Trading Platforms

[QStack]

I'm looking to start investing but not sure what trading platform to use. I was going to use Freetrade or trading212. I thought these were free to trade platforms, but FT has a monthly subscription if you want access to a larger number of stocks, and I believe 212 also now charges.

What platforms are people using? what are the benefits? Are FT and 212 still worth using?

Any recommendations for alternatives?

Thanks

 

[Stacktastic]

2 hours ago, QStack said:

I'm looking to start investing but not sure what trading platform to use. I was going to use Freetrade or trading212. I thought these were free to trade platforms, but FT has a monthly subscription if you want access to a larger number of stocks, and I believe 212 also now charges.

What platforms are people using? what are the benefits? Are FT and 212 still worth using?

Any recommendations for alternatives?

Thanks

 

There is already a thread or two on this subject. 

I use 212 and have had not issues with it, very good although they were restricting new accounts. 'Free' to you for most trades, although they sell your data to hedge funds. 
Depends what you want to do, but for a beginner its fabulous - for a trader or more advanced stock manager (ie different exchanges & out of hours) then there are better ones. 
For general investing there is more than enough choice on 212, although I have asked for Sprott a few times.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Stacktastic

[JunkBond]

Agree with @Stacktastic, I am using 212 and have no complaints. They introduced a small fee for card transfers recently I think but it's free to bank transfer funds.

They have a decent selection of stocks, I have pretty much always been able to buy what I want. 👍

[modofantasma]

For trading (spread betting) I mostly use IG 

[modofantasma]

Would recommend 👍🏽 reliable and easy to use. 

Many platforms have a demo option to get a feel for how they work too 

[Stacktastic]

good news for trading 212 - now taking on new people & its very delayed filings are OK with a lot of profit. 
Although in this guys words its mostly 'dumb ass investors, investing in complete c**p' - is he talking about me.  
Worth noting most if not all the profit was from CFD idiots & that gamestop few days. 

The second video is referring to a guy called sasha, who got me worried in the first place. 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by Stacktastic

[CANV]

Ig is good for spread betting. But don’t get carried away ! 

[sixgun]

For Spread Betting i use IG.com
For proper trading i use Trader Workstation with Interactive Brokers. i use the desktop version of TWS - it is a big application - hardcore facilities but i trade all sorts of products and i mainly trade on the US markets. 
i trade stocks - options - futures - options on futures. i have a few warrants which are in effect long dated CALL options. 

Most of what i do is in options - i can trade 100's of contracts a week. It can be a cheaper way to get stock by selling PUTS, a way to get some extra alpha on stock you hold by selling CALLS and a way to get more cash in your account.
It is Sunday night and i just scalped micro oil futures and futures in EUR/USD. 

The platform is complicated - if you want to learn about options and futures there is quite a lot to learn - i have used tastytrade.com to learn a lot.
You can trade options in the UK/European markets but it is less user friendly. The contracts are less liquid and the size of some of the contracts can be on the large size. So i usually focus on US options and Canadian ones if they are available, so most of my stocks are also on those markets.

An alternative to TWS is the platform with tasty trade - i think it is probably more user friendly. i did start to look into this but didn't bother b/c you have to fund the account with USD. The fees with Interactive Brokers and Tastytrade (Tastyworks) are both good. If you want to do proper trading this is the way to go.

My youngest daughter recently opened an account and is learning to trade options - she also opened an ISA. She can switch between the two with the same platform open in a single click. The ISA does not seem to allow US ETF's but there are plenty of Investment Trusts so it isn't a big issue.

Edited April 18, 2022 by sixgun

[motorbikez]

On 15/09/2021 at 09:40, QStack said:

I'm looking to start investing but not sure what trading platform to use.

 

There is a big difference between investing & trading. If as you state you want to invest, most of the UK banks have a fairly decent platform for investing, I use Halifax bank for my ISA & also use it for my so called Share dealing account.

For more adventurous dealing/trading options etc I use Saxo bank which is a Danish bank with offices in London. The platform is good but I don't think it is really suitable for a new investor, I only signed up because it allows me to write options on my heavyweight shares something Halifax doesn't offer.

So as a newbie I would avoid CFDs Options etc you as will likely lose all your money. Gain some experience as an investor 1st ie don't attempt to run before you can walk. IMHO these are fairly dangerous times for investing & especially trading for obvious reasons.

[Stacktastic]

 

16 hours ago, sixgun said:

For proper trading i use Trader Workstation with Interactive Brokers.

An alternative to TWS is the platform with tasty trade

Im considering moving to interactive prokersnow for trading, now they have an ISA. 
Being able to trade in USD with very low FX fees anyway is a winner. 

212 for longer term investing - not a lot about other than the risky stuff (ie Baba). 

17 minutes ago, motorbikez said:

So as a newbie I would avoid CFDs Options etc you as will likely lose all your money. 

Even Gareth Soloway says this & only uses the odd longest term expiry with an occasional trade. 

Speaks volumes - your better off with crabs game at a casino for short term expiry - its rigged.  

[sixgun]

8 minutes ago, Stacktastic said:

212 for longer term investing - not a lot about other than the risky stuff (ie Baba). 

Let's say you were holding BABA  - as long as you have at least 100 shares you can sell CALLS against these shares.
i have 2 PUT contracts in BABA, the CALLS i had, expired on Friday and so i sold another 2 CALL contracts. i got $0.71 ($71 for each 100 share CALL contract) for $101 strike price expiring this coming Friday.
The BABA price is being suppressed by the COVID business in China and this is not going to resolve this week - so highly unlikely BABA will recover to $101 - so it is 'free money' for clicking the screen.
If you keep selling CALLS you get your cost basis down - potentially getting them for nothing in the end.
So even for longer term stocks an account where you can sell options is helpful.

Edited April 18, 2022 by sixgun

[sixgun]

34 minutes ago, motorbikez said:

So as a newbie I would avoid CFDs Options etc you as will likely lose all your money. Gain some experience as an investor 1st ie don't attempt to run before you can walk. IMHO these are fairly dangerous times for investing & especially trading for obvious reasons.

@QStack
The options i am talking about are not CFD options - i find the sort of 'options' offered on UK platforms are just gambling.

i SELL options - i get paid money for them - the cards are stacked in your favour (as long as you know what you are doing). These are proper options traded through the stock and futures exchanges.
The safest way to start is to sell 'covered PUTS'. You have cash in your account to settle the trade - they aren't naked.

Say you want 100 shares of URA (uranium ETF).
The current price is $27.32 a share - you are happy with that price.
You could sell a PUT option. This gives someone else the right to sell you 100 URA shares at a specific price on or before a specific date.

Let's just say you are quite keen to get the shares you could sell a 27.50 PUT expiring April 22. The quoted mid-price premium is $0.70.

If nothing happens to the stock price between now and expiration of the option you will be assigned the shares at $27.50 a share. This is above the current price at $27.32 - however you were paid $0.70 option premium a share which means you actually pay $26.80 a share and so a discount of $0.52 a share. 
If the stock price goes above $27.50 you keep the $70 per contract premium and that's that.

[sixgun]

1 hour ago, Stacktastic said:

Even Gareth Soloway says this & only uses the odd longest term expiry with an occasional trade. 

Speaks volumes - your better off with crabs game at a casino for short term expiry - its rigged.  

This is the opinion many people have. That options are very risky. That is because they are buying options and or they are messing around with these rigged 'options' on the spread betting and CFD platforms, which aren't options at all. The probabilities are in favour of the option seller. Of course you will have losers and you need to know how to mend those positions and when to cut and run. However i have found that if you do not go mad - you do not overleverage - you stay mechanical - then you come out on top. When i have lost it is generally b/c i have overleveraged and i have gone mad. You learn from your mistakes and keep going.

Edited April 18, 2022 by sixgun

[CANV]

Ah options. Truly the black hole of punting anything ..  you can even trade the components that make up,the option price.  vol was my fave back in my city days.   Though I think they call it something Greek like theta or somethnig now.  .
 

 In the money. Out  the money, puts calls..

massivly out of the money trades with huge duration for pennies was another fave of mine. 

Edited April 18, 2022 by CANV