Fidelity releases mobile trading for advisors - just don't expect many mobile trades

Arriving second to market after Pershing, Fidelity Investments yesterday began to allow independent advisors to trade by mobile device but most trades will continue to be made at the office.

WealthCentral’s new mobile trading functionality allows advisors to access client account balances, holdings and transaction activity. That includes client profile information, positions and balances for brokerage and non-brokerage accounts, transaction history details, current account alerts as well as up-to-the-minute third-party market news and quote details.

The trading capability is expected to have some important niche uses. For example, if a client wants cash wired somewhere on short notice, the advisor can liquidate a stock position to free up the cash.

Another advantage is that an advisor will be able to update a client on a trade order’s status in real time instead of reporting on a completed transaction the following day.

Slow start

Yet the use of trading functionality is expected to be modest. Pershing – which made mobile trading available in March – has not seen advisors making heavy use of the new capability because most focus on long term, model or allocated portfolios, says Mike Golaszewski, chief technology officer for Pershing Advisor Solutions. See: Pershing keeps ahead in the mobile space with an Android app and mobile trading.

Mike Golaszewski: Over 5,000 NetX360 users
have pursued an entitlement to use
our mobile platform.

“Most of their trading activity is generally done in [a] batch when a relationship is first established in order to execute a specific financial plan or on a periodic (generally quarterly) basis to correct drift against a specific portfolio model or asset allocation.”

Neither Fidelity nor Pershing can provide the ability to do block orders via a mobile device.

Cafe calculations

Though the new trading function may have modest use, advisors have been quick to make use of the non-trading access to client portfolios they received in February from Fidelity. Fidelity has seen 30% of advisors take advantage of the ability to see what’s going on in a client’s account from the front seat of a car or at a café. See: Fidelity slips in ahead of Pershing on Google phones with WealthCentral for Android.

Screenshot of the new trading screen

“It continues to grow, especially as the devices get better. Look at what an iPhone or Droid or Tablet can do these days,” says Ed O’Brien, senior vice president and head of technology at Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services. “We knew it was going to be a quick pick-up.”

Fidelity tried out the trading capability in pilot testing with 12 RIAs prior to release.

Indeed, Golaszewski says also that non-trading mobile access by Pershing advisors has skyrocketed since its release in January.

“Over 5,000 NetX360 users have pursued an entitlement to use our mobile platform. Within Pershing Advisor Solutions, active usage is very high, with close to 80% of entitled users making use of one of our mobile platforms on a regular basis,” adds Golaszewski.

See: Fidelity, Schwab and TD Ameritrade prep for arms race in mobile technology for advisors.

Fidelity also expects to have mobile capabilities for clients of National Financial — possibly by year’s end. “While it is premature to discuss all the details, we can tell you that we are working on next generation wireless/mobile enhancements to our myStreetscape® consumer portal which we expect to release later this year,” says its spokesman, John Eidson.