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When I was buying funds through fund supermarket time frames given were very vague. Trade was supposed to be executed at next "transaction point", without much description when is it. I am guessing that it is aimed at saving transaction costs by netting as many buy trades from one clients with sell trades from other ones.

How does it work? Are funds bought at fixed points in time or different? Are different supermarkets faster and slower, or is it industry standard in UK? If I understand correctly funds are priced once per day. Are there fund supermarkets that are giving exact day trade is going to be executed? Is buying ETFs faster? Is buying outside ISA faster?

Thanks, Peter

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    I've wondered about this too. On the platform I use, sometimes funds gets bought same day, especially if I submit the order early in the morning. Other funds seem to take a day or two longer, and I have an idea Vanguard's funds may even be a once-a-week thing (Friday?). Never dug into the information on "transaction points" more though and it doesn't seem to be consistently documented by fund houses. It's possible to buy ETFs virtually instantly though (my platform gives me a quote and 15 seconds to accept or reject it; if I accept it, I've bought them).
    – timday
    Dec 30, 2015 at 21:15

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It depends on each particular fund, but usually there is a cut-off time in the day (say 12:00 am) after which all orders are considered to take place on the next day.

Then, every fund has a delay depending on the operation (buying or selling) and the underlying type of assets it manages. Money market funds - the fastest ones - usually have a delay of one day. Other kind of funds typically have a delay between 3 and 5 days. This delay is often reduced if the company that manages the fund and the company that manages the supermarket are the same.

For more specific - exact - information, I am afraid that you will need to go through the documentation of each of your funds.

Finally, ETFs are a different beast (technically they can be bought/sold in the same minute you give the order). And the fact that your account is inside or outside an ISA wrapper shouldn't matter at all for transaction times.

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