Weekly Stock Market Course

Opening Your New Broker Account

When opening a Thai brokerage account:

Try to establish what is called an ATS account (Automatic Transfer System) that way all your buy/sell trades settle through your own Thai Bank savings account. This is preferable, as the local bank then holds your idle funds -not the brokers. You so earn some small interest on your Bank savings account and have full access to your funds through the ATM machines, worldwide. I would advise not to mix your stock investing bank account with your normal Thai bank savings account,  otherwise you may well get confused by mixing all activity together.  This method requires you to be on location at least once, so to set up the Thai Bank account.  If you wire funds from overseas, wire these to your broker directly, after you opened your account there with your new account number and wire details on hand.  Do not first wire your funds to the bank and then to you broker.
The reason is that when you want to repatriate your capital and profits, the Thai broker may need proper import of capital documentation.  Then, sending funds back to your own named overseas account should never be an issue as long as its in your own name.

When wiring back the funds overseas, using your Thai bank can create delays and forms.  This is the key: You can repatriate funds and capital gains out of Thailand anytime without any tax consequences, as long as you are an individual.  I do not advocate corporate accounts when it comes to owning Thai shares.  Commissions are usually 0.25% on each side of the trade; online trading commissions are as low as 0.12%.  Minimum account levels can also be low: approximately $10,000, Tisco and Bualuang may require more?   I never advocate margin trading, in the past this was not handled credibly;  meaning forced sells were not implemented resulting in huge some customer losses in '97 and '98.

Consider an annual Contributing Membership as a likely wise investment.

Best Regards,

We value member comments, questions and concerns, our email address is: paulren@thaistocks.com