uSMART, the platform that lets you invest smarter!

uSMART Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (“uSMART”) is the latest low-cost online brokerage to arrive on the shores of our sunny island. Headquartered in Hong Kong, and backed by a strong group of shareholders, most notably the Chow Tai Fok group, one of Hong Kong's major conglomerates, uSMART has expanded its presence to Singapore.

uSMART possesses a Capital Markets Services License and is an Exempt Financial Adviser supervised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). As such, all its activities and your funds within are regulated under strict conditions laid down by MAS.

Having used this platform for slightly more than a month, uSMART have differentiated itself from the range of other offerings out there through these 3 main features. They are:

• A focus on learning content related to investing and trading
• SMART features
• Lowest fees (as of 20th April 2022) for trading SGX listed stocks among all brokerages
• Visually appealing clutter free user interface

If you are a first-time investor dipping your toes into the seemingly complex world of investing. This is the trading platform for you.

Learning Content

Right off the bat, after you have completed the sign-up process, you will notice that “Learning” is prominently featured as one of the five tabs on the bottom navigation panel.

To see the “Learning” tab taking up precious real estate on the main using interface of the app gives you an idea of what one of uSMART’s main aim is: To equip new investors with the necessary tools and relevant information to properly navigate investing.

Clicking into the “Learning” tab, you access a menu which allows you to click into various informative and education options. For example, you can chat with experts and other investors in various chatrooms and communities, or view TikTok-style videos on investing if that is your cup of tea through the BeeRich tab.

Users also get access to an Investing 101 course covering useful topics such as “What is a market order vs limit order” or “What is lot size”. In my experience, these courses answer practically all the questions you would have as a newbie investor trying to buy your first stock. Give it a look!

SMART Features

Once you have learned the basic ropes of investing and look to do more with your money, uSMART also has a series of features that enables you to execute your desired trading strategies, in a simple & efficient manner.

SMART order is a feature in the platform that allows active traders to capitalize on their technical analysis to easily input their trading parameters. For example, if I am a trader who wants to capture the momentum of an upward trending stock, the Breakthrough Buy setting allows me to set an order which will trigger once the stock I am tracking increase in price by a certain %. Of course, value investors can also reduce the need of monitoring the share price everyday by using SMART orders to gain entry or exit!

The “Discover” tab also contains a whole host of additional features designed to add value to your investment analysis. There is a selection of popular trading strategies, trend trackers, news screeners based on your watchlist preferences which you have access to. Discover features have limited number of uses. To gain unlimited access, you can upgrade to Intel Account, which requires you to maintain an account balance of more than S$3,000.

Lowest Fees (SGX Trading)

As a Singapore based investor, most people get their head start in investing via buying stocks of companies listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange (“SGX”). You will be pleased to know that uSMART is has the LOWEST fees among all brokerages in Singapore for trading SGD-denominated SGX stocks. It is also the only brokerage without a minimum charge.

Paying a minimum charge used to be the bane of my investing experience as I was starting out. If you are investing only in the 100s and 200s each month, perhaps as someone just entering the workface, minimum fees in Singapore tend to eat quite substantially into your returns. Say bye to minimum fees in Singapore with uSMART.

I have included a comparison table below on the fees you pay among various brokerages (as of 20 April 2022) for buying 100 shares (1 lot) of Raffles Medical Group. Due to the lack of a minimum fee, uSMART is by far the cheapest brokerage.

*no minimum promotion until 31^st Dec 2022

Note that exchange fees are excluded from the above comparison as they are the same across all platforms.

Visually Appealing Clutter Free Interface

The interfaces of stock trading apps today fall into 2 main categories: 1) Barebones apps interfaces which allows you limited functionality and too little information – usually found in apps of traditional brokerages, and 2) Apps which bombard you with too much news tickers, content, trading options, and enough colours to light up a dancefloor – usually found in apps of newer online-only platforms.

uSMART manages to deftly straddle the line between being user friendly yet giving enough options and information through its interface and not overwhelming the user.

Information in your watchlist is presented in a nice, clean concise format. Only crucial information is highlighted when viewing a particular stock. Even the trading interface is clean and allows you to instantly identify how much you are paying, order type and other important parameters.

 

Very often, what puts people off from investing is the impression that stock buying requires some arcane knowledge, and that one could accidentally key in a wrong order due to the confusing interfaces and end up buying/selling at a wrong amount or price. uSMART strips that away and presents all the information that is relevant to 99% of retail investors, without any other distractions. Making your trading experience easy, fuss and stress free.

Sign Up Promotion!

Open an account & do a first deposit of S$2,000 now to earn a S$15 cash voucher and 3 BITO shares (worth S$106), by performing 3 simple steps – that took a combined total of less than 5 minutes of your time:

1. Sign up for an account via this LINK using your Singpass.

2. Once the account is approved, deposit at least S$2,000 in one shot and maintain your account balance at S$2,000 or more for a period of 30 consecutive days*.

3. Do 3 trades to redeem the S$15 cash voucher.

4. Redeem the BITO shares in your account.

*TUB Investing recommends depositing at least S$2,500 although the stated minimum for this promotion is S$2,000. In the event that the deposit is converted to other currencies or used to purchase stocks, having some buffer in the account would allow the total account balance (which includes the value of any stock holdings) some leeway for foreign currency or stock holding value fluctuations.

Depositing money is also made simple with eGIRO, PayNow and FAST supported.

If you possess an account with the following banks below, uSMART is the first broker in Singapore to implement eGIRO, allowing you to deposit conveniently from 9 different banks, with only a one-time setup needed.

If you do not want to link your bank account, or your bank is not currently one of the eGIRO enabled banks above, fret not, you can PayNow your deposits directly into your uSMART account. Just:

1. Obtain your uSMART PayNow reference from the app’s PayNow page

2. Log into your ibanking app and PayNow the uSMART PayNow reference

3. Notify uSMART via the app once step 2 is done.

It is that simple!

Sign up with uSMART to start your low cost investing journey today!

Disclaimer: This article is written in collaboration with uSMART Singapore. All views expressed in the article are the independent opinions of mine. This article is intended for information purpose only and should not be construed as financial advice. This article has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore