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Mobile phones started off as a convenient way to make a phone call when you’re away from home. However, it’s clear that, since then, they have morphed into something entirely different. This seems apparent from the fact that, on average, we touch our phones 3 times per minute. Or, if you prefer another statistic: Over half of American adults testify they “couldn’t live without” their smartphones. This doesn’t sound quite like a casual or utilitarian sort of relationship.
Psychologists have suggested that our connections with our phones have become an “attachment relationship”, meaning that they take on the role of a significant other in our lives – one that is always available, controllable, and touchable. This explains our emotional responses to their being lost or broken, which seem completely out of proportion. At the basis of this issue, so they say, is a lack of self-esteem, from which about nine in 10 of us are said to suffer.
Like any relationship, this one has its limits. It’s not healthy to bring it into every single corner of our lives. The focus of this article is on the extent to which you should bring it into the arena of online trading. The alternative, in this case, is a desktop platform which sits in a corner of your office, patiently waiting for the daily attention you bestow on it. Is your well-mannered PC, perhaps, a better partner in your battles with the markets than that frenzied mobile phone, which ceaselessly beeps and rings for your attention throughout the day? Let’s find out.
Real Time
There’s one clear advantage which mobile trading apps have over their desktop counterparts: You can carry them around with you. This quality might not be valuable in many of your other relationships, say with your spouse, but, in this case, it really is.
That’s because it allows you to check on asset prices whenever and wherever you want, which can give you an edge in planning and executing your deals that you couldn’t get in any other way. By the time you get home, that perfect entry price may very well have slipped away. Securities are volatile, fluctuating all the time in response to various factors that act in complex ways.
There’s no way of knowing what will be ahead for them, even on the immediate horizon. The only thing for it, at least if you’re in the business of short-term trading, is to carry around a mobile version of your trading app.
On the other hand, you know what they say about too much of a good thing. Having a device in your purse that (a) never stops sending you price alerts, and (b) actually allows you to act on them, can sometimes be detrimental. The endless series of ringings can increase your nervousness and stir you to trade inappropriately and excessively.
Deal making requires a calm spirit and a steady mind, which is difficult to maintain while hailing a taxi or paying your restaurant bill. Yes, there may come times when you must open trades on the go, but the concern is that you’ll become trigger happy if you get into the habit.
And this concern should be taken seriously because you’ll often have a strong initial reaction to new data – one that may not be the wisest when considered in the quiet solitude of your office.
The Interface
Mobile trading apps often need to cut down on features in order to adapt the platform to their reduced storage and processing capabilities. To the extent that this is true for you, you need to shoot for desktop to ensure you are employing your app to the utmost.
Mobile app developers have indeed made a lot of progress in adapting their products to the smaller physical scale, and this is likely to continue as more and more crafty minds are put to the task. When it comes to trading online, however, they face a unique problem: It just ain’t the same.
Many traders like to keep several screens facing them simultaneously in order to monitor global news, check up on other assets, and peruse price charts. The process of staying on the ball with respect to the factors affecting price movements requires clear, compartmentalized thinking. For instance, you have to know whether or not the stock information you received yesterday came from a reliable source, and not some random voice on social media, and you need to confirm this quickly.
Alternatively: Was the Head and Shoulders pattern you saw a few minutes ago on the price chart for USD/JPY or EUR/USD? Keeping things like this clear in your mind is more easily done on a desktop platform than a mobile one.
Besides, toggling between different windows on your mobile phone in order to stay abreast of the markets is not exactly ideal. Online trading is like walking a tightrope, which you wouldn’t do while playing a game of chess. Therefore, make life easier for yourself and, even if you can’t afford to buy several screens, at least trade from a desktop workspace.
A sense of spaciousness improves your psychological wellbeing, inspires creative thinking, and gives you the chance to focus intently on a single task for long periods. Each one of these things can literally make the difference between success and failure in your trading efforts. Add to this the fact that desktops work well when you’re collaborating with several other people, allowing you all to look at the same data together, which we cannot say for smartphones.
Power
Since the technological frameworks in our times exist on a tiny scale, you might think that your smartphone packs as big a punch as a desktop PC. This is not quite the case, especially in online trading, where specialized and complex software is put to use. Inside a desktop computer, you’ll find all kinds of specialized items like the CPU (central processing unit), RAM (random access memory), SSD (solid state drive), and GPU (graphics processing unit), and the list goes on. All of these are carefully selected and calibrated to work together harmoniously.
The extra spaciousness in your desktop PC does make a difference to your processing power because it houses a larger CPU, which takes care of all the processing. The same goes for your RAM, which is considerably inferior on a mobile phone. What does RAM do? It lodges the short-term memory which the computer needs for daily functions like running apps. The CPU utilizes the RAM in order to run your applications. When RAM is fast, it implies the CPU can channel data more quickly and efficiently. Weaker RAM means you’ll be sitting and waiting longer for apps to open. Advanced trading software can be particularly demanding on the RAM, so it will work better on a desktop system than a mobile phone.
Other Considerations
Mobile phones run on batteries, which run out, and this can be rather frustrating when you’re trying to close a sensitive deal. By contrast, your desktop PC enjoys a more stable power supply. Similarly with regard to your internet connection, you’re likely to experience less trouble when operating from your home setup.
Besides this, consider the fact that your phone can be stolen fairly easily, while your desktop sits obediently in your office, staying out of trouble. Needless to say, you don’t want a thief to able to take control of the deals you were setting up, (unless he has some really good ideas). In terms of damage, your phone is much more vulnerable than your desktop and can find itself out of commission after a single drop to the floor.
The types of things that need repairing or replacing in your desktop, though, are comparatively cheap, for example the mouse and keyboard. Thus, when doing something as work intensive as online trading, it makes sense to go desktop.
Wrapping Things Up
As you may have gathered, we tend to favour desktop setups over mobile phones for active online traders. At the same time, we’ll say this: Why not use the mobile app to get price updates when you have to be on the move? After all, doing that doesn’t require much of a calm mind.
Certainly though, for any type of research or analysis, it’s hard to see how you could do as good a job on a smartphone (even a big one) as on a high-fidelity computer monitor. Instead of pitting one against the other, let the phone and the PC do their designated jobs in peace and harmony together!
When trading with iFOREX, you can make use of their celebrated app from your desktop or your mobile phone, depending on your preferences for the moment. iFOREX have consistently updated and improved their signature app over the last 25+ years, consulting with clients and developers all the while. Visit the iFOREX website to find out more.
