Having to download Key Information Documents as PDFs is really rubbish - especially on mobile. What we really need is something native, in-app, that is responsive and easy to view.
Now, I know this is probably a regulation thing, but if there’s anything Freetrade can do to either kick-start this, lobby or whatever that would be great. Imagine the information presented through an API that could be displayed natively in the app. Or being able to search for, say, emerging markets funds and being able to select a few and compare risk levels, fees and returns side by side or overplayed…
Any thoughts from Freetrade people about what can be done now, or what could be worked towards in the future?
I really want this too, so have sacrificed one of my votes elsewhere to vote for this instead (can we have some more votes please!). When the view of investments improves and we get sorting and filtering, it’d be nice to have that on ETFs as well, particularly on fees.
Unfortunately it looks like they’re not all PDF or exactly the same format - vanguard are for example, but ishares give you a web page, which asks questions then presents a doc. So I imagine that’s why it’s just a link for now. Freetrade probably need to keep the link for compliance but it’d be good if the key stats were pulled from these docs and presented within freetrade.
Most important for me are provider (you already state), manager name and overall fees. If just the total fees per year were pulled out and put into freetrade that’d be excellent. This wouldn’t be too hard for an intern just to do one day, and keep up to date when you’re notified the ETF terms change (I assume they’re obliged to do this). You already have a disclaimer on data so worst case they’re slightly out of date you should be covered.
Risk profile I guess you could add if it is no hassle though personally I find this pretty pointless on the ETFs that freetrade has as they are mostly trackers on a large index and it is a difficult thing to get right - even some prominent economists think risk is very, very hard to get right and a 7 point scale isn’t going to do it. It almost seems to me misleading to add a 7 point score to something as complex as an ETF to indicate risk - mis-priced risk being a common cause of financial crashes and big losses, often based on institutions like rating agencies or government agencies which people trust implicitly. I don’t care about past performance much either as most of these seem to track the indexes very well, so fees are the main thing I look for.
An alternative would be a PDF viewer built into the Freetrade app meaning that you don’t need to open it in a separate app leaving behind a file in the downloads folder. Of course and option to download for saving for later reference is also useful.
These are not all PDFs though, and even if they were I think having the important info within the app would be better - it would let you sort and filter for example on fees for etfs, and display them more prominently on the info screen for that investment.
There’s a good little company that do exactly what you’re asking for. I use their API to ensure live data is fed from these documents into my trading and analysis programs. They provide a live feed of latest Key Information links - so you’re always displaying the latest document rather than managing the document handling/linking process yourself in the back office and then they provide an API that ‘reads’ and extracts the data from the document and returns a simple JSON. Drop me a private message and I’ll put you in touch if you’re interested.
Great discussion! I agree that having Key Information Documents in a responsive HTML format would significantly enhance the user experience, especially on mobile devices. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives on how to achieve this. Integrating a PDF viewer into the app, as suggested by Shaun, could be a quick fix. However, Kenny’s point about pulling key stats directly into the app for better sorting and filtering is compelling. Also, Justin’s mention of using an API to feed live data from these documents is intriguing. It seems like a combination of these approaches could offer a comprehensive solution. Any updates from Freetrade on this front would be eagerly awaited!