--- title: "Migrating Questrade Edge Mobile to a Faster, More Scalable Architecture" description: "Optimized a high-volume trading app’s startup time, responsiveness, and rendering under heavy data load, while preparing it for React Native’s New Architecture to deliver faster, smoother performance in critical user flows." url: https://www.callstack.com/case-studies/migrating-questrade-edge-mobile-to-a-faster-more-scalable-architecture updated: 2026-10-30T18:14:11.695Z --- # Migrating Questrade Edge Mobile to a Faster, More Scalable Architecture Optimized a high-volume trading app’s startup time, responsiveness, and rendering under heavy data load, while preparing it for React Native’s New Architecture to deliver faster, smoother performance in critical user flows. **Migrating Questrade Edge Mobile to a Faster, More Scalable Architecture** _Client: [Questrade](http://questrade.com) · Industry: Finance · Date: 2025 · Size: Enterprise_ Services: [Architecture & Performance](https://www.callstack.com/capabilities/architecture-performance), [Migrations & Upgrades](https://www.callstack.com/capabilities/ai-assisted-migrations), [AI-Driven QA & Testing](https://www.callstack.com/capabilities/ai-driven-qa-testing) ## Company: Online investing for Canadians Questrade is a Canadian online brokerage with over 26 years in financial services. It offers low-fee and no-fee financial products and services, with over $50 billion in assets under administration. ## Challenge: High-volume trading app slowed by data streaming bottlenecks Questrade, one of Canada's leading online brokerages, wanted to improve the performance of its active-trader focused mobile app, Edge Mobile, a trading platform leveraged daily by thousands of Canadian investors to monitor and trade stocks and ETFs on the go, commission-free. The app streams large volumes of market data every second and displays it across multiple interactive views, including watchlists, option chains, and order entry screens. While their in-house team had already addressed the obvious performance wins, deeper architectural constraints and high-frequency rendering still caused issues: delayed startup times, UI stutter, and missed taps during heavy data streaming. Questrade needed a partner who could not only solve these problems but also transfer the know-how to their own engineers. ## Numbers: Clear performance wins across core trading flows - **33%** fewer re-renders across most features - **18%** faster time-to-interactive - **-28%** CPU usage in critical trading flows ## Our work: Targeted audit and high-impact performance fixes ### Performance audit and root cause mapping We began with a full technical audit, profiling load times, CPU and memory usage, and rendering patterns in high-traffic features. Using tools like React Profiler, Flashlight, and native performance monitors, we traced bottlenecks to: - JSON bridge serialization overhead from native-to-JS data streaming - Redundant re-renders triggered by global context changes - Over-rendering of off-screen table columns - Repeated network calls that could be cached ### Scoped, high-impact fixes We grouped solutions by complexity and business impact, delivering changes in tight collaboration with Questrade’s dev team: - **TurboModule for gRPC streaming** eliminated JSON bridge overhead, reducing CPU usage by **28%** in Option Chain. - **React 18 Transitions** for non-urgent updates improved interaction responsiveness under load. - **List virtualization for horizontal columns** removed unnecessary rendering until the user scrolled, cutting **5–9 seconds** of high CPU activity. - **TanStack Query** for caching and fetch efficiency reduced backend calls and symbol lookup delays. - Removed redundant skeleton loaders **90% faster** Order Entry load times. - Enabled **Hermes on iOS** and optimized state/context logic lower CPU spikes and smoother animations. ![](https://www.callstack.com/assets/68b5b3c53728bbba26a6f534_1.png) ### Knowledge transfer We annotated profiling sessions and worked alongside Questrade’s engineers so they could apply the same performance engineering practices in future projects. ![](https://www.callstack.com/assets/68b5b3d94135105d7be2bce3_2.png) ## Results: Faster, smoother, and future-ready trading experience Our work delivered measurable improvements in speed, responsiveness, and stability, making Questrade Edge Mobile noticeably smoother to use during high-volume trading sessions. Key outcomes included: - **Faster startup and navigation** across core flows like watchlists, option chains, and order entry - **Smoother interactions** under heavy streaming, with fewer missed taps and stutters - **Lower CPU usage** across critical screens, improving performance on lower-end devices - **Prepared the app** for React Native’s New Architecture and concurrent rendering These changes not only improved day-to-day usability but also set the foundation for long-term scalability, faster feature delivery, and a better overall user experience, reflected in more positive user reviews and community feedback. ## Build and scale React Native apps. For over a decade, enterprise teams have trusted us with React and React Native products. Our senior engineers work with AI agents on new builds, complex migrations, and native engineering. [Contact us](https://www.callstack.com/contact) ### Talk to our team We’ll connect you with the right expert within 24 hours. ## How we’ve solved similar challenges - [Building Storybook Connect for JetBrains Twice as Fast With AI](https://www.callstack.com/case-studies/building-storybook-connect-for-jetbrains-in-25-working-days) - [Teamworks cut mobile change lead time from days to minutes](https://www.callstack.com/case-studies/accelerating-teamworks-mobile-delivery-with-re-pack-and-module-federation)