What do you look for in a CFD broker?

[Sugar Dunkaton]

Good Morning,

Just wanting to find out how people decided which CFD broker to choose. I am thinking I will be going with DMA CFD as I want to have some input into the underlying market.

I will have a trading account size to put me into some of the premium level packages, however I dont think that I will ever really have more than 50% of this tied up in margin - is it worth housing all my account with the CFD broker, I can probably get a better interest rate with an investment savings account at a bank. The flip size is that my trading costs will come down if I have it all with the CFD broker.

Also, are there any CFD brokers out there that offer rebates on trading volumes? If I have a massive month of trading - any chance that they will be able to rebate me part of my commissions - does any one else look for this or is important to them.

Another thing I would like to consider is share/equities trading. I currently have a straight equities trading account with a bank + linked cash account. Are there any CFD providers out there that offer share trading and CFD trading on one platform with both accounts settling to the same account?

Do people take note of the interest paid/recieved by long short positions, does that make much of a difference to your bottom line? I imagine I will be holding for a variety of lengths, probably not intraday but short to mid term (1-12 weeks).

And are there anything that you definitely do not want on a platform, worthless features you have to pay for? Do people switch from broker to broker chasing lower fees?

Thanks for your opinion.

 

[Wysiwyg]

Are there any CFD providers out there that offer share trading and CFD trading on one platform with both accounts settling to the same account?

I had a look over this provider and you can trade shares direct or CFD DMA or CFD.
I don't know what the trading platform & charting package are like. Maybe someone else does?

http://www.fpmarkets.com.au/shares.aspx

 

[ThingyMajiggy]

I had a look over this provider and you can trade shares direct or CFD DMA or CFD.
I don't know what the trading platform & charting package are like. Maybe someone else does?

http://www.fpmarkets.com.au/shares.aspx

Its got a big "WebIRESS" on their front page, so it'd be the same as MF, etrade, most of them use the same system.

 

[skc]

Good Morning,

Just wanting to find out how people decided which CFD broker to choose. I am thinking I will be going with DMA CFD as I want to have some input into the underlying market.

I will have a trading account size to put me into some of the premium level packages, however I dont think that I will ever really have more than 50% of this tied up in margin - is it worth housing all my account with the CFD broker, I can probably get a better interest rate with an investment savings account at a bank. The flip size is that my trading costs will come down if I have it all with the CFD broker.

Also, are there any CFD brokers out there that offer rebates on trading volumes? If I have a massive month of trading - any chance that they will be able to rebate me part of my commissions - does any one else look for this or is important to them.

Another thing I would like to consider is share/equities trading. I currently have a straight equities trading account with a bank + linked cash account. Are there any CFD providers out there that offer share trading and CFD trading on one platform with both accounts settling to the same account?

Do people take note of the interest paid/recieved by long short positions, does that make much of a difference to your bottom line? I imagine I will be holding for a variety of lengths, probably not intraday but short to mid term (1-12 weeks).

And are there anything that you definitely do not want on a platform, worthless features you have to pay for? Do people switch from broker to broker chasing lower fees?

Thanks for your opinion.

MF Global uses WebIress and you get Platinum for keeping $100K in the account regardless of volume you do. This gets you 8bps on commission and funding rates of +/- 1.5%. I think you can also go with straight equity trading through the same account set up.

IG also offers similar but it's less black and white on what account balance or volume you need to do.

The funding rate obviously matters and can have a large impact on the bottom line. Just imagine holding 1 year for an average return of 20%, you would have paid 7-8% in interest...

Can't remember what the interest rate is on free equity but it's not terrible although lower than an online saving account. So depending on how much trading you do, the commission you save might offset the lower interest being offered.

It would be quite difficult chasing around lower fees imo as you have to take care of all the open positions etc, but calling your broker and see what discount you can get if someone else offer a better deal can sometimes get you somewhere.