i was curious how you guys trade US stocks. do you buy USD at our bank rate and TT to IBKR then trade over there in USD then when you want to use money or take some profit only then you exchange your USD back to malaysia bank. if that's the case does the spot USD makes any difference while you trade over there at IBKR? assuming you don't convert back to MYR everytime you sell your US stocks.

Our local bank that offer US stocks don't have withdrawal fee, inactivity fee, monthly trading platform fee.

Malaysia banks i.e CIMB/MBB can buy US/HK/IND/THAI/SG stocks minimum brokerage is USD25 or 0.30%.(correction should be 0.40%) It is high if you use to scalp or day trade. No TT fees, No monthly charges or minimum trade requirement but price quotation is not live (it's delayed). You just buy USD to trade only 1 time conversion until you withdraw in ringgit. The downside is there is 0.5% spread not at spot. I think give and take charges should be neglible depending on your trading volume and strategy. What do you think? IBKR better or local bank better? How does Malaysian fund IBKR besides using your FAST method and TT?

This post has been edited by livina2011: Oct 31 2019, 12:56 AM

USD1.50 per trade at any amount? if let say i buy USD100K one order still USD1.50??

does IBKR combine same day order and charge USD1.50 or treat as seperate order?? i.e USD1.50 x 5 order same day??

CIMB don't combine same day order so USD25 x 5 order = USD125 brokerage (ouch!)

if you trade USD6,500 on every order brokerage at 0.40% is still ok qua....i think (if below maybe not worth it)

This post has been edited by livina2011: Oct 31 2019, 10:28 PM

US Stocks, ETFs, ETPs and Warrants
USD 0.007 per Share
Minimum Per Order
USD 1.5

@Ramjade does that means if i buy 5,000 shares of $2.00 stocks my brokerage/commission will be $35.00?? if thats the case the rate is more or less 0.35% of value. Which i think is not much difference compare to CIMB rate 0.40%

When you exchange RM to your foreign currency. Check again of your broker allow in house conversion or must be deposited first.

If require deposit then check and see the final amount is next how much fees.

@Ramjade they have their daily buy/sell rate (not at spot). Yes they allow in house conversion but your USD will sit in your account until you trade and no interest given for USD balances. No other fee only that 0.50% spread when exchange to MYR.

@Ramjade thanks will drop them an email.

after some investigations i find that trading stocks with local banks is much easier in terms of funding and other charges, your money in different jurisdiction and even commission is so much cheaper

example :
if you buy stock A 10,000 shares at $1.00 your commission in our local bank is 0.40% which equals to $10,000 × 0.40% = $40.00

but if you buy from IBKR the same as above it will cost you 10,000 shares x 0.005 cents (which is lowest commission offered by IBKR) = $50.00

however if you buy expensive stocks (which is smaller number of shares) i.e google at $1,200++ pershare, facebook at $190++ per share) with smaller number of shares then IBKR could be way cheaper. if stocks is around $1.00 range i think there won't be so much difference at all.

But bare in mind your money will be in US jurisdiction. if there's any bank run or government confiscation occurs (just an assumption) you may need to get a local lawyer to deal with US lawyer on these complicated fund repatriation problem. (which i'm not familiar with)

and also not taking account other charges which you may incur at IBKR i.e funding & withdrawal charges, maintenance and minimum requirement charges, etc....could be more idk

most importantly is your money will be in different jurisdiction and may have implication if you passed away suddenly (inheritance issue)

just look at recent 1MDB $1B of jlow funds. we need to get them from the US and it's very complicated and not easy as well.

also maybe if you are small trader or scalper i.e buying stocks in small quantity like $1,000 worth per order at one time and a few times a day then local bank may not be suitable at all because they will calculate order individually i.e buying $1,000 of stocks in 5 seperate order your commission will be hefty $25 × 5 = $125 for a $5,000 worth of stocks.

I hope anyone with personal experience can explain how would IBKR be better?? and mind you IBKR LITE which is commission free are only available to US citizen

I don't know where you get 0.005.
Commission is 0.0035
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index...=1590&p=stocks2
10000 X 0.0035 = USD35.00
Answer : i found it here : https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index...=1590&p=stocks1


What funding charges? If fund using local currency is free. Like our IBFT. One free withdrawal in a month. After that USD25/withdrawal.
Answer : i meant local bank TT charges to IBKR (quite abit if i recall correctly)

Converting will be done at real time forex rates at commision of only USD2.00 How much does your broker hike up the exchange rate behind your back? You can compare with xe.com and see how much you lose out. Interactive broker price will be cheaper than XE. Already checked myself before converting.
Answer : yes there is exchange loss i.e a 0.50% spread. No withdarwal fee. No monthly fee.

Don't think just because you are in Malaysia you are safe. US have very long arm. Just last year 2-3 maybank Kim eng account were ordered to be suspended on US orders. So in this case your money is not even safe even if you are not in US. Also keep in mind US stocks
Check again. Email them for confirmation.
Answer : you are right abt USA. But at least you're CIMB'S customer and they have their legal department to assist you. if you deal with IB you're on your own.

Last time I check Malaysian brokers want to charge me quarterly platform fees, fees for my dividends for overseas stocks.
Answer : yes dividend handling charges is quite high

saw a post here that said maybank only allow funding over the counter cos BNM blocked IB is that true at this point of time?

i've been away from malaysia stocks since 2010. i have friends been making tonnes of money in the beginning.his $0.30 stocks went up to almost $2.00 but after BN loses the election things start to turn. Besides the earlier $0.30 cents stock i mentioned all stocks in his portfolio is losing money now and wiped out 2/3 of profit. he sold one particular stock losing 4-5 million ringgit just recently only. If i tell you i have anticipated these to happen (tho i don know how it will happen) but it did happen on the night of election result.(you may not believe me but i hv no incentive to lie) i'm so thankful to PH gov for clearing out these fake economy by the previous gov. It will be worse soon you ain't seen anything yet. thats why i'm in US stocks hedging against our stock market.

make profit first then only lose 2/3 of that profit. total still profit. i din say trade US market will not lose money. fren don't misinterpret what i say lah

This post has been edited by livina2011: Nov 4 2019, 02:43 PM

your friend is so rich. and yes you are right about US stock market based on that case. i also have a friend who is worst then your friend. he loss $4.1B in just 4 days very much faster than your friend.......lol
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-trade-pun...rns-11572427806

This post has been edited by livina2011: Nov 5 2019, 03:52 AM

it could be just a standard alert to caution you. i'm pretty sure if you just go ahead and enter the order it will go through.

@markedestiny

i think if market price is let say $1.00 unknowingly you key in to buy $1.20 it will be filled at $1.00 or next best seller price unless that stock is inactive or wide price gap (i.e low cap stocks)

if let say everyday down 4.90% then forever you won't get that stock....lol kidding nia

This post has been edited by livina2011: Nov 8 2019, 01:16 PM

it is call spread not markup (higher spread means more profit for bank).....very easy to calculate just take the buy rate minus sell rate total divided by sell rate that's how much the bank make when you exchange back and forth. (must calculate same day because rate changes everyday) usually it's o.xxx % so if you get higher than that then you can prove that you are right. you can make wrong assumption if you are merely guessing. i'm also interested to know. TIA

so what is bank's % spread? example bank could be selling USD at 4.28 but they buy back their USD at 4.27 same time IBKR could be selling at 4.27 (you thought it's cheap) but end up they are buying them back at $4.25 so in this example IBKR spread is much bigger......(numbers is just example not actual)

so have you taken that into account? just explaning & in case you never thought of that

so question again is when you say bank is cheaper is it the % of spread or price the sell is cheaper?

This post has been edited by livina2011: Jun 6 2020, 11:32 AM

OH.....seriously NO i don't know.....i seldom come here only read once in awhile....but now i know

frankly shopping for fees waste alot of time. You only pay half of 0.xxx% fee when you convert to USD first time then you trade in and out after that without any exchange fee. After (let say) 2 to 5 years when you decide you no longer want to invest in US or you think rate is good then you convert back to MYR (and pay the other half of 0.xxx% fee) why bother about that tiny 0.xxx% of fee compare to your 100 tor 200 or 300% of your profit, RIGHT??

the best thing about investing is US market is that their market not like ours in terms of upper limit and lower limit. In Malaysia $1.00 & below stocks can go only go up/down max 30 sen/day. For above $1.00 stocks is 30% up/down........in US market there's no limit it can go up/down over 100%. It's not controlled by the exchange (i call it FREE market)

i'm not making up stories. i recently bought a US listed biotech company and it went up over 100% the minute market open. Last year my HK stock also same up over 100% in one day. Our market would take over 3 days to reach that level (very rare cos 3rd day already stuck at 60% cannot go up anymore) by the 3rd day everything already cool down how to go up further??

Our exchange said "THEY" are protecting investor but in reality they are protecting the Malaysia economy and public listed company bosses. IMO most foreign investor play short term hit & run not sure if you notice but recently foreign investors are selling almost everyday in 100's of million and our local uncle & auntie investor continue to chase glove & medical supply stocks sky high like no end.

If you think Malaysia have future by all means invest here. So it depends on your perceptions. I don't force any of my opinion on others.

This post has been edited by livina2011: Jun 6 2020, 01:59 PM

save few k's is ok i guess....yes US market got limit up & down for some stock maybe you talking about ETF or some other derivative i'm not sure (actually i'm not expert in US exchanges regulation just happen that 2 of my stock up over 100% in one day and did not trigger anything suspension) Our market sometimes very subjective everthing up to exchange.....some can go up 30% many days no UMA and some up 30% one day only straight kena UMA and crashing down the next day. All at their discredition.

yes profit vs fee is seperate topic agreed.......maybe because i really HATE overly calculative person so I always make sure I don't be same as them. I can be frugal or thrifty but I always make sure others make reasonable profit and not lose money because they also have family to feed. I'll stop here since this is IBKR thread not debating about profit vs fees or Malaysia market......hahaha

if let say RM100,000 how much can save?