Category: Shares

• Trading Account In US

  07.25.07 |Finances, Information, Shares| Permalink | 4 Comments

  Someone asked me to blog about stocks trading in US. It is really simple to trade shares in US. All you need is to open an online trading account. There are couples of US online trading available like Ameritrade, eTrade, Scottrade and others. Each has its own pricing, benefit and T&C. You have to pay attention to Service Fee, Trading Fee and other administration fees.

  Here is a chart that I have put up, note there may be changes to the fees:

  	TD Ameritrade	eTrade	Scottrade
  Minimum To Open An Account	$2000	$1000	$500
  Minimum Account Balance	$0	$1000	$500
  Trading Fee	$9.99 Unlimited Shares	$12.99 With Conditions	$7 Unlimited Shares With Conditions
  Quarterly/Annual Account Maintenance Fee	$0/$0	$40/60	$0/$0
  Wire Funds Out Fee Domestic/ International	$25	$25	$20/$40
  Stocks Certificates Issuing	$50	$40 per certs	$250
  Account Closing & Transfer Out Fee	$75	$60	$0
  Other Fees	Other Fees	Other Fees	Other Fees

  My advice to you before selecting a trading account, do read their company portfolio and read customers’ review on their company.

  After you have chosen an online trading account, you registered and open an account. You have to fill W8 BEN form. This form is to state that you are not an US Citizen, if you aren’t. You will be tax differently.

  Do not play with Margin Options, switch it off. This option allows you to borrow money to invest in the shares. It can burn you deeply if your shares fall under its value. Interest is high.

  With US shares, you can buy 1 unit. It is different from Malaysia where you need to buy minimum of a 1000. Of coz, it is a little crazy to buy 1 unit as you will be wasting transaction fees. Let say company XYZ share is US20. You can buy say 10 units and pay US200 + transaction fees.

  Selling and buying is just a click of a button. The trading acct will provide you with tools like streamer that allow you to view the shares price live and online. You can set it to your targeted shares. For me, I am long term investor, I do not do any short selling. I buy and keep. However if the shares go up to a certain threshold, I may sell. Some shares do give out dividends when the company profits.

  You can also set your target price on the trading tool. When it hits the target price, your shares will be automatically sold off. This is very useful especially when you cannot monitor US shares during the night time. Sometimes shares can hit the peak for short period of time and dropped quickly.

  Lastly when you have profited and want to transfer money back, you can use wire transfer to bring money home to any local banks. You need to request your local bank swift code or ABA routing number. All local banks have it. In your trading account, you need to fill up your wire transfer information with ABA routing code, your local account number and other required information. Happy Investing.

  Take note any investments, there are risks. Before diving into an investment, do your research. There are message boards (aka forum) from Yahoo or any other where a lot of people talk about the individual company. You can gain some information from it. There are also analyst reports to help you with. However it has a lot of financial terms which is difficult to digest.

• Local Share Investment

  10.04.06 |Finances, Investment, Service, Shares| Permalink | 9 Comments

  I never invested in local shares before and I never knew how. I do have an account in US to invest in US shares. That was because my company has a benefit share plan for us to purchase our company shares at discounted rates.

  Anyway, last Friday, a courier package came and it was from StemLife. The company is going public listed. Cool. 😎 I didn’t read the prospectus, it was as thick as my programming books. I read the form and was tempted to invest. It was a 2 pages form, but the things I have to do, to successfully apply for the shares, is exhausting. I received the package on 29 Sept, the dateline is 5th Oct. Not much time to work with.

  Things to do:

  1. I have to apply for a CDS account to be able to buy any local shares. Fortunately I know a friend who works in the share trading company. I got her help to get me the CDS account on the same day. 1 obstacle done.

  2. I have to make a copy of my IC, front and back on the same page.

  3. I have to fill in the form carefully. No liquid paper can be use on the form.

  4. I have to get a banker’s cheque. Personal cheques are not allowed. I blog about it yesterday, it was done too.

  5. I have to buy two 50sen stamp, one for A envelope and one for B envelope. They will send you back the A envelope with your cheque if it is not successful.

  6. I need to send it, it says using Ordinary mail. You can opt to drop it into their office if you are staying in KL. It is really impossible for people outstation to send ordinary mail and reach the destination before date due. I send it using Express Mail, not sure whether they will reject my application. By the way, register mail is a no no because PO box cannot sign when receive. :giggles:

  7. Mail it and wait for response. Phew.

  Now all I have to sit back and wait for them to tell me if it is successful. By the way, the company will ballot, if you get pick, the shares will be sold to you. If I don’t I need to go back to the bank, to claim back the money.

  I just learn that you can do all the above except for number 1, using Internet banking. In order to do that, you need to setup the account first by submitting a physical form. For Maybank, you can use ATM or Internet Banking. Somehow, I don’t know why StemLife was not listed.

  It was a great experience though to beat the deadline. If it was from some company that I don’t know, it will probably end up in the bin.

  Anyone want to know how to invest in US share?