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Investment Singapore Stocks

Low-cost online brokerage platform moomoo (by Futu) has finally arrived in Singapore!

low-cost-online-brokerage-platform-moomoo-futu-singapore

The r/wallstreetbets movement that captured the attention of the investment community have demonstrated the potential provided by new online brokerage platforms. Not only have its rising popularity disrupted the traditional brokerage business model, online brokerage platforms have also reduced friction for retail investors to access global investable products. Indeed, they generally appeal to young investors who appreciate lower costs and greater efficiencies. These are traits that Singapore-based retail investors who love to have as well!

I was one of those attracted to the low fees and goodies offered by a new kid on the block – moomoo by Futu Singapore. Futu Singapore, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Futu Holdings Ltd (‘Futu’), is licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (‘MAS’). I promptly registered my interest in anticipation of its product launch as shown in Diagram 1.

heartland-boy-position913

Diagram 1: Heartland Boy’s queue number to register for moomoo by Futu Singapore

Who is FUTU Holdings Limited?

Futu Holdings Limited is NASDAQ-listed (NASDAQ: FUTU) and strategically backed by Tencent Holdings, an internet behemoth from China globally known. I looked up Futu’s share price and noticed that it has been on a phenomenal run, surging more than 12X from its IPO price of US$12 in March 2019 to reach a total market capitalization of US$22 billion (or about S$30 billion).

Futu is one of China’s earliest online brokers since its founding in 2012 with more than 13 million users worldwide. It is also the leading digitalised brokerage in Hong Kong with the largest number of retail investors. It has been empowering retail investors through its low-cost and user-friendly platform- moomoo. The great news is that moomoo has finally arrived in Singapore and besides the low fees, it is bringing along a horde of goodies as well!

Amazing opening promotion freebies from moomoo

To celebrate its product launch in Singapore, moomoo is offering 1 free Apple share, commission-free stock trading in U.S. and H.K. markets for 1 year, as well as free Level 2 Market Data for US market! All it takes are 3 simple steps to receive the amazing goodies from this opening promotion:

Step 1: Download mobile app and open moomoo account

There are 2 ways to open a moomoo account, either via MyInfo or a more manual process that involves furnishing supporting documents such as proof of residence in Singapore.

myinfo-sign-up-moomoo

Diagram 2: Heartland Boy opened his moomoo account via MyInfo

For convenience, I used MyInfo to open a moomoo account. It took 1 business day for the account to be confirmed after the usual KYC checks have been performed as shown in Diagram 2.

Step 2: Deposit US$2,000 (or its SGD equivalent) into your moomoo account

It is important to note that for successful transfers into the moomoo account, moomoo users have to transfer funds from their personal bank accounts. (This is to guard against money laundering). Therefore, payments that include transfers from third-party accounts, joint accounts, E-wallets and cash transfers won’t be accepted after verification.

It is assuring to know that Futu Sg (the licensed holder) is the custodian of the investment products for moomoo. Depositing of funds is free and can be done via FAST transfer in SGD or foreign currencies (USD, HKD). As I have a DBS Multiplier bank account which is also a multi-currency account, I chose to deposit USD2,000 into my moomoo account with the step-by-step procedure shown in Diagram 3.

setup-transfer-moomoo-singapore

Diagram 3: How to transfer funds into your moomoo account using DBS multi-currency account (Source: moomoo)

Via this route, I know exactly how much in USD my moomoo account would be funded with. (see diagram 4). Crediting of funds took approximately half a working day.

heartland-boy-moomoo-usd-transfer

Diagram 4: Heartland Boy transferred USD from his DBS Multiplier account into Futu Singapore’s USD account

Alternatively, if you do not have a DBS multi-currency account, you can also deposit to your moomoo account in SGD followed by an in-app currency exchange as shown in Diagram 5.

deposit-sgd-moomoo-transfer

Diagram 5: Example of depositing SGD into moomoo account

Additionally, moomoo clients can also inform Futu about their deposits by providing the transfer reference ID which would help to expedite processing.

Step 3: Make sure you perform steps 1 and 2 before 7 March 2021

Finally, make sure you perform these 2 steps before 7 March 2021 as this is a time-limited promotion (sign-up link here). I certainly did so as soon as possible as I couldn’t say NO to 1 year worth of no-commission trades in the HK and US markets plus the free APPLE share!

You can also extend your commission-free trading in the HK and US markets to up to 600 days if you invite your friends to open an account with moomoo (30 days per successful referral). Potentially, you can get close to 2.5 years of no-commission trades!

free-apple-share-promotion-moomoo

Diagram 6: Screenshot of Heartland Boy’s moomoo account with 1 free APPL share successfully credited

3 Reasons Why I Like Moomoo by Futu

1) Commission-free trading for 1 year

I jumped onto the moomoo bandwagon because of its low commission fees. As often stated, fees eat into returns so every bit of savings should never be understated. For an online brokerage, my view is that moomoo offers one of the most competitive fee structures at the moment as shown in Diagram 7.

moomoo-all-in-fee-singapore

Diagram 7: Fee structures for the Hong Kong and US exchanges from moomoo

To illustrate why new fintech platforms such as Futu is disrupting the traditional brokerage business model, let’s compare the fees payable as shown in Diagram 8 when I try to purchase 100 Tencent shares (HK: 00700) at HKD 741 per share.

compare-moomoo-traditional-brokerage-fee

Diagram 8: Compare all-in fees between a traditional brokerage vs moomoo

By using moomoo, my all-in brokerage fee is HKD 98.75 which is at least 50% cheaper than the fees levied by a traditional brokerage platform.

2) Powerful and in-depth analytical tools

I noticed that moomoo offers the possibility to view several live charts on the mobile app and is considered extremely friendly for day traders. In addition, it offers free level 2 quotes that show real-time market bids and trades. I must confess that my investment philosophy is not that of day trading so I am not the most suited person to appreciate such technical capabilities. What I do appreciate are these features:

  • Stock alerts available during pre- and post-trading, which notify me of any price movements to take advantage of
  • Customisable news that appears on my feed that we are used to on social media platforms
  • Calendar function that helps me stay updated on key economic events around the world as well as earnings announcements by companies
3) Great Customer Support

It has only been 3 weeks since I have interacted with the moomoo platform but I must say that I am very impressed with the customer support rendered thus far. I find that the customer service (clientservice@futusg.com) officers are super prompt and friendly.

When I accidentally made a wrong transfer into FUTU’s SGD account instead of the USD account, multiple customer service officers contacted me to provide assurance that my funds had not gone missing. In fact, the follow-up was initiated by them because I didn’t even notice the error! The refund was swiftly refunded back to my original bank account. This episode inspired confidence that moomoo is a reliable, secure and stable online platform.

Conclusion of moomoo by Futu

This sums up my positive experience using moomoo by Futu thus far. I really find their opening promotion too good to turn down and am looking forward to a year of commission-free trades on both the Hong Kong and US stock exchanges. For the Apple share, I am keeping it so that I have an inspiring story to tell my daughter when she is old enough to understand the importance of investing.

New customer offer rewards for account opening include:

  • 180 days unlimited commission-free trades for US, HK, SG stock markets
  • Free access to Lvl 2 market data in US stock market
  • Free access to Level 1 market data in Sg stock market
  • (Exclusive promo from 1 – 30 Jun) 1 FREE Apple Share (“NASDAQ: AAPL”) worth ~US$125 after depositing SGD 2,700/ USD 2,000/ HKD 16,000 within 30 days from account opening and successfully unlocked Level 1 Trading Badge or completed 5 successful trades

Sign-up link for moomoo

Welcome bundle may change from time to time but I can assure you that it will remain very attractive! Find out how moomoo compares against its competitors in this comparison of the ultimate ultra low-cost online brokerages platforms in Singapore.

Article is published on 28 Feb 2021.

Disclaimer: This article is written in collaboration with Futu Holdings but the views expressed here are entirely from Heartland Boy based on his experience using the product.


19 Comments

« Review of Dividend Machines By The Fifth Person
Existing Integrated Shield Plans With Full Insurance Riders Are Being Replaced »

Comments

  1. Jj says

    March 1, 2021 at 8:53 am

    Hi thanks for sharing this article. Is there holding fees for holding stocks on their platform?

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      March 1, 2021 at 3:47 pm

      Hi Jj,

      There is no custodian fee.

      Reply
  2. CK says

    March 1, 2021 at 7:45 pm

    Which do u recommend. Tiger or moomoo

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      March 1, 2021 at 9:16 pm

      Hi CK,

      If you managed to sign up before 7 Mar to enjoy the 1-year zero commissions on moomoo, it is a slightly better option

      Reply
  3. Philip Fang says

    March 6, 2021 at 5:29 pm

    Can use cash for trading? I download and realise they only have margin account

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      March 6, 2021 at 9:08 pm

      Hi,

      ignore the word “margin”. it’s a labelling error. its actually cash

      Reply
  4. Robert says

    March 12, 2021 at 2:22 pm

    Hi, is the trading account linked to CDP or is it a custodian account where the stocks are actually owned by Futu?

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      March 12, 2021 at 10:05 pm

      Hi, it is not linked to CDP. The custodian is Futu SG

      Reply
      • M.M,S says

        June 9, 2021 at 9:04 pm

        FUTU SG is the local entity of Futu Holdings Ltd, which owns MooMoo ? Shouldn’t it be 3rd party like DBS or someone neutral? Tiger Broker uses 3rd party DBS which should be the way.

        Reply
  5. Stephanie Lee says

    March 30, 2021 at 8:47 pm

    Do you feel that MooMoo has a lot of hidden fees?
    Like platform fees?

    I was tempted by their immense shouting of $0 commission that I sign up but still have some fees when you trade.

    The fees apply even if the order gets cancelled
    to me, that is scary

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      March 30, 2021 at 9:25 pm

      Hi Stephanie,

      In my article, I did show the platform fees in my table of fees.

      Reply
  6. John says

    April 5, 2021 at 10:00 pm

    Do I receive dividends and distributions from my US, SG or HK stocks?

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      April 6, 2021 at 7:07 am

      Hi John,

      Of course!

      Reply
  7. Crystal says

    April 13, 2021 at 3:33 pm

    Do they have any overnight holding costs for sgx stocks?

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      April 13, 2021 at 7:46 pm

      nope

      Reply
  8. Jo says

    May 4, 2021 at 11:44 am

    Did you get charged when exchanging your funds from SGD to USD within Moomoo? I have exchanged all my SGD funds to USD and the following month I got an interest fee in my SGD account.

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      May 4, 2021 at 11:57 am

      Hi Jo,

      I did not perform the transfer from SGD to USD as I deposited USD directly from my DBS Multiplier. Perhaps, you can check with their customer service agent?

      Reply
  9. Renan says

    May 10, 2021 at 1:35 am

    Hi Alison,

    Thank you for writing this up. I have a couple of questions to ask if you don’t mind?
    1. Is the platform fee of 15HKD applied to both buying and selling? Meaning if I will they will charge 15HKD and if I sell another 15HKD?
    2. How come there’s a contract stamp fee of HKD 74.1? On their website they did not mention of that kind of fee?
    3. When trading Hongkong stocks, is the bid and ask prices or level 2 available or it is not viewable?

    Reply
    • Alison_Liew says

      May 10, 2021 at 7:47 am

      Hi Renan,

      I am unable to assist on your queries, perhaps you can clarify with its support team.

      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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