I'm setting up my SBI account and I'm stuck on "Investment questions".

[Block]

Hello all.

I'm setting up my SBI account and I'm stuck on "Investment questions".

Specifically "Transaction you are interested in"

Here is the drop down list:

Domestic stock spot trading
Margin trading of domestic stocks
investment trust
public and corporate bonds
Cumulative investment
foreign securities
Futures and options trading
Others

Please give recommendations on what to choose.

I'm also thinking about Investment policy

Emphasis on yield and stability vs Emphasis on yields and capital gains.

I'm planning to stay in Japan for good and save long term for my retirement.

Thank you

[RetireJapan]

Hello all.

I'm setting up my SBI account and I'm stuck on "Investment questions".

Specifically "Transaction you are interested in"

Here is the drop down list:

Domestic stock spot trading
Margin trading of domestic stocks
investment trust
public and corporate bonds
Cumulative investment
foreign securities
Futures and options trading
Others

Please give recommendations on what to choose.

I'm also thinking about Investment policy

Emphasis on yield and stability vs Emphasis on yields and capital gains.

I'm planning to stay in Japan for good and save long term for my retirement.

Thank you

I'm not sure it matters how you answer those questions, but personally I would avoid margin trading, and futures and options trading.

The standard advice would be to buy low-cost mutual funds or ETFs in NISA and iDeCo accounts.

[Teflon]

Here is the drop down list:

Domestic stock spot trading
Margin trading of domestic stocks
investment trust
public and corporate bonds
Cumulative investment
foreign securities
Futures and options trading
Others

I selected them all, but I used a paper form and just needed to check them all off. Does the drop-down allow multiple selections? Anyway, the reason I selected them all, even though I don't ever intend to use half of those, is that I didn't want to have to go through the paper form process again if for some reason I want to use one of those options. I believe you also have to input your "years of experience" using each option. I just put arbitrary numbers: 10 years, 5 years, 20 years, etc. There was no issue or follow-up.

My take on these questions is that it's just the normal Japanese way of protecting people from their own stupidity by confirming everything. Sort of like when you go to the drugstore to buy some aspirin and they call the pharmacist over to give you a lecture about the dangers of aspirin and you say "yes, I understand" and they ring you up.

[Tkydon]

Here is the drop down list:

Domestic stock spot trading
Margin trading of domestic stocks
investment trust
public and corporate bonds
Cumulative investment
foreign securities
Futures and options trading
Others

Unless you are a seasoned trader, I would suggest you just select

Domestic stock spot trading
investment trust
public and corporate bonds
foreign securities



Definitely not

Margin trading of domestic stocks
Futures and options trading

For Margin Trading, you need a Loan Agreement, and can lose your shirt...
For Futures and options trading you need to pass their exam to prove you understand how Options work.

[Block]

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm planning to just have a Tsumitate NISA and later iDeCo. I don't know anything about investing, so, I want SBI to do it for me as much as possible.

regarding

Emphasis on yield and stability - as little risk as possible.

vs

Emphasis on yields and capital gains - a little risk.

Any advice

Thanks.

[sutebayashi]

Emphasis on yield and stability - as little risk as possible.

vs

Emphasis on yields and capital gains - a little risk.

The yield with stability is leading you towards bond exposure, the yield with capital gains is leading towards equities exposure.

As a margin and futures speculator myself, I would also recommend you NOT select that, given your stated objectives. Margin and futures trading is not suited for long term investment, unless one has infinite amounts of money.

[TokyoBoglehead]

When signing up for SBI, I had the classic experience of signing up online, then getting a mailed application that required me to write my middle name.

(This was easy and went through fine)

However, I accidentally checked futures/margin somewhere in the application process.

They approved my SBI Neo bank account and securities account.

They denied my Futures, Margin and FX accounts.

I was fine with that.

[Block]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I finished the application.

[beanhead]

I'm planning to just have a Tsumitate NISA and later iDeCo. I don't know anything about investing, so, I want SBI to do it for me as much as possible.

Stick to mutual funds then. Worldwide/all-country or developed countries are generally recommended.

SBI will not choose the products for you to invest in, by the way. You have to do that yourself.

[TokyoBoglehead]

I'm planning to just have a Tsumitate NISA and later iDeCo. I don't know anything about investing, so, I want SBI to do it for me as much as possible.

Stick to mutual funds then. Worldwide/all-country or developed countries are generally recommended.

SBI will not choose the products for you to invest in, by the way. You have to do that yourself.

SBI has a Robo-advisor service and a brokerage advisory service, I believe. I would not recommend it however.

Stick with cheap broad indexes, preferably mutual funds but ETFs are perfectly acceptable.