Pensions and Forex

stevenhass

Hi There

I am an IT contractor and have some money tied up in retained earnings. I also trade forex and am doing ok on it.

With this combined I'd like to transfer some retained earnings into a pension (since this is tax free) where I could trade/spreadbet forex.

Does anyone know of any organisations that do this or have any ideas on this areas?

thanks for any assistance!

Steve

manuelamacovei

Hi,
I'm actually new to this ... What is the best way to do forex trading? Is it online or through a broker/company?
I'm really interested but don't know how to start.

Many thanks
Manuela

kidmugsy

There are currency ETFs, I think. I suppose you can hold those in SIPPs.

bigadaj

manuelamacovei wrote: »

Hi,
I'm actually new to this ... What is the best way to do forex trading? Is it online or through a broker/company?
I'm really interested but don't know how to start.

Many thanks
Manuela

You appear to be a struggling single parent from your other two posts on the forum, I don't think currency trading is for you, or indeed many people.

atush

I agree. Dont lose what little you have.

If it was easy, we'd all be rich.

agarnett

Well, measured against the Euro or the US dollar, haven't those of us with UK sterling pension funds already lost up to 10% in the last 6 months or so just by being dumb enough to find ourselves exposed to FOREX speculation in the markets, whether we like it or not?

Who dares define the winners when for the most part here, we are all the losers?

Malthusian

Well, measured against the Euro or the US dollar, haven't those of us with UK sterling pension funds already lost up to 10% in the last 6 months or so

Only if you were planning on cashing in your entire pension fund and converting it into Euros or dollars. Apart from a minority planning to retire and move abroad (who are in any case still free to keep their assets in pounds and convert at a more favourable time) the value of our pension fund in euros is largely irrelevant.

Who dares define the winners when for the most part here, we are all the losers?

I define someone who invests their pension fund in a broad spread of funds and makes themselves richer in the longer term as a winner, and someone who blows most of their pension fund on a fantasy of being George Soros as a loser.

If thinking of yourself as a loser makes you happy then knock yourself out, but don't drag the rest of us into it.

AnotherJoe

agarnett wrote: »

Well, measured against the Euro or the US dollar, haven't those of us with UK sterling pension funds already lost up to 10% in the last 6 months or so just by being dumb enough to find ourselves exposed to FOREX speculation in the markets, whether we like it or not?

Who dares define the winners when for the most part here, we are all the losers?

I dont understand this reasoning. Lets say my funds are 100% in the UK, even all in cash. So, aside any fund changes, the fact that the funds and my cash are lower against the Dollar or Euro is irrelevant , if I had a million Pounds last month than I've still got a million Pounds this month. As long as I'm not planning to buy anything in Euros/Dollars it makes no odds.

Plus, what you lose in comparison to Euro / Dollar should be more than made up for by rises in your funds held outside the UK. If you have more outside the UK than in it, then you will be likely be better off, not worse. Any Euro or US funds, or worldwide funds (where UK will be a minor component) , should have appreciated on those grounds alone.

agarnett

The term 'Little Englanders' springs to mind.

It may not surprise you to learn that right now I am sitting in Euroland, but my pension funds are in UK and so too are my main property assets. Of course, the UK property thing is one that is as dodgy an investment as FOREX trading, but I am hanging on in there - no logic to that really either - if another worldwide financial system collapse is looming

I get backwards and forwards to Europe on Ryanair at extraordinarily low cost when you think carefully about it as a life enhancing tool. If you don't get backwards and forwards into Europe frequently at low cost then I am as entitled to question your limited lifestyles as much as you are to choose to question mine, n'est-ce pas? Europe is of course so close-by that we must surely be mad not to spend at least some of our time and money there?

As an MSE'er, I never "blow" cash on anything, but even at tourist rates, I could so easily have saved myself far more had I set out to regularly buy and stash Euros, when I saw that the pound was worth €1.40 or more for such a lengthy period) than I could possibly have made in any "normal" sterling investments. The writing was I think on the wall this time about the pound nose-diving - we "losers" just didn't want to believe it - preferring to continue with GO's hype until it was plain to see there was actually nothing backing the pound other than the whims of speculators which in fact we all are, whether we are conscious of it or not!

I must admit however that I do have very little hankering for dollars - US is too far for weekend trips, and personally speaking, I'm not sure there's that much I'd look forward to when I got there ...

However, what most of us in the entire western world do have a need for is that other hyped currency, oil. Not planning on buying anything in dollars? What about your oil needs or are you totally wind-powered?

Where I sit today across the Channel, I can fill up with diesel at around 80p per litre. Why can't you? In the past I've driven here from UK on a mere tankful.

If you are blindly using your devalued UK GBP pension funds to pay for your hyped UK GBP everyday expenses, how exactly is that better than converting some of your GBP into EUR such that you might enjoy some of the EUR benefits as and when they present themselves as part of a happy healthy lifestyle? Surely it is much less healthy to stay at home pretending that GBP is the most accurate measure of wealth, and that the rest of the world doesn't exist?

bigadaj

agarnett wrote: »

The term 'Little Englanders' springs to mind.

It may not surprise you to learn that right now I am sitting in Euroland, but my pension funds are in UK and so too are my main property assets. Of course, the UK property thing is one that is as dodgy an investment as FOREX trading, but I am hanging on in there - no logic to that really either - if another worldwide financial system collapse is looming

I get backwards and forwards to Europe on Ryanair at extraordinarily low cost when you think carefully about it as a life enhancing tool. If you don't get backwards and forwards into Europe frequently at low cost then I am as entitled to question your limited lifestyles as much as you are to choose to question mine, n'est-ce pas? Europe is of course so close-by that we must surely be mad not to spend at least some of our time and money there?

As an MSE'er, I never "blow" cash on anything, but even at tourist rates, I could so easily have saved myself far more had I set out to regularly buy and stash Euros, when I saw that the pound was worth €1.40 or more for such a lengthy period) than I could possibly have made in any "normal" sterling investments. The writing was I think on the wall this time about the pound nose-diving - we "losers" just didn't want to believe it - preferring to continue with GO's hype until it was plain to see there was actually nothing backing the pound other than the whims of speculators which in fact we all are, whether we are conscious of it or not!

I must admit however that I do have very little hankering for dollars - US is too far for weekend trips, and personally speaking, I'm not sure there's that much I'd look forward to when I got there ...

However, what most of us in the entire western world do have a need for is that other hyped currency, oil. Not planning on buying anything in dollars? What about your oil needs or are you totally wind-powered?

Where I sit today across the Channel, I can fill up with diesel at around 80p per litre. Why can't you? In the past I've driven here from UK on a mere tankful.

If you are blindly using your devalued UK GBP pension funds to pay for your hyped UK GBP everyday expenses, how exactly is that better than converting some of your GBP into EUR such that you might enjoy some of the EUR benefits as and when they present themselves as part of a happy healthy lifestyle? Surely it is much less healthy to stay at home pretending that GBP is the most accurate measure of wealth, and that the rest of the world doesn't exist?

Bizarre post.

So you appear to be ab,e to predict the pound euro exchange rate, if true then fill you boots, you'll be a billionaire in no time.

You appear to have your whole pension invested in the uk, this is pretty poor investing, spreading around the world diversifies and reduces risk, and given that uk makes up maybe 10% of stock markets then a decent chunk in the us which represents more than half the world value of equities would seem prudent.

agarnett

Bizarre post? Maybe.

But don't be so silly as to say I can predict the exchange rate. I didn't say I could, but there was very little reason for the pound to be flying where it was last year, right? Sensibly it had to go down again. These things obey rules a little like Hookes Law I think

It's just difficult to see what force is being applied to keep things stretched!

So instead of just wondering wistfully if someone would apply even more force in the markets, and that the pound would go higher, perhaps I should have been more realistic and piled in as it inevitably pinged back down to more "normal" levels when the markets got tired of playing with it?

And I didn't say I had my whole pension invested in the UK, but since I paid the lions share of my pension contributions in the UK, you won't be surprised to learn that's where my pension arrangements are sitting, just like the arrangements of most who are reading this forum.

Like most of my age, I don't get any say in how half my pension provision is invested. It is a very complex (or bizarre if you like) sum, because that part isn't directly a pot of money I can steer.

Its cash equivalent transfer value is steered by others partly in inverse proportion to market trends in bond yields, and partly in jiggery-pokery dreamed up by the likes of Goldman Sachs, and it also depends a great deal now on whether the scheme is in the hands of trustworthy trustees and trustworthy actuaries. Pension Actuaries thesedays might be as questionably motivated as 2007 rating agencies in their published assessments!

And you reckon currency trading is a gamble

Of course, I could I gamble big time and find someone who is brave enough to agree to put their IFA qualifications behind a suitable cash equivalent transfer analysis, so that part of my pension arrangements could be released into a SIPP for example, and then follow your advice and spread it about a bit. In practice though, it will have to stay deferred in a DB scheme, where I am also gambling with the aforementioned unknowns, at least until I reach the scheme retirement date.

It would be a gamble for me to transfer out of others of my pensions too - plans which only an onside with profits expert might be able to advise upon. And there aren't too many of those around any more.

I might however gamble with my cash ISA savings ... let's face it, why not? The banks are having a laugh with the sort of rates they're offering on them, so we might as well gamble those on buying foreign currency or precious metals, if we fancy it, and maybe we could do that with tax free cash we might want to release from a SIPP too?

I haven't read that the OP or anyone else was planning to gamble their entire pension on currency trading. Who is to say whether a bit of currency trading is not right for anyone? You? On the strength of your assessment of the financial reasoning abilities of a single parent ... and your assessment of whether they are "struggling" ... struggling to see a way to control their own destiny perhaps?

Isn't that what you try to do for yourself by neutralising these obvious and manipulated currency fluctuations by spreading the risk 50:10:40 in US equities : UK equities: Rest of the World's stock markets ? Or could you invest via a SIPP or similar in other stuff too which tackles currency fluctuations more directly? Pray do tell, for that is what the OP was asking I think