That's what I posted first :
"I suspect most funds do the same calculation I do. They try to anticipate their holding period, commissions and interests and trade dma CFDs rather than underlying stocks if it's cheaper or other untaxed dérivatives.
UK and french transaction tax is a Bonanza for the brokers btw, who make much more money on those than on equities (if their customers trade large lots at least or have enough cash available not to buy on margin"
I'm a fan neither of stamp tax nor cfds
IB offers DMA, I don't think many big traders or firms go through otc marked up share cfds to avoid the transaction taxes.
You can compare below the financing charges on CFDs with IB and margin rates, quite close, the problem is you have to pay from the 1st usd. The more margin you use, and the shorter you hold your positions, the least it impacts. It seems a very good solution for day traders in UK
https://www.interactivebrokers.com.hk/en/index.php?f=interest&p=schedule2
https://www.interactivebrokers.com.hk/en/index.php?f=interest&p=schedule2
I don't like the CFDs commission because there is a max commission (every 100k euros or so on shares plus rebates, hence when trading big lots (moc usually ) I sometimes pay several times more in commissions with CFDs than with shares). I would trade much more european stocks with lower commissions. Also the fact one has to trade CFDs or stocks depending on the european market and attached transaction tax makes it harder to reach a higher volume tier (IB calculates separately european stock and CFDs trades), which again increases commissions.
IB actually advertises cheaper commission with CFDs than with shares, which is true on small lots.
As of how their dma works, the price is the same as the underlying :
http://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/article/1912
As of UK stamp tax, it's 0.5%, not 0.2, which make CFDs an even better alternative to stocks for short term trades.