Our Moomoo review explores their trading platform and its pros and cons. Brokers like ThinkorSwim and Robinhood have been a disappointment at times. As a result, people are looking for alternative brokers. So is Moomoo one you should consider?
Chart by TradingView
Moomoo is a new investing app for smartphones that’s taking the U.S. and Asia by storm. Its main selling feature is zero-commission trades. However, Moomoo’s platform has some interesting additions that are changing the way we think about investing. As a result, we had to do a Moomoo review.
Moomoo is available for Android, Apple, and Windows users, and offers an extremely simple sign-up process that only takes a few minutes to complete. They’re currently only available in the U.S., Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Japan. Although expansion into other markets may be on the horizon.
Who Owns Moomoo?
Moomoo is officially owned and operated by a company that some investors have probably heard of by now: Futu (NASDAQ: $FUTU). Futu is a Hong Kong based company that operates digitized brokerages and wealth management platforms in Asia. As well as the U.S. and is one of the leading fintech companies in the world.
Futu created Moomoo specifically for U.S. customers. Although investors in Asian markets also have access to the platform. The main investors in the Moomoo platform are Sequoia, Matrix, and of course, the largest backer of Futu itself, Tencent (OTC: $TCEHY). So maybe from this Moomoo review, you can invest in foreign stocks.
What’s In It for Me?
Aside from a fun and free way of investing, Moomoo offers a pretty incredible signup bonus for new users. When you first sign up for an account, you’ll get bombarded with this offer:
Sounds pretty good right? We found in this Moomoo review that more details emerge, the further you go into the signup process.
Finally, in the end, the full details come out. New users must make an initial deposit of over $100 to get one free stock or over $5,000 to get the three free stocks that were advertised above.
Still, it’s not a bad deal at all considering it’s an investing platform and you are going to have to deposit money to make trades anyway.
What Are Moomoo’s Fees and Commissions? (Pricing Review)
As for fees, the U.S. is one of the only countries in the world with zero fees per trade at nearly every competitive brokerage. For those not in the U.S., you know full well that this is a different story. Well, Moomoo is consistent with this trend as it allows its U.S. users to trade with zero fees when investing in U.S. markets. But it does have minor fees for U.S. users who want to trade in other markets.
The charges may seem minimal. But they can add up if you’re a high-volume trader. Additional charges apply to U.S. users trading in Asian markets, which Moomoo allows access to.
Is Moomoo Better Than Robinhood?
Yes! We found in this Moomoo review that they’re better than Robinhood. Their level 2 is better and you don’t have to pay the $5 a month fee for it either! They also have $0 commissions like Robinhood. So if you make a fat finger trade, you won’t have to pay a commission fee on it.
And they don’t have the same perception that happened after the GameStop scandal. Which is always a plus in our book. So far, no shady stuff has gone down. Which makes the better than Robinhood even with the fact that Moomoo’s features are better.
Main Features
All of the great things that are available on mobile trading platforms exist with Moomoo; including zero-fee trading, options trading, and full access to over 5,000 different ETFs. But what makes this Moomoo review stand out from other platforms like WeBull or Robinhood? Here are a few that caught our eye:
Free Level 2 Market Data: Sure, this is available on some platforms but most of the time you’ll also have to pay for this with a stock screener or market analysis tool. With Moomoo, as long as you have an account you’ll have access to Level 2 Market Data. This includes things like bid/ask prices for large orders, data on institutional investors who are buying or selling the stock. And a general order flow for what the action is that’s having an effect on the price of a stock. If you learn how to use this data in your favor, it can give you a massive edge against investors who don’t have access to Level 2 Market Data.
Moo Streams: This is basically a live feed of everything that is trending on the markets. It includes things like user comments, Moo Picks which are the stocks that are trending on the Moomoo chats, and Moo Guides which are user-created tutorials for investing. Moomoo goes above and beyond to create a community feel. So rather than leaving the app to go somewhere like Reddit, FinTwit, or StockTwits, you can have a full on discussion with other members right in the chat. There’s also a Reddit-like Hot Posts section. This is where user posts with the most likes and views are shown to the entire community.
Courses and Trading Hours Recap
Let’s look what what trading courses are offered as well as trading hours in this Moomoo review.
Moo Courses: You can tell Moomoo is targeting novice and casual investors because it offers a full course load on investing right inside the app itself. Moo Courses offers the following courses to Moomoo users:
- Must Know Before Investing
- U.S. Stock Basics
- Options Basics Tutorial
- IPO Talks
- ETF Home
- Understanding Markets
Beneath each category is a number of different lessons that users can take. Again, this is available elsewhere. But if everything you need is available within one app, there’s no need to head to other sites. Moomoo is trying to keep its users all within the same ecosystem. Something that platforms have done in the past is to begin adding things like targeted ads or Premium Subscriptions.
Pre-Market and Post-Market Trading: Wait, you can trade before the market opens and after the market closes? Kind of. Some platforms completely cut you off when the markets are closed. As a result, users are forced to create an order that may be filled the next morning when the market reopens. This isn’t ideal as stock prices can fluctuate from the closing bell to the opening the next morning. Moomoo allows users to trade in after hours trading, as well as pre-market trading. It’s not a necessary feature, but it sure can help. Especially when things like quarterly earnings calls or stock offerings happen outside of normal trading hours.
What is Moomoo Missing?
Hey, no platform is perfect, and Moomoo definitely has its shortcomings as well. Let’s take a look at a couple of features in this Moomoo review we’d have liked to see in the future. These aren’t available as of yet.
Fractional share investing: This is something that’s gained popularity over the past couple of years. Especially when stocks like Amazon (NASDAQ: $AMZN) or Alphabet (NASDAQ: $GOOGL) continue to climb to a price of thousands of dollars per share. We’re always told that stock price doesn’t matter. But let’s be honest, it kind of does! Most retail investors aren’t going to be able to afford 100 shares of Amazon. Or even one share for that matter. With fractional investing, you can build your position over time. Maybe you want to put $200 towards a share of Amazon every paycheck; which is definitely easier than saving up $3,200 all at once.
Cryptocurrencies: There are some investors that want nothing to do with cryptos and are happy they are not available at their brokerage. But platforms like Robinhood, SoFi, and Square Cash App (NYSE: $SQ) are all offering investors the chance to invest some of their fiat money into highly volatile cryptocurrencies. It could have to do with the fact that the Chinese government has made it clear that it’s not a fan of cryptos. Whatever the reason may be, Moomoo could be that much more popular if it offered investors the ability to invest in cryptocurrencies as well.
Is Moomoo Legit?
Yes! There’s a lot of apprehension in the investing world about Chinese companies and how they may be regulated. But Moomoo actually has its headquarters based out of Palo Alto, California. It’s also regulated by the SEC and is also a member of FINRA and the SIPC, all regulatory bodies in the U.S. that both Moomoo and its parent company FUTU need to comply with.
Moomoo is also insured by the SIPC for up to $500,000 or $250,000 for cash claims. We get it, you want to be protected when putting your hard-earned money into an account and some of us are just not comfortable loading it into a mobile app. Rest assured, we’ve used Moomoo and the platform is completely safe for users in the U.S. to use.
Moomoo Stock Price and Symbol: Are They Publicly Traded?
Moomoo’s parent company Futu Holdings Limited is a publicly-traded company on the Nasdaq exchange (NASDAQ: FUTU).
Moomoo Review Final Thoughts
We hope you enjoyed this Moomoo review. Moomoo is a fun and free mobile-based platform for the novice or experienced investors. The user interface is easy to learn and the app does a great job of providing a simple and clear process for investing. At the same time, Moomoo includes some incredible data and features that’ll make experienced investors feel right at home. Don’t get turned off by its cartoony and video game like appearance. Moomoo is an incredibly agile investing platform that provides users with some very powerful tools that can definitely help them improve their investing performance.
