Lightyear trading app launches social investing features

Other new additions include more financial analysis.

Challenger trading platform Lightyear has launched features that allow traders to follow and copy the moves of others on the platform.

The share trading app has also added 18 new financial metrics and boosted the interest rates paid in its “Vaults”.

Lightyear isn’t the first platform to allow traders to copy other customers’ moves. eToro pioneered “social investing” with its CopyTrader element.

What are Lightyear’s new social features?

There are 2 key updates that allow more social interaction on Lightyear. The first is the ability to follow friends on the platform and the second is to help maintain privacy when traders are doing this.

Here’s how this works:

• Follow friends. Platform users can now opt in to view and follow their contacts on Lightyear (if they’ve opted in, too). As part of this, they can choose to have a private or public profile on the platform.
• Hide portfolio values. The privacy part of this equation means users can show off their portfolio without revealing all their finances. Tapping the “eye” icon next to a portfolio means users can show their investments – and their performance – without revealing sensitive information about their money.

If a user opts to have a private profile, their contacts can’t view their investment activity.

What else has Lightyear added to its platform?

The other key change is more financial analysis tools for researching stocks and funds.

Here’s an overview of the updates:

• Valuation data. This is to help users make investment decisions based on whether a company is potentially undervalued or overvalued.
• Financial strength. These are metrics that refer to a company’s ability to manage debt and stay profitable.
• Management effectiveness. This includes insights that dissect a company’s leadership ability to create value compared to peers and competitors.
• Growth metrics. These help to show a company’s past trajectory over time and offer certain insights for potential future growth.

These have all been added to the existing insights and metrics offered on Lightyear’s platform, which users can access with a free account.

The other updates made by Lightyear are to the interest rates paid in its Vaults, which now pay 5.16% AER for sterling, 5.37% for US dollars and 3.79% for euros. These rates fluctuate regularly and this product isn’t the same as a bank savings account.

Trading platforms with similar features

Several trading platforms available to UK investors offer similar features. eToro has long offered its highly popular News Feed and CopyTrader elements. And Trading 212 offers a news feed, communities and the ability to discuss and copy mini-portfolios.

Freetrade, IG and Interactive Brokers all offer a spaces to chat with like-minded investors.

About the author

George Sweeney DipFA is a deputy editor at Finder.com, specialising in investing. He has previously written for The Motley Fool UK, Nasdaq, Freetrade, Investing in the Web, MoneyMagpie, and Online Mortgage Advisor. George is a qualified financial adviser and is regularly quoted in the national media about investing and personal finance.

This article originally appeared on finder.com/uk and was syndicated by Mediafeed.org.