Investing US through local broker

[hongonn]

Recently i opened a US trading account for the 1st time with local broker UOB Kayhian. Having investing in SG market for the past over 10 yrs, i was a bit overjoyed to find myself suddenly able to access so many global brands like Kleenex, Heinz, 3M, Gillette, Apple etc. You see nowadays SGX is getting bored, mostly property, oil & gas, oil & gas & property.

At first i was thinking via E*Trade but after reading the bad reviews i was kind of retracted, such as shares get sold without notice, account get frozen for no reason.

But for local broker anyone has any bad experience or any issue i should take note?

I am cautious that i don't have CDP account and the broker mends everything for me in their custodian account.

Please advise, thanks.

[rogerwilco]

Hi HongOnn, may I know why you choose UOB Kayhian?

I'm also thinking of opening a US Trading account. Since i have already had an account at DBS Vickers, originally I plan to use DBSV for the transaction, however i am having a second thought since I don't want to pay the custody fee (SGD 2 per stock per month, capped at SGD 150.00 per quarter).

After reading this, Standard Chartered seems to be an interesting online stock broker but I haven't made up my mind

[2V.]

I suggest choose local services broker, when un expected or contingency events happen , you can quickly resolve it , than watching the price going up or dipping lower ...

Hi HongOnn, may I know why you choose UOB Kayhian?

I'm also thinking of opening a US Trading account. Since i have already had an account at DBS Vickers, originally I plan to use DBSV for the transaction, however i am having a second thought since I don't want to pay the custody fee (SGD 2 per stock per month, capped at SGD 150.00 per quarter).

After reading this, Standard Chartered seems to be an interesting online stock broker but I haven't made up my mind

[hongonn]

Hi HongOnn, may I know why you choose UOB Kayhian?

Actually very simple reason, i have a SG account with them so to maintain single point of access. Besides i feel safer since trading the SG stocks with them for many yrs. If i am not sure i can always check their annual report.

As for the commission it is almost the same as SG stock. For custodian fee if i maintain less than 4 stocks it shouldn't exceed $100 per year. The 30% dividend tax is unavoidable since must follow US regulation if you want to hold US stocks.

Any other hidden fee?

The only concern i can't see my share holding in my own account, unlike SG stocks. Should i concern that?

[pianist]

recently uobkayhian has been pumping my mailbox with many genietrade alerts...what are they? and they are quite disturbing

[pianist]

us market seems very far away.

[rogerwilco]

Any other hidden fee?

The only concern i can't see my share holding in my own account, unlike SG stocks. Should i concern that?

Some local brokers also charge for dividend and corporate actions (warrant exercise, cash offer, etc). They also charge you GST for each commission paid.

I am not really sure about your other concern so can not comment on that.

Here's another excellent blog post that I read

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I suggest choose local services broker, when un expected or contingency events happen , you can quickly resolve it , than watching the price going up or dipping lower ...

Hi 2V, could you elaborate more on this?
Some foreign brokers (citibank, standard chartered, saxo, e-trade, optionsXpress) have Singapore office so my understanding is we can still resolve issue face to face if we need to. Thanks!

[2V.]

Hi Roger, there are situations in the past I experienced that the prices move so fast in NYSE, thus there is a lag-time in price what we see on screen. Whatever you input your orders may not be done, because the price is not there anymore.
To execute quickly you need to call the Central Dealer, however, the Central Dealers are overwhelm with phone calls, those with HP contacts will get through immediate, rather than pull on hold.

Any other hidden fee?

The only concern i can't see my share holding in my own account, unlike SG stocks. Should i concern that?

Some local brokers also charge for dividend and corporate actions (warrant exercise, cash offer, etc). They also charge you GST for each commission paid.

I am not really sure about your other concern so can not comment on that.

Here's another excellent blog post that I read

---

I suggest choose local services broker, when un expected or contingency events happen , you can quickly resolve it , than watching the price going up or dipping lower ...

Hi 2V, could you elaborate more on this?
Some foreign brokers (citibank, standard chartered, saxo, e-trade, optionsXpress) have Singapore office so my understanding is we can still resolve issue face to face if we need to. Thanks!

[hongonn]

I am not really sure about your other concern so can not comment on that.

Just wonder anyone has any bad experience with local broker, since i can't find any review site on them. Partly because shares are parked under their custodian account instead of my own CDP account. So becomes not so transparent, and more prone to malign.

Some foreign brokers (citibank, standard chartered, saxo, e-trade, optionsXpress) have Singapore office so my understanding is we can still resolve issue face to face if we need to. Thanks!

I did some background checks on E-Trade and this review site does really freak me out.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/etrade.html

Check on their annual report also very bad finance, razor sharp margin and even making loss.

[ls555]

Some foreign brokers (citibank, standard chartered, saxo, e-trade, optionsXpress) have Singapore office so my understanding is we can still resolve issue face to face if we need to. Thanks!

Another one got office here:
https://www.thinkorswim.com.sg/tos/client/