Depending upon my study and office schedule (i.e. night-shift a few days a week), I usually day trade any of the following major global indices, e.g. —Japan Nikkei 225 —Hong Kong HSI 50 —India Nifty 50 —Germany DAX 30 —Switzerland SMI 20 —UK FTSE 250 —Italy FTSE MIB 40 —US Dow Jones 30 Currently, being based in the UK, I use the retail broker IG.com to trade CFDs and Spread Bets in the aforementioned markets. Since the introduction of ESMA regulation and increased margin requirements, I have moved my IG.com account to Australia —where margin requirements aren't heighten by the new ESMA regulations. I usually open around 4 intraday positions (long or short) during the market hours of which ever index I happen to be trading, but close out all positions before the particular market closes. So if I'm trading the Germany DAX 30 index, I would be trading 08:00-16:30 UK time. If I'm trading the US Dow Jones 30 index, I would be trading 14:30-21:00 UK time. However, I find trading the CFDs and Spread Bets don't always necessarily track the underlying cash index very well. For example, the exact highs and lows during various times in the cash market aren't always corresponding with the CFDs. The CFDs are essentially like continuous futures which also remain open to trade outside the cash index's trading hours. Furthermore, I find that the spread for day trading on IG.com often erodes profits, and makes some indices impossible to day trade with my scalping strategy —for example, the spread for the FTSE 250 index is currently around 37 points. My trading strategy cannot be adapted to work with the CFD data, it only seems to be working with the underlying cash index data. QUESTION: What other broker can I use to trade the underlying cash indices as near as possible? Given I can potentially trade an average of 15-20 positions a day, is there a broker that offers zero spreads and instead charges a fee based on the number of trades or volume I generate?
Www.interactivebrokers.com have futures and etfs in all the markets listed with the exception of India. They allow accounts from UK residents.
If you're an NRI you can trade India from IB but assuming you are not, you can trade Indian Nifty futures on the SGX. I never understood why people would choose a spread-betting or CFD shop when they have all the tools on the internet at their disposal to do a little research. IMO, go to the source and trade the actual exchange listed products if possible.
If you are taxed in the UK trading CFDs is disadvantageous to your financial health: The taxman will love you - and your contributions. Spreadbetting is taxfree - under certain conditions! So better get use spreadbetting - but not cash index but futures on index. Finally some firms will give you "old" -pre ESMA conditions if you qualify. Lets know how you decided.
Contact TT sales. They will assist you in finding a broker who most suits your needs. https://www.tradingtechnologies.com/contact/
ICMarkets in Australia is more or less equivalent to my IG Australia account —similar spreads, but fewer global indices on offer.
Impossible to scalp using Spread Betting in the UK now without having huge margins. I can have 10+ open positions at a time, and the margin requirements under the new ESMA regulations are ridiculous. The old pre-ESMA margins are means tested and only on offer to "professional" accounts which are €500,000 in size.
Thank you for the responses everyone, please do add any other suggestions and suitable broker recommendations. As suggested thus far, I'm going to contact Interactive Brokers and Trading Technologies.
Much Prefered FXCM's UK's platform, they claimed they'd review it after 3 months but obviously that got forgotten about, should be upto us and the broker what we want to use, hate being protected from myself at my own cost damn snowflake protect everyone verse!!