Hi everyone, I’m a T212 user from Germany and quite new to this broker. I was previously Trade Republic, but I switched to T212 for zero-commission and the possibilities of trading at other exchanges.
I was trying to invest during the trading hours in the US to avoid huge spreads. However, for example I was buying STRL at Nasdaq just now at around $450 but then the buy was showing $464 per share!
Could anyone give me some ideas why and some tips when investing using T212?
Thanks in advance!
Classic example of why it’s basic to show Bid/Ask for traders.
I checked the stock, It’s has 14 Billion market cap and 200k volume and a 10$ spread while the US market is open. That’s 2.2% spread. An example that it happens even under very normal conditions. We should be able to know this before buying to be down 2% immediately.
https://www.lse.co.uk/SharePrice.html?shareprice=STRL.US&share=Sterling-Infrastructure current spread is .195% never buy at market opening bell, the cross trades are happening and market sellers take their profit at this time, let the markets settle down, I am in the UK, so for me it is around 11am, just before lunch is the best time for UK buys, for US buys it is around now, 2 hours after opening, let the armatures and algorithms uncross their trades, watch the spread shrink after a couple of hours and then buy. ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.
2% spread on 14B stock with average volume of 500k an hour after Nasdaq opening is not normal and not expected at all.
The easier and better solution for everyone is that the brokers show (at least some indication of) the bid ask.
Yes it is. When markets are closed or have just opened, the market makers will either protect themselves from drastic loss or capitalise on the uncrossing at market open.
Wait a few hours after the Nasdaq opens before you buy a large cap stock because otherwise spreads could he 2%. Solid common advice.
How many mental hoops and besides-the-point discussions need to be had before the broker just shows the buy and sell prices?
What I do is I keep a tab open on trading view (or any other broker that shows ask/bid). I trade on desktop, so I can just open them side by side (Chrome’s Split tab view is very useful for this). I quickly switch to the stock I want to buy on trading view before I buy or sell. That way I have an idea what the spread is like.
It’s not ideal, I know, but at least you can see what you’re doing