Hey, just to clear this up as it has been communicated before but appreciate not everyone has read all our blogs etc.
Prior to launching fractional shares, all US stock orders were routed to London Stock Exchange market makers. That’s the same way all UK orders are executed.
The LSE market makers quote US stocks in GBP. Embedded within that quote is an FX conversion. The rate includes a 0.45% spread over the spot rate. It wasn’t very visible for users as we could only show the GBP price quoted and received on the contract note (the LSE market maker earns the FX conversion fee on these trades).
Now, we are routing US orders directly to the US markets via our US clearing broker Drivewealth. All this happens in USD now, so we need to convert your GBP to USD and get it to the US before the trade settles. We do the FX conversion for you now, so the contract note reflects the buy or sell price in USD (previously it was GBP) and shows the FX rates and fees more transparently. The FX rates and fees have not changed, except now we earn the fee instead of the LSE market maker.
Hope that all makes sense.
Best
Adam