Buying Shares in America

The commission charged by ASB Securities to buy shares in the USA is pretty high.
What do most people do. Can I sign up with a discount/online broker in the USA and send a chunk of money over?
What does everyone else do to reduce the commissions?

PS I did look through the newbie area to see if this had been asked before but didn't find anything.

Google some brokers and see what their sites offer.

Hi Aaron,

I have been away from here for a while but have recently decided to pick up where I left off (still very much at newbie stage).

There are a couple of older threads which mention US Brokerage:

http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthr...the-US-Markets
http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthr...ding-US-Market
http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthr...eapest-brokers
http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthr...-Brokers-in-US

I just posted off an application to E*Trade in Singapore today. Others may wish to comment on whether they think this is a good idea or not.

(If you try to sign up on the E*Trade US site, and you select New Zealand as your country, you are redirected to their Singapore site. https://global.etrade.com/sg/en/home)

They appear to do $20 trades for customers who have less than $50k in their account, or trade less than 30 times per quarter.

I thought I would try them first, partly because they will let NZ'ders join, and they do not require a large initial deposit ($1k minimum vs up to $25k for others).

Ameritrade sounds good, but as others have said (and I can confirm) they are still not taking NZ'ders money. Don't know what we did to offend them.

Will let you know how it goes.

consider CFD's??
there are an immense amount of securities from all around the globe available.
sure its not direct ownership but its local (hence quick setup), it has cheap transactions, and achieves the goal of exposure to the stock.
Yes it may cost over time for holding, but saves on capital AND foreign exchange fees. As I've said in other threads its not necessary to leverage, you can still fund the purchase. Leverage is not integral to CFD's its only something offered.

It really depends on your goals as to whether CFD's offer a viable alternative or not. But in my opinion it should be considered as a practical method of gaining exposure to o'seas securities.
I attach a picture just to give an example of the list of USA industrial shares.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aaron

The commission charged by ASB Securities to buy shares in the USA is pretty high.
What do most people do. Can I sign up with a discount/online broker in the USA and send a chunk of money over?
What does everyone else do to reduce the commissions?

PS I did look through the newbie area to see if this had been asked before but didn't find anything.

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Hi Aaron,

Please click here to see brokerage rates for trading US/UK shares with Direct Broking.

NOTE: we run an Online Custodial Trading Service for US/UK shares.

If you have any queries please give us a call - 0800 805 777 - or send an email to our team: custody@directbroking.co.nz

Cheers,
Alice