Dear Reader,

If you are reading this article, chances are good that you would like to purchase stock on the ASX, Australia's Stock Exchange, and you live in the United States of America.

You may have noticed that certain un named brockerages do not allow you to accomplish this.  I feel your pain.  

Fear not! (but*) I will show you a pretty straightforward way to accomplish this task.

Before we begin, please consider the following caution:

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*I am NOT a professor of economics; you should not take any advice from me.  There are risks involved here, including losing capital. 

->TAXES:  Please also note that there are complexities involved regarding taxes.  While there ARE strategies to minimize the impact on said taxes, this article will not cover these here.

->AMERICAN DEPOSITORY RECEIPTS aka ADR's:This article is NOT going to cover American Depository Receipts, what they are, how to use them, etc. 

Just as with any high risk investment, purchasing shares in companies listed on the ASX can be extremely risky, and result in you losing your investment.  Proceed with caution.  

By following these instructions you agree to not claim any legal recourse against me (or illegal recourse) should your following of these instructions impact you negatively.

You have been warned.

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  Though purchasing shares of a company listed on the ASX is more complicated than purchasing shares of an American company domestically, with a little work and patience you will soon be trading on the ASX like a pro!

Items needed:

*A desktop or laptop.  Why?  Because of the KYC process, specifically the ability to upload an image of your passport or drivers license.  Though many modern mobile devices WILL be able to accomplish this process without the assistance of a desktop or laptop, many vendor specific devices (even those capable of running the most recent version of a web browser (Brave, Chrome, Opera, Firefox, etc) will not be able to do so.  (typically a warning comes up, stating that the device being used does not have enough ram).

If your device CAN accomplish this, congrats!  If not, then you will need a desktop or laptop.

*A mobile device or digital camera or webcam

*A data cable

*A micro sd card reader or an sd card reader

*A USB connection

*Time

*Patience

*Determination

Steps

1.  Navigate to interactivebrokers.com and set up an account.

2.  Fill out their application.

3.  Verify your email address

4.  Verify your phone number

5.  Very KYC, aka Know Your Customer.   To do this, take a picture of your drivers license or passport with either your mobile device, digital camera, or webcam.

6.  (You can skip this step if your mobile device does allow you to successfully upload an image of your drivers license or passport.  If your mobile device does not allow you to do this, please proceed.) 

A.  After taking a picture of your drivers license or passport, connect your device to a desktop or laptop. 

B.  Go into your phone's settings (for Android it will be found under USB Debugging.  Turn this ON.  For IOS:  Please refer to manufacturer for detailed instructions.

C.  Enable USB MTP.  (thus allowing you to transfer files between devices.)

D.  Navigate to the directory of this image file, and transfer the image over to the desktop or laptop computer.

PRO TIP:  When searching for the aforementioned image, you may find yourself presented with the numerical data of your image files, instead of simply being able to browse the 'cached thumbnail' images of your image.  If this pertains to you:  From your device, go into the device's gallery.  Select your image, and then choose "information" or "details" (the words "information" or "details" is device specific.  Look for either, then select this.)  You will be looking for the name of the file.

(for example:  195373:1024_15952 )

Note the files name, then, from your desktop, perform a search in the directory which your image is located in, or manually search for it.

PRO TIP2:  Most devices store image files in a folder called DCIM.  Why?  Because the developer of the GUI decided that DCIM would somehow be easier than, say, listing PICS as the folder.  Good job there, developer.

E.  Drop and drag your folder to the laptop or desktop.

F.  From the desktop or laptop, open a browser, navigate back to interactivebrokers.com and proceed to upload the image by either "drop and drag" method, or by selecting the "upload image" button.

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*  You could also setup and FTP to transfer this image between devices.  You could also ADB from a terminal to accomplish this.

*  If all else fails, Interactive Brokers allows you to email and fax them.  Fax.  People still have fax machines.  It's 2020.  Who wants to fly accross the country, when you can just as easilly fill your socks up with thumbtacks and walk there?  The person who owns a fax machine does.

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7.  After you have successfully uploaded the image of your drivers license or passport, follow the prompts and finish completing your application.  After the company reviews your application, and once approved, you will be able to access their website, fund your account with your bank account and begin trading on the ASX!

In conclusion, residents of The United States of America will find that purchasing shares of a foreign company is usually more complicated that purchasing shares of a domestic comapany, but using Interactivebrokers.com will help eliminate much of the bulk of those complications.

I hope you have found this article beneficial.  Please inform me if I have left anything out.  Good luck!