ETrade UK

Turbury

Hello All,

Does anybody use Etrade UK for share dealing?
If so how do you find them?

mijas

Hi,

I use etrade for trading US shares, havent been with them long, but so far no problems. You need an English bank account to trade the UK shares which i havent got. So far its straightforward trading online and they are ok to deal with on the phone. I like their website, its user friendly!

Turbury

Was talking to them on the phone yesterday, apparently their UK platform is not as equipped as the US platform at present. e.g not trailing stop facility. but they plan to have this up and running in the next few months.

mijas

Thanks for that Turbury, i would like to trade UK shares as well with them, am working on getting a UK bank account. I definitely prefer E trade to Sharewatch who have made a few mistakes with my account (no apologies either). I am hoping to transfer my shares to E trade eventually.

Bytheway

I am based in Rep of Ireland and I trade on a Etrade Uk accoount. With an irish account , you have to wire money over. I transferred lines from Davys weeks ago and am still waiting on the price paid to be entered into the database, so to trade the stock i have to ring them. But they are alot cheaper than Davys.

mijas

Thanks for that info, i will get on the phone to them on Monday. They said i had to have a UK bank account to trade UK shares & if i didnt, I simply couldn't do it. I have been transferring money from my Irish bank account into my E trade US account (for which i only had to have a bank statement and passport). So I presume somebody there gave me false information & that i can actually trade UK shares in the same way as US ones. I would love to be able to transfer my portfolio from Sharewatch to E trade.

Bytheway

For direct debit, you need a UK account but with an Irish account you have to wire money over. One big disadvantage is that they have no stop loss but they reckon it will be up and going by the end of May but who knows. If trading in volatile stock, it would probably be better to trade with Davys until they get that sorted.

Turbury

I think I will go with Etrade UK - Mijas and Bytheway - How do you find the Etrade platforms with regard to availabality of shares to trade , for example with Sharewatch I can rarely trade bank shares because "they are currently unavailable for on-line trading" Does this ever happen with Etrade?

pureirish

Bytheway wrote: »

For direct debit, you need a UK account but with an Irish account you have to wire money over. One big disadvantage is that they have no stop loss but they reckon it will be up and going by the end of May but who knows. If trading in volatile stock, it would probably be better to trade with Davys until they get that sorted.

I was just onto etrade. They are telling me I can't fund an ETrade UK account without a UK current account. They won't accept wire transfers.

Has anyone else come across this?

Cynical Dragon

Pure Irish,
Renaissance Financial Markets are an Irish firm that (www.rfm.ie) provide the exact same trading platform as etrade. The technology is rock solid and doesn't go down like sharewatch. You can trade @ 10bps like etrade.. I know because I have used both firms. Unlike etrade, Renaissance don't charge commission to trade indices like FTSE or DOW. Etrade were charging me £10 plus the spread to do that stuff. I am, able to fund my account at Renaissance with my credit card which takes away all the hassle of doing a wire transfer from Bank of ireland ..

Bullish

Hey Dragon, the RFM website is down???
Are you saying there is no charge to trade DOW ?
I am currently funding my firstrade account by wire transfere not so much of a hassel but I have to contend with a weaking dollar, If there is a good broker in Ireland that is charging reasonable commissions I would change to them,
Can you download there platform to try out ?
Thanks bull

Cynical Dragon

Hi Bullish
I hear ya..I prefer dealing with an Irish crowd..Just to explain...
There is no commission on Index trades.. I mean when you are placing a trade on an actual index like the FTSE 100, DAX, CAC or DOW. There is comm charged on actual share trades like google or bank of america for example..I think to trade US shares the comm is 2 or 3c per share..Maybe that is what u are referring too..Renaissance and etrade would be dearer than first trade to execute US stock orders....but the platform offered would be much more comprehensive and professional with a wider range of markets and functionality (like news feeds and charts) than firsttrades..i suppose it all depends what ur looking for..swings and roundabouts.. they are more orientated to the european and US investor alike..they do have a demo platform to try..they are having a new website developed..my mate mailed them and they set him up within an hour with the demo

Bullish

I didnt even know you could trade indexes directly, without using an etf, anyway after being burned with FAZ I dont trade ETFs (well not 2x or 3x) . I find with Firstrade the platform sucks, There is no level 2 built in or TA so I end up with 3 Pcs to watch the things I want. The worst is for stocks in my portfolio I can only set one action a Stop or a sell, if I try to set a stop and a sell at my exit price it says I dont have enough stocks :rolleyes:,
The commission of 2 - 3 cent per share is very high, I average 40 - 100 trades per month

Cynical Dragon

Hey Bullish

It sounds like you are a very active trader and so you should have no problem negotiating much better rates. I tend to trade indexes like the sp500 instead of individual stock names. As a trader, I want all my information on one platform..I want to be able to have a snap shot and to see whats going on in the forex, commodity, stock and bond markets all at the same time..I work off charts more than looking at raw price feeds..easier for me to see entry and exit points that way..so the charts have to be top notch..plus the news feed has to be very good..the platform I use has a MNI newswire and dj news wire..the MNI is very good for 'market chatter' and trader talk swirling round the market...if there is a big move in say bank of america..they will have an angle on it..its not bloomberg but it is good enough for me