Costs that you have to consider when trading securities
When trading securities, there are costs that are not always apparent at first glance. These can occur both at your house bank and at a direct bank:
If you want to buy or sell a security, then you need a so-called order fee pay. The depot provider requires this for the execution of your purchase or sale order.
The exchange fee consists of various costs, for example brokerage and the fee for the stock exchange. Sometimes the exchange fee accounts for as much as 40 percent of the total fees. You should note that each custody account provider calculates the exchange fee differently. With the online broker Flatex, for example, you only pay 5.90 euros for a Xetra order according to the price-performance index. However, a look at the passage on third-party fees shows that there are additional fees here, because a Xetra order costs at least 8.27 euros. At finanzen.net zero1 an order does not cost you a cent. Both brokers are way ahead, as you can see from our portfolio comparison.
Give limit orders up, there may be costs involved. Especially if the buy or sell order is not executed on the same day. However, when buying a security whose stock market turnover is low and whose prices can therefore fluctuate greatly, it still makes sense to place a limit order. For example, you specify a course (price) that you are at most willing to pay.
Some brokers and online banks offer an over the counter direct trade to, for example, via the trading platforms Tradegate or Lang & Schwarz. In this case, the stock exchange fee does not apply. With direct trading, investors do not trade via a stock exchange, but with a bank or securities firm. The bank or broker buys the securities and sells them again. As a rule, investors in direct trading know exactly beforehand what an order will cost.
Bid-ask spread is the difference between the bid price and the ask price, which is comparable to a brokerage fee. For stocks and ETFs that trade heavily and in large volumes, the bid-ask spread is less than 0.1 percent. In the case of rarely traded securities, this “brokerage fee” can often amount to several percent. The difference between the bid price and the ask price is significantly larger outside of stock exchange hours. The opening hours of the home stock exchange of a security are always decisive for the amount of the fee.
Important: You should compare offers and costs that are important to you in the long term and ideally will secure you long-term benefits. Don’t switch accounts just because of a time-limited promotion, so don’t switch providers just because of a current premium offer.