Exchange rates and selection of main currensy

Exchange rates are annoying! Lets be honest we are all here to mostly to buy US stock aka stocks in US dollars. Well my main currency is not dollars so, I buy a stock - exchange, I get a dividend - exchange, I reinvest in the same stock that I just got the dividend from - exchange, I wan to sell - exchange ā€¦ Excluding the FX tax (i understand you guys need to make a profit somehow) the exchange itself is a constant loss. I feel like Im constantly drained by every transaction I make!
Why cant we just switch the main currency? Honestly I cant really remember how if at all I was asked what should be my main currency when creating my account. Now it turns out I can`t really change it ā€¦
ā€œAn alternative would be to [close] your existing account with us and open a new one in the preferred currency, as long as it is supported on the platform. If you are unsure whether a currency is available, you can get in touch with us :point_right:.ā€

WOW great alternative!

Can I somehow close the account get some certificate for my stock/cash then re-register with dollars as main currency, add all my stuff back ā€¦ have someone done it?
DOES IT REALLY NEED TO BE THAT COMPLICATED?
Can someone say where exactly during registration do I chose currency? Please help me with this one! I`m seriously considering this re-register, so I need to know before I start it, so I donā€™t skip by mistake something and then need to re-re-register.

Guys form Trading 212 think about it for a moment pls! Say I sell all to do this process. I unregistered. Why should my new account be in Trading 212 and not any other similar app? Yes, ones I sell all I may not come back to Trading 212! Why you take that chance? Same goes for your inheritance process, instead of a new person to step in and keep the account you wholesale. The that guy takes the money and may come back to Trading 212 may not ā€¦ If he could keep the account you retain a customer, you close the account you loose a customer. Same now Iā€™m not happy with my main currency. Your solution is to loose a customer and hope he comes back. Shouldnā€™t you be trying to retain customers?

this is short-term thinking. I have tons of stocks that are green on FX.

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maybe ā€¦ I have stocks that I both last December without thinking when $ was above euro. When is that going to happen again? When are those going to go green? Last time was about 20years ago ā€¦
Do we have to be slaves to the $ exchange rate on absolutely every transaction? Why do I have to instantly loos 1-2-3% of my capital at point of purchase and hope that it will come back some day?
You may argue that even if i have the ability to change currency at will that will not negate $ fluctuations. Ofc it wont! But then it is my choice when to convert to $ and when not to.

This is out of 212ā€™s control - their only control is the 0.15% FX fee not the market FX rate. Even changing your account to be USD as base currency, you will still be exposed when you want to repatriate to say EUR.

Have you considered looking for ADR or GDR listings in a different currency? You could avoid the 0.15% fee, but the security itself would still potentially be exposed to USD as a secondary listing, much like the company you invest in, if they have global sales would be exposed to more currencies than USDā€¦

You make a good point, @KrKrD. Šnd, in fact, we have given this plenty of thought, so weā€™re exploring options to smoothen the process as we speak.

As for the exact place where you can choose your currency - itā€™s right at the end of the ā€œSetupā€ process.

This is out of 212ā€™s control - their only control is the 0.15% FX fee not the market FX rate. Even changing your account to be USD as base currency, you will still be exposed when you want to repatriate to say EUR.

Thanks for the replay. I do understand that not all is in Trading 212 hands.
Well best case scenario would be to have no main currency! To have a multi currency wallet!
Look at it this way - say you are in Euro country, you transfer to Trading 212 in euro, it stays in euro, you can buy euro stocks without problem, they generate dividends in euro, you sell them in euro. All goes to your euro balance. OK now we want some US stocks, the first time you buy $ stock with you euro ofc you get exchange fees, but then dividends payed donā€™t get automatically exchanged to euro the moment you get them, they are saved to second balance in $, same goes for selling stocks. Now if you try to buy $ stock if you already have the needed amount in your $ balance you donā€™t exchange from your euro balance. If you wan to buy euro stock that you donā€™t have the amount in you euro balance, but you have $ that can help, first euro are spend, then the needed amount of $ + exchange fee. Same if you wan to withdraw euro, but if I have $ bank account why wouldnā€™t I be allowed to withdraw in $.

You make a good point, @KrKrD. Šnd, in fact, we have given this plenty of thought, so weā€™re exploring options to smoothen the process as we speak.

Thanks for the replay and I hope things get resolved somehow to the better. Having main currency and the inheritance process are my some of my main concerns into not going all in into Trading 212 for the long run. Ofc I prefer all my investments to be in the same app in the same portfolio, but I do admit Iā€™m in the process of consideration if that would be Trading 212.

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@KrKrD idea of multicurrency wallet is both intriguing and interesting but probably neither easy nor cheap to implement, at the moment we have stocks in Ā£,$,ā‚¬,Fr (sorry if I missed any other) lets say at some point there be other stock exchanges added so even more currencies ā€œneededā€ possibility to invest directly in certain share currency would be marvellous, hard to disagree with that :grinning: I have nothing common with developers and processes needed to implement such feature so have no idea how such thing should be priced or you think such possibility should be given to us clients for free? Or maybe some kind of pricing included for every additional currency? Should all currencies be available straight away to every client? Should they be given options to choose few and have to stick to them till the very end or should they be given option to add/remove any currency at any time? Would you be eventually tempted to pay additional fee for every single wallet other than your main currency? ā€œProblemā€ youā€™ve pointed here is really interesting. Many would probably need only 2 currencies which probably be theirs home currency and probably $ but on the other hand there could be others who would feel ā€œdisappointedā€ not having option to invest in any other ā€œexoticā€ currency for stocks which could appear in T212 at some point. Many things to consider in ā€œproblemā€ youā€™ve raised. Really interesting, thanks.

Hi, I agree with you and dont think its short term thinking because in the current climate there are times you need to buy and more importantly sell quickly and not wait for the right moment with currency exchange. Like you, I requested to change my main currency and was told it was impossible and, again like you, I am thinking of closing my account, gradually obviously as I have stocks where this would be a terrible moment to sell.

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What if we asked 212 for a new ā€˜switchā€™ order type / so they would execute a sell and as soon as that went through, it would place a buy for your second leg?

That way you donā€™t need to wait / monitor your sell to place the buy? 212 continue to make their platform profit from the 0.15% FX fee if needed?

Alternatively maybe chuck the stock into its own pie, change the pie holding and rebalance - same thing I think? Just making best use of functionality already there?

I think you are looking at the topic in a vacuum in witch Trading 212 is the only option for us. Iā€™m not going to site names so i donā€™t get blamed for advertisement, but there are plenty platforms similar to Trading 212. Some of them have feature similar to what i describe. You talk about multi currency as a additional payed feature. I see it as advantage before the competition. It could be offered that way. You can keep the current method as default, if far more simple and understandable and multi currency for people that know what they are doing.

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