I’m just learning about trading, studying hard and also looking around for potential brokers for when I’m ready to trade live.
I live in the UK but I notice that most of the brokers only offer USD and EUR trading accounts and only a few seem to actually be based in the UK (which surprises me).
Is it worth my effort looking for a broker in the UK that does a GBP account? The advantage I can think of for this is that I know my trading account isn’t going to fluxuate in value (when I’m not trading) depending on the GBPEUR or GBPUSD rate. Also, if I go for a USD/EUR account anyway, are there other commission charges for a USD/EUR account when I deposit or withdraw from it?
As long as the broker is FCA should I worry about where they are based or care much about whether the trading account is GBP, USD or EUR?
OK. Answering my own post here. One of the brokers I signed up with a demo account phoned me as a follow up and I asked this question. The answer I got was that having an account in your own currency is indeed preferable if I don’t want it to fluxuate in value due to an exchange rate. Some people choose USD accounts simply because it makes the maths simple more of the time.
So, as of now, I feel more incliined to choose a UKP account when the time comes to go “live”.
Yes the only real difference is in pip value, because they are measured in $ as a default…a lot of people find it confusing and that’s the sole reason they open $ accounts…
So for an example a one pip value of one standard EURUSD lot would be 10$ or ~7€ or ~6£ (so much easier to calculate with $ 
)
Sorry to jump on to this thread but I am UK based and am near to opening a demo account and am having difficulty choosing because of this reason. My thoughts are, if all trades are measured in USD it would be better to open an account in USD as I would be able to pick the time I wanted to change my USD’s to GBP than have my broker do it every time I trade.
Or have I just completely confused myself…?
I am also curious about this. I would have thought that in any individual trade the final profit/loss conversion is determined only by the exchange rate between the currency of the trading account and the currency being bought/sold.
opening a USD account if your base currency is in GBP is unnecessary imo and possibly confusing. lets say you win $578.
that $568 hard earned profit, might be worth considerably less in 6 months time if the USA strenghens against the pound.
lets say the exchange rate for GBPUSD is 1.7,
what happens in 6 months time if it dropped to 1.5
your $568 would be worth less
open a GBP account,
google position size calculator and input your relevant details if you want to know how much won pips or loss pips will affect your £ balance.
Thank you Defiance888 your comment pressed me to go back over the pips and pipettes lesson in pips school and has suddenly clicked think I am suffering information overload at the moment and can’t see the wood from the trees