If it makes you feel better, you can download a paper trading app on mobile, play around with it for a year or two using practice money, and then start investing and you won’t have to exaggerate your investing experience on the application
If you’re American, why not simply use Schwab or some other online broker? Do you have a US bank account?
China Trust take a small percentage plus $35 when u buy & sell each time…… which adds up over time.
Schwab takes nothing. You’ve just got to transfer the money to your account…
If you’re not American, you can open an international account with them.
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When signing up for Interactive Brokers, the default account type is margin. You have to specifically select “cash” (the basic option).
Do you remember changing that option when applying?
HSBC TW allow you to buy American ETFs, funds, and other equities - you can do it directly through their English mobile app.
But the custodian fees are relatively high - for example, 0.4% per annum for ETFs. Might be worth it to you for convenience.
I tried Schwab. They require a minimum of a 250,000usd deposit to open an international account. I’m not willing to put that much into a service I’ve never used before. Looking to start small. I don’t have a US bank account. I’m on an APRC and I’ve been in Taiwan for 15 years.
They’re a reputable, cheap service. What are you looking for that trying them out would really make a difference? And can you open, then withdrawal a chunk your money, or do you have to maintain a certain balance? 
Most US online trading accounts offer no fee trades these days.
No way you can open an account?
I recall a similar situation with Bank of America years ago. 
25k not 250k.
How much were you looking to start with?
I would also suggest crypto, however all the Taiwan based crypto exchanges (Bitopro, Bitoex, Maincoin) say no Americans allowed. Perhaps you can try an offshore one like Crypto.com.
I think many of the local banks also refuse Americans from investing, such as HSBC.
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Those are for billionaires. They don’t want little kids playing around with investment. I don’t do any because I get the impression they have some absurd minimum that only extremely rich folks can get into, no thanks.
I’d be fine throwing some money into a slot machine, but not when you’re restricted to playing high stakes poker.
Sure, that’s why.
yea, not so much - a 250k account would be well in the range of the mass affluent. you’re missing the sheer scale of what it actually is to be a billionaire.
250k that you can afford to lose, not having 250k lying around. Reasonably affluent can come up with 250k if there’s an emergency but certainly not as discretionary funds. Only billionaires can do that.
It’s not 250,000.
It’s 25,000.
Look at the picture Ted put up.
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We’re talking an investment account, not a weekend trip to Vegas (or even a single bet). $250k is literally like pocket money to a billionaire, not investment money. It’s the same percentage as $250 is to someone with $1M.
Actually most billionaires don’t have a billion dollars in cash. They’re billionaires because the stock they hold is valued in those amounts, but if they tried to convert a significant portion of it to cash it would be far less (and I’m not sure they’d even be able to do it without destroying the investments).
But it is clear the minimums are designed to attract rich people, not people with a job and have some discretionary funds, and certainly not someone who wants to invest responsibly by putting in say 100 bucks a month into an investment on a regular basis.
ferfucksake my man. yea, no shit billionaires aren’t sitting on a pile of cash like scrooge mcduck. $250k is still chump change in liquid assets at that wealth level. $250k is like entry level, mass affluent type account, and yes, certainly aimed at successful working professionals.
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So if I want to invest a nominal amount of money but not thousands and thousands of dollars at a time, where do I go? Just a stable investment with a regular input of say 50 bucks a month?
One of the bunch of options mentioned above without high initial deposit limits?
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