Monitoring and analysing the stock market is a challenging task. With dozens of various investment apps out there, all promising industry and stock market analysis and other attractive features, which one do you go for?
Here is our choice of the top 5 investment apps currently available across both the App Store and Android Market:
1. Yahoo! Finance – 
• Free
• Updated: Aug 28, 2010
• Seller: Yahoo!
Yahoo! Finance’s availability on the three main platforms (iOS, Android and Blackberry) and the incorporation of local stocks give this app a big advantage ahead of its competitors.
Pros: The app enables you to synchronise your portfolio with Yahoo! Finance on your computer, track latest stock news and market conditions and organise your favourite stocks in personalized portfolio.
Cons: Those who expect the app to deliver the same features as Yahoo! Finance online would be disappointed as the app only delivers very basic tools.
2. Google Finance – 
• $2.99
• Developer: Jun Du
• Updated: 09 September 2009
Google Finance’s intuitive interface makes it so easy to use that even a beginner can stay up-to-date with the latest financial market news.
Pros: Its three main tabs: Markets, Portfolio and News provide a great overview of the main changes in the stock market and can keep you informed on the go.
Cons: Unlike its competitors, Google Finance is quite limited in that it’s only available on Android and only covers the US Stock Market.
3. CNBC Real-Time – 
• Free
• Seller: NBC
• Universal, Inc.
CNBC offers quotes on all US stocks, bonds, commodities and features, following global stock indexes and providing videos and interviews with latest financial news and analysis.
Pros: Stocks can be tracked in multi-view mode in the same window, which is helpful.
Cons: Such rich on-screen options take a lot of time to load and can be confusing.
4. Wall Street Scanner –
• Free
• Updated: May 27, 2011
• Seller: OnO Apps Ltd.
The app not only tracks the stock market and provides extensive analysis, but also forecasts tomorrow’s stock price based on its intelligent algorithms. It also comes with an accompanying blog.
Pros: The Featured stock list tracks stocks with significant changes in market indicators allowing you to uncover investment opportunities outside of your normal portfolio.
Cons: Like Google Finance however, Wall St Scanner also only covers the US stock market.
5. MarketWatch – 
• Free
• Updated: Nov 12, 2010
• Seller: Wall Street Journal
One of Market Watch’s major advantages is that it allows the user to sign up for podcasts and listen to the latest market news whenever they want to. The Twitter feature enables users to follow the latest breaking stock market news as posted by Market Watch columnists.
Pros: Users can also save preferred articles or share them with their associates.
Cons: Despite these advantages, the fact that users can’t see the value of their stock, positioning, bought at price, profits and loss is a serious flaw.
I believe that my fully integrated stock and stock options calculator application is very valuable to the novice and professional investor. The app called “total stock” calculates any variation of shares and stock options on a stock allowing the user to simulate a variety of trading strategies. The app is useful for anyone who wants to invest with options but is not sure how to calculate their intrinsic value based upon the price of the stock hitting different values. This application calculates the total profit or loss based on a combination of 64 different variations of buying and selling shares and options on a stock. The app also shows an optional data scrren for a full breakdown of the financial data. More info is available at: http://www.samztech.com/Products.html