CityIndex
I just closed my Forex CFD trading account with them. What I like about them is the withdrawal procedure. Unlike the other brokers, you do not need to fill in a withdrawal form (hardcopy) and mail/fax it back for processing. I just dropped an email and supplied some details for verification to complete the request. The cheque was deposited in my account in the same day.
As for the platform wise, I have no complains. I particularly like the customer report generation. I can configure the time frame and generate my trade history. It even create a pdf form for me!
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The commission is a little higher than other brokers but they always maintain a fixed spread. So for those who do not like surprises, this may appeal to you.
The reason why I switched away from CityIndex is because I want to have an account that I can do both Forex and Stock CFDs at the same time. CityIndex currently offer 2 separate accounts.
POEMS
Loyal readers will know that I have a Sharebuilder account with POEMS. This is also my first stock account so you can say there is some sentimental value with it. If CityIndex is convenient for funds withdrawal, then POEMS will be super fast due to the availability of Electronic Payment of Shares (EPS). The locally bred brokers have this EPS function which I believe they tied up with the local banks to facilitate fund transfers between the client’s stock and bank accounts. The funds can be transferred within the same day.
Similar to CityIndex, POEMS does not have a CFD account for both Forex and stocks together. I only have a CFD stock account and a Cash stock account with POEMS.
What is annoying is the non-availability of stop orders to be placed out of trading hours. I can only place limit orders on DMA CFD stocks outside trading hours. (My broker has updated that POEMS allow order placement outside trading hours now.) Another thing that I do not like about POEMS is that the profit and loss statements are not updated at the end of the day. The results will only be shown the next day. It is inconvenient for me to gauge how well is the overall performance for the day.
So what makes me stay with POEMS? It is simply about the availability of shortable SG stocks. It has the most compared to the rest of the brokers.
MFGlobal
It used to be a recommended broker by T3B as they offer the flexibility of adding CFD stocks for trading upon request. The recent weird and confusing email was a turning point for them. The mail said they are using the clients’ funds to hedge against their Australian parent company. In other words, our money is no longer segregated and if anything goes wrong with the Australian headquarters, our money can be jeopardized. This prompted me to close my account at the earliest opportunity.
There are some other drawbacks, including high data fee and low leverage. MF charged about S$40/mth for Hong Kong data which is higher than most brokers. In addition, the leverage is also lower, 35% and 55% leverage are common, while other brokers usually offer 10% and 20%. The good thing is that both stocks and forex CFDs can be traded with one account. But note that the minimum contract size for Forex is 5 minis.
CMC
This is the first CFD stock trading account I have. Commission is the cheapest in the market, but it’s spread is larger. You often cannot get in the price you want. Both Forex and stock CFDs can be traded with the same account.
Customer service is not that good. There was an incident which made me close the account. As mentioned above, I use stop orders. One fine day, CMC decided to banned stop orders for Hong Kong market. I was perturbed as the market was trending well (downwards). It is frustrating to see but not able to participate. I chat online with the customer service. Apparently, the person does not even know it was banned. After he consulted his colleague/boss, he told me indeed CMC will not be accepting stop orders for HK counters. I asked how long will it be before the ban would be lifted. He said company has not promise anything yet. Little did I know that it lasted for weeks! I then decided to close it for good.
You can see that brokers offer more or less the same things but the experiences can differ greatly. Would you like to share yours?
I think as a general safe rule besides the spreads, costs, customer service etc, it is always better to sign with a DMA CFD broker for trading stocks, and ECN FX broker for FX. At the end of the day, no broker is perfect. We just got to ‘trade’ around their shortcomings and be weary of their ‘behaviour’ behind the servers.
🙂
Yup. We have to find a broker where we can accept the flaws. Sounds like marriage 😀
I think CMC’s customer service has improved a lot already…I enjoyed trading through CMC platform.