Barlays Stockbrokers: Intuitive Online Dealing (Barclays Stockbrokers)

Member Name: s.e.wood

Product:	Barclays Stockbrokers
Date:	19/04/07 (793 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use; great stock selection tools.

Disadvantages: Commission -- how much does an electronic transaction really cost?

I have been managing my personal share portfolio online with Barclays Stockblokers for nearly three years now. They offer a range of accounts tailored to suit different types of investor.

I opened a "MarketMaster" account, which is the simplest one aimed at people who trade infrequently. Your portfolio can include shares, funds, covered warrants, bonds and investment notes (derivative products that are structured to look like a bond and are based on a specified underlying security, such as the FTSE-100 index, or a basket of securities). The commission structure is simple: £12 per transaction for the first ten transactions in any quarter, then £7.50 per transation. The commission sounds quite high, but, as it is a fixed amount, the larger your transaction is the smaller it is as a percentage. I consider £1000 to be the minimum value of a transaction, for which £12 represents a 1.2% charge. If you want to deal by phone the commission is more expensive, starting at £17.50 per transaction. There is also a £9 administration charge per quarter.

The other trading accounts include the "Frequent Trader Club", which is aimed at people who trade more frequently or have larger transactions. This appears to be very similar to the MarketMaster account, but, they also send you monthly share-dealing newsletters via e-mail.

There are also accounts aimed at companies and investment clubs, and there are special accounts for dealing in spread bets, CFDs (Contracts For Difference) and self-select ISAs.

It is worth noting that the share accounts are "nominee" accounts. That is, you don't own the shares, but Barclays owns them on your behalf. If you just want to invest this distinction is academic, as all cash flows are identical to the case where you do own the shares. However, some companies offer shareholders special privileges, and you might be wanting to own a share for the privilege it confers. In some cases, Barclays will pass the privilege on to you if you request it, but it is not automatic and it is not true in all cases. When you open your account they send you a list of all companies where they can pass the privilege on to you.

The web site itself is easy and intuitive to use. A home page lists all the accounts you have; the page for a given account lists the securities in your portfolio with the purchace cost, current value and change shown for each (as well as for the portfolio as a whole). You can also get histories of your deals and of the account cash flows.

There is a "research" section that gives a lot of information about the whole market, sectors and individual shares: news, analyst recomendations, details of todays dealing, analytical charts and so on. Of particular use are the Stock Screening Tools. These allow you to filter down the whole universe of stocks to a managable handful using a wide range of criteria. Whether you want to screen based on balance sheet fundamentals, recent price performance or analyst estimates of next years yield, it is all in there.

When you want to deal shares, the process is very simple. Most simply, you enter which share, buy/sell and the quantity. You are then given a quote that is valid for 15 seconds, which is enough time for you to check over the details while a big red counter counts down the seconds. Simply hit the button to carry out the deal or let the timer expire. That is a "quote and deal" transaction type; for the more adventurous there are other transaction types, e.g. a "limit order" allows you to specify a price you want to deal at. The deal will only go ahead if the specified price is reached.

Finally, it is easy to transfer cash both in and out of your account. Put it in via a credit/debit card transaction; withdraw it as an electronic transfer to a bank account that you designated when you opened your trading account.

Summary: Straight forward stock trading, via an intuitive and informative web site.