Choosing a trading platform for ETF investing

Moneymonkey

Registered User
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8
Hi,


I know that the topic of choosing a trading platform has been discussed at length on AAM and I have reviewed many threads but have not been able to reach a conclusive decision.

Like many, I have spend the last few years educating myself through various means including reading investing books, websites (especially AAM) etc and am comfortable with the investment strategy I will use.

The other issue which caused me a considerable degree of concern was the whole area around the taxation of ETF's. However, this has now been addressed to a fair extent by recent comments from Revenue. Also, the method of actually declaring and remitting tax for ETF's has been discussed on AAM many times and I am satisfied I will be able to deal with this also.

The final issue which is hindering my progress is actually choosing a trading platform. The following are essentially the issues that I am seeking help on -

1) Are there further tax implications for Irish residents using UK based trading platform (witholding of taxes) rather than using an Irish based one?

2) The question of Crest or Nominee account still troubles me. I am investing for the long term so I want to pick the best and safest account. Is it worth paying extra trading costs for Crest or is this something which is not worth worrying about?

3) Who is actually the cheapest Irish Broker given that I would be investing say €4,000 each quarter and executing 4 trades on each occassion (probably reducing to 2 after first year to reduce costs). It seems to be TDInvesting with their €15 per trade (Nominee a/c)?

4) Has anyone used IG trading? They seem to offer a minimum of €10 per trade as opposed to TDInvesting's €15. If anyone has used IG, do they offer a Crest account? I can't find the info on their website. They seem to be UK based but explicitly offer services to Irish Residents.

Any comments are most welcome and appreciated.

Thanks.
 
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I pulled out of TD direct investing because they are fairly restricted on the types of ETFs you can purchase. I moved to Degiro who had all the ETFs I wanted and there trading costs are less than half of TD !! Also it took me five months to set up an account with TD but only three working days with Degiro.
 
Thanks Landlord. I wasn't aware that someone has finally entered the Irish market offering such low costs. Great stuff!! It states on their site that funds are held within a 'seperate custody company' and are therefore not at risk in a scenario where the company gets into trouble. The funds are not held in a 'Crest a/c' whereby they would be in the clients own name as I understand, but its probably safe to assume that this is perfectly secure? Is there any downside to going with Degiro? I guess it just seems to good to be true after years of high charges!
 
I didn't spot that post. Thanks for carrying out all the research! That's all seems to be present and correct and good enough for me too. I reckon I'm finally ready to take the plunge as it were. Thanks a mill!
 
Thanks for that landlord, some very interesting points and I'm sorry to hear that that particular decision didn't work out for you. I intend to Dollor Cost Average but as I don't have a lump sum the question of the merits of each won't really apply to me. With regards to timing the market, I am happy that with a 20 year investment horizon the issue of investing at a 'good' point in time will balance out with those times that are not so 'good'. As the market is skewed in a positive direction (historically of course) I'm expecting more of the same. In relation to this portfolio I won't concern myself with the price of gold, oil or how the next pase of QE will impact the market. I intend to keep my checks upon the investment to a minimum but of course I know that all of this is easier said than done!!
I have spent a lot of time trying to address the question of 'at what level of losses would I feel compelled to cash out'. Its very difficult to answer this question but I have decided to err slightly on the side of caution to start with so that I can get a feel for things. I may adjust as I go. My thinking might seem very simplistic but from my research I have decided that its all too easy to move from one level of complexity to the next and so on until you find yourself paralysed with indecision. I'm going to keep it simple with a mix of broad based equity and bond ETF's which sit well within my risk comfort zone and just see how I go!

Thanks again for your help here.

MM.
 
I am also researching at the moment what broker to use to trade ETFs
My idea is to get US domiciled ETFs because taxation and also because my cash is in a USD account. So, I would like to transfer the USD directly into a USD account to avoid any currency exchange

I have researched and this is the top 4 right now for me:
- Degiro: low fees but they don't accept USD deposits. Also, there seems to be some risk in trading with them, so I would not like to expose all my savings to them
- TDinvesting: flat rate of E15 or E20. So, the more shares you buy the closer it gets to Degiro fees
- Sommerville advisory markets: the Max of 15E or 0.15% commission
- Interactive brokers: they are based in US but accept Irish resident acc. Price is only 0.005/ share. The drawback is US state inheritance tax for portfolio > 60K USD

Any views in which one to go for? Do you have any experience with those brokers? Which one is better regulated? One approach I was thinking was probably spreading the investment over different brokers...

Thanks for your help!!!
 
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