Those investors who only want to trade US stocks and or options need a specialized solution in order to have all advantages on their side. The solution we offer consists of the below components and allows you trade NYSE, Amex, Nasdaq, OTCBB and Pink Sheets stocks.

1. A direct access trading platform with level 2 screens
   
   
2. Routing to all markets and ECNs
   
   
3. The unique WH SelfInvest MINI account

What are the main advantages of a direct access trading plaform?

Speed. Direct access is fast, very fast. Much faster than a website. When you enter an order using a website you give the order to the broker. The broker will execute the order for you. Often he will do this at a moment and/or a price unfavorable to you. With a direct access platform YOU put the order in the market yourself. Orders can thus be placed (and cancelled) much more quickly. This results in much better execution prices.

Best execution price. US stocks trade in parallel on the market (e.g. Nasdaq) and various ECNs (e.g. Island, Arca). Often the volume and/or the prices are better on these ECNs. We have direct lines to the market and all ECNs. Thus you are guaranteed for every one of your orders the best execution price.

Best execution price options. We have direct lines to all the US option markets. The same option usually trades on five or six markets. Since we have access to ALL options markets you are guaranteed the best execution price. In addition you can route your order to those markets which are fully electronic and which have your volume available in their order book. This results in incredibly swift order execution.

Clear order management. Users can see their own order in the exchange’s order book. You can see when your order comes up for execution and, if so desired, you can quickly cancel the order.

Trade outside market hours. Clients have unlimited access to all ECNs. The ECNs allow trading from 13.30 hrs CET onwards (two hours before the US markets open) to long after the US markets is closed (the time varies from stock to stock).

Inside market information. The order books show the live orders on the market and on each ECN. For stocks trading on the Nasdaq you can even see in the level 2 screens the orders identified by the financial institutions who are placing them. Hence you know who the big players are for each stock and what direction they are taking.

 

• The Mini account is a unique account proprietary to WH SelfInvest. No other broker offers such an account. The Mini account allows short selling, margin and an unlimited number of day trades ... even if you have less than $25.000 on your account. In addition the Mini account operates with only one type of margin call. If you open an account with a US broker you can be confronted with no less than four types of margin call, some of which can block your account for ninety days.
  
  
• WH SelfInvest Ltd has designated Penson Worldwide Inc. (ticker symbol PNSN on the Nasdaq) to serve as depository bank and handle all clearing functions for our client accounts. Penson is a well-known US depository bank. Other Penson clients are, for example, Charles Schwab and Paribas. The company is a SIPC member and reinsures its accounts with Lloyds of London. WH SelfInvest clients thus have what is most important: peace of mind.
  
  
  
  
• The account is subjected to Luxemburg banking secrecy and is held in USD. Unused cash will be credited a market interest.
  
  
• The minimum amount required to open an account is USD 7.500. There is no maximum amount.
  
  
• Short selling is allowed. The margin available is 2 to 1 both intraday and overnight.
  
  
• Funding the account can be done either by money transfer or a cash deposit (procedure). In both cases this needs to be done into a 'client assets' account with Dexia Bank here in Luxembourg. WH Selfinvest will only accept transfers coming from the accountholder. Transfers from third parties, including family members, in favor of the accountholder will be rejected. The money will automatically be posted to your own individual account with depository bank Penson. The cost is €7,50 + 0,2% (maximum €50).
  
  
• Transferring money out of the account is straightforward. For security reasons we do not accept transfer instructions via e-mail or internet. Only a signed, written instruction is acceptable. You can fax your transfer instruction to +352 42 25 75 25. The cost is €50. Transfer form
  
  
• We will not open accounts for American or Canadian nationals. We will not open accounts for nationals of those countries which are on the current OECD list of countries considered as non-cooperative in the fight against money laundering.

 

WH Expert Elite is both suitable for the novice and the experienced trader. The embedded technical analysis (TA) package is rated as one of the best TA tools available. Traders can deal in all American shares and all American options. The speed and accuracy of the market quotes is superior to anything you will have seen before. The quotes are provided directly from the NQDS (Nasdaq Quote Distribution Server). Contrary to almost all other trading platforms, WH Expert Elite will never suffer from data overflow or connectivity issues. This extreme stability is due to the fact that WH SelfInvest runs the trading platform directly from one of the Nasdaq’s reserve servers! Specific advantages of WH Expert Elite are its extensive TA package, the variety of tick charts, detailed news service with filter, sound alarms with multiple criteria, automated order entry, its built-in options simulator, the possibility to place GTC and Day+ orders and, finally, the extreme stability and reliability. Level 2 orderbook Portfolio Charting Tick charts Detailed quotes Quick quote Time & Sales Level 2 option orderbook Options calculator Top 10 News Alerts Basket stock Scanner Batch order FREE DEMO The level 2 screen shows the fully detailed orderbook for each stock. You can see your individual order within the orderbook. The orders of important market mahers such as Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan are clearly labelled so you can observe what the big players are doing. The level 2 screen colours allow you to quickly estimate support and resistance levels. These detailed level 2 screens make the market much more transparant. The real-time portfolio screen show the profit or less for all your open positions. You can see your real-time buying power. The execution stages of each order are detailed and time stamped. The open orders are visible in the blue area. A single click is required to cancel an order. The charting and technical analysis module is professional and easy-to-use. An unlimited amount of charts can be opened at the same time. More than 50 technical indicators are available (Momentum, Macd, RSI, …). Traders also have access to Tick and Trin charts. Tick charts show each individual trade in real-time. Several specialised tick charts used by day traders are available. For example the bid-ask spread tick chart which indicates in real-time the spread between bid and ask. You can design an unlimited number of detailed quotes screens to track stocks, options and indices. The lay out and all colours are fully customizable making it easy to monitor market changes. Simply click on a stock or option to see its level 2 orderbook and a chart. The quick quote screen supplies you with additional information about a stock. The P/E ratio, the Beta (an important yet difficult to fund stock volatility indicator) and fundamental information such as earnings and number of shares outstanding. A times & sales screen is a good visual indicator of the on-going trading in a stock. This screen is usually used in combination with the level 2 orderbook. All parameters are fully customizable. You can quickly see when a stock is rallying. Each option is usually quoted on all 5 U.S. option markets. The level 2 option orderbook shows all orders on all these 5 markets. The ‘Trades’ column shows on which market an option has most frequently traded. The time & sales displays all orders executed across all 5 markets. WH SelfInvest allows traders to directly route their orders to those option markets which tend to be the fastest (ISE, CBO, etc)! For option orders >10 lots this is an incredible advantage! The options calculator is based on the Black-Scholes formula. All option parameters, including the greeks, are shown in real-time. Traders can change the parameter values in the Black-Scholes formula allowing them to simulate the evolution of the option price. The Top 10 screens are a quick and easy method to get an impression of the market’s main trends. Top percentage gainers/losers, most active, … . The same information is available for the pre- and aftermarket. This allows traders to know each day, in advance, which stocks will be in the spotlight. Either read all market news or use a filter. Filtering is possible on the basis of numerous criteria : specific stocks, specific markets, specific topics, … . Alarms can be set based on numerous criteria. The alarms are both visual and sound. Alarm settings can be saved and used again each day without re-programming. Traders can compose their own theoretical indices and portfolios. These can viewed as a chart allowing easy and frequent analysis. The theoretical indices and portfolios are updated in real-time. A scanner is used to identify stocks that meet your own criteria. Scanning can be done both on historic data and intra-day data. An example, you can ask the scanner to identify all shares between $6 and $110 and whose 10-day MA crosses above their 50-day MA. A typically bullish signal. Individual orders are entered using the Level 2 screen. In this screen you can, however, pre-programme several orders and release them, either one-by-one or in a single batch, into the market. You can, for example, prepare a number of buy and sell orders before the Federal Reserve announces its interest rate decision. Good news … and you release all your buy orders. Bad news … and you simply release all your (short) sell orders. Simple, quick and efficient.

Orders per month		Commission per order
1-100		$18.00
101-150		$16.00	Rebate -11%
151-200		$14.00	Rebate -22%
200+		$12.95	Rebate -28%
Options		$10.95/order + $1.95/contract

Example : you execute 160 orders during a month. All orders will be charged at $14.00.

Options : minimum $18.95 per order.

An order executed in slices the same day will only incur a single commission.

Commissions decrease rapidly when your number of orders increases.

Commissions are net. There is no additional tax or VAT. There is no annual cost.

	Plateform	Real-time quotes
WHS Elite Idem with options	$ 99/month*	$ 12 (Nyse, Amex, Nasdaq level2, OTCBB, PS) $ 12 + $ 1 (as above + 5 options markets)
WHS Elite Lite	$ 24/month**	$ 12 (Nyse, Amex, Nasdaq level2, OTCBB, PS)
WHS Basic	$7/month**	$ 3 (Nyse, Amex, Nasdaq level1, OTCBB, PS)

*FREE after 50 orders per month. The real-time quotes include the pre- and aftermarket!

**FREE after 30 orders per month. The real-time quotes include the pre- and aftermarket!

Each trading platform is updated with new functionalities on a regular basis. You will receive FREE of charge all future version of your trading platform.

Subscriptions can be cancelled temporarily if you inform us by e-mail before the 25th of the month.

For only $ 3 per month you can additionally subscribe to real-time quotes for over 30 indices.

The stock exchanges and ECNs (Instinet, Island, …) will charge you when you route your order to their system. Many brokers inflate the ECN costs. We don’t. When you compare brokers. Always compare the available ECNs and their costs. The most important order routers are Instinet, Island and DOT/ISI.

Router	Name	Billable	Fee per order	Fee per share
	NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ
ISLD	INET - formally Island ECN Limit orders Market orders	- -	- -	$0.0019 $0.0035
ARCA	Arca ECN (Archipelago)	-	-	$0.0040
EDGE	EDGE ECN	-	-	$0.0025
CITX	Citrix	-	-	$0.0018
	NYSE, AMEX
NYSE/AMEX	Super Dot	Non-Billable	-	$0.0030
NYSE/AMEX	Super Dot	Billable (1)		$0.0095
MLX	Super Dot	Non-Billable		$0.0030
MLX	Super Dot	Billable (1)		$0.0120
	NASDAQ
BTRD	Bloomberg ECN	-	-	$0.0075
	OTCBB
ATD	Autotradedesk	-	$7.00	-
ARCA	Arca ECN for stocks <1$	-	0.4%	-
ARCA	Arca ECN for stocks >1$	-	-	$0.0040
	OPTIONS
ADP	ADP	-	No fee	No fee
ITS	ITS	-	No fee	No fee
MLO	MLO	-	No fee	No fee

(1) The rules of the NYSE and AMEX specify that their specialists charge more for the order execution if an order is not executed within 2 minutes. To avoid this surcharge you can either cancel and replace your order before 2 minutes elapse or use another router such as ATD, ARCA or ISLD.

In accordance with US market laws, all sell orders for securities will be subjected to a

1. SEC fee of $15.30 per $1 000 000;
2. Trading Activity fee of $0.00075 per share sold (but with a maximum of $3.75) or $0.002 per option contract sold.

Note These fees represent investors’ contribution to the operational costs of the stock exchange watchdogs SEC and NASD. These fees, if applicable, are displayed together with the ECN fees in the column « Other Commissions » of the « Trade History » page on the secured website of depository bank Penson.

WH SelfInvest clients are satisfied clients

“I would like to thank you and congratulate you on the way you deal with all issues. Companies with such high service standards have become a rarity.”

“Pretty soon you will reply before I have asked a question. – AV”

“Thank you for your clear explanations … time and time again. – AK”

“Job well done, excellent service. – WVG”

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the prompt way in which you have dealt with my last issue. I’m very pleased to see that your service knows no limits. Actually this is more than service. Thank you! – WD”

“Fantastic broker. I am very satisfied with the fast and reliable service.”