Hi all,

I want to buy/sell US stocks/ETFs etc but gather that I'll need to have a US trading account. Anyone got any recommendations?

I've heard about E-Trade, Scottrade and wondered what the caveats are. I know that if you trade regularly then you need to keep
$25K in your account....

Are there any UK accounts that allow you access to all ETFs etc?

Thanks

Frank

http://www.lyxoretf.co.uk/

Look up the ETFs and place a price search on the LSE. Plenty of them out there. Once you have the Lyxor name or code, any can be invested in using any dealing account.

Thanks for that. Their list of ETFs is somewhat limited (75) and I couldn't find a couple I was looking for and so am not sure if it's of use.

It's becoming clear I may need to use E-Trade and may need to have $25K in my a/c if I trade often....

Frank

It might be mixed in amongst this list? http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/p...ws/prices/ETFs/

Easy answer from an old US ETF timer. TD Waterhouse UK offers US, UK, Canadian, and European trading but they are not very good (mostly bl**dy annoying) and have a very poor web platform. E*Trade US are great in terms of dealing costs, the functionality of their web platform, and better protection. There is some form of account minimum and/or trading volume to avoid fees but that does not apply to me. Watch out for UK based firms saying they trade US stocks - often that just the LSE international list which is a joke.

Your on the right track looking at ETFs. There are a huge number on the US exchanges covering everything. They are great investment vehicles for me and some work as trading vehicles too. There are a number of dedicated web sites on them too. Yahoo US provides a full(ish) listing,and Morningstar US provides good analytics. But E*Trade US have the best analytics overall (charts, holdings, ratings, etc).

Iweb have good access to the US markets, and they've had every stock and ETF I've ever wanted to trade available for online trading. They might not have all of them, but I'm told that they don't automatically update their list of available stocks when new stocks or ETFs launch - so you may need to call them if it's a new, or rarely traded one, so that they can set up their systems for it. One reason I like iweb is that a single £ denominated account gives you access to all the US markets, London (including AIM) and all the major European markets.

They don't allow options, margin or anything fancy. Their commissions are reasonable, and there are no minimum funding requirements, account management fees, etc. Their web trading platform is dire, but it works.

That said, they did manage to screw up some US trades. I was trying to buy some ETFs - but I kept getting a weird cryptic error message. So I kept clicking. It turns out that they had actually bought the shares each time I'd clicked, and I'd bought about £12k of shares when I only wanted £3k, not to mention the fact that I didn't have the cash in my account. They sorted it very quickly and professionally though - it turns out that this was a nice error in my favour!

whats the tax treatment of these. Can you open an offshore trading account and keep the dividend?And Capital Gains.

try www.interactivebrokers.com

platform, execution and access to markets is second to none... and commish is very cheap.