RetireJapan

Has anyone investigated this service from LINE?

https://linecorp.com/ja/pr/news/en/2019/2890

I just came across it today and the fact that it lets you trade single shares vs the normal 100 shares at major Japanese brokers was surprising. I am still looking into the Japanese site to find fees and restrictions. https://line-sec.co.jp/

EDIT: Seems fees are 0yen per trade and have access to global ETFs along with 3700 stocks.

EDIT 2: Feels like the Robinhood of Japan.

Purchase fees are 0 yen, sale fees seem to be about 1.8 times other brokers, so you end up fairly close at the end of the day.

Might be good for someone just starting out, but I think I trust a big online broker more than I do LINE

Flashy interface, focus on trading individual stocks in the fewest number of clicks... it sounds a bit like a Japanese Robinhood.

Slightly resurrecting this thread...

You seem to be able to use Line Points as currency for investing on their platform, which could be good for Line Credit Card holders receiving the 3% points on purchases.

Would be keen to know if anyone has actually tested out Line Shoken and has any feedback on it? I might set it up to have a go.

Spa06Jc wrote: ↑Fri Jan 01, 2021 8:43 am receiving the 3% points on purchases.

That's only until the end of April though. After that it's 1%. And remember it costs 1,250 yen/year if you stop using it and don't cancel.

Yes, my philosophy with Line Pay products has been to take advantage of any offers and then cancel as soon as possible when it's over.

I was pretty disappointed with how they effectively killed the original Line Pay with the JCB card by choosing to remove any incentive to use it overnight,but realise that their business model is to lure as many people in and hope they stay after they cut all benefits.

Reflecting on my above comment, it might be best to avoid a Line investment product...

I used to use Line Pay exclusively as 2% on all purchases was extremely competitive. It started to go downhill when they introduced the My Color system, which made the benefits less guaranteed but still between 1-2% and added a bunch of hassle and spam you had to deal with. They killed it by only giving points to people with their credit card since May last year.

Personally I switched to Rakuten, which is also 1% but has no annual fee, and unlike Line they actually run the card themselves, and have many other services that it ties into well. Rakuten are actually worse than Line with the in your face marketing and auto-opting you in to spam every time you do something even though you previously opted out. I've just filtered all their mail now and only check it when there's something I know I need to look up.

I never really looked into Line Securities seriously, because I'm not confident of how long it'll be around / competitive, and I want a PC interface. But it could be fun to try out. I wouldn't use it as my main investment company though.