The trading and investment business is now pretty much commoditised when it comes to commissions and online access. If you buy 1,000 shares of Tesco and a broker charges you £20 those shares are not going to be any better than if a different broker charges £10.
We therefore always prefer to go with a broker that offers the cheapest costs alongside a good online trading platform which is why we've been long term clients of www.InterActiveBrokers.co.uk.
- For UK shares they charge a flat rate fee of £6 for an order up to the value of £50,000
- For US shares the rate is ½ cent per share so buy 1,000 shares and the cost is $5
Other highlights include –
- They've just improved and updated their online software
- All sorts of different orders can be worked such as limit or stop loss etc
- Free Seminars via the web, they call them Webinars
- Online demos of their products so you can test them out
- Access to options, futures, stocks, bonds, currencies etc
- They cover pretty much all of the main markets around the world including all the European Bourses
Summary
Even if you trade or invest infrequently dealing with a firm that offers heavily discounted commissions is recommended. The online software is also important and InterActive Brokers passes on both counts. Not only that, the firm seems to be very proactive in how it conducts its business in relation to servicing their clients.
Note, that the main reason why they offer such cheap commissions is because they are strictly an online broker only and accept no telephone trading orders. If you therefore prefer to use a telephone to conduct your business InterActive is not the broker you should choose - See Find's list of Online Brokers.
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