I had a call with management to clarify some things:
Quarterly numbers:
Revenue in Q4 was up 37% while trades were only up 28.1% and client cash was only up 20%. The explanation for those odd numbers is: annual pre-payments of subscription fees. As per their website in June: EOFY Special - Buy $240 Annual Subscription, Get 15 Free Trades.
My calculations show that about 500 people took up the special. 3-4% of active members.
So that probably means that this current quarter will have revenue growth a bit below trades and cash growth. The come-down quarter after the adrenaline hit. The other numbers should continue to grow, just revenue would be a bit subdued.
I didn't ask about this, but some of the big spike in trades these past couple of months could be due to the free trades, as somebody mentioned here.
Priorities:
Every year, they come up with something like 3 main priorities to develop, and then probably have other minor ones too. This year was Advisor Platform, ETF(s), and International Trading, I believe.
- Advisor Platform: Just released.
- ETF: 'SELF' due approx next week. Potentially more ETFs later.
- International Trading: I forget exactly when. Maybe next quarter.
All should boost the main metrics.
- Target Portfolios: This is the one I was asking about, since I think it should be simplified so people can simply allot money to the SelfWealth Indexes (and pay a management fee) instead of having to manually match the index (including regular effort and brokerage). Answer: target portfolios have been sitting somewhat idle for a while (accumulating data, and getting some usage), but have opportunities to be improved. They may be improved in the coming year.
They're looking to utilize the IP. The ETF I think is the first instance of this. It's somewhat similar to my idea of having virtual ETFs inside the SWF platform. Actually, they said they had similar ideas to mine already. So improving the Target Portfolios is something that may naturally happen, or something similar at least.
They say they have a constant stream of requests for features, so each suggestion sways their future development.
- 100 people comment online about slow transfers being a problem, they improve it (still waiting on that, but they said on Reddit that it's in progress).
- Feedback from some people who signed up but failed to convert to active traders, was that it's due to a lack of international trading. That seems to be due for release fairly soon.
It seems like their 3 main priorities are near completion. I expect all of them to help the company, but I'm also looking forward to the 3 priorities that come next. With ~5 devs and not yet cashflow positive to afford more devs, they're limited to how many features can be worked on at once, so I'll need some patience.
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