Holding fee is something the brokerage charge for using their nominee account in the US to hold your US stocks, some broker call it custody charge... my broker quote me 2 sgd per counter per month, what's urs? It may affect your real rate of return if you hold small positions over long time...

wodenus,

You are WRONG!!!

1) There is no lot size with US ETF.  You can buy as little as one share.  So, the minimum for VOO is USD $180.44 and VT is USD $62.73..

2) You either trade for free or pay USD $10 per trade.  Normally recommended to buy around USD $1,000 per trade.

3) No sales charges of 5% to 7% like Malaysia UT..

4) Annual fee of less than 1% for both ETF..

<< This is very unlikely, but then no one  would have guessed Lehman Bros. would file either.>>

5) This is a STUPID statement.  VT invest on all 4,000 largest public listed companies in the WHOLE WORLD.  If VT crash, the WHOLE WORLD is going to hell.

<<Aberdeen's Islamic World Fund>>

6) Why would somebody want to pay more to get less??

    A) 5% to 7% upfront sales charge versus USD $10 per trade

    B) 1% to 3% annual maintenance fee versus less than 1%

    C) 4,000 largest public listed companies around the world versus how many in that UT??

Dreamer

Nothing is stopping you from opening an account with a US broker, they don't have to be based in Malaysia ...

I don't really understand this question - how do you define "better"?

A) AWF's chart is based on amount invested less the front load (sales charge).  That means AWF's performance  is 1% to 2% lower than the chart shown.

Hmm I see, I was under the impression we can get the 15% back from what I read - need to double check.
Benefits to unit holder - less annual fees?

They can have less fees, as much larger in terms of total assets

30k is on the low side man. ETrade wants 75k ringgit. 

I believe that happens to your active income taxation if you declare yourself either a US resident or a low-bracket income-earner ("Green Card Hax") but dividends going under passive/FDAP income, don't seem to trigger any mention of exemption.

Actually it's only a $500USD minimum to open there. But trades aren't cheap at $10 a notch.

Depends what you call a ridiculous amount of money - less than $10K isn't really worth it after paying bank charges

Currently 30% max withholding, apparently at the end of the year you can file a 1040NR form to get half of that 30% back.

I wouldn't say 30k's a lot of money- it is Ringgit after all :V
Okay lah, say 1-2 years savings for average joe. If you can't leverage the economies of scale yet, put it in a local UT then... the management fee rape isn't too obvious in a short timescale, but the front load is.

For me I see the case there tho. Putting in six digits in a three/four fund allocation, set it and forget it, and enjoy no front load + minimal management costs.

Oh and you can only declare residency if you fulfill certain eccentric conditions. Certainly not lying. And doesn't help the 30% dividend case here. Most countries with US tax treaties are ones that tax their citizens worse- hence the gov stepping in to prevent dual taxation.

X.E.D,

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snap...ntExt=INT#tab=0

VT annual expense is 0.18%.

Dreamer

The excess funds parked in the brokerage are in my case insured by FDIC (www.fdic.gov)

The fund is just held in that brokerage, if it was to go under and taken over by a new brokerage it'd get moved to there I imagine. Only if every company that fund holds was to go bankrupt your money would be gone !

wodenus,

The money is held in TRUST independent of whether the person is a citizen or not.

It is THE SAME as your stock is held in CDS A/C in Malaysia.  Your broker do not own those stock in your CDS A/C.  You do.

Whatever your question is.  It applies THE SAME in Malaysia.  The ONLY DIFFERENCE is USA has the larger scale and better transparency.

Dreamer

Cash balances are protected by FDIC/SIPC. Afaik you can deposit via bank draft but is a lot slower - considering the lower purchase and sales charges the wire fee isn't really a big deal (unless you're depositing small amounts where the wire charge is a significant percentage)

I'm not too sure why you're coming up with all these scenarios - in this day and age it's extremely rare for wire transfers or funds just to suddenly disappear and go missing, either they're credited to the destination account or returned / rejected if there's an issue with the payment. I do multiple wire transfers around the world every single week for business, never had a single payment just go "missing"

Scenario 1 : Why would $5000 just go missing? Doesn't make sense. All these brokers are regulated by authorities in their respective countries - they can't just make your money disappear and ignore your e-mails / contact.

Scenario 2 : Why would the account be locked for "suspicious activity"? If something like this does occur (most likely due to attempted unauthorised access II guess) it'd just be a case of supplying a few documents.

Scenario 3 : Same as with other banks, just need to ensure your next of kin etc. has the relevant details

Scenario 4 : As per first point above, these brokers are regulated in their countries - money doesn't just disappear.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here - just because a bank/broker is in another country doesn't mean it isn't safe and money doesn't just go missing!

What incompetence. I can't believe the FCC lets them run at all. First week, they "lost" $5,000 of mine through a "journaling" error. The next week, I received a confirmation on Saturday for trades that went through on Friday. Now, they have a "security freeze" on my account so I cannot access my money. Outrageous. Incompetent. Unprofessional. I will get my money out of there as soon as possible.

Lost access on my account - For no apparent reasons, my account was locked. I called them and despite the fact that I gave my SS number, date of birth and current address, they did not unlock my account. Not to mention that I spent a couple of hours on the phone answering ridiculous questions. I will be withdrawing my money from eTrade ASAP. After reading reviews on the internet, I realized a lot of people are having the same problem. This may be an indication that eTrade is having financial difficulties, so it has to freeze accounts to stay afloat. I think eTrade soon will be going out of business. My advice - stay away from eTrade.

The U.S. futures regulator acknowledged on Tuesday the regulatory system had failed to protect the customers of Peregrine Financial Group, which collapsed last week as its founder admitted to a fraud of more than US$100-million that spanned two decades.

Dreamer, any thoughts on Singapore STI ETF? It helps reduce local exposure and gives better regional/foreign exposure based on Singapore blue chip companies.
http://www.nikkoam.com.sg/etf/sti

With a standard chartered trading account, there are no minimum commission and brokerage fee of 0.2%.
It is more accessible with required investment amount of only SGD300~ per lot..

US stock can buy 1 share beb

Why keep cash?? If stock went up, bond will be on sale.  Hence, you sell stock (High) and buy Bond (low).  It happened in reverse too, when stock goes down.

 
You mean CMF from Malaysia can be in par with Malaysian bonds? 

well, still 100% equity in terms of asset..
Not sure about bonds, do bonds pay 5% averagely?

I asked. There may be taxation restrictions for foreigners, meaning, may be not allowed.