Best International Brokerage Account

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The majority of the brokers we review on this site are aimed at traders in the US.

But what if you’re an international trader looking to trade the US options markets, which is the best broker for international traders?

To help you out we’ve reviewed all the best discount brokers to establish which one is the most suitable for international traders.

We looked at the number of countries where you can open an account, the quality of their trading platform, customer support and of course the fees they charge.

So who offers the best international brokerage account? optionsXpress.

What we looked for

When looking for an international broker we checked out how many countries they made the platform available in. You’ll be surprised just how many brokers only allow traders from the USA and Canada.

For this review we immediately eliminated any broker that doesn’t offer its services to people outside the USA and Canada.

I should point out that there are certain countries that are always excluded. If you’re reading this in Libya or Iran for example you’ll have a problem depositing any money with a US broker.

Once we had established a list of brokers that offered services internationally, we looked at their respected trading platforms, tools, services and fees to find the best international brokerage account.

Fees & Commissions

• Stocks and ETFs: $9.95 if under 1001 shares; $0.01 per share if over 1000 shares
• Options (active traders): $12.95 for up to 10 contracts, $1.25/contract for over 10 contracts
• Options (non-active traders): $14.95 for up to 10 contracts, $1.50/contract for over 10 contracts
• Mutual Funds: $9.95 + load fee (for load mutual funds)
• Bonds: $5.00 / Bond – $9.95 Minimum
• Futures: 1-40 Contracts $6.99; 41-100 Contracts $5.99; 101-300 Contracts $4.99; 301-1,000 Contracts $3.99; 1,001 + Contracts $2.99
• Options on Futures: 1-40 Contracts $12.99; 41-100 Contracts $8.99; 101-300 Contracts $7.99; 301-1,000 Contracts $6.99; 1,001 + Contracts $5.99
• Covered Calls: $22.90 Up to 10 contracts
• Penny Options: 1-10 Contracts $4.95 Flat; 10 + $0.50/contract
• Investments: stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, futures, options on futures, covered calls, ETFs
• Minimum to open account: $0 for cash account, $2000 for margin account

Pros

• Best customer service
• Many well-designed trading tools and cutting-edge trading technology
• Free streaming quotes
• $100 bonus for opening new account
• No fee IRA accounts
• Great research
• Free paper trading
• No money down to open new account
• Free account transfers
• Free instructor lead online classes
• Free broker-assisted trading
• Free dividend reinvestment (contact customer service)
• No platform fees

 Cons

• High trading costs for stocks and ETFs

Summary

optionsXpress is one of our favorite brokers on this site, they have an absolutely fantastic platform that’s both easy to use and extremely powerful.

They offer accounts to people in the following countries; Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Venezuela.

They’re not the cheapest broker around but they more than make up for that by not charging platform fees or account management fees. Their trading platform is one of the very best available from any US broker, it offers true one click trading and comes complete with excellent stock screeners and charting software.

Try out the optionsXpress platform for yourself.