Recently, I’ve been researching opening accounts for U.S. stock trading, and I found that Taiwanese people actually have two paths: one is using a domestic discretionary trust, and the other is opening an account directly with an overseas broker. The differences are quite large, so I’ve put my findings together here.

The benefits of a domestic discretionary trust are that the process is simple and deposits/withdrawals are handled in New Taiwan Dollars, but the fees are roughly 0.5% and there are quite a lot of trading restrictions. As for overseas brokers, most have eliminated commissions, but you have to handle the account opening, currency exchange, and taxes yourself. When you calculate it over the long term, the costs of using overseas brokers can be reduced by 50–80%, and the difference is really not small.

If you want to choose an overseas broker, the most discussed ones on PTT and Mobile01 are Firstrade, Charles Schwab, Interactive Broker, Robinhood, and Mitrade. Firstrade is especially suitable for beginners because its Chinese interface is friendly, account opening is easy, and it has a $0 minimum deposit. Charles Schwab is the largest physical broker in the U.S.; its assets exceed $3.8 trillion, so there’s no question about safety, but the deposit threshold is relatively high.

Interactive Broker is for more advanced users: it offers the widest range of products and the lowest fees, but the interface is complicated and the learning curve is steep. Robinhood is the most popular among young people; its app is extremely simple, it supports fractional shares, but the account approval process is stricter, and Taiwanese users are sometimes rejected. Mitrade is a contracts for difference platform, not a traditional U.S. stock broker. Its advantages are direct deposits and withdrawals in New Taiwan Dollars, a smooth mobile app, and it’s suitable for small short-term trades.

Each of these overseas brokers has its own strengths, so when choosing, you should consider your capital size, how often you trade, and how much you need Chinese language support. For beginners, I would recommend starting with Firstrade, because it’s truly very user-friendly. If you have more capital and are looking for stability, Charles Schwab is a good option. In short, opening an account directly with an overseas broker is much more cost-effective than using a domestic discretionary trust.