By closing my ISA, I mean I will no longer be investing inside the ISA wrapper.
(I might use the account as a regular checking/savings.)
Main reason: FX fee once for buying & again for selling US shares.
Secondary reason: T212 has become less and less useful to me (due to the changes of the platform).
Kept a log for the last 2 weeks.
In the last 2 weeks I would’ve made a little over twice the profit, had FX not been a factor / had my account been in USD instead of GBP.
I’m now going to invest with a US broker into an account based in US Dollars.
I could be wrong - this is why I’m testing this for a year - but I believe even after the tax I’ll probably have a higher P/L trading outside the ISA, than inside it with FX fees.
(And the benefits of switching make it a no brainer. Otherwise, I would’ve used T212’s CFD or Invest accounts.)
Reasons for switching & some things T212 could improve on:
(some of the below are available in the Invest or CFD account types)
Benefit #1 - no FX fee
Benefit #2 - better platform & reporting
Benefit #3 - can both long and short
Benefit #4 - see the actual tax I’ll pay on my gains (rather than running hypothetical scenarios) and see how it compares
Benefit #5 - pre/after market hour fills
Benefit #6 - more order types (e.g. market on close, trailing)
Benefit #7 - has their own charting/trading software
Benefit #8 - can exchange GBP into USD free of charge
Benefit #9 - can pick and choose when to convert back to GBP & withdraw funds
Benefit #10 - faster executions
Benefit #11 - less slippage
Benefit #12 - price improvements
Benefit #13 - can trade options
Benefit #14 - margin
Your thoughts/experiences are welcome.