want to know as well,
for TD and IB, is it cheaper to send from SG than MY??

FYI - TDAA takes SGD from SGD banks

thanks, even having SG bank with USD account, still need to TT to TD? seem to be costly for small amount.

btw, opening the IB account is domiciled in SG?

just my PoV & practice:
1. IF just buy/hold and for asset allocation +sub-asset diversification: bought & sat on US listed stocks via iTrade

2. IF want to use sell Naked Put options to buy for (1.)
AND want to use sell Covered Call options to juice (1.) dividend+premium returns and/or sell at worthwhile price
AND want to avoid stupid agent charges on dividends by iTrade/HLeB (which is a cost on top of the 30% withholding by US IRS for non-resident aliens):
do on ToS, OX, etc (now i'm only on ToS)

2 cents sharing

How to buy ETFs in Malaysia ?
Do we have a LYN thread on ETFs ?

So this thread will be the ABC on ETFs ?

Only Nr 2 at present.

My income is in USD or GBP so I can either deposit GBP from a UK account (fee free) or from USD which costs around $50 as a round trip.

SGD is an option but I'd have to buy SGD first so not really convenient at the moment!

Right,... so rjb123 deposits GBP notes into IB from his UK Account which is free, since that account is based in the UK (whose natural currency is the GBP), but if he deposits USD into that account, he will have to pay USD50 fee, because the USD would then be foreign currency in the UK,... Is my understanding correct ?

Tq rjb123,....

Pertaining to the above, I would understand you would be able to transfer over funds from a Sgp bank acct in SGD into the IB SGD Acct,...

But my question is : are you able to give SGD cash by hand to the IB employees at the IB Office in Sgp to be deposited into your IB SGD trading acct ?

Bro,... you really don't get my msg's,... it's okay, if really one can learn so fast,.. then the concept of time needed to build experience does not qualify anymore. anymore,...

Hi all,

I have read through this thread from page one till the last page. I am rather new at investing and may not be very familiar with certain concepts, so I apologize in advance since I'll be needing some guidance in my understanding.

For simplicity, the following will be my assumptions:
1. Trade ETF through TDAA
2. Commission fee of USD10.65 per trade
3. TT fee of USD50
4. MYR/USD = 4.5
5. Purchasing VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares

With the above assumptions, say if I have the required USD3,500 deposit to open the account, that would mean I will need:
(USD3,500+USD50) x 4.5 = MYR15,975 --- [50/3550*100=1.4%]

With the initial USD3,500 in my TDAA account, I purchase 29 shares ot VTI at USD116.68 each:
USD116.68 x 29 + USD10.65= USD3,394.37; Balance in account: USD105.63 --- [10.65/3394.37*100=0.31]

After that, assume that I am able to allocate up to MYR10,000 in a year to purchase additional shares, I would have:
MYR10,000/4.5 - USD50 = USD2,172 --- [50/2222*100=2.25%]

Purchase additional shares:
USD116.68*19 + USD10.65 = USD2227.57; Balance in account: USD50.06 --- [10.65/2227.57*100=0.47%]

Questions:
1. So does this mean that  just from TT charges, commission fee and the VTI expense ratio, I would have actually lost upfront a total of roughly:
First purchase: 1.76% (1.4%+0.31%+0.05%)
Second purchase: 2.77% (2.25%+0.47%+0.05%)
I do understand that with larger investment sum, the percentage will drop further and vice versa.
2. Say if I bought an Equity and Bond fund, does that count as two separate trade, incurring 2 x USD10.65 commission fee, thus further increasing the percentage that I had calculated earlier?
3. Does the commission fee also be charged when selling or re-balancing? I suppose any selling of one fund and buying another would be considered as additional trades and the commission fee would be charged separately for each transaction. Is my understanding correct? Was reading up on another thread by Dreamer - Asset Allocation Investing using US ETF, Basic approach to asset Allocation ETF

I am not sure if my calculations are correct so feel free to correct me if they are wrong. Like I mentioned, I'm here to learn from more experienced people around here since I'm rather new to all this and am still am unfamiliar with some of the concepts.

2. TT fees - there are the sending local charges (if any) + US side receiving charges, usually about USD20 per transaction, regardless of amount.
5. For US - there's no capital gains tax but there is withholding tax of 30% on dividends for NRAs - non-resident aliens. Non-resident = not in US lor + aliens = not orang Trump

B. Learn how to juice your US stock investments with selling options WHILE "getting there".

usd 5k pa with current exchange rate would translate to rm22500 pa. Looks like I'll have to double my salary before i can make us etf any worthwhile.

1. Can Malaysian open an account with Standard Chartered SG, Maybank KE or DBS Vickers? Do we need to have a Singaporean address or anything like that?
2. Does it mean that we do not directly own the shares bought through Standard Chartered SG and Maybank KE? What are the impact to us as the client when one is a custodian account while in the other, we own the shares other than having the rights to attend AGMs?

But if you factor in the cost to travel from Malaysia to Singapore, it might be more expensive than the bank rates? 

Atm, I don't have the time to browse through the other threads, but are there people who actually do that?

Bro,.. I have not traded at Bursa,... Maybank Securities asked me not to bring my funds back ! 

1) YES,... at most is you wasted the time.

2) You just lose on transport for once, then the moment you earn your first and second divvies, you would have covered this expense ! Then subsequent divvies will be for you to enjoy,...

Bro,.. are you sure of the above ?? I checked earlier and discovered the shares are kept with a trustee. Even if the custodian should wrap up, the beneficial ownership of the shreas still remained with the purchaser.

U know what i mean...

U may not hv traded in bursa but u must hv traded as a "local" in sg or oz.

The poor guy.... only starting, jumping right into fx and foreign stocks... man.... can get killed easily.

And u hv others asking him to go to sg, do exotic stuff.

As one who has been thru losses, i understand the temptation to think one is so smart.
Not for u, for all., pls....

One's hard earned savings is blood sweat n tears.... may never make it back, will suffer.

Pls do not make it like eating nasi lemak or burgers.
Sorry for being grumpy...  if u hv  not seen the devil, u will not cry, so they say.

It takes a lot of work, time, patience and experience to make some profit from the desk.

If it is so easy, there will be no farmers or salespeople or politicians...  all humans stocks n fx trading n do nothing else!

Bro and bros,... I think we are,.. relatively,.. smaller players,.. not worthy for our central bank to go after,... so, I think, no need to waste time being too careful,... it'll be an overkill. Furthremore, even if we bring down or out more than USD10K per trip per person,.. I think nobody will notice lar,... provided we don't do it long term.

Bro,.. your mother's friend's husband is not totally right ! See below for counter-comments :-

1) buy gold as gold is priced in USD. It will "protect" your worth. 

Counter-comments : Gold has no income tied to it. Owning gold makes one wait for appreciation. If you keep the gold at home, either the thieves or the MACC will come and search you out. If you noticed those who are raided by the MACC, they will have gold either in their hse, or in their office or at the kampung hse.

2) keep SGD/USD cold hard cash/or open a bank account in SG and keep cold hard cash there.

Counter-comments :  Keeping SGD/USD cold hard cash at home ? This banker must have advised those people caught by the MACC.... Everytime the MACC raided some suspect's house, surely they will find foreign currency cash in the house.  SOmeitmes it's good also that MAS restricts Msians opening accounts, then these people will not be able to siphon the funds out so easily anymore.

Keeping cold hard cash in a bank account in Sgp ? Earning the FD there ? Well,... everybody knows he interest rate there. 

I think 'better I become the banker'.

I understand that earning through investing/trading is anything but simple. I would like to think that I am not greedy and do not look to make quick money, else I would definitely be in forex and actual stock trading.

However, everytime I research on methods to investing, I come across many who would recommended investing long term in index funds, particularly vanguard funds even for your everyday average joe/jane. Most of them mentioned that index funds:
1. In the long term would provide decent returns. Nothing too fancy, amazing nor terrible which is what I am looking for.
2. In the long term, it is rather stable due to their diversification (Equity across the whole US economy and the whole world's economy + Bonds which covers the whole US economy)
3. In the long term, if one can weather the major dips and not pull out, eventually after many years it will eventually recover. Whereas, one may stand the chance lose all their money in other types of investment.

All these points mentioned by other websites recommending Index funds make it sounds like it is something which one can buy and be relatively comfortable that it is quite unlikely to lose all their investment in the event of a major financial crisis, provided one can weather the downturn period and not pullout. That is why it seems quite interesting to me.

The only downside and blocker at the moment is the fact that I am earning in MYR which translate to the huge sum which is required in order to make the investment worthwhile be it through a US or SG brokerage.

I do acknowledge that there are risks involved by investing in index funds, although I may not be able to properly size/feel it due to my inexperience. Like you have mentioned "if u hv not seen the devil, u will not cry".

However, at the moment, I can only think of three major risks with regards to investing in Vanguard index fund ETF. Please do enlightened me on any other risks of investing in Vanguard index fund ETF. 
1. MYR/USD forex fluctuation.
2. Risk of fees eating up profit if investments amount is too small.
3. US & World economy downturn (though, wouldn't this also affect other funds/investment types in other countries to an extent?)

I agree with his method, which is similar to other articles which I have read.

The part which I have to figure out now is the forex rate (since I'm earning in MYR) and the recommended investment sum to ensure that the fees (tt, commission, etc) not eat up my profit and make the investment useless (which a few of you have provided some insights be in through local, SG or US brokerage) 

agreed. That's what I am planning to do over the next few days (or week maybe XD pardon my tardiness).

Although the result may indicate that foreign index fund may be out of my reach at the moment due to the required investment sum when converted from MYR, at least I'll have a sound knowledge of the numbers around it