Etrade, IG Markets or Synthesis Bank??

[TrendTracker]

Hello everyone,

I've been browsing the web for a good CFD broker for position trading and found three options, Etrade, IG Markets and Synthesis Bank (www.tradingfloor.com / a Swiss broker). I would appreciate a quick comment in any one of them from people who have used their services. Would you mind?

I am looking for:

- a reliable and easy to use platform, with
- a broker that provides me with OCO, GTC orders and
- allows me to place them before the market opens.
- guaranteed stops might be of use every now and then

A very friendly and helpful chap phoned me from Etrade (though almost a week after I emailed them) and claimed that they are cheapest and are even ready to look after your account in case you go on holiday. They seemed good although some people here have expressed a different view.

IG I really don't know much about but they seem to offer guaranteed stops. But how is their online trading platform like?

Synthesis seem the be the cheapest this far (0,1%) but they require that there must be an uptick in the US stocks before you can short them. Does that apply with the other CFD brokers as well?

BTW, it would be really helpful for a lot of the newcomers if more people would spend 5 minutes rating the CFD brokers. I've checked the ratings almost every day but they are not numerous enough to use them for an educated conclusion.

Please, your comments would be greatly appreciated, and if you can recommend somebody else I'd be happy to hear about them.

Cheers!

 

[Zzoom]

Hi Trend Tracker

I've been using the IG Markets platform for a while. Its very easy to use and fine if I have nothing else running, otherwise it tends to crash on me after a while (Initially I thougfht it was my old PC with Win98, but I still have the same problem with a new PC with lots of RAM running XP). Possibly this could be because I am using a narrowband connection at the the moment, but I suspect not.

Their L2 platform seems more robust, but has shut down on me now and then and lacks real time charting.

Ive used them mainly for US Indices. Generally speaking I havent had any problems with CFD orders, buy or sell. I couldnt say about US stocks or UK shares as I have only been paper trading them for the last 3 months.

Personally I am thinking of switching to Etrade only because their flat FTSE100 CFD rate. I have no idea what their platform is like though so if anyone else wants to comment...

Hope this helps
Zzoom.

 

[Achilles.]

I can recommend IG Markets platform reliability has been excellent , navigation is very fast and simplistic easy move from one trade to another , stops/limits.
Have had no problems with reliability whatsoever , current system Xp/1gig ram/2800amd , already 100% better experience than my previous , real time AFX news , excellent charting tools.

Achilles.

 

[jiggly]

Hi Guys

Since you are on the topic of spreadbetters and brokers, I have always wondered whether their platforms, or should i say charting applications provides the volume study, (contracts traded over a specific periods of time).

dos any broker offer this, which ones by your experiences?

thanks in advance.

 

[Paulds11]

The Etrade platform is excellent and offers only REAL markets not fake ones like IG. The Etrade platform has great news access and the charts are very robust. In fact the platform is really from Saxo bank..award winning stuff with unbelievable customer service

The IG markets product platform did not work on my system properly and even technical could not fix the issue.. yet other JAVA applications did work. and access to news is back charts are clunky and not easy to reference. The charts are abysmal for real trading purposes and often end up not reflecting the true market tick for tick. In my opinion The biggest problem I had with it was the introduction of gambling products side by side with CFDs called binaries.. sorry but i want to make money with a broker not lose it with a betting shop.. as such I say AVOID