What is the best day trade account/company to use

beagle001

Hi Folks,
I am looking for your trusted advice on which company I should use to day trade shares both here and in the U.S.
I have used godbodys before and I found them useless,slow to execute my trades and cost me significant cash.
I know there is a thread about this sort of practice but I want advice from the genuine people who actively day trade what account would suit best for fast execution.
Thanks in advance

Isoaxe

I used to hold an account with TD Waterhouse, whom I think are best when dealing with Irish shares. However, I recently opened an account with ODL Securities, which are far more cost-effective when dealing with USD-denominated securities.

The main reason for the preference is the discrepancy between the hidden charge in currency conversion. When changing EUR into USD, I calculated that TD Waterhouse charged an effective 1.75% fee through differences between the Forex spot price and the rate they gave me. The rate for ODLS was 0.8%.

I conducted extensive research before opening a brokerage account, and investigated every broker available to residents of the ROI. My assessment is that these two come out on top.

Since you mention day trading, I would assume that you have a high trading volume. In that case, it is worth noting that the TD Waterhouse gives a discount to high volume traders (€15 vs. €20 for low volume). ODLS trades usually cost about $20.

As an extra that may or may not interest you, ODLS offer options trading as part of their equity account (all bundled into one). As a final point, I found that the TD Waterhouse platform was a little more polished that the ODLS one (in terms of interface, not technical ability).

Hope this helps!

strmin

For trading in US markets you should open an account with US broker. No Irish broker can beat 1$ trades.

Isoaxe

strmin wrote: »

For trading in US markets you should open an account with US broker. No Irish broker can beat 1$ trades.

Very true the US market for brokerages is far more competitive than the Irish one. However, most don't accept applications from the ROI. And of the ones that do, are there any that allow trading in Irish equities?

A compromise to consider if you are unable to find a US based discount broker fitting both of the above criteria would be to open 2 accounts. One for the Irish trading, and one for the US trading. This may be a bit messy though.

strmin, could you post up a couple of US brokers that accept Irish applicants please?

Joe Schmo

Isoaxe wrote: »

I used to hold an account with TD Waterhouse, whom I think are best when dealing with Irish shares. However, I recently opened an account with old.

FYI I trade in the US exchanges with interactive brokers. They accept ROI applications.

It costs about $30 a month and each $ of trading commission counts toward account fees. I pay about $1.86 for each option/future/equity trade. They also trade in London but I do not know their coat for that.

strmin

I'm with interactive brokers as well.

Cute Hoor

Isoaxe wrote: »

Very true the US market for brokerages is far more competitive than the Irish one. However, most don't accept applications from the ROI. And of the ones that do, are there any that allow trading in Irish equities?

A compromise to consider if you are unable to find a US based discount broker fitting both of the above criteria would be to open 2 accounts. One for the Irish trading, and one for the US trading. This may be a bit messy though.

strmin, could you post up a couple of US brokers that accept Irish applicants please?

www.tdameritrade.com ($9.99 per trade) and Zecco ($0 to $4.99) per trade definitely take Irish applicants. You can trade the major Irish companies (any of the ones quoted on the US exchanges, CRH,BOI,AIB,Elan,Ryanair etc) with them. Don't know about other US brokers but I would imagine the same is true.

Isoaxe

The Irish companies you name are in the form of American depositary receipts (ADRs) and quite limited in their number. Only the largest Irish companies will be listed on north American stock exchanges.