Top Stock Market Apps

The stock market is intimidating. The inherent risks are enough to make your premature gray go prematurely bald. Fortunately, you can try before you play. The Fantasy Stock app lets you virtually purchase actual stocks to see how well they do (and how well you do). It's a fun app for anyone interested in some day buying and selling stocks. It's never too early to plan for retirement!

Insider Trading--the game, not the illegal breach of fiduciary trust--is another fun way to play your way through the stock market without breaking the bank. Starting with $1,000, your goal is to invest that money and become as wealthy as possible. Like Fantasy Stock, Insider Trading is a fun game that can help prepare you for the real deal.

Games too kiddy for your risk-taking bravado? In that case, you can jump right into play the market for keeps. Beginners will need to stay on top of the latest news to get a firm grasp on trending stocks, and TheStreet.com provides an excellent assortment of exactly that kind of coverage. Following this website and app will prove an invaluable asset in your stock market assault. (Or, at least, it'll be as valuable as the gains it helps you to make.)

If you want to be truly successful, you'll need to keep extensive notes on all your trades and market activity. Evernote is one of the best note-taking apps in the App Store, and it provides seamless syncing between your iDevices and computers. Never be caught off guard by the next big thing. An investment in Evernote is an investment in your future.

To actually start buying stocks, you'll likely want to enlist the services of E-Trade. The app allows you to follow stocks and actually make trades and purchases right from your iPhone. In the stock market, timing is everything. With E-Trade Mobile Pro, you'll never miss a moment. Sell, sell, sell? Heck no. BUY this app!

StockWatch is one of the best apps for tracking your purchase's progress. The app's colorful graphs are both beautiful and informative, and you can follow multiple portfolios and stocks. StockWatch is an important tool of the trade(r), and our stopwatch indicates it only takes a moment to download and set up the app on your iPhone.

You can't play the game if you don't speak the language. So, as you're trading stocks, you might want to look up some industry terminology. The Glossary of Economic Terms app is filled with all sorts of pertinent words and phrases to help you understand and explain every move of the ticker (so your own ticker stays nice and calm).

What if you want to follow one stock really closely with up to the minute info? Stock Glance can help you out. This app puts the current market price of any stock you choose on your iPhone home screen (as a badge icon). It'll update throughout the day with the current price, and it nicely complements many of the App Store's fuller-featured stock-watcher apps.

Visualize the market in a whole new way with StockTouch. You'll gain a deeper insight into the stock market and see trends as they occur with this elegant and intelligent app. With nine sectors, 1200 companies, 8500 charts, 14,000 news stories, and 50,000 "tiles of heat," the bold app is an excellent way to discover everything about your favorite markets and current trends. And it has an electric, pink-and-yellow app icon!

Timing is everything in the stock market. We already said that, remember? You've simply got to know when to buy and sell. To make sure you're not late to the party, Stock Timing gives you a historical picture of the stock market, displaying potential trends based on past activity. As the saying goes, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it."

Aside from timing, playing the stock market is also about weighing potential gains and losses; and GainLoss Calculator helps you see that big picture. Is it really better to buy a more expensive stock if its positive returns are somewhat mediocre? Can you make more off of cheaper, less prestigious trades? As with most things, math has the answer. You don't even need to be good at it. The stock market is a far more approachable thing thanks to the iPhone.