Orca is a really simple, clear and easy to use platform for buying and selling shares, indices and ISAs. To start you off as well when you use my Orca referral code, you can get your first share for free (T&C’s apply). Either use this link or use the code below when asked if you know anyone else that has the Orca app:

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How to get the free share?

When you’ve clicked through my Orca referral code and you’ve gone through the verification process you’ll be given a free company share worth up to £200, once you have purchased 3 different assets. This offer may be subject to change but is correct as of writing. It’s worth noting that the Orca app is currently only open to residents in the U.K, but looking to open up to more countries in the future.

How does Orca work?

They allow you to buy and sell shares, currencies, and other indices with zero commission fees, as a relatively new startup in an attempt to disrupt the brokerage market. If you’ve ever tried to use other online brokers in the past you’ll have seen that some of the fees they charge really don’t make it worth doing if you’re trying to invest on a small scale.

What’s good about Orca?

Orca gets nearly everything right, I was very close to giving it 5 stars. But it’s unfortunately lacking in one or two areas, though I have no doubt that these issues will be fixed in time and I’d be happy to amend my review once that is the case.

Undoubtedly the best thing about Orca is their solid customer support. You’re always talking to a human, responses are prompt and helpful. Definitely the best service I’ve seen across investment apps so far, you can be assured that if something does goes wrong or if you have a question – they’d be more than happy to help you out.

The UI is very clean and easy to navigate for beginners. Lots of information is easily accessible and the educational resources they provide is a great starting point for any new investor. The collections feature is a nice way to get a diverse portfolio up and running based on what you find interesting (my only issue is that I wish I could hide the “create your first collection” reminder on the front page, as I personally don’t need to use it).

Regarding the fees, I find it extremely cheap considering the quality of the overall experience. Moreover, the cost is pretty much negligible if you’re trading with £100+. However, I can understand that for those who trade with smaller amounts, the current £1 fee per £1000 can be quite costly. In my opinion, a decent compromise would be to reduce the fees for trades below £100 to something like 10-25p which may make it easier for new investors to get used to the app before dealing with larger amounts.

Anything they can improve on?

The biggest area of improvement in my opinion is that the amount of stocks to choose from is just too small. Naturally, this can limit your options and may force you to another platform that has more choices available (this is the main reason I have my ISA elsewhere for the moment). Of course, this is something that the team is working on expanding. But at the moment this is probably the thing that holds back Orca from being a 100% recommendation. However, I’m sure many people would be content with what they have so your mileage may vary. Download the app and take a look for yourself to see if you’re happy with the stocks on offer before committing.

Something else that they could improve is the time it takes to deposit money from your bank into Orca. Whilst it does only take a couple of hours at most (on a weekday) to start using the deposited cash, sometimes those couple of hours could make you miss an opportunity to buy a dip which can be rather frustrating. Moreover, when you sell a stock you cannot immediately use the earnings from it until it is settled, which takes 2 days after the stock is sold. This is also a pain because, again, it makes you unable to take advantage of sudden dips in the market. Although the team are working on being able to place orders with unsettled cash, it is something that needs to be taken into consideration when choosing a platform to invest with.

A word of caution

I think with apps like Orca, Trading 212 and FreeShare around now it’s made it easier than ever for people to invest. Bypassing brokers like in the ye olden days. This may attract those who are unfamiliar with how volatile the stock market can be.

I have to stress if you’ve never invested before please do your homework. The reason why there are so many winners is because at the end of the day there will be an equal if not more amount of losers. Remind yourself that investing is just another form of gambling. In fact, around 76% of retail traders end up making a loss on average. So it’s unlikely that you’ll be in the 24% of winners if you sign up without educating yourself as best as possible.

There are so many courses you can sign up for which take less than 3 hours to grasp the basics (some free and some paid), which Orca & Trading 212 offer as well.

There are also courses which are absolute scams making false claims and you have to watch out for these too. I’ve recently seen lots of Facebook and Instagram marketing from such scammers, so properly research the course on sites like Trustpilot. It’s common sense but I also recommend searching the name of the course + “scam” in Google to double-check it’s safe.

Setting Your Limits

Establish the maximum amount you’re willing to invest and don’t go over that threshold. It’s an old saying that you’ve only lost money when you sell the shares, not when they fall in value. More often than not shares bounce back so it’s important to not overreact to changes in share price, but keep a close eye on how the company is doing (a business going into administration isn’t likely to gain share price value.

It’s also key to remember that a share price often doesn’t have anything to do with the company performance. More so the mentality and behaviour of investors, speculation and AI algorithms all reacting to each other in one spiralling melting pot.

By familiarising yourself with how investors react to instances like the recent events we’ve been seeing, company profit warnings, changes in the industry, and annual reports. You can look back on previous similar events to determine roughly how it will go this time around.

If you used the orca referral code, let me know if you got any good free shares in the comments.

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