crystak

Under my ISA annual charges statement, there is a significant "ancillary costs" figure for the past year. Could someone help me understand what comes under this? I have been mainly trading UK and US individual stocks. Thanks

So basically there is a roughly 1-1.5% difference because of the poor exchange rates they are passing on to the customers, which equals that same 1-1.5% as the commission they would be earning. What is annoying about this is that this fact is not publicised anywhere, so this is very misleading. It would be interesting to see how this compares to other commission free companies for US shares. Does anyone know?

So at 16:22 bought 22 shares of Apple at 126.75 for $2,788.50 or £1,994.10. No commission, no charges. Now, I could sell the 22 shares at 127.42 for $2,803 or £1,980.57. The stock has gained 0.6% according to my P&L. At 16:30 the GBP/USD was 1.40553 and it's now 1.40824. Difference of 0.00271 which is 0.1% higher (roughly). HOW has the stock gone up and in dollars there's a roughly $15 profit yet in pounds there's £14 loss ??? Now I bought this in my ISA so it's a long term holding, but WHY is this discrepancy not better publicised? Is this why IG is offering free trades for US stocks because they are making their margins on foreign exchange by offering very bad rates??