interested in trading international equities on Barclays advice please

happyhero

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Hi Not sure where to put this post but i would like to take first steps with international trading.I have a Marketmaster account with Barclays and trade equities on here. I am not a professional trader, far from it but I do trade regular ie 1 to 10 times a month. I am not getting rich unfortunately but I do ok and make a small profits although not so much lately the way it's been.

Anyway I hve been watching some American shares and as it seems to be getting easier to do, I am thinking of trading the odd International share as part of my portfolio. Never having done this I was after some guidance on this, i.e. how does it compare to trading UK shares.

When I trade UK shares I normally trade about £2000 per share maximum as I like to keep my portfolio varied and I have traded as low as £500 when I have had the odd bit of cash to invest so here are some questions if anyone can help.

Could I trade as low as £500 in USA shares for example or would there be a reason that that is too low?

When I trade UK shares I pay a fee say about £19 on £2000 trades including stamp duty as a very rough figure and a sale fee when I sell and that is all the fees I have to worry about, is this the same with say USA shares or are there more fees to factor in?

I know there is the exchange rate to consider, so what rate would you get here, I know it cannot be the tourist rate so what rate is it? Where can I check this rate online?

Reading the info on Barclays it says you have to put money in your International account first and it is kept in Stirling, is this a big problem because money coming in and out from purchases and sales will be converted all the time (I assume)?

I would basically like to trade foreign shares as simply as I can UK ones so is it as good as that now or will I find it a bit more complicated than that do you think?

Any advice or help appreciated.
 
Forget Barclays, they'll skin you with the fees and FX.

Use Interactivebrokers.co.uk
 
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