Tablets, mobiles... can they really help us trade?

Electronic devices are becoming more and more sophisticated. It makes perfect sense to integrate their use into our trading. But to what extent can they really be useful to the trader? And what are their limitations?

In what circumstances can tablets or smartphones help the trader?

Well aware of the great advances made in the field technological products, the majority of brokers today allow you to download their own application on mobile or tablet.

This way, everyone wins:

- On the client side, being able to follow their trades on any of their devices is a significant advantage, since they can keep an eye on their positions without having to carry a laptop.

- On the brokers' side, offering this type of service allows them to gain more customers compared to competitors who do not offer it.

But how do traders benefit from these apps?

Some, in addition to monitoring their positions, do not hesitate to enter and exit the market simply by using the graph displayed on their device.

Still others prefer to follow economic news and can even sometimes provide an alert for each new piece of information.

The most sophisticated applications also allow you to receive an alert when the price reaches a certain level.
The trader thus ensures that he does not miss a single bit of the price development, even if he is not in front of his computer screen.

What are the limits of these technological devices?

While smartphones and tablets can therefore provide traders with additional comfort in their activity, the fact remains that the size of the device is often a disadvantage.
The applications used offer the possibility of carrying out technical analyses and also provide all the necessary tools: trend line drawing, various indicators, etc.

But you only have to try the experiment to quickly realize the limits of this type of analysis...
The screen is much smaller and therefore proportionate very little hindsight on the price evolution.
Most of the time we only see what is on the screen and we do not realize the past evolution, which can compromise the trader's deductions on the future evolution of the price.

In addition, these devices, whether tablets or smartphones, are tactile.
When you want to draw a simple trend line, it can be less precise than drawing with the mouse pointer.

Similarly, it is more difficult to correctly position your stop on the chart. Even if it remains possible, it must be acknowledged that the simplest actions are often much less practical to perform than on a computer...

How to use these tools intelligently?

While monitoring your positions from anywhere can be very useful in certain situations, trading only from your mobile or tablet can prevent the investor from making the right decisions.

His vision of the price is distorted between the zoom level that cannot always be adjusted, and the approximate outline that a technical analysis done with the fingertips supposes.
There is one thing to be aware of: sometimes it is wiser to stop trading and close your positions (or at least avoid opening new ones) until you are comfortably seated in front of a computer.

Wanting to trade constantly and at all costs is a mistake that can be very costly.

It is therefore appropriate to use tablets and smartphones as tools that can undoubtedly make the trader's life easier, but which are certainly not essential for achieving better performance.