Comparision of stock brokerage in Singapore

https://trackwealth.com/blog/comparison-stock-brokerages-singapore/
http://blog.moneysmart.sg/invest/how-to-decide-which-investment-brokerage-in-singapore-is-best-for-you/
Effective 1Aug2016

1. Commission Fees

Like I said earlier, you get charged commission fees on every transaction you do, buy or sell. If you’re the kind of investor to just “park” your money and not think twice about it, commission fees won’t make much of a difference to you. But if that’s really your investment strategy, then perhaps you should be looking at other long-term products like fixed deposits or Singapore Savings Bonds.
So because you expect to be charged commission fees multiple times, you should not pick one that charges exorbitant rates. On the other hand, depending on how much you’re planning to invest, you could also be caught by the minimum fees. This refers to the minimum commission charged, regardless of how little you’re trading. So if you’re a small time investor, you might want to take note of this as well.
Of course, while fees is an important consideration, this should not be your only deciding factor

3. Who holds the stocks? CDP or Custodian

This is generally a non-issue because most brokerage firms allow you to hold your stocks with the CDP. What this means is that while you buy and sell stocks through most firms, the stocks themselves are held by you. Currently, only two brokerage firms – Standard Chartered and SAXO Capital Markets – hold your stocks in custodian accounts. What this means is the custodian account (e.g. Standard Chartered) owns the stocks on your behalf.
This also means that they have certain rights over stocks that you have bought. Furthermore, on the very slim chance that the firm goes bankrupt, you will lose all your stocks because it is technically not in your name.

Do take note of optimal trading volumes. You’ll notice that, in general, the lower the transaction amount, the more expensive the commission. So if you’re trading close to $50,000 or $100,000, it doesn’t make sense to pay the higher commission. You may be better off saving up till you can afford to make a higher transaction and incur a lower commission fee rate.
The same thing goes for small-time investors. Generally, you should be trading at least $10,000 per transaction if you want to avoid paying the minimum fee, which will end up being a much higher percentage of your trade than if you were to trade higher.


Brokerage Firm

Minimum Fees Trading Fees (based on contract amount)
<$50k $50k to $100k >$100k
AmFraser $25 0.275% 0.22% 0.18%
CIMB Securities $25 0.275% 0.22% 0.18%
Citibank $28 0.25% 0.20% 0.18%
DBS Vickers $25 0.28% 0.22% 0.18%
RHB Securities (formerly DMG) $25 0.275% 0.22% 0.18%
Maybank Kim Eng $25 0.275% 0.22% 0.18%
Lim and Tan $25 0.28% 0.22% 0.18%
Phillip Securities (POEMS) $25 0.28% 0.22% 0.18%
OCBC Securities $25 0.275% 0.22% 0.18%
SAXO Capital Markets $15 0.12% 0.12% 0.12%
Standard Chartered $10* 0.20% 0.20% 0.20%
UOB KayHian $25 0.275% 0.22% 0.20%
(*with effect from 1 August 2016, Standard Chartered currently has no minimum amount)
As you can tell from the table above, the two brokerage firms that don’t hold your stocks in CDP have the lowest minimum fees and commission rates. However, those lower fees do come at a slightly higher risk, which may or may not affect your decision to go with them.



Summary
1) For high frequency,low frequency,  low amount and low amount based active traders, Cost effectiveness in SAXO and SCB with minimum transaction fee. Absolute advantage for SAXO and SCB in cost effectiveness at a cost of Custodian Risk

Saxo Classic - Minimum Funding SGD 10,000, favours high volume trades and high amount trades, lowest trading costs
https://www.home.saxo/en-sg/accounts


SCB - very favourable minimum fees, got has a higher % commission on trades compared to SAXO, absolute advantage compared to all other platforms

Personal Banking - SGX 0.20%, Other markets 0.25% , 0 Custody Fees

 Priority Banking
- an Eligible Customer must have successfully established a Priority Banking relationship with the Bank and maintain at least S$200,000 (or its equivalent in another currency) of assets under management with the Bank.
- no minimum brokerage fee levied on Priority Banking customers.
- SGX 0.18% , Other markets 0.20%, 0 Custody Fees

 https://www.sc.com/sg/ways-to-bank/online-trading/


2) Philips
X not cost effective for high frequency traders
X Not cost effective for high amount traders
+ very easy to setup an account with a Share Building Plan,
+  Favours Passive investors, no account maintenance costs
+ no punishment for dormant account or lull periods of no trades
+ many outlets in Raffles and Mars ling makes it readily accessible for talks. 

 

4) For a low volume and low amount investor like me, my priorities are 
i) Lower Minimum fees as my average cost per investment is high.
ii) Look at % commission <50K. There is no significant difference in 0.25% to 0.28% commission
iii) Dollar cost averaging in favourable stocks. Choice selection in undervalued stocks with good fundamentals.
iv) SCB Personal Banking looks very favourable from a cost perspective.
https://www.sc.com/global/av/sg-scb-online-equities-tradg-form.pdf
v) If I insist on avoiding custodian risk, Target
Minimum Fees <$50k,  0.275%, OCBC or UOB brokers.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A New Light

Portfolio Review 2019 - Performance Review

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face