The UK has seen a surge in low commission or commission-free brokerage apps such as Trading 212, FreeTrade, Revolut and now Stake has joined the club.
What is Stake?
Stake is a mix between a legacy broker and a neo-broker with a good combination of user experience and market data. The platform has over 450,000 clients worldwide and key markets include Australia (launched 2017), New Zealand (launched 2020), UK (launched 2020), and Brazil (launched 2020).
Sign up to Stake for a FREE STOCK
Simply sign up using the link below, fund your account within the first 24 hours and claim your free stock worth up to $150 (When you invest, your capital is at risk)
Is Stake Regulated?
This platform offers the ability to invest in over 6,000 US individual stocks and ETFs. It is regulated by the FCA and is covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which is good for us UK investors. It also seems it is covered under similar schemes in Australia & New Zealand, it’s best to double-check that. Let’s explore this platform further in our Stake review.
What stocks can you buy?
At the time of writing this Stake offers a vast selection of 6,000+ individual US stocks and ETFs, while other trading platforms like Freetrade and Trading 212 only offer a fraction of this in comparison. If you are an investor or trader who wants to focus on primarily the US market then this could be the platform for you.
How does Stake Work?
This is a great platform for investors or traders who are looking to focus on the US stock market. This is a feature-packed platform that has a lot to offer. For us at INKMATTIC, we see the value of not having to convert back to sterling or your local currency after every trade. This helps omit fluctuations in the daily exchange rate. Like other platforms such as Trading 212 and Freetrade, where there is a FX fee of 0.15% and 0.45% for the latter after every US trade which works out expensive and can eat into your profits if you trade regularly.
The Stake App
The app is well-designed, clean and easy to use. It has a lot of features you would already be familiar with, such as 2-factor authentication, fractional shares, Limit buy and sell orders. Dividends are paid straight into your brokerage account we usually find them to be faster than other platforms. What makes this app stand out and shine is the information it provides.
On the home screen, you can see your portfolio’s performance at a glance with total returns and returns on that day which are useful to see the day to day fluctuations.
Analysing stocks are a breeze, there are a lot of features not offered on other platforms. These features include candlestick charts, direct links to prospectus and filings, price targets, analyst ratings and recent news about the company.
Web Platform
When picking stocks, Stake makes it easy showing related stocks, top movers and fallers for the day, both useful and a pleasant feature for those of us who are just curious and looking for an opportunity to open a position.
The online web app is another option if you prefer trading on the desktop or laptop. Although we can’t seem to see any unique features yet over the mobile apps, we’d like to see advanced charts and markers on the web app in the future for some deeper analysis on trends.
Stake Fees
Although this is a commission-free investing platform there are some fees to take note of when adding and withdrawing money from your brokerage account.
- Adding funds to your Stake account 0.5% FX fee (min$2)
- Express Funding there is an additional fee of 0.5% FX fee (min$2) to the standard funding fee.
- Withdrawals – it’s 0.5% with a $2 min.
- However, ETFs – only available to those with >$30k and are classified as Elective Professional Clients.
It’s important to note that while other brokers may be ‘commission-free, a number of them will charge an FX fee on every trade as it is converted to and from USD (e.g. Freetrade charge 0.45% FX on all US trades and Trading 212 charge 0.15% FX on all US trades).
Adding Funds to Your Stake Account
You can add funds to your account via a bank transfer or via Open Banking. However, they have made it rather easy by entering the amount you want to add to your account and a few taps select your bank. It will then open your banking app and pre-fill all the information for you to allow the transfer. This is all done through the Open Banking API.
Unfortunately, there is no option to have instant funds added to your account, although we hear that is coming very soon. The fastest option is express which costs an additional 0.5% fee on top of the spot rate and arrives the next working day, while standard arrives in about 2 days and clears at 1 PM NY Time. Although it’s not that quick it’s pretty much the next day at 9 am NY Time if you choose the express option compared to the competition where some brokers already offer instant transfers, and they are free. Don’t let this discourage you from checking out this platform, it does have its merits.
Sign up to Stake for a FREE STOCK
Simply sign up using the link below, fund your account within the first 24 hours and claim your free stock worth up to $150 (When you invest, your capital is at risk)
We expect Stake to become more competitive in this area as a lot of other brokers do offer multiple ways of funding your investment account such as Google Pay, Apple Pay or by debit card. It would be good if these options were available on this platform.
Account options
Stake adopts a two-tier approach with a transparent fee structure with two tiers one being the free tier and the other a premium plan called Black
Stake (Free Tier)
This is a brilliant place to start for beginners or those who have never invested before. We think this is a good starting place, which offers the essentials; limit orders, stop buys and of course, market buys. Perfect for a newbie or that long-term investor. Best of all, it’s completely free.
- Cost: Free
- Unlimited Free Trades
- Fractional Shares
- Market Orders
- Advanced orders (Limit & Stop)
- Vote: Stake is one of the few commission free platforms that let you have voting rights
Stake Black (Premium Tier)
This plan is their top offering and really packs a punch for those who are looking for additional tools and features with an all-in-one platform for $9 a month.
Since we have been using the Black tier we have grown to love this tier with the additional features it offers from pricing targets, analyst rating, use of unsettled funds for day trading, pro-level data to get the full picture and more platform enhancements down the road.
- Cost: $9 per month
- Unlimited Free Trades
- Fractional Shares
- Market Orders
- Advanced orders (Limit & Stop)
- Instant Buying Power: Have funds from sell trades reflected in your Buying Power immediately, ready to be re-invested.
- Superior Enhancements: Be the first to experience any new features that are rolled out to the platform.
- Analyst Ratings: Make informed decisions by seeing what Wall St pros are saying about each stock.
- Price Targets: Go even deeper and see what the experts are valuing stocks at.
- Pro-Level Data: See the whole picture with full financial data on every company.
- Vote: Stake is one of the few commission free platforms that let you have voting rights
Our verdict
Stake is a well-rounded app and offers plenty of features for the retail investor. Where this app excels is with the stock universe it has over 6,000 US stocks and ETFs which is rather impressive. Most importantly the platform is one of the few commission free brokers that let you exercise your voting rights on shares that you hold.
This space has quickly become very competitive. The largest players with commission-free investing where Stake challenges them and other app only brokerages. You can read our comparison; Trading 212 vs Freetrade. Even though Robinhood pulled its UK launch in July 2020 indefinitely, we think Stake can clean up and gain market share for all those who were hoping to jump on the Robinhood train. Stake is genuinely a really good alternative to Robinhood if you’re primarily focused on investing in the US market and especially tempting for those day traders and investors who buy and sell on the regular Stake Black is a compelling option to consider.
Stake offers an easy-to-use experience and clean design. Those who are new to investing or even those who have been investing for a while will welcome this. There is a relatively higher barrier to use this platform. There is a minimum top-up of 50GBP every time you deposit money into your account. Let us know what you think about our Stake review in the comments and don’t forget to use the link below when you sign up to get a Free Stock.
Stake Sign-up Offer
| Stake Promo Link | Click here to sign up (When you invest, your capital is at risk) |
| Sign-up Bonus | Free Stock worth up to $150USD |
| Referral Bonus Terms | Sign up and fund your account within the first 24 hours to get your free stock worth up to $150 USD. |
| Last Validated | February 2022 |
