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Investing in US stocks
Comments
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You can also trade US stocks live with Halifax when the US market is open. Once a month they have a £3.95 per trade dealing day.
They still have 1.25% commission on the fx though, and don't allow you to hold foreign currency so all dollar proceeds have to go back to sterling and then back to dollars again when you want to buy something else. So, for reasonably-sized trades it's going to be more expensive than the IG example I quoted where the total charges were under 1%.
The fx conversion rate at Halifax is not particularly bad when compared to most of the mainstream UK brokers that don't have foreign share investing as a major specialism; but it's over 4x higher than IG's 0.3%.0 -
You could also use Fineco: they offer near-perfect currency conversion and charge around ten dollars per trade. At the moment they are offering new customers 100 free trades as a welcome bonus.0
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Look into PCT - polar capital tech. Invests in tech companies.
I gotto say though we have had a huge run up in tech stock prices, why buy now all of a sudden AFTER its gone up so much?
I do have to agree: my main investing interest is technology, but the companies mentioned offer far greater downside than upside potential, even for a long-term investor.
If you are determined to get exposure to this sector now, check out collective investments so that you have specialists identifying companies that do similar things but are less well-known than the big names, so that you reduce risk and have some chance of picking up a bargain. Scottish Mortgage, despite its name, is good for this purpose.
Back to my Asian Healthcare stocks...0 -
Voyager2002 wrote: »I do have to agree: my main investing interest is technology, but the companies mentioned offer far greater downside than upside potential, even for a long-term investor.
If you are determined to get exposure to this sector now, check out collective investments so that you have specialists identifying companies that do similar things but are less well-known than the big names, so that you reduce risk and have some chance of picking up a bargain. Scottish Mortgage, despite its name, is good for this purpose.
Back to my Asian Healthcare stocks...
Im not sure i agree with more downside then upside, just because the stocks have gone up so much.
My comment was more based on around why invest now and not say a year or 2 ago? It was more based around the OPs investment strategy, would he always buy AFTER things have gone up so much? Seems like a very bad way to invest.
Having said that if the OP has only just come up with the money to invest thats a different story. But he should be invested in a core diversified portfolio of global stocks FIRST and add tech stocks as an addon.0 -
As i've already said, those stocks i menioned in the first post where just examples of US stocks that popped in to my head...
I have a managed portfolio with a UK found manager which has various global funds.
Its funny though, I remember mentioning various (I won't mention names this time) tech stocks about 2, 3, 4 + years ago on various blogs, forums etc. And I was told then they had reached thier "ceiling price", "the only way is down", "they have reached thier peak" etc etc. That type of doom and gloom talk put me off back then.
My question was which stock broker is best value when trading US stocks, not investment advice. But thanks for the concern.0 -
What i do is the following:
I exchange GBP to USD using transferwise (probably the cheapest). Transferwise send the USD to my HSBC $ account in my name. I send the $ from my online HSBC account (for a measly $6 fee) to my stock broker (II). i invest in $ stocks.
Your welcome.0 -
More curious to understand and educate myself more than anything at the moment. If for example you filled out a W-8BEN form for US stocks on HL etc and wanted to buy into US REIT's like Realty Income Corp etc, how would tax be paid on dividends etc?
I guess holding in a UK ISA makes no difference.
Edit - I read on a blog, from a European investor "in most countries you can deduct the 15% tax from the US on dividends on your own country taxes, therefore only paying 15% of tax at the end."0 -
takesyourchances wrote: »More curious to understand and educate myself more than anything at the moment. If for example you filled out a W-8BEN form for US stocks on HL etc and wanted to buy into US REIT's like Realty Income Corp etc, how would tax be paid on dividends etc?
I guess holding in a UK ISA makes no difference.
Edit - I read on a blog, from a European investor "in most countries you can deduct the 15% tax from the US on dividends on your own country taxes, therefore only paying 15% of tax at the end."
Useful thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5898583/foreign-us-share-in-my-portfolio-tax-treatment
One thing to add is that while the US (as you say) does not recognise UK ISAs as a tax shelter, it does recognise SIPPs. So if your SIPP provider supports the necessary admin (and HL does), you can hold US shares and get dividends tax-free.0 -
londoninvestor wrote: »Useful thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5898583/foreign-us-share-in-my-portfolio-tax-treatment
One thing to add is that while the US (as you say) does not recognise UK ISAs as a tax shelter, it does recognise SIPPs. So if your SIPP provider supports the necessary admin (and HL does), you can hold US shares and get dividends tax-free.
Thanks very much, interesting thread and I will read through it again. I also have a SIPP with HL, so that is good to know that about the tax as well.
Do you hold any US shares / REIT's yourself?
If held in an unwrapped fund and share account and the W-8BEN has been completed and the US retains the 15% tax from dividend payments, would the remaining dividend be tax free up to 2K like UK shares?0 -
takesyourchances wrote: »Do you hold any US shares / REIT's yourself?
No; well, only as holdings of UK OEICSs, which means the dividends are treated just like a UK dividend for tax purposes. (The fund has paid the 15% but I don't need to deal with that directly.)takesyourchances wrote: »If held in an unwrapped fund and share account and the W-8BEN has been completed and the US retains the 15% tax from dividend payments, would the remaining dividend be tax free up to 2K like UK shares?
Yes. And beyond the 2K, you can claim Foreign Tax Credit, so that any UK tax on the US dividends is reduced by the amount of US tax paid. So the effective UK tax rates on US dividends are 0% / 17.5% / 23.1% for basic / higher / top tax rate payers, for a total (US + UK) tax rate of 15% / 32.5% / 38.1% respectively.
(The upshot of this is that if you have both US and UK dividend-paying stocks, your priority for your ISA should be the UK stocks. US dividends in your ISA incur the 15% with no ability of offsetting it against UK tax.)
[Edit: you can choose an alternative treatment which in some scenarios works out better - see bowlhead99's post for the detail.]0
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