When I first started StocksCafe more than 5 years ago, my intention was to share it freely.
However, there are costs to keep a site like StocksCafe running, of which the biggest expense is data licensing, which easily run north of 5 digits annually.
Due to this, I started charging a small fee for usage.
Now, I am glad to share that I might have found a way to make StocksCafe free again! (i.e. via this collaboration)
Note
: To qualify for this, you need to be a resident of Singapore.
In case you have not heard of Tiger Brokers, they are a new brokerage firm that has just entered the Singapore trading scene in 2020.
While new to Singapore, it is a reasonably established company. It is listed on NASDAQ, has more than 800,000 users worldwide and has prominent key investors such as Xiaomi, InteractiveBrokers, and Jim Rogers.
In Singapore, it holds a capital market services license from Monetary Authority of Singapore and clients are able to access the Singapore, United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Shanghai, and Shenzhen stock markets via its platform.
Extremely Low Commission Fees
- For US stocks, USD 0.01 per share with a minimum of USD 1.99.
- For Singapore stocks, 0.06% of trade value with minimum fees will be SGD1.99.
- For Hong Kong stocks, 0.06% of trade value with a minimum of HKD 15.
- For Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks, 0.06% of trade value with a minimum of RMB 15.
Furthermore, there are no custodian fees, no dividends handling fees, no minimum account balance, and no minimum monthly trade volume. Basically, you only pay when you trade.
With the fee structure above, I believe it is one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest platform to trade with in Singapore.
Tip: If you purchase stocks in foreign currencies, make sure to convert your SGD to the required foreign currency or else Tiger Brokers will assume you are borrowing in that foreign currency and you will incur interest charges associated with borrowing in that currency. As for currency conversion, Tiger Brokers has a competitive spread of 0.3% to 0.5%.
Great User Experience
I have been using and trading via both Tiger Brokers Desktop and Mobile app for the last few weeks.
Apart from the modern and intuitive user interface, one thing I noticed is that it is really fast and responsive.
When I activated the free L2 market data for US stock exchange and looked at a popular US stock (e.g. AMZN),
trades were happening so rapidly and the price was changing so quickly that it was actually quite mesmerizing :)
Easy Signup
The entire sign-up process was a breeze. Gone are the days of having to go down to the brokerage firm in person, hand them your NRIC, and sign numerous forms just to open an account.
With Tiger Brokers, everything can be done online and it took me just under 1.5 hours to open, fund the account, and start trading with it.
Step 1 (~10 mins) - Filled in the application with the help of MyInfo.
Step 2 (~30 mins) - After submitting the application, I waited for Tiger Brokers to approve and open my account.
Step 3 (~5 mins) - After approval, I transferred money to their custodian bank account. You can learn more about how to transfer with this Youtube video.
Step 4 (~30 mins) - Wait for the money to be reflected in my account and start trading!
As the signup process is easy, completely online and with no ongoing fees to maintain a Tiger Brokers account, I highly recommend you to take advantage of the time-limited offer, sign up today and try out this new trading platform!
Q: Can I still qualify if I am already a client of Tiger Brokers?
A: Unfortunately, for existing Tiger Brokers accounts, I cannot link it with StocksCafe as the collaboration is meant to bring in new customers for Tiger.
However, you can instead refer a friend or family to open a new account with Tiger Brokers using StocksCafe referral link and if that friend or family is willing to give you the StocksCafe benefits, I am perfectly fine with that.
Q: Does "every ~SGD 300 that you pay in fees" refer to the commission paid to Tiger?
A: Yes, it refers to the commission/fees paid to Tiger Brokers, but it excludes the fees paid to exchanges.
Q: Is there any time frame in which I must hit ~SGD 300 in order to qualify for the 1 year free membership?
A: No, there is no time limit. I chose not to set any time limit so that users do not have to rush. (e.g. trade more than usual) As and when you hit SGD 300, you will be awarded the free membership.
Q: Who will be tracking the ~SGD 300? Do we need to inform you?
A: There is no need to inform me as StocksCafe will track this together with Tiger Brokers. If you want to track how much you have paid in fees, you can easily track it in StocksCafe using this page, assuming you have created a portfolio solely to track Tiger Brokers' transactions.