USA account

[juanbyte]

Hi

Does anyone know how to open a futures trading account in the USA for a UK resident.

I have tried several but they say you need a US mailing address can anyone help.

 

[Helenqu]

Try IB, they have a UK office and are happy to open £ based accounts.
www.interactivebrokers.co.uk

 

[juanbyte]

Thanx helengu

do you know what the spread for the Dow is, the commission charges look very competitive and will suit me.

Best regards

Hamish Cohen aka juanbyte

 

[Trader333]

Well today on IB the spread is 0 or 1 point which is what it usually is.


Paul

 

[juanbyte]

Hi Paul

thanx again for you help.

I have been looking for years for a competetive futures broker, I don,t understand how they can charge such low commissions when the likes of E*trade charge £9.99 plus their spread was 8 points. Am I missing something.

IB looks great are there any downsides.

regards

chris

 

[Mr. Charts]

No, you are not missing anything other than the greed of UK brokers. Netfutures cost slightly more than IB but you get full depth of market and the phone back up is superlative compared with IB.
However since Man has taken over GNI, I have closed the account as I won't deal with those ******* at Man.
GNI Chicago charged me a lot less than GNI London for the same contracts anyway!

 

[juanbyte]

Thanx Mr Charts

I will check them out, how do you get an account in Chicargo do you not need a US mailing address.

I think some time ago GNI offered me £4 a trade and Man wanted £10.

Cheers

 

[Mr. Charts]

juan,
Email me at

[email protected]

and I'll send you my (ex)- broker's name and phone number. He'll tell you exactly what to do, which form to fill in and will talk you through every question on the W8-BEN US govt form.
He's become a personal family friend and will charge you less than on the web site since I've introduced you. No, I don't get a cut.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Mr Charts - out of interest do you know who they clear through? Their blurb says they are independent and not tied to any one FCM.

 

[Mr. Charts]

Skim,
It used to be GNI but they got taken over by Man, whom I'd used previously and found to be the pits. Hence closing my account.
Contact me if you want the name and number of my friend. Their web site is basic but their quality of service superb, esp. when you've got a good guy to talk to. A decent human being rather the usual type.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

My experience with Man is the pits too, so it's a shame they clear through Man. I'm looking for another broker to add to my collection - just for futures, and for hedging / longer-term holds (ie overnight!).

I'd be grateful if you would PM me with the name and number, and I might give them a try just in case the Man corporate pleb mentality hasn't reached them yet.

 

[norgib]

I personally find IB great.V Low overheads=low v commisssions(why pay more for the same thing?).Very rarely have any problems with the trading platform.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

I agree norgib, and I've never had any problems with IB whatsoever.

However, there is such a thing as not having all your eggs in one basket. I now need to have an account with another broker just in case something unforeseen happens with IB or there is a glitch between IB and Globex, or my PC, or my Internet connection. Just in case the unthinkable happens, it would be a good idea for me to have a back-up account so I can hedge any open positions I have using the telephone if necessary.

 

[llew]

Just opened a mini dow in US

I've just finished opening an account to trade the mini dow with Global Futures in the US,commission is 6 dollars per contract.Could someone tell me if this is a fair deal?
As i'm looking to only scalp 10 to 20 points a day is there any problems i should be aware of,I've only been spread betting up to now.
Is there any courses in the UK that could maybe give me an introduction in this transition from spread betting to trading Futures?
Thanks
Llew

 

[Grant]

UK residents, foreign accounts

Hi

Does anyone know how to open a futures trading account in the USA for a UK resident.

I have tried several but they say you need a US mailing address can anyone help.

I'm 90% certain that UK-based residents trading through a US broker are not covered by any investor compensation scheme. If they go down, you get nothing. If one is used, keep your account at the minimum.

 

[minx]

I'm looking at brokers too but need one that can access the commodity pits so a lot of the regular online ones dont qualify, I thinnk I've narrowed it down to MAN and Lind-Waldock, both see ok on paper and the lind software is quite nice, my only qualm with them is that I'm not sure if they're registered in the UK as I'd quite like to be covered from here should anything go wrong.......
Any ideas/feedback on there brokers or suggestions of others????
Thanks

 

[blackcab]

llew, is there any reason why you opened a $ account for the mini Dow rather than use IB in £?

 

[oatman]

You won't find safer than Man.

 

[def]

I'm 90% certain that UK-based residents trading through a US broker are not covered by any investor compensation scheme. If they go down, you get nothing. If one is used, keep your account at the minimum.

That's not necessarily true. Commodity accounts generally do no have any protections. However, at Interactive Brokers, the excess cash in the commodities account gets swept into the securities account each night and would receive securities account protection. All funds are segregated and are afforded the same protections regardless of location. If you are UK based, you'll actually open an account with IB UK and thus be under the auspices of the FSA.

In any event, IB is the 20th largest securities broker in the US and is very well capitalised.

 

[oatman]

Are they individually segregated or segregated together with other segregated funds?