UK Newbie... US stock brokers for non residents

[assad786]

Hi, I live in UK and want to trade US stock so I'm looking for US stockbrokers who accept UK clients. IB and Suretrader are the only option but IB wants minimum of $10,000 and I want to start with 1K and Suretrader doesn't have good reviews. I dont care about PDT rule as I'm completely new so I'll be doing 1-3 trades a week. Any other good brokers with good track record?

Thank You

 

[Lightning McQueen]

at first glance suretrader looks a reasonable option for what you're after, low opening account balance and no pdt rules apply.

on the negative side odd lot restrictions may mean your low account balance may restrict the stocks you can trade, depending what stocks you are looking to trade of course. factor in the extra fees that add to the monthly cost of maintaining the account, eg if you add level 2 etc. then there's the domicile of the broker, if you're happy to send funds to the Bahamas then that's fine, but do check what client fund protection (if any?) you'll actually get in event they go belly up.

as you're uk based, have you compared opening account balance/monthly fees cost/available stocks re sb and/or cfd us stock trading? at least your funds are better protected, if nothing else.

 

[hhiusa]

SureTrader claims you can daytrade with only $500; however, it is extremely unlikely that the SEC will allow you do to this. The SEC will freeze your account for 180 days if you place more than 4 roundtrip daytrades within 5 days. Additionally, I would advise you against it as $4.95 per trade is very expensive, especially if you are working with $500. that's a $10 for a roundtrip trade or %2. That's 4 times the UK stamp duty tax.

http://finra.complinet.com/en/display/display.html?rbid=2403&element_id=9383