Yahoo Finance 10 Investing Apps to Supercharge Your Portfolio
Before Apple launched the App Store in 2008, investing via smartphone pretty much meant calling your broker or financial advisor. Remarkably, it now only takes a tap or two to locate valuable investment information or move your money from one asset to another. What's more, you can do it in seconds, without anyone's help, let alone a busy signal or hold time.
"Investing is an inherently fast-paced, on-the-go industry, rendering it an especially good fit for mobile technology," says Raul Moreno, co-founder and CEO of iBillionaire, an app and website that provides access to investment data and strategies of self-made billionaires.
In fact, it's gotten to the point where you can track information and choose investments with all of the ease of putting Rover on a leash. "Observing, managing and reviewing investments is now, for the first time ever, being done while in line for coffee, in a cab or walking a dog," says Hart Lambur, co-founder of Openfolio, which applies a social media-type logic to its financial app.
That's not to say investment apps are without issues. Critics insist some apps make it too easy to trade on impulse, especially when investors need less portfolio turnover, not more. But apps have their advantages, including lower fees and the capacity to keep investors constantly informed.
"It's not realistic for a financial advisor, retail investor or anyone interested in the stock market to be glued to a television, computer or terminal all day, watching stock prices and managing investments," Moreno says.
Below, we list 10 apps garnering attention for their ease of use, unique features and different takes on how to approach investment. All apps are free and available for iOS and Android, unless otherwise noted.
Betterment: This app uses concise screenshots to show overall account balances and performance, while letting you deposit and withdraw funds. After you enter your age and one of five general investment goals (i.e. "build wealth" or "safety net") on the website, Betterment then invests the money for you in a combination of stocks and bonds: a fully diversified investment portfolio of 12 global asset classes. Fees range between 0.15 percent (for a portfolio of $100,000 or more) and 0.35 percent of your annual balance.
Acorns: The set it-and-forget-it system that drives this app is bonehead-simple. Your "spare change" from linked credit and debit-card purchases is rounded up to the nearest dollar and invested in six different funds, based on your risk tolerance. It's a confidence-builder, especially if you're wary of brokerage houses or have limited resources. The app charges $1 a month for accounts under $5,000 and 0.25 percent of your annual assets for accounts over $5,000.
iBillionaire: This one-of-a-kind app breaks down and analyzes the investment data of leading billionaires, including Warren Buffett, George Soros and Carl Icahn. It also lets you view snapshots of what billionaires buy, sell and hold each quarter, and it alerts investors of big billionaire buys and sells. Sorry, a private chauffeur is not included.
Robinhood: Moreno praises this app, as does Phil Ash, co-founder and CEO of the stock-picking site Baton Investing. "It's a very simple brokerage app that offers $0 trading and is ideal for anyone just starting out in investing," Ash says. Robinhood makes money by accruing interest off customers' noninvested cash balances. Funders include Google Ventures. Certain features of the app (such as margin accounts) are still in development.
Wealthfront: Based in Palo Alto, California, Wealthfront has earned top scores for transparency from Jack Waymire, founder of Paladin Registry, an education website for investors. The app works as an extension of Wealthfront's robo-advisor website, which manages more than $1.5 billion in assets. It provides up-to-the-minute information that tracks account performance, rebalancing and diversification.
Baton Investing: Like Wealthfront, this app is an extension of a financial website, but with a twist: Call it "Moneyball" for money management. Baton utilizes a stock-picking system developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientist John Reese that claims a 485 percent return since 2003. Baton subscribers who pay $19 a month receive portfolio updates as notifications. They can also track daily returns while keeping tabs on news stories surrounding their investments.
Kapitall: It's often been said investing is a game, and Kapitall takes that analogy literally: One of its creators is video-game entrepreneur Gaspard de Dreuzy. Trades are as simple as dragging and dropping a company's icon into your live portfolio. In Kapitall, these icons replace the ticker symbols we've all seen whizzing by on the crawler of financial news channels. The app even gives you a $100,000 "practice portfolio" to play with. Commissions run at $7.95.
Openfolio (iOS only): Released in October, Openfolio is the first app to leverage the logic of social networks, though it isn't a social media site. It creates a space where you observe the investment strategies of people you know and trust, while sharing your own. Portfolios are shared in terms of percentage allocations, not dollar amounts. An Android version is in the works.
LOYAL3 (iOS only): Based in San Francisco, LOYAL3 gives everyday investors the rare chance to buy into IPOs, along with the brands they love as consumers, such as Amazon and Best Buy. No-fee trades can be made with as little as $10, as LOYAL3 uses batch investing to pool the money of its users. With the app, you can buy and sell stocks, as well as create and manage monthly investment plans.
Shares 2 (iOS only): This app is especially advantageous if you own international stocks. Shares 2 shows your total investment in the currency of your choice, with exchange rates updated automatically. You can also enter a company or stock symbol, the number of shares bought and the price paid. Shares 2 then displays the value, total originally spent and profit-loss statistics in money and percentage terms.
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