Investing in the stock market has never been easier, thanks to the numerous online trading apps available today. Among all options available, you will need to make a choice, and finding the best trading app in Pakistan can be difficult.
There is an overwhelming amount of options to choose from, and if you do not do research, you can end up in a platform that could be difficult to use, expensive, unsafe, or simply limited considering your investment profile and experience.
Fortunately, we successfully analyzed many trading apps before, conducted multiple trading app reviews, so that we can clarify some of your doubts and help you make an informed decision! In this article, we listed the best stock trading apps in Pakistan, comparing their specificities and highlighting their strengths.
Best stock trading apps in Pakistan
Interactive Brokers | Best trading app in Pakistan overall
Online broker with a sophisticated trading platform that offers a wide range of products. The company, founded in 1978 in the US, provides the app IBKR GlobalTrader, ideal for beginners.
Saxo Bank | Best trading app for advanced traders
Full-service broker who offers stocks, ETFs, bonds, derivatives, crypto, and other products. You can access 36 different markets overseas from Pakistan using their powerful trading apps.
IG | Best app for CFDs trading
Being primarily a forex and CFD broker, IG enables trading in shares, indices, commodities, futures, and ETF CFDs with moderate fees. A long track record (IG group established in 1974), being listed on the London Stock Exchange (index FTSE 250), and is regulated by multiple regulators make IG a well-renowned broker.
Best stock trading apps in Pakistan compared
| Broker | Fees on stocks | Minimum deposit | Trading apps | Stocks available for trading |
| Interactive Brokers | Between $0.0005 and $0.0035 per US share (min. per order of $0.35; max: 1% of trade value). Between 0.01% and 0.08% for other markets. | $0 | IBKR GlobalTrader, IBKR Mobile and Trader Workstation | ✔ |
| Saxo Bank | Between $0.01 and $0.02 per US share (minimum between $1 and $5 per order) Between 0.05% and 0.35% for other markets. |
$2,000 | SaxoTraderGO and SaxoTrader Pro | ✔ |
| IG | From $10 per trade in stock CFDs | $0 | ProRealTime MetaTrader 4 |
✘ (Only CFDs on stocks) |
#1 Interactive Brokers (IBKR GlobalTrader)
Interactive Brokers at a glance
Interactive Brokers has proven to be one of the most reliable brokers in the market. The company is available on the Pakistan market and was founded over 40 years ago and survived many financial crises, making it a well-established and trustworthy broker, regulated by many top-tier regulators.
They offer trading apps to trade stocks with sophisticated and powerful tools, a wide range of products available for trading, and low prices. The broker offers different mobile apps and web-based platforms that should be used according to your knowledge and experience. The mobile app IBKR GlobalTrader is a user-friendly app suitable for beginners because it simplifies investments without losing the powerful tools for which the broker is famous.
If you want to make the most out of the powerful tools provided by the broker, you can use the IBKR Mobile, a complete and sophisticated trading app where you can do much more than buy and sell stocks. As the features of this app can be overwhelming for beginners, we would recommend the IBKR GlobalTrader if you do not have a lot of experience.
In addition to the mobile apps, you will also find a desktop app and web-based apps where you have sophisticated trading tools to access the global financial markets. Overall we believe that Interactive Brokers offers the best stock trading apps in Pakistan, you will be able to find what you are looking for irrespective of your needs!
If you want to know more about this platform, please check our Interactive Brokers review!
Interactive Brokers Mobile App
#2 Saxo Bank
Saxo at a glance
Saxo Bank is a Danish bank founded in 1992. It operates in Pakistan, being a reliable option for advanced traders and beginners and providing safety, fair prices, and useful tools. The Bank has two comprehensive and customizable trading apps: SaxoTraderGO and SaxoTraderPro.
As the name suggests, SaxoTraderGO is a user-friendly, customizable, and award-winning trading platform that can be used by experienced investors and beginners. The app has a mobile and a desktop version. The SaxoTraderPRO, on the other hand, is a desktop-based platform (that works on windows and MAC) developed for advanced traders, due to its level of detail and complexity. The app is extremely customizable, offers sophisticated tools to analyze and track your performance, and can be used on up to 6 different screens.
Considering that the trading apps have excellent educational resources, low prices, and an impressive range of tradable assets, Saxo deserves a second place on our list of the best stock trading apps in Pakistan. The only downside we could think of is that, after registering and completing the verification, you will need to fund your account with at least $2,000 to start trading, which can be burdensome for beginners.
Saxo Bank Web and Mobile App
#3 IG
IG at a glance
IG is a well-renowned broker, offering a wide choice and low commissions in primarily CFDs and forex trading. The IG Group (established in 1974) is one of the most valuable UK public companies (included in the FTSE 250 index), has over 300,000 clients worldwide, and covers 18,000+ markets in total.
The user-friendly platform is available internationally (with some exceptions) and offers 6 base currencies: USD, GBP, AUD, EUR, SGD, and HKD. Most traders will be drawn to IG because of its CFD and Forex trading capabilities. Some of the features of the platform include:
- Extensive educational materials;
- 24-hour-a-day support;
- Weekend trading and extended hours trading;
- Fast execution times;
- Access to Meta Trader 4 (a leading forex trading application);
- Advanced tools: customizable screener, recommended news based on your account…
They offer commission-free trading for most CFDs but charge their own spread on top of the market spread. The exception is share CFDs, which are offered at the real market price without added spread, but there is a commission when opening and closing a position.
Other fees include:
- FX conversion fee of 0.5%;
- Overnight fees (depending on the product);
- Inactivity fee ($18 monthly after 2 years of inactivity);
- Custody fee for less than 3 quarterly trades on the UK share dealing account (£24).
You can learn more about their fees at this link.
In a nutshell, IG is a broker that primarily offers CFD and Forex trading in a user-friendly interface and with competitive fees. It is tailored to both beginner and advanced traders due to a mix of educational materials and advanced trading tools.
IG Web-based App
Methodology
When making this list, we wanted to help investors in Pakistan to make an educated choice when choosing the best stock trading app. Each of the trading apps that we presented has its main features and we tried to provide a diverse list that will suit the needs of different profiles of investors. In any case, we prepared this list considering the following criteria:
- Prices: the price cannot be the only aspect to be considered when choosing the trading app to invest in, but it is definitely important, you do not want to pay more for a service when you can get the same quality for cheaper prices.
- Educational resources: high-quality educational resources may be a great advantage, especially for beginners, who can use them to educate themselves before investing money.
- Range of products and markets available: Does the app offer real stocks and ETFs or only CFDs? Does it have crypto?
- Customer service: irrespective of your choice, problems almost always appear, and it is important to find trading apps developed to help you when it does happen.
- The trading app itself: of course, we took into consideration the functionalities and usability of the platform, as well as its specific features.
- Security: all platforms in the list are regulated by top-tier authorities.
The bottom line
To summarize, here’s the list of “Best stock trading apps in Pakistan”:
Best stock trading apps in Pakistan
| #1 | Interactive Brokers | Best Overall |
| #2 | Saxo Bank | Best for advanced traders |
| #3 | IG | Best app for CFD trading |
It is hard to choose the right stock trading app in Pakistan. Luckily, we helped many people in the same situation before, and we can help you now. To facilitate your choice, we listed a few of the best stock trading apps in Pakistan in our opinion, comparing what they can offer and highlighting their strengths.
We know that trading stocks is a good way to achieve financial freedom, but, like everything in life, there are risks involved. We hope that our analysis was enough to help you make an educated decision that acknowledges those risks, whether you are experienced or a novice in the world of trading.
In any case, keep on studying, do due diligence, know your investment profile, and invest wisely! Please let us know if the article was helpful and if you have any other doubts or feedback!
Other FAQs
What is the difference between a stock and a stock CFD?
While the stock gives you a property right over a share of the company, the CFD does not. The stock CFD is a derivative contract where the underlying asset is the stock and where the broker promises to pay you back the difference in value between the time you opened the position and the time you close it. CFDs have a leverage effect: if you buy a stock CFD and its price goes down, you will need to borrow money from the broker to keep the position open. This makes the instrument a risky option that is not suitable for beginners.
Franklin is a CFA Level III Candidate with 3 years of experience in Wealth Management as a Fund Research Analyst and the Host of the "Edge Over Hedge" YouTube Channel.
