First of all, feel sad to read news about people commit suicide because of stock market. People call Accumulator as "I Kill You Later"... That's horrible. Never do things out of control and some derivatives supposed for hedging and not for betting, and if you can always think like our monetary fund (average things in terms of 6 years), then you will know recession and chance is the same thing for different people. There are ways to investment safely during high volatility and low volatility times. I am still learning and it is very interesting to share as well. But today, as planned I want to promote a bit the US Trading system (even you have already saw a lot from eTrade advertisement before :P)

As I have said, I don't really trade much with Hong Kong brokers, and mostly I would do my investment through American market. Apart from the fact that the original companies which I traded, like Qualcomm etc., are all only listed in US, in these few years I learn a lot about the benefits of trading through US exchange.

1, Low trading fee
Right now, I think HK trading fee is also not expensive, however, when I trade online, it is less than $10USD each transaction (about the same for options). That means in return, is about $150 HKD. Consider the average inexpensive stock to invest is about $5000, which is about 3%. The higher the amount you invest, the lower the portion the transaction would cost you.

2, Low investment amount
I am always "super" confused by the hand/share ratio in HK stocks; consider 0941.HK, China Mobile, each hand is 500 shares, $105 means you need 52.5K to invest. To be honest, if I think they must rise in short term, I would rather buy options, and if I want to invest in long term, I would rather choose some stocks with higher dividends. However, with ADR (American Depository Receipt) I can accumulate my investment into the stock, for example every month $5000 (time distribution for lowering risk). China Mobile (CHL) is trading $66USD, so $5000 I can buy 10 shares. I mentioned about transaction fee, which is still $150 HKD, and so if the stock goes up 3% (~ 2USD), I can cover my cost. Of course, normally because of option conversion should use 100 shares as unit, which means 100 shares of stocks takes only $0.2 USD to cover cost.

3, Vast selections
In 2, I have shown how to buy HK Stock in US market, which is the same thing for other Global stocks which you cannot buy in HK as ADR: Apple, Nokia, Sony, Nike, H&M, Honda, Nintendo, Gazprom etc. Also, you can buy commodities and funds with different aspect like stocks through ETFs: USO for Oil, SLX for steel, EVX for environmental, ADRE for Latin America, SPY for SPDRs (Standard and Poor Depository Receipt). Nearly anything you want!

4, Options Availability
Previously, I asked and I am asked a lot about differences between options and warrants, it turns out totally different things. I don't feel comfortable with warrant, but option is something very important to pair trading with stocks, options tell you a lot about what people expect and how you can get protection for your stock from it. I should write separately with the comparison, and if you intend to trade in US market, I suggest you also to sign to trade options (without short is also ok).

5, Openness
Since many companies in HK are only famous when they are IPO, there are lack of news about what they are actually doing apart from they are breaking 50 average line etc. Statistical information is good only if the stock would repeat itself again or the pattern which all other stocks are following, however, in real world, and effective market won't make it happen. I prefer to read what the company is doing and what products they are selling and who their customers are and how much they are earning. Maybe I am not good in drilling news for HK companies, however, besides the major companies or major incidents, cannot see day to day news about the others.

It is good news for HK stock exchange to have depository receipts as well, and I believe many russian, chinese and korean companies would use it as platform to allow more people to trade their stocks. However, options, ETFs and some cheap and simple tools, e.g. trades triggering, are all important reasons for me to use US platform for trying my investment strategy.

cheers,
Eric