Hi, I am planning to invest in foreign share markets, namely NYSE, NASDAQ, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and the UK.

Has anyone here opened a Global Trading Account before? I heard that Maybank Investment Bank does offer such a service.

I would very much appreciate some advice on the following :

1. Trading fees - has anyone made a comparison of fees and charges for trading? Which provider in KL has the lowest fees?

2. Taxes - I understand that in some countries, one has to pay capital gains tax. How much is it for US, Australia and Singapore etc?

3. Which country should I start? The US market sounds promising ... hoping to get Apple, Google, Facebook or even IBM shares ...

4. Is there a minimum amount to start investing ?

Thanks!

by now there should be many brokers contacted u already.. maybe u can share with us who approached u so far? as i understand to trade overseas markets in, malaysia brokers are not so competitive, i might be wrong..

Most major investment banks imn Malaysia already have these cross border trading and the fees depend on each banks. You just need to call them to find out from them

So far I have approched Maybank and ECM Libra.

For Maybank :

SGX Shares - 0.4% or US$25 per transaction min
NYSE, NASDAQ - 0.4% or US$25 per transaction min
ASX Shares - 0.4% or AUD65 per transaction min

For ECM Libra
SGX - 0.07% or SGD$20 per trx
ASX - 0.2% min or AUD$35 per trx
NYSE, NASDAQ - 0.15% min or US$15

so expensive!!!!!
thats why most malaysia trade locally...

Yeah, Malaysian share market has quite limited options.

We do not have any global companies that give good dividends and have strong track records like IBM, Google and Apple.

I use Interactive Broker...USD 1 per trade and USD 0.75 per trade for options
opening of a/c USD 10K Margin 4 : 1
to day trade a/c must be maintained above USD 25K ( applied to all us based brokers)

investing is acceptable the fee........but trading the fee will kill you

Thanks for the tip Rosdi1.

How do you manage your cash and foreign currency?

Do you have to TT the money to the broker in the US? Somehow TT rates are not very attractive.

Do you have to maintain a foreign currency account? If so which bank do you use? Maybank's foreign currency rates are not very good ....

Yes I TT my fund to my account.with them .
They will deposit in the trust accout with the bank there.
You don't have problem to TT less than RM100K per year if not have to get Bank Negara approval
The cost of TT is generally cheap and cleared the same day/ next day there.
To make sure you don't get taxed you must not have any US address and you have to fill in the declaration form.
To cash out I asked them to TT back the fund but your tarding a/c name and your bank a/c name here must be exactly the same.
Good Luck to you.

Hi rosdi1, I'm interested to open an international a/c as well (mainly US), but mainly for investment purposes. Don't plan to trade frequently. As such, Interactive Broker's minimum activity fees of USD 10 per month kinda negate their low commissions.

Do you know what other online brokers offer accounts for non-US customers? It's difficult to find a listing of such info... so far I've only found Zecco, and it's fee structure appears much more suited for my needs (no activity minimums, USD 5 per trade), but it also looks rather "immature" compared to Interactive Broker.

Sorry I couldn't help you. I also have TD Ameritrade and option Express which I had stopped using.

Hi, for anyone else interested in opening an international broker account, here's what I've found so far:
(I'm mainly interested in US ETFs for now, and buy-and-hold non-margin investment rather than active trading. So the figures here will reflect that)

Interactive Brokers
The most established of all the lot. Covers many other markets besides the US. Supposedly newbie unfriendly trading platform though. Also, the minimum activity fee makes it less attractive for non-active trading.
Minimum starting deposit: USD 10,000 (ouch!)
Commissions: min USD 1 per trade / USD .005 per share (very nice!)
Minimum activity fee: USD 10 per month (wish they didn't have this, else it would be the clear choice)

Zecco
Supposedly its trading platform has less features than other established online brokers. Quite attractive commissions though.
Minimum starting deposit: none
Commissions: flat USD 5 per trade (not bad)
Minimum activity fee: none

SureTrader
Appears to be based in the Bahamas, for reasons that have to do with side-stepping US margin leverage and short sell rules. I don't feel very comfortable about that. Appears to be popular with margin traders though.
Minimum starting deposit: unsure
Commissions: flat USD 5 per trade (not bad)
Minimum activity fee: USD 50 per quarter if less than 15 trades (wish they didn't have this)

E*Trade
One of the more established online traders. Supposedly very newbie friendly.
Minimum starting deposit: USD 1,000
Commissions: flat USD 20 per trade (ouch! but can qualify for USD 10 if over USD 50,000 in account)
Minimum activity fee: none (not very sure about this)

Internaxx
International bank in Luxembourg. Expensive commissions, but it's backed by a major CA/US broker (TD Ameritrade).
Minimum starting deposit: unsure
Commissions: flat EUR 20 per trade (not very sure about this, but ouch!)
Minimum activity fee: unsure


One thing I'm still unsure of are the TT fees for topping up accounts. Local charges are clear (e.g. Maybank2U at RM 10 per transfer), but charges at the US end are unclear. I'm hearing of charges up to USD 25 per transfer? Painful...

CIMB iTrade also has cross border trading facility

I use Interactive Brokers for day trading. Superb trading platform. Quotes and trade executions all in 1 screen, but I feel its charting platform less superior than Thinkorswim.


This post has been edited by fttrader: Jul 2 2012, 01:33 AM

Folks,

Some progress updates - I have successfully opened Maybank Global Trading account and have been actively buying in the last 2 weeks.

Why MBB instead of international foreign brokers? Legal recourse. If there are any issues with the local broker, I can go after them.

As for international brokers, things can be more complicated.

Moreover, my local broker has been very helpful [surpirisngly].

My general impression is that local brokers don't give you much attention until you have more than RM100K. The one I used to have with Affin totally sux, she is not even interested to chat any longer than 1 minute!

I am starting small but this broker of mine has been patient and responsive.

I have been focusing on banking shares in NYSE and HKEx since they are all very undervalued now. Their PE ratio are all single digit, DY is at least 2%, most are 3%.

I also get access to all the stock reports by S&P, it is a good source of information that summarized the profile of the stock. You CANNOT get that kind of quality report from local research houses.

For example - they even provide you with the total $$$ worth now if you had invested US$10,000 in the stock 5 years ago. And a lot of US banking stocks are way below the US$10K mark!

HKEx banking shares DY are even better and I'm talking about banks with assets size of more than RM500 billion.

Energy stocks are also down for this year and it is worth watching and see if it goes any lower.

One last thing - while ECMLibra per trx rates are lower, there is a local charge of RM40 per trade. So if you add up all that cost, it is more expensive than MBB Global Trade.

Anyone here has CIMB global trading rates?

---

Added on July 22, 2012, 12:06 pmGreat list yokaze.

I just got the June 2012 copy of SmartMoney and it has an article on 2012 Broker Rankings.

Here's the Top 10 & theri commissions :

1. Fidelity - $8
2. Scottrade - $7
3. TD Ameritrade - $10
4. E-Trade - $10
5. Schwab - $9
6. TradeKing - $5
7. Zecco - $5
8. Merrill Edge - $7
9. ShareBuilder - $10
10. WellsTrade - $9

Fidelity, Ameritrade and e-TRade has the best trading tools and research tools ranking - 5*.


This post has been edited by gc68: Jul 22 2012, 12:06 PM

So, is there any minimum deposit needed in order to trade foreign shares using MBB global trade? just wanted to park some of the unused money in foreign blue chip stocks. hehe

There is no minimum deposit BUT please keep in mind that this account is non-interest bearing.

This post has been edited by gc68: Jul 30 2012, 05:54 PM

For small traders, MBTrading $4.95.
Better tools than TD or E-Trade.
Why the heck u want all the tools when 95% u will not use it?

Most of retailers just use Charting and Options tools.

For mid-long term traders which is buy and hold - none of those also required. Just click the BUY/SELL button, enough.

Anyone has CIMB's cross border trade rates?