We have a client at my firm who has more cash flow than they know what to do with. Against our discretion the client wants to buy $500,000 of Euros. I guess they have all the toys they already want. Currency is not my area at all. Who should I deal with? The client tried to do it themselves but thought the conversion mark up was too high. What kind of fee can you expect for such a transaction? They just want an account with 500K USD converted to EUR.
Fidelity has currency funds that basically take your dollars and put them in whatever money market you want them in. Of course, he could just deposit it in some US money market account and buy a few Euro futures contracts until he decides that he needs more toys (3 weeks from now).
Normally its not a fee, but just a spread from what the market is. US Banks are not known to give good rates, but if they are a high net worth client, they can negotiate a rate closer to the market. If the banks do not cooperate, they can always goto a third party MSB. Make sure he keeps them honest.