UK Platform opinions

[Caintrading]

Hi,

I am looking to open an account with a UK based broker (day trading) and would like your honest opinions.

I need to be placing trades in a time efficient manor (allowing me to get in and out quickly) with an overall good trading platform.

Extra info

- Day trading US stock markets, stock under $15
- Level 2, charting software, scanners etc
- Starting with a $3,000 - $5,000 account

I have been looking at TD direct but the order placement seems like it may be a ball ache and time consuming.

Anyway thanks in advance for any info you provide,

Caingtrading

 

[kensingtonman]

Hi,

I am looking to open an account with a UK based broker (day trading) and would like your honest opinions.

I need to be placing trades in a time efficient manor (allowing me to get in and out quickly) with an overall good trading platform.

Extra info

- Day trading US stock markets, stock under $15
- Level 2, charting software, scanners etc
- Starting with a $3,000 - $5,000 account

I have been looking at TD direct but the order placement seems like it may be a ball ache and time consuming.

Anyway thanks in advance for any info you provide,

Caingtrading

Hi,
I am also looking for the same type of broker, I have been looking for over a month now and I just cant seem to find a suitable one, I also want to trade US nasdaq and otc and level 2 is one of the main requirements for me. I have an account with Suretrader but as I am a UK resident I would rather use a UK broker so I am not affected by the PDT rule, but this meant that I will have to pay commission on having my currency converted from £ to $ and then back again which can be costly.
Have you managed to find anything yet?

 

[remme001]

Have any of you tried Interactive brokers or saxo markets? I believe with saxo you can open an account and set US dollars to be your base currency although I'm not with them myself. Not sure if they provide level 2 charts either but I'd be surprised if they didn't. I know that with IG you can get level 2 charts on stocks you just need to pay a subscription for data feeds on the particular exchanges you're after. This applies both to the CFD/spread bet account as well as physical stockbroking account.

 

[kensingtonman]

Have any of you tried Interactive brokers or saxo markets? I believe with saxo you can open an account and set US dollars to be your base currency although I'm not with them myself. Not sure if they provide level 2 charts either but I'd be surprised if they didn't. I know that with IG you can get level 2 charts on stocks you just need to pay a subscription for data feeds on the particular exchanges you're after. This applies both to the CFD/spread bet account as well as physical stockbroking account.

I have tried Interactive Brokers, their min account opening balance is £10,000 which is to much for me.
I have just looked at IG and sent them an email, so will wait for their response.
I will look into SAXO also.
Thanks for your reply

 

[hhiusa]

Have any of you tried Interactive brokers or saxo markets? I believe with saxo you can open an account and set US dollars to be your base currency although I'm not with them myself. Not sure if they provide level 2 charts either but I'd be surprised if they didn't. I know that with IG you can get level 2 charts on stocks you just need to pay a subscription for data feeds on the particular exchanges you're after. This applies both to the CFD/spread bet account as well as physical stockbroking account.

Saxo's commissions are too high. Pattern day trading rules apply to everyone, even non-US residents. The rules are set forth by the SEC, FINRA and the exchanges, not the brokers.

You must have $25,000 to daytrade equities. You must have a minimum of $2,000 in maintenance margin at all times. These restrictions are less stringent for other financial instruments like futures.

 

[remme001]

Saxo's commissions are too high. Pattern day trading rules apply to everyone, even non-US residents. The rules are set forth by the SEC, FINRA and the exchanges, not the brokers.

You must have $25,000 to daytrade equities. You must have a minimum of $2,000 in maintenance margin at all times. These restrictions are less stringent for other financial instruments like futures.

It looks like Saxo UK is perhaps a registered company specifically for UK clients and different from Saxo available in the US as it offers CFDs (it would never be able to do that if was treated as a US company). The minimum deposit is £6500 and theres no mention of PDT.

Saxo Capital Markets UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Firm Reference Number 551422. Registered address: 26th Floor, 40 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DA. Company number 7413871.

The same goes for the uk site for interactive brokers UK which also offers CFDs.

INTERACTIVE BROKERS (U.K.) LIMITED
is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. FCA register entry number 208159. [http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/home.do] Office: Level 20 Heron Tower, 110 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AY

One thing I will add though is that the above two don't seem to be apropriate for OP anyway due to the minimum deposit required. So he may have to go with IG or some other broker.

 

[Caintrading]

Cheers guys,

IG seems to very expensive to trade with minimum cost being $15 and I have also heard mixed things about them

I have sent Tradestation an email and will await a reply from them, but I think I would have a PDT rule on the account which is not great (not to sure though).

I may end up going with TD direct and hope the order placement isn't too slow.

Does anyone have any experience with them?

 

[remme001]

@Caintrading are you just looking at physical stockbroking accounts? Spread betting and CFDs have no stamp duty where as stockbroking does. I'd be surprised if TD direct is any cheaper.

You could always take a look degiro.co.uk which has very low commissions but I don't know what their execution is like and you'll probably have to get your level 2 charting elsewhere.

 

[Caintrading]

@Caintrading are you just looking at physical stockbroking accounts? Spread betting and CFDs have no stamp duty where as stockbroking does. I'd be surprised if TD direct is any cheaper.

You could always take a look degiro.co.uk which has very low commissions but I don't know what their execution is like and you'll probably have to get your level 2 charting elsewhere.

I am looking for a broker account but if I am honest I am a bit lost. I have spent so much time learning TA, Trading Psychology, risk management etc that I have forgot to learn about how to find a broker that suits my needs

I need a platform to day trade small cap stocks. I would trade the first 2 hours of the market trying to get in and out.

I'm still a newbie so my apologies if this is annoying but we all have to start somewhere.

Thanks for all the effort.

 

[remme001]

I am looking for a broker account but if I am honest I am a bit lost. I have spent so much time learning TA, Trading Psychology, risk management etc that I have forgot to learn about how to find a broker that suits my needs

I need a platform to day trade small cap stocks. I would trade the first 2 hours of the market trying to get in and out.

I'm still a newbie so my apologies if this is annoying but we all have to start somewhere.

Thanks for all the effort.

It definitely sounds like a US broker is more suited to your trading strategy as it's more common to come across stockbrokers aimed at day traders and the commissions are much cheaper too.

In the UK spread betting is the most popular because its free from capital gains and stamp duty which means the price per trade is normally much lower in comparison to a stockbroking account however spread bet brokers normally only cover large cap stocks, indicies, commodities and forex. They might offer some small cap stocks but it's unlikely they will offer everything listed on the exchanges which might be a let down for you.

Your strategy is much more common in the US compared to the UK as they can't use anywhere near the same kind of leverage we can use here so they normally compensate by trading smaller cap companies. Perhaps consider adapting your strategy to trade large cap stocks with leverage on a spread bet account? This could just be until you save up that 10k minimum needed by interactive brokers.

I did also look at tradestation but it looks like they still impose the PDT rule as they require a $30k minimum deposit:
http://tradestation-international.com/brokerage-account

 

[Caintrading]

Thanks again for all the help,

I am 25 so hopefully IB will allow me to open an account (25 and under $3,000 min) and shouldn't have a PDT rule as I'm a UK customer.

We shall see...

 

[hhiusa]

Thanks again for all the help,

I am 25 so hopefully IB will allow me to open an account (25 and under $3,000 min) and shouldn't have a PDT rule as I'm a UK customer.

We shall see...

The PDT rule applies to anyone trading US markets not just US residents. The rules are set forth by the SEC and the exchanges and enforced by the brokers. The SEC will put a freeze on anyone's account that is seen as a pattern daytrader for 180 days.

 

[hhiusa]

Interactive Brokers has a minimum commission of around one dollar even on the tiered commission structure. They charge $0.0035 per-share plus $0.003 per share removal liquid the fee charged by the exchanges. You do get a $0.002 per share add liquidy rebate when you sell. If you were hoping to trade penny stocks it would make a lot of sense.

Example 1
XYZ trades at $1.00
You buy 100 shares
Buy commission = 100*(0.0035+0.003) + clearing fees =$0.67
Sell commission = 100*(0.0035-0.002) = $0.67 due to commission minimums
Total commission = $1.34
That means you must make 1.34% to break even

The same thing will apply with 1,000 shares.

The exchanges will not give add liquidity rebates for equity worth less than $1.00 or equities on OTC markets.

After all this, IB is still the best in terms of commission structures.

 

[Chucky11]

I am looking for a very similar service too. I considered DeGiro but sadly, they are lying. Firstly, you do NOT get any market depth even if you pay them for any of the exchanges. What they meant by "depth" turned out to be just last 5 trades ticker.
Secondly, for NYSE there is not even a level 1 data, so currently you would have to be trading blindly.

Now for Saxo Bank - they have a new SaxoTraderGo platform, that really looks good to me. It seems to be created in HTML5, meaning that it is very lightweight and won't crash your browser and does NOT require any plugins.
According to their page on fees, they do provide great Level 2 live data for a charge.
But has anyone tried it? Are the executions fast? Is the Level 2 feed working properly for Nasdaq and NYSE?

 

[Trading Spaces]

If you open an account with IB with the $10,000 minimum, in any currency equivalent, you can immediately transfer money out and still have access to the account. Trade futures or FX to get around the PDT rule.

 

[Chucky11]

Re. SaxoTraderGo from SaxoBank - the fees for US stocks are quoted at $0.02 per share. Sounds outrageously expensive for most stocks. If I buy $10K worth of shares @ 4.29 each, that would mean 2331 shares x 4.29 x 0.02 = $46.62. Am I missing something, or are they just outrageously expensive brokers?