Trading indexes in an IRA W/O a Custodian?

[Primal Trader]

I trade both intraday and positional. Very selectively and not hyperactively. I am pleased to see that with that broker micros are also deemed to include mini oil, grains, and the 1,000 oz silver. Plenty of options for me. I often just pay attention to gold, Euro, and one stock index, either Dow or Russell. Since one of my degrees was in international policy studies, and I had already studied international economics, I pay quite a bit of attention to the Euro, oil, and gold. I used to do so with the Yen as well but not so much these days, maybe in the future once again.

Yes, being chained to a computer too long is exhausting! I prefer when possible to hit that sweet spot of a few hours when both Europe and the US are open until the London close, and if possible wrap it up for the day and engage in many other activities. Especially getting out to the mountains, etc. during these unbalanced times.

 

[Primal Trader]

PT, I have not made any withdrawals. Wires are very easy. ACH is fine but only allow one ACH set-up at a time. Customer Service is very good but generally via chat/e-mail. They will call you if you ask. The details fee very well. The platform is simple and fast. The platform is set-up a bit more for Option sellers than futures traders but they evolve the desktop platform frequently. They co-own the SmallExchange. If you like the small exchange products you can buy an exchange membership for $100 to cut exchange (small exchange fees) in half. I joined early and Tasty paid the $100 for me.

Tasty is a great organization. For you possibly the question will be if the platform is good enough for you. By the way...no data fees. For a platform, I like Tradeovate but they require the 3rd party custodian.

Thanks again Ghappy 21, I now have a Roth IRA set up with them and have been approved for futures trading, just waiting on my funding to get set up. I am very impressed with customer service so far and the way they have laid out their processes. If you wish, you could send me a referral code and I could enter it for you to receive credit for referring me. If not for you, I still would not have even heard of them, and they were the best fit by far for my present IRA/futures needs!

 

[yerbluez]

Thanks again Ghappy 21, I now have a Roth IRA set up with them and have been approved for futures trading, just waiting on my funding to get set up. I am very impressed with customer service so far and the way they have laid out their processes. If you wish, you could send me a referral code and I could enter it for you to receive credit for referring me. If not for you, I still would not have even heard of them, and they were the best fit by far for my present IRA/futures needs!

Hey @Primal Trader

I know this thread is a couple years old but I am in the same boat as you. I am interested in starting an IRA that allows daytrading micros or maybe 1 ES, and all the introducing brokers I have come across that have smaller day trading margins (like AMP, Optimus, etc), well as you know they require a custodian like Midland. I'm not entirely opposed to having a custodian, but all the fees are not quite clear (for example, Midland shows a transaction fee of $125 applies to each purchase/sale/ of an asset - so what exactly does this mean?)

Anyhow, I have a traditional IRA with Fidelity, and today it occurred to me that I could potentially use some of the funds there to trade futures. So I came across your posts and saw that you landed with tastyworks. Has your experience been good with them? Are fees and commissions reasonable? Also, while I know IRAs are generally supposed to be retirement accounts, I noticed you mentioned being able to withdraw gains easily. Have you had any problems with withdrawing from the IRA account?

Thanks in advance for your help if you happen to read this.

 

[Primal Trader]

Hey @Primal Trader

I know this thread is a couple years old but I am in the same boat as you. I am interested in starting an IRA that allows daytrading micros or maybe 1 ES, and all the introducing brokers I have come across that have smaller day trading margins (like AMP, Optimus, etc), well as you know they require a custodian like Midland. I'm not entirely opposed to having a custodian, but all the fees are not quite clear (for example, Midland shows a transaction fee of $125 applies to each purchase/sale/ of an asset - so what exactly does this mean?)

Anyhow, I have a traditional IRA with Fidelity, and today it occurred to me that I could potentially use some of the funds there to trade futures. So I came across your posts and saw that you landed with tastyworks. Has your experience been good with them? Are fees and commissions reasonable? Also, while I know IRAs are generally supposed to be retirement accounts, I noticed you mentioned being able to withdraw gains easily. Have you had any problems with withdrawing from the IRA account?

Thanks in advance for your help if you happen to read this.

I have been exceptionally pleased with them on pretty much every level, in fact they are now the only broker I use. ACH withdrawals and additions to a Roth are a snap, just requires two factor for withdrawals. Another advantage is that you will be able to trade Options on Micro Futures such as MES and MCL, very few brokers allow that. This increases your capital efficiency greatly. In fact I like them so much, I recently opened an additional regular margin account. Tom Sosnoff is a true innovator and there are frequent webinars, etc. The only thing I am hoping for is eventually to be able to trade right off the chart like I did with some platforms. In summary, I think you will be extremely pleased with them and their customer service.

 

[yerbluez]

@Primal Trader

Hey thanks for the reply! While it looks like their intraday margins are about 10 times as much as AMP or Optimus (correct me if I'm wrong), I definitely like the idea of not having to deal with a third party trust, especially when it comes records and tax forms.

Speaking of taxes, assuming you are in the US, I know that we are talking about IRAs here, but I've read that trading futures in a retirement account cant potentially trigger some IRS rule UBIT. I'm not sure if it's different for a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA (which is what I have), but have you had any issues come tax time with day trading in that account? The below is where I was reading that:

https://www.solo401k.com/blog/trade-stock-derivatives-in-your-solo-401k/

I've also looked into that company in that link - Solo401k by Nabers. It looks like a nice way to set up self directed account and be able to trade at any broker or platform. However, there is a pricey $500 one time fee, from there on out it's $99 a year and I think that's it. I may consider this as I could still go with someone like AMP for low fees and margins and choose my own platform.

By the way, I was watching a video on the tastytrade platform, and while it's not my favorite platform (I really enjoy using Quantower, very clean and modern), it does seem like it would work fine. I also think you CAN trade from the chart, but it doesn't look as simple as most futures oriented platforms are. Check out this tastytrade video at 30 minutes in, he goes into how to trade from the chart. You may already know it but thought I would share.

thanks for your input! I am going to do more research on it I think. Potentially may go for a Solo 401k so that I could always borrow money from it.