Rakuten Trade’s US Trading Service Now Enhanced With Foreign Currency Facility

Alex Cheong Pui Yin

30th August 2022 - 3 min read

Rakuten Trade has enhanced its US trading service with a foreign currency facility, which offers investors the flexibility to trade in the US market in either the US dollar (USD) or the Malaysian ringgit (MYR) – depending on their preference.

According to Rakuten Trade, investors can now seamlessly convert their funds between USD and MYR when trading on Rakuten Trade’s web platform or the iSpeed.my app (a localised version of the trading app developed by Rakuten Securities in Japan). The conversions will be performed in real time, and at a competitive rate with no additional foreign exchange charges imposed on inter-currency trades.

In its website, Rakuten Trade further explained that traders who carry out their US trading in MYR will enjoy more convenience because they will not need to worry about manually converting their funds for the trading process. However, they may lose out on foreign exchange rates due to the auto conversion from MYR to USD, or vice versa. As such, opting to trade in MYR may be more suitable for those who hold stocks for mid- to long-term and who rarely perform day trades.

Meanwhile, individuals who trade more frequently or in the short term may prefer to keep their funds in USD within the foreign currency facility. This ensures that they will always have ready funds to trade at an instant, and are also able to save on foreign exchange conversion fees. If they’d like to cash out in MYR, all they need to do is to request for the conversion on their dashboard at their convenience.

Rakuten Trade said that its enhanced US trading service is expected to appeal to a wider range of digital investors who were previously limited in choice for a local broker when investing in the US market. This inadvertently forced them to sign up with overseas brokers.

Chief executive officer of Rakuten Trade, Kazumasa Mise also shared that almost 25,000 US trading accounts have been opened via the platform since its US trading service was introduced early this year. Specifically, Rakuten Trade rolled out the service in January 2022, with a low brokerage fee of between RM7 to RM100.

Mise also said that its US trading accounts serve as a medium for new investors to test trading strategies on Bursa Malaysia before they eventually diversify into the US market. “To date, more than 85% of Rakuten Trade’s clients trade first on Bursa Malaysia before foraying into the US market. As a result, Rakuten Trade continues to record strong and steady trading growth on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq,” he said.

Aside from US trading, Rakuten Trade had also previously said that it is seeking to launch its Hong Kong-share-trading service. This was originally set to be rolled out by the second quarter of 2022.

(Sources: Rakuten Trade, The Sun Daily)

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Alex Cheong Pui Yin

Previously covered recruitment-related stories and had a short stint as a copywriter for the property industry. She subsequently developed an interest in investment and robo-advisors.

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