Reuters Money

The days of haggling over the phone with your broker or hunching over your online brokerage account may become a thing of the past with the advent of mobile trading.

Investors are increasingly turning to their mobile phones and tablets to trade on-the-go in a new trend that is shaping the 24-hour trading cycle.

“Futures and forex trade around the clock, so you’re not always at a computer or you’re not always at your desk,” says Nicole Sherrod, director of trading at TD Ameritrade. “Our clients in the evening can trade futures and forex and monitor their positions through their phone apps.”

In a year-long study on trading trends, the investment firm found its technology rollouts have helped to increase mobile trading by 125 percent.

Whereas larger firms like E*Trade and Charles Schwab offer retail investors the ability to trade stocks, only TD Ameritrade currently gives clients the mobile platform to trade currencies. E*Trade offers futures trading, but not currencies; Schwab offers options trading, but not currencies or futures; and Fidelity Investments offers similar services as TD Ameritrade, but they do not offer futures trading. Schwab says it is investigating currency trading. Fidelity, although it is “sensitive to (its) customer base,” has no specific plans to offer futures trading anytime soon, according to a spokesperson.

Being close to the markets at all times provides investors with quicker access to make gains and limit losses. “You’re seeing all of the news today: it’s all about oil, it’s all about commodities and currency fluctuations based on what’s going on in the Middle East,” Sherrod says, noting that complex options, futures and forex trading features have been “gaining a lot of traction” with retail investors. “We feel that this type of technology helps them gain more visibility about the market and, as such, they’re trading smarter; they’re making better trading decisions,” she continued.

But beware of making a snap trade based on emotion or a change of environment while on the road, warns Peter Misek, managing director at Jefferies & Co., an investment firm.

“The downside is that [mobile trading] is instantaneous,” Misek says. “There may be external influences that you wouldn’t necessarily have when you’re sitting at your desk.”

TD Ameritrade launched its mobile trading app for iPads in February; it will launch a new suite of apps in March based on consumer feedback and other market variables.