Actually my ok = free of charge. Can buy STI and hold for free. Buy other country ETF, pay maintenance fee if don't furfilled their condition for free holding.

Appreciated the clarification, bro,...

Waiting for 8 securities too open doors in SG and UK. That way we can buy buy UK based etf (which invest in US) without any without maintenance fees + most likely at zero cost.

Bro,... just a opinion here : don't make things too complicated,.. you are gaining knowledge day by day,.. you are experimenting day after day,.. soon, you will be very confident. ETFs are not suitable for you,... go for the bigger fishes.

Hi bro,

Appreciate if you could help me with my doubt here. For IB, if I hold says 20K USD worth of ETF & equities, but has only 5K fund left in account to purchase other ETF/equities, would IB ask to close my account?

Also another scenario where I hold 120K USD worth of ETF & equities, but has only 5K fund left in account to purchase other ETF/equities, would IB still charging me inactivity fees every month(assuming my monthly doesn't hit up to 10 USD).

Thanks.

min 10k is total cash or any equity/etf positions u hold.

to my knowledge, the min monthly charge of $10 applies regardless of what u hv in cash or holdings.

it is about brokerage fee on the transactions u make very month.

The $10 is waived if assets over $100k USD (at least that used to be the case, haven't checked recently)

Any US ETF listed on HK market? Something like how people buy using Ireland/LSE to avoid withholding tax.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Apr 18 2017, 12:43 AM

There is vanguard ETFs domiciled in HK e.g. S+P 500 tracker

But HK doesn't have same agreement as Ireland with 15%WT on divs so tax wise there's no benefit.

You can buy the Ireland domiciled ETFs on other exchanges in Europe too.

Because from what I understand, if the ETF is listed in outside of US, there won't be with holding tax (HK does not have any with holding tax). A perfect eg would be the Manulife US REIT listed on SGX. No with holding tax as it's listed in Singapore provided we prove we are not americans to our broker.

It's all about the domicile of the ETF - if there's no tax treaty in place WT of 30% is taken at source, regardless if the country of domicile has WT on divs or not.

I have no idea about Manulife US REIT (or REITS in general) and how that's structured so can't comment.

From some quick reading it looks like REITS possibly have different rules regarding taxation.

In normal cases the W8BEN only excludes us from capital gains, not 30% WT (unless resident in Ireland for example where 15% treaty rate applies)

AVFAN rjb123 Ramjade

Thanks bro!

Bro Ramjade

Are we able to buy US listed ETF(for example NYSEARCA: SPY) & equities(for example NASDAQ: FB) via SCB SG? How about LSE listed ETF & equities?

Appreciate your help

Of course can. That's why singaporeans who are into ETF inveating use SCB SG as their broker of choice.

ib is cheap for frequent trading, buy/sell.
it is not for low activity.

if u are looking for low activity, better go with local brokers.
they may be more expensive per trade but has no fixed charge.
talk to local banks/brokers, compare.

Actually I don't think so. What do you think of brokers like tradeking, charles schwab international whihc charge ~USD5/trade?
Even better robinhood and 8 securities. Both also zero charge.

Why bother with local brokers when the following above are cheaper?
Would like to hear your opinion.

Thankz so much @avfan
Yaya, I would like to hear more on this @ramjade

1) You need to accumulate your emergency fund before investing? Have you done that? How many months did you collect?
2) Are you a trader/dividend/value investor? Different you know.
3) Are you ok with 30% tax on dividend by US govt?
4) How much are you buying each time? If USD500 one time, brokerage fees at USD4.95 already cost you ~1% return.
Let's not forget everytime you sell, you will alao be charged broker fees. The reason I put USD500 = ~RM2300 which is quite high for some one who have just started working.
5) Are you ok that each time you transfer money to US, be prepare for ~1% cut from your money
6) Combine 4) and 5) together, you already lose 2%.
7) Why choose US market?

These are questions you need to answer. If I were you just started working, I will accumulate emergency savings first. No emergency fund, no investing.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: May 20 2017, 07:46 AM