Level 1 data and trading in pence or dollars

I trade PHAU and PHAG (ETFS Physical gold and silver) in ISAs and SIPPs with idealing.com.

Although level 2 is vaguely interesting all that I really need is live prices in order so that I can see where to place my limit on the other side of the spread. i-dealing.com are offering this for £66 a year - can anybody else recommend something cheaper?

I see that IG Markets do level 2 for £6 a month (refunded if you make one trade).

The other thing I'd love some help with is the difference between the GBP order book for PHAU and the USD order book. Can anybody who has access to the appropriate information tell me how the volume and spread compares between the two?

I'm currently trying to buy a bit of PHAG at the price of 2145p and although the offer price moves up and down and gets really close - nobody bites. I'm wondering if I would have more success trading in dollars.

Oh - and I don't know anything about CHI-X - should I consider putting my orders on that instead?

Many thanks for any advice.

John.

So do I.

£66pa is cheap for the live price feed.

Can't comment on IG.

USD is more liquid. But why ask even. You can't hold $ in your ISA.

No bite because these ETFs are autotraded by alg. programs. You will always lag behind.

Forget CHI-X.

Dear Catt,

Thanks for replying. You can't hold dollars, but you can trade using the dollar order book. I'm always fully invested in my ISA, but if I want to sell some of my PHAG and buy some PHAU then I can sell it through the dollar order book and create some dollars and then buy PHAG through the PHAG dollar order book. If I have a few dollars left over at the end of the day i-dealing does an FX-Sweep and converts them back into a few pennies.

I would be interested in your reasons for writing off chi-x. It has a free live feed and is cheaper to trade so I'd like to use it if I can. Is it because of a lack of liquidity or for another reason? What would need to change before you would recommend it. The spread is wider on the chi-x but if you are using the order book then you can trade on the other side of the spread and perhaps pick up a bargain. Or is that ok in theory but not in practice.

Thanks again,

John.

Convert.
Convert back.
That costs!
About 1% each time.

FXsweep setting is daily at about UK close. You handover control of picking a good exchange rate on favourable days only.

Just not worth it.

Not to mention dealing round trip costs double. Min £19.60 one way from my recollection.