I invested in both of the last two crowdfunding rounds. I am unhappy for a few reasons and Iām interested to know if other investors feel the same. In summary my points are as follows:
App development too slow
Social strategy not influencer/creative content focused enough.
**App Development**
I use freetrade regularly as a customer. My concerns are as follows
New Stocks Why is it taking so long to add the stocks and ETFs? I donāt understand why you are not scaling this rapidly and adding far more stocks and ETFs very fast. Its too slow.
App data doesnt update properly Why is the app so slow at updating asset prices and purchases? The app doesnāt update the stock prices fast enough, it lags. In addition, It lags when you make purchases and its trying to calculate your new cost basis/ P/L. Iāve had occasions where I make a purchase and it incorrectly calculates my P/L on that asset because it hasnt correctly updated the cost basis for the shares. Iāve also had numerous situations where ive purchased shares and it does not show up in my activity log or on the share page for ages. Also bugs with trying to buy a share in Google for three days straight and it not processing.
This is simply not good enough if you want to compete!!!
Security - right now there you donāt log in with a username and password, you use a link in your email. This means if someones email is compromised they can lose access to their freetrade. No option for 2 factor authentication and you expect people to deposit tens of thousands of pounds?! not good enough. I cant even update my email address or address without contacting support?!
Stock Info Its taking FAR too long to make the graph functions better and add more information on the stock pages.
**Social Strategy**
Commission free trading is spreading like wildfire and at this rate you will simply become a feature on other peoples more complete apps, like Revolut and robinhood, if not others. Itās going to be just like when instagram stories started and snapchat got smashed.
The USP of freetrade needs to be that you have created a massive social community.
you need to hire influencers to make stock market content on youtube, or partner with stock market commentator youtube accounts.
You have about 2400 followers on instagram, ive seen people with 100k followers that post business/investing Memes. Seems pretty obvious to me that if you want mass exposure you need to make or sponsor viral content/accounts.
Discord/skype/facebook chat groups where people can discuss stocks.
Blog posts on investing need to be increased
Final thoughts
60k users might seem great now but with no fees on trading these guys need hundreds of thousands of users to create any meaningful revenue relative to their skyrocketing costs.
They need to roll out revenue generating features like cryptotrading, options or CFDs etc and the speed that they bring out features gives me no confidence at all.
Anyway just some general thoughts interested if anyone has feedback,
Iād have to disagree with this conclusion. Commission free trading isnāt spreading like wild fire. Those who are offering commission free trading are doing so at a limit per day, offered via the 80% losses people make on cfd trading, or are (and possibly all are) offering at a loss to gain customers, or are gaining money through hidden fees or spread not mentioned to the customer at the time they buy and sell.
Quite frankly I think all of the small handful of platforms offering free instant trading will change their strategy once they have enough numbers of have haemorrhaged to much money.
The most used ones lay forms on the U.K. all offer paid instant trades still. The cost of those is coming down I would say, but Iām confident that free is unsustainable.
Itās normal for financial application to not let you just update things like address without contacting customer service, Freetrade have to comply with AML regulations just like Banks do
I notice you invested in R5, Thatās only a couple of months ago, how much progress did you expect in that time? Iāll admit Iām a bit impatient to see things like the European rollout and fractional shares, but we need to be realistic
As an investor Iām delighted Instagram influencers arenāt being used. Theyāre a waste of money.
Having a high number of followers is meaningless when you donāt know anything about them, if theyāre not all just other āinfluencersā, or even if theyāre real.
I actually dont agree with this. From a security standpoint you cannot assume 3rd party systems are secure when you donāt have any insight into them.
Freetrade can detect that you have faceID enabled for example. They can not detect if you have 2FA on your email. So they have to assume you donāt and base security decisions around that risk.
The fact is most people simply do not have 2 factor enabled on their email.
I invested in R3 and R5. Thus far, Freetrade has exceeded my expectations for a start up company in a competitive market. Theyāve delivered an app which I trust enough to try to max out my ISA allocation and which I have recommendeded to friends and family.
I agree that the product is not perfect and that things are taking a long time to fix or develop but I for one am excited about whatās in the pipeline/roadmap: Trello
As with every other startup there will be a lot going on behind the scenes. Itās not like everything has stopped just because itās not yet public. Look to the future
After years of forking out at least Ā£10 / trade ( Halifax, HL ) Iām a happy investor. Add US / European fractional trading soon and Iāll be a very happy investor.
I want to buy a share in Tesla, it shows a non updated price on the screen.
You guys think its acceptable that the app doesnāt have real time price refresh when they are expecting you to make instant orders?
edit: sorry iām clicking reply on peoples comments and it seems to be writing it at the bottom of the post instead of as a reply.
investor. Add US / European fractional trading soon and Iāll be a very happy investor.