Trying Out A New Broker - Tiger Brokers

This is a sponsored post.

Recently my Fundamental Scorecard Telegram Group has been raving about this relatively new brokerage in town. They called themselves Tiger Brokers.

Upon further clarification, I realised they are a listed Chinese entity in Nasdaq – UP Fintech Holdings Limited (Nasdaq: TIGR) - with a market cap of US$905m.

Initially, I was still rather skeptical, but after knowing that they are licensed and regulated by MAS, as well as several positive comments from the other members, I decided to give them a shot.

An interesting point to note is that I had already open an account with Tiger Brokers even prior them approaching me for this collaboration.

Having said that, this is also my 1^st ever sponsored post because I only write about platforms that I have personally tried and liked.

Do note that prior to using Tiger Brokers, I was using “a certain bank” brokerage account for US stocks.

Even though this is sponsored, but I had actually placed some funds with them and made some purchases over the past week.

Without further ado, let me dive into some of the interesting features that I like about the brokerage.

1. Extremely Easy Registration and Opening of Account

When I was opening my account to invest in overseas companies, I remembered I had to return to the bank on a different day to complete the paper work because I did not sign properly on one of the forms. Furthermore, I had to wait for a week to get my account approved before I could make any investment. To be honest, I almost gave up opening the account. I preserve because the commission fee with this bank was the lowest AT THAT POINT IN TIME and it does not have any custody fee.

Thus, when I was opening the account with Tiger Brokers, I was expecting to drag for 1 week (even when members who are users at that time stated that it did not take more than 1 hour). To my surprised, from registration to opening the account, along with the use of MyInfo, I registered the account with ease and the total time required to open the account was only 10 minutes.

The account was activated the same day and I deposited immediately. Once the funds is confirmed, I was able to invest on the same day (but I didn’t lah…).

Amazed!

2. Fees, Fees, Fees!

As a retail investor, I am always on a lookout for lower fees to reduce my average cost per share. I also hated custody fee – just imagine I had to hold on to the shares for 1 year. The extra cost could potentially reduce your gain significantly.

This was one of the main reasons why I was attracted to Tiger Brokers. When my members in the Fundamental Scorecard Telegram Group was raving about Tiger Brokers, one of them showed us his transaction fee and it was very inexpensive (compared to the bank).

Currently, Tiger Brokers is offering very competitive commission fees – as low as USD1.99 per trade (excluding exchange fees)! For SG equities, it is offering 0.08% commission fee with no minimum charge for all clients, from now until 31 December 2020.

The bank I am with only offers such rates for their premium clients. 

3. All in one App, even the helpdesk / customer service.

This is another aspect that I really LOVE – It is an all in 1 app. It may take a bit of time to familiarise yourself with the navigation (Not due to the interface but because there is really quite a lot of functions that helps one to invest!), but once you get familiar with it, it is amazing. Just take a look at the features in the pictures below!

Tiger Brokers even have a helpdesk / customer service function within its app, and it is really useful. This helpdesk is not a FAQ questions kind of helpdesk, but a real messaging chat with the customer service. Thus, help is also immediate if one requires it.

For the current brokerage that I am using with, depositing and trading are 2 different apps. If I have any got questions or/ problems, I will need to call in and key in THE CORRECT NUMBERS through a series of questions before I could reach the help desk. Sometimes I give up along the way and give in to the issues I had.

4. No Lag

I believe, as retail investors, we also open various brokerage account to try out. Other than the bank, I am also a user of a brokerage firm’s app. Similarly, it was also an All in One App and its rate were also very competitive. Thus, you may ask – Why didn’t I just use this brokerage firm’s app instead? 

This is because the app is super lag. When I type in the counter name, you need to wait probably 1 minute extra to wait for the company’s name to pop out. Every step I take in the app, I will need to give it about 10 seconds extra before the app will move on to the next step. This may not sound drastic, but imagine if you need to hit 3 different functions before I could read my account summary, I will need to wait for 30 seconds.

Oh…there were also time restriction where buy and sell order can only be keyed in during the market’s opening time. At times, this really frustrates me.

On the other hand, Tiger Brokers do not have any time lag when I navigate through their app and there aren’t any time restrictions on any of the markets as well. Thus, this really got me liking Tiger Brokers even more!

Here are some of the other screenshots of the app:

SG Market

Filled Orders

Companies you bought will go into the Watchlist – First thing you see on the app

Enough raving on Tiger Brokers, not everyone is perfect. Some of the imperfections of Tiger Brokers includes not having any SMS service when my order is filled (Yes, I am old!), and their promotions tends to be more like reimbursement instead of upfront discount.

Nevertheless, I felt these aren’t much of an issue and Tiger Brokers is really up on my list right now as one of the main brokers I intend to use for the long term.

Last but not least, if you like to sign up and know more about the current promotion, do click on this LINK!

Thank you for reading and thank you for the support!