Trading Platforms Setup

[m_grindy]

Hi, I live in the UK and have been swing trading UK equities part-time for a while now. I really want to now start day trading properly and have the correct setup in place. Any help would be great.

I want to trade UK and US equities using Direct Market Access. I would also like the option to Short which I currently don't have.

My current setup is:

BARX (Barclays Stockbrokers) - Level II data, news feed, basic charts (£30 per month)
iDealing - DMA execution only (only UK equities) + live data (free)

Currently I don't have a good enough charting software with intraday candlesticks etc..and I can't trade US equities, so I need some good charting software. I don't really want to get a charting software which requires a data feed from another software like eSignal. Seems silly to have to get eSignal for data when both BARX & iDealing have live data!

I think I may need a re-shuffle. Maybe cancel BARX and get other programs instead?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Mike

 

[fifty2aces]

Switching broker to Interactive Brokers might be a good idea - they provide data, charting software (not sure how good it is, but you can run their data into Ninjatrader if you need better charts). Also, you'll probably pay less in commissions (important for daytrading), and you get access to pretty much any market you want.

 

[marketeer]

Could be an option for you?

Hi Mike... you might want to have a look at this.
I have an account with IG Index, and their advanced charts are very good. they allow you to add data to the chart and save it. you can work in time frames ranging from 1 minute to several years. the data and access is free but you need to open an account with them to access it. But this could be an opportunity for you to experiment with Spreadbetting (I advise you to open a Controlled Risk account though, this gives you a guaranteed stop loss and will avoid the problem of slippage) you can open an account with £50 and trade long or short on say the S&P from as little as £1 point. this will give you the smallest risk possible whilst learning. they also have some very good training material. But be wary of the emotion creeping in as you trade!

Good luck
Marketeer

Hi, I live in the UK and have been swing trading UK equities part-time for a while now. I really want to now start day trading properly and have the correct setup in place. Any help would be great.

I want to trade UK and US equities using Direct Market Access. I would also like the option to Short which I currently don't have.

My current setup is:

BARX (Barclays Stockbrokers) - Level II data, news feed, basic charts (£30 per month)
iDealing - DMA execution only (only UK equities) + live data (free)

Currently I don't have a good enough charting software with intraday candlesticks etc..and I can't trade US equities, so I need some good charting software. I don't really want to get a charting software which requires a data feed from another software like eSignal. Seems silly to have to get eSignal for data when both BARX & iDealing have live data!

I think I may need a re-shuffle. Maybe cancel BARX and get other programs instead?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Mike

 

[m_grindy]

Thanks guys, I will look into both of them. I think IG Index is definitely one for hte near future that I need to use. I think I'm going to have to also go for IB. When I chose originally I looked for the brokers that did DMA in the UK which was iDealing and IB. IB had a much larger initial deposit and no one ever returned my calls or emails, so I thought I would go with iDealing.

Can someone confirm the costs of Interactive Brokers? Is it a £5000 initial deposit? Do you know if this can just be temporary and then I can bring it back down to £3000 or so? Also, I thought I read something about having to spend £2000 in commissions a month which I wouldn't be doing. Does this simply mean there is no way of having IB?

Thanks

 

[mikeeg]

Thanks guys, I will look into both of them. I think IG Index is definitely one for hte near future that I need to use. I think I'm going to have to also go for IB. When I chose originally I looked for the brokers that did DMA in the UK which was iDealing and IB. IB had a much larger initial deposit and no one ever returned my calls or emails, so I thought I would go with iDealing.

Can someone confirm the costs of Interactive Brokers? Is it a £5000 initial deposit? Do you know if this can just be temporary and then I can bring it back down to £3000 or so? Also, I thought I read something about having to spend £2000 in commissions a month which I wouldn't be doing. Does this simply mean there is no way of having IB?

Thanks

Most of the information you seek is on their website. There is also a dedicated IB thread somewhere on this forum (think it's the broker section). From memory, the minimum equates to around £5,000 but if you are contemplating daytrading, the minimum is much higher due to legislation I believe. (There are precise rules on what constitutes daytrading and what doesn't depending on firstly the quantity you trade on a daily basis and also when you open and close orders, whether on the same day or different days).

If you're swing/position trading, you'll be ok though, but do check into the maintaining the initial deposit level with others here on the forum so you know where the land lies.

Mikey

 

[m_grindy]

That's great help thanks. I was getting confused between brokers minimum commissions and normal minimum activity fees. All sorted now and application is well underway.

Does anyone know what the deal is with maintaining the initial deposit level. Say I have the initial deposit of £5000 in the account and want to trade £2000 woth of equities, do I need to have £7000 in account or will £5000 suffice?

Thanks in advance