Of course. It's true for every country. Buying from local stocks from local broker is always cheaper than you use your own local broker to buy international stocks. All the info you need can be found in this thread.

can we buy etfs from any malaysia brokers?

Can. You pay higher commission, dividend fees (whenever there's dividend) + maintenance fee

If you don't mind giving free money to your broker, then just buy from them. Save you time. No need to research brokers, no need to submit documents overseas.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Jan 16 2018, 08:41 AM

oh meaning overseas broker fee lower compare to malaysia's.
should try etfs since in sg now

I came across this thread by accident. It seems that many people want to open account with IB but could not do so because:

1) could not afford the initial deposit of $10K.
2) not willing to pay $10/month inactivity fee

Here's the good news. IB offers white branding to other brokers:
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=14322

Basically, a white label (WL) broker of IB charges slightly higher commission than IB but requires less initial deposit. Some of them waive the $10/month inactivity fee. WL brokers might not offer the full range of products offered by IB. An account with WL brokers is fully held at IB and you can also login to IB's website and trading platform (TWS) with the same username.

Some of the WL brokers that I know:

1) Zackstrade - US based.
2) Placetrade - US based
3) Captrader - Germany based
4) Prorealtime - France based

You can google to find out more about them.
Personally, I have only used Zackstrade. I can confirm the following for Zackstrade:

1) Initial deposit of $2500
2) No inactivity fee of $10/month.

Here is the link: https://www.zackstrade.com/commissions-fees/

Disclaimer: I do not work for Zackstrade, just a customer with them.

Hi all. Just attended the CIMB briefing for the new ValueCap ETF that will be launched on 28 Feb, the i-VCAP MyETF-US50. For those of you who don't want the hassle of setting up an account with a foreign broker, it seems like a decent proposition, although keep in mind that it's a Shariah-compliant ETF therefore the benchmark is different.

I take issue with their high mgmt fees (40bps!!!) + unit creation ability (institution arbitrage?), so am looking to acquire a US-tracking ETF at the lowest cost. Based on what I've read here, seems like Interactive Brokers and the Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (VUSA) is the way to go.

Don't use etoro. They are cfd broker which is different story. They are not stock broker.

They have x1 leverage , which is normal stock purchase..
CFD they charge overnight fees..

Somehow I don't trust etoro.

Huh? Can share why?

Based on your previous brokers sharing , can please conclude which broker is the most reliable/ lowest fee/ recommended?

1. eToro is not a real stock broker. They are CFD broker.

Interactive broker if you have money of USD100k under them. No broker offer that cheap fees. 2nd runner up is Exante but I have yet to email them about their customer service
The above 2 are the one of the brokers on my consideration for international investing.

Standard chartered SG for the poor man who wants to buy international stocks. Their fees can be found here.
https://www.sc.com/sg/investment/online-tra...244970df361e303
The downside: hard to open account with them as they don't want to accept malaysian customers.

For me, try to open standard chartered sg, consolidate all my holdings there while messaging Exante to enquire about fees. If cheap may consider that over interactive broker.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: May 8 2018, 01:32 PM

Here you go.

Hi, Im newbie in TD Ameritrade. Hope sifu can help me out here.

1. I found that the brokerage fees with US account and SG account are slightly different (US acc cheaper). Are we as malaysian compulsory to trade with SG account?

2. What;s the charges of ETF if trading with them, cant find ETF fees.

3. First time funding fees are refundable?

4. is it a good time to enter US? looking at our MYR. having dilemma to go or not to go ..

5. do TDA has the robo thingy?

Thanks ya

This post has been edited by mygarage88: May 27 2018, 01:24 PM

Can’t advise on fees right now as to be honest I haven’t used TDAM for quite a while

But me and I’m sure all other account holders had our TDAM accounts moved to Singapore, so I’m sure the same would apply to new accounts also.

Yes its good time to invest in US now.

Hi Shifus,

I have been using my cimb to buy US stocks now. The brokerage fee is quite expensive though I'm not a trader type.

May I know how safe is it to use the Zacks trade?

I have tried to open an account with TD ameritrade. Till the end of the account opening, realise have to make payment via wire transfer and in USD dollars. Is it all the foreign broker will request us to make payment with such a method?

Thank you for your advice!

i dunno the rest but for ameritrade and interactive brokers, yes.
u need to TT USD to their overseas account, becos they are overseas based.
brokerage fees is much lower but some have a fixed monthly fee.

local based ones like CIMB, they convert yr RM for u.
more convenient but too costly to trade due to high brokerage fees.

my advice to u - ok to use local for long term hold, very bad for trading.
trading, u must use foreign brokers with low brokerage fee.

Thanks AVFAN for your advice. Haha I actually read from the beginning till the end of the post earlier.

For me I always believe in keeping cost low. Why should you pay your broker extra when you can use the extra to invest? Never waste good money.

Noted with thanks Ramjade.

May I know for IB, I must maintain the min amount of 10k in the account all the times? Does it include the market value of the shares which I purchase or just cash in the account?

The other thing is if I use online foreign TT for Maybank, the cost of transfer is the same with over the counter using wire transfer?

Thank you