Yahoo Finance CGS-CIMB iTrade Singapore: All You Need to Know About CIMB’s Online Share Trading Platform
Investing in shares is something most of us know we should be doing, but getting started is the hardest part, since there are quite a few administrative steps to take such as opening a CDP account and choosing a broker.
CIMB now has their own brokerage and share trading platform. How does it compare to others?
What is iTrade CIMB Singapore?
CGS-CIMB iTrade is a share trading platform by CGS-CIMB Securities, which is partly owned by CIMB Group. The platform enables customers to trade shares on ten stock exchanges.
One thing to note is that their selection of stock exchanges is geared towards Asia—other than three American stock exchanges (NYSE, NASDEQ, AMEX), all their other stock exchanges are Asian.
Another thing to note is that shares are held in a custodian account rather than deposited directly into your CDP account. This basically means that iTrade CIMB will be holding your stocks on your behalf, rather than transferring them to you.
This may mean you do not have certain shareholder rights such as voting or attending AGMs, but most lay investors don’t really exercise those rights anyway.
More importantly, if the company goes bust, there is a tiny chance that recovering your stocks might be a problem if they are held in custody. That being said, the shares are typically held separately from the company’s other assets and in theory should not be affected—but if this still worries you, then you might want to opt for a brokerage that deposits stocks directly into your CDP account.
What are the iTrade CIMB brokerage fees?
iTrade CIMB charges the following fees when you make a trade on SGX:
Trading fee (up to $50k): 0.18%
Minimum fee: $18
Okay, fine, you say, but how do those figures compare to other brokerages?
The 0.18% trading fee is not the cheapest around, but it is slightly below average. The same goes for the $18 minimum fee—there are some brokerages charging as little as $10, but there are also others charging $25.
That being said, brokerages that hold your shares in a custodian account tend to charge lower fees. And compared to other brokerages offering custodian shareholding, iTrade CIMB is pretty expensive.
Is CIMB iTrade better than DBS Vickers?
Other than SGX, DBS Vickers offers exposure to a more global mix of stock markets in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, the UK, Australia and Japan. iTrade, on the other hand, offers access to SGX, Malaysia’s BURSA, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Thailand’s SET, Indonesia’s IDX, Shanghai’s SSE, Shenzhen’s SZSE and Vietnam’s VN, in addition to the three American stock exchanges mentioned earlier.
DBS Vickers offers a prepaid account as well as a regular account. Compared to the prepaid account, iTrade’s fees are quite high. However, iTrade is significantly cheaper than the regular DBS Vickers trading account.
If you just want to trade on SGX and do not wish to open a pre-paid account, iTrade CIMB is the more economical option.
How to open an account with iTrade CIMB?
In order to trade on the iTrade platform, you will first need to open a CDP account.
Once you have your CDP account, open an iTrade account by downloading and filling in the application form on the iTrade CIMB Singapore website.
If you are an existing customer of CIMB, you can skip this step and simply activate your account online.
Do you have any questions about CGS-CIMB iTrade? Ask away in the questions!
Related articles
CDP Account Singapore – How On Earth Do You Open An SGX CDP Account?
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Image by Lorenzo Cafaro from Pixabay
The post CGS-CIMB iTrade Singapore: All You Need to Know About CIMB’s Online Share Trading Platform appeared first on the MoneySmart blog.
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