Which is the best stocks and shares app?

Thereā€™s an interesting discussion going on on the Monzo forums asking about which Investment app is best. Points I found quite interesting:

  • Freetrade is seen as competing with roboadvisors like wealthify or nutmeg
  • Beginner investors get very confused and intimidated by jargon like pe, etfs or picking individual stocks
  • Beginner investors often gravitate towards funds with fees on the assumption that professionals must know best

This reinforces my feeling that to really expand to a mass market freetrade needs to also offer some far simpler unmanaged product which lets you invest monthly in any market (global, uk, or usa say). Many people are really intimidated by picking stocks or jargon like etfs.

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Investing language and jargon is intimidating, excludes new investors and thereā€™s no excuse not to use plain English.

Thankfully Freetrade donā€™t do that but the perception of the sector is hard to break

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Well I do think they use jargon a little, for example a new investor signs up goes to discover tab and is confronted with refs to etfs, ultrashort maturity bonds and infrastructure funds at the top of the list, and I do think the guidance for new investors could be improved. I sort of understand what ultrashort bonds are but have no idea whether I would want to buy them or when.

Just a really simple option to invest in global stocks or something would help a lot I think.

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I think better filtering on the discover page, combined with a default filter that shows more ā€œfriendlyā€ sounding stocks at the top would solve that

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Although I donā€™t like their fees, the HL app is really great.

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Its at a minimum though but there are plenty of well written blogs to refer to.

Some kind of robotype product would definitely attract those who just want to give over their money and hopefully some of those would then learn and invest for themselves

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Itā€™s a good point! There was a mention on the recent Forbes article below about sorting the discover tab. Iā€™d like the first one you see to be Freetrade favourites or beginner portfolios.

ā€œmost importantly improved insights for your portfolio and stock collections within the discovery toolbar. Think collections such as ā€˜female CEOsā€™ or ā€˜electric car companiesā€™.ā€

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Obviously the team are immensely busy with lots of things but a robotype product replicating an etf seems a good product to attract some customers and may add revenue without huge outlay. Sounds good

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Webullā€™s worth a shout, it complements Freetrade well. I donā€™t think you can buy though it yet in the UK, but itā€™s packed with handy features for tracking a portfolio, markets, commodities, currencies and so on.

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I mean there are plenty of global/national ETFs available. As others have mentioned all thatā€™s necessary is better discovery.

I think itā€™s helpful to think of this from the point of view of a beginner investor.

You hear about investing and how it is a good idea, you try out a few apps - other apps guide you through setting up a monthly payment, a few questions about risk (though personally I think those are a waste of time) and youā€™re done, youā€™re now an investor in the stock market.

Sign up for freetrade, and youā€™re confronted by a list of ā€˜ETFsā€™ and stocks to buy. You donā€™t know what an ETF is, or how to pick stocks. Even the distinction between stock indexes (with strange names like S&P 500) and ETFs is confusing at first. You have no idea what to do and just close the app in confusion.

Blog posts are not going to help you unless you want to learn about stock picking, and only then after quite a long journey. Many people wonā€™t complete that journey through lack of time, money or inclination and would be helped by something simpler, even if later they choose to pick their own stocks etc. The evidence for this is found on this forum too in posts by beginners frequently asking what they should buy. Freetrade canā€™t advise them, but the way choices are offered does subtly guide people.

I agree better discovery would be nice (for everyone, not just beginners), but thatā€™s not enough IMO - I think it would be helpful to have better onboarding too - perhaps ask do you want to just invest or pick stocks, and guide them towards a simple monthly payment and global ETF if not.

I really like the freetrade service but as-is do not believe it is tailored for beginners as yet. This is not meant as a criticism of the freetrade team or product, just a suggestion which might help encourage people to use it who would otherwise turn to other products. I thought the discussion was interesting also, as it highlights how a newcomer to investing views these apps, and also how they view fees, and how that perception could be managed a little better.

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Agreed. I really like Freetrade and started as a complete beginner with virtually no knowledge of investing or the jargon that goes with it, but I have had to put in significant time to get myself to a level of knowledge where I feel I have some idea of what is going on.

I was happy to learn, but I know so many people who would be put off by this aspect - Who donā€™t have the time, who arent interested in financial markets etc etc. I agree there should be more guidance for complete beginners

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I really recommend DE GIRO, it has been around for a while - but being Dutch they do not support ISAs etc - and they wonā€™t. Their UI is actually quite good, and far superior to FreeTrade at the moment.

For instance:

  • there are separate tabs for ETFs, Funds, Stocks

  • they display break even point

  • they display closed positions and the breakdown of the stocks price movement AND currency movement

  • they display a ā€˜day difference balanceā€™, as well as a ā€˜total differenceā€™ so you know where you stand since you began trading and the days results.

  • they display a portfolio very concisely, the ticker, quantity, currency code, current price, total amount invested, and todays price movement in % and number in a very simple elegant way.

I donā€™t think a huge chart with performance on the main screen helps too much. We can work out numbers surely, eg 2100 for ā€˜portfolio balanceā€™, with a ā€˜total differenceā€™ of 400, implies ~ 20% increase.

I really want FreeTrade to continue and get better - I was frothing at the mouth for their Android app, but if they need pointersā€¦ just look at DE GIROā€™s UI.

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Kennyā€™s right on the novice investor experience.

Would it be advice if users who havenā€™t traded yet were presented with a dismissable screen that sits before the standard discovery list and which says something like this?:

ā€œThere are funds which are usually called ā€œetfsā€ - we have a [guide about them here]. There are also individual stocks. Hereā€™s a [guide to dividends]. Hereā€™s a guide about (etc). We cannot give financial advice because we donā€™t know anything about your individual circs but if youā€™re not sure what to invest in, consider taking a look at global index tracker etfs to get you started, and then learn from there.ā€

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Iā€™m getting pretty frustrated with the availability of information on stock performance on freeshare - either I find stocks I like on other stock comparison resources, but theyā€™re not available to trade in freetrade, or theyā€™re available on freetrade and hard to find for comparison in other locations.

I would suggest that thereā€™s enormous potential to keep customers in the freetrade ecosystem if you offered an end-to-end experience without having to use external websites to work around the simplistic discover screen.

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For the moment itā€™s research on the HL app / buy on Freetradeā€¦

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