As Freetrade look like they’ll be crowdfunding this quarter, I wanted to get a feel of competitive influence - which is my main concern going forwards, especially given the stickiness of customers in this space (imo). Please select the option which best applies to you:
Freetrade is my only broker
Freetrade is my main broker, the minority of my assets, if any, are on a different platform
I am pretty much split evenly between Freetrade and other broker(s)
Freetrade is not my main broker, the majority of my assets are with a different broker
I do not have a freetrade account
0voters
Please comment with any thoughts you’d like to add.
I agree. I was on fence of where to put my ISA this year, but I came to the decision that FT is not quite there yet for me. I do think it might be my main platform in a few years once more features have been built out.
Hopefully! My feeling is that most will switch to freetrade when the app is more fleshed out…
I can’t help but worry though: When freetrade have 1000+ stocks, SIPPs, etc, what if their competitors then have 10,000 stocks, SIPPs/JISAs/LISAs, etc? Its how fast they close the gap that matters, ofcourse that’s just my opinion.
My other concern is that broker customers are quite sticky, e.g.:
Fractional shares are not transferrable
S&S ISA transfers take, on average, 30 days
etc
In any case, despite the selection bias, the numbers coming through on the poll are encouraging so far. This is not bad if you consider Monzo’s % of users who paid in their salaries, especially in the early days.
A lot of us have SIPPs elsewhere, but I guess you wernt counting that. Most people here on this forum are investors or keen free traders. I doubt it’s actually particularly representative of the 130k users
I think Freetrade and alike are going to attract many young people into investing that wouldn’t have invested without the ability to do it in a simple way at a very low / zero cost. Every year new up and coming investors will be entering the market as potential Freetrade customers. I feel extremely optimistic about the future of Freetrade. I previously held a Hargreaves Lansdown account and my strategy was mainly based around navigating the high fees. I think many people will use multiple brokers as well. A Freetrade ISA account can be a really good addition to people who have an established portfolio elsewhere. It’s great we have the options to have multiple ISA’s (1per tax year).
Hmmm. I have my money split pretty evenly between here and Wealthify but far more enjoy my experience choosing my own stocks on Freetrade.
The other platforms I use are Trading212 and Hargreaves Lansdowne.
HL’s fees are ridiculous in comparison, but they do offer some of their own funds which are well managed/diversified and forgo the usual fees.
Trading212 by comparison is phenomenal in the features it offers. Being zero-fee also I see that as the main competitor for Freetrade here.
The difference is I like the simplicity of Freetrade in comparison.
No matter how much I want Fractional shares, I also like the focus and commitment I’m forced into in my stock-picking decisions when I know I may have to devote several £100 to just one stock. Being fractional I might have only dipped my toe into some of the big players and missed out on returns, although the flexibility is nice of course.
More stocks are needed too. I get a lot of my ideas from SimplyWallSt and most of the stocks I come away with from their screening tools are completely unavailable on Freetrade, but some are on Trading212. Not many Chinese-listed stocks to be found easily anywhere though, it seems!
The other things that are needed are more charting tools, especially price alerts and STOP/LIMIT orders.
For now though, I can set alerts and track charts with TradingView.
Perhaps Freetrade could really position itself as a long-term/fundamental-analysis investor’s platform, as opposed to T212 which seems more amenable to technical-analysis traders?
I followed a friend’s link for the free share, not intending to stick around. 8 months later I’m still here, less than 2k in assets and around £200 down currently but I’m seeing this as a long term savings account (one I can’t raid when I feel like buying something) all dividends I’ll be reinvesting and I intend to make monthly deposits, possibly more as things are ‘on sale’ for the time being.
Currently split between Freetrade, Revolut (NIO & SPCE) and Stake (AER and NIO). Will definitely be moving them over to Freetrade soon as they add them on. Plus wanting to move all my stocks over to an ISA but that’ll be a tedious process
I would say I have solidly used just freetrade over the past 9 months and didn’t really look around.
Tried a few others and the competition is so far ahead (not going to name) in terms of UI, Data presented in readable formats, not to mention Freetrade has become quite buggy past month and it’s starting to push me away.
I was always full on let’s invest in freetrade it’s great, but I’m shocked at how good competitors are
Freetrade was my first venture into investing and I think I’ve been doing OK so far. I’ve since opened a Vanguard account too so I can invest in more Vanguard funds.
Biggups @Certi.Curti for your vids They really helped me get a jump start with Freetrade.
I was teetering in the edge of investing for a long time until Freetrade provided the route in. The simplicity and low fees were what attracted me to the platform. I’m a small investor but invest each month and plan to build up a bigger portfolio.
I think that there is more low hanging fruit in attracting people like me into the investing fold rather than trying to pull investors from other platforms. At least in the short-mid term.
I’m not a trader so I would be put off by too much of a technical platform. If Freetrade introduce more trader tools, I hope this wouldn’t be at the expense of the current simple platform (e.g. via an optional advanced UI) which is one of the USPs that attracts new folks like me.
Keep up the good work! Looking forward to more stocks in due course
With that massive increase in users over the last 12 months and ramp up trading activity, better prospects and so on I am not surprised. Will be interesting to see valuation and plans going forward in a formalised way.
They really helped me get a jump start with Freetrade.
