Apps Make Stock Trading Accessible for Young Gamers – The App …
Taylor McBride/
In the wake of recent scandals, millennials have become disillusioned with the finance industry. But with the emergence of gamification, stock market trading apps are beginning to revive young people’s interest in the industry.
Angry Birds. Candy Crush. BUX. Most smartphone users will know the first two gaming apps, but what about that last one? “We want you to play BUX while you’re riding the bus or waiting in line for lunch,” says Nick Bortot, the CEO of this brand new entry to the mobile gaming world.
Complete with colorful graphics and intuitive controls, this fun gaming app allows you to trade stocks risk-free. Come again?
Gaming for Stocks
According to Londonlovesbusiness.com, BUX is a “casual trading” app that shows you the ropes of stock market basics in plain English. Bortot explains that you can start stock trading for free using funBUX virtual currency, then move on to seriousBUX — a.k.a. real money — when you’re ready.
The app also lets you compete against friends to see who gets the best returns on their investments.
Bortot aims to “bring the fun back to finance” and disprove the notion that trading stocks and shares is overwhelming, according to the Daily Mail. They’ve even created a fun, short video that explains the concept behind BUX and how you can experience “the excitement of the stock exchange in your pocket.”
BUX – the excitement of the stock exchange in your pocket from BUX on Vimeo.
Can stock market trading really be “as easy as going to the pub and as safe as driving a Volvo?” According to Bortot, it can. But will this new method appeal to a generation that has widely embraced the politics of Occupy Wall Street?
Millennials: the “Generation of Savers”
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Millennials are “the most fiscally conservative generation since the Great Depression,” according to a UBS Investor Watch report. “Millennials seem to be permanently scarred by the 2008 financial crisis,” says Emily Pachuta, Head of Investor Insights at UBS Wealth Management Americas, citing market volatility and heightened concerns over job security.
Pachuta explains that many people between the ages of 21 and 36 have either had negative experiences with finance themselves or have witnessed their parents go through such difficulties.
In an article for Bloomberg, President of the stock-trading app Kapitall Stephen Roche argues, “It is all about educating the consumer and investor and cultivating them to be more successful and sophisticated investors over time.”
There is a pressing need within the stock exchange to regain the trust of this “generation of savers” and to encourage them to invest. To this end, Reuters explains how apps such as BUX contain “motivational messages like ‘OMG!’ after placing a trade.”
These easily accessible apps, featuring appealing graphics and millennial lingo, might very well be the key to breaking through the barriers of disinterest and distrust.
Gamification and the Finance Industry
Gamification has the potential to greatly impact the finance industry. “The use of items like leaderboards, badges, missions, and levels is part of a trend called gamification that can be seen in a growing variety of industries and applications,” Doug Palmer explains in an article for the Deloitte University Press. Palmer reports that analysts claim this trend “will grow to more than a $2.8 billion business by 2016.”
Bortot adds on Londonlovesbusiness.com how the European retail trading market is much bigger than previously thought. “The active investor population in the EU is currently €1.5bn,” he explains. “ We see this as the target casual gaming market size.”
Furthermore, the Wall Street Journal reports that money-managing apps could help Americans handle the $67.1 trillion in our economy invested in retirement, brokerage, and bank account funds. With such a large amount of money and so many retiring finance professionals, there’s good reason to worry about poor handling.
This is precisely why many are looking to gamification to revolutionize business attitudes and practices to deal with immense financial responsibilities.
These apps are beginning to make a real impact on the financial industry at large. TechCrunch reported that Trade Hero, a Singapore-based stock trading app that describes itself as a “financial literacy tool,” received $10 million in funding from financial investors.
If this all sounds like a great opportunity — and if you’re interested in making a “game”-changing app of your own — check out Infinite Monkeys, a platform that makes creating mobile apps so easy that you don’t need an ounce of coding experience. Within minutes, you could find yourself a valuable player in this growing marketplace.
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Justin Lau is a writer and musician born in Singapore, raised in Japan, and currently studying English Literature at Durham University.
Apps Make Stock Trading Accessible for Young Gamers – March 10, 2015
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Apps Make Stock Trading Accessible for Young Gamers – The App …
