UK/Europe broker/clearing firms

A

adam99

I am looking for UK and Europe equity broker clearing firms list. We are opening a small fund and need to get an estimate of transaction costs. We are going to be trading long only, and mostly well known companies.

There is good list of in the following site https://investorjunkie.com/14437/broker-clearing-firms/
But this list is mainly organized for US brokers and clearing firms.

Can you let me know what are the most common broker and clearing firms that your UK/Europe fund uses? And what are the most cost friendly ones for small start-up funds

Thanks
 
I have European-based hedge funds that are my clients. Do you trade exclusively US equities or global equities? Depending upon the size of the fund and what you need access to, if we can't handle it, we have relationships with US Brokers that can , but they have minimum account sizes.
 
adam99 said:
But this list is mainly organized for US brokers and clearing firms.
More...

Looking at your list, I see at least one organisation with a decent UK/EU presence, Interactive Brokers. Interactive Brokers also have regional regulatory coverage, e.g. in the UK (they are regulated by the FCA). Not to be interpreted as a recommendation, just sayin based on a quick glance at the list you presented ....

I would be weary of exclusively US based companies such as Lightspeed. I'm not saying that they're bad (and I'm *not* picking on Lightspeed, it just happens that Robert posted !), but there would be four areas of concern :
  1. Lack of regional regulatory coverage (i.e. their activities don't come under the auspices of UK FCA or European equivalents).
  2. Lack of local presence. Do you really want the people you're dealing with to be thousands of miles away ? Do you really want to have to deal with the timezone problem, having to wait for your account manager to wake up in the morning before you can reach them ?
  3. The US financial authorities are a pain in the **** to deal with. There's a reason why most European financial organisations are increasingly reluctant to take on American clients, its not because of the clients, its because of all the petty bureaucracy and form-filling associated with the US financial authorities.... it takes forever to onboard a US client. And look at the way the US authorities are treating the foreign banks (Barclays etc.) compared to the US banks in relation to the whole lawsuit thing around the financial crisis.
  4. The unknown-unknowns associated with the incoming US president and his openly "America First" attitude, as a non-US client you may find yourself a second class citizen (or even just difficult to get a foot in the door).
Therefore, if I were in your shoes, and UK/EU based. I would seek out local financial companies to deal with, its not exactly like the region is lacking decent financial firms (especially London which is crawling with them !!).

P.S. Robert, if I am mistaken your firm does have regional regulation, please correct me and accept my apologies !
 
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adam99 said:
I am looking for UK and Europe equity broker clearing firms list. We are opening a small fund and need to get an estimate of transaction costs. We are going to be trading long only, and mostly well known companies.

There is good list of in the following site https://investorjunkie.com/14437/broker-clearing-firms/
But this list is mainly organized for US brokers and clearing firms.

Can you let me know what are the most common broker and clearing firms that your UK/Europe fund uses? And what are the most cost friendly ones for small start-up funds

Thanks
More...
I would say go with interactive brokers. They are also used as custodian for small funds. I believe they have no monthly fee or aum ÷ charge so its actually really good to keep your fund expenses low. I have 2 friends who manage sub-50m funds trading equities with IB, one is doing HFT the other market neutral L/S and they both recommend it.
 
Tim Smith said:
Looking at your list, I see at least one organisation with a decent UK/EU presence, Interactive Brokers. Interactive Brokers also have regional regulatory coverage, e.g. in the UK (they are regulated by the FCA). Not to be interpreted as a recommendation, just sayin based on a quick glance at the list you presented ....

I would be weary of exclusively US based companies such as Lightspeed. I'm not saying that they're bad (and I'm *not* picking on Lightspeed, it just happens that Robert posted !), but there would be four areas of concern :
  1. Lack of regional regulatory coverage (i.e. their activities don't come under the auspices of UK FCA or European equivalents).
  2. Lack of local presence. Do you really want the people you're dealing with to be thousands of miles away ? Do you really want to have to deal with the timezone problem, having to wait for your account manager to wake up in the morning before you can reach them ?
  3. The US financial authorities are a pain in the **** to deal with. There's a reason why most European financial organisations are increasingly reluctant to take on American clients, its not because of the clients, its because of all the petty bureaucracy and form-filling associated with the US financial authorities.... it takes forever to onboard a US client. And look at the way the US authorities are treating the foreign banks (Barclays etc.) compared to the US banks in relation to the whole lawsuit thing around the financial crisis.
  4. The unknown-unknowns associated with the incoming US president and his openly "America First" attitude, as a non-US client you may find yourself a second class citizen (or even just difficult to get a foot in the door).
Therefore, if I were in your shoes, and UK/EU based. I would seek out local financial companies to deal with, its not exactly like the region is lacking decent financial firms (especially London which is crawling with them !!).

P.S. Robert, if I am mistaken your firm does have regional regulation, please correct me and accept my apologies !
More...

Thanks Tim. We are based in London and we will prefer Europe based firms. That is why I am looking for UK/Europe based list instead. We might need to consider two options one in London and one based in Euro area because of future unknowns of Brexit. I used IB as retail brokerage in the past, not sure it will be most cost friendly option if we are going to experience 100k trades in first year. I will check with them. One strategy we are considering is to take on small inflows to have a bigger growth, which will come with the cost of many small trades at the start.
Can you give some other names in London to contact?
Thanks
 
Hi Adam,

I guess in the old days the answer would be to look at the multinationals as they would be able to give you the independent EU and UK offices under one roof at little more than a click of a button. But as you've probably discovered, they're pretty adverse to taking on small funds these days.

"Boutique" is a ghastly, pretentious word,but that's probably where you want to be looking....the Mayfair boys rather than Canary Wharf. Names like Linear or Global Prime, for example.
 
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