Moomoo is an investment app for advanced and active traders, featuring advanced charting, extended trading hours, in-depth market data and crossed market orders. It does not offer access to mutual funds, pre-built portfolios or IRAs. For less experienced investors, Moomoo does offer paper trading, which can help you learn about the platform’s advanced tools without taking on risk. The platform also has one of the best free stock bonuses available, allowing you to earn up to five free shares for signing up.
- Commission-free stock trades.
- Access to advanced data and research tools.
- Full extended trading hours beginning at 4 a.m. EST.
- Taxable accounts only (no IRAs).
- Does not offer access to cryptocurrency.
- The wealth of data provided may be overkill for some users.
Founded in 2018, Moomoo is an investing app that offers zero-commission stock, ETF and options trades.
In this Moomoo review, we’ll cover:
- The benefits and disadvantages of using Moomoo.
- How Moomoo compares to apps like Robinhood and Public.
- Whether Moomoo is safe to use.
- The type of investor Moomoo is best for.
Moomoo 101
There’s no shortage of free stock trading apps. Robinhood is the most popular of these, but it’s geared towards beginners and lacks many of the features that are important to advanced investors. Moomoo differentiates itself by tailoring its offerings to active traders.
These features include:
- Advanced charting. Moomoo allows you to chart 62 technical indicators in 10 different categories, and boasts 37 drawing tools. Indicator types include trend indicators (MA, EMA), overbought/oversold indicators (KDJ, RSI, BIAS), and pressure/support indicators.
- Full-extended trading hours. Allows trading in pre-market from 4:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. EST, and after hours from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST. In comparison, Robinhood’s extended trading hours start at 9:00 a.m. and end at 6:00 p.m.
- Access to Level 2 market data and real-time quotes. While access to this data is part of Robinhood’s Gold membership ($5 per month), Moomoo users get it for free.
- Crossed market orders. This feature is beneficial for traders who want to buy a security when it’s offered at a lower price on one exchange, but sell it when it is higher on another exchange. This is a rare occurrence, but a strategy often used by more advanced traders.
- Access to international markets. Enables trading stocks, ETFs, options and futures on the U.S., Chinese and Hong Kong markets.
- Advanced order types. In addition to basic stop loss and limit orders, Moomoo allows you to set limit if touched orders (LIT), market if touched orders (MIT), trailing stop orders and trailing stop limit orders. You can set these limits to expire at the end of each day (GTD) or until they’re cancelled manually (GTC).
While the platform was first launched in 2018, the company behind the app, Futu Holdings Ltd., is not new to the industry: it’s a publicly-traded company (FUTU) with a market cap of around $6 billion. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Moomoo’s U.S. offices are located in Palo Alto, California.
Limited time bonus offer: Moomoo offers new users a choice between two bonuses: 7 free fractional shares of stock (each worth $5) for depositing at least $100 or a 1.5% cash bonus for transferring assets from another brokerage. You’ll need to maintain a minimum account balance for 60 to 90 days to keep your bonus, depending on which bonus you choose. Learn more in our Moomoo free stock promotion article.
Moomoo Key Facts
| Fees: | No account or trading fees. |
| Account minimums: | $0 |
| Account types: | Taxable (standard and margin trading). |
| Investment types: | Stocks, ETFs options and bonds. |
| Promotions: | Up to 16 free shares (worth between $3 and $2,000 each). |
Moomoo Fees
| Account fee: | $0 |
| Inactivity fee: | None |
| Withdrawal fee: | $0 |
| Options trading fee: | $0 |
| Margin rates: | 6.80% |
Moomoo Comparison
How Moomoo Works
One of Moomoo’s core goals is to bring the day trading experience active investors are used to on a desktop computer to their mobile devices. A good way to visualize this is by comparing what stock trading looks like on Public (a stock trading app for beginners, shown on the left below) with what it looks like on Moomoo (shown on the right).
Public has a minimalist display with daily price movements and an “invest” button, while Moomoo shows a multitude of data and options.
From the trading screen, you can view charts ranging from intraday to five months while applying different technical indicators and analyses to each of these charts with the click of a button.
On the analysis tab (when viewing a specific stock) there are tabs for capital, technical and fundamental analysis. These provide deeper advanced charts and evaluation in their respective categories.
I didn’t find Moomoo as easy to use as many other investing apps. But for an investor where features are more important than usability — e.g., professional traders — Moomoo offers significant value.
Getting Started With Moomoo
In my experience, the first stage of the account opening process was straightforward.
You had to:
- Download the app and create a username and password.
- Provide your name, birth date, address, Social Security number and phone number.
- Answer basic questions about your employment status, including how much you make each year.
In order to get my application approved, I was asked to upload an image of my Social Security card. Typically at this stage, most platforms ask users to upload their driver’s license. Upon uploading my Social Security card, I was then asked to upload my driver’s license as a second form of identification.
Once approved, I then connected my bank account and deposited $2,000 (enough to maximize the sing-up bonus).
While Moomoo allows for instant deposits of up to $1,000, this $2,000 deposit took five business days to show up in the app. If I had limited my deposit to $1,000, the money (as well as the free stock bonus) would have been available instantly.
Is Moomoo Right For You?
Moomoo is a very robust investment app and offers significant value for the right type of person. It’s one of the only apps that bring all the options available to an experienced trader familiar with trading on a desktop to mobile. Yes, that does come at the cost of a more complex user experience, as Moomoo packs as much as it can onto your mobile screen.
What’s not to be understated is that “the right person” in this case means experienced investors. If you’re just starting to invest and/or looking to invest for retirement, an app like Moomoo isn’t a good fit.
The two exceptions to this are:
- If you’re looking to paper trade and get a feel for how you’d perform as a more active trader without taking on risk.
- If you’re looking for free stock offers.
If you’re just looking to invest a small percentage of your overall portfolio in stocks with a buy-and-hold strategy, I would recommend sticking with an app like Public or Robinhood, which both offer an easier-to-use platform.
But for the more experienced trader, Moomoo may offer just what you need in an investment app.
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