Investors in Southeast Asia have historically had limited access to global investing due to high order fees, steep balance minimums, and complex regulations. However, retail participation has been increasing in Malaysia and Indonesia, with 5 and 17 million investors, respectively, as of 2025.
To help remove these barriers, Gotrade built an investing platform that empowered users to invest in US stocks for as little as $1 USD.
With the introduction of options trading, Gotrade is now providing:
- Access to potential leverage and risk management opportunities
- Visuals, tooltips, and in-app guides that help make options trading feel less intimidating
- Intuitive mobile-first experiences where users can trade strategies like long calls or long puts in just a few clicks. They plan to add covered calls and cash-secured puts next
Gotrade leverages Alpaca’s Broker API to power its newly launched derivatives offering, ensuring a scalable and robust infrastructure for streamlined order execution and trade processing.
“Options trading is a natural evolution for our users, and we’re changing the landscape by making a tool previously reserved for institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals available to everyone,” said Norman Wanto, CEO of Gotrade. “Partnering with Alpaca gives us the freedom to innovate and scale quickly, which is critical for building a better experience in emerging markets like Southeast Asia.”
“Gotrade’s product-first approach has been a key factor in building trust and driving growth in Southeast Asia. We’re thrilled to continue our partnership by providing the infrastructure they need to launch innovative products quickly,” said Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO and Co-Founder of Alpaca.
Gotrade and Alpaca are deepening their partnership with the launch of options trading, a collaboration that started in 2021 when Gotrade first introduced fractional trading of US stocks.
About Alpaca
Alpaca is a US-headquartered, self-clearing broker-dealer and a global leader in brokerage infrastructure APIs providing access to stocks, ETFs, options, and fixed income. Alpaca delivers embeddable finance solutions for fully paid securities lending, high-yield cash, 24/5 trading, Shariah-compliant investing and more. Today, Alpaca powers over 7 million brokerage accounts across hundreds of fintechs and institutions in 40+ countries with over $170M in funding. For more information, visit: alpaca.markets
About Gotrade
Gotrade is a mobile app-based stock investing application that enables users to invest as little as $1 in fractional shares of U.S. stocks on an easy-to-use investing platform. It was launched in 2019 with the vision of making investing fun, fair and simple for everyone, everywhere. Instruments on Gotrade are offered through Gotrade Securities Inc. Instruments on Gotrade Indonesia are offered through PT Valbury Asia Futures, a Bappebti licensed broker-dealer established in 1999 in Indonesia. For more information, please visit: heygotrade.com
Alpaca and Gotrade Securities Inc. are not affiliated and are not responsible for the liabilities of others.
All investments involve risk; for more information, please see our Disclosure Library. Options trading is not suitable for all investors due to its inherent high risk, which can potentially result in significant losses. Please read Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options before investing.
Fractional share trading allows a customer to buy and sell fractional share quantities and dollar amounts of certain securities. Fractional share trading presents unique risks and is subject to particular limitations that you should be aware of before engaging in such activity. See Alpaca Customer Agreement at https://alpaca.markets/disclosures for more details.
Securities brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities LLC, member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc.
AlpacaDB, Inc., the parent company of Alpaca Securities LLC, provides services and technology, including the brokerage infrastructure API supporting Alpaca’s financial services.
This is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or open a brokerage account in any jurisdiction where Alpaca Securities is not registered or licensed, as applicable.
Contacts
Media Contact
Patrick Valoppi
press@alpaca.markets
Source: Alpaca
Reporter: PR Wire
Editor: PR Wire
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