Best Aquis Stock Exchange Investing Accounts

How to buy shares on the Aquis exchange

You can buy shares that are listed on the Aquis Stock Exchange through regular brokers such as Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell. Not all UK brokers offer access to Aquis-listed shares though. Many of the companies that are listed on Aquis are small and not very well known. As a result, they are often not available on newer investment platforms such as Freetrade and Trading212.

If your broker does offer Aquis-listed shares, you should be able to buy these shares through a Stocks and Shares ISA or SIPP. You should also be able to buy them through a General Investment Account.

What is the Aquis exchange?

The Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) is a primary and secondary market for equity and debt securities. Launched in 2020, it’s now the 7th largest stock exchange in Europe. Looking to buy shares on the Aquis exchange? Here’s what you need to know.

Aquis is designed specifically for innovative growth companies. Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), it covers 16 European markets.

You can think of the Aquis Stock Exchange as a challenger to the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). It’s much smaller than the AIM though. Today, there are only around 100 businesses listed on Aquis. On AIM, there are around 700 companies.

How does the Aquis exchange differ from the LSE and the AIM?

In terms of the differences between the Aquis exchange and the other UK stock exchanges, the main differences are in relation to:

• Company size – Most companies on the Aquis exchange are very small (many stocks have market capitalisations under £100 million). On average, market caps are much lower than market caps across the LSE and AIM.
• Growth focus – Most companies on the Aquis exchange are growth and innovation focused. By contrast, the LSE has a lot of mature businesses.
• Listing requirements – Compared to the LSE and AIM, Aquis has more relaxed listing requirements.
• Liquidity – On the Aquis Stock Exchange, liquidity can be a lot lower than on the LSE and AIM. Many stocks on Aquis regularly go days with zero trades.
• Spreads – Trading spreads on the Aquis exchange are often wider than spreads on the LSE and AIM.

What are the risks involved in buying shares on the Aquis exchange?

A lot of companies listed on the Aquis Stock Exchange are early-stage businesses with minimal (or zero) profits. Generally speaking, these types of companies are risky investments.

And that’s not the only risk to consider here. Another is liquidity. Typically, trading volumes on the Aquis Stock Exchange are very low. This can lead to high levels of share price volatility at times.

Another issue to be aware of with Aquis-listed stocks is that trading spreads (the difference between a stock’s buy price and sell price) can be very wide. Sometimes, spreads can be more than 5%. These spreads can act like an additional fee when buying and selling shares. The larger the spread, the more expensive the trade.

Another massive downside of having large spreads is that you are almost straight away losing money. We have listed the spreads of the current companies listed on Aquis below and here will use Adsure as an example.

The current spread is 28% so if you buy 10,000 shares at 23p (the ask), that will cost you £2,300, but if you want to sell them at the current bid (sell price) you will only receive £1,800 for them.

However, you are able to work limits inside these prices, but you may have to do the deal over the phone.

Aquis Exchange Constituents