IBKR from the UK, detail

[rmaskell]

Maybe this should be somewhere ellse, mods please move if so.

Trying to get detailed but full info can be like blood/stone, sheesh. It can take days for an email reply, if you get one at all.

I'm looking at IBKR because they
1) aren't bunch of monkeys
2) have decent spreads
3) link to TradingView which I bought for a year (on offer).
Assuming I want a margin account I need to deposit $25k to avoid PDT rules, ok.
(I don't need it for the leverage but I do need to be able to go short. on common stocks.)

HOW does their currency exchange work?
If I use their variable-commission model those fees look fine.
I have to have a GBP account, they say. Can't have a USD account
Question is, where do they apply a currency conversion fee if I go long/short on US stocks.

Person on the phone didn't appreciate difference from Cash... Hard to communicate with foreign call centre.

1) Is there a currency conversion with fee for each direction, or only once on a "round rip", or only on the profit/loss. or what??

2) Is their free US data ok to use for day trading, or so I need to pay for more accurate real-time data?
I mostly use large-cap or actively taded stocks.
I assume if I want Level2 data I need to pay for the stock prices real-time data first. Is that right?
Does that come with the Imbalances?

If anyone could do a paragraph on their experience of using IBKR from the UK, and/or with TradingView, it would be much appreciated.

I’ve had a uk IBKR account for some years now. You’ll have your account based in GBP but you can also hold other currencies which you can use to trade. So you’d convert some of your GBP to USD and then trade US stocks using the USD part of your balance. Data feed, spreads are very good and they now provide Trading View as their Advanced Charting at no extra cost. Let me know if you want more. I trade Uk and US stocks daily and Futures.

 

[cara2]

I’ve had a uk IBKR account for some years now. You’ll have your account based in GBP but you can also hold other currencies which you can use to trade. So you’d convert some of your GBP to USD and then trade US stocks using the USD part of your balance. Data feed, spreads are very good and they now provide Trading View as their Advanced Charting at no extra cost. Let me know if you want more. I trade Uk and US stocks daily and Futures.

Thanks,
checking:
Do you uuse a margin account and if so have >$25k?
there's a minimum fee per trade of $1, right? SOunds pathetic but some of mine are that small. Still learning. Too many scalps.
I have a paid TV, (black Freiday pffer 70% off) which allows more instruments' charts at once basically, and more alerts.. Not trading with it means I'm not really getting to grips with it.

Can you do fiddly things like ATR trailing stops?
I also can't easily "take some out" of a position very easily - is that slick or clunky?
Which do you use for placing adn order - can you place an order with a stoploss and a TP on screen, with size set up, sort of thing?
Do you use IBKR or TV for Level2?

 

[rmaskell]

I have a cash account.

You could use IB and their integrated TV.

You can set trailing stops manually, but you'd need another program to automatically trade off of say an ATR on a chart. I use Motivewave (MW), I bought the standard edition of Motivewave and link it to IB and trade off of charts that way.

Yes you can place bracket orders and OCO with both IB and MW. With MW you can also set up multiple templates and apply them live.

I did use L2 for day trading but my trading style has moved more towards swing and LTTF where entry price isn't so important. Spend some time looking at money management. Much less stressful and boring getting rich slowly...means you can go do other things with your day other than sat in front of a monitor. (Appreciate there's lots that like to do that too, so do I occasionally)