# IG Markets, CMC or GFT for CFDs?



## chode84 (4 July 2009)

Hi all

I've been playing around with an igmarkets demo account for the last week or so and have been reasonably happy with them and thier comm. structure but Im just wondering out of the above mentioned companies who you would recommend?  GFT's platform at a glance also looks quite good but I can't find any info on the fees. Would anyone be able to fill me on these? Mainly looking at trading on the UK markets.

Thanks for any help!

Chode


----------



## kam75 (7 July 2009)

chode84 said:


> Hi all
> 
> I've been playing around with an igmarkets demo account for the last week or so and have been reasonably happy with them and thier comm. structure but Im just wondering out of the above mentioned companies who you would recommend?  GFT's platform at a glance also looks quite good but I can't find any info on the fees. Would anyone be able to fill me on these? Mainly looking at trading on the UK markets.
> 
> ...




NONE.  Only one I'd recommend and for CFDs its MF Global.


----------



## white_goodman (7 July 2009)

kam75 said:


> NONE.  Only one I'd recommend and for CFDs its MF Global.




their commissions are a little expensive... im trying to find one where i can trade EOD and dont need to pay an exchange fee or software fee to trade online, also DMA...


----------



## chode84 (7 July 2009)

Yeah Im finding it hard to find a good all rounder. When you finally think you've found a good one it has a certain aspect which brings it back in line with the others. 

Im trying to find somewhere that lets me trade on the UK markets for less then 10pounds ($20!) a trade.


----------



## >Apocalypto< (16 April 2010)

interesting to see IG now offer 1 point on their Australia 200 index contract. that makes em cheaper then IB!


----------



## Alpha_Bet (17 April 2010)

>Apocalypto< said:


> interesting to see IG now offer 1 point on their Australia 200 index contract. that makes em cheaper then IB!




Don't know how paying the spread is cheaper than commish and buying @ your price. If you can trade, trade Futs.

OP:What type trader are you? Day or multi day? Have to take into consideration cost of carry if longer term.


----------



## >Apocalypto< (17 April 2010)

Alpha_Bet said:


> Don't know how paying the spread is cheaper than commish and buying @ your price. If you can trade, trade Futs.
> 
> OP:What type trader are you? Day or multi day? Have to take into consideration cost of carry if longer term.




I trade with IB.... 

Just pointing out that IG dropped the spreads of their aussie index to 1 point from the 2 points.

I am a intraday trader but the SPI is to boring for me!


----------



## chode84 (17 April 2010)

I forgot about this thread. 

Just for the record I ended up going with GFT mainly because I liked the software a lot more then the others. There have been a few bugs with the charting software during daylight savings but now thats over its not an issue and will hopefully get sorted before it starts again.

Ive been trading a mix of Aus equities over a relatively short timeframe (1-3 weeks) and the the FTSE 100 of an evening where Im only in a position for an average of 15 mins. Ive avoided trading the aussie index due to the 2 point spread. I like the UK index because firstly its of an evening and secondly because the spread is only 1 point.

Ive had mostly success trading the UK index. Ive made 21% of my account this week alone just trading the index. Out of the three equity trades I made (2 x TLS and PLA) I had a positive outcome with two of them. 

So whilst I am relatively new to trading so far Im travelling ok and finding GFT quite good. They havn't tried to shaft me yet but then again Im smalltime so wouldn't even be a blip on their radar.


----------



## Alpha_Bet (17 April 2010)

Didn't realise this thread was that old until you pointed it out. Good to hear things working out. I reiterate that if you can trade a MM synthetic product profitably, trade the Futures product when you have sufficient capital.


----------



## chode84 (17 April 2010)

Hey Alpha,

Yeah I fully intend to but lack sufficient capital to get an IB account at the moment. How is it different to trading the MM product? Ive never had the chance to see/do it apart from on GFT.


----------



## Alpha_Bet (18 April 2010)

There are some US based brokers that only require deposits of US$2000 and day trade margin of GBP1000 (A$1600) to trade FTSE100. Of course GBP5 per half tick may expose your acct to excessive risk.
Futures are transparent regulated products. You get depth of market and can actually see your order in the market place. Electronic traded contracts offer instantaneous execution with a first in first out basis. Futures are the cleanest purist form of trading available in my opinion.
I can't discuss your MM as I have not traded with them. My experience with other MM's when trading their synthetic contracts was not positive. If you are consistently profitable trader the fun starts. Although the problems will always be with your internet connection, your computer etc. You just wont get fills on your orders.


----------



## Kryzz (20 April 2010)

Alpha_Bet said:


> There are some US based brokers that only require deposits of US$2000 and day trade margin of GBP1000 (A$1600) to trade FTSE100. Of course GBP5 per half tick may expose your acct to excessive risk.
> Futures are transparent regulated products. You get depth of market and can actually see your order in the market place. Electronic traded contracts offer instantaneous execution with a first in first out basis. Futures are the cleanest purist form of trading available in my opinion.
> I can't discuss your MM as I have not traded with them. My experience with other MM's when trading their synthetic contracts was not positive. If you are consistently profitable trader the fun starts. Although the problems will always be with your internet connection, your computer etc. You just wont get fills on your orders.




PM sent to your inbox Alpha.


----------



## trade4freedom (21 October 2011)

Hi everyone,

have been comparing IG Markets, GFT and City Index for the last few days and thought I'd share my notes with you. I am trading off daily / weekly charts, mainly equities.... Also, I want to point out that these are my personal, subjective notes and I do not make any claim that they accurately reflect the companies and their offerings. PLEASE BUILD YOUR OWN OPINION AND DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!!!!


IG Markets (market leader in terms of market share):

Most reputable broker, does have DMA/OTC, is listed on stock exchange itself, has been around the longest.
Minimum commission: $8, 0.1% on ASX stocks
No inactivity fee, no withdrawal fee, no data fee if 20min delayed data is used.
Most transparent charts, as they are based directly on underlying market (both for OTC and DMA trades), charts can be compared to ASX charts and are identical
Overall feeling: reliable, transparent, safe, but they also charge appropriate commissions (still cheaper than MF Global or Banks though)
Financial statements are very clear.
IG Markets has charts and advanced charts (provided through IT Finance). The advanced charts open on my computer through Pro Real time, but they look very different to the IG Markets charts (compared 4hr charts), I'm not sure which chart to trust, but I assume the IG Market 'normal' chart is correct, as it's the same as on the GFT platform


City Index (one of the top 10 providers in Australian market):

Minimum commission: $10 (great for orders worth more than $10.000)
Customer Service experience has been somewhat dodgy so far, lots of misinformation or missing information
Platform is ok, very simple, I like that, great for ordering.
But they require min. of 5 transactions per month, otherwise there will be charge of ASX data fee.
Charts are different from ASX charts of underlying market, seem really quite far off (daylight savings and server time differences???) (but still City Index charges the ASX data fee, don't know why as charts are so far off???!!!)


GFT (not part of the top 10, but a runner up for thebull.com.au awards for CFD, next to MF Global):

Offers Silver account: no minimum commission, only percentage based, but needs 12K funding.
Dealbook 360 software is too complex and a little bit slow. 
Online ordering platform is simple and good, very similar to IG Markets. 
Inactivity fee, if no trade in 60 days, $5 withdrawal fee.
Overall feeling: good for beginners (i.e. small $ per trade as they have no minimum commission with silver account), but I feel a bit uncomfortable about depositing 12K with them from the start. Maybe just use for demo at the moment? They offer unlimited demo account with basic live account ($250 funding minimum)
Financial statements are a bit confusing, issued in GMT time, not local time (can not be changed), lots of options for statements, I prefer IG Markets statements
If I place a pending order and cancel it, I'm getting charged the spread difference :-( IG Markets doesn't charge anything if pending order is cancelled.

Problem with daily charts: Australian daylight savings messes them up - this is a known issue mentioned on forums before (server closes trading day at 3pm and adds the data from the last hour of previous trading day to the new day, so the gaps disappear on the daily charts, but they are still there in 4hr charts). I compared IG Markets and GFT 4 hour charts and they are identical. IG Markets daily charts are true to ASX charts. Even though dealbook 360 may seem like a good charting software, you can't trust the daily charts!


Summary:

GFT cheapest for orders under 8K
City Index cheapest for orders over 10K
IG Markets cheapest for order between 8-10K, but also most reputable,as expensive as GFT for orders over 8K and reduced software functionality.

GFT and IG Markets seem to truly reflect ASX market action, but GFT has messed up daily charts, City Index has all charts messed up....


Gut feeling about brokers at the moment: My favourite is IG Markets, their system seems to work well. Only problem I have with them is that the commissions might be too high in comparison to my  $risk per trade, so they may not be worth it when starting out, also they don't offer permanent demo account, they push towards 'going live'. GFT messes up the ASX charts during daylight savings, but the other half of the year (no daylight savings) seems to be consistent with true end of day data. 4hr charts seem consistent with 'normal' IG Markets charts. I think GFT is really good for beginners as they offer unlimited demo account and the silver account waives minimum commission on equities (great for trade sizes under 8K). I find their deposit requirement of 12K quite high however, I wouldn't feel very comfortable at the moment transferring so much money to them...




Use Pro Real Time as charting software using daily charts and weekly charts, use broker to only place orders.


To sum it up, I think there is no 'best' broker, only a broker that's appropriate for your needs. Think about where you are in terms of $size per trade, which broker is the least messed up and who you can trust with your money!


----------



## skc (21 October 2011)

trade4freedom said:


> To sum it up, I think there is no 'best' broker, only a broker that's appropriate for your needs. Think about where you are in terms of $size per trade, which broker is the least messed up and who you can trust with your money!




Call up IG and ask them to reduce minimum commission for you. Tell them you want to trade small to start, and tell them GFT has no minimum and see how you go.

With their demo just keep signing up to a new free email account or something. 

None of these are brokers by the way.


----------



## takestock (23 October 2011)

I've signed up with IG Markets and thus far they have been very good,although I have only traded several times.
I've also signed up with Capital CFDs,however I have not deposited any money in my account so I haven't traded with them.
I started with only a few thousand in my IG account,just to test the "waters"  ........I'll evaluate my performance over the coming weeks and months before I  decide whether to add more monies to my account.


----------



## trade4freedom (23 October 2011)

skc said:


> Call up IG and ask them to reduce minimum commission for you. Tell them you want to trade small to start, and tell them GFT has no minimum and see how you go.
> 
> With their demo just keep signing up to a new free email account or something.
> 
> None of these are brokers by the way.




Thanks for your thoughts... Well, IG reduces minimum commissions when you sign up to $1 and then gradually brings them up to their normal minimum over 6 weeks, permanent discounts only are negotiated with high trade size traders (over 300.000 dollars order size per month I was told).


----------



## trade4freedom (23 October 2011)

skc said:


> None of these are brokers by the way.





What are they then?


----------



## trade4freedom (23 October 2011)

*Good link...*

This is a link I found quite useful in my research (thought it seems to be biased towards IG Markets)

http://www.contracts-for-difference.com/


----------



## trade4freedom (23 October 2011)

takestock said:


> I've also signed up with Capital CFDs,however I have not deposited any money in my account so I haven't traded with them.




Hi, have you found any discussions on forums about them? I couldn't find any info on this company, any links you could share would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## LostMyShirt (23 October 2011)

The are all market makers - but IG at the very least will offer you DMA-CFD (Direct Market Access) allowing you to join the bid-ask queues which in my opinion is optimal.

If you want to trade the index's then MM's spread will annoy you. Try IB for futures contracts however you will be paying $1 per point or depending what the contract conditions are. I know there are Australia 200 $5 contracts which to my understanding are $5 per point.


----------



## skc (24 October 2011)

trade4freedom said:


> What are they then?




They are CFD providers. They are counterparty to your trade, whether it's market maker or DMA.

Brokers buy and sell stock on your behalf. CFD providers buy and sell CFDs to you. The DMA CFD providers concurrently enters the market to hedge their own exposure. They own the share, you own the CFD.


----------



## MACD (24 October 2011)

I use IG on a daily basis.  I trade off my mobile phone, which works really well. They are great and I've had no issues with them at all.  My only issue is the commissions are much higher that City Index.

Having said that, I will be switching to City once they release their Android phone App as I will save over $1000 p.m in commissions alone!  Commissions are a cost of trading and need to be reduced where possible.


----------

