Which Stock Broker?

gotasmoke

I currenntly have shares in the company I work for. These are in a Merrill Lynch brokerage account as it's a US company and I'm going to sell some of them, which I can do through ML.

However I then want to reinvest the funds into other stocks to create a diverse portfolio. Which broker has the lowest transaction fees?

Prezatch

https://www.degiro.ie/fees.html

topper_harley2

Is it just me or is this question is asked and answered a million times over! As JoeyD said, Degiro is the cheapest. OP, you can search the forum for information yourself before starting identical threads. The following search returns threads that ask to recommend a broker....159 results!
http://www.boards.ie/search/submit/?forum=859&subforums=1&sort=newest&date_to=&date_from=&query=recommend+broker

at9qu5vp0wcix7

What are the reasons to not go with Degiro? Genuinely curious as to why people choose other online brokers.

gotasmoke

Cheers I'll give it a look. I did search before I asked but a lot of the results are old, especially the stickied threads. I'm just making sure I have up to date info.

topper_harley2

Callen Shapely Arrow wrote: »

What are the reasons to not go with Degiro? Genuinely curious as to why people choose other online brokers.

Various reasons I guess.....

They're new (better the devil you know)
They're foreign (people still wary of Rabo)
They're online only (no face to face)
They're almost too cheap (what the catch)
Inertia (not bothered moving from Davy)
Etc etc.

clickerquicklic

topper_harley2 wrote: »

Various reasons I guess.....

They're new (better the devil you know)
They're foreign (people still wary of Rabo)
They're online only (no face to face)
They're almost too cheap (what the catch)
Inertia (not bothered moving from Davy)
Etc etc.

Adding to that , it probably depends how much someone is investing , for smaller investors the fees are a large % , I am with Saxo there are fees but I take it as the cost of doing business , they have been excellent and I have had no problems. I am happy enough with the security of Saxo , would I feel comfortable moving a few 100k to Degiro? The answer is no at the moment , I would like them to be longer established first. I am not saying they are in any way worse than Saxo , I just feel more comfortable with my money in Saxo, that may change and I could possibly move to Davy's , but for me its not about the fees but more about the security.

Nody

Callen Shapely Arrow wrote: »

What are the reasons to not go with Degiro? Genuinely curious as to why people choose other online brokers.

There are some rather big question marks on their legal entity setup and how they operate basically; the model they used is banned in Netherlands specifically because of the risk it carries (if it crashes there are concerns the bank guarantee etc. is not on a per account basis but only for the holding company as the owner of all shares etc. so rather than 100k EUR per person it's a total of 100k EUR for everyone and things like this).

Sabre Man

Nody wrote: »

There are some rather big question marks on their legal entity setup and how they operate basically; the model they used is banned in Netherlands specifically because of the risk it carries (if it crashes there are concerns the bank guarantee etc. is not on a per account basis but only for the holding company as the owner of all shares etc. so rather than 100k EUR per person it's a total of 100k EUR for everyone and things like this).

Do you have any sources for that?

Which model do they use in the Netherlands and do they use different models for different markets?

Nody

Sabre Man wrote: »

Do you have any sources for that?

Which model do they use in the Netherlands and do they use different models for different markets?

Enjoy; he has more posts on the subject. In regards to Netherlands the problem was in who was holding the stock and money as a legal entity but the net result of it is a model that will not be allowed for banks or stock brokers to use in Netherlands. What it comes down to is that the stock broker (Degiro BV) is registered with the central bank but the holder of all the money and shares is actually a trust (Stichting Degiro) which makes the trust the customer of De Giro's broker and hence possibly only liable to get back 20k EUR in bank guarantee as a single customer. This is something the central bank in Netherlands are looking at changing until 2017 through acts such as this.

"Under Dutch law there is an investor compensation scheme, for firms like DEGIRO the amount guaranteed is €20,000. However, in our eyes this scheme is unnecessary for clients of DEGIRO due to the presence of the custodian and cash fund."

If the fund however is tampered with there is no such protection by the sound of it and if DEGIRO somehow enforces losses on the fund via HiQ crashing etc. there is no listed protection.

They also have legal issues in the Nordics and are/where actively breaking the law in how they allowed some trades and tax deductions to be done (and as it's tax the individual is ultimately responsible to sort it out that they screwed up).

In short there are a lot of question marks with de Giro and the fact they consistently break country laws (see Nordics for example) is simply baffling and makes me wonder what does not come out and how safe it really is.

Sabre Man

http://www.amsterdamtrader.com/2015/09/degiro-clients-as-counterparty-for-hedgefund.html

This doesn't seem relevant if you only trade shares and never trade options.

Are there any other brokers out there in the same or similar league as DeGiro when it comes to fees?

Nody

Sabre Man wrote: »

Are there any other brokers out there in the same or similar league as DeGiro when it comes to fees?

In Ireland not to my knowledge; there are possibilities in other countries such as USA etc. which is a bit of a pain