Not necessarily a bad thing, thoughts?
(source) Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/FreetradeApp/comments/geme2n/wont_be_able_to_buy_whole_us_shares_anymore/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I donât understand, what would be the problem in having a choice to either buy by the shares, or by the money invested? This way you can either buy whole shares, or buy fractionals.
Genuinely asking, would be glad if someone can explain that.
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Is it only me that finds it weird to discuss this on reddit given that there literally is a forum for freetrade? What is that meant to achieve?
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I wasnât trying to push people to discuss on Reddit, just reference a thread that highlighted the issue.
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Less moderation perhaps.
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I really hope this isnât the case and be rectified before the roll out to everyone else. It sounds very annoying. I have a few shares on revolut Iâll be swapping over when the new stocks come out, their interface is very nice and simple you either select how many stocks you want purchasing whole stocks or select how much money you want to invest and it auto fills the equivalent fraction that amount can purchase.
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Am I right in believing fractional arenât possible (or easily possible) to transfer to other providers?
So if you always by fractional and never can buy a whole share itâs much harder to transfer if you wish?
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Itâs not much harder, itâs impossible. Youâd need to sell and transfer the cash.
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Hm⊠even if you always buy fractional, you should never have more than 1 share thatâs not âwholeâ, right?
Letâs say I buy 0.4 of a share and then 0.4 of the same share, I own 0.8 of that share. When I buy another 0.4, I own 1 full share and 0.2 partly. And so on.
Unless you only buy a fraction of every company, but not sure if thatâs the best investment strategy 
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You literally buy a fractional share of every company you want to invest in? Sorry to say, that sounds like a crazy strategy. Or maybe you have a very small portfolio of ÂŁ5 and want to spread it?
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I think this gives a pretty poor user experience. Itâs great that Freetrade has made such progress with the fractionals but advanced features donât have the same impact if they come at the sacrifice of what should be a basic brokerage feature - i.e. buying in number of shares or buying in amount of money.
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Why is this even an issue? Sounds like a non issue to me.
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Itâs fair feedback, and why I signed up to find out. I too was expecting to be able to buy whole shares OR fractionals and would welcome the ability to enter an input via either the amount OR shares field.
Given they should be still pushing for best price execution I donât think it matters which mechanism this gets placed via though.
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This seems to have upset a lot of the old guard doesnât?
As a relative newbie to investing, this is the best thing that could have happened - I can literally, to the exact %, proportion my portfolio in the way I want to.
Freetrade are not going to do anyone over when it comes to you selling up or moving your shares across to another platform (why would you want to if you believe Freetrade is your chosen platform for life), theyâre as transparent as it comes when it comes down to explaining why certain decisions have been made.
On top of this, theyâre still a new company, trying to shake up the world of investing. If you donât want your world to be shaken up, there are plenty of other providers where you can buy full shares to offset your âOCDâ (which by the way is a serious mental health issue, so I hope everything is okay if you do have it).
I genuinely believe they decided this so you can accurately proportion your portfolio with as much freedom as you want.
Once again as with most things in the modern world, absolute uproar over nothing.
Yes a toggle would be nice, but if it doesnât come, embrace the change, do not be scared.
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Freetrade have delivered what people have asked for, since for the last year or so, pretty much everyone was shouting âWe want fractionals!â
They werenât shouting âWe want fractionals AND whole sharesâ.
Everyone just assumed that they would end up getting both.
A case of be careful what you wish for!?
I would love to have the option of both, but if itâs a toss up between fractionals or only whole shares, Iâll take the fractionals.
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Iâve just placed a couple of buy orders for UK listed companies. Iâve got whole shares only.
Also, Iâve just bought fractionals on two US listed companies.
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I only want to deal in whole shares too, or at least have the option. It would flare up my OCD if I ended up with 6.23 shares in a company 
They must be able to offer the option of either buying ÂŁx worth (fractionals) or just X whole shares. I hate to say it as a founding investor and long term supporter / user, but this really could be a deal breaker for me
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@Duncan, can you please put comment on whether youâre removing or keeping the ability to buy by specifying number of shares and why? Or maybe youâre just still taking feedback before deciding? It looks like some people are quite frustrated.
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They sort of have, ever since the first mockup of the fractional shares were presented five months ago. This is literally the first comment that was posted after the fractionals shares mockup:
The majority of the comments that follow are also about whole/fractionals. Itâs not like Freetrade didnât know there was demand for it. They just have to make a decision about whether to go for simplicity or functionality.
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Talk about a complete misrepresentation of peopleâs genuine concerns (as well as creating a few strawmen arguments)! The point is that they havenât explained the decisions as you well know from the other thread.
I donât think there is any malicious intent or even necessarily a poor decision, but I do think that it needs to be explained - Adam has implied as much as well in the other thread.
No one is scared. Nor is there an âold guardâ - Iâm a relatively new investor too.
The simple answer is we donât know at the moment - that is part of the problem and one of the main questions that is being asked.
Oh come on - we already had the ability to buy whole shares. Where we were told we were signing up for a platform that would change in 12-18 months from whole shares to fractionals only? I think the assumption was pretty reasonable that whole shares would continue to be available particularly as competitors offer both at the same time.
I completely get that people are emotionally invested in FT (I am as well which is why I think this is such an important issue), but that doesnât mean we should pretend that everything is perfect and without consequences - as an investor in FT Iâm concerned that FT is not as attractive to users if it only offers fractionals when some competitors are offering a choice. Constructive criticism helps make a better product - it isnât something to be feared or ignored!
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