inApp
Rating: Stock investing

Firstrade: Invest & Trade

gamed rating

Firstrade is a convenient commission-free broker, but the app regularly locks people out of their accounts. At the worst moment it drops the connection, and a person gets stuck in an open trade overnight. When it works, everything is fine, and that is exactly the problem.

32real score
4.7store star
8,552ratings
About the rating

A sharp gap: a store average of 4.71 against a text average of 2.62 and only 24% five-star ratings among reviews with text. The substantive complaints are specific and repeat: it constantly refuses to let people in, drops the connection, people get stuck in trades overnight unable to log in. Part of the negativity is in Chinese about login being unavailable. The storefront clearly does not reflect the real experience.

Strengths

What users love

  • A simple
  • Clear interface
  • Fractional shares
  • Bonds and funds to compare. People praise it as the easiest platform to learn among the ones they have tried.
Weak spots

What users hate

  • Constant login problems and dropped connections leave a person locked in a trade with no account access. There are no conditional orders on mobile
  • No options-spread grouping
  • And the new design hid the cash balance several screens deep.

Who it is for

Those who value commission-free trading and simplicity, trade at a calm pace, and can tolerate the risk of not getting into their account at the crucial minute.