At the moment I'm trading out of two accounts. Hargreaves and IG. That was fine for a time, but for weeks now I've been looking for something with the following features: Level 2 (which will show bid/asks on small caps - which IG's DMA and web platform won't do). Stock screener (more options the better). Trade fee around the same as IG (£3) I can get all of this easily with the US platforms, but they're an extra hassle to fund. Either I've missed something, and there is a good platform in the UK, or I'll have to stick with IG and subscribe to a good package elsewhere which just gives level 2 info and scans. I'd be happy with either solution. Do you guys have anything that fits the bill? I'm trading regular, I could be paying 5 to 10 fees per day so this part is important to my bottom line. Super frustrated, any ideas?
Open an account at www.interactivebrokers.com and fund it in sterling. It takes about 20 minutes to open the account and less than two hours to fund it. The IB account is multi currency so you can trade US stocks with a sterling deposit. This will be a margin loan though their rates are very low, a few percent a year. You can sell the sterling for dollars for a $2.50 fee. IB have access to the LSE and some aim stocks. The screener will work for U.K. stocks. www.prorealtime.com has an LSE feed and a screener.
Thanks checking these now. I never used pro realtime, just sounded like a charting tool, didn't know it had a screener in there. Edit: Just checked IB and first stock I tried wasn't on their platform: ODX (Omega Diagnostics), so I take it they don't do LSE AIMs unfortunately. Tradestation for example looked okay, hard to fund, needed to email them in a form (year 2020). But worst was that LSE AIM stocks I trade weren't listed. Will be back again shortly, need another look at IB and prorealtime, thanks again.
You might want to see if IG with ProRealTime as the front end will provide what you need. ProRealTime has Level 2 display (better than Interactive Brokers' TWS Level 2 display) and it is possible IG provide Level 2 data to ProRealTime. I use ProRealTime with InteractiveBrokers and get Level 2 that way, but I haven't tried it with IG yet.
Cheers, just been back to check PRT, but I think I know why I've discounted it too. It's CFD, looks like I can't trade regular equities on it. I tend to shy away from CFDs. Shame, platform looks solid.
You can trade shares as well as CFD at IG. You could just use pro real-time as a scanner/level 2 datafeed and trade with any broker.