Just received an email from Degiro - itâs raising its fees on May 15th. Perhaps a sign of things to come from other brokers too
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Well, they had to do it eventually⊠
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Free is not sustainable long-term, all businesses are in the business of making money.
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A great point. Freetrade has brought an element of parity to investment that is currently out of reach to platforms like HL.
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Lightyear have released their web based trading into Beta.
Users are authenticated using a combination of a QR code from the web page and their mobile app.
Seems responsive but not made a trade yet, as all my holdings are in the US and the market is closed.
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Are invest engine going to release a SIPP?
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CMC has brought out another feature limit orders
Of all the brokers im wondering if theyâre the closest to Freetrade in terms of what theyâre trying to do
Also noticed theyâve updated their market data features with a lot of extra info now. They seem to be using morning star to populate this info
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Looks like a good opp for a well-articulated rant/stream on socials + putting FT execs out to speak on this. @acampâs time to shine!
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T212 has shipped or is shipping a fair few new features which I havenât seen mentioned yet:
- multi-currency accounts
- interest on cash balance (poor rates but itâs something)
- an API
- and a 50:50 split on share lending proceeds.
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This is massive news.
Itâs a shame Freetrade doesnât have any dry powder to push into the EU, but at least it makes them a far more attractive proposition to VCs in 2024.
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This is really hugh!
Trade Republic and Scalable Capital will need to change their business modells significantly. No Commission Free brokering as of June 2026 anymore.
Really good news for Freetrade.
Where are the VCs? 
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Can you explain why this is good news for FT, Iâm really trying to understand the situation better
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I think it a way which those companies make money (So Order Flow if Iâm not mistaken is analysis of Trades which Tradees on there Platform make)
So if a majority of users make monthly trades on Coca Cola for example you can use that information to make inform decisions on how that share might perform.
Now imagine having Hundred to Thousand of data like that. People would want that data so that probably one of the ways which those companies make money.
If they canât use that as Revenue, then they have to find another way to make money (aka Monthly Subscription, Charge on FX)
Itâs where a market maker pays the broker to route trades to them. Freetrade doesnât use this so their revenue wonât be affected by this ruling, where companies like Trade Republic do use it, so will lose a chunk of revenue and may need to make big changes to their business model.
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PFOF means a customer would on average get a worse price as the broker routes orders to the market maker which pays them the most (within reason), instead of the one with âbest executionâ (best price, timely etc) as is the law in the UK.
Trade Republic is able to offer trades at only âŹ1 since it benefits from giving the customer a worse price. The customers still pay but donât know about it.
Freetrade is extremely transparent on how it makes money and has an opportunity to sell their brand and commission free business model across Europe. Other commission free brokers, like Bux have started charging commission and mandatory âŹ3pm fees. So FTâs model will be highly competitive in Europe.
It means there will be a level playing field for European brokers. Previously German brokers were able to collect PFOF whilst non German brokers werenât.
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These are good to have features.
T212 has much better ETF availability
For e.g. JPLG
It looks like Webull is entering the fray in the UK. Not the most compelling offer yet: only US stocks it seems and 0.025% commissions after a 90-day zero-commission promotional offer.
That said, the appâs one of the best Iâve used and itâll be interesting to see how it develops.
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Shares is about to open France (received regulatory authorizations) with the intention to roll-out in the other EU countries. (article only in French)
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