Rakuten Trade Announces New US Share Trading Services

Tags: nasdaq, nyse, Rakuten Trade, Robo-advisor

Digital trading broker, Rakuten Trade has announced that it is expanding its share trading services to cover overseas markets; starting with US-based shares. This will allow its customers to trade stocks and ETFs on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ.

Trading foreign shares will be no different from buying and selling Malaysian shares. In fact, Rakuten Trade even makes it simpler by fixing the exchange rate so that traders will know exactly how much they are worth when trading in foreign securities. As an added bonus, the digital broker has partnered with online financial news portal The Motley Fool to provide stock information – giving customers more insight about what to expect from the stock and warning them about potential risks that might be involved.

Additionally, the Rakuten Trade Cash Upfront account offers retail investors the following for trading on both Bursa Malaysia and US markets:

Low brokerage (i.e.: RM7 to RM100)
Competitive exchange rates that are better than most banks.
An all-in-one Cash Upfront dashboard for clients to execute their own stock trades.
One trading limit for all markets
Access to research reports from three sources: inhouse Research team, Rakuten Securities, Inc. (Research), and Motley Fools.
Quick account activation of less than one hour for trading in Malaysia and within three days to enable US trading.
Eligibility to earn RT points.
No charges for corporate action handling.

The option to trade US-based shares will be opened to those who opt in for the Foreign Market Service, which is available to all Rakuten Trade account owners right now. However, the actual ability to trade US shares will only be implemented within two to three weeks from now.

Rakuten Trade is not stopping at expanding to US shares. Rakuten Trade’s Chief Executive Officer Kazumasa Mise also revealed that the broker is preparing to offer access to the Hong Kong market as part of its foreign market service. No concrete timeline was offered about when this will be implemented, but Mise expects it to be ready to roll out at some time in the middle of the year.