I get the feeling that if transfers of drivewealth shares are ever supported its more likely to fracture the uk market into two incompatible sets of brokers when it comes to foreign shares.
I think there are potentially some advantages, you’re perhaps dealing a little more directly on the exchange in question, you dont need to deal with market makers. on the downside, freetrade and others do need to deal with a third party since they dont have direct access, so theres still costs involved. and they need to setup in each country (though CDIs aren’t available in every country either), and you lose some features of dealing locally.
I get the feeling it could be some time before we see any compatibility between brokers using third parties like drivewealth. No idea for example if freetrades European stocks are transferable, i dont think they are, so thats another system on top of drivewealth potentially that needs to be interoperable with other brokers.
maybe the FCA needs to regulate it at some point
Identical as far as I’m aware. CDIs are matched 1:1 so 1 apple CDI is 1 apple share. the equivalent foreign share is bought in the market of the country of origin for the shares. so price movements are usually reflected.