Buy πŸ“ˆ U.S. ETFs on Tastytrade

If you’ve been following along with this blog, you will have read how to set up a Tastytrade account, how to register with CurrencyFair, and how to fund your account. With the funds πŸ’° deposited, we can now continue and buy U.S. ETFs on Tastytrade from Europe/U.K., such as those from ARK Invest, leveraged ETFs from Direxion and ProShares, or covered call ETFs like QYLD or JEPI, otherwise unavailable to Europeans.

Opening the trading platform

Tastyworks Trading Platform link

Login to your Tastytrade account, in the header, hoover over the ‘Platforms’ button, and click the ‘Our Technology’ button to open the trading platform. πŸ’» All the way at the bottom, you will find a button to open the browser trading platform. Alternatively, you may just click this link to go to the login page directly.

A new tab should open, prompting you to login to the trading platform. Once again, provide your username and password and click ‘Login’.

Verify that you have buying power in the top menu. Your buying power should be equal to your deposit that you made via πŸ’± CurrencyFair (or may be higher for margin accounts).

Because Tastytrade is heavily geared toward options trading, the interface may seem a little different from most brokers. Luckily it is still perfectly possible to buy both stocks and ETFs.

Placing the order for a U.S. domiciled ETF

For our example, we’ll place an order for QQQJ, a popular Nasdaq ‘Next Gen 100’ ETF. Click πŸ–±οΈ the ‘Trade’ button in the menu on the left and a new window will appear.

The window should default to the table tab, used to place option orders. Because we simply want to buy an ETF, click the first tab called ‘Stock’ instead.

The interface will change and you will be able to enter ⌨️ the symbol of your desired ETF (QQQJ in our case).

Decide whether you want to place a limit or market order. If you want to place a limit order, put in the limit price. For a market order, click the market order toggle.

Additional options are also available should you want to use them. I’ll keep it simple and place a market order for 1 share.

Once you have made your choice, click πŸ–±οΈ ‘Review and send’ to continue.

On the next screen you’ll be shown a final overview of your order. Once you have verified all is in order, βœ”οΈ click ‘Send order’ to execute.

Notice that we managed to place an order for an ETF lacking a Key Information Document πŸ“ƒ (KID), which would normally be required in Europe.

Once your order gets filled, it should show up in your portfolio. You can always access your portfolio by clicking the ‘Portfolio’ button in the menu on the left.

Now that you can buy U.S. ETFs on Tastytrade, perhaps you can click around the site a little and explore the other possibilities the platform offers.

What do you think about Tastytrade? Got any more questions? Feel free to leave a comment below. Good luck!

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17 comments

  1. Hi! I’m an european citizen (italy). I was wondering how the taxation work if i make a profit on an etf i buy through tastyworks? do i owe the money to the irs or the italian revenue service? (or both? πŸ™‚ thanks

    1. Hi, thanks for your question. Generally one will be classified a Nonresident Alien, meaning that no taxes are owed to the US (such as capital gains), except for a 30% dividend tax, and taxes are only paid as you normally would in the country you reside in.

      However, due to tax treaties with the US, this is lowered in many cases, generally to 15% (including Italy). In such case, your broker will ask you to fill out a W-8 BEN form and automatically apply the lower rate.

      Here you can find an overview of all treaties. Click your country, open the Income Tax Treaty file, then check the dividends section for the rate for individuals (or companies if you got a business account).

      Note that I don’t advise on taxes, this is just some basic information to point you in the right direction; check with a professional if you want to be sure.

      Good luck!

  2. Thank you very much for all instructions! I have done my first trade on Tastyworks today. I must say, although their website is not very pretty, but their customer service is awesome! They replied my question in seconds!

    1. Good to hear! I would agree, personally. The platform is mainly geared toward options trading, which isn’t my thing. But since they offer all U.S. ETFs without any issues I can’t complain. πŸ™‚

  3. Thank you for pointing me in the direction of Tastyworks. I’ve been buying the Ark etf’s on eToro but I’m not sure about the CDF overlay. Also, I’m interested to buy into Ron Barron’s fund as that provides exposure to spacex. I considered opening an account on Charles Schwab but I was never able to get through to their customer service (endlessly on hold), to ask a few quick questions. I’ve registered with Tasty now and am sitting out the 3/5 day review period. Will let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

    1. Hi Okke, good to hear it was helpful. πŸ™‚ I will be adding a guide for eToro as well, but like you I also much prefer the real deal over CFDs.

      I do also have an account with Schwab, but ETFs are disabled for accounts registered to European addresses, so I use Tastyworks for ETFs only. Generally Schwab has fantastic customer service, I assume things are a bit busier now due to many retail clients signing up. The same goes for Tastyworks btw, they warn about longer account review periods (up to ~3 weeks…), so I hope it’ll indeed be quick for you.

      Let me know!

  4. Thanks. Good to know Schwab is not good for etf’s! In the meantime am still waiting for my tastyworks account to be validated. Will let you know how it goes.

  5. Does it matter what your stated initial deposit will be? Is there a limit? I want to test the waters first with small transfers (i.e 100 eur) before adding more funds.

    1. Hi, it doesn’t matter, you can transfer however much you like. Though if you want to receive the €50 bonus, then you’ll have to transfer at least €2000. Good luck!

  6. Still waiting for my tastyworks account to get activated πŸ˜”. Am I the only one that has to wait this long?

    1. Hi okke, I had the same situation (submission request >1month and still not validated) so I did send an email to them and they responded within 1 day & opening the account. So my advice is to email them.

  7. thank you Europoor. I did open an account with Tastyworks & CurrencyFair. It took a while to open the account with Tastyworks & Currencyfair but your input is great. I have been looking for months for an efficient way to get access to US funds not available in Europe and this seems very solid. I have used all referral codes so you get more than words from me as a thank you πŸ™‚ Regards from NL

    1. Hi, thank you very much, I am happy this allows you to buy the investments you want, as I was facing the same issue before I developed this method. Using the codes is much appreciated!

    1. Hi, for the Netherlands, there should not be an issue. As you will notice if you read the link you provided, the limit only applies if there is no treaty, and indeed the Netherlands does have one. However, please understand I cannot give definitive advice on tax matters, so if you are dealing with serious amounts, check with a certified professional.

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