4 replies to this topic

[TradeToTrade]

Best of a bad bunch, frankly.

 

Costs

Their 0.2% (on full exposure) is the best. This is one of the reasons that I reluctantly stay with them.  (The other is their size / scale – I feel confident that my money is safe and that they’re not going to go under).  There is no other fee added to this 0.2% apart from overnight interest.

Margin

Average 10%.  The trades I enter vary between 5% and 25%.  They’ve published their full margin requirements online.

Spread

There is no spread built into the pricing of shares as far as I know.  I don’t trade anything else, so can’t speak to spread on other instruments.  I also only trade DMA, not OTC.

Up time

Very good.  Only experience 1 or 2 instances in the 3 years I’ve been with them.

 

The downside:

-          You can enter DMA trades, but stops and limits are OTC.  No matter how much they try to convince me otherwise, they do trigger it at their will.

-          I had such a limit recently, saw the pricing go through and back down, but no order was triggered, even though the volumes were there.  The trade only went through after I phoned the trading desk.  Their explanation was woefully inadequate.

-          The bottom line is that I do not automate anything, so monitoring my trades is a full-time activity.  Not the best place to be.  I was hoping that their API functionality would help (so that I could create stops & limits in my own system), but it is not available for shares.

-          For me it’s like knowing that you are working with the devil, but have very little else as an alternative.  I would love to hear the experience of others so that I can change.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply.

 

When I was trying out the IG demo platform it seemed very limited in terms of the ability to scale into and out of a position. However I might just need some more time with the platform to figure things out.

 

From what I can tell, if you for example enter a 100 contract trade then you have to exit those 100 contracts together. You can't enter 100 contracts but then exit 25 at a time.

 

One way around this would be to enter 4 x 25 contract trades instead of 1 x 100 contract trade. Then you could exit each 25 contract trade individually.

 

This is all well and good if you're trading large enough size such that 0.2% commission per trade is over R100. However if 0.2% is less than R100 then by entering 4 trades instead of one, you'll end up paying R400 in commission when in fact your postion size is tiny. It comes back to their R100 minimum commission issue.

 

Am I correct that each trade has to be exited in full. If you enter a 100 contract trade, you dont have the ability to scale out of that position. The only way would be to enter 4 x 25 contract trades?

Edited by TradeToTrade, 19 March 2015 - 06:05 PM.

[cypher]

Best of a bad bunch, frankly.

 

Costs

Their 0.2% (on full exposure) is the best. This is one of the reasons that I reluctantly stay with them.  (The other is their size / scale – I feel confident that my money is safe and that they’re not going to go under).  There is no other fee added to this 0.2% apart from overnight interest.

Margin

Average 10%.  The trades I enter vary between 5% and 25%.  They’ve published their full margin requirements online.

Spread

There is no spread built into the pricing of shares as far as I know.  I don’t trade anything else, so can’t speak to spread on other instruments.  I also only trade DMA, not OTC.

Up time

Very good.  Only experience 1 or 2 instances in the 3 years I’ve been with them.

 

The downside:

-          You can enter DMA trades, but stops and limits are OTC.  No matter how much they try to convince me otherwise, they do trigger it at their will.

-          I had such a limit recently, saw the pricing go through and back down, but no order was triggered, even though the volumes were there.  The trade only went through after I phoned the trading desk.  Their explanation was woefully inadequate.

-          The bottom line is that I do not automate anything, so monitoring my trades is a full-time activity.  Not the best place to be.  I was hoping that their API functionality would help (so that I could create stops & limits in my own system), but it is not available for shares.

-          For me it’s like knowing that you are working with the devil, but have very little else as an alternative.  I would love to hear the experience of others so that I can change.

 

[TradeToTrade]

I currently use them... 

 

Cost Structure - R100 a trade (I believe this is steep)

Margin requirements is based on a tiered structure if i remember - Or Maybe that is GT247, which i have also tried. Just check their website.

Up Time... Well i have never experienced any downtime.

 

Overall experience is pretty good.

 

Hi,

 

Im currently trying to put a spreadsheet together to compare all the costs of my current broker vs IG. (no small task so far because every broker has different nuances so you can't always compare apples with apples!).

 

Does IG charge a brokerage fee per trade plus a commission. For example my current broker charges a flat brokerage fee for every trade plus a percentage commission per trade.

 

From what i've been able to gather on IG's website, they charge 0.2% commission (minimum R100 - this is the fee you mention). However I can't tell if they charge a brokerage in addition to this or is it just the 0.2% (min R100). From what i've been able to find on their website, it doesn't appear as if they charge an additional brokerage which means the R100 is not necessarily so bad.

 

For anyone wondering, I will be contacting IG to answer several questions. I just wanted to my head straight with all the publicly available info before hand.

[Mr_SA]

Hi all,

 

Does anyone here use IG Markets for swing trading cfd's. What has your experience been?

 

I've been with another broker for many years and use them primarily for longer term investing. For that purpose, they're great and offer everything I need. However I am starting to swing trade (1 day to 4 months) CFD's and my current broker just doesn't offer the tools that I need for more active trading.

 

I am considering IG and will be opening up a demo account with them today. They are a well established company and are listed in the UK, so that gives me some comfort in terms of counter party risk.

 

If anyone uses them, please let me know what you think of their:

- Cost structure

- Margin requirements

- CFD pricing (ie: what is the typical spread like between share price and cfd price). Do you ever get screwed on entry/exit?

- Up time (ie: do they go down much/ever?)

 

Many thanks for any feedback.

 

I currently use them... 

 

Cost Structure - R100 a trade (I believe this is steep)

Margin requirements is based on a tiered structure if i remember - Or Maybe that is GT247, which i have also tried. Just check their website.

Up Time... Well i have never experienced any downtime.

 

Overall experience is pretty good.

[TradeToTrade]

Hi all,

 

Does anyone here use IG Markets for swing trading cfd's. What has your experience been?

 

I've been with another broker for many years and use them primarily for longer term investing. For that purpose, they're great and offer everything I need. However I am starting to swing trade (1 day to 4 months) CFD's and my current broker just doesn't offer the tools that I need for more active trading.

 

I am considering IG and will be opening up a demo account with them today. They are a well established company and are listed in the UK, so that gives me some comfort in terms of counter party risk.

 

If anyone uses them, please let me know what you think of their:

- Cost structure

- Margin requirements

- CFD pricing (ie: what is the typical spread like between share price and cfd price). Do you ever get screwed on entry/exit?

- Up time (ie: do they go down much/ever?)

 

Many thanks for any feedback.