FX Rates - any progress on this? Far above market levels of 0.1%

I donā€™t think they can offer it (see notes above about restrictions on holdings in ISAs), but you are allowed to have two ISAs open at once, youā€™re just not allowed to contribute to more than one of the same type in the same tax year.

So options for freetrade seem to be:

  • Continue as they are and charge 0.45% to everyone on every transaction
  • Try to get the FX fees lower now that they are on their own platform (0.1% seems optimistic, they have to make money somehow)
  • Offer currency accounts (which they need anyway for expanding to other countries) - but this would not cover ISAs, only GIAs

Would be nice to hear what their long term plans are on this, even if they donā€™t plan changes in the short term.

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I understand. Thanks. Still thoughtful about how interesting this could be or not. Maybe not.

0,1% in a Plus account would be very attractive, imo.

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So you told us you use them thank you, what about the GBP USD:

so when do you find it do you just use what timeframe ?

Of course. As a user you want the lowest possible fees. But FT need to strike a balance - their closest competitors in the market they are competing in such as HL have much higher fees. Therefore it makes no sense for FT to give away too much margin.

Ft started with one model and you have the Fremium with them.

If you trade ETF on here is cheaper than Vanguard 0.15% here is 0%

If you trade ETF on HL or Fidelity or inderaxtive Investors they have a high cost and no fractional shares.

If you compare with 212 which have introduced a series of fees lately. FT is more stable and more rilaiable.

So we are more than happy to pay the 0.45% fee or stick to 0 cost ETF in GBP.

You can also go to Etoro which have a better FX and 5 dollars on each withdraw.

As per above gbp/usd resistance at 1.4 seems to be to strong and the trend might be changing going back to 1.3 so you will buy less :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
You can get iShares all world heged.

Or you can spread the cost on multiplecplatformsā€¦

Pay for service is better than free and no service.

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Perhaps a good balance is in the increase in the base of regular payers of the Plus account, which could be achieved with a more attractive exchange rate, I believe.

Not really - just keep it as it is. Itā€™s quite straightforward. Too many people on this forum expect FT to be a charity.

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I think the debate is important. The community is the voice of customers and Iā€™m sure the FT is aware of that. Besides, I believe we all want to see Freetrade very well because it is to whom we entrust our investments, so I do not think anyone is thinking that way.

My thoughts:
-Keep it as it is for now.
-In 2/3 years introduce another tier beyond plus that offers reduced FX and Live Pricing.

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I disgaree. I am 100% ok with FT to get this 0.45%.

They have to earn some income from somewhere. What do you want? You want really everything to be given to you for free???

0.45% is ok for long term investing.

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Ā£49.99 p/m?
FX spot rate + 0.25%?

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So youā€™re then creating a system where for some users FT will do better with that new pricing and for other users FT will do worse - depends on usage. Iā€™m sure FT are always modelling different options for things like this but ultimately keeping it simple is a strength.

Just buy the VUSA or any denominated etf in gbp and there is no fx fee

Some platforms charge 12gbp just to buy the ETF and another 12gbp to sell it

Not really.
Users have the liberty to choose from the available options. The consequences that result from the choice made is exclusive property of the chooser.

Yup

Keep it simple does have advantages

Free is good :stuck_out_tongue:

Do what i doā€¦Buy mostly U.K stocks.

The return on UK stocks over the last decade has been really bad compared to US stocks though. There really is no comparison.

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There are good returns to be found in UK stocks, I have FTSE 100 stocks that have more than doubled. Donā€™t write them off just because the FTSE 100 itself has been largely flat. With dividends reinvested returns arenā€™t that bad even for the FTSE 100. (although FTSE hasnā€™t done quite as good as US stocks the US indexes have been largely pumped up by about 5 really big companies)

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I donā€™t write them off, personally Iā€™m probably over-invested in UK stocks compared to US and certainly have been in the past, but the indexes clearly have diverged in performance (comparing say FTSE 100 to S&P 500 over the last 30 years there is a huge difference). Individual stocks of course the performance varies and the UK has been somewhat underpriced IMO due to Brexit and pandemic fears together.

It can certainly be argued that US indexes are overpriced right now (at all time highs, and as you point out just a few tech stocks making up 20% ish of the index), but the historical performance is clear even if we might be nearing a correction in US indexes.

FTSE vs S&P

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