Apps or sites you use to trade international shares

Hey all, I am newbie when it comes to buy international shares. I want to buy specific stocks in the US and HK exchanges what apps or sites are you using to trade international stocks and how easy is to set it up?

 

sorry i couldn't find one that suited me

Commsec made it too costly for me ( an irregular trader )

cheers

 

cant help you with hk, try etoro ? they cover a HUGE number of markets, rakuten is another one, ( i am thinking about opening one just for asia, but too lazy)

if you want to use australian company (depending how much u want to invest) stake is a good start, brokerage is cheap, but you pay for the exchange spread,

as for USA and EU, this i can help

FYI anyone reading this, US markets are now no fee brokerage so if you are using aussie brokers, its mega expensive,

i personally use charles schwab, one draw back is min deposit is $25,000 usd (not sure what your budget is to start) but i;ve been told you can call and bring that figure down to 15k ish


there is also others that do the same thing like saxo bank or TD ameritrade or IG,

all brokers do the same thing, just what works for you. i went chales schawb because i like the idea of a physical bank as its my first venture in USA,

i never looked at tried others as Charles schwab services was good too me. one draw back, no app, browser only, dont bother me because i dont day trade,

 

Interactive Brokers. Has a FX fee of 0.002% (min $2) that can't be beat. $10 monthly fee if under $100K assets, but that offsets against brokerage changes and is likely to be less than typical 0.6 - 0.7% FX charges from other brokers if you trade monthly

 

I use Stake You pay a currency exchange fee when you transfer funds to and from the US Bank account they set up for you but other than that you don't pay anything else, no buy or sell fees. If you sell stocks to buy other stocks you won't pay a fee.

It's also fractional investing so you can buy based on funds as opposed to based on whole stock units.

 

since like most brokers need to pay brokerage, so if you have 25k or more to invest, charles schawab is a no brainer,

 

Doesn’t Charles Schwab charge 1% FX fees?

https://www.schwab.com/public/file/P-1036363

I also be wary of zero cost brokerage, it generally means they are selling order flow

Order Routing

 

What's that about pennywise and pound foolish. Beware of marketing BS it might be helpfull if you are buying $100k tranches. You could pay an extra $3 in FX to maybe or maybe not save 5c. Just lower your order price if you want to pay less . A few cents is nothing prices jump around that much getting a share 10c cheaper than order depends on the moment you push the button. With Scwab could be issues wiith getting problems resolved as they have closed down the Australian office.

 

It might be if you have no brains. Most brokers in the USA dont charge brokerage, their is alot of exchanges in the US competing for customers they make money from miniscule arbitrage on large volume of transaction like small percentage of 1c. The minimum to open an account with Scwabb is about A$ 35k, alot of money for most people to have sitting in an account overseas, at least with stake you can DCA FX and that is important because FX can have a big impact on returns. You only need about $50 to open a stake account.

 

CMC markets

 

I am using Stake as suggested by this forum. Pretty easy to use, and also transfer the money. You just pay currency exchange fee, no brokerage fee

 

I’m also a fan of stake. If you use if, let me know and I can send you a free link for a share in a company (Nike,GoPro, Dropbox)

 

It really depends how much you invest and what you want to invest in

If stake is costing you more than $10 per month in FX (around AUD $1400 transferred per month) or doesn’t have the stocks you are after (they didn’t offer the US ETFs I wanted) then IBKR is a better option.

 

only think i would add is, for companies like stake etc, if there is some market drama (/r wallstreetbets) you might not be able to trade, with charles i was never stopped and had access to pre and after markets

TO THE MOON !!

 

I've also been using Stake for a little while now, and using the link someone posted above about the crap reviews, i've picked up on two things:
1. Apparently hard to get funds out? 60 day wait minimum - have you experienced this with selling/withdrawing?

2. There is a 15% cut Stake take on sales? true?

Cheers

 

IBKR dropped their $10 annual fee. Combined with their 0.002% FX rate, it is the clear winner.

 

at my work, one of the colleague mentioned Tiger and IBKR

when investing in US - does Chess play any role ? (my assumption is not, but I am no expert)

 

No, CHESS is unique to Australia. The rest of the work generally uses a custodian model

 

Thank you @Hockey Monkey

in another thread someone mentioned that they use US based bank as it is more secure than the platforms. I am new to international/US investing and reading about it as FX rate plays a part along with other account keeping fees....tax as well (eventually if selling or getting divis).

That bank name starts with C and second word is S - I'll look for it