Commission rates depend upon the type of dealing undertaken. Principal Deals are commission free, (Subject to a £15 Compliance Charge Per Trade).
Agency Commission on trades up to £10,000 = 1.65% of Consideration and on the next £10,001 and above = 1% of Consideration.
(Minimum Commission £20 Per Trade and all Agency Bargains are subject to a £12 Compliance Charge.)
For full details and more information click here
Simply complete the online application form on the site and we will then process your application, taking just a few minutes to complete. We use the Equifax database containing the Electoral Roll, BT telephone list and other databases to confirm your identity to satisfy the UK's Money Laundering regulations.
We would only need to ask for documentary proof of identity if we are unable to verify your identity via a credit search.
If you pass the on-line identity check, an account number is confirmed immediately to you and you can then trade. If you fail the identity check we simply ask you to send documents proving your identity and this takes a few days to confirm account details to you.
To apply for an account please click here.
We can offer an immediate trading facility limit up to £5,000 to start you off with us without any cash or stock with us and then after that limits of lending by negotiation with your broker based on any cash or stock held with us.
Watch this space - we are developing new technology to help our brokers keep you up to date with new services such as stop loss and consolidated tax certificates shortly! We call this the 'Advanced Portfolio Management' (APM) system.
We will contact clients when the facility is about to go live.
HB Markets is a growing company and we believe that our commitment to continue to improve our service, technology and train our people will keep us ahead of the pack. We recognise the point made here and are reacting directly to it.
When a broker leaves us, his clientele will receive a personal letter from our Broking Floor Director informing them of their new broker and the offer to come in and meet us or alternatively discuss any concerns clients may have.
All clients will be offered the chance to sign up for our online service to further ensure continuity.
As an advisory client you are allocated your own individual broker and access to them via their direct line.
Your broker is able to will advise on your whole portfolio, what to buy and sell. Additionally, as an advisory clients we offer you the chance to participate in principal dealing on small caps at better than best execution prices.
All financial services providers are required by UK and EU rules and regulations to identify each person that opens an account. Our online application form does this electronically while you wait and over 80% of applicants are successfully identified and their account confirmed open in minutes.
If we cannot locate you electronically or if you open an account using a paper application we will need identification forms from you to allow us to open an account for you.
Online accounts are automatically set up with access to their portfolio online when an application is made. To view an advisory account online we need to set up access for you. This is easy to do and takes just a few minutes by completing the online trading application process.
If you have any questions please email the Online Customer Services Team at hb@hbmarkets.com, who will be pleased to arrange assist you.
Yes, we provide a free daily email 'Market Comment', which is also published on our site under the 'Research & Prices' section.
To subscribe to our daily Market Comment please email us at: hb@hbmarkets.com
The APM software allows your broker to oversee and interpret your portfolio with us in more detail than we have ever been able to do before. It shows profit/loss information on your overall portfolio and individual stocks, breaks down your portfolio into sectors and indices so that your risk profile is much clearer and your broker can see where you are invested. It also allows us to set limit orders, stop losses and see quickly dividend income as well. We are also planning for all the information available to your broker, when he or she looks at your portfolio, to be available to you as well.
We have a dedicated team of Settlement specialists who deal with any issues that arise. Our website also publishes contact details for various queries and contacts and we try always to correct an issue within the same day if we can or, if not, as soon as possible.
Your queries are highly important to us and we are striving constantly to improve our service and information provided for you on our website, so that you can find the answer yourself or, if not, gain a quick response from our Settlements experts.
The Stock Market is exciting and volatile; the value of investments can go down as well as up. The small caps sector offers both potentially high rewards and risks. At HB Markets we have rigorous procedures to vet investments.
The first stage that all companies we consider to recommend to our clients has to undergo is a thorough examination by one of our highly qualified and experienced research analysts. Those that are proposed by the analysts are then assessed by HB Markets's Investment Committee before being recommended. The analyst then produces a research note which is read by another analyst for a second opinion and then vetted by the compliance department to ensure it meets all regulatory requirements.
The analysts work to clear criteria as to what they are prepared to propose and have produced guidelines on how they classify recommendations which is available for you to read on our website under the Research & Prices section.
A fuller explanation is also available in the Plain English Guide to your dealings with HB Markets, which we can send to you or you can download from the website.
HB Markets has implemented a Conflicts Management Policy in respect of its Investment Research to ensure our standards are consistent with that required by our regulator the Financial Services Authority, whose website is: www.FSA.gov.uk
The Board of HB Markets is responsible for ensuring that its systems, controls and procedures are able to identify, manage and control the potential conflicts of interest that may arise.
Our procedures and rules provide the backbone of HB Markets's approach to your business with us.
You are the lifeblood of our business and it is our aim that we provide you with the best service we can so that you continue to do business with us and we are continually striving to improve our services for your benefit.
If you are unhappy with our service we hope that you will contact us and we will try to put this right.
However if we are unable to satisfy your concern we have a rigorous, independent Complaints procedure that commits us to treating you fairly.
If you have a complaint please email complaints@hbmarkets.com.
Our advisory and online services work independently from our market making arm. The majority of stocks that we market as principal actually come from outside counterparties.
We draw on in-house expertise where we can and hope that on the occasions that we do act as market maker, it provides an enhanced service and greater liquidity to our clients.
Indeed our market makers were highly praised in our recent customer survey and we hope our customers will feel the benefit of extra investment in this part of our service.
We are now enhancing our market making service as a retail service provider - this means that shares in which we make a market will become available to trade electronically over the internet. The benefits of which should be keener prices for our clients and better liquidity of the shares, making them easier to buy and sell.
Why not come and visit our offices and take the tour of our market making and retail departments?
HB Markets employs a team of dedicated research analysts who are responsible for the research notes that form the foundation of the firm's principal recommendations. They highlight both the strengths and weaknesses, as they see them, of the company.
Clients should weigh up the pros and cons ahead of committing to an investment.
Our advisory team are on hand to help and all research notes are published on our website under Latest Research and may be viewed free of charge.
HB Markets is one of the few brokers to allow free access to all to its small cap recommendations without registration restrictions.
We believe that we offer private investors concise and relevant research on companies. Something that is often hard to find in the small cap company sector.
We also publish an extensive archive of our research so you can see if things have changed over time as well to provide information covering a particular company.
We are constantly looking to upgrade our service to customers and recent developments such as our APM system and the instigation of a technical analysis training program for our advisers should help in us by giving clients a greater understanding of the markets.
If at any time you have a query about the market or a recommendation, please contact our advisory team on 020 7382 8300 or via email at hb@hbmarkets.com.
It is important that we understand your objectives and that we explain to you the risks involved in the market as a whole and within the higher risk areas that HB Markets frequently advises.
To help you, we have produced a 'Plain English Guide' to try to address such concerns in an easy, simple to understand fashion.
If at any time you have a query about the market or recommendations please contact our advisory team on 020 7382 8300 or via email at hb@hbmarkets.com.
If you still consider that you are not receiving the best advice after looking at the Plain English Guide, we operate an independent, rigorous Complaints procedure and are committed to treating you fairly.
If you have a complaint, please email complaints@hbmarkets.com or call 020 7382 8300.
We run a rigorous training regime through which our staff is taught, tested, appraised and re-tested. Broking staff are continually learning, for example they have just completed a course outlining up-to-date technical analysis.
We encourage all of our staff to aspire to the highest levels of competency and your satisfaction is a key driver here - throughout the organisation. We look for consistency in terms of professionalism and approach but acknowledge that people have different opinions.
We believe that the spirit and ethos of HB Markets encourage wide ranging and productive thinking and that we have sufficient controls for your benefit. As an employer of over 130 people and established for 13 years we have staff that have been with us for over a decade - in our view they have the experience to help guide you (and our more recent recruits) as market conditions change.
If you wish to speak to a more experienced broker or are in any way dissatisfied with your current adviser, please contact us on 020 7382 8300. You may also like to register an interest in our online service and see if we can meet your needs with this service, as we occasionally offer principal shares to our online customers.
HB Markets operates internal pricing policies to ensure that when clients are offered an opportunity, they are treated fairly and equitably under our Treating Customers Fairly policy (TCF).
Our 'mark up' is determined by market forces and has to also cover the risk that offerings to you may provide little or no reward for us if the price in the market moves against us and, taken overall, we consider that we provide offerings that are fairly priced to our clients.
Indeed, the 2005 customer survey strongly affirmed that our clients believe we treat them fairly.
Yes, absolutely, and this is demonstrated in the processes which your broker will go through with you.
When you open your account you will be invited to indicate how you would like your portfolio to be structured, by indicating your acceptance of risk, percentage wise:
- FTSE 100 (defined by us as lower risk)
- FTSE 350 (medium Risk)
- FTSE small caps including AIM (higher risk)
- Unlisted/PLUS Markets companies (very high risk).
Before giving any investment advice the appointed broker will conduct a Retail Client Profile ("RCP") over the telephone with you. Again this is intended to confirm your level of investment experience, financial knowledge, investment objectives, and the percentage split in risk with which you are comfortable.
RCP's are monitored on a random basis by our compliance team to ensure continuing validity. The appointed broker will offer you products and services based on information obtained from the RCP and Customer Information Form.
Brokers' telephone calls are subject to random monitoring from the broking floor management and compliance monitoring team. Brokers are alerted on a monthly basis of any departure from the percentages agreed with the client which results in over exposure to high risk stocks. This is then discussed with the client in question.