Help! Brokerages, Tax & Education

[Lucky_81]

Hi, I am a relative newbie to trading, so far I have only been spread betting but I'm looking to go direct access for the US markets. Does anyone know a decent broker for US shares? At the moment I just want to paper trade so I'm preferably after a broker that will provide real time quotes and charts with maybe some kind of low inactivity fee. Any suggestions appreciated.

Also what kind of tax implications are involved for a UK resident purchasing US shares (i.e. stamp, CGT any other US taxes)?

I'm also looking for some decent education, I'm currently using Pristine who so far seem excellent, has anyone else used Pristine successfully/not so successfully - comments appreciated.

Lastly can anyone recommend any other eduction providers, there seem to be so many cowboys out there I never know who to trust.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dc2000]

Hi Lucky a couple of good ones are
www.interactivebrokers.co.uk these can also supply a data feed for your chart software although their paper trader uses delayed data and the phone trading is not the best
http://www.mandirect.co.uk/home/default.cfm man have a paper trading platform that has real time prices the commissions are individually based but as with all things get a quote elsewhere and see if they can beat it

Lastly http://www.spiketrading.com/index.asp good customer service and their x trader gives you the option to bracket orders, ie set up a limit order but if the stoploss gets hit the limit order is cancelled

 

[Skimbleshanks]

When you open an account to trade US shares, you will be asked to complete a W-8BEN form. The BEN part means that you are the Beneficiary of the profit derived from those stocks, and as you are a UK tax payer you are subject to UK taxes on those gains, not US taxes.

Apart from that, the only difference is that when you buy/sell US stocks there is no stamp duty, which is one of the reasons that trading US stocks is so attractive.