How to buy whole shares and not fractional

Iā€™ll try to sell the fractional part back and see if that worksā€¦I have a feeling it wonā€™t work because the underlying decimal is longer than the decimal I can see on the screen. But good suggestion, will try when the US Market opens.

In summary I think this should be a feature request. Give the option to buy whole or fractional shares. Can somebody from the Product Team confirm how we can get this added or whether its already on the roadmap? Many thanks, Harry

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FYI, youā€™ll get hit by the 0.45% FX fee twice (albeit on a tiny amount). Considering Freetradeā€™s closest competitor has a toggle option between fractions and whole, and no FX fee, Iā€™m staggered the team arenā€™t willing to address this.

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Who is the closest competitor?

I did this and it worked:
image

I bought 1.8304 shares (Ā£15 worth), then sold the 0.8304 fractional and I ended up with one whole share.

You need to make sure that you sell the full decimal, which you will see on your Contract Note:
image

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This is an extremely poor work around for the customer to have to undertake, regardless of the differing opinions on whether we should buy by value or by shares. I fail to see how anyone can dispute that.

However, FT have stated that they have a remedy in the works.

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ā€œhave to undertakeā€ may be a bit stong, considering there is absolutely zero functional difference between owning fractions or whole shares and only seems to make a difference to people with some sort of complex about decimal points.

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It is a poor work around, but fortunately, I was only testing it to see if it worked (it did).

I donā€™t mind not having whole shares.

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Awesome, I must have missed that. Can you point me towards where theyā€™ve said it will change? Or was it a Zoom or something?

Sorry, I canā€™t specifically point to the links I think itā€™s in the AMA threads. I think itā€™s going to be as part of limit orders in FreeTrade Plus. Hope that helps

I donā€™t mind not having whole shares either. Some of my holdings are fractional to 7 decimal places.

But if I did not want fractionals for whatever reason, the responses of buy and sell the excess would seem dismissive and unhelpful to me. My two pence.

Guys, we keep arguing about this but its absolutely clear that some people prefer to have whole shares and others donā€™t mind fractionals. The fact of the matter is that Freetrade opting to offer one option over another is off-putting to one group of customers and their preferences.
Personally, i think fractionals are great, particularly for pricey US shares and its not a dealbreaker for me, but the option for either way of purchasing stocks should be there. There are competitors to FT that already offer both options so it can be done.

Regardless of which is the best way to invest, it is my money, so it should be my choice how i spend it. If someone prefers to see whole shares rather than a mixture of the two, thatā€™s their choice, - respect that, just like everyone should respect the fact that others donā€™t mind to see several decimal points on their holdings.
All freetrade have to do is offer the choice and everyone can then invest their money how they wish. No?

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Itā€™s not as there is no alternative to obtaining a whole number of shares.

This is the problem. I personally have no problem with fractionals, but why do feel the need to belittle people with a different opinion? You might as well just start telling these people that FT isnā€™t for them. Try using reasoning rather than insults.

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I never once said there was a problem with wanting to buy whole shares, but letā€™s be real, is it really worth doing the whole angry customer routine for? Is it a more important use of resources than limit orders, European stocks or literally anything else on the roadmap?

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I agree, you never said there is a problem with wanting to buy whole shares. You said that the people that want to buy them have a decimal point complex.

I agree again. To me personally limit orders are more important. But if a good proportion of customer base has different priorities, then that should high priority on the road map.

But letā€™s not forget the effort required. As you say, being real, which sounds less resource intensive? Adding a whole new exchange and stocks or allowing people to buy whole shares?

Regardless, FT seem to agree as they are adding the functionality.

not too distant futureā€¦

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again, no I didnā€™t. I donā€™t see any reason to be so irrationally angry over something that makes no functional difference. there is a massive difference between wanting something to exist, and being an angry, entitled customer, donā€™t even pretend there isnā€™t. Iā€™ll take the fact that you are twisting my words as a sign you have no coherant response and have simply resorted to character assasination.

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I have to admit Iā€™m very confused, I literally quoted you earlier.

I think you may have misinterpreted my tone, it happens with text. When you mentioned the ā€œangry customer routineā€ earlier, I didnā€™t think you meant me. Iā€™ll clarify again, I donā€™t mind fractional shares, I hold fractional shares. This makes no difference to me personally. So Iā€™m not angry, or entitled or whatever buzzword we now use to denigrate customers. Even more baffling is that you think people are entitled for requesting a pretty much industry standard feature, but ok :ok_hand:.

I donā€™t know what I have said to you that you consider character assassination. Especially when you said about certain people having a decimal point complex. I donā€™t believe I have said anything equivalent.

Iā€™ll let it rest though as this debate is moot. FT will be providing this functionality.

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I canā€™t believe people care about this.

If I want to invest Ā£10k in a company - great - FT can facilitate it and I am not restricted by something arbitrary like the share price.

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Donā€™t sell fractions to get a whole number. You already payed a exchange rate fee for the shares in the first place, so youā€™re already down on the investment. Selling to get a whole share will just increase your losses.

If you want whole shares go to T212 or similar who allow you to buy in number of shares until Freetrade eventually implement this feature, they seem to indicate that they will eventually do this in the future.

(Freetrade have never allowed you to buy in number of shares btw, they just never supported fractions so always rounded down your investment.)

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