Why Using Your Smart Phone to Trade Stocks Is a Bad Idea

One of the big marketing ploys of the online brokerage sites is the access to your stock account through your smart phone. Now you are never more than a Wi-Fi connection away from your stock account with the ability to track your investments, research stock data, and place investment orders, right over your smart phone. Smart? Maybe not.

It has nothing to do with security. Information received and transactions conducted over a smart phone are as secure as in person. It has more to do with your own temperament and your ability to control your emotions. Studies have shown that investors using smart phones are 25% more likely to make impulsive decisions and pull the trigger on a stock investment than if they were to consider it while sitting at their computer. It’s something about being mobile, and getting information real-time that can drive impulses that aren’t there when you are settled in front of your computer. It’s not to say you shouldn’t do it; just make sure you have taken the full measure of the decision before hitting the send button.