Charles Schwab Corp. (CSC) and Fidelity Investments have recently made it easier to funds in local currencies on local exchanges according to an article in The Wall Street Journal dated August 12, 2006 on p. B1. Now you can buy stocks in countries besides the United States of America at these companies in local currencies and on local exchanges.
I must say that my own experience was anything but easy. I logged into both services. I searched, I searched again, I tried different strategies. Eventually I was able to get non-current quotes on a few stocks in China and Sweden on Fidelity. But instead of saying they trade on local exchanges, it says the trade on the OTC Other exchange. I was completely stymied at Charles Schwab and was unable to get a quote on anything outside of the USA except for ADRs which are non-US companies traded in the US in US dollars.
If you have discovered the trick for how to do this, leave a comment.
If you do trade a stock in a currency other than your own, beware of the FX risk. You can have a wonderful company with good growth and very good expense control that performs wonderfully in the stock market only to have all your returns wiped out by changes in the exchange rate between your currency and the currency of the stock you bought. The volatility on FX is higher than the volatility on stocks on average, so FX risk can and sometimes does dominate stock returns.
Larry,
I logged into my Fidelity account and can't find a thing here either.
Also, seeing as you have both a Schwab and a Fidelity account, do you have preference for one over the other?
Posted by: Jason | August 14, 2006 10:12 PM | Permalink to Comment