Barclays Stockbrokers, the UK's largest online execution-only stockbroker, today launches International Trader - a fully customisable trading platform enabling clients to trade international stocks online at any time.
The platform offers investors access to over 9,000 stocks on 21 exchanges across 13 markets including the US, Canada, Germany, France and Spain. It is supported by market leading global research, real time pricing, market news from Dow Jones and Market News International and charting and analytical tools, to ensure investors have everything they need at their fingertips.
Des Byrne, Head of Barclays Stockbrokers, said: "There is a strong case for investing globally, with opportunities for attractive, diversified returns from investments in developed international equity markets. The launch of International Trader is in direct response to client appetite. We have seen increasing demand for overseas exposure through Exchange Traded Funds ('ETFs') and managed funds with an international focus.
Barclays Wealth's monthly research paper, Compass, considers the case for international equities1 - the five year forecast from developed market equities is 5.1% p.a, versus 2.6% p.a. average over the previous 20 year period. In addition, Sweden was the West's best performing equity market in 2010, with Germany also providing strong returns. Many investors will also be looking to the US for strong performance in 2011 as, in 2010, profit estimates rose faster than the S&P, making the US look cheaper today than it did a year ago. Dividend yields also look attractive and there are signs that mergers and acquisitions activity is starting to come back to life.
Des Byrne continued: "International Trader is ideal for those self-directed clients who prefer to pick their own stocks and seek opportunities in wider markets; indeed a recent web poll of our clients revealed that 76% believe the UK will be outperformed by Europe, the US or Emerging Markets in 20112. The online platform is truly state-of-the-art and provides efficient, cost-effective access to developed global equity markets."
There are several new exchanges which will join the platform during the early part of 2011. Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore are just some of the additional markets that will soon be available to investors.
For those markets not covered by International Trader, such as some of the emerging economies, investment exposure can still be achieved using existing methods, such as ETFs, managed funds and CFDs / FST.