The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
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...all that said if anyone wants a freetrade referral to get us both a free share, just ask ;)
What size trades are you dealing with though? Surely all the insights is worth the £3 per trade. You can't even do dummy trades with Freetrade so you're more likely to need a level 2 subscription elsewhere on top. No idea what trading 212 is like. might be the best of both worlds as I can't imagine it lacks anything FT has(?)
Oh, and they finally added instant bank transfers/top-ups, which was really irritating me before where it took hours to appear from your bank into your corresponding brokerage acct. On occasion I used II when I wanted to move on something fairly quickly when I'd have preferred to use FT; that should be simpler now.
I've found Freetrade great. If you use the 'Plus' platform it unlocks a wider range of stocks and trading options in addition to including ISA; and standalone ISA fees are very reasonable if you don't need the plus stuff (£3). I'm a long holder so it suits me fine. Freetrade also has a much tighter spread on forex than most other brokers (with the notable exception of IB, which sadly does not offer an ISA).
Interactive investor, my current broker in addition to Freetrade, is absolutely abysmal on forex (1.5% fee that scales back progressively for larger amounts). It's a shame, because UK investors tend to invest in overseas markets less than they should because of forex costs.
The downside of FT is that it doesn't support more complex stuff (e.g. if you have participated in a raise that gives you some warrants) and is phone app-only. Execution speed hasn't been an issue for the trades I've done, so I can't really weigh in on that area.
I use ii, but switched to free trade and discovered OO because it was one of many £5 holdings that alerting me to share movements.
My first post jokingly assumed Orphans were being exploited, but research uncovered a real cracker, game changer[fill your own superlative here......] of a beauty.
Shares that are fractions of a penny get a head start when they explode with an RNS.
They shade the SP to gain pay expenses and get profits, but only charge for special services.
The research Emails are friendly and informative.
Since investing in Lithium several years ago and finding the world did not fear global warming [they do now]' I suffered, so I find my limited portfolio is suited to FT------- miss discounts for large trades though.
Freetrade is terrible, often doesn't execute, sometimes takes up to a minute. You've now idea what price you're getting it for and no way to decline it once it's known.
IG charges me £3 a trade and have. A fantastic app and web client.
£3 is peanuts to most but I guess if you are buying 2 or low 3-figure sums then it's a good percentage, otherwise just go with IG
I've been looking at free trade plus, it's £10 a month but includes isa I believe. Anyone use these? I have been using standard free trade for other trades but OO is only available on plus.
If I remember right from looking into this, they work on a spread and that’s their commission. So say the ask of a share is 21p you would end up paying a fraction of a pence above that.
Cheaper than a straight up trade commission but not free and, from what a friend told me, a nightmare in a bull market because even a tiny lift in the SP and all of a sudden there’s no margin in the trade for the broker and therefore it doesn’t get executed. On trading 212 he was waiting for two days to buy Orph and because the price kept rising, kept getting locked out!
I do 8-10 trades a month, typically of £800 - £1000 per trade. I have been using i-web now for some years and have had excellent service from them. On less than half dozen occasions I have had to have a NT. Really, I can’t fault them. They did two top-up trades in OO for me this morning, instantaneously - no delay whatsoever. Their standard cost is £5 per trade.
I wonder about ‘free’ platforms and would be interested in other posters’ experiences with commission-free brokers such as etoro - and how they cover the costs of their operation.