How to buy Alibaba listed stocks

Alibaba is listed in the United States. To buy Alibaba stocks, you must first open a U.S. stock account.

Introduction:

There are two ways to open an account for U.S. stocks: one is to open an account through a branch of a domestic securities firm in Hong Kong; the other is to open an account directly with a foreign securities firm through the Internet.

Step one: Choose a brokerage:

Specializing in stocks in China requires a brokerage, and investing in U.S. stocks also requires finding a reliable brokerage.

Method 1: Open an account through an online U.S. stock brokerage firm

Most Chinese people may not have the opportunity to travel or settle in the United States, so it is very feasible to buy and sell U.S. stocks through those online U.S. stock brokerage firms that support online account opening. plan. The headquarters of these online U.S. stock brokerages are generally located in major cities in the United States, and their trading commissions are also relatively high.

Traditional securities companies are much cheaper, and the account opening procedures are very simple. Just fill out the relevant forms online and send them to their US headquarters. Some securities companies even support paperless account opening.

Just like buying and selling domestic A-shares, there are many brokerages to choose from. U.S. stock brokerages commonly used by Chinese people include Firstrade, E-trade, Scottrade, SogoTrade, Interactive Brokers, etc.

Method 2: Buy and sell U.S. stocks through financial institutions in Hong Kong

Basically, the "Hong Kong subsidiaries" of major domestic securities firms have this business. The so-called "re-entrustment" is as the name suggests. That is, you place an order with this Hong Kong brokerage (or the Hong Kong subsidiary of a mainland brokerage), and the brokerage then transfers the order to another brokerage in the United States that has signed a cooperation agreement with it. The Hong Kong subsidiaries of many large domestic securities companies are secretly developing mainland customers to buy and sell U.S. or Hong Kong stocks through various channels. For example, CMB International, Bank of China, HSBC, etc. all provide US stock trading functions.

Step 2: Express the information to the selected brokerage

This is because the express information requires the signature of the account holder. The documents required to open an account include:

1) Account opening application form;

2) W8ben tax-free form (tax-free form filled out by non-U.S. residents, income from U.S. stocks can be tax-free in the United States);

3) Identity document: a copy of a valid personal ID card or passport;

4) Address document: a document containing the applicant’s name and address within the past three months One, such as credit card monthly statement, mobile phone/telephone monthly statement, water bill or electricity bill or property management bill, etc.;

After filling in the above form and preparing relevant information, you need to fax it first Or scan it to the account opening number or email address designated by the brokerage. After passing the review, the original document will be mailed to Hong Kong or the United States (according to the designated address of different brokerages). After verification, the brokerage will contact the account holder to open a U.S. stock securities account.

Step 3: Inject capital into the US stock account.

Many domestic commercial banks support cross-border remittances directly through online banking.

If you have a bank account overseas, you can transfer it from this bank account to a securities account. If you do not have an overseas bank account, you need to contact the brokerage company to solve the transfer problem.

Residents need to convert the RMB in their hands into US dollars. After converting the RMB cash into foreign exchange, they can transfer the foreign exchange to overseas bank accounts. Most online banking systems provide overseas remittance functions, and each order charges a fee. It's usually less than 100 yuan and can usually arrive in your account within a few hours.

It should be noted that Chinese citizens can only remit US$50,000 a year to the United States. According to mainland policies, private overseas investment is now restricted. Domestic individuals can only make overseas fixed income, equity and other financial investments through qualified domestic institutional investors such as banks, funds, and trusts. Officials have made it clear that relevant management regulations will be improved in the future to allow individual investors to invest overseas. At present, the RMB is only freely convertible under trade.

If you are a wealthy person with huge investment, it is recommended to save the country through Hong Kong’s free port curve.

When you go to Hong Kong, you can find any bank in Hong Kong to open a bank account with the same name as a mainland bank and open online banking. Then transfer the money from the Hong Kong account. There are no restrictions on this method. The only thing is that you need to go to Hong Kong in person.

There are ways to open a Hong Kong account without going to Hong Kong, such as the Hong Kong account of China Merchants Bank Gold Card customers’ dual card, the ICBC (Asia) “Elite Account” of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and the China Construction Bank Cross-Hong Kong Long Card It's all the same principle.

Step 4: Buy and sell U.S. stocks

There are several points to note when using an overseas trading account for U.S. stocks:

Opening time: In the United States, Wall Street is Beijing during summer time It opens at 9:30 pm and lasts until 4 am; non-daylight saving time is 10:30 pm and lasts until 5 am.

Handling fees: U.S. stock trading commissions are different from those in China and are set by each brokerage. Some brokerages charge per transaction, such as US$7 per transaction; some charge per share, US$0.005 per share. Financial institutions in Hong Kong charge higher fees, and some can only entrust orders by phone.

Pay taxes: Chinese people do not need to pay capital gains tax when they speculate in U.S. stocks. When opening an account, be sure to fill out the W-8Ben form to indicate your "foreigner" status, so you don't have to pay taxes to Uncle Sam.

Minimum capital requirements: Different brokers have different minimum capital requirements for opening an account. From US$500 to US$10,000, please refer to the introduction of each brokerage. For example, Scott Securities requires a minimum account opening deposit of US$500 for a cash account and US$2,000 for a margin trading account.

No trading unit limit: The most interesting thing about U.S. stocks is that there is no limit on the trading unit, and the unit is 1 share. In other words, there is no need to buy shares in units of 100 shares like in A-shares. Even if you don’t have a lot of money, you can still buy stocks of major international companies such as Apple and Coca-Cola.

T 0: US stocks are traded at T 0. If you buy it in one second, you can sell it in the next second. You don’t have to wait until the next day like A shares.

Step 5: Repayment

The repayment process is exactly the opposite of remittance. Fill out an application form with the brokerage, and then the money will arrive in two working days. Note that U.S. stocks are settled on T3 basis, which means that if you sell the stock today, it will take 3 working days at the earliest to get the money back. In addition, there is no limit on the amount of money you can withdraw back to China, but if you want to spend money in China, you have to convert it into RMB. There is also a restriction that you cannot exchange more than the equivalent of US$50,000 in RMB throughout the year.