Hoodless Brennan Stockbrokers

msfender

Have been trying to trade for the last 30 minutes and keep getting an error message which tells me to call the help desk when I try to obtain a live quote. Not good.

Geoffo_M

This has happened to me a few times. It is particularly annoying when you are following a price minute by minute so you only get a tiny 'window of opportunity' when that message come up. It happens frequently when selling as well, especially if it's a small number of shares. Just as frustrating.

msfender

Have transferred the funds out. Too unreliable. I'll give Selftrade a whirl. Far more positive reports about them.

searlea

Another frustrated user here.

If you're medium/long-term investing I guess the simple appearance of the site and the commission structure are both fine. For short-term / day-trading the site layout kills confidence and prevents fast trading: the site doesn't show your current holding of a stock when it's most important (e.g. placing an order), it doesn't pre-populate fields (e.g. you current holding) and it doesn't accept reuters codes (meaning you have an intermediary step to choose from 4 stocks beginning "RBS" instead of going direct to trading "RBS.L")

For volatile stocks you'll frequently encounter problems trading - their system relies on being able to get a firm 15-second quote, and placing a limit order means your orders goes through to a human dealer instead of being put on the order-book - effectively preventing you setting your own prices.

If you resort to phoning through orders when the site's playing-up you'll end up having to deal by phone the rest of the day (trades over the phone don't appear on the website until the end of day - so you have to phone through again and again to make further trades.)

In summary - Hoodless isn't appropriate or reliable enough for day-trading - better to go with one of the direct-market-access brokers listed at the London Stock Exchange under the "Locate a Broker" tool.

jimmyss1

searlea wrote: »

Another frustrated user here.
... the site doesn't show your current holding of a stock when it's most important (e.g. placing an order), it doesn't pre-populate fields (e.g. you current holding) ....

Hoodless Brennan is a fairly bad option for day trading, but just to note that is does show your current holding of a stock as you place a deal. As you say it doesn't pre-populate the input fields or anything, but at the top of the deal screen in bold text it tells you how much you currently hold.

Also, when it won't do a deal online and tells you to ring the help desk, it doesn't neccesarily mean the system is down. Many times you simply can't get an online quote for the particluar number of shares you trying to buy or sell. Try reducing or increasing the number of shares and you will then probably get an online qoute. This happens on most platforms.

Anyway, I agree with everyone else in that if you are a regular trader, Hoodless Brennan is pretty awful.

searlea

Hoodless doesn't show your current holding if you do a limit order - and they don't have any decent navigation to quickly pop to the Portfolio view to check. (I should have been clearer about that)

I know a lot of the problems are common to other brokers too - relying on firm quotes sucks when you really want to say "put my shares on the order-book at 28p NOW", without waiting for one of their dealers to get around to it. I had the same problem at Charles Stanley and moved to Hoodless because they at least supported Stop Loss orders. Then I discovered Stop Loss orders (and any limit order in general) are automatically cancelled if they fail to execute a few times. I'm not sure what Hoodless definition of a 'fail' is, but it felt very much like their brokers not getting around to dealing with things - making the Stop Loss facility border-line worthless and definitely not a safety feature.

tradetime

Brokers such as Hoodless, H&L, Selftrade, Interactive Investor, etc are not suitable for daytrading, that is not what they are designed for, trying to compete in an activity which has an 80%+ failure rate without the correct tools is just asking to lose money, I would strongly advise you steer clear of daytrading with these brokers.

uk_steve

tradetime wrote: »

Brokers such as Hoodless, H&L, Selftrade, Interactive Investor, etc are not suitable for daytrading, that is not what they are designed for, trying to compete in an activity which has an 80%+ failure rate without the correct tools is just asking to lose money, I would strongly advise you steer clear of daytrading with these brokers.

yeah i agree i am for ever getting error messages online plus am on the phone alot and miss some good deals due to the run up of events

however i am happy with my trades to date which i have done, i have selftrade and Hoodless Brennan accounts

may i ask where is a good place to trade on day to day basis because i prefer to have an account for that purpose aswell

Hatone

I think the answer is pretty simple.

If you consider yourself a day-trader (a person who knows a thing or two about the stockmarket), why the hell would you pick Hoodless Brennan in the first place?

HB is great for those who like to hold stock and invest in the long term (mainly for a dividend) - maybe trades 5 - 10 stocks a month. HB, IIRC, don't charge a management fee.

Brokers listed under the LSE, whoalso give you access to in-house live stock market screens are only suitable for day-trading - most of which charge you a subscription or quarterly fee.

Buddy195

Geoffo_M wrote: »

This has happened to me a few times. It is particularly annoying when you are following a price minute by minute so you only get a tiny 'window of opportunity' when that message come up. It happens frequently when selling as well, especially if it's a small number of shares. Just as frustrating.

When selling can use phone and do it via that. HB is pretty poor if wanting to do quick deals I have to admit :mad:

uk_steve

Hatone wrote: »

I think the answer is pretty simple.

If you consider yourself a day-trader (a person who knows a thing or two about the stockmarket), why the hell would you pick Hoodless Brennan in the first place?

HB is great for those who like to hold stock and invest in the long term (mainly for a dividend) - maybe trades 5 - 10 stocks a month. HB, IIRC, don't charge a management fee.

Brokers listed under the LSE, whoalso give you access to in-house live stock market screens are only suitable for day-trading - most of which charge you a subscription or quarterly fee.

Is this to me or OP?


If me 1st of all let me explain

When I opened my self trade and HB accounts

I had no plan on what method I was going to do
After about 20-25 trades in the last few mths I like 2 ways

My long hold stocks and short hold stocks also I have telephone adv account when they come up with recommendation

(Sorry about my way of saying things that’s just me and spelling)

in my short hold stocks I have earned more then some peoples yearly wages are in this week alone come to think about it

All I want to have is a better way of selling and buying then my HB account
because its not for my needs ( i.e. for a sake of saving £4-£5 a trade between HB and Selftrade account it costs me more not executing my trades at the time I want to do it

I really don’t want to be a strict day to day trader but there is some I see and I would like to do it!

Hope that makes sense?