Which platform do you use to invest in small/micro stocks???

14th Apr '24 by N0vice1Nvest0r

10 comments 561 reads

Ive been using Freetrade for the last 2 years and have not had any issue trading these or any UK or US stocks. However this year I decided to move to trading 212. I was annoyed at Freetrade constantly upping the subscription and was hearing some negative press about them. Mix this with the positivity I hear about Trading 212 and the fee, I thought I'd give them a go.

I have been able to trade most stocks and think the pre-market buys is a huge plus. But I am having a problem with getting successful or should I say quick trades/buys on my stock choices. The larger stocks come through pretty quick. but the delay ive been having on small/micro stocks is concerning me. I never had this issue with Freetrade and im guessing they honour the trade and then place later. It doesn't seem to matter whether I place limit or market orders, they just don't seem to be triggering.

With this in mind I wanted to know other peoples thoughts and experiences with trading/buying small/micro stocks. What site/platform do you use and do you have any issues or recommendations?

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Indie

15th Apr '24

I’ve not had any problems buying small/micro caps on Barclays Smartinvestor. A couple of times, I’ve had to wait to be able to sell but otherwise ok.

Rusty2

I use IG group (LON:IGG) quite often,I can't get a quote, so can't buy or sell. Often it one not both. Can't sell but can buy. Yes it has been worse recently. Think are few trades going through. If I do sell, it often moves the price down, even on £1,000 deal. This is on £300m mcaps, not microcaps.

N0vice1Nvest0r

I had a lot of success with Freetrade honouring trades and prices. Ive found Trading 212 to be better with US market and still getting used to the app and trading on it.

I love the fact you can buy the pre-market, but a lot of stocks I like are now being ignored due to it taking so long to go through. These aren't micro caps but are AIM.

I'll see how it goes and this year is just about getting into the market again.

Hopefully more will respond in due time so I can get a bit more research.

stehuk

I find X-O better than Trading 212 for smaller UK stocks.

On X-O occasionally, more often recently, you can't buy/sell. But this only lasts for a very short time in my experience. On the upside, you get a quote for market orders that you can accept or decline and this is usually inside the market spread. On the downside, it's £5.95 commission per trade, £60. 00 for closing an ISA and no good for US stocks at all.

I still think Ttrading 212 is good for large US stocks, but I never buy smaller US stocks so have no experience of these on any platform.

I'm currently trying an ISA on Iweb they are currently running a promotion whereby they are not charging their usual set up fee (£100). They are only £5.00 commission per trade on UK stocks. Their FX fee is high though, 1.5% I think from memory. I haven't traded smaller UK stocks with them yet, but I'm not expecting them to be much different from X-O. I think Iweb might be worth a try for you, particularly as you can now contribute to more than one ISA in the tax year.

Both Iweb and X-O are quite old basic websites.

IG group (LON:IGG) is fine on US stocks although not bought many under $500m mcap. Free if you do 3 trades in the prior month, on any shares, only 0.5% forex fee. Good if you want to do small trades, min. is around $100.

The US market has plenty of liquidity unless you trade small caps. spreads are very tight.

I notice on a few UK small caps prices, are going outside the quoted spread. Spreads are very wide at times, Goodwin (LON:GDWN) for example, can be around 8% but at other times around 1%, worse in the morning. I just sold some.

Bengalgooner

16th Apr '24

How can an Uk Investor buy shares directly on an Indian stock exchange? Not interested in investment rusts or funds.

Andrew Penney

I find trading212 unusably slow. I'm trying to invest the £200 bonus they gave me for my ISA contribution into Premier Miton PMI. I placed the order for £200 yesterday morning and it's still not filled. So far it has placed 4 partial fill orders totalling £180 so there is still £20 to go. I love the pie concept but it's not usable for small caps in my experience so far.

Finally filled the £200 order after 5 partial fills, one of them was for 12 shares costing about £7. I placed the order about midday yesterday.

the more im using the app, the more im getting to grips with it. I placed a market order for £100 the other day and the price was actively moving, but not accepted. ended up cancelling order and finding another stock.

If it cant fill a buy, theres a chance it won't sell.

I'm considering Interactive Brokers (NSQ:IBKR) for this years ISA, they are a US broker but do ISAs. The costs are extremely low on US shares. Not sure what they are like on UK small caps. Their platform is rather complex, it is professional traders, may take some time to get the used to it.

Which platform do you use to invest in small/micro stocks???

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N0vice1Nvest0r

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