R.J.'s Take: Moomoo is built for traders who want every bell and whistle without paying through the nose. But if you're looking to set it and forget it with your investments, this isn't your platform.
Moomoo shines for active traders with its advanced charting tools, free options trading, and access to Asian markets that most US brokers don't offer. The platform gives you professional-grade data and analysis tools that would normally cost hundreds elsewhere. But here's the thing – all those features can tempt you into trading more than you should.
For long-term investors, Moomoo falls short. No retirement accounts, no mutual funds, and no automated investing features mean you'll need to look elsewhere if you want to build wealth steadily over decades.
Bottom Line: Moomoo is excellent for active traders who want professional tools at zero cost, but buy-and-hold investors should look elsewhere for retirement planning and long-term wealth building.
Pros:
- Commission-free stock trades.
- Access to advanced data and research tools.
- Full extended trading hours beginning at 4 a.m. EST.
- Commission-free options trading (no contract fees).
Cons:
- Taxable accounts only (no IRAs).
- The wealth of data provided may be overkill for some users.
- Below average trade execution due to payment-for-order-flow practices.
- No mutual funds or bonds available.
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 63 technical indicators in 10 different categories, and boasts 38 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. Robinhood offers extended hours from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST, plus 24-hour trading for select popular stocks. However, Moomoo still provides an additional 3 hours of pre-market access starting at 4:00 a.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 $15 billion. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Moomoo's U.S. offices are located in Palo Alto, California.
Free stock: Moomoo constantly offers one of the best free stock offers for new users. Our Moomoo free stock promotion page lists the current offer, which we update frequently.
Moomoo Key Facts
| Fees: | No account or trading fees. |
| Account minimums: | $0 |
| Account types: | Taxable (standard and margin trading). |
| Investment types: | Direct stocks, ETFs, options, bonds, and custodial spot crypto trading |
Moomoo Fees
| Account fee: | $0 |
| Inactivity fee: | None |
| Withdrawal fee: | $0 |
| Options trading fee: | $0 |
| Margin rates: | 6.80% |
| ACH return: | $10 per order |
| Stock transfer: | $75 per transfer |
Moomoo Comparison
| Brokerage | Public | Robinhood | Moomoo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account Types | Taxable and retirement accounts (Traditional and Roth IRAs) | Taxable and retirement accounts (Traditional and Roth IRAs) | Taxable accounts only |
| Minimums | $0 to start investing | $0 to start investing | $0 to start investing |
| Trading Hours | 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST | Extended hours: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, plus 24-hour trading for select stocks | 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST |
| Investment Types | Stocks, ETFs, bonds, crypto, and options | Stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto | Stocks, ETFs, options, and crypto |
| Exchanges | U.S. exchanges only | U.S. exchanges only | U.S., China and Hong Kong |
| Support | Email and in-app chat (no phone support) | Phone and email | Phone (8:30 AM-4:30 PM EST), 24/7 live chat, and email |
| Best For | Buy-and-hold investors who want a transparent platform focused on long-term wealth building | Investors who want a modern mobile experience and IRA matching (but caution as app can promote overtrading) | Sophisticated investors with a proven track record who can benefit from advanced tools without being tempted to overtrade |
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.
Keep in mind, while Moomoo offers advanced tools at zero commission, it's important to understand that you may still pay through worse trade execution.
Moomoo executes 95.58% of orders at the best available price (NBBO) or better, compared to the industry average of 96.95%. This means on roughly 1 in 25 trades, you might get a slightly worse price than what was available elsewhere.
While this may only cost pennies per trade, these costs can add up over time, especially for active traders. This happens because Moomoo's clearing firm accepts payment for order flow (PFOF), where third parties pay to handle your trades and potentially profit from the tiny price differences.
For most buy-and-hold investors, this isn't a major concern, but very active traders should be aware they're trading execution quality for “free” commissions.
If you're just starting to invest and/or looking to invest for retirement, an app like Moomoo isn't a good fit.
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 which both offer an easier-to-use platform.
For experienced traders who need advanced tools and primarily make smaller trades, Moomoo offers professional-grade features at zero commission. However, if you're handling large transactions where pennies per share matter, you might consider platforms like Interactive Brokers that are better known for superior order execution while still maintaining low costs
