Anyone have a view as to whether CommSec or Etrade is the better...

Anyone have a view as to whether CommSec or Etrade is the better provider for CFDs?


My research to date tells me this:

1. CommSec has lower interest.

2. ETrade has more equity CFDs on offer (500 as against CommSec's ~12, rising to 50 in the next few weeks).

3. Initial margins at CommSec may be about 10% higher. (My analysis of 15 leading stocks based on yesterday's closing prices found CommSec's initial margins to be 10.2% more expensive.)

4. A real deal-breaker at ETrade (IMO) is their new rule on stoplosses - making the maximum differential between your 'trigger' price and your limit price a mere 7 tics (usually meaning 7 cents). This would be disastrous in the event of an August-like collapse with its overnight gaps.

5. ETrade has cheap phone brokerage - CS doesn't.

6. ETrade's web platform (WEBIress) is expensive (up to $70 depending on use) and very buggy in my experience - and by their admission.

7. CS's platform (ProTrader) is stable enough (tho its course of sales function has been buggy for an entire year - someone's asleep at the wheel in that corner of the CommSec programmers' room), & is free for CFD traders.

8. CS offers ASX CFDs, whereas ETrade offers inhouse (OTC) ones. CommSec's are therefore safer.

9. CS has a gold index CFD & an XJO CFD, which ETrade didn't last time I looked.

10. CS's brokerage is lower.


Because CommSec will be bringing more stocks online 'in the coming weeks' - bringing the total up to 50, and overcoming (just!) their biggest deficiency in my book - I will soon make the move to CS I think. (I'm now with ETrade.)

Any other views?

Third options?