It seems that Sharewatch.com, iii.co.uk and directsharedeal.com are all the same company trading under direct sharedeal ltd.
The Sharewatch.com online service just doesn't work, buys, sells, limit orders, nothing! so you must phone them up to trade which generally involves (disregarding a 140€ commission for the my last two transactions) paying top dollar asking prices for buying and ludicrously small bids while selling shares, middle ground is just not unavailable and stop limits / limit orders do not work.
Real-time buying and selling with instant prices over the internet was available on sharewatch about a year ago, and things worked reasonably well (however slow) but even then the automatic trades are limited to within 25% of the ask/bid which depending on the spread, sometimes proved useless as the price being quoted on this limit was not realtime and generally the early day opening price. Automatic execution trade prices should be unlimited, to the MOON if you want and I was unaware of this restriction before signing up.
I will say the phone service is prompt, efficient and with no messing around from dealers, but I would rather an efficient online facility.
Anyone got suggestions for an alternative ? I don't mind paying higher commissions for something that works well, and possibly with level 2 access for UK trading. What's involved with transferring crest accounts for current shares, ie. delays etc, would it be quicker to just take a hit offloading stock then transferring the money out of sharewatch and into a new trading account to start over ?
The Sharewatch.com online service just doesn't work, buys, sells, limit orders, nothing! so you must phone them up to trade which generally involves (disregarding a 140€ commission for the my last two transactions) paying top dollar asking prices for buying and ludicrously small bids while selling shares, middle ground is just not unavailable and stop limits / limit orders do not work.
Real-time buying and selling with instant prices over the internet was available on sharewatch about a year ago, and things worked reasonably well (however slow) but even then the automatic trades are limited to within 25% of the ask/bid which depending on the spread, sometimes proved useless as the price being quoted on this limit was not realtime and generally the early day opening price. Automatic execution trade prices should be unlimited, to the MOON if you want and I was unaware of this restriction before signing up.
I will say the phone service is prompt, efficient and with no messing around from dealers, but I would rather an efficient online facility.
Anyone got suggestions for an alternative ? I don't mind paying higher commissions for something that works well, and possibly with level 2 access for UK trading. What's involved with transferring crest accounts for current shares, ie. delays etc, would it be quicker to just take a hit offloading stock then transferring the money out of sharewatch and into a new trading account to start over ?