Investment Apps to Use Outside the U.S.

Investing in securities like stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and mutual funds is one of the best ways to build wealth. And the U.S. stock exchange is one of the best ways to access assets like this. 

But if you live outside of the United States, you might be wondering how you can add U.S.-listed securities to your portfolio.

Thankfully, there are several different investment tools you can use to access these markets even if you’re outside the U.S. Note that they vary in fees, user experience, analytics tools, and what you will need to get started.

eToro

Available: Global

Founded in 2007, eToro is a regulated, Nasdaq-listed platform (ticker: ETOR) with 40 million registered users across 75 countries.

It's not available everywhere, but it is open to investors in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and many others

It offers stocks, ETFs, and commodities, but is most well-known as a crypto trading platform.

One of the key features of eToro is that it’s a social trading platform. Similar to social media, there’s a feed where you can share trades and copy each other’s strategies. 

ETF trades are commission-free, full stop. Stocks are free for U.S. investors — but depending on where you live and which exchange you're trading on, eToro may charge $1 or $2 to open a stock position and again to close it. Check eToro's fee page for your country before you assume it's free.

Options are $0.50 per contract for non-U.S. users. There's no inactivity fee, though withdrawals from a USD account cost $5 and currency conversion runs about 0.75% to 1%.

IG

Available: Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East

IG serves clients around the world from 17 offices across five continents.

Founded in 1974, it describes itself as the world's No. 1 CFD provider — a claim it bases on revenue from its published financial statements. (CFD trading is when you trade based on the price changes of an asset rather than owning the asset itself.)

Aside from trading CFDs, you'll have access to more than 15,000 markets, including:

• Stock shares
• ETFs
• Bonds
• Indices
• Forex
• Options
• Commodities
• Industry sectors
• Interest rates

Crypto works two ways at IG, and the difference matters if you're in the U.K. Crypto CFDs and spread bets are off-limits to U.K. retail traders under the FCA's derivatives ban. You can still buy and hold 150+ coins outright through IG Digital Assets — but those cryptoasset services are unregulated, and the money you put in isn't covered by the FSCS.

Retail clients in the U.K. and E.U. get negative balance protection — you can't lose more than what's in your account. That doesn't extend to traders classified as professional, and it doesn't apply in the U.S. at all, where IG now operates as tastyfx and offers forex only. tastyfx puts it plainly: losses can exceed deposits, and you remain liable for any debit balance.

IG advertises spreads from 0.1 points on its $1 gold contracts, though most commodities run wider — around 0.3 points on spot gold and 2.8 on US crude. Share CFD commissions are modest as a percentage (0.10% on FTSE 350 shares, 2 cents a share in the U.S.), but each trade carries a minimum — £10 in the U.K., $15 in the U.S. — so on small positions that minimum is what you'll actually pay. A full breakdown is on IG's website.

The platform has an easy user interface with advanced charting features. You can open a free demo account with $20,000 in virtual funds and work through IG Academy's learning library to sharpen your analysis.

Interactive Brokers

Available: Global

Interactive Brokers is among the largest electronic brokers in the world, executing roughly 4.8 million trades a day. You can access 170+ markets, including every major U.S. exchange — and IBKR takes clients in more than 200 countries and territories, letting you fund your account in any of 23 currencies. That combination is what makes it a strong fit for international investors and Americans living abroad.

You can invest in a number of assets including stocks, bonds, ETFs, foreign exchange, options, commodities, futures, and mutual funds.

Advanced users on the IBKR Pro plan have access to more than 100 order types and algos. New investors with limited capital can get started with fractional shares, investing as little as $1 in eligible U.S., Canadian and European stocks.

Interactive Brokers charges low commissions and fees. Their website offers a comprehensive price breakdown for all assets for U.S. and non-U.S.-based investors.

You also get access to robust trading analytics and market insights, and can boost your trading knowledge through IBKR Campus, which offers free webinars presented by IBKR and outside research providers.

Praemium International 

Available: Australia (through a financial adviser)

Praemium is an ASX-listed Australian investment platform that's been running since 2001, headquartered in Melbourne. It's worth knowing about with one important caveat: it's built for financial advisers, not for direct signups. Praemium's platform is designed for advisers only, so you'd access it through an adviser managing your portfolio rather than opening an account yourself.

Praemium sold its international operations in 2022 and now focuses on the Australian market, where it specialises in complex and high-net-worth portfolios. Its products — Scope, Spectrum, SMA and Super — are Australian-dollar accounts, with fees set out in each product's disclosure documents and arranged through your adviser.

Where Praemium stands out is reporting. It offers over a dozen customisable performance reports, including ESG insight reporting to help you see how your investments line up with your values — though these reach you through an Investor Portal your adviser publishes to, rather than an app you log into on your own.

Qtrade

Available: Canada

Qtrade is a Canadian investment platform. It launched in 2000 and operates as Qtrade Direct Investing, a division of Aviso Financial Inc. The Qtrade Direct Investing account gives you access to both U.S. and Canadian markets.

Qtrade charges $0 commission on stocks, ETFs and mutual funds — Canadian and U.S. alike. Options are $0 plus 75 cents a contract. It also dropped its quarterly administration fee entirely in late 2025, so there's no balance minimum or trade count to chase. (One exception: U.S.-dollar registered accounts still cost US$15 a quarter.)

You won't pay a commission on any ETF at Qtrade — not a curated list of 100, but the whole lineup, buying and selling. Just note that mutual funds sold within 90 days carry a 1% early-redemption fee, minimum $45.

Accounts can be opened online and there is no minimum deposit.

Questrade

Available: Canada

Founded in 1999, Questrade is a low-fee investment platform specifically for Canadians.

With it, you can invest in a variety of assets including stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, foreign exchange, and contracts for differences (CFDs).  

To open a self-directed investing account you’ll need to fund it with a minimum of $250. Other accounts may come with higher minimums. However, you won’t pay any annual account maintenance fees with Questrade. 

Unlike comparable Canadian investment platforms, Questrade does not pay interest on cash balances in accounts.

You’ll have access to Questrade’s newsfeed and analytics tools, which are provided by third parties. There is a simple educational library that you can reference when making trades. 

These offerings aren’t as robust as other platforms but they provide the minimum to help you make decisions about your portfolio.

Saxo Markets

Available: Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East

Founded in Copenhagen in 1992, Saxo is a licensed Danish bank and a multi-asset trading platform. It serves clients across Europe, Asia and the Middle East — including the U.K., Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and the U.A.E. It doesn't take U.S. clients, and its former Australian arm now operates independently as Totality.

You can trade stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, forex, options, futures, and contracts for differences (CFDs). Crypto is available as exchange-traded products and crypto FX pairs — meaning you get the price exposure but don't own the actual coins, and Saxo doesn't let you deposit or withdraw crypto.

It gives you the option to trade in stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, contracts for differences (CFDs), and foreign exchange.

Saxo gives you two platforms. SaxoInvestor is the straightforward one, built for stocks, ETFs, bonds and mutual funds — a good fit if you're starting out. SaxoTrader, available on web, mobile or desktop, is for more advanced traders who want deeper charting, analytics and tools.

Live prices aren't free by default. Every client gets delayed data, and real-time Level 1 and Level 2 feeds are paid subscriptions you buy per exchange — across 40+ exchanges, starting around US$7 a month. Trade an exchange at least four times in a month and Saxo refunds that exchange's Level 1 fee.

The platform includes educational material to help you learn more about trading, plus daily market analysis from SaxoStrats, Saxo's in-house team of strategists..

Superhero

Available: Australia

Superhero is an online trading app for Australian investors, with low-cost access to both the ASX and U.S. markets.

There's no monthly account fee. Brokerage is $2 a trade on orders up to $20,000, then 0.01% above that, and the minimum order is just $10 on both ASX and U.S. trades. A currency conversion fee applies when you buy U.S. shares.

The platform keeps things simple rather than piling on features — which isn't a bad thing, especially if you're new to investing. The fee structure is easy to follow and trades are affordable.

Superhero has also expanded beyond shares: it added crypto in August 2026, with 17 assets, a 0.1% trading fee and the same $10 minimum, available across individual, company, trust and SMSF accounts. It offers superannuation, too, letting you trade ASX shares and ETFs inside your super without setting up an SMSF.

Swissquote

Available: Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia

Swissquote is a trading service that offers access to the Swiss Exchange. It's regulated by FINMA, listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, and holds a Swiss banking licence — so you're working with a supervised financial institution that doubles as a bank.

It serves clients across Europe, the U.A.E. and much of Asia — it holds licences in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malta and Cyprus, among others — and accepts Australian residents. It does not serve U.S. residents. Outside Switzerland, Swissquote runs regulated subsidiaries in Luxembourg, the U.K., Malta, Cyprus, the U.A.E., Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa, each with its own accounts, fees and maintenance requirements.

A single Swissquote Account covers banking, trading and investing, including exchange-traded securities and more than 80 cryptocurrencies. Being a regulated Swiss bank means your assets sit with a supervised institution — but regulation doesn't guarantee returns, and your capital is still at risk.

The platform is great if you feel confident managing your own portfolio. It comes with TradingView charting built in and daily market updates from Swissquote's analysts to help you make trading decisions.

If you want a more hands-off approach, Swissquote's managed option is called Invest Easy — CHF 500 to start, with a 0.60% annual admin fee.

Wealthsimple

Available: Canada

Wealthsimple is an investment platform in Canada. Started in 2014, it offers commission-free trading on thousands of stocks and ETFs across the TSX, NYSE, NASDAQ and other major exchanges. You can opt for managed investing or self-directed investing depending on the level of guidance and support you need.

There's no minimum to get started and self-directed trades are commission-free at every level. Managed portfolios carry a 0.5% management fee on the entry-level Core tier. Wealthsimple works in Canadian dollars and supports Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), and a First Home Savings Account for first-time homebuyers.

A U.S. dollar account lets you hold U.S. dollars instead of converting on every trade. It's $10 a month on Core and included free once you reach Premium. Conversions still cost 1.5% under $10,000, but the rate scales down with size and drops to 0% on conversions of $100,000 or more.

Wealthsimple sorts clients into tiers by balance rather than by subscription: Core to start, Premium at $100,000, and Generation at $500,000. You don't pay to move up — you qualify. And the managed-investing fee actually drops as you climb, from 0.5% on Core to 0.4% at Premium, and as low as 0.2% at the top of Generation. Once you cross $200,000, Wealthsimple also unlocks a “milestone reward” — you pick one perk from a rotating lineup that has included four airport lounge passes a year through DragonPass, plus options like Uber One and Headspace.

Moving an existing account over from another bank or brokerage? That institution will usually charge you a transfer-out fee, and Wealthsimple reimburses one such fee for every $25,000 you bring in — as long as the account stays funded for 90 days. Ordinary deposits from your chequing account are always free.

Aside from being a commission-free platform, Wealthsimple also gives you access to several alternative investments, including fractional shares, crypto (170+ coins), private equity and private credit. The two private funds each require a $10,000 minimum and $50,000 in liquid assets — though you don't need accredited-investor status.

Webull

Available: Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, U.S.

Webull is a publicly traded company — Webull Corporation trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker BULL — headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. It operates through licensed brokerages in 14 markets, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Brazil.

Depending on the country, investors who open an account with Webull have access to both local and U.S. markets.

In the U.S., Webull charges no commission on stocks, ETFs or listed options, and it's a popular platform for buying cryptocurrency too — 70+ coins through Webull Pay, with no custody fees.

Webull is popular with active traders because it offers advanced charting tools and expanded features such as Webull Advisors (its robo-advisor, with a $100 minimum), paper trading, and fractional shares from $1.

It's ideal for new and experienced investors who want to use technical analysis tools to make active trades.

Read our full review of Webull.

FAQs

The Bottom Line

There are a ton of investment tools and apps out there that will let you invest in the U.S. and other markets, even if you don’t live in that country. 

If you’re interested in investing in foreign markets from the U.S. or in U.S. markets from abroad, one of the popular apps listed above may serve your needs.

For more investing information, check out these episodes of the Erika Taught Me podcast:

• Investing in the Stock Market Explained: A Guide for Beginners
• Investing Advice from the Most Powerful Woman on Wall Street
• Money & Investing Pitfalls to Avoid