Hi. I am in the process of applying to open an account. Is it better to choose SGD or USD as the base currency? I have a Singapore bank account so I am not sure which is a better choice. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I was just thinking that using a Singapore bank to send US$ may incur unnecessary charges/or IB may apply unfavourable forex rates when converting. A case of which is the lesser of the 2 evils

Sorry, didn't see that post re IB'S referral incentive

This post has been edited by swiss228: Aug 11 2021, 08:21 PM

Thanks. Aldy submitted all documents, though they couldn't give me real time approval even though my IC photos seems clear.
As a matter of interest, just want to find out from posters here whether anyone uses CFD providers in Singapore?

Great!
All along, I was under the impression that CFDs are illegal for US brokerage houses.

Success! Just managed to open my IB account. Next step now is to fund it, and identify good trades. Any good suggestions? I am looking at SE. It's on a monstrous upward trajectory.

Hi. Can I ask whether it's automatic that IB give us margin facility? Coz I noticed the Buying Power is 4x my deposit. And, do I have to convert my SGD to USD before I put in the trade? Or can I convert after the trade has been done? Thank you.

Thanks for the clarification. I can't remember having to make a choice between cash or margin though. Maybe IB has made the default choice for its users now: margin facility for all. Now that margin facility is available in IB, the next question for me is: should I use it? Maybe 2x is enough: in the event we want to average out losses.

Hi.
Is there any difference between IBKR Singapore & IBKR US? I bookmarked IBKR Singapore, so everytime I portal logged in, I guess I get directed to Singapore website. I wasn't sure which website I use when I submitted my app. And, just a silly question: are our funds in IBKR protected? If so, is it under Singapore law or US law? Or it depends on what instruments are traded?

Thanks! That was really informative. I generated a Report and found that out I was on margin account, and on IBKR LLC, which means my funds are protected under SIPC regulations (whatever SPIC means). These are things that I wasn't aware of.

Best of all is their margin rate of 1.60% pa. It's cheaper borrowing from them than from our banks. Seems like buying quality US stock is a no brainer compared to buying local stocks. I should have started long time ago!

Hi. I am test driving the IBKR interface now. 1 thing I noticed is they put in a lot of safeguards when I put in an order: makes me hesitant to transmit the order. Anyone has the feeling of hesitancy when confronted with all those safeguard messages?

Thanks. I suppose we use it often enough, we get used to it.
BTW, I did my first trade in the HK Exchange. Is it advisable to convert to HKD? And, am I correct to assume, if I do not convert, I be using their margin facility at approx 1.60% pa. This question on forex conversion may have been asked numerous times, so I apologize if I did not RTFF. Too many pages.

Thanks. I just checked: 2.50%. Slightly higher

Thanks. I think I am quite comfortable with their 2.50%pa margin. So, I won't convert. Hopefully my stock goes up to erase the margin charges, and make a profit too!

Yes, that's what I mean. Hopefully upon liquidation ( on my terms), the profits are sufficient to cover both margin and brokerage charges.

If you didn't deposit any funds, I would suggest you slide the the button from "live" to "paper" at the portal login page. Also, may be a good idea to edit your answers to gain trading permission.

I find the US markets very volatile compared to the Singapore ones. The US blue chips capital gains are the best. If you compared the Singapore blue chips with SE ADR, the Singaporean co listed in NYSE, it's world of a difference. The five year returns of SE is an incredible 2,000+%, making Forest Li the richest Singaporean. We all probably know SE owns Shopee. I doubt any counters listed on SGX can beat that kind of returns. With the low trading fee for US stocks in IBKR, I take my chance with the US stocks.

Hi all.
I would like to compare and contrast IBKR with Fund Supermarket. Is it better to buy ETFs in IBKR or Fund Supermarket? Any comments would be much appreciated. Tq

The problem is knowing username and password is not enough. We have to tap our handphone to confirm the login. In my case, I use the Iphone and there's a need for Face ID recognition. If we are dead and gone, that might be a problem. Anyone has better ideas about this?