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Best US stock brokers for small accounts
Under $500, a single flat fee or an inactivity charge is a percentage-level drag that no stock pick can offset.
Answer: 16 of the brokers we cover meet the criteria for this page. Ordered on those criteria, Pepperstone is the first name to look at — non-US residents trading US shares as CFDs. 12 of them give you real share ownership; 4 give CFD exposure only.
A CFD and spread-betting broker, not a US stockbroker. It is on this site because for most non-US traders it is one of the few regulated routes to US-share exposure with leverage.
Minimum
None
Fractional
n/a
Regulators
FCA, ASIC, CySEC, DFSA, BaFin
US universe
1,000+ US share CFDs
Non-US residents trading US shares as CFDs
Leveraged short-term positions
MetaTrader and TradingView users
CFDs are leveraged: you do not own the share, get no shareholder rights, and can lose more than you expect
Low entry barrier and a wide share-CFD list; the trade-off is that everything is a derivative, so there is no dividend ownership or voting right — only cash adjustments.
Minimum
$20
Fractional
Yes
Regulators
FCA, CySEC, ASIC, FSA
US universe
3,000+ share CFDs across US and global exchanges
Small starting balances
Fractional-size share CFD positions
Traders who want one account for stocks, indices and FX
CFDs are leveraged and you do not own the underlying share
A CFD-first broker with real US share names on the price list, not a US stockbroker. Its separate, higher-minimum Shares Account is the only route to actual ownership here.
Minimum
$5
Fractional
n/a
Regulators
FSC
US universe
Dozens of US share CFDs (Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Meta and others)
Traders who want a wide US share-CFD list on MT4/MT5
A $5 entry point
The $5 minimum only opens CFD accounts — a separate Shares Account with a $10,000 minimum is required for real share ownership
XM Group names CySEC, FSA (Seychelles) and DFSA as additional group regulators on its own site, but we could only confirm one entity's exact licence number (FSC Belize) live — confirm which entity would hold your account before depositing
A CFD-first multi-asset broker, not a US stockbroker. Which of its five group entities holds your account determines whether you have real regulatory protection at all.
Minimum
None
Fractional
n/a
Regulators
FCA, FSCA, FSA, CMA
US universe
US share CFDs among 500+ CFD instruments (Forex, Commodities, Metals, Bonds, Energies, ETFs, Indices, Cryptos, Stocks)
A wide instrument list across account tiers
Traders wanting Lloyd's-backed civil-liability insurance on top of standard segregation
The default HF Markets (SV) Ltd entity most retail clients sign up under is registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as an International Business Company — an incorporation, not a financial-services licence; only the FCA, FSCA, FSA and CMA entities above are actually regulated
CFDs are leveraged: you do not own the share and can lose more than you expect
Pepperstone leads this list on our criteria: minimum deposit under $50. A CFD and spread-betting broker, not a US stockbroker. It is on this site because for most non-US traders it is one of the few regulated routes to US-share exposure with leverage.
Does a CFD count as owning the stock?
No. A contract for difference tracks the share price but confers no ownership, no voting rights and no real dividend — only a cash adjustment. It is a leveraged trading product, not an investment holding.
How is this list ordered?
By the criteria named on this page, using each broker's own published data. Commercial relationships never move a broker up a data-ordered table; where two brokers are genuinely equal on the criteria, our partners appear first and are labelled as partners.
Are the fees on this page current?
Every fee statement links to the broker's own pricing page, which is the authoritative source. We restate published figures rather than estimating them, and where a broker does not publish a number we print "not published".
Reviewed September 2026 · sources linked on each broker profile.