Just a bit of advice please.
I am a complete newbie but would like to paper trade trading US stocks for a while before eventually going live. I intend to use Interactive brokers as they have good reviews. I have had a quick look at their site to try and find answers to my questions, but I am still slightly confused. My questions are:
1. As a UK resident, do I have to register with IBUK, their 'introducing brokers' , and not IB itself based in the US?
2. The reason for the above question is because, IBUK require a minimum of $10,000 to open an account, while IB in US requires a minimum of $25,000 to open an account. Just wondering why the big difference and whether there are some restrictions with the UK account?
3 . If I open an account with IBUK, would I have access to trade on all the US stocks available via IB in US?
4. As a UK full-time working resident trading US stocks, I know guys here are not tax experts, but just wanted a rough idea, where do I stand in terms of tax payable, would it be income tax or capital gains tax?
5. Obviously, I intent to paper trade this method for a while, as well as practice using IB's TWS and other applications, I know from their site IB offer something called Papertrader, a simulated trading account to practice with, which one can create after registering and opening a live account with IB.
So my plan is to open an account with IB, but not carry out any live trading but just use the papertrader account to paper trade for a while. My question is does anybody know whether I will incur any fees and charges from IB even though I am not trading live. As some of their charges/fees etc are based on how active you account is, or how much commission you make for them per month etc?
Many thanks
Dan
PS. I realise I can direct these questions to IB directly themselves, but sometimes you get quicker response and far more useful answers from people that have actually experienced using the services, and not some standard automated reply