As R3 and R4 investor, I donât really understand why FT turns into âfractionals purchase onlyâ instead of having the option to turn on/off a fractionals stock purchase.
Considering it doesnât look âcomplicatedâ (FT just need to let you either enter an amount of money or enter an amount of shares), I think that before continuing to complain from the user/investor side, maybe @adam, @Viktor or @Ian can give as an idea about why FT turns into âfractionals onlyâ. I think it would be great for all of us.
I refer to my 4th point on my feedback suggestions for the beta - give people the choice to enter price or number of shares. That would allow for the purchase of whole numbers as you want.
Just from an engineering perspective: If they planned on doing it only the fractionals way, itâs not a trivial change, because the order needs to be redirected to totally different marketplaces. Sure, itâs possible. But might cost them some more time. I generally find it important to offer both.
100% they will lose some people from using the Freetrade platform over this. Some of the comments in the forums are proof enough of this and thatâs not counting many of those that donât venture onto the forums to have a say.
They have been promoting themselves on the strength of their community, but if they ignore the feedback from a beta test (the whole purpose of beta is to gain feedback) and blindly push forward their words will ring hollow.
Iâve referred 3 people and been a digital cheer leader for freetrade but I can trade for free elsewhere without the limitations they seems to be insisting on.
Me too, Iâve been cheerleading for FT with friends who are interested in stocks. Particularly on the back of fractionals but not at the âcostâ of removing full share purchases.
Given that other platforms manage to offer both options it clearly isnât technically impossible (though Iâd imagine it creates two separate workflows).
If youâre making changes like this then you need to really carefully explain the benefits to your community rather than hope it isnât an issue.
Iâve just opened a T212 account (though not funded it yet) which saddens me that I felt it was necessary.
Hopefully FT will listen and respond before it is too late.
When is the next Zoom meeting? Would be interesting to get the thoughts behind it all if this is the case as others have been told. Or if someone could come and comment on here and put these thoughts / doubts at ease.
Hi everyone, thanks for the feedback - weâre hearing it all.
When we designed fractionals, we thought about the feature as something that makes your money work harder for you. Weâve seen some of our community investing leftover change in very cheap stocks, and we thought people would benefit from topping up their original investments instead. Also, the way cryptocurrencies socialised fractional ownership has made this seem more natural.
This is not the first time weâve broken with stockbroker convention; when we started using pounds over pence we got quite a bit of feedback: Pricing UK securities - #14 by VikPaw
Rest assured we take on board all your comments as we continue to build Freetrade, and your feedback is essential to help us prioritise the right features to make the service even better. We will of course measure and monitor how this change impacts all of our clients and will continue to develop the product, however any improvements will always take time to design and engineer correctly.
As someone who hasnât been involved in the beta testing, I can barely believe what iâm reading in this thread and really hope it isnât true. To introduce a relatively new and novel concept but at the expense of a function that most would say is an absolute basic requirement for any investment platform, doesnât exactly strike me as a sensible business decision. Would also be a terrible move to make, just prior to another round of fund-raising.
The ability to trade in whole shares is a must for me, and if its not going to be available going forward, sadly, despite loving my FT experience up to this point, itâll leave me with no option but to transfer my holdings to T212 (or RH when they eventually arrive).
You can also add me to the list of looking at using T212 or RH going forwards in the future and my friends who havenât bt yet joined the beta are saying the same. I love the implementation of fractional shares but mainly for the out of reach expensive US Stocks but as a consumer I really also need the option of buying full whole shares as well. I hope you will look at this and let us know the plans going forward but surely if your competitors can do it you can too? In your growth stage as a company its what you offer for the consumer that makes you grow and stand out or get left behind.
As someone whoâs not an engineer, nor am I in the beta, I really donât understand - If the ability to trade whole shares was already there, why not just keep it on top of fractionals?
Isnât it more work to remove it than keep it?
edit: @Bailey2k4 I do get the drivewealth plugin, etc. But why not keep this partnership on top of the old? Or just partner with a new US broker that will continue to enable whole share trading? Is it really that much of a mountain to climb, given the invest platform is supposed to make things easier etc?
Also edit: Iâm not as fussed about the fractional thing, but at the same time I understand that iâm probably an exception here. It is a deal-breaker for a worrying amount of people.
Also in your issue that youâve given of having 9. 5 shares and wondering can you move transfer 9 of them⊠Is there a difference in how you obtained them and moving them e. G. Say I bought 9 whole shares and 1 x 0.5 share can I move 9 and not the half⊠But what if I bought 9.5 shares over a year but each time in 0.5 shares per transaction so never buying a full share each time but instead only half⊠Can I transfer 9 still as whole shares?
There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding how shares and the accounting for ownership of a company work, full stop.
Iâm going to do an AMA on Tuesday (announced soon), please come at me with your questions. Iâm pretty sure you will feel better after, I am an accountant and promise to bore you with detail.
If you have ÂŁ5.50 at your bank it is no less secure or not ârealâ money vs ÂŁ5.00 rounded perfectly.
Adam thank you for the response. Why does it feel like thereâs a sense of Freetrade not wanting to offer the option of both being able to purchase full singular shares and also the option of fractional ownership? All the responses so far and those that others have received privately have basically made it categorically that buying full shares as a plan moving forward is something you are no longer keen on doing. Is there a reason for this?
This thread alone has shown that for a lot of those on your platform that this reluctance is leading others to look at what options your competitors offer.
Thanks Adam, I think the confusion has come around being able to transfer though.
In your example a Bank will let you transfer both 5.50 and 5
But Freetrade wonât let you transfer 0.5 of a share. So the question is, if you bought 5.5 shares, can you transfer 5 and sell 0.5 or would you be forced to sell the 5.5.
Thank you for taking the time to reply and maybe best to save for the AMA
