8 Things We Like (& Dislike) About the Webull App

This post was written in collaboration with Webull Singapore. While we are financially compensated by them, we nonetheless strive to maintain our editorial integrity and review products with the same objective lens. We are committed to providing the best information in order for you to make personal financial decisions with confidence. You can view our Editorial Guidelines here.

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One of the most popular investment platforms in recent years is Webull, a US-headquartered company that has finally arrived in the Singapore market. Known for being beginner friendly and having zero fees, Webull also offers one-stop access to both the US and HK stock markets, the two most important markets in the world.

Webull is also known as a “true” 0 commission* brokerage — it charges 0 fees on practically everything, from commission, platform fee, membership fee and settlement fee on US Stocks & Options Trades*.

Is it legit you may ask? Yes, the digital brokerage is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is a global partner of NASDAQ. What’s more, Webull was named as Best Broker for Low-cost Options Trading in 2022 by Investopedia.

Well that’s all good, but how’s the usability of the app?

Webull describes itself as “an all-in-one self-directed investment platform that provides excellent user experience”. Hmm. We know that sometimes, the actual user’s experience differs quite a bit from what the company claims, so we decided to test out Webull’s mobile app, desktop app and web platform to see exactly how user-friendly it is. Let’s go!

1. What we liked: Ease of getting started

The Webull app is easy enough to find on the App Store (make sure your location is set to Singapore — or you could be downloading the US Webull app, which can’t be used here) and Google Play (can’t miss those blue bull horns!). Avid traders can now also download the Webull desktop app.

We could use our Singpass to open an account — this just took 6min 37s for us (yes, we timed it, might be slightly different for you). From there, we could select up to 20 stocks to add to our Watchlist (you can choose to do it later as well).

So far, so good!

 

2. What we liked: Neat Webull dashboard that’s customisable

The Webull dashboard is neatly divided into 5 main tabs — Watchlists, Feeds, Open Account, Markets and Menu. And when we open the app, this goes directly to our Watchlists tab, where we can immediately see what’s up or down.

We can go a step further by creating another watchlist (great for organiser-types like us who like to group stuff by category etc!) and customising our dashboard. With the latter, we can adjust how our list is sorted, whether we want to see the stock’s name or symbol first, the price and change display, refresh frequency and even animation. Super helpful!

 

3. What we liked: Dark mode

Having dark mode is like a pre-requisite for all our apps as we feel it’s less harsh on the eyes and helps us focus better — plus we have a habit of waking up in the middle of the night and scrolling stocks when the market is open). So yay! Webull indeed has a dark mode interface, with the stocks’ market values in bright solid tones of red and green to clearly show a stock’s performance.

 

4. What we liked: Information at our fingertips

The Webull app provides lots of aggregated information on the individual page of a stock such as news about the company, performance and even a bar to show Today’s Public Opinion. It’s great for us to have all the information we need in one place, instead of spending precious time trawling Google for information.

Under the Feeds tab, you can also get news from several sources including Webull’s own news and several investment news sources about the US market that come pre-loaded. It looks like a Twitter feed and you can choose to follow them or join other groups. 

 

5. What we disliked: Limitation of paper trading

For those who are still wary about diving in headfirst before test-driving an app properly, you can try Webull with the paper trading feature: Open Account tab > Click to Start Paper Trading (under the Open Account button). But we’re rather unhappy with this at its current state.

It’s good that we start with $1 million of paper money to trade. We could carry out plain vanilla Buy and Sell trades, however, features that Webull is known for, such as fractional shares and options, were not available for the paper trading account. Argh. So for those who usually like to start with paper money before funding your account, it’s a hard stop here. Let’s hope Webull activates this in the future.

 

6. What we liked: Smooth trading on Webull

In any case, using our paper trading account, we tested the Buy/Sell function with AMZN:

Happy to share that paper trading allowed us to set our limit price, choose how many stocks we wanted, and even toggle if we want to buy during regular US trading hours (9.30pm to 4am SG time) or include extended hours (from 4am to 8am). All the info we need is on the screen before you click buy.

…And we’re glad to report that there was also no slippage detected from our set limit price thanks to real-time quotes. The stock, once purchased, can be easily viewed under the Open Orders section and from there you can decide when you want to sell. The selling process is also practically the same and straightforward. 

 

7. What we liked: Engaging features & activities

The Webull app is certainly not one-dimensional, as it’s packed with features and activities to keep traders engaged. Under the Menu tab, find features that span account settings and FAQ pages, to a scrolling banner of ongoing promotions; a My Alerts button where you can set alerts on selected stocks and My Rewards, where you can keep track of your rewards (there’s just so many!).

 

8. What we disliked: Information overload

However, point 7 can be a double-edged sword.

It can be a bit overwhelming for a first-time investor — not to mention when the stock market is open, the numbers are all jumping in red and green — and it may take some getting used to finding out all the different features on the app. But if you know what you want and just want to trade, the process is simple enough.

 

Webull desktop version: Needs improvement

Webull Singapore has also recently launched a desktop version on 22 Sept 2022 for those who prefer to trade on their laptops.

It didn’t get off to a good start though. The minute after we downloaded version 6 and before we could explore, we were prompted to download yet another update. Ugh. Quite a hassle if you just want to trade. Let’s hope it’s a one-off though and they will improve the desktop version as time goes.

It has dark mode though, yippee!

Unfortunately, this was as far as we got with Paper Trading (the last tab on the left before the 3 bottom icons). You are unable to proceed further and will be prompted to open an account if you want to trade — this can be easily done as account opening using Singpass is simple and quick. 

What to know before getting started with Webull

 If you’d like to start investing with Webull, here are some points to note: 

• Investors can start investing with Webull from as young as 18 years old
• It’s a true 0 commission, 0 platform fee, 0 membership fee and 0 settlement fee platform* 
• Has a 24/7 in-app help centre so you can always get help 
• Can start trading fractional shares from US$5
• Financing interest rate for margin trading as low as 0%* for USD and HKD
• Full extended hours trading from 4am to 8pm
• Resource centre available with guides and tutorials

Webull is also pretty generous when it comes to welcome gifts. Here’s the current promotion:

• Get up to USD130 worth of TSLA fractional shares till 14 Oct 2022, 15:59 SGT*
• 0 Commission* Trading
• USD80 worth of AAPL Fractional Shares per Successful Referral*
• Refer and Win up to USD6,888 worth of AAPL Fractional Shares*

Find out more about Webull and click here to sign up.

 

*Terms and Conditions apply. For detailed terms and conditions and full disclaimer, please refer to Webull’s website at https://www.webull.com.sg/. This advertisement has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.