Stock Trading from Outside the US

LiquidCrystal said: "Dear All, I'm new to stock trading and still doing my homework trying to understand its ins and outs. Hopefully soon I shall start trying the real thing. Well, I have some vague points that I need to understand and I hope you help me with them. I'm not a US resident or citizen, I live in Egypt, I'm considering online trading through a service like Ameritrade, I need to know: [list=1] [*]Am I allowed as a non-US person to trade in the American stocks? [*]Will Ameritrade allow me to use their service as a non-US person? Are there specific criteria that I should meet? [*]Is Ameritrade the best service in general, and for my specific situation as non-US, is there something I should avoid or take care of, or another service that supports non-US traders better than Ameritrade? [*]Regarding money transfer, can I fund my Ameritrade account using credit card? What are my other options? [*]Suppose I made a profilt (hopefully :)), I understand that the profit will be added to my Ameritrade account, now if I want a part of that profit back here in Egypt, what should I do? How to withdraw money? [/list] Thank you, LC"

LiquidCrystal said: "More questions if you don't mind :) [list=1] [*]How much money I should start "trying" with as a new trader exploring and learning after trading virutally? [*]How much money I should put into trading if I need to make good money? I know "good" is different form person to another, so how much for how "good"? [/list] Thanx, LC"

HappyHarry said: "Hello and welcome, I had to search for a bit but found this on the Ameritrade website: [quote] Foreign Account - Non-U.S. citizens who do not have a Social Security Number, as well as all Non-Resident Aliens (who may or may not have an SSN), need to open a Foreign account[/quote] So it appears it is no problem for you to open an account. If you have $1,500 or so, you should be able to get started trading. You can deposit money directly in and out of Ameritrade using your normal checking account (at least US accounts can), so I assume they have something similar for non-us accounts."

LiquidCrystal said: "Thank you HappyHarry for your reply. [QUOTE=HappyHarry] If you have $1,500 or so, you should be able to get started trading. [/QUOTE] I heard that you can start with $500, so is $1,500 the minimum for non-US, or non-US can open by $500 too but you recommend $1,500 for better trading? [QUOTE=HappyHarry] You can deposit money directly in and out of Ameritrade using your normal checking account[/QUOTE] What do you mean by "checking account" here? is it wire transfer via a bank account? How actually to "transfer" money from my account on Ameritrade to my possession? Thank you, LC"

HappyHarry said: "The $500 mininum is okay. I was suggesting $1,500 as a decent trade size so you can make some cash. Checking account should be some sort of deposit banking account that you can use to fund trades. This will allow you to deposit or withdraw money automatically through your bank account and AmeriTrade."