Just thought I’d give some general feedback as a long time investor in Freetrade & having tested out different platforms.
Ive been using both T212 & Freetrade and I have to say, I’m starting to enjoy using Freetrade less and less. It feels clunky, slow, and has short trading hours.
Let me explain Clunky: by this I mean the fact you can buy 0.00045 of a share in stocks that are worth >£50 is just an unnecessary oversight and personally frustrates me. I’ve made the mistake a couple of times when I bought shares at the market price where Freetrade buys 5.00534884 shares in something that’s worth less than £50 per share. I get fractional shares for stocks with high prices (e.g. BRK) but there should be a minimum threshold. I know you can select the number of shares to buy instead of a pound value, but this should be the default option for all stocks I.e. flip the switch around + make the option available for all stocks by default.
Slow: the prices at which orders get filled, seems to be delayed compared to the overall market. I get the platform is supposed to be used for Long-term investing but this is a small thing that would go a long way in improving user experience.
Trading hours: Another problem I have here is the short trading hours. There’s a growing trend within investment platforms that offer pre & post market hours. By not offering this, you (1) reduce activity on the platform, (2) prevent people who work very long/busy hours in the week and therefore can’t buy/sell during market hours - creating further frustration. I also, for example, want to buy/sell a stock in the evening/night because either I feel bullish/bearish following a convo with a friend, or I’ve done some evening DD and think earnings will go well/badly and would like to get in/out now before it pops/drops. Not being able to do this is frustrating.
All this to say that I’m starting to believe I should pump my T212 ISA instead of my Freetrade one given how much easier it is to invest through them.
I do hope Freetrade fixes some of these things because if they don’t, it’s going to start driving people away.
If anyone else has any feedback or opinions on this, don’t hesitate to share !
Premarket and after hours trading has been mentioned and im seeing it pop up even more on here. I am a big advocate for it. I have discussed it in previous threads (met with negativity). I get the feeling the hardcore Freetrade fans dont want it.
However that being said my portfolio is with T212 and IBKR, i only hold a couple of companies on the Freetrade platform. Premarket and aftermarket trading has been a godsend for me, real game-changer, made some decent returns. My holdings are mainly US so it suits me well, especiallly with earnings calls.
Going off your circumstances it sounds like it suits you. Your missing out bigtime, dont hesitate, get yourself over to T212.
Hargreaves Lansdown - customer since 2013.
Freetrade customer - since 2018.
HL recently had an offer where trading fees were refunded up to a max of ÂŁ100.
I took up this offer and finally, after many years, sold unwanted stocks which I had been hanging on to purely because I could not justify paying ÂŁ11.95 per trade.
Not an issue I would ever have with Freetrade.
T212 - applied for an account before Freetrade even had a working IOS app but they didn’t accept my driving licence as proof of ID - this same ID was used to open my Freetrade account months later. That’s all I need to know about that company.
Freetrade isn’t perfect, sometimes I go to do something but I can’t but it’s not such an issue that I would want to switch to another similar app for, just because.
It does mostly what I want it to do and that’s fine.
If I can add to the feedback part, one thing that stood out to me about Freetrade a few years ago was the energy and excitement you could sense within this community. Also, the level of engagement with senior leaders was unique; you could have back-and-forth conversations with @adam or @Viktor.
I can’t help but notice that the magic and excitement about Freetrade is gone. I do not know if this is related to Freetrade moving from a small to a bigger company, losing that start-up magic. However, I would stress to the Freetrade team to take this seriously since “the customer is always right,” and I am sure that if the community is happy and engaged, then Freetrade will surely succeed big time.
Yeah HL is an absolute rip off… I think the only thing they offer more is research & DD but that does not support their high fees.
I get the idea that Freetrade fulfils your current needs but what if these change? I’ve been all in on investing ever since I turned 18 and have learned heaps. Most of what I did was passive LT investing but I’ve also realised that occasionally ST plays arise which can be very lucrative to capitalise on. Doing that through Freetrade isn’t possible and therefore requires me to open up accounts with other platforms - forcing me to move / spread my wealth across a lot of brokers which I’d rather not do as it distorts how I see my progress (which is a pain point).
Weird they didn’t take your drivers licence… They took mine & the onboarding was very quick.
This, exactly this - for me anyway.
It’s an intuitive platform, easy to use, and means I can take time to explore and learn what I’m doing.
I’ve been investing for a couple of years, and I think doing OK, but there’s lots to learn.
I agree with this. Freetrade shouldn’t be doing everything at once but I think it should move piece by piece as each feature or capability is perfected. Sadly, I still feel the underlying UI/UX of basic buying / selling of assets still needs work.
I do have to admit, I absolutely love the forum and do think it’s something that elevates the platform. But I think better visualisation of the comments etc directly on the platform could also be beneficial. It would also be nice to have a feature like T212 where you get news related to the stocks directly into the app… that’s been a godsend for me.
Yes but what about after you feel you’ve learned a fair bit? What if you want to start to dwell into other areas e.g. Options etc ? You’ll be forced to open yet another account with yet another provider.
Yes I think pre/post market access is a no-brainer. Why this isn’t offered is beyond me.
What’s the percentage breakdown of your portfolio in T212 & IBRK? And why not have it all in 1 account? Aren’t the fees eating into your profits with IBRK?
Not forced - If I get to that stage then I’ll have the choice to stay put or to open another account somewhere. I’ll do my research and make an informed choice.
Like my bank. Their own brand cash ISA dropped the interest rate, so I moved it to somewhere that pays a bit more.
Freetrade, for me, at this point in my investing journey, is easy to use, and the forum folks are helpful, mostly. It’s more than enough for what I need right now. They’re still growing, developing new things.
If they’re not offering what you need right now, then try somewhere else. We all have the freedom to choose, to put our money where we want to, whether that is in multiple accounts, or sticking to one provider.
I, personally, think discussions like this have the potential to be incredibly valuable to Freetrade to inform the bosses what the community is asking for, and hopefully some of the things you are asking for will be implemented in the near future. But that is a business decision, although I would hope some clear communication would happen along the way.
Freetrade fulfils needs I don’t get from my other brokers and vice versa. I have no need for yet another broker, three is enough for me and all are different.
The only thing that right now will cause me to transfer my account from Freetrade to another is when I come to drawdown on my SIPP - Freetrade doesn’t currently offer what I want but I am happy to accumulate my SIPP with them until then.
On the flip side splitting across providers is also a positive risk wise, if a provider goes bust, obviously doesn’t necessarily mean your assets are gone, but allows you to get at other assets if you need to
But entirely dependent on the ongoing fees, 2-3 accounts is probably fine
I completely agree. I do use other platforms so I’m protected under the FCS scheme but I do think I have an attachment to Freetrade because I’ve invested in 2 of their crowdfunding campaigns (2019-2020).
There’s no delay, orders are sent to the market makers and executed . I can’t comment on 212s exact process I’m just letting you know there’s no delay compared to the overall market. If you want to check your orders you can literally check them on the London stock exchange for example
For your first point use the limit buy and sell feature.
For the second unless your friend is Warren Buffet this is a reason to NOT have out of hours trading as it encourages people to make knee jerk reactions. Knee jerk reactions can be a positive for Freetrade in terms of driving revenue but negative for investors with a long term outlook.
The problem with the limit buy and sell feature (as it stands) is that you can only select a price that is far enough above/below the current market price - which doesn’t help if I want to buy shares at the market price.
In terms of your second point, I disagree. it provides customers with more flexibility. Some people do have crazy work hours where they don’t have much time to handle their own personal finances during the working week. But also, what if I’m in another country for a couple of weeks (e.g. Japan, Australia), how can I manage my portfolio? It’s restrictive.
Im also not sure how opening pre/post trading hours to customers hurts long term investors. If they truly are LT, it should have 0 impact.
I duplicate my Freetrade portfolio in Yahoo Finance for this.
I use Yahoo Finance for the research and data and Freetrade for the trading. For me, I don’t mind using two apps for two different things, better than a Jack of all trades that tries but fails at doing too many things.
