Why aren't we trading in the US?

[yonnie]

Alright, at the moment the Ozzie share market is going very well, but what do you trade when there`s not much going left???????? Just waiting a few years weathering the storm?

Wouldn`t we better off to consider opening an US broking account and the world will be your oyster?

With an US account like Interactive Brokers you can:

trade more than ten thousand US companies
trade markets in Europe, Japan, Britain etc
trade 100s of different futures contracts
trade 100s of exchange traded funds
etc etc

lots of free info and market screeners
low brokerage (Ozzie is a joke; at IB I can buy $ 100,000
worth of shares for $ 1; Choicetrade $ 5 per unlimited trade)
platforms in Oz are a joke too: with IB I can place more than 30 different order types and you dont pay any extra like Comsec/Westpac....set and go fishing
deposits in broking accounts are insured in case your broker goes belly up; not in Oz

the only thing I dont like is that the leverage on shares in the US is not great, while here in Oz you can use CFD`s.

Traded there myself for years, came back here last year, but might go back again.

 

[reece55]

the only thing I dont like is that the leverage on shares in the US is not great, while here in Oz you can use CFD`s.

I'm with you yonnie, already there having fun in yankee land......

I trade through the IG Markets platform, I can get 20:1 leverage at a commission cost of 2 cents per share, $15 min, so it is advisable trade higher priced shares, but all the same anything over about a $10 is going to be a hell of a lot cheaper than ASX traded stocks...... The world is your oyster, plus now I can trade in my own home, away from the distractions of work to my hearts delight. Be warned however - insomnia can be an issue!!!

Cheers
Reece

 

[yonnie]

hi reece,

Insomnia was not a problem for me, `cos I traded on EOD data........did my research during the day, place my orders:
buy limit or buy stop with stop loss and trailing stop and off to bed.

I miss to be able to place 1 complete order.

 

[ta2693]

As far as I know, when you use limit order in Nasdaq, you can also get credit for trading. In some case, the credit you get is more than your SEC fee and brokerage fee.
But I am afraid there are too many players in us Market, the market is too efficient to make profit out of it. Besides, There is no American Stock forum out there.

 

[ta2693]

Alright, at the moment the Ozzie share market is going very well, but what do you trade when there`s not much going left???????? Just waiting a few years weathering the storm?

Wouldn`t we better off to consider opening an US broking account and the world will be your oyster?

With an US account like Interactive Brokers you can:

trade more than ten thousand US companies
trade markets in Europe, Japan, Britain etc
trade 100s of different futures contracts
trade 100s of exchange traded funds
etc etc

lots of free info and market screeners
low brokerage (Ozzie is a joke; at IB I can buy $ 100,000
worth of shares for $ 1; Choicetrade $ 5 per unlimited trade)
platforms in Oz are a joke too: with IB I can place more than 30 different order types and you dont pay any extra like Comsec/Westpac....set and go fishing
deposits in broking accounts are insured in case your broker goes belly up; not in Oz

the only thing I dont like is that the leverage on shares in the US is not great, while here in Oz you can use CFD`s.

Traded there myself for years, came back here last year, but might go back again.

Where do you get $1 brokerage fee? I remember the lowest it is around $8

 

[nizar]

Alright, at the moment the Ozzie share market is going very well, but what do you trade when there`s not much going left???????? Just waiting a few years weathering the storm?

Wouldn`t we better off to consider opening an US broking account and the world will be your oyster?

With an US account like Interactive Brokers you can:

trade more than ten thousand US companies
trade markets in Europe, Japan, Britain etc
trade 100s of different futures contracts
trade 100s of exchange traded funds
etc etc

lots of free info and market screeners
low brokerage (Ozzie is a joke; at IB I can buy $ 100,000
worth of shares for $ 1; Choicetrade $ 5 per unlimited trade)
platforms in Oz are a joke too: with IB I can place more than 30 different order types and you dont pay any extra like Comsec/Westpac....set and go fishing
deposits in broking accounts are insured in case your broker goes belly up; not in Oz

the only thing I dont like is that the leverage on shares in the US is not great, while here in Oz you can use CFD`s.

Traded there myself for years, came back here last year, but might go back again.

I tend to agree.

What i like about the Yanks is that you can easily short stocks, unleveraged. Just as easy as you can buy them.

Couple easy shorting + cheap brokerage and you cant go wrong.

Much bigger universe of stocks as well.

 

[yonnie]

As far as I know, when you use limit order in Nasdaq, you can also get credit for trading. In some case, the credit you get is more than your SEC fee and brokerage fee.
But I am afraid there are too many players in us Market, the market is too efficient to make profit out of it. Besides, There is no American Stock forum out there.

sorry ta, but I think its a bit of a laugh to say that the US market is more efficient; if anything the moves are more exaggerated than in Oz.

No American Stock forum: what about elitetrader.com, trade2win.com and hundreds of others

I know you get some credits if you add liquidity to the market, but not sure how that works.

IB charges ½cent per share, so ie for a $ 50 share you buy 200 shares @ $ 50 = $ 100,000 position for $ 1.

For low value stocks you can open an account with Choicetrade and they charge $ 5 per order.

so there you go, no reason not to go there

 

[reece55]

I am with yonnie.
Granted, you have to watch out for the volatility, but too efficient to make a profit???? What about trend trading - just have a look at the bull run in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). You didn't have to be a genius to understand these guys command the most sought after piece of hardware in the world and that with emerging countries expanding, don't you think they are going to sell a bundle of these to Chindia......... There are countless others, my point is that the US simply provides more choice - a successful trader should be able to make a buck with the Yanks....

Cheers

 

[ta2693]

Another problem is the time zone, you have to stay up very late to trade in US. It is very bad for your health.

 

[Kauri]

I personally have more on my plate than I can handle already with IG's Aussie CFD offerings, FX, indicies and a few commodities.

 

[ta2693]

I know there is a company called swifttrade who is recruiting trader to trade for them on US market including NYSE and Nasdaq. They are doing day trading, i.e. the position have to be zero overnight.
You do not have to use your money. they give you around 30000 at the beginning to 2m if you are really good.
You will get 10% of the profit you made. every day they allow you to have $100 lose, If you lose more than that, you are shut down in a day. if you continue make lose, they will kick you out. The good thing is you do not need to use your own money, the bad thing is you can not make much out of 10% profit in day trading and you may have to stay up very late because of time zone.
Swifttrade has lot of branch over the world , if you are interested in it, you can check www.swifttrade.com.

 

[ta2693]

One more question about Tax issue. What is tax treatment of my earning from US market?
Do I need to pay double income tax to UTO and ATO? What should I do If I do not have a Tax Number in US? Do I have to pay on the highest marginal tax rate like what happened in Australia?

 

[yonnie]

One more question about Tax issue. What is tax treatment of my earning from US market?
Do I need to pay double income tax to UTO and ATO? What should I do If I do not have a Tax Number in US? Do I have to pay on the highest marginal tax rate like what happened in Australia?

ta, if you`re a Aussie resident nothing changes. US/Oz has a tax agreement and when you open a brokerage account in US you sign a W8 form and you`re exempt from US tax.
You just fill in your tax form in Oz how u would do normally, but you have to "bring back" your profits in AUD on your tax form.

 

[yonnie]

I personally have more on my plate than I can handle already with IG's Aussie CFD offerings, FX, indicies and a few commodities.

brokerage/interest will be cheaper in US

you can even open a broking account in AUD with IB
so trade the SPI with IB in AUD

they will also converse money form AUD to USD and back for you at a very decent rate.
better than the banks.

 

[grumpee boi]

I agree yonnie. I am looking at a timing system for ETFs on the IB platform. There are ETFs covering everything from commodities to even listed equity over there now and it is easy to construct a worldwide diversified portfolio. Timing the different asset classes will reduce returns in a bull market but dramatically reduce volatility and drawdowns.

I have written about a simple ETF portfolio before but since then there are new ETFs that could be added for further diversification - esp the commodities like gold and oil, cheaper EAFE-type funds and BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China emerging markets). For DIY investors, cutting out the extra layer of fees associated with planners and wrap platforms here in Oz without losing the benefits of true worldwide diversification is such an opportunity. You could easily save 1-2% pa and we all know what that could add up to over a couple of decades.

Just need to get some data for the chosen ETFs and work out whether I want to hedge currency risk and to what extent.

Adam

 

[yonnie]

I agree yonnie. I am looking at a timing system for ETFs on the IB platform. There are ETFs covering everything from commodities to even listed equity over there now and it is easy to construct a worldwide diversified portfolio. Timing the different asset classes will reduce returns in a bull market but dramatically reduce volatility and drawdowns.

was looking at a timing system myself at one stage for the country ETF`s, but I find that damned difficult.
One month Malaysia is ahead, stops, starts, spurts, another month Taiwan is king and all the time I`m jumping in and out and getting nowhere.

It is also very time consuming and I am now leaning towards long-term investing with maximum leverage.
You wouldn`t find a lot of leverage with ETF`s so I reckon I`m going for the futures.

Lots of liquidity, great leverage, recognized markets and going for the long haul.
I`m asking you: how much would you be worth if you had jumped in with $ 200,000 in futures in the SPI near the start of the trend in 2003/2004?
You would be a millionair now with the only work being rolling over your contracts and enjoying your cruise.

Thats the way I want to go:
look for a few liquid non-correlated markets, get in when the new trend is underway and stick with it.
When the trend is over, reverse and ride it down.
Mostly that is a lot quicker and then put all your money in another market that is just starting to trend.

I`m just getting sick of putting thousands of hours into research and I reckon its not necessary at all and it might even be contra-productive.
I`ve made good money, but it can be done a lot easier.

I`m sure that the people who have already gone that way are laughing their head off at all the activity on these boards.

But we all have to start somewhere

 

[BREND]

Just bought some ITM US stocks Call options last Friday night:

CAT Jul 75 Call @ $5.00
ESV Jul 60 Call @ $3.80
FCX Jul 75 Call @ $6.60
FTI Jul 75 Call @ $3.90
HOC Jul 70 Call @ $71.19
PCU Jul 90 Call @ $5.20

In my view, the oil rigs sector is now one of the most undervalued sector in US market.

US market is an easy market to make money, not because this market is inefficient, but it is because a lot of information about the companies are freely available in the internet.

I had participated in US stock-pick competition organised by Zacks.com, currently my ranking is 198th out of 46,728 participants.

I'm resident in the other part of the world, yet my portfolio return is far better than the average American investors there.

 

[yonnie]

so now I`m putting together a long-term (even years) trend following strategy in big markets with maximum leverage.

Markets considered:

1. so no individual stocks, but markets like futures on S&P500 (the SPI is not very liquid)

2. currency futures: just the main ones like EU/USD

3. futures on commodities: individual commodities are too volatile, so I would go for for instance the DJ AIG Commodity Index that consists of 19 physical commodities or any other
simular index with more than 1 commodity.

4. property: futures do exist over housing in Chicago etc. believe it or not, but I would want futures over US housing in general

5. anything else out there? (please dont say cash)

Maximum leverage:
I like the leverage of cfd`s, but not with the cfd provider at the other end of the contract.
Options are often not very liquid.
So futures.

 

[doctorj]

In my view, the oil rigs sector is now one of the most undervalued sector in US market.

I can't say I know much about the companies that own these rigs but it seem the rig market isn't as tight as it was, say 6-12 months ago and I've noticed rates coming off the boil too.

 

[yonnie]

I can't say I know much about the companies that own these rigs but it seem the rig market isn't as tight as it was, say 6-12 months ago and I've noticed rates coming off the boil too.

so what is it: more rigs or less drilling?