Online Stock Investing And Accessing Foreign Markets Sometimes you’ll discover that your online broker displays foreign stocks, such as Canadian resource stocks in rare earth metals and mining, with the five-letter symbols. The reason for this is that there is some overlap between Canadian stocks and U.S. stocks. Using the longer symbol avoids the confusion that would arise using a symbol that depicts a stock on both the American and Canadian exchanges. Another thing to keep in mind with online stock investing is that there are a number of ways to tap foreign markets. You can do so directly, and you can even have an account denominated in the native currency where the exchange is located. However, you can also tap into these companies by way of the Pink Sheets in the Unites States. Some people advocate against these for liquidity reasons or large bid-ask spreads. Buy I’ve used limit orders and never had a problem. Online Stock Investing When It Comes To Accounts For Business Entities There are special circumstances that you may run into if you want to conduct your online stock investing in the name of an entity. If your account is in the name of an LLC or corporation or a trust, good for you. This level of estate and tax planning is brilliant, and will pay huge dividends in the long term. I do this myself. However, in the short term you could get frustrated. For instance, when I was first starting out, I wanted to use E-Trade to tap the Canadian Exchanges. E-Trade was touting its access to a global marketplace, so I figured it should be pretty easy. I contacted them, told them my intentions, completed an application, and initiated an account. However, I was unable to access the foreign exchanges. I was told that was yet an additional application that “expanded†my account to give access to foreign exchanges. So be it. Long story short, the bottom line on that story is that online stock investing with E-Trade only supports these international accounts with either joint or individual accounts. If you want to do a ROTH or a joint account with your spouse, you are welcome to apply. Business entities have to go elsewhere. Despite my diligence and careful instruction, I wasted a lot of time on this useless process. Just know this could be a snag and seek out more sophisticated brokers who can accommodate your level of business engagement and online stock investing needs.