What brokers are you using in Europe?

[Paul aka Aurbano 59]

Hi ! I live in Cádiz (south Spain) and I use TWS from IBKR .... It is a "good enough" platform that matches my trading style plus it is much cheaper than DAS and we are here to earn some money, right ?

[Radek 3]

Same here. I use IB as broker and their TWS platform for trading. It suites me very well and I prefer it over DAS to be frank. But this is is just a matter of preference.

[Matthias 0]

I am from Iceland and I recently opened up an account with IB but have yet to fund it.

I noticed that because I am from Europe, my margin will be "risk-based". It will be calculated based on the diversification of my portfolio.

Since I only plan on depositing $5,000 to start with, I really need to get at least 1:3 margin to be able to day trade properly.

Is there anyone here with IB and has this "risk-based" margin model? Are you getting any margin with your day trading account?

All the best,
Matthias

[peterB 239]

hi Mathias, i have just opened an IB EU acount with 5k on it and the margin is indeed risk-based and every time different. some times i am able to buy stock for 20k sometimes it does not allow me to do so. its annoying but not much can be done. with CMEG broker you get 1:6 and you can use it fully without any limits but their commission pricing is high now. The margin with IB EU is 1:6.66 actually anyway if you start with small risk then you will be most probably fine.

[Matthias 0]

Thank you Peter! Will go ahead and fund the account then.

[Matthias 0]

Hi again PeterB and others!

I haven't looked into the commission structure because of being in SIM only recently.

But I am getting closer to going LIVE and looked properly into the commissions. Are the commissions really 0.05% of total trade value?

For example if someone buys 50 shares of AAPL at $150 per share. 

IBKR (UK) -  50*$150=$7500 -- Which 0.05% off is $3.75

IBKR (US) - 50 shares * $0.0035=$0.175 -- So it doesn't even get up to the minimum, which is $0.35 per order.

Are we paying $3.75 for this order, while people in the US are paying $0.35 for it?

Or am I completely misunderstanding the commission structure?

[peterB 239]

why are you comparing fixed to tiered? just chose tiered in UK and you will have the same prices

[Matthias 0]

This is what I found. This is tiered for Europe it looks like.

 

[peterB 239]

that applies to european stock exchanges not to european citizens

[Matthias 0]

I am so happy to hear you say that Peter. Thanks.