I hear the ECNs are going to be heading into the european mkts which will then bring down costs making the mkts day tradable. When is this expected to happen?
Keep checking this site.... http://www.batstrading.com/ It is probably going to be BATS..... Go BATS go ......
I have heard that daytrading the European markets is not a viable proposition because of the high commissions and wide spreads. But, does anyone here SWING TRADE European stocks? If so what have your experiences been? Seems to me that many European stocks have sufficient liquidity to be swing traded.....
I live in Europe... the problem with trading European stocks is that commissions are based on a percentage of trade value, which is often astronomically higher than the US model of commissions....
This is IB's commission schedule for European stocks: http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/commission.php?ib_entity=llc Looks like 0.1% commissions are the standard in Europe. UK's stamp duty must be crushing trading activities there.
Very interesting points..... Makes one wonder how long the commission game is going to stay "fat" in the other non-US markets.... For many years, commissions were fat in the US, supposedly justified by full service, research, etc..... However when the brokerage changed the game to commissions only based sales people, the integrity of the brokerage business began to falter.... Changing the ownersip on a number of shares when done through direct access electronic trading costs almost nothing.... It will be only a matter of time that the legalities change and pave the way for direct access in the non-US markets, since the way to efficiency has already been paved in the US.... However it takes someone to turn over the applecart......hopefully BATS or someone like them will make inroads soon.... One should be able to trade all the markets on a direct access low/almost free basis....the technology does not care what the name of the security is....or where it is....and if it is a government decision for the people , how can higher costs than necessary be justifiable.... The trading business will go worldwide stronger than ever as direct access increases its reach...... And it will......