Review: E*TRADE Mobile Pro for iPhone

Couple of days ago, I posted an update on the new iPhone app from E*TRADE in which I was pretty stoked about. I got to spend some time with this app today and if I have to sum up the review in one word, it'd be "impressive!"

Granted, I am not a power user of all iPhone apps, but amongst the several dozens or so applications I've tried, I find E*TRADE's iPhone application one of the most functional & stylish to use. Beyond its beautiful interface design, this app is very intuitive. The horizontal tool bar up top is scrollable has a proper-sized shortcut icons to almost every function you can think of. The tool bar retracts and hides away when not in use and can be easily retrieve by swiping your finger across the "menu" arrow tab; you can access this shortcut menu from anywhere on the page even if you've already browsed a news article towards the bottom of the page.

As a basic stock trader, I find most of E*TRADE's desktop functionality available here(ie. streaming quotes, account info, transaction log, alerts, portfolio, quick transfer, etc...). E*TRADE Mobile Pro provides a full suite of trading functionality with news and market updates which makes it the best financial application for my iPhone. This app is solid and UI design is Apple all the way. Think of this as the iPhone "stocks" app on steroids. You can tweak this application to a large degree, everything from customize the dashboard to security settings is within your control. E*TRADE has shown tremendous committment to bring its features to the mobile arena (they launched a BlackBerry app before App World days); their effort and execution here makes it a wonderful mobile experience for all.

Verdict: I highly recommend this mobile application for E*TRADE customers with an iPhone or iPod Touch. Even if you are not a customer, you can still use a bunch of features which is more robust than anything else I can think of. You can't go wrong, since it is FREE.

E*TRADE Mobile Pro for iPhone

You asked for it and they listened. E*TRADE Mobile Pro is now available as an iPhone App. This robust mobile trading application will allow you to pretty much do everything you need to trade stocks and mutual funds as if you were using a desktop.

Access your dashboard, portfolio, market overview, account info, quotes, trades, transfers and more...

I have always wanted to see more financial apps make its way to the mobile arena, this can give an individual so much more power on the go. There were times when I was traveling in a car service wished I could have made some trades. Kudos on E*TRADE for bringing us the Mobile Pro (first for BlackBerry) and now iPhone.

Side note: Where is TDAmeritrade in all of this? My research on their site only yields the following company MobiTraderOne, which offers a third party application (for free for existing customers on WM and iPhone). Another commenter from my previous post recommends "MarketSimplified Mobile," again a third party mobile trading platform, but free to existing customers (available on WM, iPhone, BB, Android and Symbian). I was hoping TDAmeritrade can develope their own mobile app!

Open an E*TRADE account, get a Free BlackBerry

I had to read the screen twice when I saw this offer on the homepage; at first, I thought they just mentioned free BlackBerry application (Mobile Pro) when it did say an actual free BlackBerry device! It turns out, if you open an E*TRADE account today, they will toss in a free BlackBerry free of cost (other than you have to pay for a brand new 2 year contract). The offer is a bit deceiving considering you can almost get free BlackBerry(s) online for free from the top internet phone sellers (ie. Amazon, Wirefly, LetsTalk, etc.)

PS - When I clicked on "Get a Free Phone" link, it prompted me to sign-in, after I did it, it asked that I'll be taken to Wirefly.com. Nice little cross-marketing-cross-selling deal between E*TRADE and Wirefly.

E*TRADE Mobile Pro for Traders w/ BlackBerry(s)

[Update 5/5/09 - E*TRADE Mobile Pro for iPhone now available.]

The financial industry, aside from taking a beating on the wall street lately, has been cautiously slow in introducing mobile access and applications. And as they should be cautious; considering how easily people can lose their mobile phones and end up causing unimaginable catastrophe to ther finances. However, having mobile access to financial services is somewhat inevitable considering folks in Japan have been using their mobile devices as a form of payment for years.

While mobile banking is starting to take off in the U.S. from the likes of Chase, Bank of America and Citibank, the stocks and brokerage firms have not actively participated in this arena until E*TRADE's new Mobile Pro, exclusively available as a BlackBerry application.

I took my 8830 to etrade.com/mobile and it quickly prompted me to provide/confirm my email address and asked if I was a customer. The next screen provided a download link which took about 30 seconds to install. After that process, I found the E*TRADE Mobile Pro icon within applications; upon launching it for the first time, it required me to complete the installation by resetting the device. From an installation standpoint, this is one of the most complicated installation process for a mobile application.

The resetting took a while and not sure why this is taking so long. At first, I thought it had crashed my BlackBerry. Later on this afternoon, I decided to keep letting the phone reset, and after about 10 minutes or so, my BlackBerry finally finished resetting itself and things went on normally. So be patient.

Once everything is up and running, the application proves to be very cool. I was able to login to check on my account(s) balance, real time quotes, news and pretty much everything E*TRADE platform has to offer via a dynamic mobile experience. The navigation UI is simple and intuitive with the trackball. In settings, you can set the time interval before it times out (default is 5 minutes, which is very nice for your protection. Overall, I am very pleased with E*TRADE Mobile Pro and hope to see this application rolled out to other mobile platforms (ie. Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, etc.). I am hoping the rest of the investment industry will soon bring their services to mobile platforms so everyone can check on their investments on the go. There have been times when I am on a road trip and knowing the market will react to some news, and would have loved to be able to execute some trades over my mobile device, thanks to E*TRADE, this is now possible!