Shares oh Shares... :)

almondsalty

Hi, here's a good but basic overview of online share dealing providers in UK: http://www.investoo.co.uk/compare/compare-online-share-dealing/

I'm pretty sure Barclays and TD allow international trades, not sure about the rest.

Ark_Welder

HSDL allow trading on US and some European markets

dqnet

The 900 was just mainly to get me moving. I have around 5000 to really to play with. Not coming out with my savings so it's not money I'd like to lose but certainly money I dont mind risking at all. At the end of the day, who cares. Money comes and goes.
Woud be nice for it to come though...

The US market is just to throw myself in the deep end and get some bargains there too..
I'll have a look at those places but my real concern is trying to get the lowest trade but without sacrificing 'performance' meaning I dont want to end up with an issue later if the shares go up and the company has a real hard time shifting them for you. I'd rather pay slightly higher then pay the price of paying too low... Does that make sense?

dqnet

just a bump...

Totton

The US markets are generally reckoned to be so well researched that unless you really know what you are doing you will find a tracker or etf a good bet. You can trade US with Hargreaves Lansdown now I think. My rec would be to go with HL and use a mix of shares and funds to lessen the risk.

Regards,
Mickey

dqnet

What about investdirect by HSBC? Any opinions on that?

http://investments.hsbc.co.uk/product/9/sharedealing#/whatitcosts

temagami

The HSBC rate is not the best around (US$30/trade), but looks like they don't charge any inactivity fees or annual account charges, so it might still work out well if you're only trading infrequently.

However, one thing I don't see on there is details of any commission on GBP/USD conversions. You should check that carefully because this is often the big hidden cost on international dealing - brokers advertise small trading fees and account fees, but squirrel away the currency commission they charge on top of that in tiny print on page 20 of the terms and conditions.

You need to be rather careful with this, because a) it's often large (say 1-2% per leg - which can be more than the headline trading fees) and b) it's usually unavoidable. Most UK brokers will either quote you a price in sterling, with the currency conversion fee embedded in that, or quote you in foreign currency but not let you hold the foreign currency in your account, meaning that you need to convert your funds at their commission rate every time you buy and sell.

For international investing, ideally you want a trading account that a) has low to no FX load and b) lets you hold funds in foreign currency between trades. Unfortunately there aren't may of these around. I keep a list of brokers with international services among other international investing questions ( http://the-international-investor.com/comparison-tables/uk-international-stock-brokers ) and among the discount brokers, the two UK-registered firms that come out best are Saxo Bank (0.5% load) and Interactive Brokers (0.01% load), both of which have US$10,000-equivalent account minimums (so ~£6,000 right now), which may be more than you're looking for.

(The FX load isn't listed in the table due to lack of space, but if you click through into each broker's entry, it's included whenever the company states a figure or I can get an estimate from my own experience or other investors.)

TD Waterhouse, mentioned up thread, is interesting because it at least lets you hold foreign currency. The FX conversion fees are steep (1.75%), but if you plan to keep the funds in USD to trade US stocks, you only need to do that when you pay in the money and when you eventually withdraw it. In contrast, with Hargreaves Lansdown, Selftrade, Halifax, Interactive Investor (which is a Halifax white label service) and most of the rest, you will be paying a 1-2% currency fee implicitly or explicitly every time you buy and sell because none of them let you hold foreign currency.

With TDW you can also pay in funds in USD etc anyway and if you're depositing a few thousand, you would save on commissions by using an FX transfer specialist (HiFX, TorFX etc) to do that.

The newer Barclays service (International Trader as opposed to the extortionately priced Foreign Dealing Account) is not too bad on trade fees, but it has a 1.5% conversion fee and doesn't yet let you hold foreign currency, although they talk about changing this.

Both TDW and Barclays will charge about £10 a quarter if you don't trade. Saxo Bank has no account fees, Interactive Brokers charges US$10/month if you don't generate that much in commissions (although its other fees are very low, so even infrequent users might actually find it cost-effective).

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

syedmuddassar wrote: »

Great topic sir (Shares oh Shares) I like it very much

You seem to like :spam: too.

dqnet

temagami wrote: »

The HSBC rate is not the best around (US$30/trade), but looks like they don't charge any inactivity fees or annual account charges, so it might still work out well if you're only trading infrequently.

However, one thing I don't see on there is details of any commission on GBP/USD conversions. You should check that carefully because this is often the big hidden cost on international dealing - brokers advertise small trading fees and account fees, but squirrel away the currency commission they charge on top of that in tiny print on page 20 of the terms and conditions.

You need to be rather careful with this, because a) it's often large (say 1-2% per leg - which can be more than the headline trading fees) and b) it's usually unavoidable. Most UK brokers will either quote you a price in sterling, with the currency conversion fee embedded in that, or quote you in foreign currency but not let you hold the foreign currency in your account, meaning that you need to convert your funds at their commission rate every time you buy and sell.

For international investing, ideally you want a trading account that a) has low to no FX load and b) lets you hold funds in foreign currency between trades. Unfortunately there aren't may of these around. I keep a list of brokers with international services among other international investing questions ( http://the-international-investor.com/comparison-tables/uk-international-stock-brokers ) and among the discount brokers, the two UK-registered firms that come out best are Saxo Bank (0.5% load) and Interactive Brokers (0.01% load), both of which have US$10,000-equivalent account minimums (so ~£6,000 right now), which may be more than you're looking for.

(The FX load isn't listed in the table due to lack of space, but if you click through into each broker's entry, it's included whenever the company states a figure or I can get an estimate from my own experience or other investors.)

TD Waterhouse, mentioned up thread, is interesting because it at least lets you hold foreign currency. The FX conversion fees are steep (1.75%), but if you plan to keep the funds in USD to trade US stocks, you only need to do that when you pay in the money and when you eventually withdraw it. In contrast, with Hargreaves Lansdown, Selftrade, Halifax, Interactive Investor (which is a Halifax white label service) and most of the rest, you will be paying a 1-2% currency fee implicitly or explicitly every time you buy and sell because none of them let you hold foreign currency.

With TDW you can also pay in funds in USD etc anyway and if you're depositing a few thousand, you would save on commissions by using an FX transfer specialist (HiFX, TorFX etc) to do that.

The newer Barclays service (International Trader as opposed to the extortionately priced Foreign Dealing Account) is not too bad on trade fees, but it has a 1.5% conversion fee and doesn't yet let you hold foreign currency, although they talk about changing this.

Both TDW and Barclays will charge about £10 a quarter if you don't trade. Saxo Bank has no account fees, Interactive Brokers charges US$10/month if you don't generate that much in commissions (although its other fees are very low, so even infrequent users might actually find it cost-effective).

Many many thanks for that info! Exactly what I needed. Thanks.