Buying US stocks and reducing fees/time

[ragu]

I’ve been through most of the hassles of buying US stocks:
1. Buy in margin account, do overnight Cad-USD trade.
2. Norbits gambit. Works but time consuming.

Is there a way to buy US stocks with least pain and time constraints? Say you come across a deal Monday morning but have no USD in your account, what’s your plan of action while minimizing trading fees etc?

[jaylo]

Open both a USD and a CAD margin account. Transfer funds from your chequing or savings account via the Transfer Balance and agree on the conversion rate from CAD to USD.

[Pacman]

interactive brokers currency exchange fees are so cheap that you don't even have to worry about norbits gambit. Just keep the money in CAD and buy US stocks. The trick with IBKR is trying to understand their antiquated software.