If you are changing HKD to USD within the E*Trade brokerage account, you will be paying their spot rate (E*trade determines this). This is the same way that currency changers in airports make money, buy low and sell high. For every $1000 HKD that you transfer, you will be paying about $10 HKD just because of the difference in the open market rate and the 'spot' rate that Etrade comes up with.
So, does anybody have insight on whether HSBC exchanges money at their spot rate or at the current trading rate? If so, what is HSBC's spot rate?
For instance, ETRADE's current 'spot' rate is 7.7506 HDK for each $1 USD vs the current exchange rate of 7.8294. This is almost $.08 difference.