Find our chosen European brokers for day trading:
- Interactive Brokers: Best overall
- eToro: Best for social trading
- Saxo Bank: Best for professional traders
- XTB: Best for CFD and Forex
- Fusion Markets: Best for beginners
- Trading 212: Best signup bonus (code: IITW)
51% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
62% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
76-83% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
When investing, your capital is at risk.
Comparison
Before we delve into the specific features offered by each of the trading platforms, let’s compare how the six brokers stack up:
- Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is a great option for retail investors interested in optimising their trading commissions. It is ideal for beginners or professionals looking for a large number of instruments and a secure broker. On the downside, if you are new to investing, the platform may be a bit complicated with too many buttons and features. Day traders may take advantage of the broker’s diverse market access, allowing them to trade in their preferred time zone.
- eToro is the go-to option for social trading, allowing you to copy successful traders or share your own trades with a wider audience. The interface is very user-friendly and ideal for novice investors. However, if you have extensive experience in the markets, you may miss some niche features offered by trading platforms designed for professionals.
- Saxo Bank has a product offering very similar to IBKR, albeit with slightly higher commissions. SaxoTraderGO’s functionalities arguably make it more suited to sophisticated investors who can take full advantage of the platform’s functionalities.
- XTB is one of the most popular CFD and forex traders. XTB also offers a high rate on uninvested cash – 5% for accounts over $30,000, the second-highest on our list, boosting day traders’ returns should they close all positions and return to cash at the end of the trading day.
- Fusion Markets also targets the niche CFD and forex trading field. The broker allows traders to choose between two account types – the Zero account with a fixed $4.50 commission or the Classic trading account for traders who prefer $0 commissions with larger spreads. Lack of disclosure on interest on uninvested cash puts the broker at a clear disadvantage compared to peers, especially if day traders close positions and return to cash at the end of the trading day. On a positive note, the broker boasts a very quick sign-up process.
- Trading 212 is a CFD and forex broker that stands out with its attractive free shares for new account offerings – bonuses are as high as €100! You can learn more on Trading 212’s webpage. The broker also offers regular stocks and ETFs (Trading 212 Invest) outside its main levered CFD field (Trading 212 CFD).
Reviews
Interactive Brokers at a glance
Trader Workstation (TWS), the proprietary trading platform of Interactive Brokers, is one of the most innovative trading platforms developed by a brokerage firm. It includes two subsets: the “TWS Mosaic”, which displays a fully customisable workspace, and the “Classic TWS”, where you can find more complex/advanced tools for more experienced traders.
You get comprehensive order management, technical charts, watchlists, and other portfolio tools in a single view. You can organise your trading activity by asset classes and, at the same time, keep up to date with relevant market news impacting the markets. TWS offers powerful trading tools like ComboTrader, which helps traders create proprietary combination order strategies or choose from multiple templates with predefined programs to execute day trades.
Interactive Brokers also offers a web-based alternative called “Client Portal”, a “light” version of TWS, which lets you keep track of your portfolio performance and other essential features with few constraints. The same goes for its mobile app, which enables you to check every piece of information on the go.
We opened an account and extensively tested TWS along with the mobile app. For traders looking for advanced charting tools and depth of market information, such as conference call transcripts, news, financial instrument info etc, Trader Workstation is truly indispensable. At the same time, the mobile app came in handy when we had to close a position on the go after a surprising market move. Likewise, the mobile app is excellent when you have idle cash on hand and see a good opportunity during a market pullback. We did have trouble finding specific options contracts on the mobile app, for example – thus, for niche financial instruments in which you have not traded recently and do not have an open position, you need the desktop version to get your work done in a timely manner.
eToro at a glance
51% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
eToro offers one of the most intuitive and easy to learn trading platforms for day traders in Europe. The broker’s most distinctive feature is social trading, allowing you to copy the portfolios of successful traders or develop a community around your trading account.
The TipRanks research tab aggregates the cumulative knowledge of investors and experts from some of the world’s leading financial institutions, allowing you to get a quick idea of whether the stock you are trading is a buy, hold, or sell according to analyst consensus.
For traders looking for speed of execution, the platform offers One-click trading, allowing you to open a new position using ready-made parameters with a single click.
eToro is renowned for its user-friendly interface and excellent visualisation. ProCharts is a professional-grade technical analysis tool that compares charts from different financial instruments and/or time frames. Last but not least, the Economic calendar available to traders is one of the platform’s most useful features, allowing you to keep track of earnings reports, dividend payments, economic data releases, and more!
We opened an account and went through the app’s features with ease. Setting up trades is really intuitive, and exploring the stock-specific pages you are interested in is a real joy, bringing you tons of easy to read information. At the same time, the lack of more advanced instrument information may leave some traders disappointed. But for 99% of traders, especially beginners, eToro is an ideal trading platform to get started in the world of day trading!
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 51% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
SaxoTraderGo at a glance
62% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Features three platforms for trading: SaxoInvestor, SaxoTraderGO, and SaxoTraderPRO. Assuming that most people visiting this page have average knowledge of financial markets, we will focus on the middle one: SaxoTraderGO, which, by the way, is the most popular consumer-facing trading platform of the broker.
SaxoTraderGO is an award-winning web-based platform with crucial features: fundamental and technical analysis tools, an extensive charting package, performance analysis, a comprehensive account overview, and a user-friendly interface.
News and expert research are available through the proprietary SaxoStrats feature, with in-house analysts weighing in on the latest market trends. The Depth Trader feature lets you see all the buy and sell orders waiting to be executed so that you can manage your trades more effectively.
Powerful risk management tools available to European day traders include the Account shield feature, which, if activated, can act as a stop loss on your entire account, closing all open positions and cancelling all orders. Sometimes, it is better to finish trading for the day at a small loss, allowing you to come back to the markets the next day!
Saxo Markets provides 24-hour support and educational resources for all types of traders. VIP traders can receive priority support and exclusive invitations to events.
XTB xStation 5 at a glance
76-83% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
XTB offers Forex and CFD trading in some 6,000 instruments through its flagship xStation 5 platform. The trading interface has many distinctive features, including market sentiment, which pools the trading bias among all XTB clients on specific instruments, allowing you to get a quick feel on trader consensus.
European day traders can access comprehensive charting tools that incorporate risk management, allowing you to place take profit or stop loss levels directly on the charts you have just created!
The platform also incorporates news from in-house analysts and an economic calendar to keep track of all key financial developments.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 76-83 % of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Fusion Markets cTrader at a glance
74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Fusion Markets specialises in forex and CFD trading through its proprietary cTrader platform, but also offers the classic MetaTrader 5 for experienced traders.
cTrader prides itself in niche features such as market depth, featuring standard market depth, price depth, as well as volume-weighted average price (VWAP) depth. The charting package is equally comprehensive, offering 26 different timeframes and over 70 inbuilt indicators to give you a more full-bodied overview of the market.
Once you are familiar with the platform, QuickTrade Mode allows you to pre-set your order type settings and risk management levels. Once done, you can execute trades with a single click!
For European day traders looking to complement their routine with algorithmic trading, cAlgo allows you to create powerful automated strategies and install your own trading bots.
Trading 212 at a glance
When investing, your capital is at risk.
Trading 212 specialises in forex and CFD trading (Trading 212 CFD) but also offers regular stocks and ETFs (Trading 212 Invest). In total, you can access over 10,000 stocks and ETFs.
The broker has a detailed learning section on its website, available here. Novice traders can explore all the basic concepts of moving financial markets and get a quick start in investing.
A unique feature of Trading 212 available to European day traders is trading fractional shares during extended market hours. This gives you an extra nine and a half hours of trading time compared to other brokers.
Trading 212 is also unique in its exclusive sign-up bonuses, which you can access here.
Bottom Line
To sum it up, here’s a brief overview of our findings regarding the best day trading platforms in Europe:
Interactive Brokers
Best overalleToro
Best for social tradingSaxo Bank
Best for powerful trading toolsXTB
Best for Forex and CFDsFusion Markets
Best for a quick sign-up processTrading 212
Best for sign-up bonuses
With our comparison complete, here is what you need to do to get started on day trading in Europe:
- Find a suitable broker. Make sure the broker works with residents of your country. Consider the fees and market access of the broker if you are interested in trading niche markets.
- Open an account and deposit money: After deciding which broker’s trading platform to use, you must go through the account opening process and deposit money.
- You can now day trade in Europe: Having considered the pros and cons of each broker and after going through the account opening process, you can take advantage of the endless possibilities offered by day trading!
We hope that this post addressed some of your concerns. Do your research to find the best investing strategy for you!
Happy investing!
