Which Stock Broker for ISA? (Low fees, Limit orders, Stop losses etc)

daddy_bro

Hi guys
In 2017 I opened an account with X-O to buy and sell shares. At the time I didn't think to open an ISA account but for some time that didn't matter as due to rookie errors (buying oil and gas companies) I lost more money than I made and by late 2019 I was down around 20% on my £10K investment (at one stage it was more like 30% down).
When Covid started to look like a threat I sold most of the shares but managed to hit lucky/smart (take your pick) on two that I still held, JOG and Tesla so I was now back to break even. Since then I've managed to build the profit to around 15% with 17 different companies so I'm thinking I really need to have all my shares in an ISA.
The X-O interface is horribly clunky and the commission for each transaction is £5.95 but otherwise it is reliable. I'm just looking for something more modern and a bit cheaper. 
At one point between 2017 and now I opened an ISA share trading account with IG and have around half of my shares in this account but I really dislike the IG interface and the fees are high if I don't buy and sell frequently. I also dislike the options for setting Stop Losses and Limit Orders which unless someone can explain how, don't let me set a Stop Loss or limit order which lasts for more than a day. Nor can I set any orders after 4:30pm. This is important to me as I work full time so can't watch the stock market all day so make most buying and selling decisions in the evenings.
Before anyone jumps in and tells me my strategy is all wrong, I buy and sell shares as much for fun as for investment. I also have a fantasy portfolio with 35 companies in it which is currently up 50% since 2017 (it was negative 15% in March)  so I'm doing something right.

So the question is can anyone recommend a broker with

zero fees if I don't buy or sell for a few months.
low commission - preferably less than £5 per transaction. This really matters when buying smaller amounts.
allows setting stop orders that will last for a few months.
allows setting limit orders that will last for a week or so.
has a modern interface and good phone app.
Will let me do all this in an ISA.

Thanks in advance.

eskbanker

daddy_bro said:

So the question is can anyone recommend a broker with

zero fees if I don't buy or sell for a few months.
low commission - preferably less than £5 per transaction. This really matters when buying smaller amounts.
[...]

Any relationship with a commercial organisation is only going to work if there are benefits for both parties, so probably worth considering the operating costs of the business you wish to deal with, and how much is a fair price to pay, i.e. what's in it for them - there are undoubtedly companies out there slashing prices to the bone to try to win market share but if they don't have a sustainable business model then you leave yourself open to significant problems if/when they collapse, as evidenced by the fallout from the SVS Securities failure, where investors were deprived of the ability to trade for a year or more.  Freetrade is often cited as one that has few or no visible costs but the suspicion remains that they may not be applying best practices in timing their trades, so worth being wary of ultra low cost players IMHO....

daddy_bro

eskbanker said:

daddy_bro said:

So the question is can anyone recommend a broker with

zero fees if I don't buy or sell for a few months.
low commission - preferably less than £5 per transaction. This really matters when buying smaller amounts.
[...]

Any relationship with a commercial organisation is only going to work if there are benefits for both parties, so probably worth considering the operating costs of the business you wish to deal with, and how much is a fair price to pay, i.e. what's in it for them - there are undoubtedly companies out there slashing prices to the bone to try to win market share but if they don't have a sustainable business model then you leave yourself open to significant problems if/when they collapse, as evidenced by the fallout from the SVS Securities failure, where investors were deprived of the ability to trade for a year or more.  Freetrade is often cited as one that has few or no visible costs but the suspicion remains that they may not be applying best practices in timing their trades, so worth being wary of ultra low cost players IMHO....

You make an excellent point. There are many new brokers out there charging nothing per trade but have a wide spread and there are companies charging £12 per trade. 
I've always found X-O to be good but with a very clunky and slow web site and no phone app. IG is much better in this respect but I they charge more per trade and don't give the same options for limit orders and stops. I don't mind paying a fair price per trade but I want a better interface than X-O offer.

wmb194

eskbanker said:

Freetrade is often cited as one that has few or no visible costs but the suspicion remains that they may not be applying best practices in timing their trades, so worth being wary of ultra low cost players IMHO....

I've been using it a lot and in my experience Freetrade executes trades immediately. On the other hand, Trading212 does it when it feels like it.

daddy_bro

wmb194 said:

eskbanker said:

Freetrade is often cited as one that has few or no visible costs but the suspicion remains that they may not be applying best practices in timing their trades, so worth being wary of ultra low cost players IMHO....

I've been using it a lot and in my experience Freetrade executes trades immediately. On the other hand, Trading212 does it when it feels like it.

How is Freetrade for Limit orders and Stop loss orders. Can they be set for weeks ahead?

wmb194

daddy_bro said:

wmb194 said:

eskbanker said:

Freetrade is often cited as one that has few or no visible costs but the suspicion remains that they may not be applying best practices in timing their trades, so worth being wary of ultra low cost players IMHO....

I've been using it a lot and in my experience Freetrade executes trades immediately. On the other hand, Trading212 does it when it feels like it.

How is Freetrade for Limit orders and Stop loss orders. Can they be set for weeks ahead?

They're only available with the £9.99 per month 'Plus' option but when I've used them they've worked well and they're valid for 90 days.

Thrugelmir

daddy_bro said:

Nor can I set any orders after 4:30pm. This is important to me as I work full time so can't watch the stock market all day so make most buying and selling decisions in the evenings.

That's because the London Stock Market has closed. Still possible to set limit orders etc. 

The cheaper the fee the less support you'll receive. I often find myself the first person to trade particular share on X-O.  The trading desk are always easy to get through on the telephone. Always helpful and never failed to resolve the issue I've encountered. Worth the £5.95p fee I'm charged for every trade. 

daddy_bro

Thrugelmir said:

daddy_bro said:

Nor can I set any orders after 4:30pm. This is important to me as I work full time so can't watch the stock market all day so make most buying and selling decisions in the evenings.

That's because the London Stock Market has closed. Still possible to set limit orders etc. 

The cheaper the fee the less support you'll receive. I often find myself the first person to trade particular share on X-O.  The trading desk are always easy to get through on the telephone. Always helpful and never failed to resolve the issue I've encountered. Worth the £5.95p fee I'm charged for every trade. 

I've always taken the options available from X-O for granted as for a long time it was my only broker. When I opened the account with IG I was surprised that there were lots of things I couldn't do.
I may just end up opening an ISA account with X-O and gradually move all my shares to it as although the website looks like it hasn't changed for 20 years it still works well.

Thrugelmir

daddy_bro said:

Thrugelmir said:

daddy_bro said:

Nor can I set any orders after 4:30pm. This is important to me as I work full time so can't watch the stock market all day so make most buying and selling decisions in the evenings.

That's because the London Stock Market has closed. Still possible to set limit orders etc. 

The cheaper the fee the less support you'll receive. I often find myself the first person to trade particular share on X-O.  The trading desk are always easy to get through on the telephone. Always helpful and never failed to resolve the issue I've encountered. Worth the £5.95p fee I'm charged for every trade. 

I've always taken the options available from X-O for granted as for a long time it was my only broker. When I opened the account with IG I was surprised that there were lots of things I couldn't do.

X-O is the on-line consumer option. Jarvis itself operates a full blown stock broker service which is a totally different beast and fee structure. Much in the same way you can either shop at Aldi or order and allow Waitrose to deliver straight to your door. 

sevenhills

daddy_bro said:

I was down around 20% on my £10K investment (at one stage it was more like 30% down).  Since then I've managed to build the profit to around 15% with 17 different companies so I'm thinking I really need to have all my shares in an ISA.

I have a similar £10k in my SIPP but fewer shares, so I view the fees as less important.

I do get tempted, I bought £500 of Wickes shares yesterday, just because I had the money there. Maybe in a few years I will think about a cheaper provider, I am with HL, but the important thing is to buy shares that do not tank.

daddy_bro

After spending time looking at the options from other brokers I've decided to open an ISA account with X-O. Most of the cheaper brokers either don't have ISA accounts or I wouldn't trust them. I'll put up with the terrible website because of the other advantages they offer. They offer a service to move the shares from their standard account to an ISA account but I'll probably just do it myself. I'll have to pay the fess regardless so I might as well have a bit of fun in the process.