I think the following is correct - do your own research. I suggest that you might like to look at Interactive Brokers. They have had electronic trading platforms for years (arguably amongst the first) that are highly refined and cheap. They are a US company however they have direct representation in many jurisdictions.
I have been using them for years trading - may need to look further if using SMSF. Very low commissions - Oz share min $6 with 0.08% commission. Singapore shares Min SGD $2.50 with 0.08% commission.
They have live trading platforms with almost instant response to buy/sell.
They do not mark up the spread (that is the interbank rate) on forex and only charge a commission of 2 pips (one pip = 0.0001)on transactions less than 1 mill (gets cheaper on higher amounts). I have just taken the following currency buy/sell rates from my screen: GBP.AUD Buy 1.6848 Sell 1.6850 AUD.SGD Buy 1.1752 Sell 1.6850 AUD.USD B 0.9449 S 0.9450
As a service to customers you get basically the same rates if you just want to exchange currency for you own use. I have bought from £10 to £25K and usually pay about $2.50 commision and with virtually no buy sell spread. You can maintain multiple currencies in your account and only convert when repatriating funds. The first transfer each month is free with additional transfers $10 each. To actually convert say Oz dollars to pounds and transfer the pounds to another account you will need a GBP account in your name. Great if you have an account in the UK - as costs zilch to receive funds that you can then redistribute with online banking. Can do same for many other jurisdictions.
IB also have a great margin account system - it is dynamic and very much realtime. The amount the lend is also instantly updated to correspond to buy or sell orders. It's simple - if tyou have $5k in you account you keep buying share until you run out of cash and then automatically go onto margin - they are conservative with 50:50 ration. As soon as you sell your margin account drops back. Your are only charged for the time you are on margin - that for a day ttrade is no interest. Interest rates also very cheap based on various reserve bank rates or equivalent.
Margin interest on Oz shares 4% On singapore share 1.554%.
Due to some monumental stuff up ASIC has temporarily stopped IB providing margin loans to Oz residents (IB expect may take 4-6 months to sort). This only affects individuals - not companies.
Hope this helps. Check out their website.
LNC Price at posting:
$1.35 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
