Thursday 2 June 2016

Standard Chartered trading: No "No Minimum Commission"

Some may have heard about it, I have heard about it. Standard Chartered trading will be charging a minimum of $10 per transaction from 01 Aug 2016 onward. It will no longer be "No Minimum Commission". Since having Stanchart Trading account last year, always hoping that this day will not have to come that soon. Anyway, I have yet to receive the notification letter personally though, but should be expecting it soon.

I have a deep pocket which will deposit all of my shares in The Central Depository (CDP), trades via traditional brokerage, with POEMS as my main, and iOCBC and UOB Kay Hian as my backup. This pocket is usually for those contract value with more than $9,000 and these shares are supposed to be held in CDP for the long run.
On the other hand, there is a shallow pocket, for any trades which is less than $9,000 or less than 1,000 shares per transaction. This pocket is mainly for smaller trades, maximize profits with lesser commission fees, for averaging purposes, and to curb my "hand itchiness" from buying shares.  All of these are transacted via the Stanchart Trading.

With the breaking of this news, shall continue with this two pockets method for my investment journey until 01 August only, unless there is a new low/no minimum commission platform in town. Stanchart aims to expand their profits by implementing a minimum commission fees as their first steps. No doubt it may includes the custodian fees or another other fess sooner or later, it is just a matter of time. Subsequently, this account will then be kept in the cold for 穷小子 since it defeats the purpose of having it in the first place.

What would 穷小子 do?
  • Those stocks with contract value ≤ $3,500 and less than 1,000 of shares,
  • All will be sold. In fact have sold all those with 100 of shares holding only today.
    POEMS is having a promotion for this with a minimum commission of $10 only and it is safe keep in CDP. *Promotion till 30 June 2016, hope it extends.
  • Those stocks with contract value ≤ $3,500 or less than 1,000 of shares but are planned to hold for long term,
  • Use these 2 months to buy as much shares as possible if the price is good. After which, transfer them to CDP at $10.70 per counter
  • Those stocks with higher contract value and more than 1,000 shares and are planned to hold for long term,
  • Transfer them to CDP too
  • Those stocks which are planned to hold for mid-term,
  • Leave it in Stanchart trading account until the day it sold off
Any other scenarios shall be case by case determined.

Another 穷小子's favorite is no more, but no hard feelings with Standard Chartered though. Standard Chartered is a profitable company after all, it doesn't make sense with how will they managed to sustain all those administrative and postage charges without any minimum commission fees.
穷小子's style don't mind paying the $10 minimum commission, but Stanchart should at least upgrade the current trading platform. There is no mobile-supportable platform, no e-statement, no live-price. Bottom line is that there isn't much features, basically it is just purely for buy and sell only.

Shall explore DBS Vickers cash upfront and other brokerages for a lower commission deal.
This statement may be true from 01 August 2016

6 comments:

  1. Hi poorlearnrich,actually for SC, there is a way to use their trading platform on mobile (though even their helpdesk told me no!). Go to SC login page, go to your browser Settings, and tick the 'Request desktop site'. Then log in and voila, the online trading option is now there.

    Quite sad on this decision though. Currently doing all my trades on SC. Prob will switch to the other brokers for bigger trades from now on

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi JD,

      I have tried that before, but couldnt find the buy sell option from the menu after logged in. I though it is not supportable, hence didnt explore much into it.
      A mobile app would still be preferred for mobile devices. :)

      True. Likewise for 穷小子. Looking for a better deal for his shallow pocket.

      Delete
  2. On the iPad there is no issue in logging on to the SCB platform.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tony,

      Yes, it treat it as a web-based client. Hope they can improved it with a mobile app though.

      Delete
  3. I would like to ask how to transfer to CDP at $10.70 per counter. Thankss

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      You can visit any Stanchart branch counter to fill up a form for the transferring.
      Make sure you have your CDP account and stocks ISIN number ready before you go down. The staff don't know much about filling up the form.

      Delete