Best online broker for overseas (US) share dealing

JammieDodger

Hello all,

I'm sure this has been posted here before now but I can't for the life of me find the thread or the article.

I am with TD Ameritrade, which is a US based online broker, allowing me to trade in US shares from the UK.

This week we had notice that it will be discontinuing its service to all UK residents. They want to liquify all our assets, or transfer to another company, preferably one they own.

The two companies they mention are TD Waterhouse UK (https://www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk) or Internaxx (https://www.internaxx.lu) which is based in Luxembourg.

I've read up on both of them, and I can't see much difference except the country they're based in and a small difference in fees for execution only.

Does anyone have a comparison website where I can see the differences, or know of another broker online who can deal in US shares easily?

Thanks,

JD

Debbie_A_3

Hi!

I live in the UK and I use TD Waterhouse to trade overseas stocks. Mainly Canadian, but I have bought and sold some US stocks. All has worked fine and I am happy with the service. You will need to weigh up the costs (£11.95 per trade) including the FX charges (1.75% loading whenever you switch funds from one currency to another). I think that this is quite pricey for a purely electronic transaction. However, to be fair to TD Waterhouse they do allow you to hold USD in the account so you only pay the FX charge when you convert GBP to foreign currency, and again when you want to withdraw any GBP.

Debbie

rockitup

JammieDodger wrote: »

Hello all,

I'm sure this has been posted here before now but I can't for the life of me find the thread or the article.

I am with TD Ameritrade, which is a US based online broker, allowing me to trade in US shares from the UK.

This week we had notice that it will be discontinuing its service to all UK residents. They want to liquify all our assets, or transfer to another company, preferably one they own.

The two companies they mention are TD Waterhouse UK (https://www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk) or Internaxx (https://www.internaxx.lu) which is based in Luxembourg.

I've read up on both of them, and I can't see much difference except the country they're based in and a small difference in fees for execution only.

Does anyone have a comparison website where I can see the differences, or know of another broker online who can deal in US shares easily?

Thanks,

JD

I also have a TD Ameritrade account but am living now in SE Asia, not heard anything yet but may do shortly.

I opened the account when visiting the States and also started up with Fidelity (US) too. I don't know if Fidelity US will open accounts for UK Residents or not, maybe worth a call.

I do like the TD platform (still using command centre 2) and they agreed $5 trades as I trade very regularly, Fidelity charge $7.95.

There are a few other smaller brokers who will deal with clients from outside USA as long as they can provide documents to verify their ID

Have a search for US Brokers and then look at their sites or email them, they are so much cheaper than using UK brokers.

Interactive brokers now have a London Office, may be worth looking at.

rockitup

http://www.nobletrading.com/commissions_fees.php

Have a look at this firm, I talked to them before and they will do a deal on trade price. They offered me $4 a trade on US stocks as I was doing day trades at the time.

atush

the HSBC brokerage srevice has an American part you can sign up for.

temagami

Yes, the main kicker with TD Waterhouse is the FX conversion cost of up to 1.75%. Other than that, they provide quite a decent service. Internaxx applies no margin to FX conversions, but the trading commissions are higher.

Depending on the volume you will do and trade sizes, the cheapest option may well be Interactive Brokers - they charge $10/month minimum commission, but their per trade rates are lower than anywhere else I've seen (not just for the US, it's true for most foreign markets they offer as well). No FX conversion margin.

It's hard to keep track of which US brokers will accept foreign clients these days - I think Firsttrade will, Noble Trading will and EverTrade will.

rockitup

temagami wrote: »

Yes, the main kicker with TD Waterhouse is the FX conversion cost of up to 1.75%. Other than that, they provide quite a decent service. Internaxx applies no margin to FX conversions, but the trading commissions are higher.

Depending on the volume you will do and trade sizes, the cheapest option may well be Interactive Brokers - they charge $10/month minimum commission, but their per trade rates are lower than anywhere else I've seen (not just for the US, it's true for most foreign markets they offer as well). No FX conversion margin.

It's hard to keep track of which US brokers will accept foreign clients these days - I think Firsttrade will, Noble Trading will and EverTrade will.

No you don't start feeling generous and start giving TDW FX Conversion charges. That eats way into your profits (or adds to losses) TDW offer a multi-currency account so you can then transfer in money from a personal US Dollar account or maybe even direct from an FX Broker of your choice.

temagami

Yes, that is an option with the TDW account (from what I remember - haven't used them for a while) and makes sense as a way to cut costs using them.

However, I haven't yet come across any currency broker who will give you the same exchange rate you can get at Interactive Brokers (interbank), Internaxx (interbank) or Saxo (interbank +/- 0.5% margin) by funding the account in GBP and converting through them. Certainly not on smaller transactions.

(I would and do use an fx broker to make transfers to overseas broking accounts, given the rates that my bank offers.)

Incidentally, just remembered the Halifax service also offers a limited selection of foreign markets including the US at around £12/trade and a fx charge of around 0.4% (implicitly - it settles in GBP rather than having the option to hold foreign currency). Probably not what the OP is looking for in terms of sophistication given he already has an Ameritrade account, but might interest some other users.

tong

I've been trading for quite some time and used several brokers.

TD Waterhouse is definitely not recommended. I used them for a while and pulled all my stocks out. With that much of transaction cost, No wonder my performance was poor whilst with these guys.

1.75% margin on FX is ridiculous. Average return on equities market is around 8%. So if you use TD, you'll pay more than 3.5% on FX conversion alone. (if your investment appreciates, it will work out more). SO you're giving away almost half of your returns, if you'd buy and sold in that year. What a major rip off!!

PLUS, if you're an UK resident, I assume you'd opt for an ISA. Do notice that you cannot hold foreign currencyin ISA accounts with TD..

IF you're ONLY after US and UKequities. Use HSBC investment direct. Their FX rate is on of the best. and they offer ISA. So that means no CGT, and dividend Tax. If you're a high rate payer that makes a lot of difference. The only down side is that it's only got acess to UK and US major exchanges. So no DAX, SIMEX, etc. You'll get limited access to ADRs, but you can't trade on PINK Sheet with HSBC. You might have to be an HSBC current account holder. I already have an account with them. But, hey, it's free to open a current account anyway.

I have account with IB too. Low cost, great access to global markets. This is a semi, if not full, professional service. Many small hedge funds use them. One down side, they charge a fee, $10/monthly. A really down side: they're an American company, so no ISA.

So All my UK/US portfolio are with HSBC, and rest of world with IB.

z1000000

Hi

I have a US Etrade account, they charge about $10 a trade. I've just opened
an Inveractive Brokers account, and they charge about $1.50 a trade, so have a look at
both of those. US Etrade tried to get shot of me saying I should move to their UK firm
but I didn't fancy that.

Good luck!