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Polaris Securities

I have received little feedback on this broker. If you would like to add any comments, please email me.

This is the Hong Kong arm of one of Taiwan’s largest stock brokers. While it provides services in English, it seems to be little used by English-speaking international investors.

Polaris offers a wide range of Asian markets, mostly for broker-assisted trading. It’s not especially cheap, but the inclusion of Vietnam is noteworthy – it seems to be the only international multimarket stock broker offering this country.

I understand that to trade in Vietnam you still need to have a local account and unique investor ID, which requires a visit to the country to register in person. From the details provided, it’s unclear whether you still need to have applied for your own account and ID before trading or whether Polaris has managed to get around these restrictions – investors considering using the firm to trade Vietnam will need to get a definitive answer to this before opening an account.

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Phillip Securities Hong Kong

International investors comparing brokerage accounts in Asia should be aware that Phillip Securities Hong Kong and Phillip Capital Singapore seem to be run independently of each other and offer different services.

The Hong Kong arm offers more markets online than the Singapore division, but less markets overall. International investors looking for an offshore account to trade Asian markets may do better through its sister firm or OCBC Securities in Singapore.

However, this is still one of the better multimarket brokers around and worth considering, especially if you need to invest in Japanese markets other than Tokyo which are rarely offered by international retail stock brokers (fellow Hong Kong broker Boom Securities is also worth considering for this purpose).

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Haitong Securities (Taifook Securities)

I have received little feedback on this broker. If you would like to add any comments, please email me.

Formerly known as Taifook Securities, the firm was part of the New World conglomerate, controlled by billionaire Cheng Yu-tung. In 2009, it was bought by the Hong Kong arm of mainland brokerage Haitong Securities and renamed.

The company is a major provider of investment services into Hong Kong shares for mainland residents. Although it offers a good range of international markets, it is not routinely used by international investors.

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Boom Securities

Boom was one of the pioneers of online stock trading in Asia. Starting out as an independent with backing from investment banker William Hambrecht, it was bought by Japan’s Monex Group in August 2010.

Boom offers an extremely good range of Asian markets for online trading at rates far lower than any American or European investor will pay for these using brokers in their home country. Following the acquisition by Monex, it can apparently now deal on the Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka and Sapporo stock exchanges, making it one of the few discount stock brokers outside Japan to offer stocks not listed on the Tokyo exchange.

The firm is no longer the clear leader in Asia across the markets it covers – Singapore’s OCBC Securities and Phillip Securities are worth considering as well. However, it continues to get very good feedback for customer service and ease of use, and is still one of the best multimarket stock brokers around.