Blog Posts Tagged with Mobile

State of the SwingTradeBot Mobile Apps

No, the mobile apps have been abandoned. They'll work as is for as long as Google and Apple will keep them in their app stores and the device operating systems are compatible.

There's really no reason to use the apps, aside from push alerts.  And I'm planning on adding push alerts to the website now that Apple has finally allowed them on Progressive Web Apps. 

• From day 1 I built the app to work on mobile devices.  Despite people asking, I saw no reason to create a separate mobile app until I added intraday alerts in March of 2018. That sole feature is what pushed me to build mobile apps so that I could send push notifications for the intraday alerts.
• One huge downside to having mobile apps is having multiple codebases, which is a MAJOR time sink. Why should I rewrite the same functionality 2 or 3 times when I could just write it once (for the website)? Not to mention subjecting myself to all the App Store shenanigans.* (see below)
• Another reason I decided to make apps was that I found a system that would allow me to write that mobile app once and then generate separate Android & iOS apps.  So I'd *only* have two codebases to maintain instead of three.
• The website has a lot more functionality than the apps. It was never part of my plan to recreate everything inside of the mobile apps.  The apps were just an extension of the site.  
• I haven't updated the iOS mobile app in years (since December 2019) because Apple has restricted me from doing so! I Their app store rules are an ever-moving target and I refused to do what they wanted.  I could write a book about Apple's ridiculous App Store rules... (see below)
• As a user I like mobile apps, as a developer I'm much less of a fan* (see below) 
• In the coming weeks I will be rolling out a Progressive Web App (PWA) as a replacement to the current mobile apps.  That will allow people to "install" SwingTradeBot on their mobile device with no app store in the middle.  Then people can opt in to receiving push notifications.   
• The current apps will continue to work until Apple/Google removes them or makes an operating system change which makes them stop working.

1. I'd already bastardized my subscription code to allow for PayPal subscriptions.  What started as a nice, clean Stripe-based subscription system became more complicated by adding PayPal.  Now Apple wanted me to add a third option and Google was threatening the same thing.  So I'd have had to offer, manage & support 4 different subscription systems. That's a lot of unnecessary complexity & overhead. 
2. Apple wanted 30%(!!!) of the revenue for providing the same service that I pay ~3% to Stripe & PayPal.  

• Pay $99/year to be in the developer program
• Give Apple a 15 to 30% cut of revenue
• (optionally) Pay Apple for promotion so people can actually find your app

Mobile App Update: More Intraday Alerts plus...

I'm back from my summer vacation and I've just released a new version of the mobile app.  It's live on the Google Play Store (Android) and still waiting for review on the iOS App Store.  (Although iOS users can get the new functionality now by launching the app, killing it and then launching it again.)

Here are the highlights of what's new:

New Intraday Alerts: StockTwits Trending and Moving Average Bounces

I've released a couple of new intraday alert types over the last several days.   All of these were due to people messaging me to suggest I add them.  So I'm glad to see that people are finding the intraday alerts useful and that they're suggesting things that I either missed or, in the case of StockTwits, might have never even thought of creating.

iPhone App Log-Out Issue has been Fixed

I finally figured out what was causing the inability to stay logged in on the SwingTradeBot iOS app.  The fix has been released and you should now be able to remian logged in for 30 days at a time.  You don't need to update the app, just log in and you should be good to go.

I'm glad to have this problem solved and am looking forward to getting back to building out the app's functionality.

SwingTradeBot iOS (iPhone & iPad) App has been Released!

The iOS version of the SwingTradeBot app is now available in the App Store.  As I mentioned last week when the Android app was released:

SwingTradeBot Android Mobile App has been Released!

I just released the Android version of the SwingTradeBot app to the Google Play store.

How and Why I'm Using the New Intraday Alerts

I want to share how I'm using the newly added intraday alerts.  First, a little (refresher) on my typical trading process.  Here's what I do for at least 80% of my trades:

New Feature: Intraday Alerts (and a Mobile App Coming Soon!)

Update: The SwingTradeBot mobile app has been released for both Android and iOS.  

You may have seen some new links around the site today.  I've added some intraday alerts ito the mix.  These alerts are *near real time* -- they may be delayed from 1 - 20 minutes.  But I think they're still very useful, as long as you're not trying to be a scalper with them. 

You'll be able to select from a list of things to which you want to be alerted.  This functionality is in beta now and it may be a little buggy.  I'll be tweaking things over the next few days.  So if you noticed anything weird please let me know.

Oh, I should add that these are only available on the US (Nasdaq, NYSE and Amex) version of the site.  That's because that's the only version of the site for which I have intraday quotes. (Edit on May 8th: They are now also available for the Australia/ASX, Canada and UK/LSE markets.)  If I can find a reasonbly priced quote source for Canada, Austrailia and the UK, then I'll turn on these alerts for those markets as well.

Here's the initial list of alerts:

Do You Want a SwingTradeBot Mobile App?

I just had a conversation with somebody who asked me if SwingTradeBot has a mobile (iOS or Android) app.  That's a question I've gotten a lot.  I understand why people want an app. -- as an iPhone user, I like the convenience & ease of an app and the (hopefully) faster & better interface.  

Site Usage Tips

Accessing via a Mobile Device:

I've been asked a few times if there are mobile apps for SwingTradeBot. The answer is no yes (there are now Android and iOS apps) , however, the site is mobile-friendly and is 100% usable on a mobile device. The vast majority of my own usage is on the website from my Android phone & iPad, so mobile usability is very important to me. Having said that, when I really want to power through some charts, I do so on my laptop. It's so much faster to be able to open links in new browser tabs and to see all the information at once. (You can also open links in new tabs on mobile but it's just not as seamless & quick.)

It's "seeing all the information at once" where I had to make some compromises for mobile devices. There are certain places where some of the data is hidden from view on mobile devices. You will have to scroll those tables to the side in order to see the extra data.

Pro Subscribers Account Customization

Pro-level subscribers should take advantage of the capability to define the characteristics of stocks they want to see in the scan results listings. Visit the Scan Filter Settings to define your "Tradable Universe" of stocks. This is where you can configure the site so that it only shows you, for example, stocks priced above $50 and which trade an average of 10 million shares per day. You can define this setting once instead of adjusting the scan result settings on every page load.

Similarly, pro-level subscribers can define your default chart settings so that the TradingView chart widget displays the indicators you care about.

Watchlists and Portfolios:

Rename Your Lists

While on a portfolio or watchlist page, you can click the pencil icon next to the list's name to change the name of the list.

This is more important for Pro users but all users can rename their watchlists and portfolios to something more meaningful. This will allow Pro users to more easily differentiate their multiple lists when adding stocks to them and when navigating via the menu.

Use the Hover Charts

On the scan results, Watchlist and Portfolio pages you can get a quick view of each stock's chart via the hover chart feature. On a desktop or laptop computer just hover your mouse pointer over the small chart icon next to wach stock symbol and the associated chart will pop up. If you're on mobile a single tap on that chart icon will reveal the chart. While the chart is displayed, tapping somewhere other than the stock symbol will close the chart.

View Scan Results as a Page Full of Charts

Another way to quicky view many charts is to use the "As Charts" button.  That will let you see up to 20 charts at one time.

Edit or Remove List Items

In your watchlists & portfolios, you can click the pencil icons to edit an entry and click the trash can icon to remove an item.

Adding a Stock to a Portfolio

Here are some tips on adding stocks to your portfolio(s).

• Pro users can use the Portfolio dropdown to choose which portfolio they want to add the stock to
• You can enter a short position by entering a negative number of shares
• The Trailing Stops are optional but can be useful to alert you to when your position may need to be reevaluated.

Below you can see how the violated stops are highlighted in red. A glance to this part of your portfolio page can alert you to positions which may need attention. (Assuming you didn't actually enter the stop loss orders in the market with your broker.)

Sorting Tables

Many of the tables are sortable. For those which are, you can just click on a column header to sort the data by that column. Clicking/tapping that column header again will reverse the sort. I often sort the scan results listings to get to stocks which interest me quicker. Once a column is sorted, you'll see a sort order indicator to the right of the column name, as in the image below which shows a table sorted by stock symbol.

Categorized Events/Alerts

I recently added a way to drill down to the technical alerts based on the type of alert. So, for example, if you're a breakout trader, that page will make it easier to zero in on the alerts most relevant to you.

More Tips

If you haven't already, please see the the "Get Started" page .

Removing Stocks from Your Watchlist or Portfolio

I just received an email asking me how to remove stocks from a watchlist.  It's pretty straight-forward but it may not be obvious if you're using a mobile device.  If you're using a desktop or laptop computer (or maybe even a large tablet) you'll see a trash can icon over on the right side of each stock's row.  Just click the trash can icon to remove the stock from the list -- note that the table scrolls horizontally & you may have to scroll it to see the trash can icon.  The pencil icons allow you to edit the stock's details (The note for a watchlist...  stop loss values, number of shares, entry price, etc. for a portfolio).  

If you are on a mobile device it a little trickier.  For most of the tables on the site, columns get hidden to conserve space on mobile devices.  You'll be able to tell when data/columns have been hidden because you'll see a plus sign on the left side of each row. Tapping the plus sign or just tapping anywhere in the row will expand the row and show the hidden columns.  Once the row has been expanded you can click the "+" to reveal the trash can.  See below:

New Feature: Hover Charts for Even Quicker Stock Screen Analysis

Update: Now there's an even faster way to view the charts.

I've just implemented a feature I've wanted since I launched the site. You can now hover your cursor (mouse pointer) over a stock ticker to get a pop up of the chart. (Similar to how FinViz.com pop-up charts work.) Here's an example:

For now this works on all of the stock scan result pages as well as your portfolio and watchlist pages (and one of my favorite pages, the list of recent IPOs). My primary goal with this site is to make my nightly analysis process more efficient and this has already boosted my productivity a lot.

The Ultimate Mobile Phone Stock Market Portfolio App!?

A few months ago I downloaded several stock apps for my iPhone but I wasn't really happy with any of them.  Invariably they were either too slow, too clunky or too expensive.  Even my broker's app required me to login in every time I launched it!  So annoying! What I wanted was something that would let me get a quick overview of my portfolio or watchlist while I was away from my computer.  So when I started working on SwingTradeBot making it work well on mobile browsers was very important to me.  So far I'm very happy with using it from my phone -- no app required, so it should look (pretty much***) the same on any mobile browser. I also like being able to access it from ANY device and see the same info everywhere. 

Here are some screenshots: