Passfolio Review

Richard Montana | August 2, 2022

Passfolio Securities is a San Francisco fintech that offers access to the US stock market and to cryptocurrencies via Passfolio Financial. Passfolio’s mobile trading app and web platform let people in over 170 countries invest in United States stocks, ETFs, REITs, and cryptocurrencies using their local currency and transfer methods. They charge no commission fees for stock trading, which helps investors keep more of their money. There is no minimum deposit required to get started which means that it could be an ideal broker if you want to trade or invest with a smaller amount. Passfolio also supports fractional shares, allowing users to buy as little as $1 of any stock, even those that cost thousands of dollars. I think they are worth consideration if you are looking to invest online via your mobile phone in a regulated environment with minimal hassle. If you are an active day trader, then you might feel slightly restricted as we will discuss in this article.

Summary

Founded in 2018, Passfolio was created with the mission of democratizing investment opportunities and providing fast, easy, and secure access to the US market. They achieve this by providing you with a user-friendly mobile investing app so that you can invest and trade a large selection of financial instruments. There are no minimum deposit requirements to open a live trading which makes them accessible to users of all experience levels. I also appreciate how they provide a good range of educational resources to help educate beginners so that they can learn how to make informed decisions. You can also reach out to the client support team who will be happy to answer all of your questions. Passfolio is on a mission to expand the global economy by giving people around the world convenient access to US stocks, without the hefty fees.

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Regulation

When choosing a broker, regulation is one of the first things that I look for. I would always prefer to use a regulated broker as there can be some protection in place should something go wrong. Passfolio Securities is a United States SEC registered broker-dealer, and a member of both the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash). Cryptocurrencies are not protected by either FDIC or SIPC.

Countries

Passfolio states that its services are not available in locations or countries and territories where the services may be illegal. If you access the broker’s services from other locations, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with local laws. If you find that they do not accept users from your country for whatever reason, please feel free to take a look at our broker reviews for some other options.

Platforms

Passfolio offers an easy-to-use trading platform that is developed in-house for trading the available financial assets. The platform has a user-friendly interface, which makes it suitable for all levels of traders. It allows you to create your account in a few minutes, add funds to your account using your local currency, and start investing with no minimum requirements. There are no commission fees which is great. They make money from other sources such as interest on your uninvested cash and payment for order flow.

Passfolio App

The broker presents its proprietary trading platform as mobile trading apps that are compatible with smartphones running on Android and iOS. In my opinion, because it has some of the cheapest fees and is easy to use, Passfolio can be a good option for newcomers and long-term holders. However, if you are day trading and looking for complex features, then you will probably want to consider another platform. If that is the case, then please feel free to browse our best trading platforms for some inspiration.

Tools

I found the Passfolio app to have some handy tools for analysing the markets but lacking when compared to some of the industry leading platforms such as MetaTrader. That being said, as they are catering more towards the mid to long term investor rather than the active day trader, I think there should be enough features to help you find the right investments according to your own financial goals. It is worth noting that there are no standalone tools on the Passfolio website at the moment. You are expected to make do with the built-in tools of the Passfolio app.

Passfolio Pro

Education

The Passfolio website contains a selection of educational resources to help enhance your investing skills and knowledge. They include blogs, articles and trading guides. Every week, they share fresh content about investing in the US stock market. You can visit their blog, follow them on social media and sign up to their newsletter to stay up to date. There is a decent amount of content to keep you busy and help educate you on the markets in your own time.

Markets

At Passfolio there are over 6,000 assets available, including a wide range of stocks, ETFs, REITs and ADRs. There’s something for everyone if you are into these asset classes but you will need to look elsewhere for forex trading – Forex.com being an obvious option. Passfolio makes things easier by letting you choose to either input how many shares you want to purchase or type in how much you want to invest in USD. Just remember to do your research and only buy stock from companies you believe fit your investment objective, financial situation and risk profile.

Smart Portfolio

Choosing what to invest in can be hard – there are over 6,000 stocks, ETFs, REITs and ADRs available in Passfolio. Passfolio’s Smart Portfolio was created to help new investors get started on their journey towards financial freedom. With the Passfolio Smart Portfolio feature, you tell them your investment goals and risk tolerance. Passfolio’s Smart Portfolio will recommend a portfolio to you based on your investment goals and risk tolerance. They will manage it for you using their advanced algorithm. The algorithm will periodically rebalance your portfolio with a diversified global mix of ETFs.

The Smart Portfolio has a fixed 0.75% annual fee. You can check your Smart Portfolio profit/loss anytime and choose to increase or decrease your position as you wish. You can also cancel at any time. The fee is based on the value of your portfolio.  The minimum amount to invest on Smart Portfolio is $100. This value needs to be maintained, this means if you invest $100, you won’t be able to withdraw $50, but you can alternatively close your portfolio and withdraw all your balance should you wish.

Accounts

Passfolio offer cash accounts, which means that trades must be paid in full at the time of order execution. A margin account is a brokerage account in which the customer can borrow cash from the broker to purchase stocks. The loan in the account is collateralized by the securities purchased and cash, and comes with a periodic interest rate. Because the customer is investing with borrowed money, the customer is using leverage which will magnify profits and losses for the customer. If you choose to not use leverage on your margin account, there is no problem. Simply do not turn leverage on and your account will not be allowed to use leverage. Unfortunately, they do not offer a demo account which is disappointing. Although, the minimum deposit is relatively low in any case.

Support

Passfolio provides you with access to a dedicated customer support team that is polite and prompt in response. They can be reached via telephone, email, Live Chat, and social media. I found the support team is quick to reply and are fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish. They offer full support during trading hours (9:30am – 4pm EST) and part time support during outside trading hours as well as weekends.

Funding

As a global app, Passfolio supports the following transfer methods: USD paper checks, Wire Transfers, TransferWise, ACH, TEDs, SWIFT, SafetyPay, and SEPA. However, the transfer methods available to you will vary according to your location. You will be able to access banking information for the preferred transfer method by accessing the transfer tab within the app. After having transferred money to your account, your funds may take a day or two to settle. If you have any trouble funding your account, feel free to contact support and they will be happy to help. I actually found the payment options to be quite limited when compared to other brokers. I think it would be great if they could add support for some more online payment processors and cryptos. However, I do understand it may be regulators who impose such restrictions.

Conclusion

Overall, I like how Passfolio makes online investing easy and accessible to everyone. The mobile app is very user friendly and they provide lots of resources to help you make the most of it. There are no commission fees and a generous selection of stocks and some other instruments to choose from. However, I did find the market research tools and funding options slightly limited. Other than that, I feel they can be worth strong consideration for anyone looking to start investing with a small amount. Active traders may want to consider another option from our best brokers.

Min $0 Deposit

Passfolio is a zero commission and user-friendly stock trading app that aims to make the global markets accessible to everyone.

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

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About the Author

Richard Montana
Richard has many years of experience in broker research, testing, analysis and reviews. He knows what to look for through years of trading himself with different brokers and listening to the feedback of others.