Two different ways to get US-stock exposure from outside the US
If you live in the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the Philippines or almost anywhere else outside the United States, you cannot simply open a Fidelity or Schwab account the way a US resident can — most large US brokers only accept US tax residents. That leaves two genuinely different products, and confusing them is the single most common and costly mistake non-US traders make.
- Own the actual share. A small number of international stockbrokers — Interactive Brokers is the widest-reaching — will open an account for non-US residents and let you buy the real security. You become a shareholder: you receive real dividends (after US withholding tax), you can hold the position indefinitely, and there is no daily financing charge.
- Trade the price with a CFD. A contract for difference is a derivative that tracks a US share's price without giving you the share itself. You never become a shareholder, you get no dividend and no vote — but CFD brokers based in the UK, Cyprus or Australia can legally onboard almost any non-US resident in minutes, often with no minimum deposit, and let you go short as easily as long.
Neither is objectively "better" — they are different instruments for different goals. If you want to build a long-term position and collect real dividends, use a stockbroker. If you want short-to-medium-term exposure to a US share's price movement, including the ability to short it, a CFD account is the faster and more accessible route for most non-US residents.
CFD brokers that accept non-US residents
Two regulated CFD providers cover most of the US share-CFD list and are straightforward to open from outside the US:
1,000+ US share CFDs, no minimum deposit, MetaTrader 4/5, cTrader and TradingView.
Open a Pepperstone account3,000+ share CFDs across US and global exchanges, $20 minimum, fractional-size CFD positions.
Open a Capital.com accountPepperstone is regulated by the FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), CySEC (Cyprus), the DFSA (UAE) and BaFin (Germany) — US share CFDs are commission-based on the Razor account and spread-based on Standard; overnight financing applies to positions held past the close. Capital.com is regulated by the FCA, CySEC, ASIC and the Seychelles FSA, and its standard offering builds the cost into the spread with fractional-size positions available from a $20 deposit — useful if you want to size a US mega-cap CFD position smaller than one full contract.
What actually changes when you trade from a specific country
The mechanics of opening a CFD account are near-identical wherever you are, but two things genuinely vary by country: which regulator covers you, and how you fund the account.
| Country | Typical regulator for you | Funding note |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | FCA | GBP deposits convert to USD internally; spread betting is a separate, tax-treated alternative some UK CFD brokers also offer. |
| Australia | ASIC | ASIC caps retail CFD leverage on major shares; AUD deposits convert to USD. |
| Canada | Varies by province — CFDs are restricted or unavailable to retail clients in several provinces | Check your provincial regulator before assuming CFD access; a real-share broker may be the only option. |
| Singapore | MAS-regulated entity where offered | SGD deposits convert to USD; confirm the specific legal entity you are onboarded to. |
| Philippines, wider Asia, EU, GCC | Depends on the broker's local entity | Onboarding usually completes fully online; ID verification is the main step. |
Canada is the one major exception worth flagging on its own: CFD trading is restricted for retail clients in several Canadian provinces, so a Canadian resident who wants US-stock exposure often ends up on the real-share side of this decision by default — see trading US stocks from Canada for the details that actually apply there.
Step by step: opening a CFD account from abroad
- Pick a regulated provider that accepts your country — Pepperstone and Capital.com both do, for most non-US countries.
- Complete identity verification (a passport or national ID plus a proof of address is standard).
- Fund the account. Most providers accept a bank transfer or card in your local currency and convert to USD internally.
- Search the platform for the US share CFD you want — tickers are usually listed the same way as the underlying stock.
- Decide your position size before you open the trade. There is no minimum share count with a CFD, so size to a dollar amount you are prepared to lose, not a number of shares.
If you actually want to own the share instead
If dividends, shareholder rights and no daily financing charge matter more to you than leverage, the CFD route is the wrong tool. See best brokers for non-US residents for international stockbrokers that will open a real share-dealing account, and the W-8BEN form for the tax paperwork that applies once you actually hold US shares and receive real dividends — a step that does not apply to CFD trading, since a CFD generates a cash adjustment rather than a real dividend.