TD Ameritrade sees more people trading on their phones

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A pedestrian passes in front of a TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. location in San Francisco, California.

Mobile trading is becoming more common among TD Ameritrade clients.

Through the end of October, about 25 percent of trades placed this year by TD Ameritrade retail investors were done so through a smartphone or a tablet. This is up from 22 percent in the same time period last year. Logins via mobile devices more than doubled, averaging over 642,000 from about 315,000 in 2017.

“It gives them an opportunity to trade when they want,” said Steven Quirk, executive vice president of trading at TD Ameritrade. People might see something they like and “try to take advantage of it.”

“This gets highlighted on days like Black Friday when people are out shopping and spending time with their families,” Quirk said. Mobile trading on Black Friday accounted for 31 percent of all trades, a record.

Interest in mobile trading seems to be growing across the brokerage industry. TD Ameritrade competitors like E-Trade, Charles Schwab and Interactive Brokers all offer their clients the ability to trade on a mobile device. J.P. Morgan Chase even unveiled its own mobile trading earlier this year.

TD Ameritrade’s Quirk thinks this will only grow from here. “We have businesses in Hong Kong and Singapore. Mobile trading there is about 40 percent (of trades). I think we’re going to get closer to that in the U.S.”

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