both charge between 10-15 bps in commission which is pretty good if it was DMA, but its not, they receive payment for order flow and most likely the slippage on fills will be quite bad. Additionally, both brokers pretty much rely on their own clients for short sell inventory, their sourcing of short able inventory is pretty poor. That is why SBI, for example, heavily markets the fact that a customer can opt into allowing his long share inventory to be lent out for a lending fee. (https://www.sbisec.co.jp/ETGate/WPL...rvice&dir=service&file=home_stocklending.html) IB's short list and inventory is not all that bad unless you trade special situations: https://www.interactivebrokers.com....ks.php?cntry=japan&tag=Japan&ib_entity=hk&ln= P.S: I double checked again, SBI actually charges almost twice the commission IB charges, 15bps vs 8bps.
well, you can't have it all, at least not with a relatively small account. Good luck hoping that SBI or Matsui or Japanese retail brokers in general offer access to hard to borrow names.
they surely offer much better short inventory. hard to borrow names is another matter, which nobody has mentioned
Can you provide proof of your claims? I already contradicted you with facts that IB charges about half in commission than what one one of your mentioned Japanese brokers charges. I have no affiliation with any of the brokers but I mind factual representation. You asked for brokers and when being offered choices you go all ape on IB. Whats with that?
read the japanese website. been trading japan for years, know whos cheap or not. just the lack of shorts in IB pissing me off sometimes.
well you stated Matsui being cheaper than IB, commission wise, and its simply not true. IB charges 8bps per trade, Matsui 15bps. IB's commissions are pretty competitive and while their short inventory does not reach much beyond large caps, it is not too bad. I stand by my claim that finding a broker that is better than IB, more competitive, commission wise, and affords a decent short sell inventory and all that for retail sized accounts is hard if not impossible. I am happy to stand corrected. SBI and Masui are definitely not the ones. And do not forget that a lot of the retail brokers in Japan lack decent APIs and receive payment for order flow.