How do I buy Japanese stock???

[Shoe]

I have wanted to buy Nintendo (NTDOY) since last June. I get more and more pissed everyday as I watch their stock skyrocket. If you don't believe me -- I do have posts from a long time ago predicting the success of the wii -- if you are willing to dig for them.

Does anyone know how I can get ahold of their stock on whatever their exchange is called? Any online brokers?

Unfortunately I do not have a lot of money to invest (only a few thousand), but I can't stop getting depressed about how much money I could make if I just had enough money to make significant gains. I seriously believe I can make over 30% per year if just given the chance -- and companies I have picked over the last few years support that -- but I admit I definitely do not have the long-term results to back up my claim. But i'm not trying to whine here and that is a topic for another thread -- I am working my way up and will have that kind of money someday, I'm still young. I'm just not patient.

Also, I'm sure I could figure this out on my own, but am posting here because it is the easiest way for me to get this information. If I had more money to invest I would definitely spend more time on my own seeking out the answer to this question. I hope that doesn't offend anyone. When someone asks a question here that I know the answer to, I am happy to oblige in return.

[kimchi]

Where do you live?

If you live in Europe you can buy Nintendo stock easily on one of the Euro exchanges - probably The Xetra Dax.

You can also buy major shares in any large company globally easily through many standard online brokers. Since you're asking this question, I assume you live in North America. Maybe it's more difficult to invest in foreign countries from America?

[kimchi]

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I can't stop getting depressed about how much money I could make if I just had enough money to make significant gains. I seriously believe I can make over 30% per year if just given the chance -- and companies I have picked over the last few years support that

[/ QUOTE ]

You won't be making 30% per year. Lots of people have made 30% per year over the last few years - that'll change soon.

And just because you make good investments on paper, it has no relation to making them for real. Don't underestimate the power of your emotions to lose you money in the markets.

The first sentence in the above quote is your emotions ruling your rational judgement.

[Shoe]

[ QUOTE ]
Where do you live?

If you live in Europe you can buy Nintendo stock easily on one of the Euro exchanges - probably The Xetra Dax.

You can also buy major shares in any large company globally easily through many standard online brokers. Since you're asking this question, I assume you live in North America. Maybe it's more difficult to invest in foreign countries from America?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm in the USA. I have yet to find an easy way to buy any stock on any foreign exchange (whether it be in Japan, London, China, or elsewhere).

[Shoe]

[ QUOTE ]
You won't be making 30% per year. Lots of people have made 30% per year over the last few years - that'll change soon.

And just because you make good investments on paper, it has no relation to making them for real. Don't underestimate the power of your emotions to lose you money in the markets.

The first sentence in the above quote is your emotions ruling your rational judgement.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you for the reply, It definitely gives me something to think about. I agree that a 30% average annual return is pretty much impossible to attain by 99% of the people out there (and chances are I belong with the masses). However, I personally believe I can beat the market. It might not be 30%, but ever since I could read I would read the business section of the paper and consistently pick good stocks (but I have no written track record to analyze my results -- so I could very well be just average, or even worse). I am starting to track my results now, and while I am happy with my results so far, I have already learned a few valuable lessons that I would not have otherwise known.

I try my hardest to keep emotions out of my decisions. Thank you for pointing out that I was getting emotional in that part of my post. I now realize that I have been trying to hard to find short-term gains to reach my long-term goals. I know I need to concentrate just on picking good companies at opportine times (such as NTDOY 6-12 months ago), and just be happy with slowly becoming extremely wealthy, and stop looking for the get-rich-quick picks out there that just don't pan out.

[Sniper]

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I'm in the USA. I have yet to find an easy way to buy any stock on any foreign exchange (whether it be in Japan, London, China, or elsewhere).

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Try Interactive Brokers

[TLC]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm in the USA. I have yet to find an easy way to buy any stock on any foreign exchange (whether it be in Japan, London, China, or elsewhere).

[/ QUOTE ]
Have you looked into buying ADRs? A lot of large cap foreign issues have ADRs in the US.

http://www.adr.com/adr?formtype=2&pa...p;ticker=NTDOY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...sitary_Receipt

[JamesAt15]

The problem with buying stocks on the Japanese market is

a) shares are often priced at several hundred US$ each, and
2) the minimum lot size is usually 100 shares

Yahoo Japan Finance page for Nintendo show it at around 36,000yen a share, with a lot size of 100 shares. That's about $30,000 you'd need to invest.

I'm not familiar with ADRs, but from the links TLC posted they look like a much more reasonable way to go for an individual investor.