The best international stock brokers

Finding a good broker for international stock trading can be hard work. When I began investing in foreign stocks years ago, I couldn’t find much good information on international stock brokers anywhere online – just endless sites filled with mistakes and badly disguised advertising.

So I’ve tried to make it a bit easier for other investors by collecting together all the information you need to compare the best international online and telephone stock brokers in the UK, the US, Hong Kong, and Singapore. I’ve also included a few suggestions for investors looking for stock brokers in other parts of the world.

Each section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the major stock brokers in that country. It also links to a detailed comparison chart giving details of their brokerage fees and other services. If you’d like to search for a stock broker that can trade in a specific stock market, there’s also a search function in the stock broker directory to speed things up.

The guide is intended to be as comprehensive as possible. As a result, it’s getting longer all the time. While it’s best to read the whole list and pick the stock broker best suited to your needs, I have also written a much shorter guide to the five online stock brokers that I think are most useful for international investors.

You can also browse the answers to many questions about international investment in the international investing FAQ section. And if you’d like to give me feedback or updates on any stock brokers or ask any other questions, please send an email through the contact form.

In this guide, I have assumed that readers already know about buying international stocks and opening an account with a foreign stock broker. If you’d like more background on this, you may find it helpful to read this article on buying foreign shares first. Otherwise, please read on using the links below.