You can Trade International Futures from India..Legally...Read How

[ag_fx]

Even more interesting
http://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/trading/tradingConfiguration.php?ib_entity=in

I have something interesting to tell you Pasha. Shoot me an email at ankitgarg dot trading at yahoo dot in

 

[pasha]

Even more interesting
http://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/trading/tradingConfiguration.php?ib_entity=in

You must have enough cash in the account to cover the cost of the stock plus commissions. No shorting of stock is allowed. Cash from the sale of stocks becomes available 3 business days after the trade date. When authorizing market, relative and VWAP orders, a 5% cash cushion is required to compensate for market movements. Existing cash account holders can upgrade to a multi-currency cash account through Account Management.

Full payment must be made for all call and put purchases. Covered call writing is allowed, but the underlying stock must be available and is then restricted. Naked put writing is also allowed, but the funds must be available and then are restricted. You must have stock cash trading permissions in order to have options cash trading permissions. Cash from the sale of options becomes available 1 business day after the trade date.

Purchase and sale of broad based equity index, fixed income and commodity futures contracts on margin. Margin is determined on a real-time basis with immediate position liquidation if the minimum margin requirement is not met. Only cash may be used to meet variation margin requirements. Special 50% of variation margin benefits are made available during the day on some futures exchanges.

I am 100% sure all this was not on the site about 3 months ago, so some new developements have taken place. Had even spoken to the IB rep, he didn't know anything except that any trading where margin was concerned was out.
It did worry me that IB has people who know nothing about trading.

 

[pasha]

I have something interesting to tell you Pasha. Shoot me an email at ankitgarg dot trading at yahoo dot in

Ankit, no probs, lets put it here so all can read it :thumb:

 

[munde_77]

Check this out .
http://www.interactivebrokers.co.in/en/general/education/highlights.php?p=a

.........................

 

[ag_fx]

ok..Its Sunday...The response to the thread has been dismal for me to post my findings here.

All the serious traders can mail me to find the answer from my end. My email id is already on the thread.

As a marker, here is a small hint. If you go ahead, I am sure you can learn a lot more. I believe Pasha is already doing it.

Try opening a DUAL account with Interactive Brokers. They offer such type of account.Basically there are two accounts under one head. One of them is for Indian markets and one of them is for Offshore markets.

You dont have to actually open and fund it. Just go through the registration process and a lot of things would be cleared.

I have 2 chat transcripts with them detailing exactly how are they offering it as well as the regulations etc.

And yes, YOU CAN TRADE US FUTURES through them and it doesnt require you to have FULL CONTRACT USD value in your account. You can trade it just like you trade NF.

If anyone needs further info/clarification, or want to read the chat transcript can mail me.

Good Luck with Trading

Ankit


Disclaimer: I have no interest in any of the information posted on the thread. Neither am I going to benefit from someone sending me any mail. I have given enough pointers and hints here for anyone to go and find for themselves the answers. What I have posted is just my opinion and research on the same and cant and shouldnt be taken otherwise.

 

[jessica_30]

I am happy to know that forex trade is available almost everywhere in the world. Very cool thing to go with the trade because everything is possible.

 

[eqderiv]

Here is what I know about this subject.

- Indian resident can maintain foreign currency bank accounts and can legally transfer up to USD 25,000 every year per adult.

- There are 2-3 options to trade US stocks in India itself. ICICIDirect and Interactive Brokers for instance. But using an Indian firm means that you pay ridiculously high commissions. ICICI charges 55 bps for Indian stocks, so the 75 bps charge for US stocks seems cheap!

- It really depends on what you want. Do you want an account that allows you to trade literally anything, or do you just want an account where you can trade only the popular instruments.

- If you want to trade everything, you can open an account with ETrade HK. The only thing is, keep some buffer in your account to handle the delays in transferring money. Still commissions are high, plus you lose a lot in the commissions as you roll your contracts each month.

- If you are OK with trading just the popular commodities, stocks and indices, there is a very interesting option available - there is a product called CFD (Contract For Difference). The way this works is that it behaves like a stock, but is a derivative in reality. So you don't get much leverage - just 5:1, but you get extremely low commissions, and you don't have to roll the product each month. You can trade crude, gold, silver, base metals, major indices, major currencies, and also the popular stocks like AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, etc.

- this is completely legal, and you can trade online. There are several brokers offering this product. The major ones are FXCM, and FXPRO. From their names it is obvious - these guys started as FX players, and use the exact same platform for other instruments as well.

- from a tax perspective, Indian Income Tax classifies all Futures and Options trading as speculative activity, so you have to pay 40% tax on profits. With CFDs, the actual instrument is more like a stock - so you get advantage of LTCG, etc. In any case, you pay tax only at your marginal rate, which is definitely lower than 40%.

- Another interesting point. It is theoretically possible for anyone in the world, including from India, to open an account with any US broker. However in practice, the sales guy is not aware of this, so they insist on US Social Security Number. You don't need to provide this - you can either provide a W8-BEN - certifying Foreign Status, or just pay 28% withholding tax. But unfortunately, we have to literally fight with the sales guy to make them understand this! Fidelity and ETrade allow Indians to open accounts - but only for stocks. For futures they are worried about margin calls etc, so don't allow yet.

-

 

[MOka]

Here is what I know about this subject.

- Indian resident can maintain foreign currency bank accounts and can legally transfer up to USD 25,000 every year per adult.

Is it not at least 100,000 USD per person per year I think the limit is higher


- If you are OK with trading just the popular commodities, stocks and indices, there is a very interesting option available - there is a product called CFD (Contract For Difference).

Would like to share few things about CFD
Illegal / Not available in USA
Available in UK and Australia
Yes you can trade CFD on US stocks via brokers like Saxo Bank in Europe or Singapore
HOWEVER one big thing one should realize.. THESE ARE NOT EXCHANGE TRADED PRODUCTS... they are Over The Counter products
meaning few additional risks
- Less likely to be transparent as compared to exchanged traded Equity and derivatives
- If the CFD broker is not Direct Market Access you are likely to trade against the broker..
- Counter party risk.
SO please keep this in mind before getting sucked in to the leverage thing!
Oh by the way ALL FX trading involves this risks.... NOT regulated.. no central exchange... at least with CFD you can cross check market prices with real exchange

Back to the RBI issue. although it is not an issue for me as I am an NRI I thought I suggest following.. don;t know if it is within guidelines or not

Indians residents are allowed to own a company overseas say in Dubai, Mauritius or Singapore.. whta if that company then trades in internationl markets and pays due tax etc
M

 

[sam_21]

margin calculation

Can anybody tell me about the margin calculation in options ...... if i short 5600 ce and 5600 pe each 200 at 110 and 176 respectively......... than how much margin i required for that !!!!!!

 

[MOka]

ok..Its Sunday...The response to the thread has been dismal for me to post my findings here.

You dont have to actually open and fund it. Just go through the registration process and a lot of things would be cleared.



Ankit


Disclaimer: I have no interest in any of the information posted on the thread. Neither am I going to benefit from someone sending me any mail. I have given enough pointers and hints here for anyone to go and find for themselves the answers. What I have posted is just my opinion and research on the same and cant and shouldnt be taken otherwise.

So Ankit what do you mean by above?
Although for me RBi is not an issue as I am overseas .. I am interested in your comments about Interactive brokers?
As far as I know you have to fund an account!