Share trading, DMA on IG and limitations

[Ricky66]

I have been trading successfully on equities for a long period of time on many platforms and would like to make the following observations:

IG offering DMA is a great tool to use ( if you know how to use it) and gives IG an advantage over other brokerage sites. Therefore it is hard to understand why this is not fully exploited by providing good quality tutorial videos on understanding what is going on. I am in no doubt many more would use it if a fools guide was given on understanding it. Furthermore it would help if the buys and sells were colour coded for easy reference.

Another little understood area is market maker only stocks. These tend to be aim companies and small caps which traders (including myself)  have made significant gains on. SEAQ, and SETSqx stocks are quite different to other stocks and it is annoying that only limit DAY orders can be applied as opposed to good till cancelled. Also no Stop Market orders can be applied on these stocks. Although I can understand in principle that as there is no traditional order book on these it might seem impossible, I know from experience that other providers such as Iweb offer it. Does it matter? Well unless you are in front of your computer throughout the trading day then yes it does . Why? It is the only way to safeguard a drop in price catching you by surprise. Risk management is and should be the number one criteria if you want to make money. As warren Buffet said the best way to make money is not to lose money.

People will ask how do auctions work? can you take advantage? Can you trade and participate. It is pointless offering DMA unless there are clear and comprehensive guides on how to use them. 

IG may say we are a brokerage firm supplying a product and it is not up to us to explain it all. Maybe but would you buy a TV without instructions?

Another gripe is the times that I have phoned the call centre for clarification and found the individual cannot answer my question is more times than I would like. Anything slightly technical and normally its a problem.

Do not get me wrong IG offer a great package with good all round offerings but It would be nice if they sometimes thought more about the customer needs like myself and were able to offer the customer an opportunity to speak to someone who could offer and understand technical clarifications regarding the platform and also offer a bit more on the areas above