I use IB.

Yep last yr more on etf.

now looking toward to individual stock

IB is interactive brokers

Can check out the Vanguard Ireland domiciled funds to reduce the Withholding taxes.

Yup, and they're covered in US by SIPC

FYI,  depending on how you plan to invest IB may not be the best option.

IB has low fees, but you need to subscribe to the live data feeds at a cost and they charge an inactivity fee if balance is less than 100,000 usd or currency equivalent. Plus there's no automatic dividend reinvestment (DRIPS)  like TD Ameritrade

Have a look at  their site, there's a breakdown of fees -  the 100,000 waives your 10 usd monthly inactivity fee. This can be in stocks, cash in any currency etc to 100k usd equivalent.

It's also waived if you carry out enough trades a month, ie 10 usd in commission, depends if you're more an active trader or a buy and hold investor

OK similar to me, also long term and not very active trader.

Have a look at Vanguard UK ETFs, you can buy those through IB on LSE (London stock exchange)  and you'll have only 15% Withholding on dividends rather than 30%.

TT from Maybank for example will cost you around 50 USD all in -  not that cheap! That's including receiving bank fees and intermediary bank fees.

You could also deposit in SGD for example free of charge if you  have an account in SG (IB uses Citibank in SG). I also deposit from my UK account (again, no fees)  to GBP. Inside IB you can transfer between currencies at very competitive rates -  better than you'd ever get elsewhere anyway.

I deposited quite a lot at once and just leave it there until I want to top up...  Won't earn any interest if it's sitting in Maybank FCA anyway.

Min is USD 10k to open account only
https://www.interactivebrokers.com.hk/en/index.php?f=4969

Very affordable if u compare to TD amerit

TD amerit charge $9.99/trade
https://www.tdameritrade.com/pricing.page#ETFs

IB charge USD0.01/share or USD1 min, whichever higher.
https://www.interactivebrokers.com.hk/en/in...ssion&p=stocks1

Somemore the livefeed is free, not compulsory to subscribe to the paid service feed.

10 USD monthly is referring to inactivity fee, if you're not doing any trades during a month and have less than 100,000 USD balance.

TD Ameritrade has many commission free ETFs and supports DRIPS, so if you're only buying US ETFs infrequently and want dividends reinvested TD is a better option.

TD only USA exchanges AFAIK, but most common ETFs that you'd likely to be investing in are available commission free (there's a list on their website)  so the trade is free, and DRIPS means your dividends are automatically reinvested. With IB they just get deposited into your account. But with IB you can be buying non us listed etfs, which means you don't have to pay the Withholding tax of 30%, only 15%.

There's a minimum on TD of 2000 usd I believe. Transfer charges will be the same for both, overall Tt from Malaysia will cost you 40-50 USD in total. IB cheaper if you have SG account for example and deposit in SGD.