I have a feeling this next AMA is going to be a spicy one - some very key topics on areas that seem to be deal breakers for a lot of peopleā¦ 
2 Likes
And just before the crowdfunding, hopefully weāll have more answers next Tuesday.
Both options would be good, but i like the ability to just top up a share by x amount of pounds, regardless of the share price. This ability would open up the app and target more users by 10 fold surely? For the casual investors as well as the more serious and devoted. If you want a whole share, why not just buy Ā£s worth to the amount of one share?
Of course there are questions then around being able to transfer etc to other brokers if wanted, with partial fractions involved
Hereās my tuppence (Ā£2?) worthā¦
Iām yet to test this fully, but as selling is by no. of shares. Could you not just buy as close to 1 share as possible, then immediately sell the remainder - for free, instantly?
1 Like
I have to say I feel slightly disappointed with the fact that the flexibility around buying by amount or by number of shares is not there. I think it was a bit of a too big assumption to assume that everyone just wants to buy by amount and thatās it.
Will still continue using Freetrade as I have faith in the team and product but I would really urge the team to act on the feedback that has been given very clearly on the numerous posts above.
5 Likes
Having used the beta for a few days, fractionals are so much better than buying whole shares.
It makes more sense to me to invest a set amount of money, rather than buy a number of shares.
I get why people want the option, but if it came back, I probably wouldnāt use a whole share buying option.
18 Likes
In what way do you think they are better? The contract note is much better and it is great being able to invest smaller amounts in high cost shares but that shouldnāt mean the need to remove completely the option to buy whole shares.
The negatives have been aired on here already and no one has really answered them yet.
There may well be good reasons which we might hear from Adam next week, but explaining things in advance would have helped ease peopleās minds.
3 Likes
I like the fact that Freetrade are different and willing to appeal to a new generation. I have a couple of concerns @adam
- As a user I want to buy whole and sell whole shares. I understand that if I looked at owning 0.00000003456% of Amazon for 1 share (or whatever the figure is) as opposed to looking at owning 1 whole share then why would should I care for owning 1.3456 shares? Yes I get that logic. However, educating the customer to think differently isnt clever. This isnt a game with fake money. You are asking for peoples life savings, their pensions eventually, to be trusted with freetrade.
- As an investor in freetrade the option for fractionals was and is brilliant. The constraint of it however is terrible and will be seized on by competitors and makes freetrade look a bit naff. An investing company broker where you cant buy a whole share? This will annoy those most who can afford whole shares of stocks like Amazon. It is these people who are your customers you want to sell Alpha to. These are the customers you want to move their SIPPs to in 2021. The customers you are annoying here are the ones with the money which Freetrade will want to tap into. Teeneagers investing 20 quid in Tesla and 5 quid in Aston is great, but it wont pay the Billās. The age of most of your big clients is likely over 40 possibly 50. Telling them the way they do investing which is done at 100% of your competitors and the way investing has only ever been done isnt an option it is a direction to the next competitor.
Itās like asking Tesco for a kilo of bananas and getting 2.3456 of bananas. Then telling the customer they have been buying bananas wrong for years and they need do learn to live with this change. People will just shop in Sainsburys. Of course those who cant afford a banana will be delighted to finally get to have part of one. But those people wont be paying the business rates for Tesco let alone the staff wages.
Please hear me Adam and design team.This option/toggle is a priority. Please park the other plans. Sipps, graphs, bells and whistles they can all wait. Letās do the basics well. Dont let the competitors laugh at us.
32 Likes
Tuesday, 8 PM!
1 Like
Fair point. There is an inherent incompatibility between legacy brokers that only deal in whole shares, and transferring a fraction of a share. The immediate solution is selling any fraction to cash before a transfer to another platform, which we would do for you for free.
3 Likes
Iāve been buying fractional shares for years ( via Halifax Sharebuilder ). The same limitation applies there where fractions must be sold before transfer so this is nothing new.
6 Likes
Given that you only joined the community 30mins ago yet somehow you have access to a fractional beta is somehow questionable.
1 Like
Though I do agree with you, I think it is worth stating it is still in beta. So letās see what happens with the AMA and when it fully launches
1 Like
My recent comment was also marked as spam when I said the same thing. Though I understand mine may have been perceived to be more hostile.
Anyways Iām with you on your point. The lack of being able to buy and sell a whole share makes me sad
1 Like
Have you actually used the feature? If Iām honest I really donāt mind if I buy 5.015 shares, what matters to me is buying the right company, using the right platform. Why is it so important to have rounded share amounts? Not sure I fully understand the frustration being expressed here?
5 Likes
I think the above post was flagged as the new community member started debating āsafetyā and this isnāt relevant at all here. It has been mentioned in the AMAs that franctionals have no impact on the āsafetyā of your holding. The community needs to remain fact based as much as possible!
1 Like
Thanks for pointing our team to the profanity-laden fake email that is not connected to any Freetrade accounts. I hope you are proud.
Acts like a shill, talks like a shill, is a shill.
Impressed with our community members spotting suspicious new accounts. 
19 Likes
Exactly what we should expect ahead of the upcoming crowdfunding. Competitors getting more and more nervous by the day, this should be seen as a huge complement to FT and the work they are doing.
2 Likes
Can someone from FT state how long it would take to implement whole share trading again? Just to get an idea of the timeframe weāre looking at?
The backlash from this is wild - itād be suicidal to not implement whole shares again, surely?
2 Likes
Fotis and others have raised the issues eg liquidity/risk, transferability etc all matter to a certain extent.
Fundamentally it is a significant change of offering for both customers and investors. From an investors perspective Iām concerned that FT is losing out to competitors.
1 Like