I currently use IG.com however they do not have access to all exchanges (AIM). They are pretty cheap though. Any recommendations?
Cheers,
Chee.
Hi Wimbledonsprinter
No need to apologise for comprehensive post it was very useful. Thank you.
Regards
Howard
In case of interest.......
Interactive Investor are in the process of updating their terms. Small increase in their flat fee structure to £90 per year billed quarterly, which can be used for trades, unused sub can be rolled over up to a max of £90. Trades are still £10 each. Please check the figures if you are interested in case I have any of them wrong.
Generally pretty reasonable and increasingly better vale as your portfolio increases in size.
That said they are mainly for people who know what they are doing and don’t need much advice, help etc.
One extra item that may be of interest, in the future they will have a possibility for clients to vote on corporate actions etc.
iii trading platform is poor quality...they dont have any desktop application.it is not useful for active traders
iii are migrating to the TD platform fairly soon. This would appear to deal with Stock_hunters quibbles concerning the current iii site.
Had a look at iii and yes current platform does not look good. A few european markets are missing from what I have at HL and a few shares also. I can't see anything about forex charges on foreign currencies in an ISA, do you know how much they are? The cheap fees do look appealing.
Hi WhaleHQ.
Reading through the thread for the first time and just noticed your comment about Charles Stanley. I also use them for various ISAS and JISAS for the children as well as my regular share dealing investment account. They are a bit expensive on the dealing side (they recently put their commission up to £11.50 per Internet trade) although when I have used them for a couple of overseas stock sales the FX commission was reasonable. On the whole, the service is pretty good in terms of responding to queries, handling corporate actions such as takeovers and DRI programmes etc., although I have had a couple of issues with them about changes to "policy" such that, for example, I can no longer buy and sell an index short ETF through them (seems to be a compliance issue). The dealing platform is easy to use as is their documentation management and reporting (excellent CGT report generated on demand for doing the tax return).
My SIPP and fund holdings are with Fidelity Investments. Reasonable cost and generally pretty good service but to date no share dealing facility. They're in the process of rolling out share dealing for general investment accounts (£10 per trade) at the moment and expect to extend this to SIPPs next year. Plenty of decent research and commentary although I find the website a bit clunky.
Also have a Spread betting account with IG. A recent addition but quite impressed with it so far. Spreads seem a bit wide on some of the illiquid AIM stocks (as commented elsewhere) but a very slick and user friendly platform and the service so far seems very good. My intention is to use this primarily as a vehicle to hedge market or specific share risks by taking short positions - it seems very suited to this compared to my other accounts. They also offer a very wide range of products (foreign shares, commodities, numerous indices etc. even the dreaded crypto currencies if that's your bag).
On the tax side, my lay understanding is that so long as spread betting is not your profession (i.e. you have other sources of income) it's currently CGT and stamp duty exempt on the grounds that you are betting as opposed to taking ownership of anything. Quid pro quo, you can't offset any losses. Likewise, since your making bets denominated in £ my understanding is that FX charges won't apply in that you're simply wagering on the movement of the underlying measured in units irrespective of the currency you're dealing with. Bear in mind that whether you want it or not, spread betting will leverage your position in that rather than buying a stock outright you post margin against the value of the bet which is a fraction of the notional principal at risk. Depending on the nature of the underlying, leverage can be a multiple of your margin stake so risk management is key. IG seem to be very hot on making sure punters know what they're letting themselves into. Likewise, scaling your bets is important. A £1 per point bet on a 5p penny share is a very different animal to a £1 per point bet on say the DJI at 23,500+
Gus.
Does anyone have any recommendations on brokers that have the ability to use trailing stop losses? I'm currently with YouInvest, which are ok in general, but they don't do trailing stop losses and it takes me hours each month adjusting stops - time I could put to better use analysing my portfolios.
They don't seem to think that enough investors actually want to be able to use trailing stop losses to make it worthwhile them implementing them. I can't believe this - who really wants to regularly review stop losses as prices go up?
Thanks in advance...
Not sure about their share dealing service, but IG offer trailing stop losses on their spread bets both for shorts and longs. They allow you to predetermine how many points the stop will be and also at what step intervals away from the starting position you want the trailing stop to kick in. There is a (small-ish) charge if any of your stops are actually tripped.
Gus.
Thanks Gus - I did consider spread betting and cfds, but I'm terrified at the potential losses I'm exposed to. I'm definitely a traditional long only trader / investor. I will have a look at IG.
Hello Stockhunter. Not sure that is right about no desktop application. interactive Investor use Quotestream. You just have to pay a bit more if you want that. Personally I like that way of doing it. Those that are not traders don't need to pay for something they don't use.
http://www.iii.co.uk/tools-research/trading-tools/quotestream
But perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you are looking for.
"Had a look at iii and yes current platform does not look good. A few european markets are missing from what I have at HL and a few shares also. I can't see anything about forex charges on foreign currencies in an ISA, do you know how much they are? The cheap fees do look appealing."
Hi Herbie. I don't think you can see the trading screen that customers see unless you have an account and log in. So, perhaps it is not so bad.
Not sure what European markets you are needing that aren't there. The main ones are. When I'm tempted to think about directly investing in overseas markets I caution myself as to whether or not I can really be knowledgeable enough to invest in all these different markets and whether or not I'm really wanting to put in the time and effort to stay abreast of what's happening in them all.
Having said all that, from 11th Dec when the service changes according to their FAQs the situation will be the following
"In addition to UK, our future service will give you direct access to 17 Overseas markets (international exchanges) and you’ll be able to hold 9 different currencies in our Trading and SIPP accounts. Holding and settling ‘in currency’ means that you won’t need to complete an FX trade for every international trade you place."
That said I think it says elsewhere that ISA rules mean that for shares inside an ISA they do have to be converted back.
With regard to forex charges I think you'll find them listed on here. (Also note that cost per trade may be higher for foreign exchanges)
http://www.iii.co.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/II_RATE_STND_PDF_DEC17_colour.pdf
My own view is that I cannot be knowledgeable about many markets at once so I use funds and trusts to access overseas investments and do more in the way of direct investment in shares for UK small and mid-caps where I can focus my attention hopefully to achieve a better outcome. So, the fact that II don't have a percentage custody fee for holding funds is probably what sways it for me. It works out cheaper for me than HL would. Whether II are really a good option for those who want to trade or those or want to do a lot with foreign exchanges I couldn't say.
Hello Graham,
Thanks for all that info. It is very helpful. Seems ii are even more expensive for foreign shares than HL. The currency feature does sound interesting and maybe something I will consider in the future. Most of my shares are now within an ISA.
IG do not offer Stops or Limits in their share dealing accounts. It's important to differentiate between IG spread betting and their share dealing service. In IG spread betting you can set stops, limits and guaranteed stops.
Outside of spread betting guaranteed stops, no stop even if it is trailing will protect you from an 8 am profit warning which can result in a 15-50% drop in price. Most brokers won't invoke a stop loss for the first 3 to 5 minutes and then some will not invoke it at all if it goes beyond a boundary. If the share is illiquid it can take quite a while for the dealing desk to sell the shares with the price falling in the mean time.
Hi graham,
Quotestream is not desk top application..it is web based application..I am talking IB's TWS like software or IG's L2 dealer( it not good as per my view)
Thanks Slopsjon - that’s very useful info - i had considered setting up an account with IG but won’t bother now! Stops are crucial for me.
Does anyone have any recommendations on brokers that have the ability to use trailing stop losses?
I use iDealing which does offer trailing stop losses and just as importantly for me 'stop' buys (buy if bid rises above x).
IG looks to be good for foreign shares, only 0.3% forex charge, concerns about spreads but HL spreads on foreign shares I don't think are that good.
HL did mention trailing stop losses some time ago but I have heard nothing since, you can set normal stop losses on UK shares, but does not always work though. I mixed feelings about stop losses, that odd blip down can throw you out.
I've found IG to be good for foreign shares, with the important proviso that the range of foreign markets is limited.
From AJ Bell I can (but haven't yet) buy from most developed European markets, but only from the headline indices, no small caps. Probably only stocks that have some sort of depositary instrument available.
From IG, I can buy from Germany, Holland, Ireland, Australia, US, probably a few more but not Spain, France, Scandinavia. However, within those markets I can (and have) buy smallcaps online (no US OTC though), and as you say the FX fee is very reasonable, and the dealing fee is very reasonable too, less than £10 per trade OTOH. Monitor the dividends received though - I eventually had to contact them to get my £HOLCO dividend.
I would love to see IG add more developed European markets, and have told them this.
Thanks, seems IG is quite restricted re markets. HL have wider coverage but even though they say Germany and France I have found many shares even mid caps are still not available or only available by phone dealing (expensive). Even with HL I'm forced to buy from a few markets, I find Scandavanian and Swiss mostly available, would have bought more German and French if able to. I go through Stockopedia Euro ranks and even on markets that are covered only about 50% are available with online trading.
Seems like a second platform maybe the answer and then just pick the best trade between them.
I did hold HOLCO and I did receive the dividend in August.
There are a few shares that are not eligible for an ISA for some reason these are often high dividend shares which is most annoying, 2 being EURO and EXE.
I use IG and have never seen a share they don't have. If that happens just email them and ask if they can add, they will unless it's extremely small.
