Public Review 2024 (2024)

Top Rated For

Best for Alternative Investments

Our Take

Public offers investors a simplified platform that is easy to use and appealing to multiple types of investors. Beginner investors will appreciate the ease with which an account can be set up and the no-frills platform, which provides all the important account necessities without being bogged down by complicated amenities. In addition, investors looking for a platform loaded with unique alternative investments will also find Public’s platform appealing. No minimum balance and $0 commissions on trades also make Public an attractive investment platform. Despite the distinct offerings, however, Public only offers individual brokerage accounts, and popular investments, such as mutual funds and futures, are also absent. We will take an in-depth look at the company’s fundamentals to help you decide if this platform is right for you.

Company Overview

Founded in 2019 and based in New York, Public was started with the goal of making investing accessible to everyone. In order to achieve this, Public was the first broker-dealer to introduce commission-free, real-time fractional investing. It was also the first investing platform to introduce a community of investors, creators, and analysts, allowing users to share ideas and investment opportunities, which is unique within the industry.

Over the years, the company has taken several steps to put the investor’s interests first. In 2020, the company added safety labels to individual securities as an indicator of risk to potential investors. In 2021, Public stopped accepting payment for order flow (PFOF) on equities trades as a source of revenue, enabling the company to execute orders at the best possible price.

Pros & Cons

Pros Explained

• Variety of asset classes: Public has expanded its investment offerings recently and now has stocks, ETFs, bonds, options, cryptocurrencies, treasuries, and alternative investments.
• Available fractional share trading: Investors can buy partial shares, lowering the threshold to get into the market or into alternative investments.
• Transparent fees: Public requires a $0 account minimum and has $0 commissions, transaction fees, and execution fees. The fees it does charge are laid out, transparently, on its fee schedule.
• Creative alternative investment selection: Public provides a platform for purchasing alternative investments like rare sneakers, trading cards, royalties, crypto, and more.
• No payment for order flow on stocks and ETFs: Public does not participate in payment for order flow on stock and ETF trading.

Cons Explained

• Only provides individual brokerage accounts: Public only offers cash accounts or margin accounts. Investors looking for more options, such as retirement accounts or trusts, will need to look elsewhere.
• Limited account features: While Public does offer high-interest cash accounts, no banking features are offered at this time.
• Average offering of customer service mediums: Investors may reach out to Public via email, live chat through the app, or social media, but no telephone support is currently offered.
• Some highly illiquid alternative investments: Many alternative assets are fairly illiquid, meaning it can often be harder to get into and out of positions, especially compared to their conventional counterparts like stocks and ETFs.

Usability

The Public platform is a straightforward investment platform. It was designed to be intuitive and simple to use. While experienced investors may like it for the alternative investments that are offered, beginner investors will be able to easily navigate the platform. Opening an account is quick and easy and can be completed entirely online.

Trade Experience

Investors at Public have access to a unique trading experience.

• Fractional shares: Instead of having to invest larger amounts to buy a whole share, fractional share investing lowers the threshold for investors to get into the market.
• Alternative investments: While alternatives offer portfolio diversification, they are not guaranteed, are generally less liquid than other types of securities, and are not protected by SIPC insurance.
• Alpha: Public offers an AI investment research assistant called Alpha.
  

Mobile Trade Experience

Public's mobile app offers an intuitive format for investing, keeping things sleek and simple. One major difference users may notice, though, is that this app has a social media component to it— Community Feed. However, investors must upgrade to the Premium membership ($10 per month or $96 per year) to access the Community Feed. In the Feed, Public investors can interact as a community by sharing comments, messages, information about investments, advice, and more. Just like a social media app, you can like and follow different investors. You can also curate your feed based on investments you’ve made. The best way to describe this is as a social media app within an investing app.

Range of Offerings

Public stands out within the industry of online brokers with its vast array of investment offerings, in particular the alternative investment offerings. Like many other online brokers, Public offers stocks, ETFs, bonds, options, treasuries, and cryptocurrencies. However, the alternative investments truly give this company a unique edge. Investors may want to consider adding alternative investments to their portfolio. Because some alternative assets have diminished association with the stock market, investors may find this type of investment a useful vehicle to diversify their portfolio. Moreover, alternative assets may also provide a partial hedge against inflation.

Alternative investments include:

• Fine art
• NFTs
• Rare trading cards
• Comics
• Memorabilia
• Photography

Additionally, Public also provides investors the ability to invest in an alternative investment class that offers passive income: royalties. Because royalties are payments received for the use of intellectual property, this type of alternative investment can provide long-term revenue streams for investors.

While Public has expanded its offerings recently, it is notable that mutual funds are still absent from its list.

Order Types

Public offers investors the ability to place several order types:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
  

Trading Technology

Public continues to add technology to its investing platform. In 2023, Alpha, a research assistant powered by artificial intelligence (AI), became available to all of Public’s users. Investors can now use OpenAI’s GPT-4 to query about any asset and get access to real-time and historical data.

Alpha can integrate the capacity of AI with real-time data to give investors cutting-edge information:

• Access any stock’s basic financial information
• Screen for bonds based on your research requirements
• Get access to earnings call summaries
• Learn why an asset has unusual price movement
• Get updated on the market’s top movers, gainers, and losers
  

Costs

Investors can choose between a basic account or Public Premium.

Basic account:

• $0 minimum to open
• $0 transaction fees
• $0 commission
• $0 execution fees
• Extended hours trading: $2.99 per trade
• OTC trading fee: $2.99 per trade

Public Premium: $10 per month or $96 per year

• Extended hours trading: Included
• OTC trading fee: Included
• Transaction fees: Included

Investment plans with Public are charged a transaction fee based on the number of stock and ETF assets in your account:

• 1-3 symbols: $0.49
• 4-10 symbols: $0.99
• 11-20 symbols: $1.99

Plans containing recurring crypto orders are all charged the lowest 1.25% fee tier regardless of the order amount.

There are also some notable fees associated with alternative assets:

• Commissions: 2.5% per transaction
• Alternative assets may have additional fees specific to that particular asset. These fees are disclosed in the asset’s offering circular.

Investors can find a comprehensive list of additional and miscellaneous fees on Public’s website.

How This Broker Makes Money From You and For You

While the company does not charge commissions, execution fees, transaction fees, or PFOF on equities trades, Public is very transparent about how it makes money from investors:

• When options trading was added in 2024, PFOF did need to be added back for options trades only, although, the company does share 50% of PFOF revenue with the customer.
• Members have the option to tip Public if they’d like. In line with the company’s goal of transparency, they have implemented this unique way to monetize that puts control in the hands of the members.
• Public may earn interest on uninvested cash in your account.
• Public keeps transaction fee rebates on cryptocurrency transactions from Public’s partner, Bakkt Crypto.
• Public charges alternative asset fees: primary offering, secondary trading, and carrying.

Account and Research Amenities

Public has expanded over the years to add stock screeners for every category of investment that it offers, including stocks, ETFs, options, fixed income, and cryptocurrency. Most of the stock screeners are thematic.

Stock Screener

Investors can view stocks via desktop or in the app. There are several ways that stocks can be screened, with the default theme being “most popular.” Once the investor has chosen the theme of stocks they’d like to browse, additional options to sort the stocks are available, including alphabetical order, market cap, and daily change. Public also offers a diverse list of stock themes that investors can search to find ideas.

ETF and Mutual Fund Screener

Public currently does not offer mutual funds; however, it does offer ETFs. Public also offers a diverse list of ETF themes that investors can search to find ideas.

Options Screener

Investors do not have access to an options screener.

Crypto Screener

The crypto screener only sorts by daily change or alphabetical order for investors to view the seven cryptocurrencies currently offered at Public. Investors can click on individual cryptocurrencies they are interested in and find a wealth of information, such as 24-hour trading volume, current supply, recent news articles, and the ability to buy.

Fixed Income Screener

Public has an advanced screener that allows investors to search over 10,000 Treasury and corporate bonds. This comprehensive screener allows investors to implement filters to sort bonds by:

• Maturity date
• Credit rating
• Yield
• Coupon

Tools and Calculators

While Public does not offer much in the way of financial planning tools, the company does have a high-yield savings calculator to compare how earning money in Public’s high-yield savings account can grow over time and has built-in comparison to industry competitors.

Charting

Investors are able to view charts within the app to make informed decisions on a particular stock or ETF, based on historical and current performance. Investors have access to line, bar, and candle charting capabilities.

Trading Idea Generators

Public does not specifically offer a trading ideas generator. However, investors do have the capability within the app to set up customized watchlists and receive notifications based on parameters that they have set.

News

Investors can click on a particular stock that they may be looking to buy. Stock-specific news articles, sourced from publications like Market Watch, Barron’s, and Reuter’s Business Insider, will be available there.

Third-Party Research

Public does not offer third-party research with a basic membership. Premium members get access to more advanced data, company metrics, ratings, and Morningstar research.

Fractional Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP)

Investors are able to set up automatic dividend reinvestment by simply making the selection to do so in the app. If users do not want to set up automatic dividend reinvestment, the money will be kept in the Public account balance.

Cash Management

Public currently offers investors the ability to earn among the highest interest rate in the industry, with 5.1% APY in a high-yield cash account. Investors can earn a high interest rate with the benefits of:

• No fees
• No subscription fee
• No minimum balance requirement
• No maximum balance limits
• Unlimited transfers and withdrawals

While investors can benefit from a high APY offered in this cash account, there are no additional banking features offered, such as a debit card or checking.

Investors are able to link their bank account to directly deposit money into their Public account one time or at the frequency of their choosing; likewise, money can easily be directly withdrawn from the Public account and transferred to a connected bank account.

Portfolio Analysis

Investors are able to view the breakdown of their current portfolio of investments in the app. Beyond that, Public doesn’t offer any sector allocation monitor, allocation interpreter, or external account syncing.

Education

Public offers investors several resources for educational materials. Public offers a plethora of articles on the “Learn” link on the “Resources” tab, covering several topics:

• Latest News
• Stock Market
• Investing
• Options
• Fixed Income
• Retirement
• IPOs
• Crypto
• Alternative Investments

The company also has several educational investing videos on a range of topics on its YouTube channel as well as links to its podcasts.

Customer Service

When it comes to ways users can access customer service assistance, Public’s range of mediums is fairly limited. Investors are only able to contact Public via:

• Email: [email protected]
• Chat in the app

Public does not offer telephone support at this time.

Security and Reliability

Public has several security measures in place to keep investor information and data safe:

• AES 256-bit encryption
• Two-factor authentication
• Active review of outgoing withdrawals to comply with anti-money laundering regulations

Users can also add biometric authentication and a trusted contact for an additional layer of account security.

Public is a member of SIPC. Securities in your account are protected up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash claims. Public has also partnered with 20 banks, giving investors a possible combined FDIC insurance coverage total of $5 million ($250,000 per bank).

Transparency

As a company, Public places an emphasis on being transparent, in particular when it comes to fees. Investors are able to view a comprehensive fee schedule so they are aware of any and all stock and crypto fees that may be incurred.

Available Account Types

Investors can only open a regular brokerage account or a margin account. No other account types are offered at this time.

The Bottom Line

Public is a no-frills platform that offers simplicity for investors making online trades. The low costs, no minimum balance requirements, and fractional shares make it easy for beginner investors or those who don’t have much money to invest but want to get into the market. More sophisticated investors, or those who simply want to diversify their portfolio with alternative investments will also find Public appealing. The company offers additional alternative investments on a monthly basis and continues to grow technologically, most recently by adding an AI component to the platform, carving out its own unique spot in the online broker world.

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