Japanese brokerages keep cutting US equities trading fees
Monex and Rakuten Securities decide to bring the minimum fee for U.S. equities trading to zero.
Japanese online trading services providers appear to be engaging in a race to cut the fees for US equities trading. Two of the major Japanese brokerages – Monex and Rakuten Securities, today announce the reduction of the minimum fee for U.S. equities trading to 0.
Monex Inc, a part of Monex Group, Inc. (TYO:8698), has earlier this month unveiled its plans to reduce the trading fees for US equities trading. The brokerage intends to lower the minimum fee (excluding tax) for U.S. equities trading from US$0.1 (10 cents) to US$0.01 (1 cent) for trades that are executed from July 22, 2019. However, today, the brokerage said it will lower the minimum fee for U.S. equities trading to US$0 (free of charge) for trades that are executed from Monday, July 22, 2019.
The company explained that the change will enable its customers to benefit from its unique U.S. equities trading services with lower cost. Let’s also note that Monex has seen sliding trading volumes in Japan and the move may be an attempt to stimulate the trading activity.
Also today, Rakuten Securities, a subsidiary of Rakuten Inc (TYO:4755), announced the lowering of the minimum trading fees for US equities trading to zero.
Let’s note that the latest versions of MARKETSPEED and MARKETSPEED II come with no usage fees for all users of the platforms. Previously, the platforms offered free of charge use to traders who complied with a range of requirements – for instance, certain account balance and trading turnover. Now, all these conditions are off. But traders who want to make use of the new conditions need to upgrade the platform to the newest version and to apply for a MARKETSPEED account.
