Note: This collaboration is still ongoing. Please see this page for details.
When I first started StocksCafe more than 5 years ago, my intention was to share it freely. However, there are costs to keep a site like StocksCafe running, of which the biggest expense is data licensing, which easily run north of 5 digits annually. Due to this, I started charging a small fee for usage.
Today, I am glad to share that I might have found a way to make StocksCafe free again!
The short story
Sign up with Tiger Brokers using this StocksCafe link, fund your account and every SGD 300 that you pay in fees will get you 1 year of Friend of StocksCafe. There is no limit to the number of years you can get through this collaboration.
This program is open to all users of StocksCafe.
For a limited time only: Be rewarded with 1 year Friend of StocksCafe (worth SGD 39) immediately! All you have to do is sign up and fund your account before 30 September 2020 and you will get a year credited to your account!
Tip: There is an ongoing campaign by Tiger Brokers. Fund at least SGD 2,001 to get SGD 30 stock voucher and fund at least SGD 5,001 to get SGD 50 stock voucher, etc. Note that it is limited to the first transfer/funding only!
The long story
As a stock investor, one tool that you would certainly need is a brokerage to place your trades. StocksCafe has made an arrangement with a brokerage firm, Tiger Brokers such that if you sign up with them via StocksCafe, StocksCafe will receive a small percentage of the fees whenever you place trades via them.
Important: You will NEVER pay a single cent more for your trades due to this affiliate arrangement. You will pay exactly the same fees as stated here and be eligible for all the promotions like any other Tiger Brokers client.
How do I participate?
1) Simply sign up with Tiger Brokers using this StocksCafe link.
2) Fund your account. You can learn more about how to fund your account with this Youtube video.
3) Once your account is funded, please send me a private message with the name that you used to open the account. Tip: There is an ongoing campaign by Tiger Brokers. Fund at least SGD2,001 to get SGD30 stock voucher and fund at least SGD5,001 will get you SGD50 stock voucher etc. Note that it is limited to first transfer/funding only!
Time-limited offer: If you open and fund your account before 30 September 2020, I will immediately award 1 year of Friend of StocksCafe to you!
4) For every SGD 300 in fees that you pay to Tiger Brokers, I will give you 1 year of Friend of StocksCafe extension.
There are no limit to the number of years you can get through this affiliate program which is why you can potentially use StocksCafe for free without any additional charges to you forever.
This affiliate program is open to all users of StocksCafe.
Who is Tiger Brokers?
In case you have not heard of Tiger Brokers, they are a new brokerage firm that has just entered the Singapore trading scene this year. While new to Singapore, it is a reasonably established company. It is listed on NASDAQ, has more than 800,000 users worldwide and has prominent key investors such as Xiaomi, InteractiveBrokers, and Jim Rogers.
In Singapore, it holds a capital market services license from Monetary Authority of Singapore and clients are able to access the Singapore, United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Shanghai, and Shenzhen stock markets via its platform.
Why should I trade using Tiger Brokers?
1) Extremely Low Commission Fees
– For US stocks, USD 0.01 per share with a minimum of USD 1.99.
– For Singapore stocks, 0.08% of trade value with no minimum fees until 31 Dec 2020. After which, minimum fees will be SGD2.88.
– For Hong Kong stocks, 0.06% of trade value with a minimum of HKD 15.
– For Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks, 0.06% of trade value with a minimum of RMB 15.
Furthermore, there are no custodian fees, no dividends handling fees, no minimum account balance, and no minimum monthly trade volume. Basically, you only pay when you trade.
With the fee structure above, I believe it is one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest platform to trade with in Singapore.
Tip: If you purchase stocks in foreign currencies, make sure to convert your SGD to the required foreign currency or else Tiger Brokers will assume you are borrowing in that foreign currency and you will incur interest charges associated with borrowing in that currency. As for currency conversion, Tiger Brokers has a competitive spread of 0.3% to 0.5%.
2) User Experience
I have been using and trading via both Tiger Brokers Desktop and Mobile app for the last few weeks. Apart from the modern and intuitive user interface, one thing I noticed is that it is really fast and responsive. When I activated the free L2 market data for US stock exchange and looked at a popular US stock (e.g. AMZN), trades were happening so rapidly and the price was changing so quickly that it was actually quite mesmerizing 🙂
3) Easy Signup
The entire sign-up process was a breeze. Gone are the days of having to go down to the brokerage firm in person, hand them your NRIC, and sign forms just to open an account.
With Tiger Brokers, everything can be done online and it took me just under 1.5 hours to open, fund the account, and start trading with it.
Step 1 (~10 mins) – Filled in the application with the help of MyInfo.
Step 2 (~30 mins) – After submitting the application, I waited for Tiger Brokers to approve and open my account.
Step 3 (~5 mins) – After approval, I transferred money to their custodian bank account. You can learn more about how to transfer with this Youtube video.
Step 4 (~30 mins) – Wait for the money to be reflected in my account and start trading!
As the signup process is easy, completely online and with no ongoing fees to maintain a Tiger Brokers account, I highly recommend you to take advantage of the time-limited offer, sign up today and try out this new trading platform!
As always, feedback and questions are welcome.
Happy investing!
Questions
1) Question: If you are already a client of Tiger Brokers, can you still qualify.
Answer: Please reach out to me privately.
2) “every SGD 300 that you pay in fees will get you 1 year of Friend of StocksCafe”
Question: Is that referring to the commission paid to Tiger?
Answer: Yes, that includes commissions/fees paid to Tiger Brokers but it excludes fees that are paid to exchanges.
3) Question: Any time frame to hit the SGD300 in order to qualify for the 1 year friend?
Answer: No. There is no time limit. I chose to not have time limit so that users do not have to rush. (e.g. Trade more than usual)
4) Question: Who will be tracking the SGD300 and do we need to inform you?
Answer: StocksCafe will track this together with Tiger Brokers. Of course, you can also track it easily using this page in StocksCafe assuming you created a portfolio to track Tiger Brokers transactions separately.
