About Tickwise

Tickwise is an independent US-stocks education site. We're not a broker, and not any trading platform's official channel. We do one thing: explain account opening, funding, reading the tape and fees in plain language, so you can understand and verify before you act.

Who we are

Tickwise is written for people, in Chinese and English, touching US stocks for the first time. We don't decide for you and we don't send buy/sell signals. We take the parts where a search only returns jargon and lay them out plainly, then point you to what to verify on the official pages. When you can't make sense of something, our advice is always the same: wait.

We group the content into three kinds. First, do-this-step guides: what to prepare before opening an account, which funding routes exist, where withdrawals get stuck. Second, plain-word explainers: taking the order book, order types, fees and tax apart field by field so the words stop being noise. Third, small tools you run yourself, like dollar-cost averaging, dividend withholding and break-even. All three point at the same goal: before you press any button, you understand what the step does, what it costs, and what can go wrong.

Author and perspective: Zhou Yu

The guides are written mainly by Zhou Yu, a self-directed US-stock investor for over a decade who stepped on the account-opening, cross-border funding and dividend-withholding traps one by one, and now writes each step's flow, fees and snags into notes an ordinary reader can follow. Every article carries an author byline and an updated date.

“Zhou Yu” is a pen name used to protect the author’s privacy. It is not used to imply invented licenses, employment history or verifiable professional titles.

The reason for building this site is plain. When Zhou Yu first came to US stocks, the hard part was never "should I buy," but the steps nobody bothered to spell out: a registration page that stalls halfway, funding that hasn't landed after three days, a first dividend that arrives with a slice already withheld, a trade where it's unclear how much was actually charged. Each one meant hours of figuring it out alone. After one round of that, he started writing every step down: what this field means, why that money went missing, where to check first next time. The notes piled up, and became the seed of this site.

So the perspective here is not "an expert teaching you to trade," but "an ordinary person who walked the path first, marking the potholes." We don't talk about "what will go up." We talk about what a step does, what you should verify, and where people get burned. What we can do is make the flow clear and point at the places worth checking. Whether to buy, how much, and how much swing you can stomach are decisions only you can make.

Editorial and review standards

To make the content worth trusting, we hold ourselves to a few firm rules and follow them on every piece:

• Verify first, then write. For facts that change, like fees, tax rates, eligibility, region limits and product rules, we go by each broker's and platform's official pages, and we prompt you to check the current version there too; platforms can change at any time, so what an article says is there to help you understand, not to replace the official live information.
• Numbers only illustrate the idea. Quotes, prices, rates and tax figures in the text are illustrative, used to show how something is calculated. They are not live data and don't stand for any real instrument; when you actually place an order, go by the live figures on the official page.
• No stock picks, no predictions, no promises. We don't send buy/sell signals, don't predict prices, and don't promise any returns. What we provide is judgment flows, field explanations and checklists; the decision to buy, sell or open an account is yours.
• Bylines and dating. Every guide is bylined and dated; when content is updated as platform policies change, the date moves with it, so you can tell when a piece was written and whether it still applies.
• We disclose our interests. Where third-party platforms are involved, we disclose the referral relationship, see Affiliate disclosure; that disclosure changes none of the rules above, and we still flag the risks worth flagging.
• Wrong gets fixed. Spot a factual error or stale information? Email [email protected] and we'll verify and correct it, updating the footer date where needed.

Where this content applies, and where it doesn't

Everything on Tickwise is educational, meant to help you build concepts and read the flow. It is not investment, tax or legal advice, and it isn't tailored to anyone's specific situation. Everyone's residency, tax status, available platforms and risk tolerance differ, and the same action can end very differently for different people. Whether a platform or feature is available where you live, whether you owe tax, and how to file, are things you need to check on the official pages yourself, or with a licensed professional in your area. When we mention a platform or product, it's an example to explain the idea, not a recommendation to use it.

Updates and timeliness

Broker policies, fees, regional eligibility and product rules change over time. We update the relevant content when we notice a change, and adjust the footer date accordingly. Treat each piece's date as a reference: it tells you roughly when the piece was written. When you actually place an order, open an account or file tax, the key facts go by the official current page you see at that moment, not by an older description in an article. If you find something that no longer matches the official page, we'd welcome a heads-up.

Contact

For corrections, suggestions or anything else, write to [email protected]. See also Risk disclosure and Privacy.