Part 2 of my ongoing reviews of the free trading apps. As always, this is my opinion and experience, not any sort of professional advice.
I opened a Webull account around the same time I funded my Robinhood account, so I've been trading on each for about the same amount of time.
Webull itself is a much younger company than Robinhood. Wikipedia tells us that they're funded and owned by a Chinese holding company: Fumi Technology, and backed by Xiaomi, Shunwei Capital, and other private equity investors. However, they're headquartered in New York, even though they were established as a Delaware LLC.
Regardless, they have no significant scandals in their history, and they've come quite a way in their short time, making the most of their growth during the pandemic, with talks of going public with a valuation of $400 million.
One of the things that stood out to me over Robinhood, when I first looked at them, was that their mobile app UI seemed to offer more detail. The thing is, all of that detail is scattered over multiple tabs on the screen (forgive the multiple sized pictures).
Not only was there detailed, broad data regarding markets, stock, and portfolios, the actual quotes and graphs of the individual stocks offered more detail and would allow you to dip your toes into technical analysis: candlestick charts, multiple moving averages (10, 20, and 50 unit MAs), as well as interact with a community to judge other people's thoughts (which you might could consider to be a reflection of public perception of the company, a sometimes key factor in doing fundamental analysis.
I'm not going to burn the time and space to detail every individual tab here, unless someone specifically wants it. Suffice it to say, there's more detail than I really know what to do with.
As much detail as the mobile app provides, the browser app is cleverly disguised as an actual suite of trading tools.
I'm not going to lie, that part caught me by surprise, but it was a welcome one. Now, it's perhaps not as robust as a professional platform, but it allows you to utilize most, if not all, of the tools I've seen utilized by those that do technical analysis (which, again, isn't me).
Like I said, it was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, I just can't make full use of it. I'm not a trader, I'm an investor. I'm more prone to do fundamental analysis and invest for the long term. But if you're interested in getting into short term trading and stock analysis as a rank amateur, I feel like Webull has a bit to offer.
I used the account to dabble in cryptos and stocks with no real aim (and I lost a little money on the matter) before finally consolidating my portfolio into a more targeted/guided one. I currently have the majority of my Webull account directed towards dividend paying stocks.
Another big thing Webull offers over Robinhood: they offer IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) in addition to brokerage accounts! I feel like that's kind of a big deal from a mobile trading app.
One of my biggest frustrations is the large minimum investment in a fractional shares: $10. Like I said with Robinhood, if you're barely scraping by, $10 at a time could be a hard pill to swallow as compared to $1 at a time, which one might barely miss. So, it's perhaps geared more towards the investor/trader with more disposable income and a desire to more actively manage their investments/trades (the wrong thing to do if you're in it for long term stability).
I'm still spending time trying to root out the true utility of the app as I continue my journey and education. If I were to have to choose between Webull and Robinhood, I'm not sure I could right now.
Of note, Webull gives more freebies with signups and referrals. It's gimicky, perhaps, but it is something to note, and definitely something to take advantage of.
As always, if you're interested in signing up, using my referral link: https://a.webull.com/8XVa1Tegb2nKIYJYLu will get us both free stuff, but there is no obligation. They also give you free crypto when you invest in crypto.
Stay tuned for some of the upcoming ones. I've been playing in more crypto trading, and I've found something that I'm fairly excited about, though it's a bit premature to be sharing just yet.
You can find my write up of Robinhood here.
You can find my write up of SoFi here.
You can find my write up of Public.com here.
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