OK ish, but not for everyone
I have been using CS for few years now and finally decided to close my account. The company has good and bad sides in my view. So I will try to give a fair review and hopefully it will help someone.
So good points first.
1. The spreads are good. I compared with few other brokers and found CS often gave the same or better.2. CS has reward scheme, which is helpful in cost if trade a lot.3. CS chart system is pretty good. I am talking the new platform here.4. Customer service is ok until you start reaching out for the complaint department.5. Have daily editorial over email which have some value, but problem as well. (I personally wont trade those tips)
Now the bad points and why I decided to close my account.
1. The execution is always a problem. I place different bet sizes from time to time, and the execution seems very inconsistent, especially when the market is moving quickly. i.e. if the market is moving rapidly, and you see a price you like to open/close a trade, its hard to get what you see on the screen. There are number of times when the price move in my favour but I cant close until the market settles down a bit.2. They have a dealer approval procedure but you never know when and what bet size it would be triggered. I.e. few weeks ago I placed a rather large bet on US tech 100 (NASDAQ emini as far as I understand). When I open the trade, everything went through without problem (no dealer approval). Few mins later the price moved in my favour, clicked the close trade button and dealer approval kicked in and lasted about 30-45 secs and my closing order was rejected. At that time, the price was against me. So I had to close with a lost. This issue had happened few times. I do short term day trading only and those things hit me badly. I dont think it would be an issue for longer term traders though.3. The general attitude towards to customers problem is always thats your problem sir. I am not talking their general customer service guys. I am talking when you reach the complaint department. In 2014, there is one day their system had some sort of pricing issue and US tech was on a very unusual quote. I spot it and took advantage. I made some good money in short time so I closed the trade. The next thing I noticed was CS opened a new trade for me without even talking to me and as result I ended up with a lost. Its like a ghost in the shell. I raise a complaint and they referred me to section 3 point 9 of the Terms and Conditions. But later on I found the section 3.9 was ruled by FSA not to use as unfair to customers almost 10 years ago. All CS did was to have the same section using a different English. And when you explain to them, they dont even care. I did report this to FCA and still waiting on outcome. But I have to say this is not the main reason why I closed my account, no. 1 & 2 are.
Conclusion: In my view, if you are a long term trader, CS is pretty good. But if you are short term trading fan like me. Stay away as the risk is high. Also lurkerlurker did a review and mentioned CS is always "act first, ask questions later" when problem happens. Its very true and they have absolutely all the power to do whatever they want. If you are not a fan of that, I would suggest stay away as well.
