Chapter 1 – How to open stock trading account
Before you can trade any stock, you will need a stock trading account. What you actually need is one CDP account that is to link with SGX and a trading account with either bank or trading firm. Simply head to the bank or trading firm, tell them you wish to open investment trading account they will get you to fill up the forms accordingly. Remember to bring your IC with you.
There are so many choice, but myself I opt for OCBC bank since my savings account is with OCBC. For convenience sake and also for the lower admin trading fee compare to POEMS. I did start a trading account with POEMS, but, I have to fill up the form by myself while at OCBC, service are provided to fill up the form for me all I need is to sign.
In additions, do remember to open for CPFIS which is the CPF investment account which allows you to invest using your CPF. You can invest your CPF OA & SA amount if you are eligible. I will explain more on CPFIS in another post.
The following formulae is the admin trading fee I have tabulated OCBC fee charges “=IF((D5*C5)*0.275%+((D5*C5)*0.0325%)+((D5*C5)*0.0075%)< 25, (25+((D5*C5)*0.0325%)+((D5*C5)*0.0075%))*1.07,((D5*C5)*0.275%+((D5*C5)*0.0325%)+((D5*C5)* 0.0075%))*1.07)”
Where D5 refers to the amount of units bought and C5 refers to the bought value. The above is based on less than or equal to S$50,000 trading value.
| SGX Market (traded currency in SGD) Contract value | Broker Assisted | Online |
| Less than or equal to S$50,000 | 0.50% | 0.275% |
| S$50,001 – S$100K | 0.40% | 0.22% |
| More than S$100K | 0.25% | 0.18% |
| minimum commission | S$40 | S$25 |
All transactions are subject to the following fees:
Clearing fees: 0.0325% of the contract value
SGX trading access fees: 0.0075% of the contract value
GST on commission, clearing fees and SGX trading access fees
I always and will recommend to go for online trading to save on the fees they charge.
After opening the trading account with OCBC, you will required to wait up to 2 weeks for the password for your trading account to be mail to you. You will receive 2 login.
- SGX login to your CDP account where it contains all the stocks you have with SGX despite which ever trading platform.
- Trading account login that enable you to sell and buy stocks online