Ticker Tocker – Trading Streaming Social Network

01 The Challenge

All businesses want to stand out from the competition; our client was no exception. He came to us with a working trading solution that had already existed for a few years. At the dawn of its history, such a solution had been considered a top product on the market. Yet, as new technologies emerged, things changed, and our client realised that he was actually lagging behind the rivals.

Of course, the easiest way was to upgrade the old system to make it look up to date. But our client is quite a perfectionist – he did not need a fast and temporary solution that would still be obsolete and much worse than other trading platforms.

He wanted to develop a truly innovative trading application with high-end functionality. As a result, it was decided to create a completely new and feature-rich product that can fully satisfy users’ needs.

Yet, trading is not easy. The industry has its specifics, terminology, and even more complicated systems, so the bar was set high. We clearly realised that to understand our client’s business objectives, we have to take a deep dive into all the aspects of the stock market. Fortunately, the challenges make our hearts beat faster. We took up this project, and the journey began.

02 The Solution

Use cases

Charting

Trading success greatly depends on how fast you can make the right decisions. It’s well-known that we perceive visual information better and need less time to process it.

Our client believes that all traders, regardless of their experience in the industry, should have an opportunity to earn good profits. That’s why we decided to put a great emphasis on designing charts. Our task was to saturate them with all possible data and make all graphical elements visually convenient for people to notice.

Personalised chart view

A user may choose a chart view and layout based on individual preferences. For example, market data may be displayed as candlesticks, lines, or bar charts.

Traders can also pick the colour they like for different chart elements, such as bars and lines.

Market trends

A user may choose a criterion and period of interest, and the relevant data (real-time or historical) will be plotted onto a chart. Moving averages, Bollinger Bands, relative strength indexes, stochastic oscillators, and other technical indicators are calculated and displayed in just a few clicks.

We used bright colours for curving lines to make the most crucial information easily noticeable. We also used arrows to show the trends.

Market opportunities

The app allows users to see the summarised data gathered based on many indicators given a comprehensive table. Contrasting colours of different boxes helps traders understand what actions (buy or sell) it’s recommended to take to receive the maximum gain.

Monetisation of innovative strategies

Our client wanted to make cooperation between experienced and novice traders beneficial for both sides. That’s why we had to think about functionality that would encourage users to share their ideas within the community.

With this app, traders have an opportunity to make money on their innovative strategies. Once users nail a particular trading method, they can sell it to others via the platform—a simple win-win solution for sellers and buyers.

Connection with brokers

Our client believes that communication between key players in the trading market – traders and brokers – should be easy and efficient.

So, we created a base of trusted brokers a user can choose from. After adding a particular broker to a personal list, a user can manage their connections and place orders without limitations on the number of trades.

Automated trading

As a professional trader, our client realised that profitable trading is more about observing patterns and executing proper algorithms rather than making good individual decisions. For this reason, he asked us to add auto-trading functionality to his application.

With the help of automated trading, users can set a number of criteria they consider favourable for taking a particular action. The app then monitors the market and places buy or sell orders when the relevant criteria are met.

Backtesting

How can one become a professional trader without losing all money on testing new strategies? With the help of backtesting, of course! When developing the app, we also focused on making it easy to use for every particular user.

The app allows traders to tailor the screen with results to their specific needs and algorithms. We implemented on-demand elements and customisable settings so users can choose the fields to be shown on a screen.

Subscription to top traders

One of our client’s dream was to engage more people in trading activity. Yet, he realised that the main obstacle is people’s fear of losing money.

Subscription to top traders is a feature specifically created for people who don’t feel confident enough to rely on their own decisions. By following professionals, users can watch their activity and copy their steps.

03 The Result

Design

Cluttered interface. No bright colours. Hardly noticeable icons. If you’ve ever used any trading software, you’ve probably noticed that it usually looks dull.

We just couldn’t make another app one would want to close right after it’s opened. Creating a trendy yet clean and subtle design became the challenge our team was glad to accept.

For this platform, our designers chose a dark colour scheme. This is because dark mode gives a better opportunity to highlight important elements, which was exactly the task we wanted to accomplish.

We selected deep violet as the main colour of the application because it is traditionally associated with wealth and money. Primary buttons and lines are either purple – that is the colour of the year for 2018, or green – that is classy.

Features

• Social media integrations
• User profile builder
• Newsfeed
• Instant messaging
• Push-up notifications
• Forum
• Trade bar
• Customisable dashboards
• Analytics tools
• Filtering tools
• Advanced search
• Calendar

At first, I felt hesitant about trusting such a complex project to outsource developers. But fortunately, my concerns appeared to be unfounded. Altamira team did an amazing job! And I was pleasantly surprised by how well-established their processes are.

Jonathan Kopnic, CTO