Here’s How I Started to Invest in US Stock Market from Sri Lanka
And you can do it too!!
This is something I wanted to write at the moment I got my account activated with UStockTrade and did a first investment in Apple. Yeah, I know! I bought world most valuable company’s stock from Sri Lanka by just few button clicks. And I’m going to explain everything on how you can do the same!!
This was not even possible to think like few years back when it was so hard to even create an account in CSE in Sri Lanka and invest in stocks by your own. People who went through that hassle and made it possible know, how painful the process at that time. Well, now they have made it pretty easy where you can simply open a CDS account with the CES mobile app and start investing!
Okay, that’s about the Sri Lanka stock market. But, this is not about how you can invest in Sri Lanka. If you want to know about it, you can simply download their mobile app and start the process. This article is all about, how you can start investing in stock markets like NASDAQ and NEW YORK Stock Exchange in USA!
I know, those are pretty big name for us in Sri Lanka which we only get to hear news about how people make money using those markets. But, now a company called UStockTrade has made it possible for all Sri Lankans where you get to invest money in all those big and posh companies which listed in US stock market including APPLE, TESLA and FACEBOOK!
Well, there are few catches and the process is little bit cumbersome at the moment. I’m surly it will get much better with the time. But don’t worry, I’ll take you through all the steps from what you have to do in terms of creating an account in UStockTrade to investing money in US Stocks!
!Disclaimer : Make sure you have a way of getting US Dollars remittence to your account before everything else. Has explained this later in the article!
1. Create a Sampath Bank PFCA Account
Okay, first thing first! You have to create a Sampath Bank PFCA Account to do all this. I know, creating an account in a bank doesn’t sound like a big deal though. But, trust me, this is the most difficult part of the process where you must be very precise on the account creation request and the details you are entering to create that account.
You can create this account from any Sampath Bank branch at the moment. What you have to do is, go to nearest Sampath Bank (Go to the account opening section) and tell them, you want to create a PFCA (Personal Foreign Currency Account) for UStockTrade. Mentioning the fact that you need to create this account specifically for UStockTrade is very important, since the bank won’t process the request to link the PFCA to the UStockTrade internally unless you mentioned that at the account creation. This is a specific account type called USD 50 which can accept foreign remittance as dollars.
Once you made the request, if the person in the counter doesn’t know much about the UStockTrade (This happens a lot since the platform is not much popular in Sri Lanka yet) will ask questions related to the PFCA opening. Few common questions are;
- How do get dollars in to the account?
- Do you have any way of proving your income source to this account?
- Can you deposit minimum $5 within 90 days of account creation?
- Did you bring your Passport?
Well, for me, they only asked the last two questions. But most of my friends who went to create the account had to face the request of proving the income source. Proving the income source is going to be difficult for most of us who are not getting USD remittence. But, I’ll let you guys to figure that out since advising something on that in here would not be ideal 😉
Then comes the forms filling part! Like all other account openings, they will ask you to sign in bunch of papers including some regulatory papers which are related to US stock market. That’s nothing you have to worry about since they will guide you through the form filling process. What you have to be very careful is, what you are entering as your personal details. Specially on below items;
- Name
- Permanent Address
- Email Address
- Contact Number
- Passport Number
Because, when it comes to account registration at UStockTrade end, you must enter those exact details in the registration forms in the website. (Feels like they are doing the character mapping with the banking system. But, can’t say for sure)
Also, Don’t forget to make a request to connect your PFCA account with your Sampath Vishwa at the same time of the account creation.
2. Funding the PFCA Account
Once you created the account with Sampath Bank, they will collect all your documents and send it to the Head Office in Colombo to process the request and do all the account configuration at their end. Once that is done, you should get a email from Sampath Bank by mentioning the PFCA account has been successfully created and there will be a link to create the UStockTrade account.
But, before go and create a UStockTrade account, you should fund your PFCA account with dollars! In here, you can’t covert your LKR to USD and deposit to the account. It must come as a foreign remittence from a foreign country and should be in USD. This is the reason why I put a disclaimer at the top of this article to make sure that you have a way of getting your dollars to the PFCA, before go through any of this process.
Okay, I know what most you are thinking right now! How the hell I’m going to get a dollar remittence to the PFCA!
This won’t be a much problem for the people who are already working for a foreign company from Sri Lanka and getting the salary or income in USD. Also, if you are a freelancer, this is a piece of cake for you since you can transfer USD directly from your Payoneer account to PFCA with 2% minimum transfer fee (This can be higher if you try to transfer it in a weekend. It can be vary from 2%-7% in most cases).
But for the people who doesn’t have any income or remittence source in USD, you have no option but to ask from one our friends who are doing freelancing to transfer USD in exchange of LKR. (There are groups in WhatsApp who are transferring dollars by keeping a small margin. But I wouldn’t recommend this since most of them can be frauds and could loose money by trusting them).
Also, if you have a friend or a relation who are in a country like USA, you can ask them to transfer money in USD and later settle the amount to that person. But, since this goes through multiple exchange rates and transfer fees, be very conscious on the amount you loose in the process of transferring.
However, as the bottom line, you should have minimum of $5 in your PFCA account before creating an account with UStockTrade!
3. Create a UStockTrade Account
Okkaayyy! Let’s create the UStockTrade Account!
When you click on the link in the email you get from Sampath Bank on successful account creation as I have mentioned above, it will take you the UStockTrade account creation page.
Once you filled above details, you will get few more forms to fill in next few steps which are mainly related to trading legalities with US markets. Those forms ask nothing much, but about your basic details as Address, Contact Number, Country etc. Take your time and carefully read through all the instructions before you filled out those forms
Important! It’s very important that you fill your details as exactly as you put in when you were creating the PFCA at the Sampath Bank
After completing all of those forms, then come to the last stage where you get to submit that last few details on the PFCA account you created!
Follow the same instruction as I mentioned earlier. Put exact details to match with your PFCA here and click continue!
Then comes the moment of truth! 🤞🏼
If you filled your forms by putting exact details as in your PFCA, you should get the successful account creation message without any issue!
But, if you got the error message after this final stage, that means, something where has went wrong! OBVIOUSLY!
Most common issue you would face here comes with the details miss-match with your PFCA account. Therefore, as the next step, you can email or call the bank and ask them the exact details in your bank account. When I mention exact details, you should ask them to write you back with those details. That’s the only way you can make sure that you get to enter those exact details in the next attempt.
Maximum account creation attempts are 3! After that, your account will get locked and you have to request from UStockTrade to unlock your account via an email.
4. Log in to your UStockTrade Account
Once you got the successfully account creation message, UStockTrade will charge $5 from your PFCA account as the monthly membership fee and let you to log in to your account.
Well done! Now you have access to world’s most promising stock markets in USA including most popular NASDAQ and NEW YORK Stock Exchange!
To start investing in the companies, you have to transfer money from your PFCA account to UStockTrade account. You can even transfer $10 from to PFCA to UStockTrade without any transfer fees. You can do this using the “Fund Transfer” function in your UStock account.
Final Thoughts
Well, when it comes to the UStockTrade and investing in US markets, there are so much more to learn and try out. Here, what I have tried to give you the basic set of information on the account creation process as a person who went through this same process some time back. I will try to cover few more areas in this with my next few articles!
However, this is a great opportunity for you to start your investing journey with money as little as $10! UStockTrade charges a very small trading fee for the every trade you make there.
Finally, I must thank the UStockTrade and the CEO, Tony Weeresinghe who made this possible for Sri Lanka when no one else was even trying to do!
So, hop on guys!! It’s time to bring the Wall Street to Main Street!
