I am considering Saxobank for opening an account. In particular I am interested in the possibility to be long to european bonds for long term and or other ETF in general. Not really interested in heavy trading with the platform. By looking at this link i noticed old reviews http://www.elitetrader.com/br/?action=view&R_FirmID=197 Is there any saxo-user around? What do you think about the bank? Can you explain me what do they mean by using bonds as margin collateral? http://www.saxobank.com/prices/bonds I know I know, I could write an e-mail to them but i would prefer to have a feedback from some fellows
95% if you hold the EU-equivalent of US Bills (schatz -> bobl). 90% on longer durations and lesser credits. Saxo is ok. I haven't used them in a few years. Their back office wasn't the most sophisticated. Decent mkts in vanilla FX options. You can get near-ECN mkts in spot and fwds if you're trading >500k EUR. Basic touch exotics and digitals on the screen. Slightly wider markets (exotics) than BARX and UBS.
thx for the reply, I few more information to share with you: These are the general terms http://institutional.saxobank.com/rates-and-conditions/general-terms - In case of negative net free equities the interest rate is Libor +8%. - No Repo and/or CDS in case you are wondering. Is the bond as collateral for the margin working "only for certain products" or like in IB? This I did not quite understood, the web site is ambiguous. Btw, if you have a better solution for EU based products I look forward to hearing from you!
By the way Saxobank will not take U.S. accounts any more (unless qualified institutional) because of U.S. CFTC rulings.
just a small update that i got by talking directly with them: -Saxo does not have a rating -Very good margin requirement -Very bad interest rate Libor +8% that become Libor+3% in case you have a bond as collateral In summary, they look ok for day trading. They are not equipped for any portfolio management activity.
Saxo's retail fees are very high but professional and institutional tiers are completely different. Also try Investors Europe which is a white label for Saxo and will match rates even if Saxo will not. Investors Europe can even accept U.S. clients (via the unsolicited client exemption in U.S. securities law) provided they are referred by someone and NOT found from the web (since the latter could be deemed a form of solicitation which is forbidden). I am planning on opening an account eventually because they have almost every market in the world on one platform, even currency options, etc. But you need to negotiate hard on fees.
well .. i went there passing to Investor Europe as professional. At the moment I am dealing with a portfolio management issue and they are more interested in "high volume commissions". So that were the conditions that they offered me. The girl was yang and for a few times she needed to exit the room and come back with the answer. If you get a set of better conditions PM me, maybe i will learn something . I agree with you, Saxo is well equipped with EU assets. Still I do not find prices competitive with the market.
I do not know as I have not negotiated with them yet, but here was an email I got from Investors Europe: "Worried about rates? Dear Investor, As a quick reminder to our previous email, this is to let you know that we can match or better your rates, depending on the amount you open your account with and how much you trade. Alternatively, if you tell us what you are paying, we will do our level best to better it. " But I do not know that they will live up to this. (By the way this was sent to a European email address I have - they are careful not to solicit in the U.S.) .