Mods please leave this up. Apologies if itās not the usual content but I think it could present an opportunity for an important discussion.
I know Freetrade Plus has had many positive reviews since launch but Iāve also seen a small cohort questioning the need for a paid tier and saying everything should be completely free.
We donāt yet know the complete story of why Robinhood took the decision to restrict trading on certain stocks today but there is some serious questions about its financial links to Citadel, who were involved the short of $GME. There are reports that Robinhood makes as much as $400m/year from Citadel.
I think what Robinhood users have discovered, to their detriment unfortunately, is that if youāre not paying for the product YOU ARE the product.
This is where I think Freetrade can differentiate themselves. A solid free tier combined with Plus gives Freetrade a path to sustainable, transparent profitability without making its users the product.
I would be very interested to hear the communities thoughts on this topic
The other thing to mention as well is while not everyone has seen the value in plus for them (which is fine) freetrade have said they donāt plan to change the price as new features are added. Rather than screwing around with prices and changing them every 6 months theyāve just gone with the price itās going to be.
And the fact is itās not for everyone and doesnāt need to be.
It amazes me people want something for free to make them rich. And they feel outraged for asking for a cup of coffee a week for it.
Someone posted 145k profit today and it wasnāt in an isa. Well that decision not to pay 3 quid a month didnāt work did it? Up to 20% cgt due on that 145k
Is there a difference between the way Freetrade and Trading212 are structured? Freetrade made their own broker service or something. I might be talking complete rubbish
Last year (if i remember right) freetrade moved to their own in house platform, its been working really well imo. Few small hiccups some slow down like today but nothing major and i dont think its ever gone down, even last year when other brokers fell over and even some of the larger brokers struggled this platform still ran. US shares are executed through a US partner but i believe its through the US partner through freetrades platform.
The payment for order flow approach which rakes in millions for Robinhood is a very non-transparent practice which gives users the illusion of a free product.
Freetradeās transparency with regards to how they monetise their business was one of the big factors that not only made me choose it as the platform for the majority of my investing but also participating in the last Crowdcube round.
Did you consider that person may have a S&S ISA elsewhere?
And also may not have expected their investment to rise as much as it did when it did?
It was likely ARB and that rise in Dec/early Jan was insane; I got caught on the other side of it. I upgraded my account to Plus and transferred my ISA precisely to get in on ARB at 18p and not have to pay CGT, and I missed the boat by 1 day.
So maybe he/she isnāt taking FT for granted as you seem to be implying (and their very grateful post suggests otherwise).
Iāve spotted a few posts by people on this forum who seem to be really irked by FT users who make significant profits without having paid for Plusā¦ Iām guessing these people all have a holding/stake in FT, and want to see evidence of their investment becoming more valuable.
Interesting Twitch stream where US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) talks about Robinhood, Citadel, etc. with a former Wall Street software developer turned activist.
Over an hour long, and Iām currently in minute 20, but I thought some people may find it informative
