What bugs?
This probably isnāt the thread for it. Thereās a good topic on UX. a lot of the small issues I have are minor UI bugs, box bounding being wrong, blocking UI etc. Polish and refinement essentially but things that shouldnāt be around at this point in the apps life.
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I agree, what app btw? Iād be interested too
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@Viktor Is there any update on when plus will get rolled out to the waitlist? Secondly, is there any update on whether any of the suggestions on this thread will be incorporated into plus? Thanks!
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Personally I hope we wait a little while longer because they are adding to it
What you canāt see in the screenshot is that Stake are making their top tier offering free until January 2021. So offering 6 months use of the product for free.
This also now puts all worked orders in front of the paywall forever. As far as I was aware, Stake was the only other āfreemiumā provider that was planning to put worked orders behind the paywall but has clearly backtracked on this.
The features behind the paywall are now:
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Stock insights (price targets and analyst ratings)
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Advanced data
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Undisclosed āsuperior enhancementsā
To me it feels like this is the right move and, along with the lowering of the monthly fee from US19.99 to US9.99 will likely attract paid up users. I will now be paying the US9.99 a month for the new version of Black (when previously I wouldnāt have paid US19.99 for the old version of Black).
Interestingly though they offer ātrading on settled tradesā as a premium feature. Given that Freetrade Plus seems more geared for traders than investors maybe this could also be considered by Freetrade. Investors shouldnāt mind being unable to trade on settled funds and day traders would potentially follow the money behind the paywall.
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The team will send out an update to the waitlist members with timelines and news.
We discuss all suggestions internally. Keep them coming (or liking the ones you agree with!). 
The text under āSuperior Enhancementsā reads funny like they lost their train of thought when writing it.
Anyhow, the $9 a month seems like a decent price. I prefer the whole number for pricing ( wish Freetrade would round up to Ā£10 or down to Ā£9 ).
The Pattern Day Trading Tracker in the app is a nice touch
Anyway back to Freetrade, I would like some way to avoid the constant fx conversion fee.
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I second the conversion fee. Ideally reduced conversion fee or the ability to hold dollars or something else clever that could be done within an ISA
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How about automatically buying a USD-denominated dollar money market fund with proceeds of US share sales? That would technically be within ISA rules.
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I donāt think this is technically possible as ISA rules mandate asset sales be realised in the domestic currency.
On a side note, money market funds are not cash but cash equivalents. These instruments, whilst highly liquid, can seize up and experience flash crashes so do not really serve the same function and are certainly not risk free and always available.
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I didnāt know that.
I think itās one of the reasons Freetrade have not pushed hard on a seperate USD account and this would potentially drive people away from an ISA (though the tax advantages are still worth avoiding the FX fee).
I think itās worthwhile recapping what the consensus seems for the paywall, so hereās my draft on a recap. Please like this post if you agree as itās been said that likes are the benchmark FT are going by:
Freetrade
Limit/Stop Orders
ātypicalā stocks/exchanges (e.g. NASDAQ, NYSE and LSE listed stocks(including AIM))
Auto Investing/DRIP
Freetrade Plus
Includes free ISA + SIPP accounts (Maybe LISA and JISA also?)
Foreign stocks/exchanges NOT available elsewhere (e.g. Swiss, Indian and Hong Kong stocks, US listed ETFs)
After hours and pre-market trading
Live Pricing
PrimaryBid Broker integration
Lower FX fee
Multicurrency accounts
Enhanced portfolio insights/trackers a la SimplyWallStreet, etc
Miscellaneous:
-Option for annual payment that works out cheaper than 12 monthly payments
P.S. I really hope FT get this paywall right, thereās great feedback here I hope they really listen to and act on. I donāt know about anybody else, but too aggressive a paywall almost always just makes me look elsewhere to where I can find said app, etc for free - which I imagine is disastrous from a business perspective.
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@deathwaltz that is closer to what FT should be aiming at.
If that doesnt cover costs, why not add another tier for 14.99? Or 19.99? I certainly think a foreign currency account could be well worth it.
We need to realise that FT is losing millions. Every day the losses grow. It is not sustainable and most investors want a profit.
I am glad the team have not released the plus yet. It shows they are still working on it and have almost certainly delayed it. There is plenty of time. Another 6 months is nothing over 10 years. Maybe delay plus until SIPPs are ready?
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These are my thoughts on Freetrade Plus and itās pricing. I just saw @deathwaltzās post and I strongly agree with it. Itās great to see the community is thinking along the same lines.
Freetrade Basic
The basic plan should include what you need to invest with confidence and ease.
- Access to major exchanges (LSE + AIM, NYSE, NASDAQ, among others)*
- Limit orders, stop losses (and ideally close at/take profit orders)
*Exclusivity by market rather than stock gives users certainty.
Freetrade Plus
Freetrade plus features should go beyond what is reasonably offered for free elsewhere. The features below could be offered alongside an ISA, SIPP and ā maybe later on ā a JISA. I personally donāt think LISAs are a worthwhile addition (for the time being), especially with their hefty withdrawal penalty.
- Reduced/no FX fee
- Live market data
- After hours and pre market access**
- Ability to hold multiple currencies in GIA/multi-currency accounts (particularly for USD)
- Trailing stop loss
- Stop loss timeout**
- Premium insights
- Premium news/reports integration
- Free same day withdrawals
- Interest on cash balances
**This isnāt about making Freetrade a trading platform, instead about allowing users or their stop losses to react to events outside of normal market hours, such as earnings.
***Set in seconds (e.g. 100s). Prevents short and sudden downswings from triggering your stop loss.
Pricing
Plus in itself is an investment, so should help users save on fees and make more informed investment decisions. The jump in pricing between ISA and Plus seems too big. More than tripling your monthly subscription could be hard to justify. If Freetrade plans to offer just two plans ā ISA and Plus ā they may be better charging in the Ā£7 range. Alternatively they could tier pricing, Ā£3 for an ISA (or SIPP or JISA, charged individually), Ā£6 for Freetrade Plus and Ā£9 for Freetrade Pro. That could help separate customers, with Plus users looking for more features and Pro users looking for advanced options and significant savings on fees (mainly FX). Likewise, levels of FX fee savings could be tiered between the plans (e.g. 0.25 down to 0.10 or 0).
I also think Freetrade would be better pricing at whole numbers, Ā£9 or Ā£10 rather than Ā£9.99. Otherwise it feels like the pricing scheme of a legacy broker, it doesnāt shout fintech. A whole number is also more consistent with Freetradeās ISA pricing.
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Pretty much nailed it for me
My 2p = I prefer whole numbers for the pricing, I think Ā£10 feels a lot cleaner than Ā£9.99 and fits better with the existing Ā£3 ISA charge
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Long term your recap indeed is a great value proposition, count me in! The question is given the time/budget constraints what is the minimum amount of features that are still seducing for a significant % of customers?
From the latest pitch deck the plus adoption is projected at less than 10% of the customer base by the end of the yearā¦
Short term, in my opinion these features would be sufficient:
- reduced FX
- limit orders
- SIPPs/ISAs
- Enchanched portfolio insights
- premium customer support
For the stocks behind the paywall would prefer to wait for the explanation from FT. I am not fully convinced by it but I see the logical explanation (correct me if am wrong) Lower market cap stocks will cause many unfilled orders and putting them together with limit orders does make sense.
Everything else could be built on top and ideally move towards your value proposition.
If it takes years to build all the features you mention would prefer FT to start with smth intermediate and start making money. It doesnāt have to be perfect from day one.
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Please @Viktor make sure you guys donāt focus too much on SIPPs/ISAs and other country-specific tax-efficient accounts. This will make scaling the product offering to other countries very difficult.
Some PLUS features in which I would see scalable and direct value:
- reduced FX fees (using your customer data, specify a cut-off average monthly trade value at which the plus subscription fee would be amortized. Even if the FX fee is just reduced a little bit, this could make a big difference in attracting high-value portfolios and large-ticket trades and doesnāt cannibalize your FX revenue source if executed right)
- multi-currency accounts (even if just EUR/USD are introduced for now, this offers access to a large market)
- auto-investing / re-adjustments (could be implemented to execute at bulk ā low direct costs for you but big plus for customers).
Of course, tax-efficient accounts certainly add value and could still be implemented at a later stage once Freetrade has been made available to more countries.
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