Trading platforms

[ketank]

Hello

With many types of trading platforms available (Brokerage, Spread bet, CFD, Binary etc), I wanted to know what people's opinion are on these… love, hate, success, failure, popular etc.

Reason I ask is because I used Brokerage but no leverage.
Thought about Binary’s, but hear bad review’s in general
Used Spread bet, but found brokers increasing spread dramatically
CFD…..sound good but.....????


It sounds like a lot of manipulating the markets or brokers "out to get you" rather than an opportunity of fair sensible trading.

 

[Trader333]

If you are totally serious about trading then go for a direct access broker such as www.interactivebrokers.com


Paul

 

[mroalan]

hi trader have seen you about,do they do TA.i require vol,pivs/fibs all in real time? regards albert.

 

[mroalan]

did try interactive but no volume with there charts,still looking.

 

[johnpaterson]

If you are totally serious about trading then go for a direct access broker such as www.interactivebrokers.com


Paul

I agree. They are going public soon and they will raise enough capital to expand and develop their technology further. I'm switching to IB this week. I day trade high caps and $0.005 per share is what I was looking for.

I'm also impressed by the availability of consultants and programmers for their platform API and such. This is great.

Trader333, do you know if they have a system to search the various liquidity pools for the best bid/ask price? Do they pass through rebates for adding liquidity to some ECN's?

John

 

[Interactive Brokers]

For your reference Interactive Brokers (IB) provides direct access to listed exchanges. We provide two types of fee schedules bundled (all in) and unbundled (i.e., the more you trade the less you pay).

In some cases we offer further discounted exchange fee programs.

We suggest you refer to our website for further details.

As of today, Friday, 4th May, we are a publicly traded company and our symbol on Nasdaq is ibkr.

We strongly suggest you compare our services, award winning technology, and low costs. That is if you find something better and at less cost we suggest you take it; otherwise we look forward to earning your business.

 

[c_ZAR]

anyone else?

Post seemed to suddenly end there....

Anyone used anything better or got any constructive criticism for IB?

eg) is it too complex/costly for beginners or are there any limitations anyone knows of?

 

[Interactive Brokers]

Dear C-Zar

Here are our facts, that will allow you to compare us:

- We are a publicly traded company on NASDAQ (our symbol is ibkr);

- Our market capitalization is over $10 billion;

- Our Group has been in business for over 30 years;

- Our accounts are geared towards serious traders and investors, and we require the following for all customers:Good or extensive product knowledge for any product you wish to trade, prior execution of 100 or more trades (any product) and a minimum equity deposit in cash or stock of USD 5,000 (or USD equivalent).

- We provide direct access to over 60 global exchanges from one award (Trade2Win, Stocks and Commodity, and Barrons) winning trading platform and Universal Account.

- We provide our clients transparent prices and services,i.e., if you refer to our website we list all of our costs, unlike other brokers where you have to first provide them your profile before they provide you there costs. In brief, we believe in TRANSPARENCY.

- We offer deep discount fees. For example, to trade GBP LSE FTSE 350 shares and AIM SETS segment shares we ask GBP 6.00 (all in, exclusive of stamp duty on purchases); $0.005 per share (Smart Order Routing) for US shares (all in); and etc.

- Our clients can trade equity stock options, options on futures/indices; futures, shares, ETF's, Forex, and bonds through our Trader Worskation.

- We ask a minimum brokerage fee of $10 per month;

- We offer a full overview of our services, technology and benefits through FREE Webinars located on our website and locally in the UK we offer FREE Workshops at our London office (near St. Paul's Cathedral). For more information about our FREE Workshops refer to the following link http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/education/tradeSeminars.php?ib_entity=uk

- Our Group companies are regulated (e.g., FSA, SEC, NYSE, NASD, SIPC, CFTC and etc).

- We offer account protection up to $30 million.

- We offer FOREX, i.e., clients can trade half pips, we support the major pairs, we offer variable spreads (not fixed), we ask a transparent commission (e.g., =< 1/3 of a pip), we provide our clients an aggregate feed from the top prime fx brokers, we do not trade against our clients and according to www.brokersmatrix.com an independent website (where we do not advertise on) we offer on average the tighest spreads.

- We pay interest for funds on deposit =>$10,000

In short, we ask all interested prospects to carefully compare our services, costs, technology and benefits. If you believe you have found a better value we ask you take it; otherwise we look forward to helping you opening an account.

 

[c_ZAR]

sounds good

Sounds great imho, thanks for the FYI.

 

[Interactive Brokers]

C_Zar

Please compare and compare before you decide in opening an account with any online broker. That is, you should ensure a broker meets your needs before you buy.

We wish you much success regardless if you open an account with us or not.

 

[mroalan]

yes that might be so,but no volume on the FTSE.

 

[zagreb]

well, IB talk sounds good and even fair (transparent) to me, which isn't that common

 

[Interactive Brokers]

For your reference, Interactive Brokers now supports over 50 AIM shares denominated in GBP, on the London Stock Exchange. We ask GBP 6.00 per transaction, all in, except for purchases where stamp duty applies and whereby the value of the transaction =< GBP 50,000. For transactions above > GBP 50,000, we ask 5 basis points for the value of the transaction.

We ask you to please compare our low fees and direct access to the LSE among other UK brokers. We believe you will see we offer our clients the lowest standard fees with award winning technology.

If you require additional information please review our website www.interactivebrokers.co.uk or call our local UK office 0207 776 7800.

 

[Pat494]

Interactive Broker
I find it difficult to compare your prices with the spread-bet firms. For instance I usually want a bet on the S&P 500 index at £1 per point. The spread will be 0.4 points.
With IB do I have to buy lots - whatever they are etc. please explain ?????

 

[dcraig1]

Interactive Broker
I find it difficult to compare your prices with the spread-bet firms. For instance I usually want a bet on the S&P 500 index at £1 per point. The spread will be 0.4 points.
With IB do I have to buy lots - whatever they are etc. please explain ?????

You have to trade multiples of one contract. An ES contract is $50 x price (eg price = 1520 as I type this). Intraday margin is ~ $2K: check IB website for exact figure. So one point change in S&P500 is $50.

If you want something smaller you could trade SPY, but margin requirements will be higher.

 

[Interactive Brokers]

- We are a publicly traded company.
- We are capitalized over $10 billion.
- We have been in business for over 29 years.
- We only offer listed exchange products, exclusive of Forex.
- You can trade options, futures, shares, ETF's, bonds, and forex from one screen and one account.
- When you trade through IB, you trade directly into the exchange, i.e., we do not trade against you.
- We offer over 40 free order types.
- We pay interest for funds over $10,000 in your account.
- We offer account protection up $30 million.
- We are fully regulated.
- Our costs
a) We ask, minimum deposit of $5,000.
b) We ask, a minimum brokerage fee of $10 per month.
c) We ask, various market data fees (e.g., $10 per month, for US options, futures, shares, forex, ETF's, and bonds. And if you execute over $30 in brokerage fees we waive the $10 US market data fee).
d) Brokerage fees vary per exchange. If you trade the S&P Emini future.

Minimum tick size 0.25 ( = $12.50 per increment).
We ask, a maximum of $2.40 per side (all in). Further, we offer a sliding scale, i.e., the no more you trade the less you pay, per month.

So, if you buy one E-mini S&P contract and you make one tick profit i.e., you buy one and sell one.

$12.50 profit = one tick S&P profit.
$4.80 less, ($2.40 x 2) IB commissions.
-------
$7.70 net profit, using IB.

The margin rate we ask per one S&P e-mini contract, is $1,750.

Please if you have any questions do not hesitate to call our London office 020 7 776 7800.

 

[Chuck_T]

QuoteTrader

New version of QuoteTrader now available with Interactive Brokers. Supports both a trading front end and real time charting.

Download it here and it is FREE: http://www.quote.com/quotetrader

Chuck