Zoom AMA #8: Product update and AMA with VP Product, Duncan Leslie. Thu 11th June, 8 PM

Itā€™s time for the next in the series of Freetrade AMAs. :microphone:

This time, weā€™ll be sharing a product roadmap update along with an AMA with @Duncan, Freetrade VP Product.

Duncan joined Freetrade earlier this year and is leading some exciting developments on the app.

Drop your questions on the thread below, and upvote your favourite ones so we can prioritise the most popular questions!

ZOOM LINK:

[DELETED]

See you next week :wave:

38 Likes

SIPPs!
Is September still on track for launch?
Will transfers be rolled out too? If not when?
Any idea of pricing?

21 Likes

Seconded on the question over Sipps!

Next one, freetrade alpha (plus) details and timings.

5 Likes

Thank you for the opportunity!

  1. Can you talk about the behind the scenes reasoning process for the product decisions?
    What are the main drivers?

  2. What is your stance on providing multi-currency accounts? Will the users be limited to just using their local currency?

  3. What is your take on geographical expansion for Freetrade?

Should the product be pushed out to as many markets as early as possible to capture early adopters may be even with limited functionality (customer support in English, product at early stage, etc). In a similar manner to what Revolut has been doing.

Or should FT wait to carefully craft the product for every specific market.

Or may be a third option which is a combination of both.

6 Likes

1.Are Lifetime ISAs expected to come?

  1. Iā€™m really worried about Robin Hood arriving in the UK with a finished & refined product and a huge advertising budget. What are Freetradeā€™s plans to defend against this?

  2. And finally I asked about gameification on a previous AMA, for example giving ā€˜badgesā€™ and ā€˜achievementsā€™ to people along the lines of ā€œCongratulations, you just did your first fraction shareā€, ā€œā€¦invested Ā£100ā€, ā€œinvested in a Dutch companyā€ etc. The idea was shot down but I just canā€™t help but feel that if it was done in collaboration with social shares/referral links then it would encourage people to share their ā€˜achivementsā€™ on social media and bring in more users which is something we all want. A real low cost form of advertising.

15 Likes

Any updates on the roadmap?
Are you happy with the speed of progress from a product point of view? Some things have took longer than expected for release, is this a concern going forward, or do you expect things to progress quicker from this point onwards?
Whatā€™s your main focus at the minute?
What excites you most of future product releases?

2 Likes

Can we definitely expect whole share purchases in future (whenever this is referenced by FT, there is always tentative language)? If so, when(approximately)?

When can we expect european stocks? And how many?

Can you recap on what will be included in Freetrade plus/alpha?

I recall certain stocks will be restricted to alpha accounts, what sort of stocks might these be? I would agree with restricting stocks unavailable elsewhere (e.g. US listed ETFs without KIID), but applying these to ā€˜bog-standardā€™ stocks goes against Freetradeā€™s democratic ethos imo, and isnā€™t a competitive offering.

8 Likes

Are we going to see LISAā€™s any time soon?

4 Likes

1st question is to echo the enquiry around multi currency accounts. Could that be included as an option in premium?

2nd question linked to above and EU expansion. I appreciate that you would like to have the app translated in each EU language and have local stocks, but this will take a lot of time. Would you consider launching a standard English version of the app with EU currency account and make it available in all countries?

Rationale on this is that most people that are interested in investing are relatively familiar with the English terminology and will most likely want to invest in big US companies. Localisation of the app could follow in due time.

4 Likes

Individual Settlement Accounts - will we offer them and how much ?
If not offered, are we breaking CSDR 38 ?
Sorry it a bit geeky talking about regulation, but would be a great product to have available

I understand why you would be worried about Robinhood as an investor (as am I). If FT revealed their specific strategies publicly would that not let competitors work around them and counter strategise ?

1 Like
  1. How has your experience at Hargreaves Lansdowne and Monzo affected your approach to things at Freetrade?

  2. What is the rationale for limiting the stock universe for non Plus/Alpha accounts? Will this limitation be for entire markets or specific shares?

  3. How are you planning to compete more with Trading 212 who seem to be making considerable progress (and who no doubt benefit for being in financial markets industry for years)?

  4. What about plans to attract a wider demographic of customers - not just millennials - but older customers?

  5. when can we expect a web interface and online tax statements?

  6. What plans apart from Plus/Alpha do you have to generate revenue?

  7. How do you decide what products/developments to prioritise?

  8. What kind of market research did Freetrade do to decide the Ā£9.99/month price of Plus/Alpha? ( Without knowing what exactly it includes, I think itā€™s too high to have broad appeal)

  9. What is the rationale for charging for things like financial news and/or limit orders - which I believe is the intention - when they are available elsewhere for free?

14 Likes

Having fully embraced fractional shares for US stocks, can we please have the option of fractional shares for UK stocks.

2 Likes

Any chance weā€™ll see a Junior ISA in the next 18 months?

7 Likes

Hi! Please, more details about European Expansion are really necessary:

  1. Which is FT situation in Ireland, Netherlands, France and Germany?
    Already released on all of them or not yet?

  2. When do you think FT will finally launch in other European countries (eg. Italy)? End of 2020, 1st quarter 2021, end of 2021?

Thanks Duncan and Freetrade Team for the AMA! :wink:

6 Likes

Hi Duncan. What are your thoughts about introducing active funds into the available investment universe i.e. Fundsmith etc. Speaking for myself here (and others hopefully), but I could finally move my HL investments over to Freetrade fully. Itā€™s a great revenue stream, rounds out the investment offering and could appeal to a different market too.

1 Like

Do you have an ETA for European stocks? Looking forward to investing in Heineken, LVMH & SAP!!

2 Likes

How did I forget to add this question?

Can we expect to see 4 decimal places shown for prices as we do on contract notes?

2 Likes

Any news on JISAs?

3 Likes