Are there any free stock trading apps/systems like Robinhood available in the UK?

I don't think there is anything similar,but we can probably see an European expansion coming from them soon(ish):

US stock trading app Robinhood is looking for a new regional CEO to "to lead and operate our planned UK/EU expansion," google Business Insider and Robinhood expansion (since I can't post links)

Robinhood appears legit on the face of it, but I wouldn't use it because I don't trust their business model. There are plenty of platforms that will let you trade shares without dealing costs, so long as you pay them an annual fee (e.g. Alliance Trust). Robinhood, on the other hand, claims to make all its money from interest on uninvested cash and margin accounts. Well, I think we all know that's not going to amount to much. So how are they really paying their overheads? Ah, here we go:

Robinhood has raised $66 million from NEA, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Vaizra Investments, Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Social Leverage, Box CEO Aaron Levie, Path CEO Dave Morin, Jared Leto, Snoop Dogg, Linkin Park, and Nas.

It's a dot-com 2.0. If you're happy to go through the pain in the rear when the company runs out of VC sugar daddies, goes bankrupt, and forces you to transfer all your investments to a different broker who does actually make money, fine. (That's the best case scenario, and I have no reason to doubt that your investments would actually exist and be properly segregated from Robinhood's own assets.) Personally I can't be bothered. And I'm not attracted by any business who falls over themselves to assure me that they're not making money from me. I'm not a charity case, when I purchase a service I expect it to be a mutually beneficial transaction. If it's not then one of us is being screwed, and I'm not stupid enough to be certain it's not me.

Bux, on the other hand, I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. You're not investing in shares, you're investing in CFDs, so you're doubling the risk - if the issuer that backs the CFDs goes bust, you lose everything, even if the shares have soared in value. And the issuer in question appears to be a spread betting company, Ayondo Markets Limited. I wouldn't touch it if the CFDs were issued by RBS or Lloyds, let alone some bookmaker I've never heard of.

It's spread betting, i.e. gambling. They won't even let you invest until you "practice first with funBUX, our virtual money. That’ll give you a feel for trading." It's such an exclamation marks idea that even they're trying to protect you from using, er, themselves.

Robinhood, like all brokerage firms that handle securities, is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That means that your investments "exist", and they are segregated from Robinhood's assets. Google the article "Is Robinhood Safe? Here's How It's Regulated" on Investopedia (since I can't post links - did I travel back in time to 2005? Somehow Reddit solved it. Sorry about the tangent.)
1. Robinhood makes money. Their Gold accounts are selling. I see you posted before Gold was launched, but google this, too.

Source: am a Robinhood user.

savenator wrote: »

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• Freetrade.io. They are the most promising and look the freshest. Haven't launched yet, but I emailed their customer service, and "they are looking to launch later this year". They answered probably in five minutes, not sure if that's their usual speed. Real shares, meaning no CFD bs, and they'll have US exchanges, too.

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If anybody knows of another company, please share. I think we'll have Robinhood-like free trades this year or next. (I have a Robinhood account, and really want the same in the UK.)
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FreeTrade is now close to launch and you can sign up to be an early adopter or for more info when they go live here http://freetrade.io?kid=H6SKB *

Theirs is a freemium model and looks good.
Interesting article in the FT on them here
https://www.ft.com/content/f5e5d05c-1dfa-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c

Degiro offers low cost trading https://www.degiro.co.uk on a number of exchanges. It's european.

Also, iDealing, https://www.idealing.com/ offers commission free for EuroNext trading. Low cost options elsewhere.

I don't think RobinHood is progressing much but hope to see more Free Trade offerings in the future.

:money: :exclamati I have not used any of these. They all state they are registered with the FCA, but you need to do your own research on exact protection and any other fees / services charges that may be applied.

:exclamati * my link

Apparently FreeTrade's plan to make money is that anyone with more than £10,000 will be charged 1% pa. Why on earth would anyone with £10,000 put up with such a complete rip-off?