Best free trading app

Others may like to note that brokerchooser.com has awarded Trading 212 the award of “best free trading app 2022

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bUt mY SHarEs ArE LeNT OUT :wink:

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I’ve recently opened a Sipp with Freetrade. The app is awful by comparison: still no web platform and the average price for US-listed stocks is given in GBP rather than USD :man_facepalming:

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BuT uk AcCoUntZ R CloseNeD

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I have a small position there as ‘things change’. For some reason they added MWE MTI Wireless Edge that has an mcap of about 21m, but can’t add TBLD TinyBuild that has an mcap of 400m.

Both are sadly behind their paywall, and the frequency in which I can trade doesn’t make it worth my while.

Agree the interface is shocking, I check them out every so often.

That said FeeTrade will soon offer share transfers:

I’m assuming they will do both transfers in and out :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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That’s it, LAWYERS ARE IN

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In all seriousness though, good work T212 and hopefully this puts things in context

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A very unwise financial advice to consolidate the investment portfolio in one place.

One of more basic rules about investment (and in life) is:

Don’t Put All your Eggs in One Basket

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Agreed, haven’t found a better free platform.

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that advice is more akin to “don’t put all your money in 1 stock” rather than “don’t invest with a single broker/platform”.

I have no plans to split my portfolio across platforms, making it harder to manage and grow my positions, just because I want to stick my head in the ground until it comes time due to claim my £85k protection :stuck_out_tongue:

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It’s not only about passing the protection limit. Having more than 1 counterpart (banks/brokers/etc) mitigates the risk, even if it’s a temporary risk.

For example, having only 1 bank and debit card, if there is any problem, perhaps a temporary IT or a communications problem, won’t allow you to pay for your shopping.

In matter of brokers, we all experienced the early 2021 T212 outages, having another broker will still allow you to buy/sell in another broker. GME and meme stock mania also in the beginning on 2021, bought several trading limitations in various stocks across some brokers. Also don’t forget the several stocks that are in close-only mode in T212 that prevent you to buy more stocks. As T212 is UK based, having an EU broker allow to buy crypto ETPs. As T212 don’t have all or the major stock exchanges, other brokers could offer other stock exchanges. In matters of EUR-denominated ETFs and some EUR stocks, T212 is still lacking a lot of that, other brokers are more in favor of ETF and EUR-denominated, make they an attractive alternative.

It seems that counterpart risk isn’t observed by several people, until they suffered from it, or read it on the news or hear it from friends/colleagues.

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I don’t need any of the reasons you listed for the brokers so I’m happy to continue using just one, thanks. I have multiple bank accounts which is for practical purposes but even then I only actively work with one of them.

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This post is quite the contrast from your posts on the T212 accounts thread.

Agree though - important to weigh up counterparty (broker) risk with the benefits of having things in the one place (ease of use/economies of scale etc).

Can you elaborate on that?

I’m always pro-diversification, including in brokers. As I never had just 1 broker and never advise anyone to have just one.

I regularly ask for EUR-denominated ETFs and stocks. And I also ask for the crypto ETNs/ETPs for EU investors (as FCA don’t allow them in UK). If you follow my participations since my inception you find more:

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On the other thread you said why worry about T212 not submitting accounts, is £85k not enough for you? And later, it’s protected by FSCS so no worries.

Seemed very flippant and ignored risks relating to not having access to your assets for a period of time.

I agree it is important to diversify - particularly if you’re dealing in large sums you’d be uncomfortable being able to access.

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Back to the original article, it seems not very location agnostic very US biased(Merril Edge not available in the UK, and Fidelity charge in the UK - how come the yanks get it for free?!?).

Personally for where its at, I think 212 offer possibly the best all round free trading service to UK users as well(that have already signed up), with the number of stocks available and even those with poor liquidity that get people annoyed at when their trades are not instant or suspended. Something a lot of other brokers I think would look to avoid by not adding them.

The competition is heating up however, which is good for all of us. AJ Bell is launching a trimmed down model that will appear to work much like FreeTrade, LightYear launched this year, and in the UK we still have eTorro as well as probably others I cant think of. None of them have all the services some more expensive providers have, but that’s also the point.

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Agreed. As a T212, Freetrade and HL user - they all have benefits but T212 is definitely my favourite.

Yeah I think it’s the breadth of choice of stocks or exchanges that will be a big factor as costs generally come down. AJ Bell new offering as you say will be trimmed, I think UK stocks only initially which is near useless for many arguably. The holy grail for consumers is balance of costs and choice of investments, so I think room for 3/4 big players with the cheapest offering the mainstream markets and then others with some low fees offering more, perhaps like IBKR now in UK fees very low with recent changes but offer markets others lack, but they dont do ISA so big negative to many.
Anyone reckon Vanguard will offer individual stocks anytime soon? They are a great low cost index platform just wonder if in few years would they feel pressure to add some mainstream markets like UK/US.

I think Vanguard offering individual stocks on their platform will make a mockery of their core philosophy ie ETF.

They could however set up a different business for individual stock trading without using the brand name Vanguard or buy the likes T212 or freetrade

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I understand what you mean hence why I don’t think it’s likely anytime soon, but I think offering mainstream stocks to buy and hold is more their style if they do branch out then Buying T212 with lots of margin and high fee leverage instruments. Will be interesting to see this space develop in UK though as feel quite a bit behind US in offerings of platforms etc.

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