PEP and ISA again

Hi, I am looking for some suggestions/comments here. I have seen some posts somehow on this topic, but they date back to 2003, so I give it a try.

I trade futures and FX . I do not like shares and even less investment funds. In the past I have opened those PEP and ISA and put money in investment funds and forgotten about them.
I am looking back at them now as I am considering opening a Child Trust Fund account (uhmmm)

Investing in funds and stuff like that is, in my opinion, a waste of time (when not a waste of money). For a trader, it is even worse: it is painful!!

Now, I was wondering whether to cash in and close out and also forget about tax free money for my children, (I know, I know, but I am not too keen on Spread betting either) or whether there is a way to keep these accounts and make them work a bit better.

Apart from high fees, the main problem I see is that the range of eligible instruments is very limited. The only decent proposition (if one does not wish to trade UK shares, which I think what is meant by "Crest settled shares" ) is a range of ETFs. Unfortunatley, they seem to be rather different from the Amex ETFs that I know. Volme and liquidity seem alarmingly low, I am not sure how well they track what they are supposed to track and how open to manipulation they are.

So, anybody there cares to comment?
thanks

...obviously not.
I am surprised nobody has an opinion on this. Perhaps it is the wrong board? I have actually found rather strange that ISA stuff was put together with property investment and things like that.
Regards

How about a self-select ISA? There is a negligable annual charge and then you are just paying the normal rate for share dealing (£10 a lot or so with e-dealing.com). If you don't like u.k. you can hold u.s. shares or funds in it, or euro ones. Open one for every member of the family.

Thank you very much, peto

Perhaps it was not clear from my message, apologies for that, but I would consider nothing else than a Self-select ISA/CTF/PEP. In fact, I am trying to find a way to use these accounts to trade (obviously long-ish term) instruments that I know and like.
I know for sure that I cannot trade futures and FX on those accounts. Until your post I was quite sure I could not use US or European stocks and ETFs either. In my homework I have found that eligible shares are limited to those that “settle via Crest”. I enter unfamiliar territory here, but I assumed that this meant UK shares.
Is there a way to understand if non-UK shares settle via Crest and therefore are eligible?
I have not found any UK broker that offers the possibility to trade US stocks and US ETFs via a PEP/ISA/CFT. Does anybody know any, by any chance?
Easier: can non-UK shares/ETFs be traded in a UK PEP/ISA/CTF account and which broker offers this possibility? Peto, are you sure about that e-dealing.com site?
Also, every time that I click on an ETF link on any UK broker website, I am re-directed to the I-share.net/LSE range of products. Anybody has any experience of these?
Thank you again and best regards

https://www.idealing.com/index.jsp

Sorry got the name wrong for iDealing which is odd because I have an isa account and am holding etfs for PAAS GFI and HMY, all listed in the us.

pete

I think TDWaterhouse offers international stocks and ETFs for trading within an ISA, but it's been ages since I used them.

http://www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk/productsandservices/isa.cfm
http://www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk/productsandservices/invest/index.cfm

It looks like international stocks are now allowed by the tax man.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/bullletin25.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/fid/rse.htm

Thank you all very much.
It looks like I have done a very poor homework! Back to research, then.
I have also found that Squaregain, formerly Comdirect, offers a CTF account, which the two brokers you have kindly pointed out do not seem to do. I may have a look at them, if I can go through their lousy website.
Any further comment higly appreciated.
Thank you and best regards

ISA / Forex?

Is Forex trading permitted also now? In addition to EFT Stocks Etc.