UK's Best Platforms to Day Trade

Given its no-commission fee policy and transparent pricing, eToro is our pick for the best overall day trading platform. Beside low-cost trading, its trademark CopyTrade feature, along with other social trading functionalities like social feeds, allows users to follow and study other day traders’ patterns and to automatically copy the portfolios of successful traders.

eToro also features a very straightforward and intuitive layout – its web version offers industry-grade charting capabilities powered by ProCharts, and the mobile app provides almost the same functionalities (lacking only some of the charting features), so traders get a good experience on all their devices.

Freetrade combines zero-commission trading with the ability to invest in fractional shares, allowing traders to buy fractional shares, which refer to a unit of a share. Fractional shares will enable you to get exposed to fairly expensive stocks for, quite literally, a fraction of the cost. For those who’d like to dip their toes into US markets, the platform’s FX rate is also a competitive 0.45%.

The online platform is critically acclaimed and has collected awards for four consecutive years. It is very intuitive and relatively easy to navigate, partly due to the lack of versatile functionalities. Its research department is limited to basic charting and doesn’t include a screener. With a solid educational offering and extensive community for social trading, topped with low-cost trading, it is particularly appealing for new traders.

Italy’s Fineco has expanded its operations to the UK, and today it offers a wealth of investment products. In combination with its impressive reach of 26 global markets, it has a particular appeal for traders who seek a diverse array of investment instruments. The platform now offers after-hours trades for Nasdaqfor those who’d like to exploit volatility following stock market driver announcements.

The only catch are the fixed commissions charged per trade: The fees vary by UK, US, and international shares, and for a day trader, they may pile up quite quickly. So it’s a better choice for those confident that their profits will outpace the commission charges they pay.

Its platform PowerDesk is packed with advanced tools and is highly customisable, including a robust screener and charting feature, which allows you to include several charts in a single screen to analyse multiple markets at a glance. It's worth noting that the platform is designed for seasoned traders and comes with a slight learning curve.

IG's platform combines an award-winning web version with tight spreads and overall low-cost services. It also supports a highly-rated mobile app, allowing day traders to access their portfolios and place trades while on the move.

Furthermore, the clear and fast charts provide deep analysis with the ProRealTime tool, helping you identify day trading opportunities through research before making trades. Traders of all experience levels will also appreciate the friendly and knowledgeable 24-hour customer support available through various channels, including via phone and email.

Denmark’s Saxo Markets is revered for the variety of assets it includes among its offering that stretches from securities like stocks and bonds to leveraged products like options, futures, and CFDs. The platform’s research and analysis tools are among its greatest assets: The charting tool appeals to both seasoned and intermediate traders thanks to its ease of use, and includes up to 40 technical indicators.

The research opportunities are particularly interesting. The platform offers high-quality stock market analysis reports and trading ideas curated by their in-house team of analysts SaxoStrats. Reports include asset-specific analysis, global market updates, price data, and educational materials.

SaxoTraderPro users can also access the Level II order book, as well as real-time time and sales data, but – you guessed it – for an additional fee. On a related note, any user of SaxoTraderGo (a stock trading platform that has fewer features) can switch to SaxoTraderPro, which is geared towards seasoned traders. It allows access to features like algo trading and advanced trade tickets besides the aforementioned subscription-based capabilities.

Despite its legal troubles across the pond and less-than-ideal customer service, Binance continues to be an excellent cryptocurrency exchange for day trading due to its unbeatable low-cost trading and versatility in its trading mechanism. Traders enjoy a 0% fee on selected fiat and stablecoin BTC pairings, and the holders of its native coin BNB enjoy a further 25% fee reduction.

The exchange offers a variety of order types, including stop market orders, trailing stop orders, post-only orders, and one-cancels-the-other orders, on top of several trading options besides spot trading, including margin trading and peer-to-peer trading. Due to the sheer number of moving parts, the best stock trading platform comes with a slight learning curve, but at its core, it's appealing to intermediate and seasoned traders alike.

Trading 212 is yet another new-generation brokerage that comes with impeccable digital products and low-cost trading. In that sense, its offerings largely overlap with Freetrade: You can buy, hold, and sell stocks and ETFsfree of charge and use a free-of-charge ISA account. Both lack a screener but complement their services with a diverse community of traders for social trading – but Trading 212 tops their offerings with CFDs, and, most notably, unparalleled customer service.

Customer satisfaction is getting increasingly difficult to gain across the industry, and online brokers that don’t belong to legacy investing companies are usually not known for good customer service. Yet, Trading 212 collects a very high 4.6/5 from Trustpilot, where numerous reports of complaints are being solved within hours. The support is prompt to answer queries on the review aggregator with personalised messages, and comes across as respectful and knowledgeable. Thanks to this, Trading 212 is an excellent choice for those prioritising expert help when using a digital platform.

Stocks usually get the spotlight for day traders, but liquid ETFs are also quite suitable for day trading, and Degiro is among the best choices for a platform. Much like FinecoBank, Degiro also offers unparalleled exposure to global markets: 22 European, four North American, four Asian, and up to 19 exchanges for ETFs. You are looking at numerous opportunities to have a diverse portfolio. The online trading platform also waives commission fees on selected ETFs from around the world and includes a robust screener with which you can filter out funds by expense ratio, region, and ESG score.

Yet, the remainder of its research and analysis arsenal falls short in comparison – which isn’t surprising for a budget platform. Its charting capabilities are basic, lacking some fundamentals like price alerts. It does, though, cover the very minimum, including real-time streaming quotes (for no additional fee), a live news feed, and multiple order types.

As a specialised broker, Capital.com has one of the most extensive CFD selections available across the industry. Traders are exposed to over 3,700 markets and can choose from shares, indices, Forex, and commodities CFDs with varying degrees of leverage. The platform fully integrates with the industry-grade product TradingView, with which you can access advanced charting capabilities with the ability to include up to 75 technical indicators and access top-notch execution quality.

The outfit has several mobile applications which are specifically designed for different use cases: spread-betting, CFD trading, and investment education. Investmate, Capital’s version of the trading academy is a testament to its commitment to client improvement, along with its intuitive platform. That being said, CFDs are incredibly complex and risky instruments, with over 76% losing money when trading CFDs – it’s essential to acknowledge that and put the time in for proper education and testing through a demo account, for which Capital.com is an excellent choice.

Plus500's versatile push notifications can elevate your mobile trading significantly.

Besides the generic price alerts, you can set notifications to be sent out when prices move in either direction (which can help massively with your CFD trades), or when the percentage of buyers and sellers reach a certain point - a unique tool Plus500 developed.

Besides these, the platform lacks some advanced features, and yet, much like Freetrade, its lack of moving parts results in it being straightforward and easy to use. Trading instruments stretch from indices to Forex (traded with CFDs only), and its analysis tools include robust charting with up to 100 technical indicators. Besides being regulated by the FCA, the outfit is also listed on LSE and therefore required to disclose all its financial information, making it a secure option.