Have a look through 'whats your allocation ā i looked for something everyone had as i was new and making lots of mistakes and still am lol but getting better
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+1 recommendation for Khaneman. Thinking fast and slow is one of the most influential books Iāve ever read.
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Interesting stuff from Kahneman on decision making, but not the easiest book to read, found it too academic like a textbook.
Hi all, COMPLETE NOOB here, never invested in my life. Have just opened a Freetrade account via the app and have invested some money in cheap shares as a ātoe in the waterā.
I hope you wonāt mind but I have a couple of quick questions that I donāt seem able to find answers toā¦
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Am I right in saying that there are no buying/selling charges for UK shares? I did notice a half penny stamp duty charge for each share or transaction when buying, is this the only charge?
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I know that when you sell, there is a 3 day delay before withdrawal, this is fine, but I need to know whether the funds from a sale are immediately available to reinvest or not?
Iām in with very little money at the minute, I guess playing āswing traderā for the moment, hence the need to know!
Any help is greatly appreciated,
Ninja
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Hi Ninja,
Welcome!
Can only answer your 1st question as havenāt sold any shares yet to reinvest, just to withdraw the cash.
You are correct no fees to buy and sell the UK shares, shares on the AIM market also donāt incur the stamp duty fee.
P.s
Could you add your user number to the post on the forum titled ā How many users nowā. It helps the community keep track of how many new users Freetrade are signing up!
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Thank you for the response, itās greatly appreciated!
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Another noob question (sorry all)ā¦
I bought shares in M&S. Apparently the market in the UK closes around 4.30pm?
How are my shares dropping in value after this time?
Is anyone able to explain this?
The only explanation I can give is that you loaded a cashed page on your mobile phone which then promptly updated with the closing price making it look like the price dropped when it actually just refreshed. This happens to me occasionally. If thatās not the explanation then I donāt know what it is.
There is after hours trading. You can google it to learn more.
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Hi @Ninja welcome to the community 
US stock markets have a period of trading before and/or after they close. Historically these have been only the big banks and institutions who have access to this but it is changing.
You asked about M&S which is in the UK. On the London Stock Exchange website, you can see the last 5 trades. See below. After the market closes people can still sell shares to each other and then report the details to the LSE, this is call āoff-bookā
There will be times when data is updated after the close for trades that happened earlier in the day.
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Thanks for the detailed answer!
Another quick question if may?
I believe the LSE starts trading at 8am, if I buy shares overnight, why do they not go through til 10am?
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Youāre welcome.
There are two potential reasons for this, I donāt work for Freetrade so youāll have to decide which you choose to believe.
1 - A few years ago trades were free at 10am (if I remember correctly) and Ā£1 for them to be handled instantly. This is no longer the case.
2 - At the opening bell stocks can trade in a volatile manner reacting to overnight news. Setting the trade to execute at 10am gives the stock chance the settle down or for you to be able cancel the order if youāre not happy with the price.
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In addition to what Neil said, you can read the information about order execution here
The order type your talking about is considered a ābasic orderā
The third is itās cheaper as well. My assumption is itās a combination, itās still cheaper, and thereās no reason to change a system that works
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Hi, there seems no particular reason i can trade some us stocks but not others?? I have basic (free) trading account. For the capital i have to invest not worth it to upgrade.
Also some US NYSE stocks not listed atall on your platform. For example
EE Excelerate Energy, market cap 3.8 billion, it seems not listed on freetrade platform, why not?
Clearwater paper, is listed but i need standard account??
Hello all,
I am relatively new to investing but have a fair understanding of businesses, valuations etc!
I am struggling with how so many of the large American corporations are being hit so badly on the strong dollar! I understand why it would hurt their foreign income - however can anyone explain why they havenāt bought forwards on currency in advance to protect or partially protect themselves?
Also - why donāt they keep the cash in Euros / Sterling etc until the rate is more favorable?
Thanks in advance for any and all advice. Appreciated!
As of yet multi currency accounts arenāt available on freetrade.
They might become available in the future.
What Iād suggest is that ISAs (and I believe SIPPs as well) are not eligible for multi currency functionality as the fact they are tax exempt accounts means they have to be in pounds.
This will mean you canāt store dollars or euros inside the accounts and will need to convert on every but and sell.
This means that itās likely that the GiA will be the only account eligible for multi currency functionality if freetrade bring in this feature
Companies with huge exposure to oil, for instance, regularly hedge their future positions as this is critical to their business. If they started to get into FX hedging it gets very messy and turns the CFO into an FX trader.
Which corporation did you have in mind?
Waiting for currencies to be more favourable means they could be waiting a long time as they have no idea when it will happen. I doubt that any large corporation does that. If they are investing in a euro country for example, they will use some of the profits to do so.
Are you sure they havenāt partiality hedged the currencies?
If you are talking about oil or and other commodities they are normally paid for in dollars so they are not effected by currencies movement.
I am afraid most just live with the reality that exchange rates vary and they live with it, mainly because they canāt do anything about.
If they hedge then they can only hedge for a limited time. At the next hedge if the exchange rate is the same, then they can only hedge for the dollar getting stronger again.
Hedging has a cost they may just say stuff it!
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Supposedly you are in some sort of queue on freetrade.
I am assuming you are not using a limit order.
Which may not complete.
If i am using Hargreaves Lansdown to make a purchase you are not in any sort of queue and it will complete immediately (assuming your not using a limit order which is less than the available price)
If i am not using a limit order on Hargreaves Lansdown i will check the price click buy and the actual price will come up, i then have 15 seconds to complete if i am unhappy with the price i dont bother and i will keep clicking until i am happy.
Alas there is Ā£11.75p broker fee and fees for reinvesting dividends. Which unless your loaded means excessive money drag.
Cant say i think much of freetrades way of doing it but I all most certainly beneft from being able to invest as little as Ā£2 without fees.