Freetrade Competitors

Already moved to them not sure if i move my sipp and jisa over tbh

Guess they heard about Freetradeā€™s auto-pilot! :laughing:

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Yes, was happy to see this email today!

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Yes how kind of them happily screwing customers over for 20 years and then a new kid on the block appears ā€œFreetradeā€ and HL are playing a Santa Claus. Where are peopleā€™s principals? Do you think this would be happening if Freetrade hadnā€™t come on the scene? HL are doing this to put the squeeze on Freetrade,can you imagine if they managed to squeeze them out of the game,their prices would be back up in a flash! Come on people show some class and stick with Freetrade

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HL are looking to expand their advice services, theyā€™re likely looking to make up any shortfall there while attracting more customer with less trading fees

:joy::joy::joy: can have the both its not a competition. Wheres the classā€‹:joy:

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Agreed. As was eluded to in the freetrade meetup as well, theres tens of millions of people who arent investing. theres plenty to go around

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You can never have hl and freetrade in the same level tbh. I love freetrade but HL is a diffrent level and thats why they charge what they do. But they target a completly diffrent area of people like eden said plenty to go around.

I actually think itā€™s good news that HL have done this, firstly because I still have an ISA with them so can take advantage of the free divi reinvest but it also shows that they see Freetrade as a competitor worthy of taking action over.

Dont think tbeyve done it because of freetrade though

I think the neobroker market (which freetrade is a part of) has put pressure on legacies like HL. While I wouldnā€™t say freetrade did this on its own, itā€™s safe to say freetrade is definitely part of a larger picture.

I see the legacy brokerage market is definitely swayed by neobrokers.

To list them all and what they did.

HL, discount or free dividend reinvestment or regular investment.

AJ Bell, launched the Dodl platform

CMC markets, launched CMC investment platform.

No doubt there will be more.

These brokers who insist on charging Ā£10 -Ā£12.50 per trade must be feeling the impact of the neo broker market.

And their actions show it

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Personally I see investment strategy being wildly more important than cost per trade. Here is why (and itā€™s obvious):

  1. If you know what you are buying and the potential investment you see is a great opportunity, then paying Ā£12 or Ā£6 initial investment is minuscule. (As you can also buy regularly into that investment for Ā£1.50). Most people do not have conviction in what they are buying which makes them focus on fees far more than they should when initially building a portfolio over the first 10 - 15 years.

  2. The same as point number 1, strategy. I see @weenie has a decent long term strategy and pulls it off well. Buy in the most efficient way at the time but most importantly, BUY.

  3. I recently saw a video of this guy stating how costly fees are on platforms and making his entire ā€˜thingā€™ about the fees. Heā€™s saying how much time heā€™s researched platforms to bring this video and even the new tax year he does not know which platform to use yet. His portfolio was Ā£14,000. He was stating that 0.25% fees and trading fees severely eat into returns and all thisā€¦ I told him look, even if you had Ā£50,000 invested paying 0.25% in fees, thatā€™s only Ā£125. All that time wasted trying to avoid fees on a Ā£14k portfolio. To put that in perspective I make between Ā£180 - Ā£300 per day. And heā€™s worrying about Ā£35 in fees on a Ā£14k portfolio. I earned 5X his fees in one day.

  4. Fees do not matter until Ā£100k+. (Obviously Ā£10 per trade charges do matter but like I said, even the most expensive platform can be done on Ā£1.50 regularly).

  5. The MOST important factor for every investor (apart from set & forget index investors) is strategy and if you know what you are doing, the most important part is making a great investment, not the fees. The fees only come into play if you do not know what you are doing.

You can have the cheapest platform in the world, that is not the be all end all answer to being successful. Placing capital into correct growth areas of the globe during periods of volatility is the number one strategy. The simplest of investors will buy just their home & a cheap global index fund in a SIPP & ISA and go live their life.

Individual stock picking requires an edge. During normal times it should be pretty tough to find more than 2 companies per year to invest in. Two companies per year over 10 years is 20 investments, couple that with an etf or two and youā€™d probably have build up an initial investment account worthy of some serious investment advice moving forward. You have to get to an amount first which makes sense in the environment you are in, which I personally believe is Ā£100k before you can start compounding noticeably.

Under 30 year olds typically have time on their side and over-40 year olds struggle with strategy due to losing at least 20 years of investment growth, so their ability to take more risk and let time compound creates a strategy to hit a brick wall. I see many over 40 year olds creating isa portfolios with 18 stocks but only Ā£150 - Ā£500 in each stock, which simply makes zero sense.

Iā€™d really welcome to see an investment strategist take aim at the 40 - 50 year old demographic and provide a live and current insight into where capital could be placed with shorter timeframes at hand.

Because the 18 - 35 year old investment market is pretty decent now in terms of choice, knowledge and compounding time.

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You do know that reducing fees compounds the same as any investment does?

The idea that you feel fees donā€™t matter until you have a 100k portfolio actually blows my mind.

If I held my ETFs with Vanguard it would cost me 150% more than it would with Freetrade, and that value would continue to rise until I hit 250k and it would stay as an increase of 525%.

To hold onto as much of your investment gains long-term means you have to factor in fees.

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I can see why a lot of people care about fees, it adds up when you have only a small amount to invest.

a Ā£12 fee on a Ā£2000 investment is very little, but the same Ā£12 fee on a Ā£100 investment is an enormous amount of money.

Most people dont have the disposable income to be making frequent Ā£2000 investments. So lower fees lowers the barrier to entry, and lowers the frequency to invest.

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Yes, I buy, whether the markets are up or down, never try to time the market as I donā€™t know how to. However, I am still concerned about fees.

I started off investing with HL, then opened an account with AJBell which was cheaper and then an account with Freetrade, which is cheaper still.

Happy to keep all three so not all eggs are in the same basket and for piece of mind.

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Like I said, the fees are still only Ā£1.50 on the most expensive platforms with regular investing. Ā£1.50 will not make a difference on how somebody gets to Ā£100k portfolio. Then focus on fees.

Ā£50k portfolio paying 0.25% in fees is Ā£125. You can work in Lidl and make that in 1 day.

Stacking Ā£200 per month over three months and then making an investment also makes sense regarding fees of Ā£1.50 - Ā£6.

The highlighted point Iā€™m making is I see the biggest problem for people is strategy and getting that first 10 years of investing built up. The fees are not as important as you think, whatā€™s important is knowing what you are investing in and making a few great investments.

Far too much emphasis on fees and zero actual investment advice for portfolios under Ā£100k is what I see.

I say this with experience, I looked to get actual investment advice from genuine advisors for two months to test the theory, not a single response.

BUT, as of yesterday one person replied, they will not provide advice as their minimum fee is Ā£1,500 on a portfolio (Ā£250k), though the person did give some insights and that was Pete Matthews from Meaningful Money. Genuine guy and really polite. The only person that bothered to respond.

So I am correct, there is a complete stone wall against people with portfolios under Ā£100k which means a lot of people are investing blind. So to anybody who has an edge or guidance, youā€™re doing better than most.

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Fees are really important. I started investing with Ā£50 spread over 7 shares. That could easily have cost double with some brokers - also known as my investment being halved. I donā€™t think I would have risked Ā£25 in fees in order to invest Ā£25. For me, low fees were the difference in my making a start in investing or not!

Iā€™m trying out a T212 ISA this year and still paying into my FT SIPP. I got a free Ā£11 share (over 1/12 of my FT fees for a year) plus 1% cash back on everything I pay in. It will give me some experience using a different broker and learning more from a differently structured community. Again, low fees and extra bonuses make the difference.

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What has how much someone earns at Lidl in a day got to do with it? Do you think the millionaire and billionaires use that same attitude?

If a person who can halve their fees based on your 125 pound example and did it for 40 years, investing the fee savings I think you would agree it was worth their while?

Iā€™m only saying until you get to Ā£100k. Your point is not related to what I have stated.

Iā€™m saying there is way too much emphasis on fees when people are talking about Ā£3k - Ā£30k portfolios.

Iā€™m saying 0.25% of Ā£50k is only Ā£125. Itā€™s not worth spending so much time researching fees etc when itā€™s only Ā£125.

I can tell fees are the main thing by the amount of YouTubers pushing isa & sipp fee videos.

The first Ā£100k is typically made by hard work and simply placing money into investments. Fees do not really matter when youā€™re talking 0.50% or Ā£1.50 per trade.

The fees matter significantly after Ā£100k - Ā£250k and thatā€™s when the talk should matter.

Iā€™m not talking about 40 years. Iā€™m talking about getting the first Ā£100k.

And yes, I think billionaires could care even less about the initial fees and more about the task in hand. Only once they reach a certain status do they begin homing in on lowering fees. But still, even Elon can blow Ā£40,000,000,000+ in the drop of a handā€¦

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Good that theyā€™ve dropped the fees for shares, although the shares you can buy through regular investing are fairly limited on HL (mostly FTSE-350 only), and if you hold in an ISA youā€™ll be paying custody fee on shares as well as funds. I used to do regular investing through HL but couldnā€™t get the main equity I wanted (BLV). Shifted everything to ii, then sold up there and re-bought on FT. Just shifted my small fund holding from HL ISA to a cheaper platform. HL still wouldnā€™t give me value for money personally.