Freetrade Features I'd like to see

Bitcoin isnā€™t a regulated type of investment, itā€™s fraught with issues with fraud, half the banks ban bank transfers to crypto exchanges. I donā€™t see how it fits Freetrade?

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But itā€™s not a stock, and freetrade is a stock broker. Arguably adding Bitcoin would be losing focus on their core business.

Lets get the core functionality done first, then worry about expanding into other areas

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I agree with all of your ideas except 1 and 3. Thereā€™s a few threads on some of the ideas as well that you might want to look at.

1 is obvious, itā€™s not a regulated instrument and freetrade isnā€™t a crypto exchange. Thereā€™s something to be said I think for focusing on being good at a specific thing than trying to do everything.

As for 3. Iā€™m almost in no doubt that the FCA will hammer down on manipulative gamification of retail share dealing in the future. Itā€™s fraught with problems. Unlike gamification of health for example where we have well understood research showing how exercise is good for you, the same canā€™t be said for investments and gamification to date seems to simplify down to essentially encouraging people to make on the spot investments with little information and little consideration of risk.

I mentioned on another thread that gamification of investments can have serious negative effects including issues with mental health and potentially physical health not to mention the loss of all your money.

So in that respect Iā€™m very much against almost all types of gamification

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I like the better insight sharing and price alerts - definitely interested in price threshold notifications.

In order:

  1. Real-time pricing
  2. Technical chart options
  3. Faster addition of stock requests
  4. Selectable time limits for returns on stocks (as opposed to the default 1 month)
  5. Spark lines for stocks
  6. A better ā€˜home pageā€™ that covers both ISA and GIA accounts in 1 view

Iā€™d like to see options trading too but canā€™t see this being incorporated anytime soon.

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I think I agree with all the suggestions other than Bitcoin and gamification.

Bitcoin would be a short term boost for freetrade but long term I donā€™t see it driving growth (theyā€™ll struggle to compete with crypto specific exchanges and larger companies like revolut. Also I think it would likely detract from their image as a safe place to put your pensions and major investments and that kind of trust is hard to build and easy to lose.

Gamification as well as being very dangerous for users wouldnā€™t help freetrade that much I think it would boost user numbers but it would probably make older investors and those with larger amounts of money think twice. This could lead to considerably lower AUM.

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:arrow_right: [Feature Request šŸ”§ ] Include Risers/Fallers & Sparkline on Investments - #4 by Wulfy

Agree, the LISA options in the UK are horrendous at the moment.

HL - old fashioned and archaic practices
AJ Bell - much of the same
Moneybox & Nutmeg - Little control/influence on the stocks invested in and so non starter for many

I suspect their are a bunch of us with LISAā€™s on other platforms, simply holding cash for the bonus and not willing to invest via the above platforms for the obvious.

We need a FT LISA in the same way we have a FT ISA!

Additionally, it MUST allow transfers :slight_smile:

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Youā€™re right, I hold a Nutmeg LISA for the bonus. Would love to move this to Freetrade in future for my future :slight_smile:

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We can but hope my friend :+1:

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The number 1 feature Iā€™d like to see is Auto invest. This can be a game changer for any investor

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My wish-list (in order of priority):

  1. Fast addition of SPACs and bigger stock universe (i.e. more small caps, canadian stocks etc)
  2. Lower FX fees / USD accounts
  3. Self-invest JISA
  4. Leverage / Options
  5. Sharable investment pies / web-interface
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WEBSITE please

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Id rather they did one thing really well rather than add crypto/bitcoin. There are so many places to buy bitcoin from already. Adding something like greyscale bitcoin trust or mining stocks and then bitcoin etfs in the future, all make sense. Becoming a crypto exchange is somewhat diverting focus away from becoming a great stockbroker. I say this as someone who buys crypto and holds it on other platforms. I dont see the point in freetrade allocating resources to it, would rather see them increase their stock universe.

Things i would love:

  • Self invested JISA would be a game changer.
  • ability to hold usd for us stocks
  • investment pies for lazy dcaā€™ing my portfolio
  • getting stocks listed faster, especially growth and innovation stocks like nndm is shocking to not have for me, been wanting it for months.
  • web interface

I know im repeating stuff here, these make a lot of sense to me.

Not sure about the lisa? I can get a lisa elsewhere, I hope freetrade keeps its focus on doing the few things it does well/better and unique offerings rather than trying to be a financial catch-all and diluting its resources/focus.

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Good idea but keep in mind this isnā€™t allowed in an ISA

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True, was thinking for dual or tri currency in the GIA. EURO could be the third but would rather they focus on current stock offerings and expanding into europe.

  1. Ability to short
  2. Options trading

Hey, welcome to the community :wave:

Iā€™m afraid Freetrade have said theyā€™ll never offer option trading but you can however find ETFs that short the FTSE 100 and S&P500 if youā€™re a plus member

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There is so much potential for Freetrade to improve and expand their interface and services but I do think we have to be patient.

Freetrade is a new company and has implemented many improvements which community members have already suggested.

Iā€™m in no doubt that Freetrade listens and acts upon what members ask but these things take time to develop. You only have to look at the careers section Careers of Freetrade and the amount of jobs they are advertising in time of recession and pandemic.

This speaks volumes to me of an expanding business. I dont know about other industries but I do know that my organisation has a recruitment freeze at the moment and only offering interal vacancies.

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Loving this topic, lots of great suggestions! I agree that, even though crypto is here to stay and grow, itā€™s unregulated and very volatile, so I donā€™t think it should be (at least for now) part of the offer.

One thing that is important to mention is that Freetrade does have limited resources for development, and I am sure they are looking internally at each feature in a matter of effort/return ratio. For example, SIPP, LISA, etc are UK focused. Whatā€™s the return of that in terms of number of users, if we are considering the EU expansion?

In my opinion (I can be wrong, it happens occasionally :innocent:), the highest return features are:

  1. Robo advisor (It catters to a vast audience that is not, and doesnā€™t want to be, proficient to investing)
  2. Website
  3. Expansion of stock universe (including easy ā€œretirementā€ investing e.g. Vanguard LifeStrategy)

:money_mouth_face:

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Agree the last points ā€” features wont make a unicorn, it is producer set & whatā€™s FT can earn revenue off.
Very Keen on SIPP, am frustrated that the new SIPP offering notes you cant currently take benefits, you would need to transfer out. I would hope that by the time anyone needs to take it this is resolved, but would nice for FT to communicate the roadmap on that before you go in to take up the SIPP.
EU expansion agree is key for company growth, although personally slightly less worried.
JISA - i think would be a great addition. Maybe the current client base demographic is not that strong top support this space, but I think for a lot of the client base when they have kids, they would take up JISA, even if it is small increments being invested. I personally would keen to do the full JISA limit it for two kids.

On other features I think Price alerts is the most useful feature that is currently missing.

Gamification could dissuade many. Many of us are time poor as it is, so being distracted on gamification as you are trying to review your portfolio and make serious investment decisions would not be good.

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