E*Trade Financial Corporation’s U.S. investors will now be able to trade international stocks and currencies online, the company announced Feb. 20. The original Global Trading launch was limited to Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and the United Kingdom. E*Trade is one of the largest online discount stock brokerage websites.
“E*Trade’s U.S. retail customers will now have online access to foreign stocks and currencies in the major international markets and will have the ability to buy, hold and sell in the respective local currency,” the company’s press release said.
“Retail investors see international investments as a key component of overall portfolio diversification and want the added benefit of direct share ownership,” R. Jarrett Lilien, E*Trade’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “Our Global Trading initiative offers E*Trade customers online access to six major international markets, making it easy and affordable to own foreign equities.”
In addition to the markets made accessible in the original launch, E*Trade offers broker-assisted access to 36 other markets. Eventually, Global Trading is set to expand to include up to 42 international markets and currencies.
Global Trading will become widely available to E*Trade’s customers in the second quarter of 2007.
