Introductory wiki 🐣

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Ask the community anything, in this topic for beginners questions - no question is too simple here.

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Contents

Intros to investing from Freetrade

The one reason a lot of people don’t invest

So why doesn’t everyone invest? What are the different ways that you can invest e.g. savings accounts or financial advisors? How much of a difference do fees make to your returns? And what’s the potential if you invest without fees?

Inflation risk: the high price of doing nothing with your cash

What happens if you just leave your money in a bank account that’s paying less interest than the inflation rate?

Market volatility - & how investors react

So the stock market’s falling - it happens! - what next?

The Ultimate List of blogs, podcasts, books etc. for investors

Your one stop shop for investing wisdom. Crowdsourced from our community & curated by the Freetrade team. Suggest additions here.

Compound my interest!

You might have heard of compound interest already. We explain why it matters - spoiler: it can dramatically increase your returns from investing.

Welcome to asset class

A high level summary of each type of asset that you can invest in.

What even is a stock?

If you want to invest in a company then you’ll usually buy their stocks. So what do a company’s stocks actually represent? When do they get created? And if you really want to nerd out - a history of stocks.

What’s an ETF?

If you want to invest in a group of stocks, commodities or other types of assets quickly & easily (perhaps you want to diversify your investments), then you might want to consider buying ETFs so what are they?

What’s an investment trust?

Investment trusts are similar to ETFs - they enable you to invest in a collection of stocks, commodities & other types of assets - but they have some unique characteristics. We walk through what those are & highlight some of the trusts that’re available to invest in with Freetrade in this post.

Bond knowledge

Sometimes governments & companies borrow money from investors & pay them interest in return. They do this by selling bonds to investors. Here’s the team’s explanation of what bonds are, how they’re valued, how they’re traded & everything else you’d need to know as a potential investor - all in one place!

Dividend and conquer

When a company makes a profit they may give the owners of their stocks some of that profit in cash - these payments are called dividends. If you’d like a more detailed explanation than that, this is the blog for you.

What’s a stock index?

You’ve probably heard of the FTSE or the Dow but what are they?

When you're ready to invest


The stocks & ETFs that will be available for Freetrade users to invest in are listed in their Stock Universe spreadsheet.


How to be a great investor

Our top five tips for improving your investing skills and getting started.

The totally not complicated investment tax post

How can you avoid paying tax when you invest? (legally of course)

Should you use an ISA?

We’ve explained the benefit of ISAs & the rules that you’ll need to consider if you’re thinking of opening one in this handy blog post.

Do your own research

So how should you pick which companies to invest in?

The ultimate list of investing books, podcasts and blogs

And what are some of the best places to learn about investing or follow how the market is doing?

How much should I invest?

And then, how much should you invest in those companies?

Diversifying your investments

When you invest, choosing a range of stocks & other assets to invest in can help decrease your risk, we explain how here.

The psychology of investing

What are the natural instincts you should resist when you invest, to avoid making mistakes?

How to cost average your investments

Cost averaging will generally mean that you pay more for your investments but does the peace of mind make it worth it?

The votes are in: Stocks you’d buy and hold for five years

Now that you’ve done your own research, check out the companies that the rest of the community would invest in.

How to top up your Freetrade account

Some tips on how to top up your Freetrade account and some context on how we’re planning to improve the experience.

Dealing with (order) rejection

We know a handful of our users have experienced trades on the app rejected by the market. While it’s relatively unusual, it’s frustrating when it does happen. No-one likes being rejected. :cry:

So we wanted to share a bit more on the underlying causes, and how we’re working to reduce them.

Want to learn more?

Check out our collection of posts the Intermediate Wiki covering more advanced topics including; how to value a stock, creating a portfolio, reinvesting dividends & more.


Please DM @Freetrade_Team to suggest changes to this wiki.

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