isxmarkets.com

[ISX Markets]

We are a new broking firm and will start trading on Monday 23rd February.

ISX is not a market maker, but use a number of market makers to provide clients with trading opportunities. As we do not take any positions for ourselves we are better placed to offer clients a great deal. The only money we make is the commission we charge. Therefore we have got contracts in place with MM to ensure that our clients are offered only market prices.

Products;

CFDs 0.2%
Futures £4.95
Options £4.95
Forex Free
OTC
Hedge Desk

We provide direct market access on all CFD trades, thus allowing clients to trade the order book.

Any feedback will be much appreciated.

 

[JonnyT]

Too expensive for me.

JonnyT

 

[ISX Markets]

All fees are negotiable by volume, we can go as low as £4 per lot for exchange-traded futures

 

[sidinuk]

wow, US futures are $7.95 per lot per side PLUS taxes, exchange fees and vat! With fees like that couldn't you have afforded to pay someone to produce a more professional looking website!!

 

[JonnyT]

I pay £1.40 per side on futures...No Exchange fees...

You arn't even in the same ball park.

JonnyT

 

[sidinuk]

Perhaps they meant to post this advert on the 'joke of the day' thread!

 

[rossored]

Eeek, just read this thread.

$7.95 per lot per side for US futures?

Hmm. I'm presently paying between $2.08 and $2.40 per side on US futures on GLOBEX and ECBOT (and I am strictly a low-volume trader, btw), plus I don't pay exchange either.

JonnyT, you said not even the same ball park, right? Well in the words of Samuel L. Jackson, "ain't even the same league, it ain't even the same sport".

 

[ISX Markets]

After reading all your responses I have had various discussions with a number of market makers and have been able to reduce the commission as follows;

UK Futures: £1.60 per side (including all exchange fees)
US Futures: $2.30 per side (including all exchange fees)

However this will not be available for a few weeks.

Thank you for you comments.

 

[JonnyT]

Funny that isn't it!

Now do you offer an API?

JonnyT

 

[ISX Markets]

Traders may program their own add-on applications in Excel, C++, Java, and Visual Basic with our Application Program Interface (API).

 

[ISX Markets]

Further to you comments we have come up with the following;
ISX will add a fixed fee (not a % fee) to the commission quoted by clearing firm to ISX. This fee will be static and will NEVER increase. AS we conduct more business through our clearing firm, the commissions offered will become lower.
This way of aggregating individual trader’s orders under ISXs account means that we can negotiate some of the cheapest commission rates around. Below is a table showing example rates;

0 - 5000 lots $5.00 £3.25 EUR3.50
5001-10000 lots $4.50 £2.75 EUR3.00
10001-20000 lots $4.25 £2.25 EUR2.75
20001-30000 lots $3.50 £2.00 EUR2.50

Per month traded.
(all quoted round turn, excludes exchange fees)

Exchanges: Globex, Eurex, Euronext, LIFFE, CBOT/A/C/E

ISX will provide the above rates to all clients irrelevant of volume traded by individual clients. All clients will start at the lowest rate, and as our client base grows and we transact more lots per month all clients will be given the subsequent commission rate, and so on.

Once our total trades per month hit >20,001 we will be the cheapest broker around. We are already negotiating rates for 30,001 + trades. These will be around $3.00/£1.50/€2.00 round turn excluding exchange fees.

Commission schedule is retroactive back to contract # 1
We will be using J-Trader with API available.

Can you please provide feedback, suggestions?

Please note this service will be available from 15th March 2004. Further details will be posted to our website soon.

 

[smallfry]

I do find it very odd that you announce yourselves here, get slated by a few respected members, and then suddenly slash your commission rates and charges...

Sounds very fishy, are you regulated?

It's also odd that your name ISX Markets is very similar to a certain other key player, IFX Markets...more than a coincidence no doubt.

Simon

 

[smallfry]

I see you are regulated, but can't be bothered to put an address on your website.

I also found this on your CFD page:
"CFDs are a highly flexible and user-friendly trading tool, which afford clients access to trades and strategies, that until now have only been available to Institutions. "

Well perhaps you've never heard of GNI or one of the other suppliers of CFD's in the UK who are specifically aimed at the private investor/semi-professional?

It sounds to me like you're one of these broker outfits who want a slice of the personal market, but haven't quite got a grasp of it. Perhaps that's too harsh, however my previous comments about instant price cuts worries me even now. Did you do any market research before launching your service?

Spread betting companies used to have this problem when employing staff from brokers. Brokers think they know how spread betting works and rapidly come unstuck. Much better to train up people to think and work like one of the very professional people I used to be with.

Regards
Simon

 

[ISX Markets]

We are regulated by the FSA, and have no links with IFX. We are an independent firm. Our regulatory details can be found on the FSA website.

We will be launching an advertising campaign in March. We have posted our service on trading boards to see what traders such as yourselves have to say about our rates.

Due to the response we received last time about our rates being to high, we have signed a new contract with a different clearing firm.

We have also changed our rates for Forex & CFDs as follows;

Forex: Free (3 - 5 BP spread)
If clients trade £20,000,000 (or equivalent) in any calender month, ISX will rebate £1,000 to client.

CFDs: (rates to be confirmed)

Direct market access
Level 2 trading
Best execution service (as under FSA)
If client trade £5,000,000 (or equivalent) in any calender month, ISX will rebate £1,000 to client.

We are looking to gain market share and are prepared to have very tight profit margins to achieve this.

We are a company that is prepared to listen to traders and adjust our services accordingly.

 

[smallfry]

Well that's all very well, but as you appear to have a pedigree of your own, how did you manage to launch your private investor services with such appallingly bad charges?

This doesn't exactly engender confidence in what you're doing as far as I'm concerned, although to your credit you have swiftly done something about it.

How many people do you have in your organisation and what is the makeup between front office and back office?

Simon
NZ

 

[jmreeve]

Can you offer direct access LSE equity CFDs with trading via an API?

This is the only thing I can't find at the moment.

 

[ISX Markets]

We do offer direct access to LSE & we are currently working on an API.

We have 10 dealers, all of our trading/back office will be taken care off by our clearing firm. For CFDs we are clearing through MAN Financial.