That is odd, I was under the impression Tradefair is a white label of CS? However I am with CS and have never experienced any of the problems above - a little difficulty in placing orders in very fast moving/volatile markets but that is the case with virtually every SB you will find.
IG are okay but their spreads are huge, oil was frequently 20 points today, I do not see how anyone can trade spreads that wide seriously, regardless of time-frame etc, the fact is you put a fiver on per point and you are down 100 pounds before you have even started. Day traders have no chance.
I have just opened an account with CMC, spreads seem competitive, complaints about their charts in another thread here but I use my own so I am purely interested in using an SB to execute.
Never used city index (aka finspreads), would be interested to here any opinions/comparisions from others on them?