Online trading platforms offer a wealth of convenience for investing at any point in time and also provide lots of information about the market minute by minute, helping you make the best decisions.
For active trading as well as long-term investing these are the best platforms I’ve found:
DEGIRO
Low-cost broker with incredible prices. You’ll need to be comfortable with their practice of loaning out shares though which is the way they compensate for the low fees. Perhaps not a great option for keeping large amounts there, but a good way to make cheap trades and transfer them to a more secure custodian. You can take a look at my review of DEGIRO for more information.
eToro
A unique platform that allows you to do copy trading and free stock trading. You can also buy cryptos on eToro. I have written an in-depth review of eToro which you should look at in order to learn more about this platform.
NS Broker
If you’re doing forex or CFD trading especially, this is an excellent broker. Check out my review of NS Broker for more information.
Calamatta Cuschieri Live Trader
This broker is located in Malta and has a decent interface. They are quite reliable and have good support, however the interface is pretty old and relies on having the Flash plugin installed in your browser, which most browsers now block by default. This is my biggest issue with them.
The disadvantage with CC is that you will have to pay a fee if you decide to transfer your positions to another platform further down the line.
SaxoBank
The Danish giant has a physical presence or local partnerships in many European countries. It’s a great platform that works well on laptops as well as mobile devices.
I would highlight the fact that if you don’t trade for more more than six months they will charge you USD 100, so you need to buy/sell something at least twice a year.
If you’re a Maltese investor, you can access SaxoBank through Bank of Valletta as they have a partnership with them.
Other Online Brokers
There are of course other good online brokers in Europe, two others which are worth a mention and have come highly recommended are the following:
- Interactive Brokers – 10 euro a month for maintenance costs, so not recommendable for buy and hold. They are however the most well-respected broker worldwide and if you invest more than €100k they will waive the 10 euro per month fee.
- Robinhood – A new app-based broker in the US with probably the cheapest fees. Only available to US investors right now.
- Freetrade – Similar to Robinhood but for UK-based investors.
- Ninety-nine – Another low-cost app soon launching in Spain.
- Trading 212 – A fast-growing zero-cost trading platform in Europe.
- Exante – Another Malta-based broker which has some good reviews but has also been involved in a fraud case with the SEC in the US. While Exante was exonerated, company insiders were still embroiled in the charges.
I always recommend looking at all the fees and factors, because what works best for me will not necessarily work best for you, depending on your location and investing strategies.
Have you found any other great online trading platforms? Let me know in the comments section.
Investing in stocks, bonds, and ETFs involves risks including complete loss. Please do your research before making any investment.
What is the best way to buy vanguard ETFs from Malta if you plan to invest some money every month? Thanks
You can use Interactive Brokers, Saxo Bank or a local broker like CC Trader.
Hi Jean!
I have two comments:
1. Interactive Brokers does not have 10 euro / month for maintenance costs IF you open the account using Tradestation Global as an introducing broker.
2. Degiro is having two accounts : basic and custody. Only for Basic account they could loan your stocks. For the Custody account they cannot, but the fees are a little bigger especially for dividends.
Thank you!
Bogdan
Hi Bogdan,
Thank you, those are two good points.
Do you have any experience with trading212?
Hi Jasper, I have an in-depth review of Trading212 in the works, should be published soon.
cheers both; looking forward to the review then Jean.
Hi Jean, great, interesting site you built!
I would like to point out to everyone to check the insured sum of the investing platform should the company go belly up!
Most repurable US based trading site are insured for hundreds of thousands of USD. CCtrader is covered up to €20k through MFSA so think about that when investing long term, and this does not apply to cash sitting in the account, it includes also securities, stocks, etc
….just my two cents on the subject hoping to help someone.
Hi Jean, Great website, keep it up 🙂 . Do you know whether CC trader have an inactivity fee and/or withdrawal or deposit fees? Also when they say 10 euros per trade [flat fee minimum] and rate of 0.1%, what does that actually mean? I am a beginner investor. Thanks in advance
Hi Jean, very informative. Do CC trader have an inactiviy fee and/or withdrawl or deposit fees? Also what does CCtrader’s 0.1% rate mean (versus flat fee min as per ETFs) in reference to Ben’s request? Thanks in advance,
I am interested in investing in ETF such as Vanguard to buy and hold (interested in around 2 or 3 of them) and not interested in active trading (yet). What would you say is the best? CCtrader seems to be the best for Maltese however they charge 10 euro per trade or 0.1%, whichever is the highest. this would mean that technically it only makes sense to invest EUR 10,001 for it to be “worthwhile” but what do you think?!
Have also looked into eToro but its Israeli origins and mostly involved in CFD trading which is too risky i chose not to use.
Interactive brokers, whislt being the most professional, is probably not worth it for beginning investor as myself investing say once a year in ETF.
What do you think?
What would you say is the best for just investing in ETF (buy and hold long term) and not be an active trader? CCtrader is probably the best for Maltese, but they have large fees of 10 euro per trade or 0.1%, whichever is the highest. This means it technically would only make sense for investments of above 10,000 to hit the 0.1%.
Have also looked into eToro which is mostly involved in CFD trading which is riskier due to leveraging and plus since its origins is in Israel can raise a few questions. Therfore, I am not really inclined to use this.
Even though interactive brokers is probably the most professional, i am not sure it is suitable for a beginning investor who just wants to invest in ETF and maybe increase it year by year.
What do you think?
I would say try DeGiro or Saxo Bank.
Degiro is unavailable in Malta unfortunately.
Saxo bank, as you explained, has fees on non activity and considering I would be passively investing in these ETF, it doesn’t make sense to use it
Think until revolut release ETF (which in July 2019 they said they will) I will just have to use CCtrader
In that case CCtrader would be a good solution. I’ve used them and they’re decent enough.
Hi Jean,
Thank you for your great post!
I think of investing in either eToro or DeGiro (mainly stocks but potentially Indiceds and ETFs).
From what I have checked so far in eToro platform, I was not able to find some stocks (listed in Nasdaq and a few in NYSE, mainly related with the fintech and biotech fields), while I will do the same for DeGiro in the coming days.
Do you might know, from your personal experience, if eToro has included all of the stocks listed in Nasdaq and NYSE or if there is a limitation on that?
Thank you!
Hi Nikolas, I haven’t run into this problem myself and unfortunately I don’t have a good answer for you. It’s probably best to contact eToro support and ask them about the specific stocks you’re looking for. I’d be interested to know what they tell you.
Degiro don’t answer emails to open an account, you’re placed in a queue of hundreds of people, their customer service is pretty much unresponsive
And Robinhood is not available for people residing in Europe
I think all brokers are experiencing issues at the moment, Saxo bank had 6 weeks lead time for new accounts last time I checked last week.
Is DEGIRO available in malta? I went on the website and didn’t see Malta on the list
No it is not unfortunately. I’m not sure why.
Great post Indeed!
I would like to know how realiable is finmarket.com
Looks pretty legit to me, but I personally recommend DeGiro.
The hyperlink for degiro links to a Honda (degiro) website.
My mistake, fixed.