Best platform for quick trades...

ripvanmarlowe

Hi everyone!

I've read that some of the main fund and share platforms (like Hargreaves Lansdown) don't make trades in real time so for example if I place an order to buy a stock at 2pm that order may not go through until the next day or there will be a delay of some sort, in other words, the trade is not instant and you are not guaranteed the price that you wanted.

Do any of the platforms offer a better service in this regard? It seems hard to find this info on the websites. I want to do all this within a S&S ISA and also have some funds in there too so stocks are a part of the whole but not all. For that sort of quick trading do you need to have a different type of account? I'm currently gravitating towards iWeb as a platform but can't find out any info on trading speed...

Sorry for the newbie questions, but, as you can see, I'm a newbie!

george4064

You certainly are a newbie! Welcome though.

I think you are referring to funds, which typically only price once a day.

Different investments deal at different times and in different ways, below are a most of commonly spoken about investments here and their dealing timescales;

- Funds (aka Unit Trusts) = Typically they price once a day, at midday. Typically fund managers will have a cut off point to deal at the next midday valuation point. Some its 5pm the working day before, others its 9am on the day.

On this basis, dealing in funds is in a basis called 'forward pricing basis'. Which essentially means you place an instruction now, that will be dealt at the next available dealing point/valuation point with the fund manager. You will never know the exact price of the fund you have dealt in until the trade is complete, nearest thing you can use is the latest price for the fund.

- Investment trusts (ITs) = These deal in the live LSE market, so you instantly strike a deal in the market during opening hours (8am to 4.30pm)

- ETFs = same as above

- Individual shares = same as above

ripvanmarlowe

Thanks George, I'm not referring to funds, I'm referring to making individual stock purchases through a platform like HL or II or TD etc.

I had read that HL (for example) do not place the order immediately and that it may not go through until the next day, later in the day or with some delay. So for example, I want to buy a share of company x at a certain price, say $100, I place my order to buy but there is a delay and by the time the order is placed the stock is now $110.

I will quote from my source on a review site from a customer of HL:

"You can access live data of trades, but you don't actually have live trades, not a big issue with funds, but if your purchasing shares and see an optimum buying situation you will experience a delay between placing an order and actually buying the share - and so you don't buy at the price you observed as it is through an intermediary in HL."

This is what I'm getting at, if I want to buy a share I really want it to be for the current market price with no delay. I'm interested in other's experiences with various platforms as to which ones offer real time trading. Thanks!

Mattygroves2

My experience of HL when buying shares was that you clicked the buy button you got a quote which you could accept or not and then once you'd confirmed it happened then and there. I think you got about 15 minutes at most to accept the quote but it's been a while so I may be wrong.

Obviously if you place a trade after the markets have closed then you'll get the price the following morning.

ripvanmarlowe

Thanks Matty,

So in your experience if the price is $100 when you place an order, that's the price you buy/sell at?

george4064

ripvanmarlowe wrote: »

Thanks Matty,

So in your experience if the price is $100 when you place an order, that's the price you buy/sell at?

Yes, assuming the market you are dealing is open and they have the size you're looking for up on the order book, you will get a quote with a price and you can accept the quote thus completing the trade.

ripvanmarlowe

OK,good to know, thanks a lot!

george4064

Is there a specific stock you have in mind that you want to buy/sell?

Since you state $ makes me think you're looking to trade in USD traded stock(s)?

ripvanmarlowe

Hi George,

I'm looking at certain stocks like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, CocaCola, Alphabet (Google) which are not available on the LSE, although I will also be looking at UK stocks too. These are more long term things, I realise I'll take a hit when converting currencies and also through withholding tax but I'm looking for stocks whose business I can easily understand and that I think will have some staying power.

I'm not looking to trade in large volumes at all.

slowpoke_rodriguez

Mattygroves2 wrote: »

My experience of HL when buying shares was that you clicked the buy button you got a quote which you could accept or not and then once you'd confirmed it happened then and there. I think you got about 15 minutes at most to accept the quote but it's been a while so I may be wrong.

Obviously if you place a trade after the markets have closed then you'll get the price the following morning.

15 seconds, Shirley?