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Charles Schwab Global Account

Charles Schwab’s online global trading service is distinct from the international dealing option in its Schwab One Account and, unlike the latter, is only open to US citizens (US residents who don’t hold US nationality will apparently not be eligible). It offers online trading for 12 markets in Europe and Asia – some publicity material claims access to 30 countries, but this larger number refers to trading in foreign ADRs and OTC stocks, which is not the same as having direct access to an overseas exchange.

Fees are more competitive than the Schwab One telephone dealing offering. However, be aware of the currency conversion commissions (up to 1% over interbank rates) and also the 0.1% extra commission that Schwab’s local broker will add on – detailed rates are in Schwab’s fee guide [PDF]. On the plus side, this account has no minimum balance, other than requiring clients to already have a Schwab One account.

Overall, this is more realistic for smaller investors than anything Schwab offered previously, but it is still more expensive than Interactive Brokers and covers less markets than the similarly priced Fidelity.

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MubasherTrade Global

MubasherTrade Global (previously known as DUTrade) is an online trading platform run by Bahrain-based Mubasher Financial Services, which is a subsidiary of National Technology Group, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate. Mubasher FS is a large regional institutional brokerage and MubasherTrade Global is its move into serving retail investors.

As far as we know, this is the only platform offering an online trading service covering most of the Middle East and North Africa markets, making it potentially very convenient for investors interested in this region. Some markets and stocks may not be available to all users – for example, Saudi Arabia is restricted to Gulf Cooperation Council citizens only.

In terms of investor protection, Mubasher FS is regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain and local rules require brokers to keep clients assets segregated from their own assets. However, investor should be aware that there is no investor compensation scheme in this jurisdiction to protect against worst-case scenarios.

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IW Bank

Part of UBI Banca, one of Italy’s largest banking groups, IWBank is an online brokerage offering online and telephone stock trading in most major European markets and some other global ones. It provides services in several European languages, but seems to be relatively little used by non-Italian clients if the shortage of customer feedback is anything to go by. Commissions seem reasonable for some markets and rather high for others.

Although IW Bank operates separate sites under .co.uk, .fr, .de and other European domains, the firm does not have authorised subsidiaries in these countries and so all accounts fall under the Italian regulatory regime and the investor protection rules there.

This isn’t a problem – Italy is of course a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) and EEA rules are intended to establish minimum standards, enabling financial services to be “passported” across borders. But investors should always be aware when they are dealing with a passported institution, so that they know to which regulator they have recourse in the event that something goes wrong.

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Core Pacific – Yamaichi

This Hong Kong brokerage was originally founded in the early 1990s by Taiwan’s Core Pacific Group, now best known internationally for being behind one of the world’s oddest looking shopping malls. It subsequently acquired the Hong Kong operations of Yamaichi Securities – formerly one of the Japanese ‘big four’ brokers – when the latter went bankrupt in 1997, merged with the Hong Kong arm of Taiwan’s Yuanta Securities in 1999 and then got caught up in a lengthy court battle when Core Pacific and Yuanta fell out.

Today, the firm offers trading in most Asian markets and a few others outside the region. However, fees are high and it looks like most investors can get a better deal elsewhere. It’s included in the directory to help with comparisons, but there is no customer feedback available so far.

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Keytrade Bank

Keytrade – owned by CrĂ©dit Agricole – offers online trading in most European markets and in North America. Fees are reasonably good, but there are probably better stock brokerage choices available for most international investors.

What could make it very useful for some is its fund supermarket, covering around 500 funds. This is worth considering alongside the better-known TD Direct Investing International (formerly Internaxx) for anyone looking for an offshore fund supermarket that will allow you to invest in Europe-domiciled funds, especially since the lack of custody charges means it may be slightly cheaper than TDII.

Keytrade has divisions in Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Since the Luxembourg arm is likely to be most popular with non-residents, the details below are taken from its terms, although there is relatively little difference between the three.

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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.

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Fidelity

Fidelity has recently overhauled its international trading service to the point where it may be relatively useful. Previously, you needed a minimum balance of US$25,000 and over 120 trades per year or a balance of US$1,000,000, which made it extremely uncompetitive since any investor who met those conditions could do better elsewhere.

But with the international trading service now open to all account sizes, a large number of new markets added and reasonable fees for online trades in most, it now seems to be one of the most competitive providers available to US investors, at least in terms of range (Interactive Brokers is considerably cheaper, but covers fewer markets). However, be aware of the usual excessive FX conversion fee (up to 1%) – investors should try to work around this as much as possible by avoiding changing currencies within the account too frequently.

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EverTrade

EverTrade is part of Florida-based EverBank, which specialises in postal, telephone and internet banking. It offers a large range of international markets – especially in Europe – for online and broker-assisted trading.

The service is roughly comparable to Fidelity in terms of reach and which one would work out as better value would depend on your individual trading pattern. Broadly, Fidelity looks cheaper for online trades in many circumstances, while Evertrade may be more competitive when placing orders through a broker.