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Investment Singapore Stocks

My Review of Tiger Brokers’ Singapore Brokerage Platform

my-review-of-tiger-broker-singapore-brokerage-platform

Ever since Heartland Boy started his investment journey in 2014, he has always felt that brokerage fees were high and cumbersome in Singapore. In recent years, he noticed the trend that brokerages have been reducing their brokerage fees. One of the most notable entrants into the Singapore brokerage scene this year is Tiger Brokers with its insanely low fees (Source: Business Times). Its parent company, UP Fintech Holdings Limited, is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. It counts InteractiveBrokers, Xiaomi and Jim Rogers as its key investors.

In Singapore, it holds a capital market services license from Monetary Authority of Singapore (‘MAS’). Clients are able to access the US, HKG and Singapore stock markets via its platform. Here is my review of Tiger Brokers’ Singapore brokerage platform.

What I Like About Tiger Brokers

1. Insanely Low Fees

One of the oft said golden advice is that fees eat into returns. Therefore, if an investor is able to reduce fees, that is a big chunk of the battle won. When it comes to investing in stocks, it is important to consider the entire spectrum of fees spanning from commission and platform fees, custodian fees to exchange rate fees.

A. Commission and Platform Fees

Fees that are levied by Tiger Brokers, including commission and platform fees, are probably the lowest in town at the moment of writing. Diagram 1 is a summary of the fees charged by Tiger Brokers across the US, HKD and SG stock markets.

tiger-brokers-fees-summary

Diagram 1: Summary of the fees payable on Tiger Brokers

With the fees displayed on Diagram 1, Tiger Brokers beats its competitors handsomely. There is even better news as the minimum fee of S$2.88 per trade for stocks on SGX will be waived until 31 Dec 2020. This means that any investor whose trade value is less than $3,600 per trade will stand to benefit from this waiver since the commission payable to Tiger Brokers will be less than $2.88.

Investors, especially those just starting their investment journeys, tend to make smaller portfolio positions. When compared to some stock brokerages that are still levying a minimum of $25 per trade, Tiger Brokers becomes a more cost-effective platform for them to accumulate their positions gradually.

B. Custodian Fee

Singapore shares bought via Tiger Brokers are kept in custody and not with the Central Depository (‘CDP’). Heartland Boy understands that DBS provides custodian services to Tiger Brokers for shares listed on SGX. This also means that existing stocks in your CDP cannot be traded via Tiger Brokers since those shares are held under your own name. Despite engaging external service providers for custodian services, there is no outright custodian fees charged by Tiger Brokers. Fees levied by Tiger Brokers are mainly commission and platform fees as illustrated in Diagram 1 earlier.

C. Exchange Rate Fee

Some people choose to invest through low spread forex brokers to start trading in stock market. To purchase stocks listed in foreign currencies, we would be required to convert our home currency to the required foreign currency. Tiger Brokers levies a competitive spread of 0.3% – 0.5% for FX currency conversion. Immediately upon performing a foreign trade, it is advisable for clients to convert their SGD cash holdings into the respective currencies first to avoid incurring interest charges associated with borrowing.

2. User Experience

Shortly after Tiger Brokers launched access to the SGX in early June, Heartland Boy signed up almost immediately. The onboarding experience was very smooth-sailing. He first downloaded the mobile app, onboarded via MyInfo, cleared the KYC process and even managed to deposit his account all within the same day. At the end of the day, he was already able to see his fund balances.

Heartland Boy spends most of the time interacting with Tiger Broker via its mobile app. He has been very impressed with the entire user experience on the mobile app thus far.

Diagram 2: Screenshot of Tiger Broker mobile app

Every morning, he goes straight to the “News” tab to get a quick glance of the top news from various sources. This keeps him updated of the business news around the world. “Quote” is where the stock prices of his watchlist gets updated as shown in Diagram 3. This gives him a quick glance of the stocks that he is tracking closely across different markets.

watchlist-tiger-broker-heartlandboy

Diagram 3: Screenshot of the Quote tab on Tiger Brokers mobile app

Under the “Discover” tab, he discovers that Tiger Brokers offers suggestions of some of the popular investment strategies. Another very helpful tool in this section is the major financial events of the stocks under his watchlist arranged in a chronological order.

tiger-broker-brokerage-platform-calendar-stocks

Diagram 4: Calendar section of “Discover” tab on Tiger Brokers

All in, Heartland Boy feels that his entire experience on the mobile app was top-notch. The user interface is elegant and very intuitive to navigate.

Tiger Broker Account Opening Promotion

For all new sign-ups, here are the following welcome gifts:

  • 1 share of Apple and 5 shares of Xiaomi (approx SS$190) by making an initial deposit of at least S$2,000 or equivalent currency (first 5,000 qualified clients)
  • 60 commission-free trades within 180 days
  • 500 Tiger coins

If you are a trader, you may definitely be able to utilise this free gifts fully to maximise your investment returns. Here is Heartland Boy’s referral link (Invitation Code: 8QMMAT) if you are keen to try the Tiger Brokers brokerage platform as well. Remember to claim these lucrative gifts once you have signed up. Note that the promotion stated is for the month of June 2021, welcome bundle may change but it will be just as attractive!

Conclusion of Tiger Brokers Singapore Brokerage Platform

The low fees dangled by Tiger Brokers have definitely encouraged Heartland Boy to consider slowly migrating his portfolio towards a single platform. This shall apply to both his new investments on the SGX and HKEX stock exchanges. For existing positions that he is planning to add in the future, he would continue to stay on the existing brokerages so that he can see the aggregated positions. Overall, he believes that lower brokerage fees in Singapore’s investment scene will be here to stay. This is simply Singapore playing catch up to what is already happening in other parts of the world and kudos to Tiger Brokers for finally delivering this service. You can also see how Tiger Brokers stack up against its competition in this comparison of the ultimate low-cost brokerages in Singapore. If you sign up for Tiger Brokers under SingSaver, you will receive S$200 cash via PayNow and be eligible for 3 chances in  SingSaver’s March Madness Grand Lucky Draw 2023 where a total of $20,000 worth of prizes are to be won!

Read more on avatrade review to find out more about forex trading options.

This article is written in collaboration with Tiger Brokers but the views are his own


20 Comments

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Comments

  1. Xavier says

    August 17, 2020 at 11:32 am

    Hi Heartland Boy,

    Can I ask if I wish to buy USD stocks on Tiger Brokers, do I need to convert my money from SGD to USD in my DBS ibanking first before I deposit into Tiger Brokers? Or what should be the way? Thanks.

    Regards,
    Xavier

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      August 17, 2020 at 2:25 pm

      Hi Xavier,

      Pls. transfer SGD into your Tiger Account via FAST (cost-free and immediate). Once SGD is in Tiger Broker, you can convert to USD.

      Reply
    • Kappa says

      November 9, 2021 at 8:54 am

      You may do it both way.
      If you have better exchange rate , why not do it first before making a deposit.

      Anyway the comission for trading US stock trading is high on this platform. You may easily google lower brokerage available with 0 commission fee.

      I have been using tiger for 8months just my piece of take.

      Reply
  2. WT says

    September 1, 2020 at 2:42 pm

    Hi Heartland Boy

    Want to ask if you have recommendation on the best way to withdraw USD from Tiger Brokers to a DBS multi-currency account after trading (thinking about minimising fees and forex spread).

    Is it better to change back to SGD in Tiger Brokers app? or better to withdraw in USD and then change on DBS side? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      September 1, 2020 at 6:54 pm

      Hi WT,

      I am not sure whether DBS or Tiger offer a better FX spread because I have not done the comparison before. If you prefer DBS, you can simply transfer USD out into the DBS MCA. There is no fee in such transfer.

      Reply
  3. Elyna says

    September 8, 2020 at 11:16 am

    Hi Heartland Boy,

    Wanna ask how can it be done to migrate the shares that I currently hold from Standard Chartered to Tiger Brokers?

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      September 8, 2020 at 1:35 pm

      Hi Elyna,

      you can email in to service@tigerbrokers.com.sg or inform them via their online chat to initiate the transfer. Only applicable for HKD and USD listed stocks at this moment though.

      Reply
  4. A says

    September 19, 2020 at 12:02 pm

    One thing that is very suspicious with this app is that it requires accessing to all files on the phone. My android phone keeps warning about this every 10 or so minutes.

    I am not sure why the trading app needs this permission.

    Reply
    • Kappa says

      November 9, 2021 at 9:02 am

      Tiger broker is being slam for PDPA issue in china. China are worried about personal date of their people being illegally used.

      Reply
  5. Dong Min Lin says

    November 23, 2020 at 9:50 am

    Hi is there a min purchase for sgx stock in tiger? i tried and it prompt a message saying min of 100

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      November 23, 2020 at 7:13 pm

      Hi Min Lin,

      Yes there is a min. purchase of 100 shares for SGX-listed stocks

      Reply
  6. david says

    November 28, 2020 at 12:33 am

    Hi is there a min purchase for US stock? and can you advise if this is buying real stocks or CFD in tiger broker?

    Reply
  7. Mildred Ang says

    January 6, 2021 at 9:56 pm

    Hi heartlandboy,

    I didn’t understand this particular statement you wrote in your post, under “C. EXCHANGE RATE FEE”

    Immediately upon performing a foreign trade, it is advisable for clients to convert their SGD cash holdings into the respective currencies first to avoid incurring interest charges associated with borrowing.

    Do you mind elaborating?

    Thank you!

    Cheers,
    Mildred

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      January 6, 2021 at 10:03 pm

      Hi, that means if the foreign currencies are not present in your account, you are deemed to have borrowed from tiger brokers which incur interest rate charge

      Reply
  8. PHEBE says

    January 23, 2021 at 6:02 pm

    Hi, if I transfer money into tiger in sgd I mus still manually convert to usd to purchase usd stock?

    Currently I’m using ifast and its auto. I use frm the ifast auto sweep acc and it’s instant and immed.

    Is that the same as tiger or I need to convert and wait a few days before being able to buy usd stocks?

    Reply
  9. MH says

    March 3, 2021 at 3:01 pm

    Hi, if will tiger give out dividends if i buy Singapore Stock that give dividends (e.g OCBC)?

    Reply
  10. Lelelok92 says

    April 19, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    Hi, may we know that what is the financing interest about in tiger brokers for all the currency?

    Reply
  11. Maxz says

    April 29, 2021 at 8:33 am

    Hi Heartland boy, pls share your diagram 1 with a sample trade for illustration ? From the stock exchange it show 0.0075 + 0.03x which totaled up is still cheaper than 0.08 charged by Tigers ? Am not clear abt the diagram 1.

    And how is it compared against moomooo ?

    Plus one OP posted abt the app requesting to access the files, is that normal ?

    Regards

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      April 29, 2021 at 5:51 pm

      Hi Maxz,

      You need to add up all the rows to derive at the final cost. Stock exchange fees are external fees that Tiger collect from you and pay to the stock exchanges- eg: SGX for Singapore’s case. I use both exchanges to take advantage of the freebies.

      Reply
  12. Mingchuan says

    May 26, 2021 at 5:46 am

    My withdrawal amount to my dbs bank have only few dollar but my actually amount is $150 .can advice on this? I did some currency exchange from usd to sgd to before withdrawal to note.

    Reply

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Welcome to Heartlandboy.com

Hello there, I am Heartland Boy! I am always thinking about how I can improve my financial literacy in order to achieve financial independence. This is the place to be if you are hungry for financial independence (sometimes good hawker food as well) and foolish enough to believe in the musings of Heartland Boy. Read More…

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