[LONDON] Once the preserve of big international banks, smartphones are putting the power to deal currencies into the hands of a new cohort of traders, who can make a fortune – or lose their shirt – on the bus to work.
Retail foreign exchange trading has grown rapidly in recent years, but the image has been of a lone trader in front of a computer screen. Smartphones, owned by around half the world’s adults, are changing that.
Mobile trading makes up about 60 per cent of transactions, up from 10 per cent four years ago, at London-based broker Trade 212, whose app has been downloaded over a million times. More than a fifth of clients trade only on smartphones or tablets. “We are seeing a big number of clients who are not only mobile first, but mobile only,” said Ivan Ashminov, Trade 212’s co-founder.
Like others, Trade 212 offers demo accounts allowing users, largely male and mostly aged between 25 and 45, to practise with fake money. Many have no previous trading experience, Ashminov said…more