Hello all, I am still in the newbie stage and have a question about IRA trading. I would like to be able to trade forex from several accounts as if they were one account. It would be good if the accounts were linked, if each position I put on affected both accounts in exact proportion (i.e. if 40% of the money was in one account, and 60% in the other, the P/L would be 40/60). I would like to trade an IRA which belongs to a relative, along with my own non-IRA account. So far the only FX brokerage I found that lets you trade from an IRA is forex.com. Outside of that, it seems I haven't yet found any FX brokerage that lets you sign up with an IRA account. Think or Swim, where the IRA money is currently at, does not permit you to do so even though they have Forex trading. I did some reading here in past postings dating back to 2005, and there is a discussion of forming a self directed IRA (forming an LLC, having the IRA buy into the LLC, then trading the LLC account). I imagine this is probably the best way to go if you don't want to be limited in your choice of FX brokerages, am I correct? The only minus I would imagine is that you would have to pay an annual franchise tax to whatever state you are incorporated in, as well as the registered agent fee. I also heard there is an IRA custodian possibility, but this means you need to pay annual fees to that custodian as well. Thank you for your assistance and time as always...
You can trade FX or futures in an IRA. Depends on the broker and what custodian they use. I use Millenium Trust as a custodian, I have a futures account thru tradestation with them and Open E Cry and also have a forex account with GFT thru Millenium Trust as custodian. You open an IRA with M Trust and then u can piece out your ira as you see fit to brokers that use M Trust as custodian. I beleive they charge 50-75 dollars per year for a fee and thats it. You do need to keep 500 dollars with mtrust at all times. They will then let you put the rest where ever you would like. If you take a distribution it is from M Trust not the brokers themselves. You will get statements from the brokers though and also M Trust. If you still contribute to your IRA you also contribute thru M Trust and not the brokers. There are a few custodians out there but M Trust is pretty big and they just happen to be the custodian of all the brokers I use. Nver had a problem with them, and when took distributions they took care of it in a timely manner. Fwiw
And by the way I have a taxable account also linked to the IRA in GFT so I trade both at the same time. For Example, I hit trade one time and what ever I had specified whether its 1 standard lot or 5 minis, it puts each of that amount in each account. So it makes it easier to trade if you want to do the same things in each account and I also trade for a relative and it does the same. So they make it easy.
Thanks for your advice, rsikit! I read on their website the following: "Each year the account is charged a $150 annual fee and a $150 annual asset holding fee per futures asset which are charged to your checking account or which are billed and deducted from the account quarterly, on the 15th of the month following quarter-end. " Seems like two charges of $150 each ($300). The charge to start an account is $50. That works out to $300/yr with a custodian. Its almost the same as the corporate franchise tax in many states, plus registered agent (I suppose I could be my own registered agent to save $100/yr). Filing costs are higher of course, but that's a one time charge. I assume the added plus of having your own LLC would be that you could probably trade with any brokerage regardless if they work with a specific custodian or not, is this correct? This way if one brokerage is a real bomb, you don't have to transfer all your assets to another custodian if the other brokerage you want to use doesn't accept your current custodian? Thanks again for the advice.
Try Entrust for Your Forex IRA Account i am Planning to move My Traditional IRA over to them and will use MBTrading as My Broker. I Believe they have 2 options on yearly fees . One is based on per Asset and the other on Account Size, Your Choice on how You want to go on the yearly fees, there is also a $ 50 dollar start up fee. I am Sure You can choose other Brokers other than the one i mention, i have Checked on trading with My IRA with Forex Brokers and there seems to be No Restrictions on How You want to Trade Your Money including Daytrading/Short Term/Scalping. The same as Personnel Account, this is what i was told. Also You can Link Your Personel Account to the IRA with MB as to do Block Trading or in other words use one as a sub Account. I'm still Checking on this with MB as i think they are still working on the MT4 Multi Terminal that will Allow for this. The Multi Terminal is Not the Standard MT4 Platform.
Why not just use the broker's recommended IRA custodian? That way costs are minimal. For example, IB and Tradestation will do this at minimal cost. You can still transfer funds between IRA's at different brokers at will.
By the way, if you ever do stock trades, all except IB may place a 3 day "settlement" delay before you can use the proceeds of a sale.
I just switched to IB from Millenium Trust since I got tired of getting ripped off by their ridiculous IRA fees. It also costs $125 to close the acct and . . an additional $5 for the check . . pathetic!!! I should also mention that they took 2-3 weeks each way so they could capture the float. Took numerous phone calls . . terrible service. Millenium Trust sucks as a custodian . . avoid them.