In general, there are two motives in the back of the mind of any trader while thinking of starting stock trading app development:
- Earn billions of dollars
- Transform the way of investment
In any case, the idea for stock trading app development is a great head start because we have come a long way from the traditional method of buying and selling shares through a stockbroker. Nowadays, people can use their devices for online trading. There are tycoons like Robinhood App who have successfully made their way through the top of the market.
So if you are looking to challenge other stock trading apps, this article will walk you through the process of how to get started with your stock trading app development and also provide you with useful information about stock market apps.
Online trading (eTrading) Statistics
The global online trading platform market in 2020 was 8.28 billion USD. The growth estimation was around 3.7%. Further, the online trading market will hit the 12.16 billion dollar mark in 2028!
The popular Robinhood App had 3.23 million downloads worldwide in April 2021, and as of July 2021, there were over 7.3 million Robinhood users more than the second-placed eTrading app weBull. The number of users spikes in early may and reaches a peak of over 9 million.
We hope these stats gave you clarity on how huge the stock trading market actually is.
Now, here are some must-add features in your stock market app:
- Bid Types
- Daily Trade Limit
- Trading Tools
- Watchlists & Charts
At this moment, when the stock trade market is trending, it is a perfect situation for starting a FinTech company.
Must Read: Fintech with its benefits, challenges and solutions
Let’s understand the User Demographics of a Stock Trading App
There are four types of users that you will target while focusing on stock trading app design, development, and promotion:
- Young people – who are trying to figure out whether the stock investment game is for them or not.
- First-time investors (Rookies) –who have very few skills but are willing to start their trading journey right away.
- Professionals –who value time and need a seamless experience
- Tech-savvy– who want all the market information and stats in one place
Once you are done with the demographics you need to decide what type of stock market application you wish to develop.
Types of Stock Market Applications for Development
There are different methods to classify the stock trading platforms into types. But here is the simplest way to categorize the trading application development into two groups:
- Traditional Trading Apps
- Crypto Trading Apps
Let’s understand both the types of stock trading app development on different parameters.
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Traditional Trading Platform
The old-school method of trading allows users to buy and sell typical assets. The method has been hanging around for decades now.
✦ Trading assets
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- Exchange trade funds (ETF’s)
- Precious Metals (gold, silver, platinum)
- Stocks & shares
✦ Market maturity
Traditional market platforms have been around since people started stock trading it is more mature compared to Cryptocurrency Trading platforms.
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Crypto Trading Platforms
Traders invest in cryptocurrency online as it’s a new platform in the market and has the potential to hold high future stakes.
The Cryptocurrency market is new compared to the traditional market as it entered the arena only a couple of years ago.
✦ Trading assets- Currencies
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- Bitcoin
- Etherium
- Dogecoin
- Binance coin
✦ Market Maturity
The market is less mature but is constantly growing. This does impact the traditional stock market in certain aspects.
Now that you know, how the traditional trading apps work, let’s understand how will you make money out of online stock trading apps?
How to earn money as an Online Stock Trading App owner?
It’s fair to say you are getting into trading app development for making money, but not sure how will you make money. This section will guide you on how to earn the money as a trading app owner.
1. Nominal Fee per Trade in the Stock Market Apps for Android & iOS
More than 90% of app owners adopt the stock trading app development model hence, apps charge according to per trade done by the user. Since the charge is minimal, a high volume of trades generates more revenue for the app. This is the most useful revenue model implemented by trading app owners.
The majority of online trading apps have zero fees. But, are you aware of all the definite ways of earning money from such a free platform? If not, don’t panic! Refer to these key points:
✤ Premium subscription
The app’s free version is available for users but with limitations in features. So, users who are into investing or brokerage subscribe to the premium version for accessing additional features.
Many applications provide tips to help users with market analysis and trends. But what’s in it for them? These apps offer users credible knowledge in the premium subscription. This method indeed, lures the customers to pay for the premium version.
✤ Interests on Trades
Let’s say the app displays the buying value for bit-coin as $1.05 while the actual value is around $1. Users don’t even doubt this because they are aware of the fluctuations in bitcoins pricing. This difference between the actual price and the displaying value sets up the app’s revenue.
2. Keep an Eye on your Stock Trading App Development Competitors!
There is an ever-growing base of users who are aspiring to become top-level investors. Numerous rookies dream of becoming wealthy seasoned investors in the market.
Nowadays, most stock trading apps or software ease down the online trading process for users. But in order to compete with your competitors, you will have to develop a trading platform that is absolutely the best of all!
Yes! You will be up against giants like:
✤ Robinhood
Robinhood is a commission-free stock trading and investing app. It is also one of the top Fintech apps. A new user can sign up and get his/her first stock free.
✤ Coinbase
Coinbase is a crypto trading platform for coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Solona. The platform helps a user build his crypto portfolio and also provides secure storage, insurance protection, and a variety of support.
✤ E-trade
E-trade goes with the motto of stop wasting, start investing! It is also considered an early pioneer for online investment. The e-trade is useful to see a list of investments in ETFs or shares.
✤ Fidelity
Fidelity investment is a financial service company that offers financial planning and Advice, Retirements Plans, Wealth Management Services, Trading, and Brokerage services.
✤ eToro
eToro is an investing platform and app which offers more than 2000 financial instruments in various classes, such as stocks, crypto, and more.
The competition is strong, we get it but, this shouldn’t de-motivate you on the decision of entering the market. In fact, you should consult Webbybutter to help you with your decision and go for the No.1 spot.
3. Working of Top Stock Trading Apps and Features
The working of some of the best stock trading apps does not depend on any ordinary algorithm. Instead, it is a real-time interaction that users carry out with the app due to changes in the stock market. So if you are hell-bent on providing the best stock trading app then, the following are the must-have features in your online trading app:
Important Features of Stock Trading App:
- User registration and profile
Investors must be able to use their identity cards as proof. This is further followed by investments or returns going to the specific user.
- Navigation Tools
The app’s structure plays a significant role from the user’s perspective. Users must easily understand the UI without any hiccups or a third party’s help.
- Balance details
A crucial feature, here it’s all about the numbers. Whether it’s the remaining balance, the value of different assets, or the purchase/ selling of shares, this feature displays it all.
- Asset Transaction
Users must be able to buy and sell assets from this particular section of the trading app.
- Payment Gateway
Once a user makes a move on buying or selling, the payment gateway portal should be accessible to complete that transaction.
- Deposits
Using this feature users will be able to track the status of their deposits in real-time with minimal effort.
- Searching
While your stock trading app development, make sure you include an option for users to search for active stocks along with their real-time rate in the market.
- Push notification
This is a must-have feature in your online trading app. The feature makes sure that your users get time-to-time notifications of their stock movements. But make sure it doesn’t bother professional players in the market.
- Newsfeeds
This feature is underrated but is one of the important features of a stock trading application. For instance, consider a new user using the app for the first time as a new investor, how will he/she know about recent trends in the stock industry, or know about different market situations without a news feed? So, it’s important to have a news feed in your stock trading application.
- Personal Goals
This feature allows user to control their money flow meaning, they set a daily limit of spending the money and are not willing to cross that threshold irrespective of their performance in the market.
You are all set to get into the technical details of stock trading app development.
Also Read: How to Create A Social Media Application?
Stock trading app development – Technical Guide
Irrespective of the types, the stock trading app development procedure remains the same. This means it’s similar to the mobile app development process i.e. from conceptualizing an idea to Wireframing and from coding to the deployment of the app all the steps remain the same.
Let’s explore these steps of stock trading app development in detail.
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Stock Trading API Integration
End-users must be wondering how every stock app provides the same information about the stock prices, forex (foreign exchange) rates, and crypto status.
While you are in the process of the stock trading app development, the apps are integrated with the APIs. These are known as Stock Market Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The purpose of this integration is to allow sharing of data, transactions, and file access to all users.
Synchronization of data and data aggregation are two major benefits of integrating APIs with trading system apps.
You can integrate the best stock API available in the market. Some of the best APIs available are Alpha, Vantage, Tradier, Intrinio, and so on.
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Design UI/UX
The main reason for an application’s success is a simple but lucrative design. Moreover, the structure of the app’s elements is important, and also the user interface of the app will define the quality of User Experience (UX).
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MVP Stock Trading App and its Features
Exclusive features are the center of attraction of any app. The prototype must include basic features to provide an impeccable experience to the users.
To list out the features of your prototype platform, you can use any of the following two methods:
- User Story Mapping
Agile app developers can make story maps of how an end-user will perform any activity on the app; afterward, these maps help out in fixing the features of the MVP.
- MoSCoW model
MoSCoW model means Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won’t Have this time, this practice is beneficial in extracting out the MVP’s features. You can utilize this method to prioritize requirements; however, this approach also comes in handy in other areas.
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Team Structure
Stock trading app development is not a one-man show. It is only feasible when your chosen app development company has a proper app development team to help you out. In short, precision is coordination is necessary while stock trading app development.
Here’s what a proper team structure looks like:
- Project Manager (Coordinator)
- Business Analyst
- UX/ UI Designer
- Front-End developer
- Back-End developer
- Quality Analysts
- DevOps Engineer
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Technology Stack
The tech stack will include a bundle of technologies, which will be useful in developing the best online trading platforms. To make sure your stock trading app gets the latest technology stack for development, ensure that the mobile app development company you select has the resources to transform your business. At last, make sure that the employee personnel is well-versed in the latest technology they are offering.
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Security
One of the high-priority factors in terms of stock trading app development is having control over the process where the application will collect and use sensitive information. This means security, here are some steps to consider to ensure the complete security of your trading application-
Step 1- Incorporate a two-factor authentication system, bank-grade encryption, and next-gen firewalls.
Step 2- Implement real-time threat intelligence to remain on top of the threats.
Step 3- Embrace ‘Compliance as Code’ for the incorporation of compliance testing and security in the CI/CD timeline.
Step 4- Safeguarding the API’s
- Testing, Delivery, and Maintenance
In addition, to complete the mobile app development process, the testing team carries out complex testing for devices. The Quality assurance service makes sure there are no bugs in the application.
Further, the testing team also has to use different devices such as smartphones or mobile devices and a browser lab on the cloud for making sure your stock trading application is compatible across different platforms. QA, quality and functional and non-functional requirements make sure that the application is not defective.
Once your stock trading application goes through these testing phases you can deploy the product on the App store. Afterward, all you need to do is provide regular maintenance of your stock trading application with timely updates.
Let’s talk about the money involved in stock trading app development.
How much does it cost to build a stock trading app?
Stock trading app development is a subjective process, not to mention it comes with risks, and also, calculating the real-time price of a stock is tedious. This means, quoting a cost will be an enormous task because there are other factors such as app platform, features, UI, tech stack which affect the project budget.
However, by considering the business and technical aspects of stock trading app development, we have got the estimation of an approximate value. The possible range is $25000-$75000. The reason behind this wide range is that a stock trading app acts as a guide for investors or allows them to invest or become a crypto exchange platform.
So if you need to develop a stock market investment app with basic features including proper development process, testing & quality assurance with lucrative app design, it might take a lot of time i.e. approximately 1000hrs. Further, if we multiply this estimation by the average hourly rate of $35 the development cost comes touches the $35000 mark.
So below is a rough breakdown of the cost according to different stages.
Development stages Cost
UI/UX Design $5400
Native Development $13,500
Backend Development $7000
Testing & QA $8900
Project Management $2200
Total $35,000
Stock Trading App Development – Closing statement
Closing up this article, we can say that stock market trading apps have given investors the opportunity to trade in their own time without any unnecessary hindrance.
So if you are willing to start with your Stock Trading App development, Webbybutter will help you beat your competitors!
Stock Trading App Development- FAQ’s
What is the best stock trading app for beginners?
Robinhood stock trading app is one of the best stock trading apps for beginners.
How to make algorithmic trading software?
Coding your own algorithm is time-consuming. Here are some strategies for making algorithmic trading software:
- Choose a development environment
- Research and understand your strategies
- Convert your strategy into pseudo-code
- Integrate the strategy with a trading platform
- Amplify algorithmic Trading