Trading has never been confined to a desk, but it has never been this portable either. Retail investors now make up between 20% and 35% of daily trading volume in markets like the US, UK and South Korea, and a substantial share of that activity happens away from a desktop screen entirely. The way people trade has shifted from scheduled check-ins to something closer to ambient awareness, where the market is simply present in the background of the day.

The shift to mobile trading

Mobile trading platforms have changed how people interact with the markets day to day. Rather than logging in from a desktop at set points, traders can check prices, manage watchlists, and set price alerts from wherever they are. Platforms like ThinkTrader, MT4, MT5 and TradingView all support this, giving traders flexibility over which interface suits their style and the devices they trade from.

The appeal is straightforward. Markets do not pause for a commute, a meeting or a lunch break. As the World Economic Forum has noted, the ability to trade with nothing more than a smartphone has dramatically expanded who can participate in the markets and when, a trend that has only deepened as exchanges extend trading hours and brokers build mobile-first platforms.

This shift has also changed what traders expect from a platform. Real-time data, instant notifications and the ability to act from a phone are no longer extras. They are the baseline. Smartwatches are simply the next step in that progression, taking the monitoring side of trading and putting it somewhere even more immediate than a phone in your pocket.

Smartwatches: the next step on from mobile

Smartwatches take portability one step further. Instead of pulling out a phone to check a price or see whether an alert has triggered, a glance at your wrist does the job. According to IDC's Worldwide Wearable Device Tracker, global wearable device shipments grew close to 10% year over year in 2025, reflecting how normal wrist-worn devices have become for everyday use, trading included.

This is the thinking behind the ThinkTrader Smartwatch Trading Companion, available for Wear OS and Apple Watch. It brings real-time price alerts, synced watchlists and live market data to your wrist, so you can stay informed without constantly checking your phone, whether that is in a meeting, at the gym or simply away from your desk.

What smartwatch trading actually involves

It is worth being clear about what a smartwatch can and cannot do in this context. The ThinkTrader Smartwatch Trading Companion is built for monitoring, not execution. You will not be placing or closing trades from your watch. Instead, you get:

Real-time alerts the moment a price or market condition you have set is triggered
Watchlists that mirror exactly what you have set up in the ThinkTrader app
Live market data, so you are always looking at current prices

Placing, modifying and closing positions still happens in the ThinkTrader app on your phone or desktop, exactly as it does today. The watch simply removes the need to check in constantly to stay across what matters to you.

Getting the most from alerts and watchlists

Alerts are most useful when they are set with intent rather than left running on every instrument you have ever looked at. Research published on SSRN on investment price tracking alerts found that the benefit of an alert depends heavily on how it is used. Constant, unfiltered notifications can encourage reactive decisions, while a small number of carefully chosen alerts tend to support more deliberate trading.

In practice, this means it is worth taking a moment to decide which price levels or instruments genuinely warrant an alert, rather than setting one for everything you follow. A focused watchlist on your wrist, covering the instruments you are actually trading or considering, will generally serve you better than a long list of notifications competing for your attention throughout the day.

How to get started

Setting up trading alerts and watchlists on your wrist takes only a few steps.

Get ThinkTrader. Open the ThinkTrader app on your phone and log in, or open a ThinkMarkets account if you are new.
Pair your watch. Connect your Wear OS or Apple Watch with the ThinkTrader app.
Set your alerts and watchlists. Configure them in the app. They will appear on your watch automatically.

Conclusion

Trading on the go has moved well past simply having an app on your phone. As mobile platforms have become the norm and wearable technology has become part of daily life, it is a natural progression for traders to want the same visibility on their wrist that they already have in their pocket. The ThinkTrader Smartwatch Trading Companion reflects that shift, giving you real-time alerts, watchlists and live data wherever you are, while keeping the actual decision to trade exactly where it should be, in the ThinkTrader app, with you in full control.

Try ThinkTrader's Smartwatch Trading Companion

Stay connected to the markets from your wrist. Get real-time alerts, follow your watch lists and track live prices on the go.

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FAQ

Can I place a trade directly from my smartwatch?

No. The Smartwatch Trading Companion is built for monitoring only. You will continue to place, modify and close trades in the ThinkTrader app.

Which smartwatches are supported?

The ThinkTrader Smartwatch Trading Companion supports Wear OS 3.0 or later (Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and newer, all Google Pixel Watch models, OnePlus Watch 2, and other compatible Wear OS devices from 2021 onward) and Apple Watch Series 4 and later running watchOS 10 or later.

Do I need a separate account to use the smartwatch companion?

No. It works with your existing ThinkTrader account once your watch is paired with the app.

Will my watchlists update automatically on my watch?

Yes. Watchlists set in the ThinkTrader app sync automatically to your watch.