hi, this might be a dumb question, but i searched around and didnt find anything too obvious that answered it. I live in the US probably like most people on this forum, but im interested in being able to invest internationally, but existing ETFs and whatnot arent really enough for me. I _could_ find mutual fund managers in other countries and do it the manual way, but what i would really prefer is retail access to foreign exchanges, or some way to at least buy the index. I don't know if the rest of you noticed how great the rest of the world's markets are doing, but I would like to get in on some of it. any thoughts/brokers/wisdom would be appreciated. As a side note, i tend to believe in market efficiency, BUT market efficiency in practice is a little different, like all those illiquid foreign markets that don't have traders on them, primary due to LACK OF ACCESS. I know if everyone's broker on here started offering trading on those exchanges, who wouldnt have been tempted to buy the UAE index, and make 116% - on their index! or south korea for 53%. Anyway, any thoughts appreciated.
Most major exchanges/products with any kind of volume are supported by www.interactivebrokers.com . There are a number of issues (currency stability, corp governance, broker fraud, etc.) with trading less popular/new/developing exchanges/products that make it pretty tough to justify the trouble of finding a way to trade on them.