Trading 212 Review: An Objective Look at the Platform’s Features and Fees

4.9/5

No commission trading

Support available 24/7

Over 7000 financial instruments available

OPEN ACCOUNT *Risk is involved with all trading actions

Introduction

Trading 212 was one of the first brokers to focus on providing stock and derivatives trading with 0% commission. This fintech company founded almost 20 years ago is one of the online brokers that offers innovative trading solutions, exhaustive and transparent information.

The broker has now almost 20 years of experience, and users continue to choose this broker for the seamless user experience and low costs. 

The applications offered by the broker reached the first spot in brokerage services rankings in different countries, but what exactly are its features?

To allow readers interested in choosing an online broker to get all the information they need, we will cover the features, trading platforms, financial products, fee and commission structure of this broker, along with the customer service and security measures taken by the broker in this comprehensive Trading 212 review.

Trading 212 Background and Company Information

This fintech company was founded in 2004 by Borislav Nedialkov and Ivan Ashminov in Bulgaria. After almost 10 years, it was incorporated in the UK. The Trading 212 Group was founded in 2016 – in fact, as reported by the official website of the company, “Trading 212” is a trade name that includes Trading 212 UK Ltd., Trading 212 Markets Ltd. and Trading 212 Ltd. 

The trading platforms provided by the broker are highly appreciated – considering the number of downloads of the Trading 212 application, which amounts to over 10 million. 

Moreover, the application became the most used trading platform in the UK in 2016, and in Germany in 2017. 

The goal of the company was to democratize investments by offering people an intuitive platform that could allow them to trade financial products for no fees or commissions. 

As reported on the official website of the broker, users appreciated this goal: Trading 212 counts over 2 million funded accounts, and over $3 billion in assets and cash managed. 

The broker has very positive reviews on both online stores and review platforms, and is commonly considered a valuable broker in the online world. 

Let’s see what are the features of the broker, starting from one of the most important points – the user experience.

User Interface and User Experience

Trading 212 allows users to invest in over 7,000 financial instruments. This is possible thanks to the two trading platforms offered by the broker: 

• A web platform, 
• A mobile platform. 

Both give access to the same types of assets, but let’s see in detail how the two platforms work. 

The web app – which uses the same credentials as the mobile application, to give users the opportunity to constantly control their portfolios, positions and close or open new orders – is divided into different categories that help users to browse the different products available.

Users can choose among the most popular trading products chosen by other traders and investors, US and UK stocks, ETFs and new listings on Trading 212. Users can also create watchlists to view the products they are interested in more easily. 

All the charts provided represent TradingView’s integrations. Users can choose to see the advanced charts to have more tools and indicators to make informed decisions about their trades. 

Along with price charts, users will find detailed information about the products, and the companies that issued them, including income statements, cash flows and balance sheets. 

An interesting feature of Trading 212 is that it allows traders and investors to trade autonomously or to create their Pies. The Pie is the AutoInvest tool of Trading 212: users can copy Pies or create them from scratch according to the information provided related to possible returns reported by the broker. 

To test trading strategies and get familiar with the platforms, Trading 212 gives traders and investors the opportunity to use demo accounts. 

The mobile trading platform is available on both Android and iOS devices. It has the same features as the web platform. Also here, you can set alerts, get free shares by inviting new users, see economic calendars and benefit from the educational tools provided by the broker. 

Both platforms have in common an intuitive design that allows users to open positions, read information and check portfolios with a few clicks. 

The mobile app has a design that is very similar to the design we’re used to seeing in social media platforms.

One of the features of the broker, the Pie, can be created directly from the app thanks to the “Open pie library”, which works as a sort of copy trading feature. Once users open the library, they can find all the traders and investors who publicly shared the Pies they created, along with information about these users, how many people saw the Pie, and the comments received by that particular Pie. 

Pies can only be filtered by the most popular, the newest ones, the Pies that invest in trading products that offer dividends, tech Pies, diversified Pies, ETFs Pies, speculative Pies, electric vehicle and green energy Pies, growth Pies, and ARKK (the ARK ETF managed by Cathie Wood) Pies. 

So, traders and investors can find several ways to trade and invest in Trading 212. 

According to their level of expertise, users can choose between the standard view and the advanced view, which allows them to analyze assets and check positions from the same, customizable window.

Trading and Investment Options

As previously mentioned, Trading 212 offers over 7,000 assets available for trading and investments. This is a very high number of trading products that can be easily navigated thanks to the categories provided by the broker. 

These instruments are divided into stocks, ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), and CFDs (Contracts for Difference). Fractional shares are available, to allow users to open new positions with funds as low as $1. 

To provide these different assets, Trading 212 allows users to open two different types of account: 

• Trading 212 Invest: with this account, users can invest in stocks and ETFs;
• Trading 212 CFD: with this type of account, users can invest in CFDs and use margin trading. Margin trading – or leveraged trading – is riskier since it allows traders and investors to borrow funds from the platform to increase their positions. That’s why this type of account is more suitable for experienced traders. 

For what concerns cryptocurrencies, some clarifications are needed. 

Trading 212 is regulated in the UK. In 2020, the FCA prohibited the sale of digital assets to retail traders, because of the volatility of this type of asset and the higher risks involved. 

Nevertheless, European users can still trade cryptocurrencies thanks to derivative financial products.

Crypto Trading

The exchange traded funds that involve digital assets are based on Bitcoin and Ether. But CFDs offer more crypto trading opportunities. 

There are 15 cryptocurrencies available as the underlying assets of the contracts for difference offered by the broker: Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano (ADA), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), Algorand (ALGO), Polygon (MATIC), Polkadot (DOT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), EOS (EOS), Litecoin (LTC), Uniswap (UNI), Avalanche (AVAX), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Chainlink (LINK). 

Each of these crypto-based CFDs come with a maximum amount users must respect to open new orders: 

• Bitcoin (BTC) – 1;
• Dogecoin (DOGE) – 85,000;
• Cardano (ADA) – 12,000;
• Ether (ETH) – 10;
• Solana (SOL) – 100;
• Algorand (ALGO) – 8,000;
• Polygon (MATIC) – 12,000;
• Polkadot (DOT) – 700;
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH) – 50;
• EOS (EOS) – 2,500;
• Litecoin (LTC) – 50;
• Uniswap (UNI) – 600;
• Avalanche (AVAX) – 250;
• Ethereum Classic (ETC) – 150;
• Chainlink (LINK) – 500. 

So, being available only in the form of derivatives, cryptocurrencies available on Trading 212 don’t need users to create or own crypto wallets. Unlike the options offered by brokers like eToro, you don’t own cryptocurrencies, so you don’t need any dedicated wallet to manage your digital assets. What users own is a trading product based on the price of specific crypto assets.

Safety and Security

Trading 212 takes into high consideration both the protection of data and funds. 

First off, Trading 212 is a regulated broker – licensed by the CySEC, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, so, as any regulated broker, it must follow certain security principles to operate with the authorization of regulatory bodies. 

Trading 212 is also regulated in England and Wales thanks to the authorization provided by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and registered in Bulgaria, regulated by the Financial Supervision Commission.

For what concerns data, the basic security measures are in place: the website of the broker is secured by the HTTPS protocol, to secure data encryption. 

Moreover, Trading 212 takes additional measures to protect sensitive data: 

• It benefits from the services of third-party firms, which run periodic tests to make sure that the platform is secure. Penetration tests are performed, and all the applications – as well as the whole infrastructure of the broker – are scanned to identify any bug or risk. 
• Trading 212 owns a Security Operations Center, which works 24/7, to constantly scan applications and inform users in real time if any risk is identified. 

Additional measures are taken to protect users’ funds: 

• Owned by Trading 212 Markets Ltd, the broker is protected by the Investors Compensation Fund. This fund is fueled by its members and protects the funds of users up to €20,000.
• Trading 212 also subscribed to private insurance with Lloyd’s of London, which covers users’ funds up to €1 million.

All these measures guarantee the safety of the platforms provided by the broker; real time alerts are sent to users in case any risk is identified. Moreover, in the case of insolvency of Trading 212, each account’s funds are covered – up to €1,020,000.

Customer Support and Education

Trading 212 offers many ways to contact the support center, which is available 24/7. 

Users can decide to try to autonomously solve their doubts by benefiting from the comprehensive help sections – divided into categories, to make the section easier to navigate, or by asking the support of the Trading 212 community.

But if users need additional support, or if a trader or investor wants to collect more information before choosing to sign up, they can contact the customer service of the broker in three ways: 

• By phone, 
• Via email, 
• Or by filling in the available form – it is always suggested to choose the right category for a specific inquiry, to get faster support. 

The live chat is not always available, but the customer service team always answers via email. For the live chat, the average response time is 30 seconds.

Along with efficient customer support, Trading 212 provides extensive educational material to help users navigate the platform and its application, and to better understand markets and trading. 

Along with the help center, where users can find the answers they need regarding the functioning and features of the broker, Trading 212 provides educational resources through blog posts, videos, and webinars. 

Users with different backgrounds and levels of experience can benefit from these resources – for instance, people can find an Investing 101 guide, as well as comprehensive information about dividends and how they work. 

Moreover, there’s one more tool to mention – maybe the most valuable, since it allows people to put what they learn in practice: the demo account provided by Trading 212 can help you to test all the features of the broker and your trading strategies without risking real money. 

This allows users to get familiar with the broker, customize the dashboard according to their needs, and enhance their trading skills before using real funds.

Fees

Trading 212 offers highly competitive fees, and the transparency used to show all the information needed is appreciated by traders and investors. 

Most products have no fees, and the broker doesn’t charge commissions to open or manage an account. 

Nevertheless, the fees charged for the Invest account are slightly different from the ones charged for the CFD account – also because there are differences in the types of trades users can make.

Fees Breakdown

Let’s start with the Trading 212 Invest account: 

• 0% trading commission.
• 0% custody fee.
• 0.15% FX fees are applied to transactions that involve currency trading, but only if the currency is different from the currency of your country.
• For deposits and withdrawals, deposits are free if they are made via bank transfers. Otherwise, a 0.7% fee is applied but only if the amount involved in the transaction – summed to other possible transactions the user previously made – exceeds €2000. Withdrawals are always free.
• If users need any statement from the broker, or if they want to close the account, they won’t be charged any fee or commission.
• Trading 212 set minimum deposits to €10, while minimum withdrawals and orders amount to €1.
• For government taxes, which do not depend on the broker, traders and investors will need to pay 0.5% of the amount involved in the transactions when buying UK shares. £1 is charged by the UK government when traders and investors buy UK shares whose worth exceeds £10,000. 0.3% of the amount might be charged by the French government for specific French shares, while the US government will apply $0.000145 per each US share sold – charged by the FINRA – and 0.00229% of the US share sold – applied by the SEC.
• Withholding taxes depend on each user, but they will be automatically managed by the broker. 

Let’s see the Trading 212 CFD account now: 

• No commissions or fees are charged for trading or to manage the account.
• Spreads are not always equal and change according to market conditions, so the user will need to check the average spread of each specific financial instrument.
• Overnight fees are applied to funds held in each account – only after 10 pm GMT. Also in this case, overnight fees change according to market conditions (they can be positive or negative), and they’re listed for each instrument.
• FX fees are applied: they amount to 0.5% of the amount involved, but they’re charged only on results – when positions are closed – and only if the transaction is related to a currency that differs from the currency of the country of the user.
• Deposits and withdrawals are free.
• For administrative fees, users are not charged for statements or account closures.
• The CFD account requires minimum deposits or withdrawals of €10.
• As for the Invest account, withholding taxes are automatically managed by Trading 212.

With the CFD account, users have access to margin trading, so let’s analyse the fees applied:

• Major currency pairs can be traded with leverage up to 30x, and the rate amounts to 3.33%.
• Minor currency pairs can be traded with leverage up to 20x, and the rate is 5%.
• The same rate and leverage of minor currency pairs is applied to gold and major indices. 
• Commodities other than gold can be leveraged up to 10x, and the rate amounts to 10%. The same rate and leverage applies to minor indices. 
• Stocks and exchange traded funds – ETFs – can be traded with up to 5x leverage, and the rate is 20%.
• Cryptocurrency-based financial derivatives can be traded with leverage up to 2x, and the margin rate corresponds to 50%.

Conclusion

Trading 212 is an intuitive broker with almost 20 years of experience. Launched in Bulgaria, then incorporated in the UK, Trading 212 managed to conquer users from many countries – and to become one of the most popular brokers available.

Trading 212 offers stocks, ETFs and CFDs – including crypto CFDs – for little to no costs, offering users an intuitive way to trade and invest, and diversify their portfolios. 

The broker offers innovative tools – like Pies, which allows auto investing and diversification according to the information provided by the broker. 

The focus on security is another pro of this online broker, but there are also drawbacks – for instance, there is no direct crypto trading, and the live chat of the customer support team is not always available. 

Overall, the broker offers valuable solutions and in a highly secure environment. 

Despite this, it’s important for traders and investors to always do their own research, and to consider that trading always involves risks. 

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