Skotten, you don't need any introducing broker to join IB and get teh rates Ianlav mentioned. 5 digits account is enough. You can apply online, quite easy. https://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/en/main.php
Thanks for your post! I have applied for a new account with IB. However they are treating it like a new account application as they don't want to upset my introducing broker. And the thing is I opened my account with IB when I lived in Sweden. So my application states (quite correctly) that I am a UK citizen Previous address and employer in Sweden Resident in Australia, also my funds are there And currently on holiday in South Africa This situation tends to make brokers nervous/suspicious in my experience.
With my plan you will at least have the opportunity to toast Marshmallows. With your plan the broker-dealer will earn revenue equal to about the value of your trading account in 6 months or so, and you will have nothing. If you want to gamble that is fine - I only chimed in because you claimed you were trying to make a living or similar, and felt that perhaps you were a young guy who had been mislead by the hype/marketing.
Why are you here? There's plenty of can't-dos like yourself on this board and your comments have nothing to do with the topic.
Tell me. Extra red tape just means you're doing something right. ("one of these is not like the others") But we can learn to anticipate issues and plan around them... A few tips for traveling: Post office box / commercial mail receiving agency for your mail. Forward your mail from your home address to the PO Box/ CMRA. Some will open, scan, and email your letters for a nominal fee. VoIP forwarding. You'll buy a DID (telephone number) in your country of origin, and arrange for that to be forwarded to your cell anywhere in the world. There are a few commercial services that do this quite well, or you can learn to roll your own with e.g. asterisk on Linux and a decent VoIP provider. People can still call you in Australia and you can pick up anywhere in the world for $0.01/minute. Leave a server at your residence powered on, get in with e.g. TeamViewer (or better remote desktop or X11 forwarded over SSH). If latency isn't a concern (and it probably shouldn't be), continue to put your connections through your Australian IP (socks over ssh). (more important for account opening than for logging on to the trading platform - a lot of financial institutions use geoIP databases as part of fraud checks - also your online banking might not like you logging in from abroad). There are various legalities about whether your broker/FCM can accept your dealing instructions when you're out of the jurisdiction etc. As you mention things can become complicated. There is a saying in the service: "volunteer no information" and I think it applies here!
And ended up a cynic and a failed trader? As a suggestion, you might want to tone down your bitterness there bruv.
Well, I'll take some heat for this, but let me suggest you consider trading in Forex Binary Options. Before y'all slam me, let me explain a bit how this works. Now we all know that trading shares features of gambling, and most would agree that Binary Options are very close to gambling, wherein the House takes the lion's share, and the Winning traders get their payouts on the backs of the Losers who are "only guessing". So the key is to have Analytics so that you have "an Edge". You will need a consistent Win/Loss ratio higher than 2:1 and preferably 3:1 or higher to operate. Remember that trading is "predatory" and you must carefully choose your time to strike the market, more about those critical details later. Scenario 1: EUR/USD $100k Short trade, we're into a few pips, but the market just doesn't want to drop much further. We close with 3.5 PIPs gross, and let's say that's 3.0 PIPs net after commish. So you make $30 on this winning Short trade. You might have waited 15 or more minutes before deciding to close. Scenario 2: EUR/USD PUT Binary Option $100 cash. Here, instead of choosing when to close the trade, you decided to take a 3 minute expiry time on your PUT option. At 3 minutes, we assume in this example, the PUT option expires and you pocket $60 - $80. You would pocket that profit if the market dropped only 1 PIP, and it does not benefit you if it drops even more, unlike Scenario 1. A LOSS costs you your $100, so you need to exceed a 2:1 Win/Loss ratio, and remember this transaction took exactly 3 minutes, you can use less or more time as you choose. Also you may "wager" as little as $5 for finer grained trading, and lower risk of course. You will want a few of things: 1) Precision short term Analytics which are effective over your time horizon. 2) Choice of a Symbol which is both predictable using your Analytics, and which offers more price movement over a short time horizon. EUR/USD is not the greatest choice, perhaps GBP/JPY or some other Forex pair which you will trade for a living. 3) Since 1 PIP makes the difference between a WIN and a LOSS, you will want an automated trigger to place your trade as accurately as possible, or at least a low latency setup, you should run your platform on a data center server, etc... I'll post an example showing a strong Short opportunity, but remember that EUR/USD is not a very good choice, as its price movements are more restricted than many other Forex pairs. Also, never rely on a single indication. I use a range of indications to choose trade entries on a short term timeframe. Short term binary options are not the only choices, and they can be extended to longer timeframes but it requires only that you are correct by at least 1 PIP on the price movement to Win... Naturally, as with any trading, you will also experience losses. (frowny face here) Never forget that trading is "predatory", especially short term day trading or micro scalping, so choose your moments very carefully to maintain your edge. This should be obvious to you. In simple terms, don't "over trade" and have a reason for each and every entry. HyperScalper