Recurring trades

Iā€™ve not seen any other platform have auto-stops or the like. Iā€™d suggest Freetrade just keep it simple. People are only going to regularly invest in something they believe they would buy every month regardless of price: an ETF tracking a ā€œsafeā€ index.

What is important to the implementation, however, is fractional share purchasing. When I set up a regular transfer in to Freetrade of Ā£X, and ask Freetrade to invest Ā£X in to ETF Y, I need 100% of X to be invested in Y, so thereā€™s nothing left over un-invested by next month. If there is, things start to get very awkward and decidedly non-automated and very much not ā€œset and forgetā€, which is what this feature should be about.

I canā€™t think of a use case for recurring sells, and it might be damaging just to offer it.

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Thereā€™s a need in the market, but whether FT want to address it is another question: people in the decumulation phase of their investing career (eg retirees) often pay investment managers hefty percentage fees to handle recurring sells for them.

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On other platforms that offer recurring trades any left overs just end up as cash in your account, it would work better with fractionals but itā€™s not a massive problem, I just let it build up till thereā€™s enough to buy something

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Interesting. I guess I automatically re-interpreted this idea in my head to be my own version, which is ā€œregular investmentā€, not ā€œrecurring tradeā€. I think with a ā€œregular investmentā€ feature you really do need it to invest everything so you donā€™t have to baby sit it. A basic ā€œrecurring tradeā€ feature could work the way you point out, with manual intervention.

I actually vote for ā€œregular investmentā€ :sweat_smile:

That is a pretty good article, thanks. Worth noting that the benefit of lump-sum over drip-feed is reduced if:

  1. you use a platform with zero trading fees (hmm sounds familiar)
  2. you end up being one of the minority of unlucky people who did invest that lump sum at the wrong time. Me, I like the comfort of averaging in, just in case. Minimise regret rather than optimise return.
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Lots of excellent feedback. Iā€™ll flag this one with the team and weā€™ll see how we go re roadmap.

In the meantime, if you have any additional thoughts, keep them coming!

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I am voting for this feature too and hoping to see it alongside fractionals sometime soon: Fractional shares (UK)

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I thought this plot can show the potential of DCA (or regular investing) into stocks versus setting aside the amount under the mattress (and that will work only if you can resist the urge to spend that stash on the shiny bling :smiley: )

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You can add the risk of fire or burglary to the ā€˜mattressā€™ option, which is someting that wonā€™t happen to S&P 500 :wink:

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Excellent suggestion and believe it would be yet another unique feature on the market.

Is there a way (that I am currently unaware of) to make standing order to buy shares into a particular ETF or stock. For instance letā€™s say I want to Ā£100 of an ETF (Assuming that the price of the ETF is below Ā£100) the first day of each month, is there a way to do this automatically without lifting a finger. Whether it be that the funds used to buy the ETF are taken from my bank account or through cash in the freetrade app.

In the case that this feature hasnā€™t been implemented yet, do you think this will be good idea and when you think this feature could be operational, itā€™d certainly help those using a cost-averaging strategy. I assume that the way to do it currently is to create a standing order through my bank and then buy the shares in app manually.

I think thatā€™s already a planned feature - I expect @Freetrade_Team1 will be along to confirm or not

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Hi
If Iā€™m not mistaken you are asking for limit orders

If this is it, vote and join our ranks

I believe this will be possible in the future when the Freetrade platform is up and running

I think these are called recurring trades which are different to limit orders (which are buying at certain price parameters rather than on a date parameter)

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HL has a regular savings feature where you can set up a monthly direct debit and set it to buy shares every month. I actually used to use this because it was the cheapest way to buy shares on HL, commission was 1% with a minimum of Ā£1 and max of Ā£10 I think rather than the usual Ā£11 or whatever

I think something similar (but even cheaper :wink: ) would be a good addition

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Thanks @Rob14

Is it this then?

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Thatā€™s right! Iā€™m guessing this is something that would follow on from the new platform

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Any updates on this? New platform is out and would be awesome to see some automation so can setup recurring trades and a set and forget style approach :heart_eyes:

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