US citizen buying CDN stocks
- Thread starter cgtrader
- Start date
So far as I know there's no particular legal impediment to a US citizen buying
and selling Canadian stocks on TSE and TSX Venture directly through a US
broker. There's more than one that does it.
Some Canadian stocks also are listed on NYSE.
I think a US citizen is legally free to ask any US broker to buy whatever
foreign stock he wants to buy, but he may of course get hit with significant
excess transaction costs depending on how the trades are executed. You want to
find out these things up front ...
Buying options on foreign securities is another question, I don't think it's
possible in general through a US broker. US citizens can't trade options on US
equities outside the US due to SEC restrictions. Non-US futures and options on
futures have to be approved by the CFTC.
There is potentially exchange rate risk, but for CAD/USD, this has been going
the right way for US investors the past couple years. The Canadian stock market
has been doing well, too. You also want to take account of the fact that
financial reporting is done differently, and that SEC doesn't regulate the
trading ...
TSE symbols tradeable at IB are listed here:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/products.php?pdt=STK&ib_entity=llc
and TSXV:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/e...venture&showcategories=STK&ib_entity=llc#show
Surprisingly, the harder thing for me, as a dual American/Canadian citizen
residing in the US, was to set up an account with a major online Canadian
stockbroker to trade Canadian stocks from the US. I think it's easier for a
citizen of the US only. I found a smaller firm out in Calgary that said they
would do it, but didn't like the feel of it ...
and selling Canadian stocks on TSE and TSX Venture directly through a US
broker. There's more than one that does it.
Some Canadian stocks also are listed on NYSE.
I think a US citizen is legally free to ask any US broker to buy whatever
foreign stock he wants to buy, but he may of course get hit with significant
excess transaction costs depending on how the trades are executed. You want to
find out these things up front ...
Buying options on foreign securities is another question, I don't think it's
possible in general through a US broker. US citizens can't trade options on US
equities outside the US due to SEC restrictions. Non-US futures and options on
futures have to be approved by the CFTC.
There is potentially exchange rate risk, but for CAD/USD, this has been going
the right way for US investors the past couple years. The Canadian stock market
has been doing well, too. You also want to take account of the fact that
financial reporting is done differently, and that SEC doesn't regulate the
trading ...
TSE symbols tradeable at IB are listed here:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/products.php?pdt=STK&ib_entity=llc
and TSXV:
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/e...venture&showcategories=STK&ib_entity=llc#show
Surprisingly, the harder thing for me, as a dual American/Canadian citizen
residing in the US, was to set up an account with a major online Canadian
stockbroker to trade Canadian stocks from the US. I think it's easier for a
citizen of the US only. I found a smaller firm out in Calgary that said they
would do it, but didn't like the feel of it ...
Sorry cgtrader, just saw this.
It's been a few years since I talked with the Calgary firm. I tried, but I
can't remember the name. The reason I was looking into it was that my father
had inherited some money from his father when he died, some of which was left
sitting in a Canadian bank account, earning pathetically low interest. We
arranged with the help of a very nice lady at TD to roll it over into GIC's,
we decided we didn't want to bring the money back to the US since the Canadian
dollar was weak at the time and we were bullish. We turned out to be right,
but we would have much rather bought Canadian banking stocks with the money
It seemed to be very hard to arrange to do that at the time. It may be
easier now: I don't know what the situation is with IB Canada with respect
to non-resident Canadians opening accounts.
Good luck to you as well.
It's been a few years since I talked with the Calgary firm. I tried, but I
can't remember the name. The reason I was looking into it was that my father
had inherited some money from his father when he died, some of which was left
sitting in a Canadian bank account, earning pathetically low interest. We
arranged with the help of a very nice lady at TD to roll it over into GIC's,
we decided we didn't want to bring the money back to the US since the Canadian
dollar was weak at the time and we were bullish. We turned out to be right,
but we would have much rather bought Canadian banking stocks with the money
It seemed to be very hard to arrange to do that at the time. It may be
easier now: I don't know what the situation is with IB Canada with respect
to non-resident Canadians opening accounts.
Good luck to you as well.