Belatedly discovered that Gemma’s beta test invite was in my spam box last night so I’ve been needlessly missing out…
Waited a while for the app update, which didn’t appear until after I’d rebooted my phone, signup was straightforward and the app looks and feels very slick.
Transferred funds from my bank via bank transfer and the money was in my FT account first thing the following morning.
I placed my first buy orders, including one US stock so I could fill in the W-8BEN form which was very simple.
The only ‘bug’ I encountered was with one particular share where it kept showing ‘0’ when I was clicking review purchase. Cancelled the purchase, bought another stock, returned to the first one and it was fine, so I didn’t log as an issue as I’m sure this will just smooth out.
I’m so used to doing my research via the HL website that I’ll probably continue to do so (as I’ll still have an account there), so can’t really comment on the charts, info and suchlike but my mind has been blown by how simple it has been for me to invest today via my phone!
I can already see my investing habits changing, ie making lots of small purchases, instead of one big one each month.
Well done to all at Freetrade for finally bringing this to us and roll on the ISA coming out soon!
It would be really nice to get some sort of y-axis scale when looking at a company’s price charts. I know that what I am looking at is a month’s worth of data if I select the 1M chart, but if I identify a point of interest on the graph e.g. where a price violently dips, and I want to match this with a news event, it’s hard for me to tell exactly what day it was on.
This is especially pertinent for the MAX chart where I don’t know if I am looking at 1 year or 20 years of data due to a lack of scale.
It would be great to see the daily price change of the stocks as well as the lifetime change. Also the market total would be good. Clicking on the percentage should change these easily just like the iphone stocks widget.
Just downloaded the Beta. Haven’t made any trades yet as I am waiting for my Bank Transfer to go through.
Really like the app so far, nice and simple, but with enough information.
One feature I’d like to see, (unless it’s there and I am missing it of course ) would be to be able to save companies I am interested in to a list for potential future trades.
Thanks for the feedback, let us know how you get on once you’ve started investing
You’re not missing anything there, that sounds like the ☑ [Feature Request 🔧] Watchlist ⭐ feature that’s been requested before? If so, please do add your vote
Including cash in the Portfolio value is misleading, would prefer to see portfolio value (the value of my investments) and cash seperatly.
Also seeing a bug where portfolio screen refuses to scroll up after first investment is show. App stop/start restores normal behaviour.
Other than that my 2 basic trades completed at16:02 according to the certificates, but were not updated in app until sometime after 16:20. Not sure if it’s a bug, but the delay is notable …
I’m at the end of my first day with the Android beta. Thoughts so far;
App specific stuff:
Design is really good. Feels like a proper native Android app, not a lazy iOS port. Really well done.
Chat support is responsive and helpful.
The app really needs fingerprint log-in. It feels really odd entering a PIN into an app these days, and surely a fingerprint is both quicker and more secure?
Surprisingly few (none that I’ve noticed) bugs; everything that is there works, and nothing crashes.
Freetrade in general stuff:
Fractional shares will be great, when they arrive, and can’t come soon enough. Whilst having access to US stocks is great, I’m probably not about to drop $1200 on a single Alphabet share. Sadly.
Buying shares is really quick and easy. Why has no-one done this before?
Along with the ‘Buy’ and ‘Sell’ buttons, it would be great to have a ‘Watch’ button, so you could analyse the performance of stocks you were interested in buying more easily.
Would be great for Freetrade to have an API, so that my favourite financial app (Emma, though others are available) could show my Freetrade portfolio alongside my other investments.
Overall, really enjoyed my first day with the app, and looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.
Regarding the “seems wasted space” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, perfect space for freetradea own logo need a bit more freetrade own branding on the app personally. Literally just a couple of logos
Either that or move the buttons up. The buy, sell, withdraw and top-up ones are all below the fold/scroll for me – though I do have a semi-legacy phone with a relatively small screen.
I don’t disagree. I’m all for minimalism, but it’s such a missed opportunity.
I was well chuffed to open the app earlier and see a graph like this showing my portfolio rocketing in value … until I realised that it was due to a top-up.
I prefer to have cash included in the portfolio value. I know how much cash I’ve put in, and I know how much it’s worth now so i can see at a glance how I’m doing
I’ve been using the app since Tuesday late afternoon. At this point the market was closed, this didn’t stop me from having a look around.
The sign-up process was quick and easy, much smoother than I had expected. Again adding funds was self-explanatory. I did add less money than I had planned, as I was going to create an ISA. I’m not too fussed about that not being an option, at the moment.
The next day I placed my first order without any issues. I subconsciously tried to put the number of shares I wanted, rather than the amount I wanted to pay. My personal preference but both options would be nice.
I’ve seen some people mention the lack of information, which didn’t bother me too much. I’ve been watching what I brought for a while now. It would be nice to see more information but for now, I can use another source. Mentioning watching, I look forward to seeing a watch list. I can see this is already on the roadmap and I hope price alerts and interactive charts, will be a feature soon.
I’m very impressed with my experience so far; everything is straightforward and easy to use. I love how clean and tidy the design and the layout are. There’s not too much clutter so I can see everything clearly. I’ve talked about the app with my friends and colleagues; so it’s nice to finally show them too. I’ll ignore my IOS friends telling me I’m behind.
I’m looking forward to seeing Freetrade improve even more and thank you for all your hard work.
Device: Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
Android version 9 - security patch 5 March 2019
Bugs:
Not receiving notifications. Have checked app settings within andriod and notifications are turned on
When I had 8 orders queued yesterday I was unable to open a couple of them to review/cancel if I wanted to
Recommendations:
Firstly I’m sure you’ve received some of these and I understand the app is very much in it’s infancy so could well be planned, please ignore if the case
current yield/next div, ex div date etc and OCF on ETFs
Save location on the discover tab
sort/filter options on discover tab by country/sector/industry/security type share, etf etc
Change default timescale on graph from 1m to users choosing or to save their current selection
Queued order - tap the logo to go to the stock
Activity feed - filter options
Night mode
Overall although the app is fairly basic it is streamlined, does the job and looks fantastic. Priority is to get some of the basic information in app that saves the user having to jump to other apps or go on the web.
The ability to sort the discovery page on differing options (Stocks, funds etc)/ stock type (Defense/ tech/ construction) or by location/ stock exchange (FTSE, NSYE) would be really useful.
for the fantastic work done by the Team FT.
) would be to be able to save companies I am interested in to a list for potential future trades.
need a bit more freetrade own branding on the app personally. Literally just a couple of logos
showing my portfolio rocketing in value … until I realised that it was due to a top-up. 
