FAQs
Trading vs. investing: What’s the difference?
Short answer: Trading is more short-term and market-timing oriented, while investing focuses on the long term. Both trading and investing involve the purchase (buying and selling) of financial securities such as stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives, forex, funds, or other financial instruments that represent major asset classes. Here’s some more detail:
- Investing mentality: You are building and holding assets through all the potential ups and downs of the market, with the goal of long-term capital appreciation. You’re committing to a long-term strategy, rather than focusing on what your holdings did yesterday, last quarter, and so on. This type of investing, often referred to as passive investing, can follow simple rules-based approaches, such as putting a certain amount of money into an index fund.
- Trading mentality: An active trader may be more focused on maximizing returns utilising a trading strategy, scanning the markets for opportunities within various asset classes and thinking of getting in and out relatively quickly. Trading can be much more challenging to master than passive investing, with the key differences being your anticipated time horizon, risk tolerance, and market expectations. In reality, few investors outperform the market.
How do you choose a share dealing platform?
I've tested and reviewed dozens of share dealing platforms and written extensively about investing in the U.K. Below, you'll find my top six things to every investor should consider when choosing a share dealing platform and associated broker.
- Regulation: It’s always appropriate to first verify that the broker is properly regulated to reduce your risk of potential scam brokers. All the brokers we review on UK.StockBrokers.com are properly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA.
- Investment choices: Compare the broker’s offering of investments (the shares available to trade) and the list of supported trading platforms for share dealing.
- Platforms: /b> Make note of the available trading tools within the platform that you can use, which is partcularly important for an active trader.
- Trading costs: It can be prudent to check the broker’s fee structure for share dealing, even if your strategy is not cost-sensitive, as trading fees can add up quickly compared to longer-term investing.
- Research and education: Look at the quality and variety of market research and analysis tools for identifying trading opportunities, along with the quality and scope of educational content that can aid in your development as you refine your trading strategy.
- Ease of account opening: Once you have found a share dealing platform that meets your needs, setting up an account is typically a 5-10 minute process and can be done online via your broker’s official website.
What is the best free trading platform in the UK?
Among the top brokers in 2024, Interactive Brokers is my top pick for a free trading platform suite for active traders. It offers several options for web and mobile, along with the broker’s flagship Trader Workstation Desktop platform, which comes fully loaded.
What UK stockbroker offers the lowest fees?
From among the top U.K. brokers that I reviewed in 2024., here are the top five share dealing brokers with the lowest fees, with Trading212 leading the category:
What is the best platform for day trading in the UK?
Interactive Brokers is my top choice for active day traders in the U.K. in 2024. With a plethora of trading tools, platforms and research, and more access to global markets, IBKR should have you covered as an active day trader. That said, it’s worth adding that Saxo and IG are also excellent choices.
What are the best UK stock trading apps?
Our picks for the best U.K. stock trading apps for 2022:
- Saxo - Best overall stock app
- Interactive Brokers - Best stock app for usability
- AJ Bell - Best for range of accounts
- Hargreaves Lansdown - Best app for everyday investors
- eToro - Best for simplicity
- IG - Best app for traders
How can I trade forex in the UK?
The first step in trading forex in the U.K. is to choose a broker that is regulated and authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, and open a trading account. Note that it's important to read the full terms and conditions of your account agreement, which governs the relationship you have with your broker.
Next, to execute trades, you must fund your account with a small amount of capital that you can afford to risk. Here are three steps to take after opening an account:
Learn the platform. Before trading, learn how your broker's trading software works. Some brokers offer virtual, or "paper," trading, which allows you to practice without risking real money. Explore any free educational content that's available about the platform.
Develop a strategy. Once you feel fluent with your broker's trading platforms, outline a basic strategy for yourself that includes risk management. The next step will be to identify entry points and exits (the price you plan to enter and exit the market) for a given currency pair.
Trade your plan. Once you identify a price and direction you would like to enter, a market order or limit order can help you establish an open position; you can also attach a stop-loss order and take-profit limit order to manage the risk/reward of your investment.
How do I choose a forex broker in the UK?
The broker you choose should be regulated and authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and highly trusted, meaning the broker has many years in operation and holds numerous regulatory licenses.
Ideally, the broker will rank highly in all the categories that are important to you. For example, you should choose an FCA-regulated broker that can give you access to the markets you want to trade, from within excellent online trading platforms (web-based or desktop-based software) and mobile trading apps. The best forex brokers in the U.K. also offer comprehensive educational content and a rich offering of research tools in various media formats, such as articles, news headlines, videos and webinars.
For more insight, see our top picks among U.K. forex brokers on sister site ForexBrokers.com.
Who is the best forex broker in the UK?
IG holds the title of best forex broker in the U.K. in 2024. U.K. residents can access spread betting, share trading, ETFs, and investment trusts, as well as forex and CFDs. See a full review of IG's forex offerings on our sister site, ForexBrokers.com. See a full review of IG's forex offerings on our sister site, ForexBrokers.com.
What is the best crypto trading platform UK?
EToro wins the best cryptocurrency ribband in our extensive review. In addition to offering share trading and other asset classes, eToro offers a plethora of cryptocurrencies and coins to trade, including familiar names such as bitcoin and ether, but also all the less well-known cryptocurrencies and altcoins.
In addition, eToro allows you to invest in cryptocurrency portfolios and use its cryptocurrency copy trading feature, as well as the ability to hold cryptocurrency in the eToro wallet.
Which trading platform is best for beginners in the UK?
What is options trading?
Options trading is a form of active trading using options contracts as part of a trading strategy or portfolio. Options are a type of financial instrument classified as a derivative that conveys the right to buy or sell a specific underlying security, such as a stock, at a designated price at a designated date in the future.
What are swaptions?
When you trade options on a swap, they can be referred to as a swaption. A swap is an agreement between a buyer and seller, similar to a futures contract, where there is an agreed-upon exchange of assets and obligations (such as forex or interest rates) at a future date. These are primarily traded over-the-counter (OTC) or off-exchange. Swaptions are typically thought of as an institutional product, and not usually available to retail traders, unless on a cash-settled basis.
What are fractional shares?
As the name suggests, fractional shares allow you to buy or sell fractions of a whole stock or ETF security. Fractional shares allow investors of nearly any budget to invest as little as a few dollars in a security. For example, if a stock is trading at £200 per share — and your broker offers fractional shares — you could put £20 into that stock and purchase 10% of it, or 0.1 shares.
Fractional share investing isn’t just for the lower budget investors; it can also be used for constructing custom portfolios or baskets of stock with the precision you would usually find in an ETF or fund. For instance, you might want to create a trading strategy that maintains a 1% allocation to BP but due to the size of your target trade setup, a full share of BP would push you above that 1% threshold. Thus, you can use fractional shares of BP to stay within the target allocation.
Other trading platforms tested
In addition to our top picks, we tested and analysed 11 more brokers in the U.K. Here are our high-level takeaways for each.
AJ Bell - Charges are on the high side for those with large portfolios in mutual funds and those looking to execute one-off share deals; but AJ Bell’s new app, called Dodl, offers much lower fees and also offers a more slim-lined and user-friendly service. Educational and research materials are strong, too.
Barclays Smart Investor - Barclays Smart Investor offers a wide range of investments and accounts and is a good value for those with a midsize portolio who like flat fees. On the downside, it can be complicated to open an account as a non-Barclays bank customer, and you can’t buy or sell investments through the app if you don’t have a Barclays bank account.
Capital.com - Capital.com is a U.K. broker primarily known for CFDs (contracts for difference) and spread betting. While it previously offered the chance to buy and sell shares commission-free, you can no longer buy shares directly through Capital.com. Trading is limited to an unleveraged CFD account.
CMC Invest - CMC Invest offers commission-free trading of U.K.-listed shares and U.S. equities via a mobile app only. Though a newer entrant to the U.K. share dealing market and currently somewhat limited, it’s powered by global contender CMC Markets, making it likely that its offerings will expand.
Fidelity International - Fidelity offers thousands of investments to choose from and also offers financial advice for those wanting more direction. It's best suited to traditional investors who hold a range of accounts through the platform, enjoy the great research material available and who may also use Fidelity for financial advice. The platform can be expensive for those with portfolios of less than £20,000 and those with portfolios above £40,000.
Freetrade - Overall Freetrade is a great platform to help you get to grips with investing. Costs are low, and its user-friendly mobile app offers great investment inspiration. Sophisticated investors, however, may find that other platforms offer a wider range of investment options and tools.
Halifax - Charges at Halifax are in line with some other brokers, but more expensive than others. If you have a large investment portfolio you may benefit from the low annual management fee of £36. If you are new to Halifax, there may be a better platform for you that is cheaper and easier to open.
Hargreaves Lansdown - As the U.K.’s biggest investment platform for individual investors, Hargreaves Lansdown offers a wide range of investment choices for either beginners or seasoned investors. However, its fees are generally more expensive than rival brokers, which can become an issue for large investment pots.
Interactive Investor - The standout feature at Interactive Investor (ii) is its low flat-rate fees. Other investment platforms typically favour percentage fees for fund investing, although more brokers are now opting for flat fees. Our view is that Interactive Investor is a great platform for any investor, offering a wide range of investments for cheap prices on the whole.
Lloyds Bank - It's easy for current Lloyds Bank customers to open a Lloyds Bank Share Dealing investment account. But there are other platforms that are easier, more comprehensive and cheaper to use, including Halifax, which is also owned by Lloyds Banking Group.
Vanguard UK Investor - Vanguard U.K. Investor, part of one of the world's largest fund managers, is cheap and easy to use and will appeal to investors looking for inexpensive index funds for long-term investing. Its platform, however, reveals many shortcomings compared to leading brokers, particularly relating to the narrow investment selection and lack of mobile app.
Why you should trust us
Elizabeth Anderson has been a financial journalist for more than a decade. She’s written for major national newspapers, contributed to corporate reports and research, and reviewed dozens of share dealing platforms, SIPP providers, ISAs, and brokerage firms. Elizabeth started her career at Bloomberg and has worked for the BBC, The Telegraph, The Times and the i newspaper. She is passionate about helping people understand finance and investing. A keen investor herself, Elizabeth invests through general dealing accounts, ISAs and several SIPPs.
Steven Hatzakis is a well-known finance writer with 25+ years of experience in the foreign exchange and financial markets. He is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for Reink Media Group, leading research efforts for ForexBrokers.com since 2016. He has served as a registered commodity futures representative for domestic and internationally-regulated brokerages. Steven holds a Series III license in the US as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
All content on UK.StockBrokers.com is handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by an editor. Our ratings, rankings, and opinions are entirely our own, and the result of our extensive research and decades of collective experience covering the U.K. brokerage industry.
Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Click here to learn more about how we test.
How we tested
At UK.StockBrokers.com, our online broker reviews are based on our collected quantitative data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research and collect hundreds of data points while testing brokerage firms, share dealing platforms, SIPP providers, ISA providers, and other financial service providers relevant to U.K. investors.
Mobile testing is conducted on modern devices that run the most up-to-date operating systems available:
- For Apple, we use MacBook Pro laptops running macOS 14.5, and the iPhone 15 running iOS 17.6.1
- For Android, we use the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra devices running Android OS 14.
All websites and web-based platforms are tested using the latest version of the Google Chrome browser.
Our researchers thoroughly test a wide range of key features, such as the availability and quality of trading platforms for web, desktop, and mobile, charting, real-time and streaming quotes, and educational resources – among other important variables. We also evaluate the overall design of the mobile experience, and look for a fluid user experience moving between mobile and desktop platforms.
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