Swing trading us stocks with IB from UK

[olionion]

Folks

Does anyone here swing trade us stocks with IB, if so do you keep your base currency in GBP and pay the overnight financing costs for buying the position in $ (which i believe they loan to you secured on your balance) or do you convert some of the GBP into $ for trading with.

I guess the latter approach could work in your advantage depending on fx movement but could also be a pain if you have to change it back and currency has moved against you.

Just wondered if anyone else is doing this and what approach they take?

cheers

Oli

 

[adamchubb]

Folks

Does anyone here swing trade us stocks with IB, if so do you keep your base currency in GBP and pay the overnight financing costs for buying the position in $ (which i believe they loan to you secured on your balance) or do you convert some of the GBP into $ for trading with.

I guess the latter approach could work in your advantage depending on fx movement but could also be a pain if you have to change it back and currency has moved against you.

Just wondered if anyone else is doing this and what approach they take?

cheers

Oli

I'm from HK, not UK, but doing similar things as you do. For me, I don't convert my home currency into USD because:
- interest rate is so low, you're not paying much for borrowing USD
- eliminate currency risk
- save a bit of fx trade commission and slippage

if you make money from trading, your USD balance will go back to positive at some point.

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

Yes, do it all in sterling and then worry about currency conversions when I end up with a material non-sterling cash balance.

 

[olionion]

Thanks chaps, got my account up and running with them just the other day, at the moment im just trading UK stocks as thats where all my study has been to date but would like to move across to US ones asap. Dont suppose you could recommend a good book/site on how the us markets work, perhaps something similar to the UK traders bible?

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

not really come across anything like that. I use marketwatch.com as my all purpose info / news site if that helps.

 

[olionion]

thanks will take a look

 

[moreliver]

Trading the US Markets by Paolo Pezzutti.
Swing Trading as a Part Time Job by Brett Brown

Worden Telechart for market data, charts, etc.

I did reasonably well trading US markets for a bit. Considering going back to it as I like the clear upward trend of the S&P right now.

Good trading.

Moreliver