| Latest Forum Topics / Others |
 Post Reply
|
|
Online Brokerage
|
|
|
Bandymac
Member |
19-Feb-2007 17:50
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
EasternBay, I think most ppl use IE which is a better server. Netscape is just too slow. Happy Lunar New Year to you too! |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
l_tan888
Senior |
19-Feb-2007 17:42
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Hi sohguanh, The charges and commission for online trading in other markets are quite similar to trading on the SGX. The only disadvantage may be the exchange rates they used, which at times, can be slightly to their benefit. On the other hand, you don't even get to see the exchange rates being used by UTs' fund managers. There are of course costs involved during trading. However, for shares, if I buy now and keep it for 2 years, I don't pay for any charges anymore until my next sale. For UTs, they continue to charge and built into their offer (sell) price every month, year and so on........ So, you weigh for yourself the pros and cons. Finally, to each his own. Some people may find UTs to be good investment vehicles, but to others who had got "burnt" before, will realize otherwise. The one and only final objective is to make our money work harder and yield a better return. Cheers. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
|
|
|
l_tan888
Senior |
19-Feb-2007 17:05
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Hi EastonBay, Thanks for your information about DBS Vickers. As you'd said, I also believe that the CitySpring IPO case may be "bug". Maybe you should highlight to them so that if it's due to their system's fault, then they should correct it accordingly. Usually, the limits for offer and bid amounts should be +/- 6 bids from the online price at time of trade. It should not be related to the IPO price or whatever. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
CWAIPENG
Member |
19-Feb-2007 12:46
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
I use IE & Firefox... |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
EastonBay
Master |
19-Feb-2007 12:37
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Bandymac, good decision to migrate to IE. Sorry for the being blunt, you mean there are people out there who are still using Netscape (a dinosaurs)? Take no offence please. Happy Lunar New Year. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
|
|
|
EastonBay
Master |
19-Feb-2007 12:32
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
tan888, I use DBSV (for years already) and am happy with its service. The user interface is very friendly and intuitive. It also comes with powerful analysis tool 'Clarity'. It is currently offered free to DBSV users but might start charging if more and more users 'buy in' i.e. use it (although I don't see that happening anytime soon). It shares a similar problem as other online brokerages that it slows to an unbearable speed when market hot up. I have recently found a 'bug' with it. When I tried to queue for CitySpring on its first day of trading (before it started at 2pm). It has a built-in system check that forbids investor to buy/sell at a price that is too different from the last bid/ask price. At any other time, it is a good built-in check so that you do not lose big time in case you key in a wrong price. However, for IPOs it could mean missed opportunities for me. Because CitySpring is newly listed with no trading history, the last price was $0. So my $1.38 was deemed too high and therefore NOT allowed. I tried a few times and finally gave up. Thank goodness I have a backup tool, i.e. POEMS and I managed to queue at $1.38 using POEMS. Hope my input helps. POEMS, DBSV, UOBKH, KELive etc etc I guess each of them will have their +s, and -s. Happy trading. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
sohguanh
Veteran |
19-Feb-2007 12:26
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Even if online brokerages offer a way to enter into others market the commission and charges is not cheap. In fact it can be more expensive and for ppl like us UT provide a cheaper way to enter cuz fund manager collect every1 monies and do a mass trade which I believe result in much lower charges for them and since they do work we pay them monies and the remaining is reflected in the daily pricing. Even we use online brokerages we are also paying monies correct? So UT we pay monies too. The only downside is when fund does not perfrom fund manager still take our monies. That is why FSM in year 2007 offer investors the FREE switching feature for which you can switch from one fund to another without incurring any switching fees. This is a god send feature from FSM. Fundsupermart is like shares online trading system where you do everything via Internet. It is worth a look IMHO. And for most funds minimum investment is 1K and FSM sales charge is 2.25% and when you sell you don't incur any more charges unlike shares so I guess it is still ok at least to me if say I want to enter into Emerging Europe, America, Europe etc etc etc. For me I do BOTH UT and shares trading and while shares give me most profits I am also stuck with some non-performing shares which I cannot do a switch like UT and if I count them in, my total profits from shares trading is only marginally better than my UT investment. I don't contra and short sell and don't buy alot lots so that also explains why I earned lesser but I also only use 1,2K for each UT fund so I think my comparison is quite same level. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
Nostradamus
Supreme |
18-Feb-2007 21:46
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Agree 5% is totally ridiculous. I buy shares for short or medium term and UTs for mid to long term. But only with distributors such as fundsupermart or dollardex or Philip Securities where sales charge is 1-2.5%. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
|
|
|
l_tan888
Senior |
18-Feb-2007 18:16
|
|
x 1
x 0 Alert Admin |
Some brokerage houses in Singapore allow trading in most major markets. For example, POEMS allows you to trade in NIKKEI, Hang Seng, FTSE NYSE, NASDAQ, KLSE, THAI SET, etc. For the American Exchanges, a W8BEN form is a prerequisite. I believe the above exchanges are sufficiently diversified for most traders' appetite. To own DBS shares one can also invest in its warrants and eventually convert them into DBS shares upon maturity, and possibly at a discount as well, depending on your point of entry for its warrants. These are guaranteed. To me, Unit Trusts are very slow and inefficient trading instrument. Their major setbacks are the high annual management fees and upfront costs. Do remember that you are also paying for the salaries and bonuses for all the staff in the fund, regardless of whether the fund in profitable or otherwise. One of the reasons why until today, the CPF Board is still unable to establish a fund to fully invest in for its members, is because none of those fund companies are willing to comply to CPF's insistence for very low management and servicing fees. So, the CPF would rather leave these Unit Trusts investments to the individual's choice and decisions. At their current rate, after deducting their costs and expenses, there will be very little left for capital appreciation for Unit Trusts. Furthermore, no dividends are ever declared for present Unit Trusts. Long ago, some of the Schroders Investment Funds do give out dividends, but not anymore. The above are my own personal opinions. Even if one were to argue that Unit Trusts are for long term investments, even stocks can outperform similarly. This is one of Warren Buffet's proven strategy. His company doesn't need to indulge in Unit Trusts whatsoever. He buys directly into the companies, like what he did to ISCAR recently, an Israeli tooling company. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
Bandymac
Member |
18-Feb-2007 18:03
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
I changed my server to IE6 and is much better. Netscape is not suitable for poems. Thanks for advise. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
sohguanh
Veteran |
18-Feb-2007 11:59
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Just want so share UT just like stocks require you to select the correct fund. AFAIK I am a bit positive after investing a few months. No doubt stocks provide more profits but UT provides a way for me to enter into Latin America, Emerging Europe, US, Europe etc etc at affordable prices. Does local Spore online brokerage allow us to trade directly into those markets? UT is more for long term and I am using CPF-OA for UT investment. For Spore fund is since I no monies buy DBS shares, I indirectly owned it by pledging my monies with the fund manager so I get to own blue chip shares hahahahaha.... cheapskate for me I know. Now I can boast I also own DBS shares leh indirectly :) |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
l_tan888
Senior |
18-Feb-2007 09:53
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Never tried on Netscape before. I use IE6 and it's okay for most of the time. If you experience slowness, probably it could be your internet connection? Do a Ping test at Command Prompt: "ping www.poems.com.sg" |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
|
|
|
singaporegal
Supreme |
17-Feb-2007 23:03
Yells: "Female TA nut" |
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
I use Poems too. Generally no problems at all. But sometimes, when traffic is very high, it causes problems. I use Firefox and IE7 |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
Bandymac
Member |
17-Feb-2007 22:56
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
I just got my poems account. It keeps hanging up, I am using netscape server. Are you guys having this problem too? |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
l_tan888
Senior |
17-Feb-2007 17:11
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Hi, Anybody in this forum has any opinions on DBS Vickers? Thought of signing up with them soon as I find their commissions for online trading are exactly similar to POEMS. Please share? |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
l_tan888
Senior |
17-Feb-2007 16:27
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Hi shplayer, I salute to you for your counter proposal to those advisers in the banks and I think it's a very good and valid reaction. However, it may not be totally their fault. They are just doing a job and are commission based. The real culprits are the fund companies. Anyway, I know many of those who got "burned" by unit trusts, had regretted and would not want to have another look anymore. Another big setback is that unit trusts don't give dividends. They always say that any excess earnings are already included in their pricings, but, how are we to know? They can say what they like. Anyway, enough is enough. Nowadays whenever I get to meet anyone who's interested to buy unit trusts, I'll definitely try my best to steer him/her away. I told them that even if they have no time to trade in shares, they're better off putting their money in FDs instead. Take another example which I experienced. An ex-colleague of my wife pestered us to buy an NTUC Gauranteed Fund (can't remember the exact name now) using the Special Account in our CPF. In order not to disappoint a friend, both of us bought $5K each. After 5 years and upon maturity, imagine we only earned a very miserable $50 extra. What a big disappointment? If we had left that money alone in the CPF Special Account, and at 4% interest, we could have earned $1K each just from the CPF interest in 5 years. Now, we have to "owe" the CPF for interest arrears instead. Isn't it a big joke? My advice is, if one has the time and knowledge (can be built up over time), go directly into shares trading. Otherwise, keep that money in FDs and expect a humble return. Yes, the interests earned may just be on par with inflation, but at least you'll never loose any of your capital and also it doesn't diminish in value with inflation as well. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
elfinchilde
Elite |
17-Feb-2007 11:44
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
yah. total agreement. I don't buy unit trusts myself. Stock markets already are a gamble; if you trust a fund manager, it means you're not only picking stocks, you're also picking a person to pick the stocks for you: that's double jeopardy, since you have to a) choose the right funds, b) choose the right fund manager. would rather trust my own judgment direct on the stocks itself. aside, need to be careful of whatever you have been taught in schools and courses etc. They'll always tell you to diversify, to trust fundamentals, to invest long term, to buy unit trusts, trust the brokers etcetc. But what they never tell you: overdiversification dilutes profit; fundamentals can be manipulated via PE/EPS/etc ratios, long term only works for blue chips, unit trusts mostly underperform the market, brokers are human too. and last but not least: we are retail investors. they are insitutional. I still hold that both must trade by different strategies since our aims are the same yes, but more often than not we are at cross purposes. Am sure that anyone who has ever heeded a 'recommended: BUY' rating and bought in only to find themselves holding a bleeding baby will agree with me! no offence to the institutional-minded traders yea. just a rather contrarian opinion here. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
ed88ks
Senior |
17-Feb-2007 09:15
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
yes, fund are for thse who are bz and one to let other manage their money, if they are so good they will be in WALL STREET. most of the funds hardly do much, get the blue chip stock and sit on it. and u pay all the charges and their salary..all they give u are a report. we all know lots of simple ppl who day trade make more money |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
stevenkoh1981
Member |
17-Feb-2007 08:51
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
hello shplayer, well let early gong xi fai chye to u and everyone of u in here. shplayer, may ask u on the opion on Magnus, do u think is it worth it. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |
|
shplayer
Elite |
17-Feb-2007 07:48
|
|
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
I_tan888 Thanks for your post on POEMS. On unit trusts, yes, I totally agree. I have invested in 4 over the years......1 made good $$, 1 made very marginal gain, 1 broke even, 1 lost $$$. I have long since gotton out of all. If you look at their upfront and sales fees (5% each way, its ridiculous) and their mgmt, and transaction fees....odds are against unit holder to make $$. Now, whenever I am approached to consider a unit trust, my question is...what is return? Guaranteed? Answer will be no guarante.... I will counter propose the put $10K/50K with me, I will pay them 5% every year...and after 5 years, pay them back their principle. That always shuts them up. |
| Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | |