Not targeting retail to my knowledge. Nomura PB comes to mind they have a very good lending book and even onboard individual investors/career traders, its all "just" a function of capital you are willing to bring on board.
Volpunter, i met with Newedge and AbnAmro last week and might join Newedge (if it works out, not guaranteed), do you know who's taking traders with similar minimum requirements as Newedge Professional Traders Group with offices in Asia - and preferably a server in HK/China ? Instinet belongs to Nomura from memory and seems to have significantly higher minimum. Does Nomura has more apropriate branch I might adress ? Also I heard that Marex is getting significantly bigger in Asia, do you know if they are competitive for international equities and vanilla options ?
You might want to contact Nissan Century and see what their terms would be for an individual investor. http://www.nc-sec.co.jp/english/
If trading prop is your thing, you may want to look into this firm http://www.daytradetheworld.com/ , no affiliation, just tossing out another option.
I don't need financing beyond portfolio margin so doubt prop would bring anything. Need a reputed firm as well , with a well honed platform- preferably with less issues that tws has
Do you think they really offer access to Japanese equity? That capability seems to be out of their reach.
The last time I checked they do offer Japan, HK, Spore, Msia equities day trading, was rather surprised they told me it was possible to short Msia stocks which is illegal in that exchange. They partnered with other local brokers, for Msia it's JPM so it's reasonable they have access to these markets, fees are high though.
i would be very surprised if they really offer me access to Japanese equities at competitive pricing, on both long and short sides.
Their whole web presence looks suspicious to say the least, I'd hesitate giving my funds to them. I like their concept, IB supposedly can "trade the world" but somewhat high commissions and sad shares-to-borrow lists don't really allow for this. Thanks, I think I won't get anything even in the IB ballpark commissions though.