On June 9th, Tiger Brokers announced that they have launched Tiger Trade, a mobile and online trading application which had access to the Singapore Exchange. Many are wondering if they are reliable or not and is it worth using them so today in this article, I’ll be sharing the key points you need to know about Tiger Brokers!
Background
Founded in 2014, Tiger Brokers is an online stock brokerage start-up backed by Interactive Brokers Group Inc, Xiaomi Inc, ZhenFund and Wall Street investment guru Jim Rogers.
As a rising star in the industry, the Fintech company is committed to serving the best interests of stock investors and being a gateway to build their global portfolios.
It is also good to note that Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte Ltd is a licensed broker under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
These are also their licensed entities
Custodian or CDP?
Tiger Brokers is a custodian broker which means that the stocks you buy and sell on their platform stays in their platform. It is good to note that there are no custodian fees or platform fees you need to pay.
Just to put it into perspective, I’ve compared it to the other custodian brokers available in Singapore.
| Broker | Inactivity Fee? | Custodian Fee? |
| Tiger Brokers | None | 0 |
| Standard Chartered | None | 0 |
| SAXO | USD 100 when there are no trades executed for a period of 6 consecutive months (180 days). | 0.12% p.a. with a monthly min. fee of SGD 5 or equivalent USD 5 per month (if SGX stocks are held or traded) |
| FSM | None | 0 |
Fee Structure?
| Broker | SGX | US Market |
| Tiger Brokers | 0.08%, no minimum* * = (Promotion of no minimum charge is valid till 31 December 2020) | $0.01 / Share, minimum 1.99 USD |
| Standard Chartered | 0.20%, minimum 10 SGD | 0.25%, minimum 10 USD |
| SAXO | 0.10% – 0.12%, minimum 9-15 SGD | 0.06%, minimum 4 USD |
| FSM | 0.08%, minimum 10 SGD | 0.08% minimum 8.80 USD |
It is also good to note that there is a withdrawal fee that will be charged by the bank when you make a withdrawal. This is what the Customer Service Agent told me, “Tiger Brokers Singapore does not charge any fee for deposit or withdrawal, but the bank currently charges 5 SGD per transaction if you withdraw SGD to Singapore bank account. If you withdraw USD, the fee will be 30 USD. And if you withdraw HKD, the fee will be 300 HKD. And it all depends on banks.”
*Edit : As of 2nd July, I’ve confirmed with a tiger brokers staff and they have recently changed their bank over to a local one (DBS) as to minimize cost. With lower costs, they are no longer charging the 5 SGD upon withdrawal.
Markets You Can Trade
For Tiger Brokers, you are able to trade in 3 markets, the Singapore market, the U.S. market and the Hong Kong market.
Foreign Exchange Rates
I can’t find any exact data or information for it but from what I can find, it matches closely to what you can find on https://www.xe.com/, so the rates are pretty competitive!
User Interface
Take a look at a few of the pictures I’ve taken below. This is the user interface for the desktop version if you download the application.
Take a look at the mobile app version of the Tiger Trade app. I like that the overall User Interface is simple and easy to navigate.
Final Thoughts and Personal Experience
The entire sign up process was very simple and quick. I managed to sign up and finish opening up my account in about an hours time. Then, it took about another 15 minutes to fund my account. The entire process was fast and efficient and I did not face any issues along the way.
It was also great that they have live customer support to help answer any queries you have! The customer support has been very helpful in answering all my questions.
All in all, I’ll start using Tiger Brokers for short-medium term trades and positions so that I can take advantage of the volatile market and make use of the low commission costs.
So far today, I’ve already made 2 short trades today. The first being ComfortDelgro which I bought at $1.62 and sold off at $1.63. The second being CDL Hospitality Trust which I bought at $1.18 and sold at $1.19. Typically, if I did these trades on my usual broker, DBS Vickers, I would incur so much commission cost that I would be making a loss on these 2 trades.
How about trying to sell my stocks now in CDP via Are Tiger Brokers linked to CDP? I heard not???.At the moment I buy via DBSV and planning to sell via FSMone CDP linked account.
Can I buy via DBSV (shares deposited in CDP) and sell via Tiger?
Hey Ali, no, Tiger Brokers is not linked to CDP as it is a custodian broker. This means that all buys and sells are within the platform itself. If you were to buy from DBSV and have the stocks deposited into CDP, you cannot sell it via Tiger Brokers.