RunawayTrader

I don’t know about your stock trading lifestyle but if it’s anything like mine, the iPhone offers a big slice of technology for going it alone without the crutch of a desktop or laptop. Nevertheless, an important slice of the pie has yet to be invented.

I’ll be the first to admit that capabilities of trading on the go have come a long ways since I first wrote about them in this blog several years ago. Actually, there was a time when technology was as primitive as, well, that “portable” computer on the left. And I’ll also confess that my iPhone delivers virtually all of the information I need to make smart trades without resorting to a desk- or lap-top computer.

For example, between my CNBC app and my iStockManager trading app for Ameritrade, I have fingertip access to streaming quotes, curves, level two trading, positions, portfolios, news (even breaking news which can be pushed to your cell), and the all-important trading platforms.

But, iPhone trading is not perfect. And here’s where my trading lifestyle (and probably yours, begin to run discomfitingly counter to personal choices.

Contrary to popular belief, day traders like me do NOT glue our noses to stock streamers, large or cellphone-sized, all day long. Our attention wanders depending on what the market action looks like.

If the market is hot, as it usually is between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., I’m hotter yet on the trail of money-making trades. If the market is drifting, undecided, or just too damn dangerous to trade, I’ll opt to do other things, most of which are on the Net. I’ll check out various news sites, surf the net, do stock research. Uh-oh, that’s a problem. And it’s my first bitch.

There may be a zillion sites on the Internet, but only a handful are readily iPhone readable. The New York Times and the L.A. Times (Sally Field’s Malibu Home for Sale at $6.95 Million) are app-available, but the Minneapolis

StarTribune, where I live, is not. Nor are scores of other web sites I regularly visit available in an iPhone-friendly format. And anybody who’s jockeyed through a regular web site knows what a trying experience that can be making fonts larger or smaller, shifting the page left or right, signing in (I really hate that), and the like. In short, surfing the net is still best enjoyed on the big screen.

Nor can I have multiple windows open on my iPhone. And that’s a huge drawback if you’re trying to move in a hurry from, say, CNBC to your trading platform to take advantage of a fast-moving trade.

On the other hand, the iPhone allows me to keep in touch with the market when the indexes are tepid and I need to run errands. I can go to grocery store, get a haircut, do some volunteer work, and still keep abreast of what’s going on.

But, even that has its draw backs, mostly related to the app I use to gain access to Ameritrade, iStockmanager. Don’t get me wrong, I love this app. Still, I wish it had a couple more items.

For one thing, you can’t place a trade “trigger” on this app or another one which I don’t like as well, Iptrader. You’ve got to do that on the site itself, and that means accessing it through a laptop or something even more cumbersome. Moreover, once it’s in place, it won’t show up on your iStockManager platform, since it’s a trigger, not a trade.

Worse, though, is that neither of these apps, or any others I’ve checked, has the present capability to send you an alarm when a stock achieves a certain pre-determined level whether it’s bid, ask, last trade, volume, percent of change, or whatever.

That’s what I like about my desktop (or laptop); I get a piercing “honk” on my computer when I set one of these alarms. That means I don’t have to look at my computer at all. I can take a shower, brush my teeth, paint my bedroom, bed down with some lovely young thing and my computer won’t miss a beat or an important trade.

How nice it would be if I’m standing in line at the bank and my iPhone honked and, in addition to scaring the hell out of those bank customers, I’d get a precious clue that the market is turning around and it’s time to get back in and make an important trade?

In the meantime, when I’m away from my larger computers, I’ll have to manually check back frequently to find out what’s going on. And to think that we used to have to pick up the telephone, dial up some brokerage, and ask the boob on the other end to buy or sell a stock. See how lazy we’re getting?

Epilogue:

Incidentally, I recently mentioned that I inquired of iphonetrader.com by email to see what this site is all about.

No response.

I also sent them another note and posted a tweet.

Nothing.

I can only gather that iPhoneTrader.com might be related to Iptrader, the app, or it might be akin to iphonetrader.net, or it could be a complete independent. Who’s to know when these slackers don’t respond to inquiries? One thing is for sure, though.  iPhoneTrader.com cares little about itself; and nobody else seems to care about them either.

Charlie the Runaway Trader