offers retirement savings accounts, a debit card and other basic banking services.
The main model for monetization of Acorns is one that requires subscription fees for members.
Source: branditechture.agency
How to Monetize Stock Trading App?
A stock trading app is intended to manage and update investment portfolios, as well as to facilitate selling and buying on trading platforms.
Such apps are profitable not only for traders and investors, but also for app owners.
Based on the analysis of the market of stock trading market applications, it can be concluded that the main monetization strategy is commission, i.e. transaction fees.
In this case, you can charge a fixed percentage on each trade carried out by a trader or investor - keep in mind, however, that a high commission percentage is often criticized.
The second method to gain profit from the app is the implementation of the freemium strategy, i.e. free access to a limited number of functions, as well as a paid version, with a higher standard, which opens up the full functionality of the application.
Other revenue streams include in-app advertising, referral revenue from checkout orders, and paid access to various tools and technologies such as APIs.
Conclusion
Stock Trading App Development is quite a complex process, and the application is a large-scale project that necessitates sophisticated logic and architecture.
You can determine its success and stand out in the stock market apps by using the right technology stack, features and functionality, and development speed.
We hope that now, after reading this blog, you know how to create a stock trading application!
Discovery Phase With Railwaymen
We, at Railwaymen, offer a Discovery Phase to help businesses with validation of their projects.
If you have an idea that you would like to discuss with us, try the Discovery Phase service, thanks to which we will lay the foundations backed by the initial research and development process of your project.
