Quote from: mmortal03 on February 26, 2018, 06:51:57 AM

plusalpha789,

Regarding COINXBT and COINXBE, I'm not an expert on international stock trading, but can I assume that you're looking at any sort of exchange rate fluctuations between USD and the krona or euro as being unimportant relative to the volatility of the bitcoin price itself?

Also, the following shows the commissions. (https://www.fidelity.com/stock-trading/faqs-international)

Swedish stock trades placed online are 180 SEK (about $22), and assisted through a rep (assuming for the IRA) are 480 SEK (about $59). For Euro trades, it looks to be 19 Euros online, and 50 euros when assisted through a rep. On top of this, they mention that if you choose U.S. dollars as the settlement currency, a foreign currency exchange fee will be charged, which are between 20 and 100 basis points.

They state: "If you plan on trading regularly in a specific market, you may want to consider exchanging a certain amount of currency to avoid currency exchange fees on each trade. For example, lets say you plan on trading primarily in Hong Kong. Rather than settle your trades in U.S. dollars and pay a foreign currency exchange fee on each transaction, you could do a single, larger currency exchange transaction of your U.S. dollars into Hong Kong dollars.* This would allow you to settle each trade in the local currency, Hong Kong dollars, which may allow you to potentially reduce your overall trading costs. *Note: A currency exchange fee would still apply to the initial currency exchange from U.S. dollars to Hong Kong dollars."

Another thing to keep in mind is that now that GBTC has done its stock split, this allows for much more granularity on GBTC as compared to COINXBT, not withstanding GBTC's own issues.

I'm interested to know whether there are any important tax implications when trading international stocks such as these, as well. They do state the following, which I assume would apply to any future forked dividends (have they even paid out any forked dividends yet for BCH or BTG?): "Countries generally impose withholding taxes on dividends paid to foreigners. Many countriesincluding the United Statesoffer a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for the amount withheld to avoid double taxation of these funds."

Having to trade on the hours of these international markets is also going to be an important consideration for some people.

Yes, the transaction fees for COINXBT and COINETH are higher than for US-traded stocks, which might be an issue if a transaction if VERY small.

F/X risk (which cuts both ways, as imo there is a 50% chance it will work in the investor's favor) to me pales in comparison to the volatility inherent in the cryptos. Investors concerned about risk should consider the risk that buying GBTC at a 75% premium to NAV might later involve selling at a lower, perhaps much lower, premium.

In my experience every dollar paid in foreign dividend witholding tax gets recouped 100% with a tax credit from Form 1116.