Do your due diligence, please, before investing your lifeās savings. The UK entity where your account has been created with that broker lost money in 2019. Plenty of info is also available on this community forum pointing to their dark spots.
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@szb I donāt quite get your point? Yes, they lost money, but Freetrade also isnāt profitable yet. Regardless, your money is protected up to Ā£85,000 by the FSCS with both brokers.
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My point is before holding long term positions with any broker it is common sense to check their financials.
Same due dilligence that should be applied to your stock holdings. If you get stuff for free smb is financing the good life.
FT has a world class VC behind and more than 8k private investors. With the other broker you have 2 Bulgarians (no nationality discrimination intended. I am personally a non EU national) holding 50/50 each with little information disclosed about them publicly.
If you donāt have a clear idea of their annual cash burn on the invest business segment and the liquidity headroom to finance all this good life, it seems like putting your money at risk.
Not even talking about extra stuff like the dividend policy (millions distributed over the past years), planned capex, possible CFD ban risk etc.
It strikes me that nobody seem to ask them questions about their U.K. 12/19 losses (the accounts are publicly available since June) which speaks to the sophistication of the crowd over there.
The groupās consolidated accounts have not been published yet which is inconsistent with previous years timing (delay might simply be due to COVID though).
There is also news that can be easily googled about settlement over the losses they generated for their crypto currency clients couple of years ago.
I am all in for an open discussion and it is possible that the answers to this questions are positive.
FSCS protection is good but for how long will your money be blocked before you get it back? Imagine your Ā£/$ blocked for a year and missing out on potential investment returnā¦
As a trader/investor/client putting your lifeās savings at risk urge everyone to double check all the tiny details.
It is always the small print that bites you in the place where it hurts. Better to be mega diligent than sorry in the long run.
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Can someone explain to me the benefits of Freetrade Plus? Itās Ā£9.99 for what? the additional features just look like what other platforms are offering for free, so why do we have to pay for them? Would like some insight to this. Thanks
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This is the thing you donāt have to pay for them. Itās an option, I still think even if you were to pay for plus you would be better off than some of the incumbents. Again you donāt have to pay for it itās an option
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You might not want to pay for them.
The current features are listed on their web site Freetrade Plus
Itās up to you to decide if A. You need those features; and B. It represents value to you
It wonāt be worth it for everyone, not everyone will need those features and not everyone will find it valuable enough. Some others will
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Again, howās that different to Freetrade? We donāt even get to see the accounts, so at least with them you can see exactly what financial health they are in.
I also fail to see how having 8k crowd-funders some how makes it a safer place to hold your money? Iām an investor from Rounds 2 & 3, and I know there are massive risks. That said, it was great when the Draper backing was announced as it really gave me confidence.
Anyway, I think weāre getting off-topic!
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You can, actually, go the companyās house and download FTās accounts.
It is a question of judgement.
For me, loss making start up backed by top VC and more than 8k investors with unmatched level of transparency is > 2 private individuals with little public info available + loss making business subsidized by smth that can be banned + ceo posting on this forum under different name (check the financial times article) + group structure with some entities having unclear business activity and the list goes onā¦
If that brokerās groupās accounts are published I can try making the financial analysis if anyone is interested. I analyse financial statements for money in my profession life. Analyzing brokerage business is hard though as there are many industry specifics. You can check the basic stuff still.
This seems to be on topic with so many people asking free āstuffā
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I understand itās optional, but the very same features, additional stocks, options and limits are all available on other platforms for absolutely FREE. Why put up a pay wall is my question.
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The company needs to start generating revenue. Again itās cheaper than the incumbents. Out of the members on the LSE, Freetrade even with this plus option is one of the cheapest options out there. Additionally itās only so long all of these companies can give away these features For free Id rather Freetrade figure out how to monetise early on by tailoring a product with their community, by no means is it going to be perfect in the beginning but other time Iām confident it will be
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Thanks for the tip on companies house, I will have a gander 
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Can we, please, get an answer on this question? It has got quite a few likes
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Exactly.
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How is FT unparalleled in transparency? Iāve taken the decision to invest in a couple of rounds but the information available was a sales pitch - that isnāt a criticism just reality. We have no concrete info on FTās ability to generate the expected income it was predicting (any more than until next year we wonāt have concrete info on whether T212ās investment ops are self-sustainable as they are claiming for later this year).
Due diligence is all well and good but at least judge companies by the same standards and donāt be blinded by enthusiasm for a particular platform - that isnāt logical or rational. Someone commented that FT may succeed because of community spirit but I see no real difference between this forum and the t212 equivalent!
The sooner that both FT and T212 stop taking shots at each the better for both companies. Both have pros and cons - trying to sow doubt based on speculation really doesnāt help (after all FT have not been without critics).
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I agree, FT have made very clear their main aim is to compete with the big boys where you do have to pay for limits and stops, and trades and forex and holding fees etc. They dont have to be the cheapest for everything to be a major player in the market.
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Good points! When FTās statements are published they should be given the same scrutiny as anybody elseās!
Actually, pushing to keep the discussion to be more high level and chiffrĆ© (donāt have an English equivalent for the French word meaning Ā« using quantitative facts Ā») than discussing ethics/pointing out a single element such as fees.
There is actually 0 shots taking from the FTās side. We fortunately donāt have a CEO subscribing to competitorās forum and writing stuff (what a joke seriously?)
Imagine Tim Cook writing stuff on Androidās forums.
The transparency doesnāt look unparalleled to you because you have gotten used to it (no offense intended). A community forum where the top management answers clientsā questions + latest series of AMAs are indeed unparalleled. Correct me if I am wrong, but have seen very few start ups doing this. And in France btw this is literally inexistant currently (unfortunately).
The industry average, imho, is the recent what3words crowdfunding level of communicationā¦ (sorry if there are any investors, hope they will be a succĆØs)
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I really like the idea of freetrade plus but im not willing to pay for it until I cant easily get/utilise the same features elsewhere for free, its that simple for me.
Paywalling stocks to create false value for money= bad
Adding genuine value with tools and analytics etc = good
Thats just my opinion in a nutshell.
Until then, I wish the team the best of luck in their feature development
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If Plus includes a live quote system, itāll be a better value proposition.
Those paying Ā£10pm are likely to have a larger pot, make larger trades and hence larger (perceived) losses due to (hidden) spread.
If Iām paying >Ā£1k for anything I want to know exactly what Iām getting, even if it is for the long term. Itās a question that comes up often in the forum.
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So can you hand on heart say you honestly think the Freetrade plus plan in its current suggested form is good value at Ā£10 a month?
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I get the need to generate revenue but surely thereās a way to do it without charging an excessive fee for what is very limited features that are pretty much offered as a standard elsewhere. In its current form the new features are very threadbare. For a site thats called āFreetradeā going through a great period of growth to then put stocks behind a pay wall seems counterproductive. Surely right now you want to entice the new members in to stay for the very long term (which is where the money longterm will come from) rather than giving them reasons to go to an alternate provider that offers these features and much more for free.
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