I want to purchase whole numbers of shares and not fractional shares. When I go to the buy screen I have to put in an amount. Even if I keep tweaking the amount so it gives me 1 share, after purchase it is still not exactly 1 share and will be for example 1.0002343.
Why can’t I just enter the number of shares rather than having to enter a monetary amount? Is there a way around this, its very annoying.
This is fractional shares. You should have received an email from Freetrade about this (as well as the 250 new US shares), and also accepted new terms and conditions on the app.
Hi, yes I understand that but I don’t want to purchase fractional shares, I want to purchase whole shares…
To be blunt, you can’t… yet.
You’re not alone mate, there are plenty of us who are disappointed in not being able to buy whole shares anymore.
Freetrade have decided to remove the ability to buy whole shares, since introducing fractionals.
Wow thats surprising, sacrificing functionality of those with larger portfolios for those with smaller portfolios and fractional shares.
Sorry what is being sacrified? You can now literally manage your portfolio proportions with pinpoint precision.
That’s not what’s happened.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the product and I’m a big fan but I’d rather have 500 shares of something rather than 500.000124. Maybe its a psychological thing…
Sounds like it could be - embrace the change my friend.
Pinpoint precision? OP’s post is that they want exactly 1 share, but cannot get that exact amount…
Unless you proportion your portfolio by number of shares, then I think my comment is valid.
I’d guess the majority of people don’t proportion by number of shares, but by value.
Yes you’re right, ignoring the actions of anyone who doesn’t use this way of buying shares, everyone can buy shares with pinpoint precision.
I am actually in your boat, but this doesn’t mean others don’t have a point.
It doesn’t have to be one or the other. It should be made possible to select whole shares or fractional. I’m also in camp where I would generally like to buy whole shares and would only use fractional for taking a position in like Google or something with a high value
Now I have got my head around fractionals, I would never go back to whole shares given the choice.
For example buying a UK listed stock using whole shares:
If I want to increase my position in stock X by ÂŁ200 but the price is ÂŁ24 per share, I have to choose to buy either 8 shares totalling ÂŁ192 or 9 shares totalling ÂŁ216.
At the end of the transaction I own whole shares but I have compromised my investment goals buy either buying more or less than I intended.
If the stock was listed in the US, I could buy exactly ÂŁ200 worth of stock X. Exactly the amount that I wanted.
When balancing a portfolio it is far easier and more accurate to use fractionals.
To become a better investor, it is important to remove as many psychological barriers to good decisions as possible. Whole shares is one of those psychological barriers.
Previously when purchasing one received whole shares and spare change.
Now you receive whole share and spare fractionals.
If you want spare change, simply sell the fraction back i.e. the .00002343 of it, as long as it is ÂŁ2 of value.
If it is less than 2 pounds, sell more. I.e. sell 2.000002343 of shares if that makes it be worth more than ÂŁ2 pounds.
In the future limit orders might be available that will not require the sell step to get spare change back.
You’ve just wasted the 0.5% stamp duty though, and also FX fees if it’s a foreign stock.
Re psychological barriers, it also may affect your ability to transfer all your shares to another broker, as they may not support fractionals. I also personally will probably only own whole amounts as then i can do the maths in my head quicker, when looking at share prices. I also don’t inherently trust any system that is giving me a percentage of something, for example, it’s not easy for me to know whether I’m losing a small amount of my money by purchasing a fractional, and do I know for sure that I will receive the exact proportional dividend amount. Nothing against Freetrade, it’s just harder for me to verify this.
With competing broker(s) it is possible to select between fractions or whole shares, which is making me lean towards using them. I think I read that Freetrade said they will offer the option to select? Someone can correct me if wrong.
Also say I own 0.01 fraction of a £1 share, if that share price rises to £1.001 and I sell, how do i get the cash in a denomination that doesn’t exist at that accuracy.
Previously you got nothing, as sub 1p things were rounded away. Now you got something.
Note that during basic order execution, transactions can be pooled and average deal price per share can be fractional sub 1p denomination.
Sell the 0.0002343 remainder and you have a “whole” share.
As long as that 0.0002343 is worth more than ÂŁ2 