Trading in England ??

H

HawaiianTrader

Hi,

well it looks like I'll be leaving HI and heading to the UK for some refreshing rain, darkness and fog, NOT !!

Anyway, I'll be looking to trade in the UK, and because of the time difference I'm thinking about trying to trade their market, to allow it to fit into family time etc, trading at night won't cut it.

I've been trading the mini futures latley and really like them, is there anything over there that might be simaler to trade ?

Is the "FUTSE" (I think, or something like that:-) open out cry or computer based ?

Has anybody ever traded in another country moving from the US ?

How do you go on for taxes etc, etc ?? We are planning on staying in the UK for at least a few years.

I'm with IB at the moment and guess, I'll check into what they trade as well. As far as charting guess it's better to try and find a local charting comp' rather than relaying on qoutes from the US ?

If anybody has any other info' they feel might be interesting for me to know I'd appreciate it :-) I've got a few months to prepare. Guess I've got to find out how much it'll be to ship three monitors and if they'll even work over there ?? Oh what joy moving is :-(

Andy
 
All markets in Europe are now fully electronic. IB offers futures in France (CAC), Switzerland (SMI), UK (FTSE, 3 month sterling - got to hedge your USD/British pounds :)), and mini FTSE) and Germany (DAX, DJSTOXX, BUND, and a few more).

Most of the above are index futures.

While I am not a bond trader you've got to watch the BUND trade. The volumes and liquidity is an amazing thing to see. I used to show that to HK exchange officials when to show the potential of electronic markets. The BUND was open outcry on the Liffe in London and when the Eurex in Germany put it on their electronic system the 100,000+ contracts that trade per day quickly shifted to the electronic platform.

FYI, IB will also start offering UK and German stocks in the relatively near futre. Given that the markets are all electronic I am sure there are also a number of other firms that offer direct access. As for quote/graph providers I am in the dark.

As for your monitors, unless they can handle multiple voltage, I'm afraid you'll need new ones. You can tell by looking on the back and if it says 200/240v you'll be ok (the same is true for other electronic equipment. You could by a voltage converter but it probably isn't worth it). If you're shipping all your belongings the marginal cost of the monitors may be insignificant. However, if shipping seperately I think you might be better off getting new equipment.

If you desire, I can hook you up with with a US expat living in London who knows the european markets well and ofcourse provide you with the other information you desire.

Taxes: as an american you have the great distinction of having all of your global income taxable. You get something like a 72K USD deduction off of income and after that you've got to pay uncle sam.
 
Hi, Thanks DEF,

I'm so glad I'm with IB :-)

I was born in the UK, and now carry dual citizenship with the US, so the taxes are something I've got to check out. For some reason I'm not excited about finding out what ;-) Of course when I hit 72K I'll be more than happy to pay Uncle Sam :-)

We've pretty much decided to move overthere with next to nothing so I'll just figure on getting new hardware. My main problen is that my trading hasn't quite turned the courner into making big profits (Ha!!) so setting back up with many monitors will take some (more) marketing from me :-)

I am excited into seeing what charts look like for the FTSE (at least I have the name now :-) Where do I find out about margins for them etc ? Does anybody else know where I could get some interday charts of the FSTE, even delayed is fine for now, just to back test etc.

I would be interested in talking to your friend about trading over in europe, my e-mail is listed here at Elite. Like I said there's no rush, probably won't be till late summer for the earliest, just in time for colder wetter weather :-)

Thank you again Def, I really do appreciate your answer and info'.

later, Andy



 
Would like to know if there is a daytrading firm in Europe that offers an electronic platform similar to redi plus?

Or if there are U.S. firms with offices in Europe.

THanks
 
be sure to check out http://www.advfn.com (free realtime prices + lots of other stuff).

Also, check out the chatroom at http://www.trade2win.co.uk - very friendly (and helpful!) bunch.

Dave

(hi5)

ps
I expect you'llfind it a bit of a shock trying to daytrade in the UK - very wide spreads, heavy commission & stamp duty, and not much intraday momentum.

A lot of us trade CFD's with deal4free.com - no comm or stamp duty. Still an uphill battle though ;-)
 
def,
You mentioned that IB will offer trading in UK stocks. What are the ways that I could fund the account? Could I ask IB to transfer funds from my US acount to the UK account -- and IB would take care of the currency conversion? Or would I have to arrange a wire transfer in pounds from my bank to IB's bank in the UK?

 
IB is rolling out multicurrency accounts as we speak. You would be able to fund the account in USD and trade the FX to do the currency conversion. Currently IB only offers Liffe, Eurex, Matif and SMI futures in Europe for non-institutional customers. (assuming you are a US citizen you will not be allowed to trade stock futures until December when the regulations enable it). European stocks should be rolled out very shortly after the multi-currency accounts go into general release.
 
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