★★★★★
★★★★★
Trading 212 is a really popular trading app in the UK, offering an individual savings account (ISA) and letting you trade in a huge range of different types of assets, from standard stocks and shares to the riskier types such as contracts for difference (CFDs). It was our winner for Share Dealing Innovation in the Finder Investing & Saving Innovation Awards 2020 and it was highly commended for CFD and Forex Trading Innovation. We’ve also named Trading 212 as the best trading app for tools and research. We’ve compiled the key features of Trading 212, including details about its demo platform, what Trading 212 customers said in our satisfaction survey and the pros and cons of Trading 212.
Trading 212 is an app-based trading platform that lets you trade stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs), CFDs, forex and commodities without paying any commission.
Alongside Freetrade in the UK and Robinhood in the US, Trading 212 is one of the UK’s most popular trading platforms for beginner investors. For new investors, the main draw of Trading 212 is the fee-free individual savings account (ISA) – which we’ll go into more detail on further down.
Trading 212 would be suitable for those interested in building and managing their own portfolio. This means you’ll be choosing your own investments and balancing your portfolios based on market movements.
It’s not suitable for those who want to put their money into a ready-made portfolio to let it grow without much attention. If this sounds like you, then take a look at our comparison of investment platforms.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Trading 212 has three different products available:
Let’s go into a bit more detail about what each of these different account types are about.
Trading 212’s Invest product allows you to invest in stocks and shares without any commission. Here are the key features:
Trading 212’s stocks and shares ISA allows you to do everything its Invest product does, but with the added benefit of it being tax-free (up to £20,000 in the 2021/2022 tax year). You can read our full stocks and shares ISA guide if you need to find out more.
So, with the Trading 212 ISA these are the main things to know:
Given the total lack of fees, Trading 212’s ISA seems to be a pretty good option for investors.
It’s pretty hands-on though if you’re a beginner, so if you don’t fancy the faff of creating your own portfolio and doing your own research into investments, you should look into either a “set and forget” style robo-advisor or an actively managed fund from the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown or IG.
Instead of trading shares, you can trade a CFD. This is kind of like betting on the direction that the stocks will move.
What can I trade with Trading 212’s CFD product?
Features of the Trading 212 CFD account include:
CFDs are complex and risky. If you’re new to CFD trading then we have a guide that could help.
It’s also worth checking out our guide to CFD trading risks.
CFD trading is a lot more complex compared with investing in stocks. When you trade CFDs, you speculate on the movements in value rather than purchase the underlying asset or share. This means that you’re not entitled to receive dividends, as you never own the shares. It does mean that you can take advantage of prices going down in value as well as up.
There’s more complexity to this than just the contract, as CFDs allow for leverage.
If you’re not sure which one to go with, Trading 212 has a demo account that allows you to try it out without real money.
These two accounts are virtually identical.
If you don’t have a stocks and shares ISA already, you should open up the Trading 212 ISA and take advantage of the tax benefits that come with it.
If you do have a stocks and shares ISA, you’ll need to open up the Trading 212 Invest account, because you’re not allowed to pay into more than one ISA per year.
Remember that on top of your ISA allowance, every UK adult is also allowed £12,300 (in the 2021/2022 tax year) in a capital gains tax (CGT) allowance. This means your first £12,300 of capital gains (i.e. growth of your investments) won’t be subject to tax. Once you exceed £12,300, you’ll start paying tax.
Also, keep in mind that not many people will exceed both their ISA allowance and CGT allowance, so this consideration doesn’t really matter for most people. If you do exceed both allowances, then lucky you! It is worth noting that the ISA allowance considers the value of your initial investment while capital gains refers to the amount of profit you make.
There are more than 6,500 stocks and ETFs that you can invest in on a number of different markets. There’s a full list with detailed information on the Trading 212 website with information on the quantity that you can invest and the market hours. You can also buy fractional shares with Trading 212, which are a small portion of a share. If you get dividend payments on these shares then the amount you’ll receive will be proportionate to the amount you own.
Trading 212 is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). All client funds are kept in a segregated account.
Trading 212 is also protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000 which protects you if it were to go bust. This doesn’t cover your investments if they don’t work in your favour.
On the consumer review platform Trustpilot, Trading 212 has 4.3 out of 5 stars and a rating of Excellent, based on more than 8,500 reviews.
The love continues in the App Store, where the Trading 212 app has 4.7 out of 5 stars based on more than 1,500 reviews. On Google Play, the app has 4.5 out of 5 stars based on more than 49,000 reviews.
Customers loved how easy the app was to use, especially for beginners. Those who were less impressed cited technical glitches and pricing issues as the reasons (updated 23 April 2020).
Finder also carried out a customer satisfaction survey in July 2020.
Trading 212’s customers find the platform easy to use and think that it is very professional. Customers raved about its practice mode and interface. They especially liked the free share incentive and refer-a-friend promotion.
Some of its customers felt that the platform lacked direction and that it could do with some instructions to guide them.
There are no fees for using Trading 212, including the ISA, though there are several limits when it comes to deposits and withdrawals.
Minimum deposits and withdrawals
Product | Minimum deposit | Minimum withdrawal |
---|---|---|
Invest | €1, £1, $1 | €1, £1, $1 |
CFD | €10, £10, $10 | €10, £10, $10 |
ISA | £1 | £1 |
Nope, which is great! A lot of trading platforms have a fee that you have to pay if you are inactive with money still held in the account.
Trading 212 makes money through the “spreads” between the buy and sell price for the CFD accounts on the platform. There is also a 0.5% currency conversion charge for these accounts too.
There isn’t any commission for trading with Trading 212, but there is a currency conversion fee. This is a fee for converting the money you’re using to buy shares into the currency that the shares are in.
So, for example – if you bought 100 shares of a company that costs US$4 per share, the total amount to convert would be US$400. You’d need to pay a currency conversion charge of 0.5% which is US$2 (approximately £1.43)
Trading 212 has a demo feature on the site and app that allows you to test out the platform with £50,000 of fake money. It’s fun to play around with to get a feel of the site and how it works before committing actual money to your investments. You can “buy” anything that you’d be able to in the “Real Money” feature, such as shares in Netflix, Amazon and Apple, among thousands of others. This lets you see how the investments fluctuate over time. This is quite a useful learning platform to get a feel for investing as a whole.
Trading 212 has a good focus on teaching people about the basics of investing and how to use the platform. It has a YouTube channel with hundreds of videos to teach you about share dealing and some handy guides on the basics and terminology.
It also has the demo feature for CFD trading, but if you don’t have much exposure to CFDs then this can be overwhelming and may put you off ever looking at a graph again. If CFDs are what you’re after, give it a go in the demo mode to start with to get to grips on how it works.
Once you reckon you’ve played around with fake money enough, you select “switch to real money”. It will take you through some basic information such as your contact details and some basics on your income and savings. Choose which accounts you want and which currency you want to trade in and you’re good to go.
When buying shares you can choose how many you want and the app gives you the cost in your chosen currency, which is helpful. You have the choice to create limit orders. This allows you to enter the maximum you’re willing to go to when buying shares. If the stock prices drop below this amount before the end of the day, it will automatically place the order for you. You can also do this when selling shares by entering the minimum you’re willing to sell for.
Trading 212 has a lot of functionality considering that it has no fees. The practice mode is a great way to learn how it works, but you do need to do some external learning, so don’t expect it to teach you how to invest successfully. It does offer a huge range of resources to help you learn about investing which is helpful if you’re a newbie.
If you’re new to investing and are looking for ready-made portfolios, this isn’t the platform for you. It’s worth checking out some alternatives that have this feature. If it’s a free trading platform that you’re looking for, then you can check out our comparisons of Trading 212 vs Degiro and Trading 212 vs Freetrade.
Get started by visiting Trading212 and opening an account. Still not sure? Compare other share trading platforms with our comparison table.
Our customer satisfaction scores ("Customers say") are based on a survey of 753 customers carried out in December 2021.
Find out how Hargreaves lansdown and Trading 212 compare.
Find out how Hargreaves lansdown and eToro compare.
You can own Shift Technologies shares in just a few minutes by using an online share dealing platform. Our table lets you compare the UK’s leading share dealing accounts to find the right one for you.
Revolut has scrapped unlimited free trades for its Metal customers. If you’d like an alternative, here are some options.
Find out how to use trading orders to manage risk.
Mining stocks offer the opportunity for long-term profits, but international political shifts may halt growth and impact cash flow.
Find out the key differences between the NASDAQ and the NYSE.
Real estate investment trusts are popular among investors, but they come with unique risks. Here’s what you need to know about the real estate sector.
Find out the key differences between the NASDAQ Composite and the NASDAQ 100.
Find out the key differences between the FTSE 250 and the S&P 500.