Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Investing in US shares

With the rising prominence of US technology companies like Apple, Google, and forever present Microsoft, and the attractive potential returns associated with these companies, more and more people are asking, "how do I invest in US shares directly?"

Given the exchange controls in place in South Africa, it is not a straight-forward task. However, it is also not insurmountable. There are brokerages in South Africa that let clients invest in foreign shares, albeit with higher costs.

After having googled to find an answer, I have found an article that perhaps direct us to a good way of investing in US shares directly, for non-US citizens:

http://1-million-dollar-blog.com/how-to-invest-or-trade-in-us-stock-market-for-non-us-citizen/

The article suggest opening an account with US based brokers, it gives the steps to follow, and it gives two discount brokers that accept non-US citizens:

sogotrade, USD3.00 per transaction
just2trade, USD2.50 per transaction.

Some of the advantages of investing in the US stock market include:
- the largest stock markets in the world;
- high liquidity;
- exposure to many quality companies with worldwide operations and markets;
- exposure to tech stocks not available in South Africa.

Take action today and own shares in some of the top companies in the world!