FX impact

[joshrhoden4 (Josh Rhoden)]

Using both T212 and Freetrade, I’ve noticed when investing in US stocks, T212 not only tells me my gain/loss but also the FX impact on my investment. Is there such a feature on Freetrade that I’m missing? If not this would be a great help and would reflect investment values better

[arafath98 (Arafath Miah)]

Would be a nice feature to have

[Leito (Alex)]

That would be nice.

[funkycaveman]

I like the idea of this sometimes right after you buy it shows -0.2% which is likely due to the FX impact. Showing this as a breakdown would be perfect!

[roman_guy (Roman)]

i think Freetrade may be making a bit of money on Fx, so doubt this revenue generating “feature” will go away. 0.45% is like paying for gas on Ether(eum) trades, which is not ideal i suppose.

Quick search - people have asked for this before. Im using brokers that hold money in Us dollars for me, so I take an Fx hit when I withdraw US into a bank account or when I fund my trading a/c. I also get to see exactly how much Im paying for Fx conversion.

Lower/No Foreign Exchange Fee

Freetrade is predicated on the idea of price innovation, so I think cheaper fees (if possible, none!) on currency conversion would be a great step. Freetrade currently charge spot rate & 0.45% to convert currencies. I understand this 0.45% charge is intended to cover the costs of outsourcing the remittance/currency conversion process, rather than generating profits, but it is a charge all the same. Whilst reasonable, I worry 45 basis points is just enough to deter users as cheaper alternative…

Does the Investment Gain/Loss factor in FX Fee

It does in 212, but not sure it does with Freetrade? It’ll say I’m up £x but if you go to sell it, the total amount quoted in pounds can be less than this or even would be a sell for a loss? This mainly relates to small increases of course, but I do feel it’d be better to factor the FX impact into the gain/Loss if this isn’t the case?

Foreign Exchange Rate Fee

The way we show FX rates on the contract note is meant to transparently show the FX rate you got versus the prevailing interbank FX rate. Unless you are a Barclays or JP Morgan, actually getting the interbank rate generally isn’t possible. Some brokers are more opaque in how they present FX rates, so unless the FX markup is measured against the same benchmark the comparisons can be misleading. Eg calling the mid-market rate the ‘real’ exchange rate is false. That would be a ‘fake’ rate and th…

Gain/Loss on Portfolio

Thanks for sharing mate! I closed yesterday with Simply Wall Street saying I’m £40 less than Freetrade. Which I’m more fine with it that way around, as I reckon the difference is due to SD and FX. It does include dividends. I have about £300 of cash between both accounts from dividends/capital gains sales so I assume its part of the P&L… technically cash is a form of investment, so saying your P&L including the cash you have there is not entirely wrong, but it depends on how people want to loo…

[JimSmith (Jim)]

I agree. I don’t see why FT would show this.