A Canadian investor can buy Royal Bank, Apple or an S&P 500 ETF in a few clicks. An online brokerage makes it feel as though every listed company is available. It isn’t. If the company you want trades mainly in Zurich, Tokyo, London or Frankfurt, you may find a US ADR, an OTC quotation, a secondary listing or no North American line at all. Direct access to the foreign exchange opens up more companies, along with a longer list of complications.

This is the last of four articles on how stock markets work. TSX vs NYSE vs Nasdaq covered where stocks trade, S&P 500 vs Nasdaq vs Dow Jones vs TSX covered what indices measure, and OTC Stocks, ADRs and Pink Sheets covered depositary receipts. This one covers buying ordinary shares on the foreign exchange itself.

The distinction I keep coming back to is that owning a foreign company is not necessarily the same as buying its shares on its home exchange. The business exposure can be very similar, since an ADR represents the same underlying shares. What differs is the currency, the cost, the custody chain and sometimes the registered-account treatment. I’ll use ABB, the Swiss-listed electrification company, as the running example. It isn’t a recommendation.

Why Buy Shares Directly on a Foreign Exchange?

The case for direct access is real. Some companies have no convenient North American line. The home exchange is usually where most trading happens, which can mean tighter spreads than a thinly traded OTC quotation. You hold the ordinary share instead of a depositary receipt, so you avoid ADR-specific fees and contract terms, and you aren’t limited to whichever companies sponsored a program.

The costs are just as real. You pay for at least one extra currency conversion, usually higher international commissions and sometimes custody or market-data charges. Some markets add stamp duties or levies. You trade on a different clock, tax administration gets harder and corporate actions can be more cumbersome. A liquid NYSE-listed ADR can be simpler and cheaper than ordinary shares abroad, and for many companies that is the better answer.

Which Foreign Stock Exchanges Can Canadians Access?

It depends on the brokerage, the account type and the exchange. The existence of a foreign exchange doesn’t mean your broker connects to it.

Country	Exchange	Currency	Example company (ticker)
Switzerland	SIX Swiss Exchange	CHF	ABB (ABBN), Nestlé (NESN)
Sweden	Nasdaq Stockholm	SEK	ABB (ABB)
Japan	Tokyo Stock Exchange	JPY	Toyota (7203)
United Kingdom	London Stock Exchange	GBP	Unilever (ULVR)
Germany	Frankfurt Stock Exchange / Xetra	EUR	Siemens (SIE)
Hong Kong	Hong Kong Stock Exchange	HKD	Tencent (0700)

Examples only. Listings and tickers are from the issuers’ own investor relations pages and announcements as of October 2026.

Notice that ABB appears twice. A company can have more than one ordinary-share listing, and the lines aren’t necessarily identical in currency, settlement or trading arrangements. ABB says its shares remain listed on SIX and Nasdaq Stockholm. Unilever lists in London and Amsterdam and has NYSE-listed ADRs, and Siemens gives its listing as Frankfurt am Main and Xetra. Exchange names and trading platforms also blur: Xetra, for example, is the electronic platform for trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which matters later in this article.

How Canadian Brokerages Handle International Trading

I checked the published documents of seven Canadian brokerages on October 13, 2026. Some publish clear international terms and some say nothing. Where a page was silent, I’ve said so rather than assume. Brokerage terms change, so use this as a map for your own questions, not a recommendation.

Brokerage	Foreign access in published documents	Registered accounts	Published international commission
Interactive Brokers Canada	Schedules for Germany, UK, Switzerland and Hong Kong, among others	Stocks on designated US and Canadian exchanges only, per its registered-account page	Fixed or tiered, from 0.05% with per-order minimums
RBC Direct Investing	Online: Hong Kong, London, Paris, Frankfurt. Japan and others by phone	Not all international securities are eligible for registered plans	Europe 0.35% to 0.50%, minimum EUR 105
TD Direct Investing	Global Trading: UK, several euro-area markets, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore	Cash and margin accounts only	From GBP 29 (UK) or EUR 29 (several euro markets) per trade
Questrade	Lists “International Equities” without naming markets	Not independently confirmed	1% of trade value, minimum USD 195
BMO InvestorLine	Fee schedule covers Canadian and US exchanges; site also offers CDRs of foreign companies	Not independently confirmed	None published
Scotia iTRADE	Pricing page covers Canadian and US equities	Not independently confirmed	None published
Wealthsimple	Help article describes Canadian and US exchanges	Not independently confirmed	None published

Read it carefully. Interactive Brokers’ registered-account page lists stocks on designated US and Canadian exchanges and limits foreign exchange conversion to USD and CAD, so a Swiss-listed share isn’t on the list even though IBKR’s Canadian commission page prices Swiss stocks. RBC says international securities can be bought in any account type but not all qualify for registered plans, and only non-registered cash accounts can hold foreign currencies. TD’s Global Trading page says only personal cash and margin accounts are eligible. For BMO, Scotia and Wealthsimple, absence from a pricing page isn’t proof of absence from the platform, so ask before assuming either way.

That gap between market access and registered-account access is the thing most investors miss. A broker offering international trading doesn’t mean the same security can sit in an RRSP or TFSA, which I take up below.

Currency Conversion: The Cost Most Investors Underestimate

Buying ABB on SIX from a CAD account has more steps than the click suggests. You deposit Canadian dollars, convert to Swiss francs, buy the shares in Zurich, receive dividends in francs, eventually sell, and convert the proceeds back to Canadian dollars. Each conversion has a price, which can be an explicit commission, a spread built into the rate or both. Brokers disclose these differently. BMO InvestorLine, for example, says it acts as principal and publishes a sliding scale of the revenue it earns converting USD, which falls as the transaction grows. RBC says only that its rate includes a spread that varies with conditions and amount.

The share price is not your return. Suppose I convert CAD 10,000 at a hypothetical 1 CHF = 1.70 CAD, which buys CHF 5,882.35. The shares rise 10% to CHF 6,470.59. If the franc has strengthened 5% to 1.785, that converts to CAD 11,550, a 15.5% return. If the franc has weakened 5% to 1.615, it converts to CAD 10,450, a 4.5% return. If the franc hasn’t moved, the return is the 10%. The calculation is 1.10 multiplied by 1.05 or 0.95, not 10% plus or minus 5%. These figures are before any costs, and they are illustrations, not forecasts.

Currency exposure isn’t unique to direct ownership. The USD price of an ABB ADR tends to track the franc share price, so a Canadian ADR holder carries CAD/USD and USD/CHF exposure, even though the quote says dollars. Canadian-listed international ETFs are the same unless hedged, and iShares offers both hedged and unhedged versions of its EAFE fund. Keep four currencies apart: the trading currency, the dividend currency, the reporting currency and the currencies the business actually earns in. ABB trades in francs and pays its dividend in francs, but its last Form 20-F, for 2023, presented results in US dollars and said about 40% of revenue came from emerging markets. The franc quote tells you very little about the business’s currency exposure.

Trading Hours, Liquidity and Order Execution

SIX opens at 09:00 and closes at 17:30 Zurich time, per its trading hours page. Zurich is normally six hours ahead of Toronto, so that is 3:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Eastern. The gap shrinks to five hours for about a week in late October and two weeks in March, because Europe and North America change their clocks on different dates, so check the calendar rather than memorize the time. Tokyo doesn’t use daylight saving, so its gap is 13 hours in summer and 14 in winter. The Tokyo Stock Exchange has a morning session to 11:30 and an afternoon session of 12:30 to 15:30, which for an Eastern-time investor means the evening before, or the early hours. Local market holidays differ too.

Liquidity follows from the same facts. Your order meets the market when the home market is open. Use limit orders. A market order in a quiet name can fill far from the last price, and some markets have lot rules. RBC notes that Hong Kong buy orders must be in board lots, with a minimum of 50 shares, and that its London, Paris and Frankfurt quotes are delayed. Interactive Brokers publishes monthly fees for real-time SIX and Tokyo data, and its delayed Tokyo and London quotes run 20 and 15 minutes behind. A liquid primary listing often executes better than a thin OTC line, but not always. A heavily traded ADR on a US exchange can beat a small foreign stock.

Settlement also differs. Canada and the US settle on T+1, but Switzerland is still on T+2, with T+1 targeted for October 11, 2027. Currency conversions typically settle on T+2, as RBC says of its own conversions. Cash raised by a sale may not be usable for a couple of days.

What Do You Actually Own? Custody and Settlement

When you buy ABB ordinary shares through a Canadian broker you hold a beneficial interest through a chain: your broker, often a custodian or sub-custodian in Switzerland, and the local central securities depository. Typically the position sits in a nominee or omnibus account, so your name isn’t on the company’s register unless registration is arranged. An ADR adds another layer, since a depositary bank holds the shares and issues receipts against them, and your broker holds the receipt. Neither arrangement removes intermediaries. They just put them in different places.

This matters when something happens. ABB’s own meeting materials say shares must be registered in the ABB share register by the record date (March 11, 2026, for this year’s meeting) in order to vote, and tell holders through a bank or nominee to ask the bank to register them. ADS holders vote differently: their instructions go to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, with a deadline that was earlier (March 6, 2026). Dividends, rights issues and mergers are handled by the custodian and broker too, so how well your broker processes them is a legitimate question.

Can Foreign Shares Be Held in an RRSP or TFSA?

Legally, often yes. Securities listed on a designated stock exchange are generally qualified investments for RRSPs and TFSAs, subject to other restrictions. Finance Canada’s list has 48 designated exchanges as of March 27, 2026, among them SIX Swiss Exchange, Nasdaq Stockholm, Tokyo Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange and The Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It names the Frankfurt Stock Exchange but not Xetra. The operator describes Xetra as the electronic platform on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and the CRA folio asks where a security is listed, not which platform executes the trade, so Xetra execution shouldn’t be the problem. I found no CRA statement on Xetra specifically, though, and paragraph 1.19 of the folio says only the official, regulated market of an EU exchange qualifies, not the Frankfurt Open Market. For a German share I would confirm with the broker that the listing is on the regulated market. The CRA’s qualified investments folio is the best plain-language guide, and my TFSA deep dive and RRSP vs TFSA cover the wider account rules.

Legal eligibility and brokerage eligibility are separate questions. A foreign share can qualify for an RRSP while your broker refuses to buy or hold it, as the Interactive Brokers example above shows. Never assume that approval for one exchange covers another.

ABB illustrates the difference. ABB’s Swiss shares qualify through their SIX listing. ABBNY, the OTC-traded sponsored ADR, may qualify under paragraph 4900(1)(w) of the Income Tax Regulations, which covers an ADR whose underlying property is listed on a designated exchange. Article 3 covers that provision, so I won’t repeat it. The point is that broker support for ABBNY says nothing about ABBN, and the reverse is also true.

Foreign Dividends and Withholding Taxes

A dividend from a directly held foreign share is foreign-source income whatever platform you used. Switzerland is a good example because ABB is Swiss. ABB’s shareholders approved a CHF 0.94 dividend in March 2026, which the company’s meeting documents describe as gross, before Swiss withholding tax. The Swiss Federal Tax Administration gives the rate as 35% for investment income and says the tax is generally final for recipients living abroad unless a double tax agreement provides a refund, and claims are due within three years of the end of the calendar year the payment fell due. The Canada-Switzerland convention sets a 15% cap on portfolio dividends. On 1,000 shares, the gross dividend is CHF 940 and the 35% withheld is CHF 329. The treaty-limited tax is CHF 141, so CHF 188 is potentially reclaimable by application.

Switzerland is one of six markets in the exchange table, and the others differ. This table shows headline withholding for a Canadian-resident individual with a small stake. The standard rate is what the source country takes unless relief is arranged first; the treaty rate is what it agreed to keep. Whether the difference is handled at source or left for you to reclaim depends on the country and on your broker or custodian.

Country	Standard withholding	Canada treaty rate, portfolio dividends	Practical consideration
Switzerland	35%	15%	Reclaim the difference from the Swiss tax administration within three years.
Japan	15.315% on listed shares below a 3% holding; 20.42% otherwise	15%	Little to reclaim on a small holding; relief is claimed through the payer.
United Kingdom	None on ordinary dividends	Not needed	REIT distributions are treated differently.
Germany	26.375%	15%	Refund from the Federal Central Tax Office within four years; needs a German paying agent’s certificate.
Hong Kong	None	Not needed	No withholding on dividends today.
Sweden	30%	15%	Relief at source if your custodian offers it; otherwise refund on form SKV 3740 within five years.

Treaty rates are the portfolio rates in Article 10 of each convention (Japan, Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong); each also has a 5% rate for substantial corporate shareholders that an individual can’t use. Japan’s listed-share rate and the 3% threshold are also described by the Japanese National Tax Agency. I didn’t confirm whether any of the seven brokerages supports foreign reclaims.

In a non-registered account, the CRA’s foreign tax credit folio says tax withheld above the treaty rate isn’t treated as foreign tax paid and should be recovered from the foreign authority, while credit for property income is generally limited to 15%. Withholding is not the same as final liability. In a TFSA there is no Canadian tax to offset. For an RRSP the answer depends on the source country and its treaty with Canada. The Canada-Switzerland convention exempts dividends paid to qualifying pension plans, and a 2013 competent-authority memorandum lists RRSPs and RRIFs as corresponding plans but not TFSAs. That provides a treaty basis for possible RRSP relief, but the exemption has further tests, and I couldn’t confirm how the Swiss tax administration or a Canadian broker applies it to an RRSP holding ABBN. I found nothing that gives a TFSA relief, so I wouldn’t assume either. The Canada-Sweden convention also exempts dividends paid to pension organisations that meet several tests, but I couldn’t confirm that an RRSP qualifies, and I found no comparable dividend exemption in the Japan, Germany or Hong Kong conventions.

None of this is the US rule. The US-Canada treaty exemption for certain US-source dividends in an RRSP doesn’t apply to a Swiss or Japanese dividend, and buying an ADR doesn’t by itself turn a Swiss dividend into a US-source dividend. A narrow US sourcing exception can apply to a portion of dividends from a foreign corporation if at least 25% of its gross income over the relevant period was effectively connected with a US trade or business; the ADR itself does not cause that exception. My dividend tax guide covers the US rules. Brokers may or may not handle reclaims for you, and the paperwork, delay and currency conversion are part of the cost.

One Canadian filing duty catches many direct holders. If the total cost of your specified foreign property, which includes shares of non-resident corporations held through a Canadian broker, exceeded CAD 100,000 at any time in the year, you file Form T1135 with your return. The test uses cost, generally adjusted cost base, not market value, and it adds up all your accounts. A simplified method applies below CAD 250,000. RRSP and TFSA holdings are excluded, as are Canadian mutual fund trusts. Foreign-listed funds and ADRs can also raise T1135 questions depending on the legal nature and residence of the issuer; the CRA’s specified-foreign-property guidance should be checked for the particular holding.

The Hidden Costs of International Investing

Add up commissions, minimums, conversion spreads, bid-ask spreads, custody charges, ADR depositary fees, dividend conversion, withholding leakage and corporate-action fees. Published commission schedules vary widely, from 0.05% at Interactive Brokers to 0.35% to 0.50% at RBC’s European schedule to 1% with a USD 195 minimum at Questrade for international equities, and they don’t include the conversion spread.

Transaction taxes vary by market and are separate from commissions, exchange fees and currency conversion. UK purchases usually carry a 0.5% stamp duty reserve tax, though HMRC says foreign shares bought outside the UK normally don’t, and some depositary receipt schemes face 1.5%. Hong Kong’s exchange lists a stamp duty of 0.1% on both buyer and seller. Switzerland’s securities transfer stamp tax is 0.15% on shares of Swiss issuers but applies only if a Swiss securities dealer, such as a bank, is a party or intermediary, so it depends on routing, which I couldn’t confirm for any of the seven brokerages. I didn’t identify a comparable general stock-purchase tax in Japan or Germany, and Sweden abolished its stock transaction tax in 1991.

Here is a labelled hypothetical, not a quote. Assume a 0.50% commission with a CAD 100 minimum and a 0.75% conversion spread, each applied on the way in and the way out. On CAD 2,000 the round trip costs CAD 230, or 11.5%. On CAD 25,000 it costs CAD 625, or 2.5%, and on CAD 50,000 it costs CAD 1,250, also 2.5%. Now assume an ADR route with a hypothetical CAD 10 commission and the same conversion spread: the round trip costs CAD 50 on CAD 2,000 (2.5%), CAD 395 on CAD 25,000 (1.6%) and CAD 770 on CAD 50,000 (1.5%). That leaves out bid-ask spreads, withholding, ADR fees and any reclaim costs. The point isn’t that the ADR always wins. It is that the minimum punishes small positions, and that a one-time round-trip cost of 2.5% spread over a ten-year hold is about 0.25% a year. These are illustrative position sizes, not recommendations.

Case Study: Buying ABB as a Canadian Investor

ABB’s shares are listed on SIX Swiss Exchange as ABBN and on Nasdaq Stockholm. ABB delisted its ADRs from the NYSE in May 2023, converting the sponsored Level II program into a sponsored Level I program that trades over the counter as ABBNY. Deutsche Bank was named successor depositary effective July 1, 2024, and ABB’s ADR page shows one ADR per ordinary share. The old NYSE line is gone, so don’t go looking for it. For a fund route, the iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI Index ETF (XEF) held ABB at 0.58% in its October 12, 2026 holdings file, and its MER is 0.22%. A broad fund doesn’t have to hold any given company, so check the holdings first.

	Route A: ABBN on SIX	Route B: ABBNY	Route C: XEF
What you own	Ordinary shares via broker custody	Sponsored Level I ADR, 1 per share	Fund units; ABB is one holding
Trading currency	CHF	USD	CAD units
Venue	SIX Swiss Exchange	US over the counter	TSX
Registered-account eligibility	Qualifies through designated listing	May qualify under 4900(1)(w)	Qualifies as a listed fund
Broker availability	Only brokers with SIX access, and registered support varies	Depends on each broker’s OTC and ADR policy	Any broker offering the TSX
Dividend treatment	Swiss 35% withheld at source, treaty reclaim possible	USD after depositary fees, same Swiss withholding upstream	Distributions; withholding handled inside the fund
Main costs	Commission, two conversions, custody	Commission, ADR fees, conversion	MER 0.22%

No route is categorically better. Route A gives the primary listing and the fewest wrappers but the most administration. Route B is easier in a US-dollar account but adds the depositary structure and OTC trading. Route C gives up the single-company bet in exchange for diversification and simplicity.

When Is Direct Foreign Ownership Worth It?

It can make sense when you want a particular foreign company, the primary listing is meaningfully more liquid than the alternatives, the position is large enough to absorb the costs, your broker prices access economically, you understand the currency and custody arrangements, you’re ready for tax paperwork and you’ve resolved the registered-account restrictions. An ADR may be preferable when it gives economical, liquid access to the same business. An ETF may be preferable when you want broad exposure instead of one company. For Japan specifically, see investing in Japan and the broader trade-offs in ETFs vs mutual funds vs individual stocks.

What I’d Check Before Buying a Foreign Stock

1. Confirm the exact security and ticker on the exchange, not just the company name.
2. Find the primary exchange and any other ordinary-share listings.
3. Confirm the trading currency and the dividend currency.
4. Ask whether your broker can trade that exchange online or only by phone.
5. Confirm whether the account type, especially an RRSP or TFSA, supports it, in writing.
6. Get the commission, the minimum and the conversion spread for a trade your size.
7. Look at average volume and the bid-ask spread in the home market.
8. Work out the withholding tax and the recl