Apologies for any impatience but it does seem to me that the trading and settlement time is too long and needs to be shorter; It can take over 4 days, more so over a weekend and bank holiday. That is a lot of time when a portfolio is practically ‘up on bricks’
Please, no pro forma / AI replies!
Do you think Invest Engine sets the settlement times? This is determined by national exchanges and central securities depositories in each market. Normal for ETFs is T+2 outside of USA.
And yes the market calendars determines those are working days, not including weekends or bank holidays.
Feel lucky you are not 20 years older as settlement cycle was T+5 until 2001 and then T+3 until 2014 when it moved to T+2. The USA is already on T+1.
I fully understand that settlement times are set by the system but IE’s competitors allow you to sell one stock and immediately invest in something else. They even use pre-market and afterhours trading.
I suspect that competitors fund that facility themselves whereas IE likes to earn interest during the settlement time. Unfortunately with so many competitors offering zero transaction fees the USP of IE is rapidly slipping away.
For brokers who are also massive systematic internalizers (like IBKR/T212) doing most trades OTC then it is easier to net the cash leg, to give illusion cash is immediately available for another trade. I think IE executes all trades on exchange so there will be a real counterparty.
Thank you for that. However, the fact remains that to a member of the public the settlement times do not compare favourably to their competitors.
What is worse is that once cash is ‘available’ it takes some days for a customer to receive it in their bank account whereas IE’s competitors do the transfer to another bank within minutes if not seconds.
I am expecting to have to ‘advise’ a family member how to invest an inheritance. I will struggle to explain the advantage of IE over, say, T212 to them. Indeed I would be interested to hear how IE is better than T212.
There is 1 offering that IE has which T212 doesn’t. Fee-free SIPP. Only reason I’m here really. Haha
Agreed but Freetrade offers a fee-free SIPP.
Eh. I have used about 12 stockbrokers over 20 years and never have been able to withdraw uncleared funds to an external bank account.
As with T212, its a Bulgarian company regulated in Cyprus and thus the investment compensation scheme there only covers 20,000 Euros. So if the Cyprus unit went bust or there was fraud in Cyprus or Cyprus was invaded; any investment asset held there may be lost over 20k.
They mention FCA compensation, but that is smoke and mirrors and only covers cash (pounds) held with them in their UK client account.
Yes, but on T212 after you sell stocks then you can invest those funds in another stock. On IE you have to wait for the first sale to clear.
In DIY portfolios:
What does “order in process” mean? – InvestEngine https://share.google/w9pAOZvLSAOGLA7JD
DIY Portfolios: What You Can and Can’t Do
You can:
Reinvest up to 95% of a sell order’s value immediately into new ETFs.
In T212 you can revest up to 100% of a sell order’s value immediately into new ETFs.
In T212 you can rebalance your portfolio.
In T212 in the rare situation that an order is not settled within a minute or so then you can sell the portion of an ETF that is not part of the sale, i.e. sell a part of the ETF while another part is being sold.
All I would like to know is apart from offering a SIPP (which Freetrade will do for free), what are the advantages of IE over T212.
I’d say that, going by your posts, clearly IE is not a good fit for you and your money, methinks. Which is perfectly fine as different people have different needs and expectations.
Agreed, however my earlier question has not been answered “I would be interested to hear how IE is better than T212.”
The only concession is that IE offers a SIPP which T212 does not, but I replied that Freetrade provides a free SIPP.
I don’t think that there is an answer which would be convincing or acceptable to you, am I right?
No, I was just trying to advise someone (who is an investing novice) to use IE. The fact that you feel that there is no answer then that answers my question.
My understanding of your response is that, effectively, there are no benefits to a user to go for IE rather than T212/Freetrade. I was just trying to understand their USP, which I had hoped I had missed. I now know there is virtually zero benefits over the competition. Thank you.
i use 3 different brokers, all very low fee.
from an ‘investing novice’ long term point of view i think IE is a perfect allrounder.
free SIPP, great, easy to navigate website with plenty of choice (maybe too much)
slightly confusing trade settle times initially but a 1 week view is all thats needed.
a perfect set and forget broker with good customer service via email.
cash isa transfer in is 2ish weeks.
T212 is great if you dont want a sipp combined with your investments.
plenty of etf’s and stocks IMO, but for a newbie these are also listed in canadian, euro,usd.
not used there customer service yet.
their pie/portfolio features are good.
not with freetrade and dont intend too.
been with IE for 3 years and happy,
I think IE’s USP is that it doesn’t ‘tempt’ you. T212, FT etc all have individual stocks or CFDs etc which often look alluring and fun… they’re exciting and have that ‘get rich, quick’ vibe but obviously come with much greater risk. IE seems to pride itself on being boring and dull, it only has ETFs and most of them are pretty generic, it has a few funky ones but the majority are aimed at long-term, set and forget investing.
So you are right in that the overall functionality of T212 is greater than IE but I guess an analagy that I would use is that IE is like going to an organic health food store, you’ll only be able to find clean apples and bananas. T212 is like going to the supermarket… you can still get your apples and bananas but if you go in hungry you will almost certainly end up on the sweets and chocolate isle… 
Good luck with your investing!
Why would you advise someone to use IE if you can’t see any benefits to them doing so? Advise them to use T212 if you think it’s a better platform.