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Reviews / Trade Republic Review 2023

Trade Republic Review 2023

Franklin Carneiro da Silva| Updated August 17th, 2023
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Investing involves risk of loss.

Hello, fellow investor! Our honest review of Trade Republic will help you assess whether it fits your investing needs.

We recommend Trade Republic for people who want to create saving plans using ETFs/Stocks and even combine them with crypto. It has an intuitive platform on PC and mobile, and a top-tier regulator supervises it. On the downside, it charges an external fee of €1, presents no demo account, and gives no access to US Stock Exchanges.

Don’t want to read the full article? Check our summarised Trade Republic video Review:

Trade Republic Review

1. Trade Republic Overview

Founded in 2015, Trade Republic is a discount broker based in Berlin, Germany. It focuses on four types of financial assets: stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and derivatives. Stocks and ETFs can be traded daily from 7:30 to 23:00 CET, crypto 24/7, and derivatives from 8:00 to 22:00 CET. 

It uses the motto “From the people, for the people” to express its commitment to its customer by selling itself as a “no order fee” platform. Nonetheless, a €1 external fee is applied in every single trade (Except saving plans), meaning that in practice, you will charge at least €2 (€1 for buying and another €1 for selling). It is still competitive but not close to commission-free.

Trade Republic is the first European broker to increase the interest rate paid in euros after many years of zero-to-low interest rates due to the European Central Bank (ECB) policies. The money not invested in your account (up to €50,000) will earn 2% per year (paid monthly). Most banks are not paying close to that, so transferring money to Trade Republic with the sole intention of earning some interest might be a good idea!

You can’t open a business brokerage account with Trade Republic, only a private account. Besides, you can’t open a joint account, and there is no possibility of opening an account for minors (under 18 years old), including power of attorney from their parents.

The broker is regulated by Bafin and also supervised by the Deutsche Bundesbank. Your investment assets and cash are fully protected up to €20,000 and €100,000, respectively.

Finally, Trade Republic will send you the annual tax statement directly within the app in the first quarter of the following year (until March 2023, you get the yearly report for 2022). Hopefully, it helps you fill your tax needs hassle-free.

Trade Republic Highlights

🗺️ Supported Countries Most Eurozone countries 
💰 Stocks, ETF, and crypto fees Free (+€1 external fee per trade)
💰 Currency Conversion fee It varies between currencies
💰 Inactivity fee €0
💰 Withdrawal fee €0
💵 Minimum Deposit €0
📍 Products offered Stocks, ETFs, Derivatives, and Crypto (+Saving Plans that include all these assets)
🎮 Demo Account No
📜 Regulatory entities BaFin

Trade Republic Review

2. Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Automatic saving plans
  • Invest from only €1
  • No minimum deposit
  • Direct debit in the share-saving plans
  • Supervised and regulated by a top-tier regulator
  • Interest paid in idle cash balances

Cons

  • €1 flat external fee in every single trade (Except saving plans)
  • No demo account
  • Only one base currency (EUR)
  • No access to US Stock Exchanges
  • Currency conversion fees apply

Trade Republic Review

3. Trading Platform

Trade Republic offers both Web and Mobile trading platforms:

Web App
Mobile App

The interface is straightforward when compared to its competitors. You will quickly notice the search bar (the easiest way to find what you are looking for), your portfolio balance, including your cash amount. You can also easily observe the portfolio movements over time.

Trade Republic Review | Dashboard

If you scroll down, you will notice that it highlights “trending stock and topics”:

Trade Republic Review | Dashboard

Apart from this, there isn’t much to highlight. In “Order manager,” you will have access to the savings plan and a brief explanation of Limit and Stop orders (it doesn’t mention here, but it also has Market orders). This page is a little odd since it only works as a glossary, so there is little you can do about it.

Trade Republic Review | Dashboard

Finally, in your “profile”, you can see all the activities of your account: transactions, withdrawals, and deposits, among others.

Trade Republic Review | Dashboard

Trade Republic Review

4. Products & Markets

Trade Republic offers four different financial instruments: Stocks (8,600+), ETFs (1,800+), Cryptos (50+), and Derivatives (10,000+). All of these assets are traded in EUR. What does it mean? Well, let’s use US stocks as an example. Apple, the iPhone manufacturer, is traded on the NASDAQ in USD, but in the Trade Republic trading platform, you will only be available to buy in XETRA in EUR. So, owning Apple stock in EUR or USD should give you the same results in EUR, but the EUR version presents much less liquidity, so wider spreads may apply.

Products Available?
Stocks
ETFs
Bonds
Funds
Options
Futures
Warrants, Knock-outs and Factor certificates
Forex
Cryptocurrencies
Commodities

You can also buy fractional shares in a selected list of stocks and ETFs (we did not find that list). Still, it is only possible with market orders executed via the Lang & Schwarz (LS) Exchange electronic trading system, where Trade Republic is the counterpart.

On Cryptos, you are trading real assets (no derivatives on that front), so you really own your cryptocurrencies. You can trade them 24/7 (yep, including weekends and holidays). Trade Republic indicates that each crypto is held in a cold wallet to be offline and protected from cyberattacks. Besides, as with stocks and ETFs, the crypto assets are kept separate from the Trade Republic balance sheet by Trade Republic Custody GmbH (based in Vienna) to guarantee their safety. 

Please remember that it is not possible to send or receive any crypto via Trade Republic. Besides, the crypto offering is only available in the following countries: Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, and Spain.

Concerning derivatives, these are, as the name implies, financial instruments that derive their price from an underlying asset, such as stocks, commodities, bonds… Almost anything). In Trade Republic, you can trade three types:

  • Warrants: it works similarly to Options in the sense that it gives you the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a financial asset at a specific price before the expiration date.
  • Knock-outs: An option with a built-in mechanism to expire worthless if a specified price level in the underlying asset is reached (that’s where its name comes from). It limits your upside but can be bought at a lower premium than a standard option.
  • Factor Certificates: A financial instrument replicating a particular security’s price movement but with a leverage factor (higher potential gains, but higher potential losses as well). Contrary to Warrants and Knock-outs, factor certificates have unlimited duration. This kind of instrument is not indicated for holding more than a day.

The providers of these derivatives include Société Générale, CITI, and HSBC.

We advise you to be extra careful when dealing with these products since they are hard to understand completely. Indeed, we were expecting a deeper explanation for each derivative within the platform, but no detailed information is provided apart from this general explanation.

Also, most include leverage (borrowed money), so high profits or losses can be achieved very quickly. That’s why they usually aim for more experienced investors who intend to hedge certain positions or speculate on price movements.

Finally, it offers Saving Plans (4,900+), which can combine all the four assets mentioned above. Here you can invest automatically in stocks, ETFs, and crypto with no third-party costs (this is the only place where the €1 external fee does not apply). When the XETRA exchange is open, the saving plans are executed on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, or 23rd of the month.

It allows you to set up your payment method (direct debit or cash account) and the withdrawal interval of your savings plan (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly execution).

Trade Republic Review

5. Fees snapshot

Trade Republic is quite transparent with the fees. The only fee you will quickly notice will be the €1 external fee per trade in stocks, ETFs, derivatives, and crypto. The company states that this cost is 100% third-party related (settlement cost). In the case of partial executions, the third-party fee is charged only once per trading day.

There is no withdrawal fee or custody fee. Also, Trade Republic charges no commission on shares dividend payments and ETF distributions, but other external fees may apply.

Trade Republic Review | Costs of selling Apple stock (Example)

Since your base currency is in EUR, you will be charged a currency conversion fee for any earnings (e.g., dividends) you get from your holdings since these will immediately be converted to EUR once received. Their website states, “The selling and buying rates required for currency conversions are calculated on the basis of these rates, taking into account a premium or discount in accordance with the buying and selling margins (…)(our bolding). You can find those margins here.

Instruments/Others Fees
Stocks €0 (+€1 external fee)
ETFs €0 (+€1 external fee)
Derivatives €0 (+€1 external fee)
Crypto €0 (+€1 external fee)
Withdrawal fees €0
Custody fees €0
Currency conversion fee Varies according to each part of currencies

We advise you to take a look at all its pricing details directly.

Trade Republic Review

6. Safety: Is Trade Republic Safe?

Trade Republic is regulated by BaFin, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany. However, it is supervised by both BaFin and the Deutsche Bundesbank.

In your account, you will have two types of assets: cash deposits and investment assets (stocks, ETFs, derivatives, and crypto). Each is treated differently:

  • Cash deposits: Your cash is deposited in banks like Solarisbank, Citibank, J.P. Morgan SE, and Deutsche Bank. All banks within the EU are subject to national and EU-wide regulations that ensure the security of private deposits. Your cash balance at Trade Republic is protected up to €100,000.
  • Investment assets: These assets are entirely segregated from Trade Republic (Bank HSBC Germany is the custodian, and the depositary of the securities is Clearstream in Frankfurt) and are your property (in other words, you’ll be the legal owner of the securities at all times). So, if it went bankrupt, you would only need to transfer your assets to another broker. Besides, it is under the German Deposit Guarantee Scheme, which covers losses up to €20,000 (from non-returned assets up to 90%). This last part enters into force usually when there is fraud.

Besides, Trade Republic does not engage in securities lending. It is a common practice in the brokerage industry that would add more risk, but a negligent one. You find this in platforms like DEGIRO and eToro.

Trade Republic Review

7. Supported countries

Trade Republic accepts clients from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Please keep in mind that not all products are offered in all countries (e.g., crypto). You can quickly check that on your region’s Trade Republic website.

Trade Republic Review

9. Trade Republic Alternatives

Are you looking for more features? More products? A better trading platform? We have organized some alternatives that might better answer your goals!

Brokers Our classification
Interactive Brokers Best Overall
eToro Best for social trading and stock commission-free trading
DEGIRO Best for ETFs
Plus500 Best for CFDs

Want to know more about these and other Trade Republic alternatives? Feel free to check our Broker Comparison Table, In-depth Broker Reviews, and the Broker Matching Tool.

Trade Republic Review

10. The Bottom Line

From our analysis, we believe Trade Republic has room for improvement in product offering, platform interaction, and customer service against competitors like eToro, IBKR, or DEGIRO. Nonetheless, it does its job as a do-it-yourself platform.

Beginners will probably prefer this broker against others in the market due to its simplicity but will find no education resources. Intermediates and advanced users may lack some deeper fundamental and technical analysis.

Was this review helpful? Did it help you make your decision regarding opening a Trade Republic account? Let us know your feedback!

Franklin Carneiro da Silva
Co-Founder & Fintech Analyst

Franklin is a CFA Level III Candidate with 3 years of experience in Wealth Management as a Fund Research Analyst and the Host of the "Edge Over Hedge" YouTube Channel.

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