In the last post, we talked about people could invest in stocks trading in the top ten stock exchanges in the world if they want to further diversity their portfolios. But are there any online brokerages that allow Canadians to invest in foreign market?
So far, I have found two online brokerages:
Currently, most Canadian online brokerages such as Questrade and Credential Direct ONLY allow clients to trade Canadian and American stocks. All they have to do are to set up cash, margin, TFSA (Tax-Free Savings Account), RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Account) or any other registered account in their online brokerages and they can start trading.
With HSBC InvestDirect, not only traders can invest in Canadian and American stocks, but also they can invest in multiple stock exchanges around the world such as Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), and Euronext Paris (EPA).
Although commissions and fees to trade in foreign stock exchanges are more expensive than trading Canadian and American stocks, at least HSBC InvestDirect gives Canadians opportunities to invest in foreign markets conveniently. In fact, investors can hold their stocks in TFSA, RRSP or other registered accounts in order to avoid or defer taxes.
Another online brokerage that allows Canadian to trade in foreign markets is Interactive Brokers. Interactive Brokers is an American-based online brokerage firm with twenty-four offices in twelve countries. Interactive Brokers is also is the largest U.S. electronic brokerage firm by number of daily average revenue trades, and is the leading forex broker. Furthermore, Interactive Brokers allows people to trade stocks, options, futures, futures options, forex, and bonds.
Similar to HBSC InvestDirect, Interactive Brokers charges difference trading fees depends on the country of the stock exchange is. For instance, people who would like to trade Canadian stocks have to pay Interactive Brokers’ commission fee, transaction fee, and clearing fee.
In addition, Interactive Brokers provides a gateway to trade in 120 markets in 26 countries such as the United States, Canada, Mexico, India, Japan, Norway, England and Hungary. However, investors would not be able to set up TFSA, RRSP and other registered accounts on Interactive Brokers to save taxes on their investments.
So there you have it! Are you ready to trade foreign stocks today? Please leave a comment below! Catch you on the flip side!
