Reviews

Freedom Finance Review 2023 - The Good and the Bad

By Stefano Treviso, Updated on: Apr 07 2023.

Freedom Finance in a Nutshell

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Freedom Finance in 60 seconds

• Over 1,500,000+ financial instruments from major global exchanges
• Well-regulated and part of a publicly traded company on NASDAQ
• Access to buy stocks at IPO pricing

Freedom Finance is an equities broker founded in 2008 belonging to the parent group Freedom Holding Corp (a publicly traded company on NASDAQ exchange). Their specialty is providing access to more than 1 million stocks, ETFs, bonds, futures and options worldwide along with IPOs.

Freedom Finance Full Review

Here’s what we’ll talk about during our review: 

• Is Freedom Finance Safe?
• Freedom Finance Minimum Deposit and Withdrawal
• Freedom Finance Trading Fees
• Freedom Finance Available Assets
• Freedom Finance Mobile Trading Platform
• Freedom Finance Web Trading Platform
• Freedom Finance Research and Analysis Tools
• Freedom Finance Educational Tools
• Verdict

Is Freedom Finance Safe?

Freedom Finance is part of the investment company called Freedom Holdings (FRHC) which is publicly traded on the Nasdaq exchange and has been operating since 2008.

Freedom Finance operates providing brokerage services for both retail and institutional clients, additionally they also provide banking services.

As of this moment, they operate under the following licenses / registrations:

• CySec (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission)
• BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority - Germany)
• SEC (Securities Exchange Commission - US )

Freedom Finance is a 100% real equities broker, meaning that they do not trade against their client nor they route their orders to other brokers via an STP model but rather provide direct market access to exchange’s liquidity pools.

From all the above facts, we conclude that Freedom Finance is a high reputation broker which can be considered safe.

Freedom Finance Minimum Deposit and Withdrawal

Freedom Finance has no minimum deposit requirements. Here are their available payment methods:

• Credit Cards
• Debit Cards
• Bank Transfers

Clearly, when it comes to payment methods Freedom Finance is outranked by the majority of retail brokers as they do not provide any type of electronic wallets.

Freedom Finance allows the following base currencies:

• United States Dollar
• Euro

The deposit / withdrawal process is pretty straightforward once you’re a verified client and transferring funds between different accounts is quite easy as well.

Freedom Finance Trading Fees

Being a traditional equities broker, Freedom Finance charges different types of fees according to the service plan chosen by the customer. Let’s go over each of them:

Spreads

It’s very important to note that the below spread comparison won’t be of much help as Freedom Finance does not mark up their spreads as they provide the actual market spread which will always tend to be lower when compared to any CFD market maker.

Market spreads are always changing, that’s why they’re referred to as dynamic.

Commissions & Fees

Freedom Finance’s commissions vary according to the chosen account type:

In their All inclusive USD account they charge,

• 0.5% + $0.012 per share with a minimum  of $1.2 per trade
• $0.65 per USA stock options contract
• 12% for margin lending

In their Smart in EUR account they charge,

• 0.02€ per share with a minimum of 2€ per trade
• $0.65 per USA stock options contract
• 12% for margin lending
• €0.05 for each SMS notification

In their Fix in EUR account, they charge,

• 10€ Monthly account fee
• 0.012€ per share with a minimum of 1.2€ per trade
• $0.65 per USA stock options contract
• 12% for margin lending
• €0.03 for each SMS notification

Other Fees

Additionally, Freedom Finance charges the following fees:

• Up to 2.5% on credit card deposits
• 7€ per each bank transfer withdrawal
• $60 for debiting securities
• Brokerage commission of 0.12% of trade volume for OTC trading and $30 per settled trade
• IPO Fees (to be explained further in our review)

Freedom Finance Available Assets

Freedom Finance provides access to American, European and Asian exchanges with an asset offering well above 1,500,000+ financial instruments. Here’s how they compare:

Clearly, Freedom Finance’s offering can be quite attractive for those interested in real equities, options and futures. On the other hand, for traders looking to trade cryptocurrencies or currencies, they may find themselves better served with a different choice.

Freedom Finance IPOs

One of the best selling points of Freedom Finance is that they allow their customers to buy stocks at IPO prices. Let’s take a look at the different conditions:

When it comes to IPO pricing, their structure is quite simple. As you can see in the image above, if you were to purchase less than $20,000 from a particular stock at its initial public offering price, your costs would be 5% of the transaction value with an additional $0.5 per share.

In order to be eligible for being able to purchase the maximum number of shares at IPO price, you must meet various requirements at their discretion (such as portfolio value, trading activity, etc). The better you perform, the higher your rating and the larger the number of shares you’ll be eligible to receive.

Freedom Finance Mobile Trading Platform

Freedom Finance’s platforms (both mobile and web) are completely custom developed and we can definitely say that the mobile version is very user friendly. Let’s take a look at some of its features:

Mobile Home

From here users will be able to access all the different areas of the platform.

On the top, you’ll get a quick look at how major indices are performing, your balance and your asset watchlist. As you scroll down, you’ll have different tabs linking to articles of their proprietary section called “InvestIdeas” with great suggestions on what to buy and why.

Asset View

If you click on an asset from your watchlist or you find it using the magnifying glass on the top right corner by typing its ticker symbol, you’ll land on the asset view.

The asset view will present you with an expandable candlestick chart to view the assets price and several key data elements on the bottom such as the margin requirements.

Order Placement

If you click on the asset view’s top right tab, you’ll be able to open a new order.

The order settings window is quite slick and easy to understand. To change your order type simply click the squared button next to the price and you’ll be presented with several order options:

While we appreciate the simplicity, we would still like to see traditional order names with a more streamlined interface to execute them. We can’t seem to grasp who would execute an order with the “Previous Closing” price and realistically get it.

Another important point of the order placement area is the order settings button.

Here users will be able to further customise their trading order (for example, stop, etc) and activate the use of margin lending (leverage) and trade on borrowed funds.

Portfolio

The portfolio section allows users to explore an overall view of their standing and also accessing the open orders and executed trades.

InvestIdeas

InvestIdeas is one of Freedom Finance’s most appealing features. Think of it as a very high quality financial analysis blog presented inside your app for free with great ideas on what to buy and the reasons behind it.

When clicking on any of the articles, you’ll access the idea itself.

Each idea will contain entry and exit points along with key explanations on why the author of the article believes it’s a good investment or not.

Freedom Finance Web Trading Platform

Freedom Finance’s web platform can be found by clicking on the tab called “Web-Terminal” once logged in to their website. Let’s take a look at a few of its features:

Web Home

The main area of the platform is well structured as they provide immediate access to the main global exchanges with a convenient timer to know when each market opens or how long until it closes based on the user’s timezone.

Searching for assets, viewing information and placing orders can be done directly from this area without having to open new windows or scroll any further.

Asset View

The asset view panel can be found at the right side of the watchlists panel and changes dynamically based on which asset the user has selected.

The information provided is quite useful yet we believe that they definitely need to change the language used to deliver it as many users can be left confused by how they choose to present it.

Order Placement

Placing an order can be done in the panel at the right but bear in mind that it will require you to open a security session. This means that you must first receive an SMS code and enter it on your platform before you’re able to trade.

While this security feature can be a plus for some, we consider it a problem as it’s very likely that if you’re travelling internationally and for some reason your phone is not working you end up not being able to trade.

The configuration options for order type or settings such as margin operates in the same way as in the mobile platform.

Portfolio

The portfolio area can be found by further scrolling down from within your platform. Although we call it a portfolio, there are many more areas to access from it such as: news, alerts, asset risks, etc.

This is definitely a well built area of the platform as performing basic functions such as searching for trades or managing orders can be done quite easily.

Charting Tools

Freedom Finance’s web charting tools can be accessed from the same area where the portfolio can be found by clicking on its tab.

Their charting tools are quite limited and slow. Clearly they would fare much better by integrating TradingView on their platform.

Freedom Finance Research and Analysis Tools

Freedom Finance does not provide any meaningful research and analysis tools beyond their proprietary InvestIdeas section.

We’re definitely looking forward to them creating a custom stock screener that allows users to filter through their vast asset offering to find their desired assets.

Freedom Finance Educational Tools

Freedom Finance does not provide educational tools.

Verdict

Freedom Finance is definitely aiming at becoming one of the industry’s leaders when it comes to equities.

Our favourite features of Freedom Finance were their massive asset offering with 1,500,000+ financial instruments, their capability of allowing users to buy stocks at IPO prices and their savings D-account with 3% yearly interest.

Additionally, on the legal side, being part of a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange adds a great layer of security making them a safe choice.

If you are interested in: accessing over 1,500,000+ financial instruments from global exchanges and trading real stocks, etfs, options, futures and bonds on both short and long timeframes, Freedom Finance can be a great brokerage services provider for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for cryptocurrencies, CFDs, currencies or any other asset class, you’ll find that other brokers can give you a more comprehensive offering on those instruments.