The concept of mobile banking has seen a fairly slow adoption rate in the United States. Very few people conduct money transfers or pay bills with their cell phones. However, that market is beginning to see some growth with banks now offering text message balance alerts and other such niceties.

But what about the concept of mobile trading? Some institutions and brokers offer the ability to execute trades via smart phones, but these are limited to personal stock portfolios and generally small-sized orders. Will the institutional trader ever have the necessary tools for mobile trading? But more importantly, are such tools really wanted?

Recently, Citi launched a mobile version of its CitiFX Pro product, which is an online foreign exchange (FX) trading platform for active individual and small institutional traders. CitiFX Pro Mobile is accessible via portable digital devices and mobile phones including the iPod touch and iPhone, according to bank officials. Is this the first step in the mobile institutional trading direction?

Institutional traders and individual traders have different needs and wants when it comes to mobile trading. Institutional traders need a better, faster and more secure execution platform and network connection—just to name a few. In addition, an individual trader might want to be able to balance a portfolio during lunch at a café, but does an institutional trader want to hedge baskets during a coffee break?

If individuals already have enough trust in mobile transactions to pay their bills with their phones, maybe institutional traders are not too far behind.

By , US Reporter for Dealing With Technology