Investments have become a hot topic to discuss in 2021. Micro-investing and stock markets are now on the rise. It’s easier to access stock markets and start trading Forex or stock shares but trading involves not only perfect skills and a nose for trends. It needs far more, including powerful analytics, solid tech background, and portfolio management.
Gen Z and Millennials prefer to invest their money in stocks and grow their value passively. The best presents for them are Apple or Tesla shares. According to the recent research by Statista, mobile banking and online investments top the list of the most popular online activities in Canada and the US.
Thanks to the easy access to stock markets, everyone can become an investor and grow their portfolio by trading Forex and commodities on various markets. We’re going to shed more light on how to build a mobile app for managing investment portfolios.
Table of contents
Intro Why should you build an investment portfolio app? Top apps to look at while developing an investment app A stepwise guide for building apps for investors The development of investment portfolio app in a nutshell How much does it cost to create an app for traders? Final thoughts
Why should you build an investment portfolio app?
An investment portfolio is an essential thing for traders and investors. It’s a collection of investment assets such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.
The first argument why you should develop an investment portfolio app is its rising popularity. More and more users try their hand in trading various assets, building their trading portfolios, and planning further investments. Online investments have become a heated discussion of the upcoming years.
Photo by DocuSign / Unsplash The second argument to dive deeper into the development of investment apps is the tremendous growth of the market. According to the recent stats provided by Allied Market Research , the global personal finance market was valued at nearly $800 million in 2016, but it’s expected to reach $1, 213 million by 2023. That’s quite an impressive market growth and you can take a bite out of it with your app for managing personal investments.
The next reason to build an app for investors is a wide array of niches you can occupy. You can add some educational information or even power up your app with an investment virtual trainer. Another thing to consider that there are lots of unprofessional investors who are willing to pay for investment services as well as advice.
Professional investors, banks, mutual funds, and investment trusts charge crazy fees for their services scaring off ordinary people. Online investment apps and providers do the same job but less pricey.
Here are some more stats to prove that apps for investors worth developing:
Millennials prefer to keep a part of their retirement money in form of bonds, shares, money market funds, or other investments;
Generation Y owns nearly half of the bitcoin volume;
Google gets more requests for financial management, online investments, and financial planning;
12% of respondents aged 18-29 years have recently tried an app or platform for online investments.
The following statistics show that younger generations participate more actively in online investments than in conventional retirement programs. Thus, the demand for online investment apps and apps for managing investment portfolios is growing. Let’s take a closer look at the most popular apps for investors and traders ⤵️
Top apps to look at while developing an investment app
Personal Capital: Investing
Personal Capital can help you with tracking personal funds and investments. The app allows for monitoring all kinds of investments, including retirement.
Personal Capital offers a smart way for tracking personal funds. With the app, you can track all your accounts in one place - stocks, bank accounts, retirement funds, and any other investment.
Personal Capital is an award-winning app, including “The Best App for Investors” by CNBC in 2021, “Best Financial App Award” by Money Under 30, “Best for Portfolio Management 2020’ by Investopedia. You should definitely download and try it before launching your app for managing investments.
Yahoo Finance
Yahoo Finance allows for tracking the performance of personal portfolios, following the stocks, and discovering detailed information about companies and their stocks.
When it comes to stock trading, Yahoo Finance has no rivals. With the app, users can compare and evaluate stocks, follow the preferred stocks, create customized watchlists, get notifications for price alerts, breaking news, or earnings reports.
A stepwise guide for building apps for investors
Building mobile app solutions for investing and portfolio management differs from developing apps for other business spheres. Along with a flawless user experience, they need to be robust and secure for users to manage their personal funds.
You need to understand what features are essential to start the MVP of your app for investors. So what features do you need to load your app with to win over users?
Easy-to-navigate UI
Users don’t like complex apps. The UI of your product should be as simple as possible and understandable for users of any age.
There are a few things to keep in mind while designing the interface for your investment app:
Keep it simple rather than creative
Reflect the user flows and journeys with your interface
Adjust the UI to any resolution and screen size
Add tappable and non-tappable elements
Choose the right color scheme
Photo by Kelly Sikkema / Unsplash Personal profiles
It’s obvious that an app for managing a personal investment portfolio should have an investor’s or user’s account. It should be a place where uses can easily check what is happening with their investments and check the performance reports in a few clicks. Since the field of online investments is highly competitive, each platform strives to offer new features to attract new users and increase their loyalty.
You can allow syncing users’ profiles with third-party investment accounts and contacting a personal investment assistant without leaving the app.
Also, you can provide users with useful analytical charts which help users understand their performance and adjust their trading strategies.
Robo-advisor
Integrating a financial robo-advisor is right up your street when you’re going to develop an app for investors. It’s a hot trend now.
Data security
When it comes to online transactions, data security and protection of personal information are of great importance. Data breaches are a disturbing factor for many investors who hesitate to choose - a human stockbroker or an investment app.
The app with enhanced security standards gains an extra advantage over the competition. The following security standards are a must for investment apps:
256-bit or 2048-bit encryption
Two-factor authentication
Fingerprint or pin
SIPC Protection for safeguarding large sums of money
You need to work your fingers to the bone and strengthen your security system. There are a few ways to avoid data breaches and enhance security, including biometric authentication, automated logouts and lockouts, logging console for storing sensitive information, and root detection methodology.
Photo by Austin Distel / Unsplash Real-time signals and alerts
When developing an app for investors, you need to integrate push notifications, reminders, and real-time alerts. The stock market and the world of online investments are highly volatile. Investors should keep their eyes open to spot the trends and quickly change their trading strategy.
You can also implement customizable notifications. The users will be able to choose when the app needs to send a notification. For example, the app can notify the users when investment rates reach a certain price point. Thanks to the following approach, users won’t ignore the notification and can stay up to date about their trading performance.
24/7 assistance
When it comes to the financial world, qualified and fast support is the key to the success of your app and brand. Think about the ways to communicate with your users.
It could be a personal advisor or a support team ready to help via chat or email. Moreover, consider providing support via a preferable social media- through answering personal messages or comments. You can also take advantage of chatbots to assist your users with their portfolio management.
Most of the following communication channels are quite slow, but a live chat can help your solve this issue. Consider integrating a live chat, a callback feature, or a personal support assistant for traders.
Integrating only basic features isn’t enough to get on top charts of investment apps. You need to go far beyond the usual app functionality. Here’re some extra features to consider:
Free trading simulator
Free trial period
Tax wrappers
Multi-currency accounts
Progress trackers
Cryptocurrency and stock trading
Statistics and reports
Community
Webinars, articles, and video tutorials
Need more information on what features to add to your investment app? Feel free to contact us and discuss all the details.
Photo by Clemens van Lay / Unsplash The development of investment portfolio app in a nutshell
Developing an app dealing with personal information and personal funds requires more skills and time when compared to other types of apps like book readers or mediation apps. There are quite a bunch of things and factors to consider before diving into the development.
The very first thing you need to do is to conduct in-depth research of your niche, competitors, and the user problems that you can try to solve with a custom mobile app for traders. Start with analyzing your competitors and find out all their strengths and weaknesses.
Then you can talk with your future users to understand their pain points and find out how to solve their problems with a custom app. The following research will help you better understand the market and find a free niche.
Photo by Oskar Yildiz / Unsplash You need to understand what features to pack into your MVP and what features to add later when launching a fully functioning app. Then, you’re ready to take the next step by its horns and start wireframing your future product.
Wireframing is about the structure and order of the app interface elements. You can do it with just a pen and paper or take advantage of more sophisticated online solutions like Wireframe.cc or Mockplus.
Now when you know what app you need to develop, it’s time to contact Mova.io and start the design & development stage. We’ll help you with all the technical issues from front-end and back-end development to UX/UI design and QA tests. At Mova.io, we’ve built numerous mobile and web app solutions for a wide range of business spheres, including fitness, banking, fintech, and others. Check out Our Portfolio to get a better understanding of what projects we’ve successfully launched.
When all the development issues are far behind, it’s time to launch a beta version of your app for investors and get early feedback. Now when all the changes are made, everything is ready for the first release.
Once your app is live, it’s time to boost your marketing efforts and attract more and more users. From now on, you need to update and improve your product regularly to make it the best solution for managing investment portfolios on the market.
How much does it cost to create an app for traders?
Before diving into the development of any app, it’s essential to understand how much it’ll take to build an investment app from scratch. But no one can give you the exact numbers since there are lots of factors to consider while estimating the project.
So the following estimate is broad-brushed that may get smaller or bigger while developing your custom app solution. If we’re speaking about a turnkey app that includes everything from gathering information to launching your app in Google Play or App Store, the project price will start from $40,000 .
Process
Estimated time
Cost
Business analysis
2 weeks
$1000+
UX/ UI design and prototyping
4-6 weeks
$2,000
Development
5-6 months
~$35,000
Final QA sessions and launch
-
Included in the development
Post-launch maintenance and support
-
Depending on the project, and its needs
Total
7-8 months
$38,000
Business analysis
We can start with defining what your business needs, understand the goals you want to achieve with a custom mobile or web app solution, gather requirements, and turn them into a proper technical solution for your business.
UX/ UI design and prototyping
We’ll find out who your target users are, carefully analyze your possible competitors, build mockups taking into account business as well as user needs.
Create a website
We’ll take into account the app design while building a website.
Mobile app development
Our developers will find the best possible technical solution and bring your app idea to life.
Final tests and app release
Our QAs will double-check the app and ensure that there are no critical bugs and the app reflects the scope and functionality. Then we’ll do our best to successfully launch your app, including populating content, integrating analytics, deploying, and running a couple of final tests in the live environment.
Post-launch maintenance
We’ll optimize the app and fix the bugs if any. After you get the first feedback from your early adopters, you may need to add extra features or improve the app performance.
Final thoughts
Every great app was just an idea in someone’s head. Only the hard work of their creators and professional development team make Yahoo Finance and Personal Capital rockstars in the field of personal investments.
With Mova.io, you can develop a top-notch app solution covering all pain points of your users and your business needs. Feel free to contact us and discuss all the details.
Have a question? Just write to us at:
📮 mail@mova.io
