Yeah, thats why they really arent an option for me i believe. That was a a really good idea that I had not thought of. I will open an account at IB but might also open an account at a HK or singapore based broker. I found these two Boom Securities Phillip Securities Hong Kong Using one of these + IB + my swedish brokers i will have access to all the exchanges im interested in. The asian brokers are quite expensive but most of my money will be in the other accounts. Has anyone here used Boom Securities or Phillip Securities?
For Thailand, Foreigners have 2 options, either buy stocks designated as Foreign, or buy the NVDR (Non-Voting Depository Receipt). http://www.set.or.th/nvdr/en/about/about.html NVDRs trade in real time because the way it works with the local brokers platforms is you check a box to signify it is NVDR and then trade the underlying just like the locals. Never had a glitch. My account is with a local broker. Apparently I will be able to trade the various South-East Asian Exchanges through the 1 account, but I have not had the time to look into it. Bigger fish to fry
http://www.maybank-ke.com/ My account is with the Thai outfit. I looked at their Singapore commissions some time back and they were high compared to what I pay locally, which is 0.15% per transaction + 7% VAT levied on the Commission only, so it works out to about 0.33% RT. Anyway, reputable outfit owned by one of Malaysias largest banks (ie Too Big to Fail), so you could look into any of the countries they operate in.
I'm familiar with the names but never used them. HK brokers have the reputation to have very basic platforms but I'm not sure your money is any less safe there than with a US broker. You might ask for more details on the following HK forum, although it's not very active : http://hongkong.geoexpat.com/forum/125/ Also I'm not sure how often you plan to wire money in and out of your asian broker, but the international wire fees associated with ugly intermediary bank fees might amount to quite a bit, and if you need to exchange currencies through your bank account or the bank transfer, it will turn nightmarish (i'd call a 0.25% loss on wire transfer nightmarish, and it can get worse). A possibility is to open a bank account in HK or singapore, that way you can basically wire SEK or EUR to IB for about nothing (assuming they offer same local funding facilities for SEK as for EUR/GBP/CHF/HKD etc...) than convert money cheaply into HKD through IB forex platform, than transfer HKD to your HK bank account for nothing, than fund your HK broker account for 0 to 7 USD, depending on the bank. HSBC can possibly set you up from Sweden. Daily internet wire limits in HK might be another problem, not so if you have a HSBC premier account, or another kind of premium account with other HK banks. I'm not familiar with Singapore but suppose it would work similarly with a Singapore broker, a singapore bank and currency.