First Pile of Investments

Previously I tried buying shares using iOCBC Securities to see how things are like.

And today, I have finally made my first substantial transaction! (actually two).

Based on the advice from an eBook written by a renowned forumer on HWZ, I went to set up a Security Trading Account with Standard Chartered Bank because it's suppose to have the lowest fees for transaction above $1000.
Through this account, I invested in the counter ES3 - STI ETF (for regular investment) and CC3 - Starhub (just because I felt the price was low).

It took me a rather long time before I decided to take the plunge.
I have been monitoring the prices, and the price for ES3 seems rather high at the moment.
I felt like I would be at a disadvantage by going in now.
But the Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) advocates for a regular investment, no matter the price.
So, I just did it.

Another step towards my financial goal~!

My 1st experience of shares trading!

After setting up my SGX account and brokerage account with OCBC for more than half a year, I have finally made my first purchase of shares! >_< Although given by my age (of 29) it seems like a 'meh' kind of event, but I felt that it is quite a big step for me.

Recently I have been wanting to do a purchase as part of the list of things I want to accomplish this year. So on Thursday night I was going into my account and looking at just doing a simple purchase to understand the whole process of buying.

I'm not really literate in this area, but from what I have gathered, buying ETF stocks seemed to be a rather conservative and safe approach to familiarizing myself with the environment. So I went into my account, and took a look at what I think are the 2 prominent ETF stocks in Singapore.

1) SPDR Straits Times Index ETF (ES3.SI) @ 1.15
2) ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund (A35.SI) @ 3.00

I thought for a 1st purchase of trying it out, I would just buy the minimum number of shares at the minimum price. So I placed an order of 100 lots of STI ETF @ 1.15.

Some time on Friday, I received notifications that my purchase went through, and I have officially bought my 1st shares!

The total cost of the purchase was however a question. So today I logged into my OCBC account, and took a look at the amount to pay through the Electronic Payment for Shares (EPS). It was $142.29!

It came as a bit of a shock, but I recalled that there is a minimum sum of transaction fees involved. Determined to do a thorough breakdown of the fees, I did a quick search of all the transaction fees involved and see whether it worked out to be $142.29. But all the processing fees and brokerage commission didn't add up. My calculation showed that I should be paying more than $142.29. haha..

I guess I would just ask my broker for help on this.

It's one of the many first step.

Towards financial independence! Gambatte!

Finally, a brokerage account!

A few days back, my brokerage account finally got through! So now, officially, I can trade. Hee.

I'm no expert, but on the surface, it seems that because of the recent Brexit, the market is quite volatile. Might not be a good time to get into it at the moment. oh well, let me observe further and think through carefully how to go about doing this.

I guess in general, the route to being able to trade can be summarized into 2 main steps:

1) Get a CDP account

Download the form.
Prepare whatever documents are needed.
Send in through snail mail; email doesn't seem like an option.
Wait for confirmation of account.

2) Get a brokerage account

Choose which brokerage firm you want to open up the account with.
Go to the bank and tell the person you want to open up a brokerage/trading account.
Wait for confirmation of account.

It's that simple, though I took some time to decide which brokerage firm to open up the account with.

Might be able to open up accounts with different firms, not that sure. Anyway I got rejected by Standard Chartered Bank because on the form, it requires me to have knowledge on trading or financial background in order to open up an account with them. I have read on forum that you can just fake your way through and they won't be care, but I'm more inclined to say the truth and seek alternatives, even though the fees for SC is lower.

I have signed up with OCBC. So now on a daily basis, I get emails from my broker on market research. I have saved the emails that talked about ETF and dividends, because this is what I'm looking for in the long term. Will look into it in the near future!

Staying at home today because my throat is infected again.
This is the 3rd time in a short span of 2 months.
I'm beginning to think that the free flu vaccination jab is giving me more problems.
It might make me immune to flu, but it definitely doesn't make my throat infection less probable.