Friday, September 19, 2008

Solving the Market Crisis with your Smartphone

Lately, America’s finances have suffered a few black eyes. As stock prices fall to all-time lows, we’re seeing a lot of grim faces on Wall Street and across the United States. In a morbid Fun Friday twist, this week’s posting will focus on a couple of stock trading and stock monitoring applications for your smartphone. You probably need them now more than ever… if you have any money left to invest.

E*Trade and Blackberry joined forces to offer their online stock portfolio trading and stock monitoring on their line of devices. E*Trade Mobile Pro allows those who have accounts with the online trading company to get stock quotes and manage trades from their cell phones, making it easier to stay current with the heavily fluctuating market. The application also features portfolio watch lists, money transfers and password protect, which refreshes after five minutes of inactivity. And if that security isn’t enough, E*Trade also promises to cover any unauthorized trading done from your phone. The best part? This application is free. It will only cost (or pay) what you lose (or gain) playing the market.


For all you Windows Mobile users out there, stock market monitoring also is at your fingertips with Pocket Stock Market Monitor 5. While you cannot trade stocks with this application, you can get quotes for stocks, bonds and mutual funds, keep track of your portfolio and take advantage of an easy-to-use portfolio manager with multiple color schemes and large text. This application will cost you a bit, but with the market as fragile status, it might be worth keeping up-to-the-minute updates in the palm of your hand.

I hope you’re not suffering at the hands of the market more than any of the rest of us, but if you are, at least take comfort in the fact that your smartphone is making life a little easier, one application at a time.

This week’s Fun Friday song veers away from the “Calling” theme, instead focusing on our stock theme. Calloway wants to be rich, just like you!

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