It would be really useful for there to be an indicator that a security pays out a dividend. A little D in the top corner of the logo or being able to search Dividend and have them come up.
This one may be hard to implement unless the data is fetched from other sources such as Yahoo or Bloomberg. Purely because companies can change their minds from one year to another. For instance, Apple did not pay dividends at all until 2012 and that is only one example.
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Maybe an indication that they have traditionally paid a dividend? Still means user research is required but not as much as every single company on the list. If one that never has decided to start then it can be reported on intercom if someone notices
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It’s not something I was expecting would be an easy flick of the switch type thing. I do think it’s useful info to be surfaced within the app.
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Wouldn’t you expect this to be part of the search like dividend > 0?
I know - this search is going to be everything for everyone 
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Wouldn’t that run the risk of people only knowing the information in the app and basing all their decisions on that?
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Guys in order to be a succesful investor you need to do that research yourself.
You can watch the documentary about Buffet and see those huge books filled with data and numbers him and Charlie Munger are reading every single day and you expect to make a return on investing based on one little “D” in the corner of an app?
I like the idea of the app to be as simplistic as possible - people can find all the info they want on the internet nowadays.
The only more important things I think need to be there are a portfolio breakdown by % and the returns of the portfolio and on the individual positions.
Also a little place where you can track all your dividends received will be very nice especially for dividend oriented investors and think all of those things are quite basic and easy to implement.
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I’m just looking for an indicator so I can start the thread of investigation.
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When you view a share in HL or other stockbrokers site it usually shows the dividend yield as a %
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I don’t want to sound rude, but I think this is reinventing Google.
Either the app should provide all info (fin accounts, all sorts of stats, annual reports, news, etc) or nothing.
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Google includes everything and that can be daunting, this on the other hand is intended to get you going from the app.
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While we are on the topic of Dividends - just curious since originally I found the term ‘ex-dividend date’ awkward…
Did you understand ‘ex-dividend date’ without looking it up?
- No just you - made perfect sense
- Yes confusing - had to look it up
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I personally don’t agree on giving any indication of a stock pays or not dividends because it should not be the discriminant that make you invest or not. It is a nice to have but it should not be a priority. This according to the books I’ve read so far. (Is a short list but all agree so far)
I agree instead that would be nice down the line have a screener for the stock currently available as well as some key info and metrics inside the app or on the website from where to start the research.
I too like dividends but I don’t think it should be a limitation and even in ETF one should be careful on the exposure inside.
While I’m at it I am also not very favourable in in ordering stock by price because low price is not necessarily cheap. At that point I would prefer order them by P/E but again then is better a proper screener and not just an arbitrary parameter.
That also make me wonder how the discover will handle thousands instead of hundreds of stocks.
This is of course just my opinion in this moment and I can be totally wrong.
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I think it’s more than just a “Nice to have”. If a company is paying you 5% or more just to hold their stock that is significant. I realise growing companies are better of putting that money back into the company, but with utilities etc where the room to grow isn’t that great, dividends are an important part of the returns.
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There is a whole strand of investing based on dividend income, and it can be really significant. I agree with Dave it is definitely more than nice to have.
What they have is fine for now but I think freetrade should aim to eventually provide information for every investment about dividend history, dividend yield, splits, merges, market cap, revenue (insert your favourite metric here), investor sentiment, similar investments. While I don’t think they should go overboard with metrics/data, the data they do choose to present, if carefully chosen, could make freetrade a really good investment guide for starter investors, and also be used for filtering/screening investments on the discover list.
Much more than the price is important when buying a stock and everyone has different criteria and goals, that’s what makes the market.
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Whilst you are right, sometimes it is a sign of a “dying” or “not well managed” company, whose share value falls for either of those reasons (General Electric for example), and because they fell by a lot, the dividend yield is inflated.
Also, sometimes companies get into debt in order tp pay the dividends, making sure they do not fall off “dividend-paying” ETFs (which would have led to massive selling and further price reductions). That is not always a good long-term solution.
But anyway, it again proves the point that no metric (dividend yield / PE / revenue / market share) alone can never tell the whole story and more thorough research is necessary.
Thus, whislt it is handy to know whether a stock pays dividend (and what it is), but does not seems like a must-have feature.
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On average I get about £75 per month in dividends, while I won’t get rich of that it’s not nothing. I’m gradually building it up over time
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As @Vlad said much better than I did, having just one parameter doesn’t tell the whole story. My concern was that if it is the only parameter offered might promote a style of investing over others. Plus adding a symbol might induce some in believing that that stock or ETF is somehow special or as suggested. While keeping it neutral will promote personal research and due diligence, in my opinion.
My point wasn’t to undermine income investing but was to not create ground to promote a style over others.
There are many styles and one should find the one that suit them best because what works for me might not work for someone else and vice versa.
Of course having all parameters and metrics it is a nice to have, don’t get me wrong, but between 1 and nothing I prefer nothing.
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Definitely agree with this one. I’d like to see past dividend data at the very least. What has actually been paid. Hl does something like this at the moment.
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HL’s site is pretty good for dividend info, there’s an income page with a graph that works out your average monthly income over the selected year or tax year, and info about past dividends when you look at details of a share, as well as the next ex dividend date
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