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Stock Brokerage account? any good ones?


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Does anyone know how easy it is for an American to open a stock trading account? Any recommendations? Do I have to give them my American SSN?

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@ db

yes, there is this kind of message board

not as sad as hitech stocks, though

@ reg

very easy with online brokers (eg seamico, abn amro)

i don't think they know what is ssn

i would not recommend thai stocks if you are not living here at least part time - too hard to get information

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If you are looking to trade the US market through an account over here you will be asked for tax information by the local institution

The laws changed (were tightened up 1/1/01)the US govt believes there are lots of americans outside of the US evading tax.

If however you are looking to trade /invest in the local market then the tax issue will be down to your own conscience.In this instance the local houses will not be concerned by your US tax liabilities.

Also remember there are laws in the US concerning outgoing capital. ie greater than $10000. Itis not illegal to take such amounts out of the US but it is the law to report it. If you are seem to be exporting regular large amounts of $ the IRS might start to look a little more closely as to why

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Its easy enough to open up an account here, try Seamco, run by a farang (Robert Miller from Memory) good service. The market here thrives on price fixing, ramping and insider trading. Thin volumes mean that its easily manipulated and as well its just hard to get the normal info that we take for granted with more developed markets. Not for the faint hearted or risk adverse.

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first, as for the $10,000 US leaving the usa, you don't have to report it unless it's cash-

if it's a wire transfer, then your bank will report it

if it is more than 2 million baht, then you will have to sign a form at your thai bank or thai broker stating where the money came from-

you are not restricted to buying thai stocks on the foreign board but if you buy regular thai stocks you are not eligible for dividends and special prices for recapitalisation- usually the broker will hold the stock in their name then collect the dividednd and put it in your account

when you file usa income tax, there is a spot on the return asking if you have control over any foreign financial accounts and that incluides brokerage accounts- it also asks you what country?

i've been fooling around with submerging stock markets and third world bonds for a while- and thailand really takes the cake for chicanery

good luck

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Seamico is a public company, and one of the key executives is indeed a foreigner -- an Aussie named Robert McMillian (not Miller)-- so it is very expat friendly. Opening an account at Seamico can be done through their web site (www.seamico.com)and no American taxpayer ID information will be required, only a copy of your US passport to meet Thai ID requirements.

The conventional view now is that the Thai market is weak at worst, directionless at best. What little movement it has seen recently has been driven strictly by retail punters, which in Thailand generally means crowds of little old Chinese ladies. This doesn't smell to any sophisticated investors I know like a particularly good time to be taking any new medium or long term positions on the SET (which in Thailand means any investment you plan to hold more than a week or two).

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Oh, now I see. Easy answer. You can't do that. No Thai brokerage house trades US stocks, and to my knowledge no US house has a retail operation in Thailand (although of course a few have joint ventures with Thai brokerage houses for the purpose of trading Thai stocks).

Now of course you can open an account with any US brokerage house and trade stocks by internet or (gasp!) telephone without anyone giving a damn whether you're in Thailand or on the moon, but itwould of course be a US account and would be treated for reporting purposes exactly as it would if you were back home in Cleveland (so to speak).

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Has anyone heard of boom.com? It's an online brokerage located in Hong Kong. With Boom you can trade on the Hong Kong, American, Canadian, Thai, Singapore, Indonesian, India and maybe Malaysian exchanges. Fees are not bad and the whole thing is run by a Canadian(imagine trying to do that in Bangkok). If I am not mistaken resident US citizens can not open an account but if your residece is elsewhere it should be okay. The only form I had to fill out was a dividend tax with-holding form. wink.gif" border="0

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I guess i wasn't clear enough. Yes, I was asking about opening a stock brokerage account in Thailand, then trading American stocks on the Nasdaq. I just wonder if any capital gains gets reported back to USA.

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