Jamaicans will finally be able to trade US securities from home… in the next nine months.

The Jamaica Stock Exchange says local investors will get the chance to trade securities on the US-based Nasdaq by May 2024. 

The Nasdaq is heavily tech-based with companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, listed on it.

Local investors have been begging for direct market access to the United States for years now. This would allow investors to trade stocks listed on US markets through local brokers. You can do this now, but the process is a lot more complicated.

The JSE had promised access to the US last year when they launched their Direct Market Access portal, but it never happened.

Investors were, however, given access to Canadian markets.

Currently, investors can trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX, TSX Venture Exchange, The Canadian Securities Exchange and NEO Exchange.

According to the JSE, since the platform’s launch, 141 accounts have been opened and 57 securities traded across the Canadian exchanges.

The addition of the Nasdaq is expected to boost those numbers.

The JSE said they’ll also be integrating Depend, which is a settlement system that will reduce transaction settlement from three days to two days. 

The company said they’re hoping to include other US markets in the short term, as well as markets from Ghana, the UK and the Caribbean. 

They also plan on making it a two-way street, so that international investors can have direct market access to the JSE. 

So far, only two brokers have signed on to use the JSE’s DMA portal, Cumax Wealth Management and Barita. But the JSE said more brokers will be coming on board soon. 

And that would be major for the JSE and Jamaica’s economy. It would mean more money moving in our market and more foreign dollars.

And that’s the bottom line.