Webull Fractional Shares
Webull, one of the newest online brokers, was founded in 2017 and launched with a mobile app only in May 2018. Webull’s primary target market, the millennials, was reflected in this mobile launch. Webull is positioning itself as a platform that can serve active traders and other people who are drawn to a platform that offers a wide range of services at no cost, including commission-free trading of stocks/ETFs or their options and multiple cryptocurrencies. Webull is more geared towards self-directed investors and offers a smaller range of services than its full-service competitors. That said, Webull customers get a lot of bang without the buck: a nice platform with a wide range of helpful tools and features, along with competitive margin rates. We’ll take an in-depth look at Webull to help you decide if it is the right broker for your portfolio needs.
Webull won Investopedia’s Best Broker for Low Cost Options Trading, Best Day Trading Platform and Best Low Cost Options Broker in our 2021 Best Online Brokers Review.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Webull does not charge commissions for stock, ETF or option trades. There are no minimum account requirements. Margin trading is available to accounts of $2000 and higher.
- Webull offers options, stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies. This smaller selection of assets is meant to serve a client base that skews towards younger, self-directed customers comfortable with technology and wanting information on the go.
- Webull is easy to use, providing good trading functionality and a broad package of tools and functionality including news, fundamental and technical analysis, and stock screeners.
- Webull is not the broker that people should use if they are looking for more products such as managed accounts, mutual funds, fixed income, and mutual funds. Investors who prefer working with an investment advisor and want access to live trading assistance should look elsewhere.
- Fractional cryptocurrency trading in multiple cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Dodgecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, ZEC, and XLM commission free.
Who Webull Is For
Webull is for investors who want to get into financial markets with no minimum account sizes and commission free trading. Webull isn’t a full-service broker. Its customers require a DIY approach to some aspects of portfolio management. Customers at Webull are generally younger than customers at other brokerage firms. The broker’s no cost model will also appeal to active traders. Webull’s no-cost options trading will be particularly appealing to active traders. This is because all other brokers, including those that offer free stock and ETF trades such as Schwab, still charge commissions for each leg.
Pros
- No commissions on stocks/ETFs, options, or cryptocurrencies
- No minimums or fees, easy account setup
- Free real-time streaming quotes
- Simple to use platforms that provide excellent content and tools
- Access to trading hours that are extended and pre-market
Cons
- No income on excess cash
- Potential for execution to be halted by payment of order flow
- Portfolio management tools are limited in number
- Access to fixed income, mutual funds or foreign exchange is not available.
Pros Explained
- Webull offers something free of charge. There is no commission stock or ETF option. Cryptocurrency trading is especially appealing for traders who don’t want their hands tied. Trading strategies are easier to profit from because they have lower implementation costs.
- The account opening process only takes a few minutes. You will receive account and options trading approval very quickly and it only takes a couple of additional minutes to add your bank account and set up a free ACH transfer. Even though the transfer might not be completed for several days, you will receive purchasing power.
- Webull provides free streaming quotes and three-month free access to Level 2 Advance quotes. The service is Nasdaq TotalView, and it provides a greater depth of bids and asks on a security as well as information showing market depth. You can also find auction crossing information for all NASDAQ NYSE stocks and regionally listed stocks on NASDAQ Marketplace Center.
- Webull’s mobile and desktop applications platforms are both relatively new. It has an intuitive design, is simple to use, and it is fresh. The applications are packed with helpful tools for trading, especially considering all the tools are free to the user. The customizable workstation platform provides news, fundamental information on companies, and has watchlists, a stock screener, charting, and aggregate ratings from multiple analysts. Despite all the information, it is organized in a way that makes it easy to use.
- Many active traders like to trade the market in the pre and/or extended hour trading periods, and Webull customers have the ability to access these hours. Traders have the option to make their orders available during non-regular trading hours.
Cons Explained
- Customers of Webull do not receive interest on any cash balances. Webull does not support mutual fund trading so customers cannot proactively invest any cash in a money-market fund. In today’s low short-term interest rates, this may not seem to be a problem. However, the potential loss of interest on cash could be more apparent if rates rise.
- Webull can offer trading and all other services for free because it receives payment for order flow (PFOF). This fact may reduce Webull’s price execution quality. The speed and precision that orders are generally filled at today somewhat lessens this as a significant issue for most traders, but day traders and those using other strategies highly dependent on execution quality may be at a disadvantage.
- Webull offers a number of useful tools for traders, but the portfolio management tools are not as good. Customers of Webull are expected to be able to make their own trading and investing decisions. There are no daily or intra-day market letters, and no research or analyst reports on stocks outside of aggregated analyst statistics. Webull does NOT offer financial advisors, recommend portfolios for rebalancing, control over tax lots on sales or offer a dividend-reinvestment program (DRIP). Currently, Webull doesn’t offer fractional equity shares, although the broker has expressed that they plan to add fractional stock shares soon.
- Webull offers a wide range of stock, ETFs and options, as well as cryptocurrencies. There are no fixed income investments, mutual funds, international equities, futures, or foreign exchange offerings at Webull. You get what you see.
Usability
Webull is easy to use, with clean and intuitive navigation. Webull offers a website, desktop workstation and mobile app. They are all well-designed. The platforms share a modern look and feel because of having been built so recently.
The desktop workstation and website are nearly identical, with the same menu and window setup that focuses on a primary set of buttons down the left side of the screen. These buttons allow you to launch customizable quote boards. A stock page that provides a wealth information about a single stock, ETF or stock, as well as a market overview page and stock screener. An account tab shows balances, positions and buying power. You can also access bank transfers to and from your account. There is also a dedicated paper trading area. The website has some differences from the workstation. It only supports single-leg options.
Although the mobile app has the same primary features as the website and workstation websites, there are design differences that allow for smaller screens. The app screen’s menu buttons are updated to reflect the current content. For example, an options button appears as a choice at the bottom of the stock screen showing an individual stock/ETF.
Watchlists can be easily created across all platforms directly from stock screener results. You don’t have to create watchlists on different platforms. Watchlists are also consistent across all platforms, including the web, mobile, and desktop. It’s easy to order and traders can customize the trading ticket information, such as share amounts and order type.
Trade Experience
Webull’s workstation is highly customizable, with templates available for trading stocks and ETFs, options trading, day trading, and for cryptocurrency trading. Traders can switch between these different template pages, and can build their own page layouts from scratch through widgets. Each widget contains different information such as news, basics, options, order entry, sales, time, and so forth. To save screen space, the widgets can be combined. The different widgets are accessible via marked tabs at top of the window. You can group widget windows together to ensure that stock entries in one widget will update in all other widgets.
Trading setups allow for highly customizable user experiences, such as hot keys, home page loaded at startup, default stock, option orders and commonly used share quantities. You can do the most customization and flexibility on your workstation. Website did not include all the templates for trading pages on the workstation. The learning center was also not accessible via the website. When necessary, the system will direct you to other pages, such as the stocks window, which allows you to view stock-specific information, news and charting.
Webull makes it easy to place an order. You can add the order screen to other screens. The stock order entry screen also includes contingency orders that allow for profit taking and stop loss levels. Order tickets can be created directly from your account holdings. Simply click on the market bid or offer to automatically add that information to the trade order widget. Trading was also possible directly from the charting program. The chart shows active positions and orders.
Mobile Trade Experience
Although there are minor differences between the workstation and the website, there is an overall consistency across all platforms. Although the mobile app offers the same basic features of the website and the workstation, there are some design differences that allow for smaller screens. Menu buttons adapt along with the content screen you are on, serving up the main functions that you are likely to need. Mobile charting allows you to trade directly from the chart and shows you your open positions. Webull’s drawing tools were also easier to use than the mobile charting software of many other brokers. The mobile app doesn’t allow access to Webull’s stock screener, but you can convert search results done on the website or workstation into a watchlist that will sync to the mobile app.
A wide range of offerings
Webull focuses on U.S. Stock and ETF trading, and U.S. listed options and offers only personal and IRA accounts in the United States. Webull’s product offerings may not be a match for the breadth of offerings available at full service brokers, but they meet the needs of their younger customer base less interested in fixed income. Webull allows trading in multiple cryptocurrency for as low as $1, which is a departure from many full-service brokers. There is no fixed income, mutual fund, futures, or traditional foreign exchange trading available. Investors using Webull can trade the following:
- US Stocks/ETFs, long and short (2,0005 stocks) are currently listed on Webull’s easy-to-borrow list for short sales
- US Listed Options on stocks and ETFs
- Cryptocurrency trading with Bitcoin, Dodgecoin and Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoins, ZEC, and XLM
- Note: NY State is the only US state that has not yet approved cryptocurrency trading on Webull, but the company expects the approval shortly.
Types of Order
Webull offers the most commonly used order types, including market, limit, stop, stop limit, and trailing stops. There are also specialty orders such as one-cancel-the-other (OCO), one-triggers-an-OCO (OTOCO), and one-triggers-the-other (OTO), allowing traders to setup a conditional order where a filled limit order establishes an OCO attaching both a stop loss and a profit taking level order once the initial position is established. Webull does not offer market-if-touched, market-on-close, or similar orders.
Webull doesn’t offer traders control over tax lots on sales to close a long stock position; they use the first in, first out (FIFO) methodology. Webull also lacks automated trading, backtesting of strategies, and the ability to stage orders.
Trade Technology
Webull’s trading technology is basic, although it does get the job done. Webull reports a net price increase of 0.0056 per share and $1 for each option contract. No smart order routing, trading automation, backtesting, or route control are available. This is in line with the broker’s basic approach to keeping costs low.
Costs
Webull is not a low-cost broker but a free broker. They offer commission-free trading in stocks, ETFs and listed options. There is no fee for minimum account requirements or access to their powerful platforms and tools. Webull’s margin rates also are competitive. Webull’s commission-free trading means that we don’t charge for trades. However, they must pay Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), transaction fees and other regulatory fees. These fees are usually pennies to fractional pennies per contract. Webull’s costs are as follows:
- No commissions for online trades in equities, ETFs, or OTCBB trades
- Exchange traded options are free of commissions
- No commission on cryptocurrency trading
- Margin is available for both leverage and short sales, and margin rates are based on account size. By breakpoint: Under $25K 6.99%; $100K 6.49%; $250K 5.99%; $500K 5.49%; $1MM 4.99%; $3MM 4.49%; and >$3MM 3.99%
- Money transfers: There is no charge for ACH deposits and withdrawals. Wire Transfers cost $8 for US deposits and $12.5 if you are international. $25 for withdrawals within the US, and $25 for international withdrawals.
- Paper statements charges: Confirmations are $2 per confirm, account statements $5 per statement, and prospectus fees $2.5 per mailing
How this broker makes money for you and from you
It has become harder to understand how brokerage firms generate revenue in the age of no commission trading. Webull is unabashed in telling investors how they make money that allows them to provide a sophisticated platform and zero fee trading.
- Payment from Order Flow: Webull clearly wants to be the first to offer no commission trading. Options are now free to trade on Webull. Webull’s pricing page is very clear and states that PFOF is the reason they are able to offer no commission trading. Webull gets an average $0.00024 per share from its order flow and $0.525 per option contract. Webull’s average price execution improvements are $0.0056 per shares and $1 per option contract.
- Interest on Cash: Webull’s ability to generate income through cash in its traders’ accounts is another important revenue stream. The company doesn’t pay interest on cash balances. Webull keeps the interest earned by Webull if you have cash in your bank account.
- Stock Lending Program: Webull offers a stock lending program. The investor who lends the securities shares the revenue. The interest paid through the lending program depends entirely on the market demand for your securities.
Account and Research Amenities
Webull offers a broad array of account information and research amenities, including fundamental data, news, and charting to help traders make informed investment decisions and identify stocks to trade. However, Webull does not provide the types of tools and information available at full-service brokers, such as daily market reports or individual analyst reports or in-depth portfolio analysis tools.
Stock Screener
Webull has a stock screener, available on the workstation and website but not the mobile app. Although the screener can only be used for stocks, it is simple enough and offers some functionality not offered by other broker screeners. Only the United States, China and Canada can be selected; Webull offers data and charts for US, Honk Kong and Canada markets. However, U.S. account holders have limited access to trading in U.S. market markets. For the U.S., you can select the exchanges to include (NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ), and can filter by more than 25 industry sectors, financial information such as EPS, P/E, Dividends, and by nine pre-set technical indicators including overbought/oversold and moving average crosses.
The technical indicators are easy to use, but somewhat limited. We could not screen for stocks that moved beyond 200. Additional filters include a consensus analyst rating of five grades (strong buy/buy, hold/underperform, sell), and whether the stock can be traded with margin. Stocks can’t be screened for socially responsible investing (SRI). You can save a customized search and convert it to a watchlist. You can choose any stock from the search results to view key financial and technical information, as well as an order window.
ETF and Mutual Fund Screener
Webull does not offer an ETF screener, and they do not offer mutual funds on their platform at all.
Options Screener
Webull does not have a screener to identify specific option trade opportunities, but they do have tools to help construct the most common one, two, and four leg option strategies (vertical spreads, straddles/strangles, butterflies/condors, etc.) using a drop-down menu on the option chain table to select the strategy. You can then bring up the payout graph at maturity for the strategy, and use tools to further customize the strategy through different order types or adjusting the width between strike prices in multi-leg strategies.
Fixed Income Screener
Webull does not offer fixed income on their platform.
Charting
Webull built its own charting functionality, and it is a solid offering. Mobile app charting is a bit different than on the web and workstation because of the smaller screen size, but it is very intuitive. Charts can be used to create alerts and order tickets. You can also add analysis such as Bollinger bands(r), moving or exponential moving averages, relative strength index (RSI), average trade range (ATR), multiple stochastics variants, and other commonly-used analysis to your chart. Again, it seems odd that neither the 50, 100, or 200 period MA was included in the set of six defaults in the program.
Webull is a new web-based trading platform that has made waves in the Forex market. Fumi Technology, a Chinese online holding company, operates Webull. It allows clients to buy and sell a variety of virtual assets such as shares, ETFs and derivatives as well as commodities like gold, dogecoin, and shiba coin. You can also get market commentary and trade alerts from industry experts to help you make informed investment decisions. A demo account with the webull trading app is required for investors to get a feel of how the system works and to determine its suitability for their investment goals.
The Java-based software platform used for desktop trading platforms is the basis of the webull trading app. The webull platform allows access to real time quotes of stocks and options as well as to fundamental data such as market depth, price and volume. The webull desktop trading platform is designed for both iOS and android devices and comes loaded with over one million product images and a large variety of media files. First, download the free trial web edition and then install the webull trading app on your phone. You can trade anywhere in the world in less than five minutes!
Webull allows traders to buy and sell securities with real money. This means that webull trading does not require any particular expertise in order to execute trades. The app uses mathematical algorithms and sophisticated algorithms to identify good opportunities and prevent losses. It analyzes market signals and actions and then makes trades. The app alerts traders immediately if it detects that a security’s peak volume is rising. This allows them to take immediate action before the price moves. The best part is that all trades are fully customizable. This means that traders can set limits on how much they would like to invest, the maximum strike amount, and also what type of stop loss they want to use – a custom, or an automatic, limit set at the time the investor thinks the investment is under risk.
Webull requires a minimum deposit to trade. The maximum amount is unlimited. After investors have created an account at webull, they are able to deposit funds into that account. Traders can start either holding a ‘buy’ or’sell’ option, and they are able to do transactions in two ways – using cash transactions or using credit card transfers. Credit cards are recommended for smaller investments due to the higher transfer fees.
Many people asked us why they should use webull instead of traditional trading platforms. Webull allows investors to do two types of transactions, buying and selling. In traditional trading, you need to wait until the end of the day to complete a transaction, and this will be reflected on your profit or loss statement. With webull, you can determine the time when you want to do a transaction, and this will be reflected in your trading Profit and Loss Statement. Additionally, trading with webull will allow you to set a limit to the amount of money you are willing to spend or lose, thereby providing you more control and accountability for the money you are investing.
Another reason why webull is superior to other systems is that the webull financial trading platform provides investors with real-time protection from third parties. Because webull has a counterparty protection feature, it is impossible for anyone but the authorized user to modify, change or close your accounts. Therefore, webull provides you with true asset protection, which is much better than any system that does not provide this type of protection. We can also tell investors that by using webull, they will not be legally obligated to pay taxes on the gains from their investments in the U.S., as webull contracts and investment deals are not considered income for the taxable year.
Many traders use webull as their main trading platform, but there are many others who also use it for back-testing, fundamental tests, and even for their margin calls and transactions. Webull can also be used by investors for their custom trading needs. For instance, some brokers provide webull trading as a free service to their clients. Some webull brokers may charge a small fee for this service. Regardless, webull is an excellent product for all investors, both large and small, because of the benefits it offers.
Overall, webull is an excellent platform for new traders, as well as experienced ones, because it provides a low-cost, hands-free, transparent way to trade on the equity market. Because there are no commissions or fees to pay, the investor has complete control over how much he/she trades. Webull is hard to beat.