BEST APPS TO USE TO TRADE US STOCKS IN JAPAN

If you are an ex-pat in Japan, chances are you will want exposure to the US stock market. But most Japanese brokers exclude Americans from having brokerage accounts with them. In the following article, we get to know about BEST APPS TO USE TO TRADE US STOCKS IN JAPAN. So please don’t skip the article from anywhere and read it carefully because it will be very useful for all of you guys.

Fear not! There are easy ways for American citizens to invest in US stocks or ETFs which trade on US exchanges. Here’s a shortlist of the best apps to trade US stocks in Japan. Note that these apps all require you to have a brokerage account back home before you need them here, so do not bother with any of them if this is your first time reading this post. You’ll also probably want to open an account with Saxo Bank because it has some serious advantages over other brokers when trading off exchange in foreign countries.

STOCKTWITS

With an incredibly easy-to-use interface, fantastic search functions and Twitter-like short messages, it is clear why many “serious” traders prefer StockTwits over other social media tools for stock trading. Japan has one of the largest communities (judging by several member accounts). However, if your Japanese is weak or non-existent, you may find yourself speaking with many English speakers. If you post, be sure to set your home country in your settings to the US.

TWITTER

The official Twitter accounts for major US stock market indexes usually send out a message around the open and close of trading. However, it is still not as reliable or easy to use (in terms of filtering) as StockTwits.

GOOGLE FINANCE

It is a great alternative when you need charts for stocks outside of the S&500 or Dow index, but check for which exchanges they include first before jumping in. Also, since many Japanese brokers do not allow your account access through Google (unless you are using Gmail), it won’t be easy to buy/sell securities there.

 It has some great analytical tools that shine on its mobile app, although, likeGoogle Finance, it can be challenging to trade stocks.

ROBINHOOD

This app is the only one on the list that does not require an account or any other brokerage. They do not charge any fees to trade stocks (although I understand that they make money from interest payments when you hold onto your cash). The problem? Only US stocks are available in their system right now. I would guess that very few people in Japan will sign up for this app without a friendly American citizen to invite them (I am willing to bet there are at most ten people in all of Japan who have been invited so far).

YAHOO!FINANCE 

If you know what stock you want, and don’t care about other essential information like volume or percentage change, then you can probably do just fine with Yahoo! Finance. However, I don’t think many people will find this helpful because it is neither as fast nor customizable as the first three apps on my list.

BIZ: TRADE 

This app only works for those trading Japanese stocks. But if you are one of those living in Japan who has no interest in US stocks at all (or options), then Biz: Trade offers a sleek user interface and potent charting tools, which will come in handy if you want to short or use limit orders.

It also offers specific financial calendar events for Japanese stocks, which are easier to observe here than when using the US market apps above.

 If you want short stocks, check out Biz: Trade’s sister app, Futures Trader Pro. In addition to futures trading on a lot of commodities and currency pairs, it allows you full access as a US customer as well as margin trading! 

Note that the futures calendar for this app is not quite as detailed as with Biz: Trade.

IN CONCLUSION

In my opinion, StockTwits is the best app to use if your goal is finding new ideas on under-followed small-cap stocks. But if you want more complicated charting tools and a way to trade stocks, then Saxo Trader or Robinhood would be the best options.

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