Gotrade Review

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Gotrade is a mobile app-based stock-investing application that enables users to invest as little as $1 in fractional shares of U.S. stocks on an easy-to-use, commission-free platform. It was launched in 2019 with the vision of making investing fun, fair and simple for everyone, everywhere. There are many online trading apps competing for business and expanding in new markets, so Gotrade has had to quickly build trust and offer customers an intuitive, easy-to-use and low-cost trading experience.

Summary

Gotrade enables people to invest commission-free in fractional United States stocks without any hidden fees. The company was founded in 2019 and is based in Singapore. Gotrade is on a mission to make investing accessible for literally anyone in the world – empowering users from 150+ countries to start their investment journey.

Gotrade offer real stocks – not CFDs. While stocks are held in ‘street name’ under the clearing broker, your name is still listed as the real and beneficial owner and have the rights associated with the security such as dividends and voting rights at the company’s annual general meeting.

If you undertake 4 or more-day trades and your account value is less than $25,000, your account could be restricted from trading (as that would be considered a violation of the pattern day trading requirement). If you intend to day trade and do so often, it’s recommended that you maintain a total balance in your account of at least $25,000.

Gotrade charges no commissions on its trades, but unlike Robinhood, it does not adopt the controversial practice of monetising from payment for order flow. The broker generates revenue by charging 0.50% to 1.20% in FX fees (depending on the source currency) if users choose to deposit their funds in local currency that is then converted into U.S. dollars for trading.

All trades are sent to Alpaca Securities LLC, a FINRA licensed broker-dealer in the U.S. and executed at the National Best Bid and Offer as per the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission’s regulations.

As the trades execute directly in the U.S., all contracts on Gotrade are fully backed by real shares held in the U.S. This arrangement is supervised by Bappebti, the derivatives regulator in Indonesia.

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Regulation

When choosing a broker for trading or investing online, regulation is one of the first things that I would look out for. I am therefore pleased to see that Gotrade are regulated in some jurisdictions. This means that client accounts are protected if thigs do not go to plan.

Gotrade is a trading name of Gotrade Securities Inc., which is a securities licensee licensed by the Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA).

Gotrade acts as an introducing broker to Alpaca Securities LLC, a U.S. stock brokerage that is regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and serves as an intermediary.

FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) is a self-regulatory organization under the umbrella of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). FINRA plays a critical role in ensuring the integrity of the US’s financial system.

Platforms

Gotrade App

Gotrade is a platform that makes it possible for investors to own a piece of American companies through fractional shares trading. Essentially, users can buy parts of shares in some of the U.S.’s biggest companies. You can decide how many fractions to buy, or can set your budget and the app will automatically calculate the number of fractional shares they can afford through notional value trading. The app is modern, sleek, intuitive and very user-friendly. Part of the mission of Gotrade is to make online trading and investing more accessible to everyone.

Gotrade users can search for specific stocks, or browse through categories from Tech Giants to Sport, Fashion, Gaming, and other listed companies in sectors that they have an interest in. Once you click on a listing, a chart shows that particular stock’s recent price movement, as well as its market cap, dividend yield and more. Recent news flow from the company is also displayed. Clicking on any of these terms reveals a pop-up which explains the meaning of the term. From this page, users can buy or sell according to the position they wish to hold in a particular stock.

All fractional shares are shown on a user’s Portfolio page, where they can track performance, add companies to a Wish List, and sell shares they no longer wish to hold. When dividends on a share are paid, they go into the user’s account.

Gotrade App

Tools

There are some basic trading tools within the Gotrade app which you can use to analyse charts of your favourite assets to try and identify market trends. They can be a great help when it comes to assisting you with making decisions of what to buy and sell. Whilst there should be enough for those of you who are not planning on conducting any complex market analysis, those of you who are more technical traders might want to have a look at our best trading apps for some alternative options.

Education

Like many investment apps aimed at first-time or relatively new traders, Gotrade includes educational content, like pop-ups with definitions for investment terms, and news articles about publicly-traded companies. This can help to keep you up to date with what is happening around the financial markets so that you can be inspired and make informed decisions.

Markets

The broker allows users to invest in stocks and ETFs without commissions or hidden fees. This is good when you consider some brokers can charge double digit commission fees for placing orders. However, they do not provide forex, commodities or cryptocurrencies. If you are looking for those particular asset classes then you might want to consider another leading brokerage firm such as TD Ameritrade who have a wide range of financial instruments which you can trade and invest in with zero commission fees.

Accounts

Gotrade keep things nice and simple with one account for everyone. You can signup using in just minutes using your email and start browsing a good range of fractional stocks to invest in. All you need is a government issued photo ID, a smartphone and 5 minutes of your time.

I think it would be good is they offered a demo account option to help beginners get used to the platform and invest with virtual funds until they build up some confidence to fund their account.

Support

Gotrade have a friendly and approachable team who you can reach via live chat. Responses do take longer than some other brokers but there are plenty of FAQs on the Gotrade website where you can get a quick answer to most questions that you may have.

Funding

You can deposit into your Gotrade account using bank transfer. Wise (formerly Transferwise) is an online money transfer service which allows users in over 59 countries to fund their Gotrade accounts. Gotrade works with Wise to bring this convenience to you via the Gotrade app.

The withdrawal fee is $2 (For supported local currencies/countries only). This isn’t a Gotrade fee – it’s a fee that they are charged to send your funds back to you. They do state that they are working on bringing these down for everyone with the end goal is to get this down to $0 in the long run and pass on those savings to users.

You might be charged a currency conversion fee so you should be aware of that before making a deposit or withdrawal. You can check your Gotrade app to check the applicable fee in your country.

Whilst I appreciate the convenience and security of bank transfers, I think they could improve over the long term as they grow by adding support for E-Wallet payments and cryptocurrencies.

Conclusion

Founded in 2019, Gotrade’s mission is to remove the barriers and the often-high costs that can be involved with investing in US stocks. Gotrade makes it possible for investors to own a piece of the company by removing geographical boundaries for investing. It also does not charge commission and removes minimum deposit sizes.

Users from 150 countries can buy fractional shares in global corporations on the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ from as little as $1. For instance, if Facebook is trading at $100 per share, Gotraders can buy 1/100th of a Facebook share with that $1.

I think that Gotrade has the potential to fill a significant gap in the market as is evident with the funding they have been granted and rapid growth even during the earlier stages of their development.

While other competitors rely on gimmicks like free shares, Gotrade set out to build loyalty with a superior app that lets users transfer funds using the banking apps and payment methods they already trust, use their funds to buy stocks right away and enjoy lower fees for funds transfers.

The Gotrade app lets users buy fractional shares in NYSE and Nasdaq-traded stocks starting from $1 USD. Gotrade does not charge a commission on its trades. Overall, I really like what they are doing and hope to see them grow into one of the best trading brokers over the coming years – the foundations are certainly there.

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Gotrade enables anyone in the world to invest commission free in fractional US stocks from as little as $1.

All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

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