Community Meetup - 8 PM Wed 12th May 2021, live on Zoom

Freetrade Chat đŸ”„
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Thanks, @Freetrade_Team, and thanks @Viktor for the verbal acknowledgement at the end of the event.

Freetrade management is evidently focused on expansion into new markets and on raising capital, while many of the members of the community here are more interested in features and service improvements. Both groups of issues are important, of course, and it’s understandable why those two groups have those priorities. I had hoped to hear more about features and user experience issues in the event, and I felt as if we’d been invited to submit and vote on questions above but that these suggestions had been overlooked. But that of course reflects my own personal priorities.

I had also hoped to hear more details about the items that you did announce. (There seemed to be a lot of instances of saying that something was going to happen but you couldn’t talk about it yet – was this event mis-timed?) I’m a details guy, so instead of vague statements that you want to get something ‘right’, I was hoping to hear more precisely what you mean by ‘right’, what you will do to get it right (and when), and even what obstacles have made it difficult to get it right in the past.

But I would like to applaud two points that @adam made that I think were good examples of transparency. I very much appreciated them, and I hope you will be able to respond in a similarly open way to more questions in the future.

One was the question about the £25k transaction limit, when you said that people asking for a change lacked understanding about how stock market transactions work. I wish you had said this, in more detail, ages ago! My impression is that for the most part in this public forum you’ve either not responded to the £25k complainers (which fuels their fears), or you’ve responded with vague statements about looking into it and making a change if necessary (which leaves them still uncertain). This must be one of the most FAQ of all FAQs; isn’t it worth taking the time (no, not in yesterday’s event, but in written form on your website) to explain in detail why the limit exists, why and how it improves execution, why the ‘solutions’ offered by people who ‘don’t know what they don’t know’ won’t work, and so on? I am sure that at least some of these users would appreciate this and that it would contribute to retaining customers and encouraging them to invest more.

The other was your response to a comment about instant deposits, when you bristled at the suggestion that this was easy. That was great! Many such systems are complicated and difficult, and customers don’t always understand what’s easy to implement and what’s difficult. Tell them when something is difficult, and explain what makes it difficult! I am sure they will appreciate the transparency, and that they will appreciate the team’s hard work all the more if they understand how hard it actually is.

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Excellent work :+1: pitty the FT team didn’t do such a good job :joy: Glad I got distracted and missed it as that doesn’t really tell us anything at all that people actually were asking about. I think @ralf summed it up perfectly below your comment!

It’s all decent stuff but not new like that and left the big Q’s with vague or no answers at all. Bit of an own goal really and best summed up as

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Given the freedom, people will ask anything but it’s not for FT to answer everything. There is good reason for FT not to give away time of European expansion or JISA etc. 1. Pchicholigical land grab, if played right it can confuse competitors at the same time will get users interested and waiting. 2. Things do not always go to plan, and if anything gets delayed some would get mega upset and reputation might take a pounding. We are talking about a private, growing, tech company that is trying to do many things at the same time. Please stop expecting to know everything they are doing. Do not micro-manage, adapt, let the team to do their job, help where you can.

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Or maybe FT should not ask forum what they want to know? Most of the biggest things are not some business secret or confidential issue but simple fundamentals like the 25K issue. If you advertise questions then answering say the top 10 may be a good idea and not add in the PC/D&I stuff that nobody was actually asking about :joy:

They would have been better off just posting the zoom details and saying what they said to be honest instead of getting people thinking they may get the answers they wanted.

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It was literally called Ask Me Anything.

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:joy: :joy: :joy: much better put and LITERALLY true :joy: :joy: :joy:

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Yes, but it was not called FT Will Answer Anything. Getting some questions asked is a form of feedback for FT.

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Even Revolut strugles to ship features at spead to meet expectations. Still Revolut considered to be one of the fastest. FT is biulding the rails, infrasturcture for European stocks and other markets, doing the heavy lifting. Its not the time for decorations. Damn I want JISA for my kids on FT, and SIPP in species tarnsfers from HL and AjBell, I want charts and many more things, but as investor I don’t want FT to chase shiny things. Shiny things will come in time.

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I think you are mixing things now :+1: I don’t think people expect more done quicker as they are doing a lot and well but it was the comms part.

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I think you are mixing up things. Is simpler:

  1. if FT sets an AMA (ask me anything) meeting
  2. if FT asks to the community to share their questions and vote for the best ones (“ask your questions below and we’ll prioritise the most-liked”).
  3. if FT says that the are not talking about other features/plans because the main subject is European Expansion

it is expected FT to share some details about European Expansion and its progress, not to repeat the same 2 or 3 things they already said in previous AMA 3 months ago.

Nobody forced FT to do an AMA meeting, they decided to do it. If FT cannot or do not want to give any details regarding European Expansion, don’t do a new AMA meeting about it.

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I found the AMA useful and certainly learnt a few new things. Not everyone spends all their free time reading every last announcement on this forum so perhaps if you do you didn’t learn anything new. But for those of us that don’t - the majority I’m sure - it was a useful overview on what’s happening and planned. Nobody forced you to sign up to the call. You could have hung up at any time if you felt it was a waste of your time.

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When we’re told the Q&A will be answered at the end, and then you get to the end and they say “we’re not going to answer the questions because we want to keep some surprises”, you don’t know it’s a waste of time until the end.

I know for sure, after this I won’t bother to turn up live again, instead I’ll watch the recording at 2x speed if the comments in the forum suggest it was worthwhile.

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Well this comment is just disgusting!!! If you don’t read every last post then you should not be a FT member or part of the forum in any way shape or form :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Where is your commitment?

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I also would like to see European expansion unravel at a faster pace. I bet compliance with mandatory regulatory requirements play a huge role in the process. I suspect regulators are seldom in a hurry. They have a duty of care after all. And likely work 9 to 5 only, and have a very heavy and bureaucratic structure


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We couldn’t address every question. We only had so much time, and some info we simply aren’t going to release publicly right now.

Anything important I missed? Ask here


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How can we get a copy of your Confirmation Statement?

The one on Companies House has been missing Part 4 which lists the shareholders since October and Dan said he can’t send it to me.

Thanks!

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I’m pretty sure you need to request this from Companies House in CD ROM format, seriously. We have too many shareholders to file this by paper as we did in previous years.

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That’s correct for previous filings you have made and it has been possible to get a CD (the 90’s called
) previously.

But this option isn’t there for this filing so I am at a loss what to do to get this document which should be in the public domain


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Is a crypto offering in 2021 likely?

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I’d guess it is a Companies House thing then, maybe delayed in producing CD ROMs during lockdown. :cd:

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