Operating USA Broker Accounts from the UK

[donnee]

Hi,

Newbie here. I have been paper trading Option strategies with SPY on TradeMonster for a while and wanted to know how UK based investors operate a USA based broker account such as that with real funds, i.e. how would I best transfer a small starting sum to fund the account both initially and ongoing. What are the problems of tax treatment/exchange encountered and how best to keep to a minimum?

Thanks for any help.

 

[taeth]

why not trade through Interactive Brokers, that way you can open an account in any base currency, in your case, pounds sterling , then trade US options, your exchange will then be minimal. As for tax, u sign what I think is a w35 form which ecxludes u from US tax, UK tax will still as apply as per usual.

I used to trade thru TOS until they cancelled UK accounts, it was a bit cumbersome as I had to transfer money to their US bank which I think was citi and I noticed that my bank always screwed me on the forex transaction. So then I ended up opening an IB account and only kept the minimum in TOS, that way I could use their superior analytics and trade thru IB, but can no longer do that obviously.

Hope this helps.

 

[donnee]

why not trade through Interactive Brokers, that way you can open an account in any base currency, in your case, pounds sterling , then trade US options, your exchange will then be minimal.

Thank you very much...that's great advice. I already contacted Trademonster and I think I would need to fill in about 8 forms and it would take 3 weeks to set up, never mind the exchange rate business.

I will now take a good look at IB. If I can paper trade with them too that will be great. Your information on TOS prevents me wasting my time looking at them at any rate.