Moomoo Brokerage Review for 2024

Item: Moomoo Broker Review
Rating: 2
Author: Andrew Fitzgerald

Overview of Moomoo

Moomoo isn’t just for the bulls out there. This bovine brokerage firm offers bearish trading and quite a bit more. It’s well worth checking out.

Moomoo Pros

Multiple markets: China is on tap here.

Good software: An advanced desktop platform brings trading to a high level.

Social networking: Not easy to find at other brokers.

Moomoo Cons

Lack of tradable instruments: Several asset classes are missing.

No advisory service: Everything is self-directed.

Limited account selection: No retirement accounts here.

Investment Service

For self-directed traders, moomoo delivers a rather small list of tradable assets:

Equities
American Depository Receipts
Options
Exchange Traded Funds
Real Estate Investment Trusts
Closed End Funds

Although that’s a rather small list, the stock category does include three Chinese exchanges for US-based accounts: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. This is where moomoo really stands out among other US brokerage houses. Some over-the-counter (OTC) stocks are available as well.

The selection of account types is much smaller. There is just one account type currently: the individual taxable account.

Moomoo broker review

Opening an Account

It’s really easy to open an individual account at moomoo. in the top-right corner of the website. It’s also possible to sign up using a variety of online logins, such as Facebook or WeChat.

To get started, only an email address and password are required. For full trading privileges, a complete application will need to be completed.

Currently, only residents of the United States, Macao, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, and Taiwan can open a US-based account. Moomoo does have branches in Singapore and Australia, and Singaporean and Australian residents can open accounts on the company’s dedicated Singaporean page or Australian page. A Sing account can trade on the Singaporean exchanges, and an Aussie account can trade on Australian exchanges.

Customer Service

Moomoo offers multiple lines of help for customers who need it. First up is old-fashioned phone service. This department is open only during the weekday from 8:30 am, Eastern Standard Time, until 4:30 pm. During our testing of this service, we reached a human agent speaking North American English within a few minutes.

On the desktop platform and mobile app (which we’ll dive into here shortly), there is a chat widget. This is a hybrid robo-human chat service that is staffed by both types of associates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Finally, the company’s website has a Help page that contains answers to lots of questions that traders will inevitably have.

Moomoo has no branch locations and offers no investment advice.

Margin

Every account at moomoo is a margin account. Cash accounts are not available, which means it’s not possible to switch between the two.

Moomoo’s trading platforms display margin details for an entered ticker symbol. These important values aren’t actually displayed on a stock’s profile. Instead, there are icons for long and short values (the blue dollar sign is for long margin and the orange down arrow is for short margin). Click or tap on either to pull up margin information. Examples of data points that will be shown include:

- Initial margin
- Short pool
- Maintenance margin
- Interest rate (long and short)
Currently, the long margin rate is 6.8% across all balance tiers. This rate applies to US-listed stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and China A-shares. The rate for short positions varies by security and by day.

Website

Moomoo has a pretty elementary website, although the broker-dealer has improved it in recent months. In the past, it had no market news or charting capability. Today it does, although charts are pretty simple with no tools of any kind.

Moomoo Investing Review

As for market news, moomoo’s site displays hot lists of various categories, like volume rankings and top gainers. Clicking on an entry generates a new page with the profile of the security. Here, we found lots of information. There are financial statement, key indicators, a list of company executives, short selling data, news articles, company valuation, and more.

In the upper-right corner of the site is an icon of the account. Hovering over this will produce a drop-down window with selections to perform transfers and download account documents.

Although moomoo hasn’t yet added trading capability to its site, it has recently added paper trading. This is a good way to practice trading not only on the US exchanges but other exchanges, including:

- Chinese mainland
- Singaporean exchange
- Hong Kong exchange

The correct ticker symbols must of course be used. Only limit orders can be used in simulated mode, which is a drawback. Perhaps the biggest drawback during our trial run of moomoo’s demo trading was that practice trades did not add to the simulated account’s position list. Apparently, it’s a work in progress.

Also recently added to the website is Moo. This is the company’s community forum. It’s easy to drop in and read what other moomoo customers are trading and what the market news is. There is a list of hot topics and recommended users. Posts can be shared, liked, and commented on.

Mobile App

With moomoo’s mobile app, we do get trading capability. The order ticket has the following trade types:

Market
Limit
Stop limit
Stop
Limit if touched
Market if touched
Trailing stop limit
Trailing stop

Eight order types are a good selection, but the software only has two duration choices: day and GTC (good till cancelled). The ticket was recently updated with bracket orders (look for the section to add an “attached order”). If a trade results in margin being used, the ticket will note this on the amount line.

Scrolling down on the trade ticket, we find an order book with a depth chart that shows price on the horizontal axis and share amounts on the vertical. There is a graphical display of bid and ask prices to compare the number of bids against the number of asks coming in. Up to 60 rows of bids and asks can be displayed. Finally, there are multiple exchanges that can be displayed. Examples include:

- NYSE ArcaBook
- CBOE Direct Edge
- NASDAQ TotalView

Only the ArcaBook is free.

Charting improves to an extent on the mobile app. Now, we get tools like technical studies and drawing widgets. We found stock histories going back at least 25 years. Although a chart can be rotated horizontally, the space can easily get cluttered up, especially if you use some of the tools.

At the bottom of the screen sits the app’s main menu. The watchlist page is a good place to visit. Multiple lists can be created, and moomoo has some pre-installed lists, including ones for assets that can’t be traded (crypto and futures are two examples).

Tapping on an entry generates the profile for the asset. Options have a tab here. Unfortunately, only calls and puts can be traded. There are no spreads, and it’s not possible to build a multi-leg trade.

Yes, this is a good mobile app with lots of useful features, simulated trading, and a great deal of customization, but there is no mobile check deposit. And we would like to see streaming video news added at some point.

Desktop System

Up next in the list of available software platforms is moomoo’s desktop program. This is the company’s flagship trading platform, and we do quite like it. It functions on both Mac and Windows, which is sure to please many traders.

Moomoo Trading Review

At last, charting is on a very high level. A graph on the desktop platform can be displayed full screen, so we finally have a decent environment for chart analysis. Price action can be shown tick by tick, which is a really useful feature for intra-day trading. And we like the many drawing tools that are available. Examples include:

- Gann Angle line
- Rising arrow
- Parallelogram

A screenshot tool can create an image of a chart, although the resulting file is only 937 x 694 pixels.

Technical analysis is possible thanks to roughly a hundred indicators. For whatever reason, the timeframe needs to be set to one day to pull up the full list of indicators. After selecting one day, look for the “Indicator Management” link to pull up the full list of studies that can be added (only a few will be initially installed).

Although there is a right-click menu, there is no trade link. To place a trade, you have to go back to the order ticket, which is installed on the Trade tab, although it’s always possible to save a layout with the trade ticket anywhere you like.

This time, there are twelve order types. These four additional types are:

- Limit buy
- Limit sell
- Market buy
- Market sell

Like the website and mobile app, the desktop platform has a practice mode, which really helps to learn the trade ticket.

Pricing

And what does all of this cost? Surprisingly little. Moomoo charges no fees on trades of US-listed equities and funds, and there are no surcharges on OTC trades. Options do have a 65¢ per-contract fee. Level II data is free.

When we get to Chinese securities, things do change somewhat. There is a commission of 0.03% of trade value, with a HK$3 minimum (or ￥3 for mainland Chinese securities). And there is an additional “platform fee” per order. It is 15 currency units (yuan or HK dollar) per order.

Accounts at moomoo do not have any minimums or fees.

Security Research

Moomoo has a stock screener on its website. We do emphasize “stock” screener because the search wizard can’t look for ETFs. There’s a second screener on the desktop platform that can look for ETFs (and warrants). A third screener is available on the mobile app. This one is also stock-only.

All three can search for American and Chinese securities. The scanner on the mobile app can look for Australian, Canadian, Japanese, and Singaporean securities as well. All three search engines have lots of criteria.

A security’s profile on moomoo has many details. Examples include:

Short interest
Quick ratio
EBIT
Cash flow
Analyst rating (with number of analysts)
Target price
News articles

The one missing element is stock reports from major analysts.

Extra Services

IRAs: Moomoo does not offer Individual Retirement Accounts or other types of tax-advantaged accounts.

DRIP Service: There is no auto dividend reinvesting service at moomoo.

Extended Hours: Moomoo’s early-bird session runs from 4:00 am until the opening bell. After the closing bell, trading is possible until 8:00 pm.

Fractional-share Trading: Not yet available.

Banking Tools: Unfortunately, moomoo doesn’t yet offer any noteworthy cash management tool, such as a debit card or checkwriting. Its website does have an ACH/wire transfer widget.

IPO Service: New stock releases are available at moomoo.

Recommendations

Mutual Fund Investors: We defend , who has thousands of funds with a good fund screener.

Active Equity Trading: With moomoo’s good desktop platform and mobile app, we can recommend moomoo. Traders who are interested in high interest on cash or fractional shares should head over to .

Beginners: A robo account with is a good way to begin.

Individual Retirement Accounts: With 1% free contribution match and no IRA fees, is a great place to open a retirement account.

Small Accounts: Because moomoo has no account minimums or fees, we can defend it here.

Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: has lots of resources for long-term investing: lifecycle mutual funds, bonds, tax-advantaged accounts, retirement education, and more.

Moomoo Review Verdict

Moomoo has quickly developed a very good trading service with lots of features that experienced traders will be happy to see. Nevertheless, many services are still missing, which means some investors will need to go elsewhere.