Have a few questions
Is there a estimate of when ISA accounts will be avaiable?
Is there any charge to transfer in from another provider?
Is the only fee going to be Ā£3 p/m with unlimited trades
Thanks in advance
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Hey Tjm, welcome to the community!
No estimated date yet I am afraid, but this is number one priority alongside android release.
There will be no portfolio transfer available at the beginning but it is also on the road map.
The Ā£3pm charge is for ISA administration. You still have unlimited free trades forever as well as free custody and no exit fees. But free trades are completed at market close, not immediately.
Feel free to ask anything else if you need, otherwise you may find answers to many other question on the forum.
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Hi Vlad,
Thanks for your answers
What about transfer in cash only from another provider?
With regards to the trades at market closes, how does that work? Does it mean the closing price is the best price of the day you can get?
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The only viable transfer option on Day 1 is liquidating you position(s) with a current broker, transferring the funds to the bank and then transferring them from the bank to Freetrade. It is quite lengthy for now but this is only a temporary process, which will hopefully be enhanced in the upcoming months.
In regards to āfree tradesā, the reason for the market close price execution is not to do with the availability of the ābest priceā, in fact, best price is hardly justifiable, after all, if bearish news hit the market at 3pm, it will adjust immediately. And the spreads will be as per the Exchange, so no hidden fees there either (like there would be if you used DeGiro, for instance, who match your transactions with internal customer base [not offering the best price āas of right nowā], and only linking your requirement with the Exchange if the transaction cannot be facilitated internally).
The only logic behind the end-of-the-day buying is to consolidate all free trades in one order and transact in bulk. This will save on operational consts considerably and will allow Freetrade to implement further service improvements much faster than if they offered free instant trades. And if you are a long-term investor, intra-day price fluctuations will have a negligible effect on your performance anyway, which the Team has also taken into account when designing the product for people planning their future financial independence 
It was a bit long-winded but hope made sense.
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Instant trades will be available but charges will apply, the pricing model is here!
https://community.freetrade.io/t/introducing-our-pricing-model/36
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Kind of grasp it.
So if i wanted to buy Apple shares for example, in the morning and they are trading at $190 and i put in a order for $191 and the closing price is $210 what would be my purchase price?
Same for if they close at $170 after put in my order?
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Does the basic model apply the same as on ISA, just there a Ā£3 fee p/m for the ISA
Instant trades for a ISA will be Ā£1?
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You are spot on, it will be the market close price - either $210 or $170 as per your example.
Bear in mind the US stocks will not be available on launch, they will be added shortly after the release (few weeks/months potentially - no certain date yet).
Yes, hence if you want to invest without ISA, your investing experience can be free for life (except the stamp duty and capital gains tax). But at some point ISA becomes more cost-effective than GIA, and a flat Ā£3 charge is quite enticing in comparison to the % other brokers charge.
Yes, unless you are on Alpha, for which the US instant trades will be free and for the UK they will be at 50p (but Freetrade are also looking to reducing this figure)
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Ok for sums < 20k.
ETA : and only if youāve havenāt already contributed to a S&S ISA this tax year.
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Thereās a couple of restrictions to contend with. First of all, if youāve paid into a Stocks & Shares ISA this tax year then you cannot open another one until next April. Second of all, anything you withdraw from previous yearsā Stocks and Shares ISAs and deposit into a Freetrade ISA will lose its protection and count towards your Ā£20k limit this year.
Large amounts are probably best left until we support transfers - we know this is critical.
Edit: by all means open a new ISA with us when itās ready and utilise this yearās allowance, but the above is in the context of transferring old ISAs instead of withdrawing them.
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Would be handy if this was available this tax year for obvious reasons.Think this will be a huge selling point for Freetrade, blows all the other S&S ISA deals out the water
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Hi. New user but longtime lurker.
Just want to say how much I appreciate what you guys are doing. So excited for you to get the ISA up and running. Only Ā£3 a month is incredible compared to the increasingly large fees I pay HL.
I originally discovered Freetrade when searching for somewhere in the UK that does fractional shares as I invest almost exclusively in US shares. Having found you I thought āGreat but they wonāt do an ISAā but you do! I then thought āyeah, but I bet trades and fees will be really expensiveā. How wrong I was! You literally tick every box I have.
Like everyone else, Iām very impatient to finally get launched! Keep up the good work.
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I understand the intention behind doing bulk trade at end of the day.
Wouldnāt that limit the stock universe to very liquid ones?
Also there is possibility of larger set of stocks for instant trading.
Hypothetically what would happen if Freetrade got lots of buy orders but no one is selling? Which might result in partly filled order, Would some of the orders cancelled? Lottery for bought shares?
Cheers
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Good question! The team explained that in one of their blog posts a while ago -
Thereās a lot of text to quote but the key bit is:
But what if the sprout vendor doesnāt have enough sprouts to fulfil the original order?
Fear not, both have access to the magical electronic contract generating machine and have converted the original order into two parts ā the one now fulfilled (letās say 50% cash in exchange for 50% stock) and a new legally binding agreement to deliver the remainder at some future date.
As a Freetrade app user you know none of this as your portfolio already reflects everything you purchased and your cash has been debited.
This is purely an operational issue that the helper elves will manage on a daily basis behind the scenes until the sprout vendor has enough stock to deliver.
Oh & ..
For anyone thatās confused the sprout vendors were the market makers. The elf was the Freetrade app and staff. Sprouts are shares. The magic electronic legally binding contract machine was CREST.
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That blog blows my mind and Iām not entirely sure what planet this dude is on but I think that blog is refering to post trade settlement rather than a tight/illiquid market at point of execution.
Iād imagine the answer to LittleFingers question is that if you aggregate trades then youāre likely firing it at the market on a fill or kill basis. Therefore it either executes entirely or fails entirely. In LittleFingers example Iād say the outcome is āfails entirelyā and no one gets their order. A āworkedā or āmanualā order would be a regulatory headache as one would/could fall outside the realm of best execution.
Lookinā over the Freetrade universe data Iād say that orders will fail to execute on very minimal basis. If you check the Normal/Exchange Market Size for these stocks youāll find they are huge.
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I guess we could wait for one of Robs to give a definitive answer when they will have some time next week. I would think the exchange can handle pretty much any volume so pretty sure there should be no āfailsā unless for technical reason.
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Order size.
Not one to worry about early days.
But say you have an illquid stock with an EMS of 1000 , but Freetrades batch process pushed the Freetrade order to 10,000 then the electronic trade message would fail as the market makers would not take such a huge order via the RSP. Theyād negotiate price. That becomes a voice/worked order. Non RSP trading could be an issue for adhering to best execution rules.
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Exactly - weāre dealing in highly liquid stocks for the foreseeable. When weāre having to work aggregated trades through due to their size itāll be a great problem to have.
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Hi folks! I feel an ISA is the best way to go for me, but Iām wondering will I be able to move my existing shares into it that I already have on Freetrade? Will this be free or incur a cost?