Update 11/13/19: Public is now offering a ‘slice’ of a stock up to $50. You get 9 stocks to choose from when signing up and then you’ll receive up to $50 of that stock. It’s difficult to tell if this or the previous $20 offer is better as they don’t share the break down of how likely each ‘slice’ is. They have also added an Android app and removed the referral limit.
Update 8/29/19: Matador is now going by the name Public. Name changes never inspire me with confidence.
Matador App is another stock trading platform that is currently only available via an iOS app. They also offer a cash management account that offers 2.5% APY on balances up to $10,000. Matador claims that this is protected by SIPC insurance, but we’ve seen issues with competitors like Robinhood.
Contents
Referral Bonus
If you use a referral link to sign up and deposit $20 you’ll also receive a $20 bonus. The person referring you will also receive a $20 bonus (can refer up to 25 people). Feel free to share your referrals in the comments.
Our Verdict
Personally I’m staying away from all of these smaller apps for now, Matador has received $6.5 million in funding from Accel & Greycroft but I don’t really see many if advantages over something like Robinhood. The 2.5% APY account is interesting, but I’m not that confident that the SIPC insurance will actually cover it with the issues Robinhood & Betterment have faced.
Matador’s main differentiation compared to those products seems to be the social side of seeing what your friends have purchased. Personally I have no interest in seeing what my friends purchased and wouldn’t really want them to be able to see that information from me either. In addition I find these app only offerings to be extremely limiting, why not just have a desktop solution as well so Android users aren’t completely excluded?
