How do you buy European Stocks when UK brokerages make it difficult?

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11th Apr '16 by Julian Rowe

10 comments 11032 reads

I'm having difficulties buying European stocks.

I use AJBell You Invest (AJB) to buy UK stocks.

However AJB cannot give live prices or online buy/sell facilities for European stocks. As a result I opened an a/c with Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) only to discover it is not all 'plain sailing' here either.

I've also opened an a/c with Interactive brokers (IB) for the purpose of US and Swiss stocks, but have found their service and system unnecessarily complex and support "below par".

It begs the question, what are all other Stockopedia EU (& US) stock pickers doing? Would any of you be good enough to share your wisdom with me.

Thank you in anticipation

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About the Author

Julian Rowe

Premium Member

10 comments

Edward Croft

11th Apr '16

Yes it can be difficult - but there are lots of European investors on Stockopedia who I'm sure can help. We do plan on covering this topic in a lot of detail. I've heard de Giro is very cheap and that TD Internaxx is good.

Personally I spread-bet Europe and find IG very good. It can be very hard to short though.

This is a fantastic website on international investing - https://the-international-investor.com/

Paul Scott

11th Apr '16

I also use IG for all my European & US positions.

I was able to short Wirecard (German mid-large cap) through IG recently with no problems.

The thing is, with spread bets, you don't have to use any gearing if you don't want to. So it's not necessarily as risky as some people think.

Regards, Paul.

PhilHofGrowYourDough

11th Apr '16

I use YouInvest formerly Sippdeal. You have to place most European trades over the phone at the higher dealing rate of £29.95

I hope that helps
Phil

dmjram

11th Apr '16

Re the de Giro option. It has good coverage and low fees, though there are a couple of potential issues for UK clients to be aware of - they don't offer ISA/SIPP wrappers and I think rely on the Netherlands regulator/compensation backstop. This was the case when I looked into them last year, so things may have changed so do check.

Disco Dan

11th Apr '16

I use IG. Platform is really straightfoward to use and most importantly you can trade in sterling and don't have to worry about currency fluctuations. You have to pay overnight funding charges, however you don't have dealing fees or stamp duty so it's much-of-a-muchness. Get a friend or someone on here to recommend you for an account and you'll both get some cash from IG.

Brigra

11th Apr '16

If your starting point is a bespoke Stocko Screen focusing on Europe, and you want to convert that wholesale into a live portfolio, I think you'll find that IG won't cut it.
I tried a couple of weeks ago, and IG's coverage was too patchy. In particular loads of small and mid cap stocks were missing. Interactive Investor have more comprehensive coverage of some areas, but they only use about half of Europe's stock exchanges.

Degiro seem to cover everything that is available in Stockopedia's Europe module, and as well cheap trading fees GBP funds are exchanged at commercial rather than tourist rates.
As dmjram says above lack of SIPP/ISA wrappers are the main omission for UK customers.

They also cover North America and Far East, with Africa and South America 'coming', so may be a good adjunct to Stockopedia longer term?

PhilHofGrowYourDough

11th Apr '16

I hold all the stock in my fantasy fund inside ISA/SIPP wrappers in my YouInvest account.

I hop that helps

Phil

jjis

12th Apr '16

I have used Selftrade in the past (now owned by trading as Equiniti) who offer quite a few international markets. They make it quite simple by offering sterling equivalent price quotes from international listings which avoid the need for FX but is probably reflected in the prices.

Alternatively TD Direct off more direct access to international markets but this does require you to purchase the currency each time you want to buy and settle a transaction. They do however allow you to hold foreign currency cash balances so you don't have to keep incurring FX spreads if you want to buy and sell in the same currency - which is probably better, hope this helps.

cig

12th Apr '16

AJ Bell does allow online trades for some European stocks, it's just a bit hit and miss whether there's a quote or not for a given stock at a given time (one needs to try when the UK and the stock's reference market are both open, large caps are more likely to work than obscure small caps).

PhilHofGrowYourDough

13th Apr '16

Annoyingly with YouInvest there is a small window of time between US market open and UK market close when you can trade online in US stocks.

Far from ideal.

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How do you buy European Stocks when UK brokerages make it difficult?

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About the Author

Julian Rowe

10 comments

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