Hi, i am new to this.

have anyone used FSM(sg) for ETFs ? what are the procedures? thanks a lot

any reason not to use FSM? high charges?

thought of using it because i already have funds inside there .

I'm very new in US trading. So in conclusion which is the best trading broker for US stocks and why? Please enlighten tq

I'm looking for us stocks only. I prefer a broker which has no deposit or withdrawal issues, should be cakewalk. And yeah with low fees of course.

I noticed that trading212 has zero commission fees and zero inactivity fees. This sounds good to me, as my trading frequency is < 1x per month. I wouldn't want to get charged with inactivity fees.

Do you think funding the trading account using Transferwise borderless account works?

Edit: I just checked, Transferwise borderless account not offered to Malaysians

Lucky you. You managed to open a borderless account before they blocked it. Currently, I am not successful in opening a borderless account. I get this message "This feature isn't available in your location yet".

I can't think of anyway to get a borderless account. I have considered putting my location as Singapore, but it won't work, because address verification will be required.
You can try funding your trading account using credit/debit card. Try BigPay, which charges 0% conversion fees. If you have a Transferwise debit card, that works great too.
However, withdrawal can be a headache.

From trading212 FAQ:
If you deposited funds using BigPay, and when withdrawing funds (trading212 will refund into BigPay debit card), money will automatically be converted back to MYR!! BigPay isn't a multi-currency account and cannot hold foreign currencies. It's a debit card denominated in MYR currency. And withdrawing money from BigPay is very costly and restrictive!

If you deposited money using Transferwise debit card (not available to Malaysians), money will be refunded into your Transferwise borderless account. Because Transferwise debit card is a multi-currency account, your money will be refunded in the same foreign currency (limited to USD, GBP, EUR, SGD and a few others)

Hey guys. I am planning to invest more than 1 million in ETF (50% bond ETF and 50% stocks) in the future.

The ETF I would like the replicate Vanguard Lifestratrgy mutual fund with 50% equities and 50% bonds to get an average of 5-6% return with low volatility.

Is it Ok to use bank like CIMB, UOB, HongLeong, OCBC broker to buy ETF? I feel safer and its easier to convince my parents to invest with a bank broker than IB or Trading212. 

I know bank is notorious for its high commission so i am wondering which bank broker should i go for to make low-cost indexing work?

u can use HSBC bank transfer as it charge lower fee and its safe compare to other moneymatch etc
dont go for stashaway as it will eat up more comisen which mean ur earning will be less

Thanks for the suggestions!

I heard about Stashaway but I think it is good for small amount. But for big amount, I would rather use a reputable broker or bank. I dislike Stashaway 1% commission and its a robo-advisor so its a relatively new thing to put a big amount into it.

I will think about TD though, looks like a solid choice.

Also, i believe TD charge 30% dividend right? How would it affect the return? Or is there a plan to reinvest the dividend so i don't get taxed.

Hi. Can anyone please advise on which stock exchange I should buy ETF? I am planning to invest in Vanguard FTSE All-World. It's listed on LSE and XETRA.

VWRA on LSE (USD), average daily volume 18,770, bid-ask spread 19.7 bps
VWCE on XETRA (Euro), average daily volume 21,200 bid-ask spread 10.4 bps

Both have almost similar average daily volumes, but the bid-ask spread of VWCE is much narrower compared to VWRA. My broker is TS Global. What are your thoughts? Is VWCE a better choice?

Thank you for your replies.
Does the currency even matter? Any advantages to hold USD over EUR or GBP? As a Malaysian investor, none of these are my secondary currencies, and I have no preference. The Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF holds a basket of securities (over 3000) across 50 markets in various currencies.

To quote from a bogleheads webpage:

I guess the currency doesn't really matter...? I plan to invest RM30k lump sum.
Can you please clarify what you mean convert currency twice? I thought I can use instarem to convert MYR to USD/ EUR/ GBP directly into IBKR accounts?
I agree the average volumes for the distributing classes are much higher. Both VWRD (USD) and VWRL (GBP) listed on LSE have average daily volumes of 49k each.

PS: My other concern is that Vanguard will delist their ETFs from stock exchanges. Vanguard is apparently pulling out of Hong Kong and Japan markets. If there are very low trading volumes, companies will delist their products from stock exchanges. This recently happened to DWS ETFs (Deutsche bank) from Singapore Stock Exchange, where daily trading volumes for their ETFs were very very low.

Oh thanks for the info. Didn't know that IBKR doesn't accept USD deposits from 3rd parties. Looks like it's down to either EUR or GBP.
Thank you Yggdrasil for the very detailed explanation. Your post basically illustrates the effects of currency movements on investment value. It's like macroeconomics 101. Your illustration assumes that USD/MYR exchange rate remains constant, but in the real world scenario, exchange rates constantly fluctuate. I actually plan to DCA into this ETF every 6 months, so hopefully I will average-out the exchange rate fluctuations.

But as you have mentioned in your second post, no one can predict the future, and that we should not obsess with liquidity or currency issues. I am not here to debate/speculate on currency movements. I am here for low-cost diversified investing. I agree that choosing the right (low-cost) index is more important. A lousy index gives lousy returns, and a hyped-up index may just be another bubble waiting to burst.
Global All Cap Index? Meaning the index covers developed + emerging markets across large, medium, and small-cap sectors? It's gonna be expensive to track so many stocks across the globe. Most ETFs will "optimally replicate" the index to reduce operational fees. Even the Vanguard FTSE All-World doesn't fully replicate the index. And the weightage allocated to small-cap stocks are so small, their contributions (or lack-of) are insignificant to the overall index.

Noob here, with what platform are you guys using to be able to trade US options?

Has anyone use sunway money for foreign remittance? How does it compare to instarem in terms of fees?

Is direct holding an etf still worth it? now with robo advisors offering etfs in their portfolios.

Thanks for your reply.

I do notice that the withholding tax for dividend received.

The dividend based ETF is just my plan to add in to my portfolio since Wahed is more on growth.

Thanks for your suggestion. I guess you are aiming for growth.

Does my thought is correct? For dividend type, the dividend will be cut based on economic situation and management discretion, capital appreciation might be little. For growth type, capital appreciation is based on company performance and the perception from the market force but dividend is lower.

I have looked at Ark types ETF, all of them goes higher and higher due to momentum and slightly cheaper.

But if bubble dot.com appear again, most probably Ark etf will drop a lot.

Can I confirm with you that ARKK is consist of all the Ark etfs (ARKQ, ARKW, ARKF and ARKG)?

Exchange MYR to USD to invest in ARKK, will the exchange rate added to ARKK is still cheaper and worth?

My bad, looked wrongly

$1.5 / per US order

Also found this website that compares broker - not bad. Between TD Ameritrade and TradeStation Global both seems to be strong contender. There's also IBKR but the inactivity/minimum commissions are really oof

Friendly warning: Do not put all your equity allocation into ARKx funds - they're highly volatile and subject to bigger drawdowns than S&P 500 index

I personally hold ARKK half for shits and giggles, to see if Tesla really can hit 7000 mark + whether the Organavo's 3D printed organs will be available in my lifetime

Which platform you use to purchase the ETF?