| Review: Is WeBull Worth Checking Out? |
[19 Sep 2019|02:27pm] |
If you're an experienced trader, WeBull's zero commissions could be very attractive
WeBull Financial LLC was founded in 2017 with a simple premise of merging technology and finance to create an easy-to-use, zero-commission brokerage and market data app to aid investors of all levels.
Although the WeBull stock trading app has over 10 million users, it's really geared toward experienced traders who want advanced real-time market data options combined with first-rate charting on a trading platform that's available 24/7 with zero fees for account opening, account management and trading commissions.
By keeping costs low and simultaneously providing the fundamental and technical analysis necessary for users to make split-second decisions, WeBull is putting institutional-caliber technology in the hands of everyday investors.
Oh, you still need to make the right calls, but when you've got the resources of WeBull and its low-cost trading platform behind you, the opportunity to buy stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and American Depository Reciepts (ADRs) has never been so easy.
WeBull Review: Pros
WeBull is regulated by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). This means less funny business and more trading without worry.
WeBull Financial LLC is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Individual customers' securities are protected up to $500,000 and a $250,000 maximum for cash. In addition, its clearing firm, Apex Clearing, provides additional insurance coverage for an aggregate of $150 million in securities and cash for its entire customer base.
Further, WeBull offers zero commissions on more than 5,000 U.S. equities and ETFs. There is, however, an SEC and FINRA trading fee on all sales. E.g. If you sell 100 shares at $10 a share, the SEC and FINRA fees would amount to 22 cents. Not bad for a $10,000 trade.
WeBull also provides margin trading with an annual margin rate between 3.99% and 6.99%, depending on the amount borrowed. Anything up to $25,000 is charged 6.99%. Anything above $3 million is charged at 3.99%. There's a sliding scale in between.
If you're day trading, you can leverage up to four times the amount you've contributed to your account; if you hold for more than a day, you can leverage up to twice the amount.
What's more, there arenNo extraneous fees for account opening, account management or software platform fees. And seasoned investors may like being able to short stocks.
Other pros include:
• The platform accommodates mobile, web, and desktop users.
• WeBull's research allows users to screen for stocks based on market cap, P/E, dividend yield and many more.
• It allows you to set up watchlists of stocks listed in more than 90 countries including the U.S. and Canada covering over 25,000 stocks, more than 100,000 funds, and 3,000 commodities.
• Each of the stocks on your watchlist come with news, analyst ratings, an indication of whether investors are bullish or bearish, and comments from the WeBull community.
• Customers can trade in pre-market trading hours (4 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. EST) and after-hours (4 p.m. to 8 p.m.).
• Both the mobile and desktop versions come with $1 million in paper money to learn how to trade using the WeBull platform.
• WeBull's platform is fully customizable to meet your needs for following and acting on the information.
• The charting capabilities that come with the platform include 22 technical indicators, more than enough to figure out when to buy and sell your stocks and ETFs.
WeBull Review: Cons
The biggest negative of WeBull is that it doesn't provide trading in stock options, over-the-counter stocks, mutual funds, bonds or cryptocurrencies. Considering it provides quotes for some of these securities, it would be nice if you could also buy them at the same time.
The second negative about WeBull is that it currently only supports individual cash and margin accounts. It does not support IRAs or any other type of tax-advantaged investment accounts.
Not really a con, as much as an observation for investors considering WeBull, are the fees for transferring cash and stocks in and out of the platform. The fee for depositing cash via a domestic wire is $8; the fee for transferring cash out of WeBull is $25. The fee for transferring cash by international wire from outside the U.S. is $12.50; the fee for transferring cash via international wire from outside the U.S. is $45. The fees for transferring securities in and out of WeBull range from $0 to $75 depending on whether you use Apex Clearing or a Contra Broker. Apex charges $75 to transfer out securities.
Although WeBull provides basic real-time quotes at no cost to users, advanced quotes are available for a monthly subscription varying from $3.99 a month to $82.99 a month depending on which stock exchange you're subscribing to for advanced quotes. Considering you can't buy stocks on many of these exchanges, it's unlikely you'd want the advanced quotes in these markets.
Should You Trade With WeBull?
WeBull's zero commissions will be attractive to investors of all experience levels. The mobile app provides plenty of information to keep track of your favorite stocks and ETFs. It's definitely worth downloading the app just to try out its $1 million paper trading account.
If you're a more experienced trader, there appears to be enough meat on the bone to make it worth your while to give WeBull a try. However, if you're trading stocks for a living, you might want to consider other options available that don't provide zero commissions but do provide a robust trading platform that goes beyond what a zero-commission brokerage account is able to deliver.
WeBull could be a useful tool for the average buy-and-hold investor to follow a concentrated portfolio of stocks or ETFs. However, as I mentioned earlier, it doesn't support tax-advantaged accounts, so if you want a low-cost way to save for retirement, WeBull might not be right for you.
As always, it pays to do your own due diligence, but from what I've seen, it's worth checking out more closely.
As of this writing, Will Ashworth did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
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