How are the valuations on the Freetrade app worked out?
I have a mix of both US and UK stocks, and I’ve noticed that even before the market is open for US stocks, the values can change. Does anyone know how/why this is happening?
The value of your US listed stocks are shown in GBP.
As the USD/GBP exchange rate changes during the day, this will be reflected in the GBP value of your US shares.
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Ah ok, but surely this shouldn’t be reflected in the % change as the current value is relative to that of the value I paid for it irrespective of currency?
The us stock’s have after hours trading if you look at something like yahoo finance tonight after 9pm you will see the closed price then the after hours price
(1) You paid for it in GBP.
(2) The current GBP price is used to calculate your gain/loss. Therefore the current exchange rate for the current US$ value, as @TradeRunner says, is used - because this is exactly the gain/loss you would achieve if you sold now.
(New Dollar Share Price x New Exchange rate) - (Bought Dollar Share Price x Old exchange rate) = Gain/Loss in GBP.
If you are arguing that you only want to see the US$ gains and losses then you need to trade in US$.
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That’s not the case, as at the point you buy the shares, the exchange rate is fixed at that point for the purchase. Freetrade then shows you the current value (in GBP) of the shares based on the current exchange rate.
For example, if the USD/GBP exchange rate was 1.0 and you bought 1 share of a US company for £100.
Then if GBP fell by 10% against the USD, freetrade would show your current holding valued ~ £110, since if you sold the share you receive that amount back in GBP.
Imagine you’ve got some funky 1990’s 3D glasses on but these glasses are special and covert things using the latest exchange rate. When you take them off nothing is moving when the market is closed but when you put them on you see that the changes in the FX market affect your holdings.
If FT did do this then you could be in for an almighty surprise when you come to see / work out your profit / loss.
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