Which trading platform?

yeah usually cost nothing, you just change from one CHESS sponsor (broker) to another
your holding are in CHESS and not with the broker

 

Hi

You will need to speak to your brokers to determine whether any fees need to be paid.

Regards,

alicudi

 

Their FAQs say "coming soon".

+1 interested in somewhere with cheap brokerage and stop loss

 

CMC would close me out of my marginal trades ahead of stops/takes.

Market makers.....can't live with them, can't send an irate postal worker around.

 

Hi

It would seem that this comment refers to the CMC CFD broking platform only and not the CMC direct share platform which is what the OP would be looking to use.

Out of curiosity Aaron, are you still trading CFD's and if so which broker are you using?

Regards,

alicudi

 

I'm using a DeutscheBank platform (same as Saxo I think).

I haven't traded in forever tho. Last trade was SPY short nettd me about 60%. I noticed last time I fired it up the platform had greyed out my upper margin. I'm limited to 20:1 on indices, now - and only certain stocks I can get 20:1.

Just looking at ETFs now. Lost the love for staying awake until 11:30 for a market open.

 

Hi

I had a SAXO trader demo account earlier this year with $20,000 fictional money and traded the DOW with this DEMO account just before it took a tumble around February and decided it was a gods blessing that it was a demo account.

Since then I have been learning further in depth on how to trade currencies and indices using CFD's as my instrument. About a month and a half ago I turned $5,000 into $5136.04 using CMC's CFD market maker platform and that took me 3.5 days and approx 20 trades to achieve that small profit.

I decided that a market maker broker was not going to be transparent enough for my liking and then I investigated every CFD broker I could locate and found IG to be what I class as the most transparent and trust worthy broker but with that comes the higher trading costs. I opened an IG CFD account a few weeks ago with $25,000 and it dropped by approx $1,000 very quickly. Then on a single night it went from approx $24,000 to $35,000 and I closed every trade and pulled all the money out realising I had a lot to learn as I could have just as easily lost the % of money that I had quickly gained.

I am learning a lot over in the whirlpool forums in the "Day Trading" thread.and the process of staying up late has just started for me and my paper trades since my big profit has continued to give me consistent very healthy gains all while keeping a guaranteed stop loss of no more than 1% of my capital for each trade that I open.

Whilst I am a beginner with CFD's and learning a lot but at this stage it feels like taking candy from a baby and to good to be true. Having said all of this I don't recommend CFD's to anyone unless they have had a very successful stint in making huge profits from direct share trading of which I was achieving 30% average returns when I was dealing in direct shares.

I can see myself spending many years doing this as I thoroughly enjoy the process of following the international currency markets and major indices around the globe and have also noticed how some of these metrics move in correlation to one another.

Now I am just typing a long winded post to keep me up for the markets to open!

Regards,

alicudi

 

Wow - very similar story to me! Good to hear you're keeping at it.

I like the IG platform but the fees are insane. Ive been at CFDs since 2007 and I am a serial shorter. The only time I ever went long was on ASX:FMG when it tapped 99c. Rode it long to just shy of $3 at 1:10.

I trade out of a London account and the leverage change options at better. I used to get 40:1 on index in ye olde days but now max is 20:1. I even did FB and Zynga shorts at 20:1.

Going long is hope and pray IMO. Play like a predator and it's a much safer bet - you aren't playing in puddles with 2 different players (long and short); you're playing with institutional shorts and people wanting to get out any any cost. Fear and the herd is much more predictable - always goes the same direction.

I trade no more than three trades and no more than 20% of available capital on any one trade. If you'll drop 2% then why not 20%? Undertrading a position is as bad as overtrading all positions.

In other words, if you have $10k, your trade is $2k. You have $8k left. Next trade is 20% of that etc. I've lived by this mantra with super tight stops but a delayed entry and while a few trades have moved against me, so be it. I'm not in this to lose money and you can't fight the big boys so pack up, sit on the sidelines and wait again.

 

I thought some of you may be interested. Nabtrade is currently offering 100 free trades.
I find the premium report are also helpful for new starters to learn about all the financial measures etc provided by Thomson Reuters and Morningstar. Hope it helps.

 

For one reason or another we've accounts with Commsec, Westpac, ANZ (old E-Trace) and now CMC

I prefer ANZ and the ability to look at average, consolidated and detailed views of the portfolio, shows date of DRP's, number purchased, cost basis, current value etc.

For reviewing the portfolios we use Sharesight

 

Hi GeoffW, yes Bell Direct does Australian shares. Commsec get their customer base from exisitng Commbank customers and they don't offer the consumer any extra benefit over other brokers other than higher brokerage costs.

The CMC platform is fantastic but make sure you open a share trading account and not the CFD trading account.