Interesting thanks for the link.

I still don't quite understand what the person asking the original question is dealing with. It sounds like he invests in a partnership and the partnership should pass through any capital gains/losses on the K-1.

It was a situation I was unfamiliar with until I did some Googling, so I wanted to come here and make sure that my understanding (thanks to random Internet links) was correct

Is there a reason the Baker Hughes rig count is taken as gospel? Why wouldn't it be as manipulated as everything else in the energy markets?

As are any forwards or options traded otc that also trade on an exchange.

Having to parse thru this 1256/988 stuff right now. Vomit.

I've only applied for 2 so far, 1 month apart, and my score fell from 819 to 778 on the 300-850 scale.

I have a 100% vanguard portfolio now that is mixed across few sectors. I want to invest a bit in some oil companies that were hit hard in the last year. The stocks I'm looking to buy I'm probably gonna hold 3-5 years. I'm fully aware that some of these stocks/companies might go bankrupt in this time frame and could do really well if oil slowly goes up in this timeframe.

Now my question is what is a good % of my portfolio should I go into these types of investments? I was thinking 20-25%..

can't really say, but im sure you can get insight. however, you seem to think 25%. I'm thinking somehow you reached that conclusion(obv) and you are best suited(probobaly) to answer your question, so give her hell. gl

hope u have good reason for your strategy though(stock picks)

Does anybody buy on margin? I would do it only to enhance theoretical returns with index funds. However, it looks like the borrowing rates are too high to be worthwhile. They're ~8% from most brokers, with one random discount broker being listed below 2%. If I expect the funds to return less than 8% or not much more on average, this is not a good strategy (assuming that 2% rate is bogus). Is that accurate, and are there other things I'm not considering?

Definitely not worth it at 8%. I think margin accounts are more like 4.5% though (at least here in Canada). Then it might be worthwhile if you figure the expected return on the ETF is 6-7% and you're not very risk averse.

I dunno what "random discount broker" you're talking about, but the best broker of all (IB) charges less than 2% on USD margin loans.

Obviously borrowing at 8% to fund a long term index investment would be stupid. But if you're paying 2% or less, leveraging may make sense.

That was who I meant I think (IB). How can they do it for so much cheaper than others?

Because their business is providing a good service to experienced investors, not fleecing stupid casual retail customers.

The loan payments might be tax deductible, depending upon your jurisdiction. This might have the effect of reducing the cost of borrowing.

If I needed money can i rollover an ira and put the money in my pocket for 60 days? How do i do this? This question is based off 10 minutes of googling can i take money out f an ira

Does anybody know the cheapest way to invest in North American stocks without getting pummeled with fees in the UK?

I've had a Hargreaves and Lansdown account and it was £11.95 per tade + 1.50% fee on changing the currency, which obviously applied twice when buying and selling. which amounted to a lot.

I also have a Degiro account which is a low fee stockbroker but a lot of the stocks I want to buy are not listed, I've emailed support and apparently they are getting 'added' but that was a month ago and there seems to be no sign of anything being done. overall the website feels kind of shady as well.

http://monevator.com/compare-uk-chea...nline-brokers/

That's the most comprehensive link comparing brokers in the UK. I use Charles Stanley, which don't charge anything for individual trades in funds, but charge 0.25% of your portfolio per year

Thanks for linking that, but it didn't really say anything about the FX conversion fees which are the fees that cost the most!

I did a bit of searching and found this which seems to be more helpful if anyone is also wondering.

https://the-international-investor.c...l-stockbrokers

hi i need a loan for 3000 dollars. what is the best way to do this?

Credit card or friends/family I think.

If you want to stock pick and choose individual companies yourself you are going to get pummeled with fees at any of the brokers that allow it. I think from memory you can have a Barclays share dealing account in USD but there are still other fees and tax forms to file.

If you are happy enough just to buy the s&p 500 or something similar you can do that extremely cheaply without any hassle.

is there an easy way to get a credit card that big?

This is somewhat flippant, but it's the actual answer: have decent credit. A $3k credit card is nothing if you have any credit/income at all. If you don't, you probably will be lucky to get $500.

Yup exactly, the minimum I get offered generally is $5k.

is there a basic tax strategy (or resource to take advantage of) for someone who makes ~10-20 stock/option trades a month? I'm a commodities trader but have just recently been dipping my toes into the stock/options world and the tax contingencies seem like a nightmare. I guess a couple of bullet point questions I have

-I have an accountant - is it standard to just ship him the etrade documents and he will handle it all with ease? are they organized for that?

-general long term/short term capital gains question: say I bought a 10 shares of a stock in 2012 (down 20% overall), 10 shares of the same stock in 2014 (up 20% overall) and 10 shares in 2016 (up 20% overall). if I wanted to sell the stock tomorrow, would it matter which 10 shares I sold? as I understand it, selling the 2016 would be least preferable (because I would be paying short term gains). Would there be a difference between selling the 2012 loser vs. the 2014 winner?

Can't comment on the rest since I don't use an accountant or trade options...

But in terms of having multiple holdings of the same stock (lots), you can use the specific lot method to sell the 2012 loser as opposed to the 2016 winner. Most brokers will let you choose the SpecID/Lot method for your holding, which should then prompt you as you are selling and make sure that the paperwork generated by the broker will have the correct tax information. You should also keep good detailed records of your own. If you google stock lot method, you should get tons of resources to read.