Broker/Platform

[John26]

All,

This is a little long winded but pretty straight forward requirement. So if you could just bear with me, it'll make sense to someone who can hopefully help.


My situation
- UK based
- Mostly London stocks and ETFs – Could widen my range when I have a better understanding of the market
- Broker: Fool and Hargreaves Lansdown – I’m happy to change – As long as ISA is supported
- Software I use: Sharescope Pro – I’m happy with it, it’s not cheap but I love the charts, it rocks imo
- Extra, for good measure, I have and excel spreadsheet I enter all transactions into
- Trading style: Swing when market trends up, but lately intraday ETFs (which has been more profitable I have to admit)
- TA: I use Candles, Heikan Ashi, RSI, Volume (and volume candles as well) and obv.

The problem
At the moment I log onto my broker’s site, have to get a quote and have to click for a quote, and again to get a fresh quote and then to buy, it is cumbersome and execution seems to be a bit slow at time and sometimes can’t be filled, I have to get fresh quote…
I then enter my trade in sharescope, I can't leave this to the end of day, I need this for live value of my trade.
Then when I want to sell, back on brokers portal....
For swing trading it's no big deal, I just buy at whatever price, I'm not worried, but for day trading, this is painful.

What I’m looking for
A platform that can connect to my broker and where I can trade from directly, Sharescope would be ideal but sadly it doesn’t do that.
I have read about and trying looking into
- Traderdesk
- CQG
- Tradestation
- eSignal
- Metatrader > Feels a little rough around the edge
- IG > Have read a lot of bad things about them

Nothing but confusion really, some seem to connect to brokers, some not to my broker (by the way, I’m happy to change broker).

I also saw TD Direct, they seem to have their own platform but can’t see any reviews on this site, are they good? Anyone?... Because that would almost be ideal

Another question, when using a 3rd party platform to connect to the broker, one would have to really trust the company behind the platform because you’re effectively giving them your credentials? What's your thoughts.

From a cost point of view, I'm paying about £1k / year I think for sharescope (L2) which I think is pretty good value so if I have to switch, I'd look to stay in that range

UK based would be ideal, for ease of support if anything.

So, thanks for your patience, I'd love to know what you think might be a good solution to my problem.


Cheers.

 

[malaguti]

All,

This is a little long winded but pretty straight forward requirement. So if you could just bear with me, it'll make sense to someone who can hopefully help.


My situation
- UK based
- Mostly London stocks and ETFs – Could widen my range when I have a better understanding of the market
- Broker: Fool and Hargreaves Lansdown – I’m happy to change – As long as ISA is supported
- Software I use: Sharescope Pro – I’m happy with it, it’s not cheap but I love the charts, it rocks imo
- Extra, for good measure, I have and excel spreadsheet I enter all transactions into
- Trading style: Swing when market trends up, but lately intraday ETFs (which has been more profitable I have to admit)
- TA: I use Candles, Heikan Ashi, RSI, Volume (and volume candles as well) and obv.

The problem
At the moment I log onto my broker’s site, have to get a quote and have to click for a quote, and again to get a fresh quote and then to buy, it is cumbersome and execution seems to be a bit slow at time and sometimes can’t be filled, I have to get fresh quote…
I then enter my trade in sharescope, I can't leave this to the end of day, I need this for live value of my trade.
Then when I want to sell, back on brokers portal....
For swing trading it's no big deal, I just buy at whatever price, I'm not worried, but for day trading, this is painful.

What I’m looking for
A platform that can connect to my broker and where I can trade from directly, Sharescope would be ideal but sadly it doesn’t do that.
I have read about and trying looking into
- Traderdesk
- CQG
- Tradestation
- eSignal
- Metatrader > Feels a little rough around the edge
- IG > Have read a lot of bad things about them

Nothing but confusion really, some seem to connect to brokers, some not to my broker (by the way, I’m happy to change broker).

I also saw TD Direct, they seem to have their own platform but can’t see any reviews on this site, are they good? Anyone?... Because that would almost be ideal

Another question, when using a 3rd party platform to connect to the broker, one would have to really trust the company behind the platform because you’re effectively giving them your credentials? What's your thoughts.

From a cost point of view, I'm paying about £1k / year I think for sharescope (L2) which I think is pretty good value so if I have to switch, I'd look to stay in that range

UK based would be ideal, for ease of support if anything.

So, thanks for your patience, I'd love to know what you think might be a good solution to my problem.


Cheers.

your biggest problem I think is the broker which supports your ISA. Almost all of the API supported ones you've mentioned (there are others not mentioned..updata, amibroker for example) that will all connect to Interactive Brokers however IB will support a SIPP, but not an ISA
Tradestation won't support UK, so that's off your list

I can't comment on TD however it all depends what the capabilites of the platform you require. I'd be very surprised if you could really compare the likes of CQG and TD (their own platform) in the same breath. Anyways, CQG partner with ABN AMRO, they are dutch, again not sure they will support your ISA

Sadly, the only one that might fit is IG. I say sadly as I would never use them after spreadbetting with them in the past. if you could get past the ISA requirement, you could choose any of the platforms

TD presumably it will cost you nothing to try
good luck though John. I'd be interested to know how you get on and if I come across any alternative options I'll let you know...

i would perhaps speak to esignal who have a comprehensive partner list, two of which look Uk compatible but then also chat to the broker they are quoting..
RBS and Santander stand out amongst them

 

[John26]

your biggest problem I think is the broker which supports your ISA. Almost all of the API supported ones you've mentioned (there are others not mentioned..updata, amibroker for example) that will all connect to Interactive Brokers however IB will support a SIPP, but not an ISA
Tradestation won't support UK, so that's off your list

I can't comment on TD however it all depends what the capabilites of the platform you require. I'd be very surprised if you could really compare the likes of CQG and TD (their own platform) in the same breath. Anyways, CQG partner with ABN AMRO, they are dutch, again not sure they will support your ISA

Sadly, the only one that might fit is IG. I say sadly as I would never use them after spreadbetting with them in the past. if you could get past the ISA requirement, you could choose any of the platforms

TD presumably it will cost you nothing to try
good luck though John. I'd be interested to know how you get on and if I come across any alternative options I'll let you know...

i would perhaps speak to esignal who have a comprehensive partner list, two of which look Uk compatible but then also chat to the broker they are quoting..
RBS and Santander stand out amongst them

Thanks Malaguti,

I just spoke to cqg, they don't support uk brokers that support ISA's

Another broker, who seem to have a half descent platform is saxobank, looking at Wikipedia, it would appear that they provide TD Direct with that platform - If that is the case, the platform may be similar? Their commission on stock trading is quite high though.

If anyone has any experience with Saxobank or TD Direct (trading and platform), please feel free to chip in.

Cheers.

 

[malaguti]

Thanks Malaguti,

I just spoke to cqg, they don't support uk brokers that support ISA's

Another broker, who seem to have a half descent platform is saxobank, looking at Wikipedia, it would appear that they provide TD Direct with that platform - If that is the case, the platform may be similar? Their commission on stock trading is quite high though.

If anyone has any experience with Saxobank or TD Direct (trading and platform), please feel free to chip in.

Cheers.

I've tried saxo as a demo in the past, and wasn't particularly impressed. I was looking for an alternative broker but even still nothing really moved me as it were
hopefully somebody has a good word for TD..
It will I guess come down to what you require from the platform.

 

[John26]

I've tried saxo as a demo in the past, and wasn't particularly impressed. I was looking for an alternative broker but even still nothing really moved me as it were
hopefully somebody has a good word for TD..
It will I guess come down to what you require from the platform.

Thanks.

I'm now having second thoughts about saxo as I just came across this
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/forex-brokers/206572-my-saxo-bank-story-90-000-loss-after-blink.html
Although this is a forex incident, the whole thing is kind of putting me off.

This is beginning to do my head in now, so I might give TD a bash and see how it goes.

Cheers, thanks for your help.