Category: Investment

15 Hong Kong Custodian Brokerage Fees

Post author By Zhang Yang
Post date June 1, 2023
No Comments on 15 Hong Kong Custodian Brokerage Fees

In Hong Kong, there are no Central Depository (CDP) accounts like in Singapore. All brokerage accounts in Hong Kong are custodian accounts where the stocks are bought and held under the brokerage company.

While custodian accounts typically charge lower brokerage fees, there are many hidden charges when using custodian accounts such as:

Custodian fee
Account maintenance fee
Trading fee
Transfer fee

Money Smart lists 15 of the best online brokerage platforms in Hong Kong. I want to do a more detailed breakdown of their respective (hidden) charges so you can choose the best brokerage platform with peace of mind.

Tiger Brokers

You may have seen Tiger Brokers’ advertisement boasting 0% commission on Hong Kong stocks, but that is only valid for 365 days for new sign-ups. After 365 days, the commission is 0.03% of trade value or minimum HKD7/order, whichever is higher.

Meanwhile, here is the full breakdown of all the fees Tiger Brokers charges for using their platform:

Besides all these fees, there are also other service charges which are free for now:

Tiger Brokers presently holds brokerage licenses in Singapore, The U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. If you are investing in Hong Kong stocks through Tiger Brokers and the transaction goes through Singapore brokerage, Singapore government will levy a GST (Goods and Services Tax) at a rate of 8% on the above fees and charges.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Webull Securities

Webull Securities only supports trades in the US, Hong Kong and China markets. The 0% commission is only applicable for US stocks, and only for 183 days from date of account approval.

Webull charges 0.02% commission on Hong Kong trades, as well as HK$10/order trading platform fee.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers charges tiered commission fee depending on the monthly trade volume, from 0.05% – 0.015% of trade value.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Huatai Financial Holdings

Huatai Securities is a securities company in China. According to Huatai Hong Kong Stock Services Fees and Charges, there is no custodian fee.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Fosun Wealth

According to this Terms and Conditions, all transactions carried out from their trading app have lifetime 0% commission on all Hong Kong and US trades but there is a platform fee of HK$15/order.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Saxo

According to Saxo website, there is no platform fees, no custody fees and no inactivity fees.

Saxo charges a tiered commission fee based on whether you hold a Classic, Platinum or VIP account. The commission fee is 0.08% – 0.05% (minimum HKD18).

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Futu Securities

Futu Securities is an online brokerage platform that enables individual investors to trade U.S. and Hong Kong-listed stocks.

There is commission of 0.03% of transaction amount (minimum HK$3/order).

Platform fees is either fixed at HK$15/order or tiered HK$1 – KH$30 on accumulated monthly orders.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Valuable Capital

Valuable Capital is an investment service platform for Hong Kong and U.S. stocks.

I can’t find any information on the fees on Valuable Capital’s website so I ca’t confirm if the 0% commission for HK stocks is true and for how long.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

uSMART Securities

uSMART Securities mobile application is an advanced financial trading platform for global investors which supports trading of HK, US & A Stocks, and US Stock Options anytime.

uSMART Securities uses tiered commission 0.0025% – 0.08% (minimum KH$8/transaction), depending on total account asset. There is no platform fee.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

LONGBRIDGE Securities

Long Bridge Securities (HK) is an online one-stop overseas asset allocation. Longbridge covers 5 major securities markets including Singapore, Hong Kong and US.

Longbridge Securities charges 0.03% commission of trading amount (minimum HKD$3). Platform fee is either fixed at HKD$15/order or tiered based on monthly order volume.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Fulbright Securities

Fulbright Securities charges 0.15% commission (minimum HK$80) for online transactions and 0.20% for phone transactions (minimum HK$90).

There is no custody fee and no platform fees. Please refer to this table for reference (written in Chinese).

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

SoFi Hong Kong

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, SoFi is one of the largest and fastest growing fintech companies in the US. SoFi is now licensed in Hong Kong.

SoFi Hong Kong does not charge custody fee and there is no commission on Hong Kong and US stock trading.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

EBSI Direct

EBSI Direct charges 0.088% – 0.138% commission based on the monthly turnover. Phone orders are subject to a HKD20 surcharge per executed order.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Direct Spot

I can’t find the website for Direct Spot so we will just have to make do with the information I found on MoneySmart. According to this chart, the commission fee for Hong Kong stocks is 0.05% (minimum KH$30) for online transactions and 0.25% (minimum HK$200) for phone transactions.

Trading Tariff, Settlement Fees, Stamp Duty, SFC Transaction Levy and FRC Transaction Levy applies.

Metaverse Securities

According to Metaverse Securities website, commission is 0.059% (minimum HK$39.9) for online transactions, o.15% (minimum HK$100) for phone transactions.

According to this chart, there is no custody fee and platform fee but there is an inactivity fee of HK$20 per month.

Tags Investment

Investment

The Lazy Man’s Way of Picking Stocks

Post author By Zhang Yang
Post date May 1, 2023
No Comments on The Lazy Man’s Way of Picking Stocks

Many people are scared of buying stocks because they don’t know how to pick stocks. I learned this method of screening stocks from an investment newsletter and it has helped me tremendously. I call it The Lazy Man’s Way of Picking Stocks.

The Lazy Man’s Way of Picking Stocks

The Lazy Man’s Way of Picking Stocks is a set of stock screener values that I learned from an investment newsletter I signed up for years ago (I forgot the name of the newsletter).

The criteria are as follows:

Return on Equity > 15%
Debt to Equity Ratio < 2
Dividend Yield > 1%
Market Cap < 1 Billion

… let me explain the reasoning for each criteria below.

Market Cap < 1 Billion

Businesses valued over 1 billion are all big companies, and big companies have expensive stocks and slow-to-no growth. As a small time investor, we are looking for small-capitalisation companies that have growth potential.

Look for companies with market capitalisation of around 999 million.

Debt to Equity Ratio < 2

The debt-to-equity ratio (D/E ratio) shows how much debts a company has compared to its assets. A higher debt-to-equity means the company may have a harder time covering its liabilities.

Since we are looking for quality companies to invest in, we want the debt-to-equity ratio to be as low as possible, preferably less than 2.

Return on Equity > 15%

I use return on equity (ROE) to gauge a corporation’s profitability and how efficient in generating profits. The higher the ROE, the more efficient a company’s management is at germinating income and growth.

Dividend Yield > 1%

Dividend yield shows you how much dividend payout per year for every dollar invested in a stock.

My main objective is to generate passive income from my stock investments so dividend yield is crucial to me. If you are not buying stocks for dividend income, you can choose not to use this filter.

How to Use The Lazy Man’s Way of Picking Stocks

It’s simple! Go to the stock screener of any stock exchange site and input these criteria and you should get something like this:

You will only get a handful of company that fulfill such stringent criteria. I will do a stock screen every month and down the companies that make the cut. If a company consistently appear in the results for 6 months to a year, I will strongly consider buying the stock.

If anyone needs step-by-step instructions on how to use a stock screener with the above-mentioned criteria, leave a comment below and I will do one in a separate post.

Tags Investment, Singapore, Stocks

Investment

UOE Commercial REIT(TS0U.SI) – Why I Bought This Stock

Post author By Zhang Yang
Post date January 11, 2019
No Comments on UOE Commercial REIT(TS0U.SI) – Why I Bought This Stock

A few years after I started working, my mother started talking to me about investing my savings. I read about how Warren Buffet learned to invest, I read online investment blogs and I opened a trading account with UOB Kay Hian. I bought a bond … and I totally forgot about it until the bond matured.

Yeah, I am the type of “investor” who buy a stock and then forget all about it. I only remember about it when my mother asks me about it. I will take a look at the stock price and promotly forget about it again. It is an understatement to say that I am not motivated.

All that changed when I watched a video by a Taiwanese channel on YouTube called The Storm Media. There is this playlist called “Moonlight Economy” where they interviewed seasoned Taiwanese stock investors. There was one guy who retired at 40 years old because the dividends that he’s earning is more than his daytime job pay. These interviews made me believe that it is really possible to retire by 40 by investing in stocks. These “seasoned investors” showed how they go about choosing stocks.

This got me interested in stock investing once again. One of these guys talked about property investing, which is what we know as Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs). I went online to learn more abjout REITs and this sentence is what got me interested:

“REITs are required to distribute at least 90 percent of taxable income annually to shareholders as taxable dividends. In other word, a REIT cannot retain its earnings”.

That sounds like a money-making machine to me. So I went online and found this REITs page that lists out all the REITs available on the SGX. A few REITs caught my attention, one of which is OUE Commercial REIT so I went online to do a little research.

My Reasons for Buying OUE Commercial REITs shares:

Quality Properties

When you buy a REIT stock, you are esssntially buying properties, so the quality of the properties must be good in order to generate income for you.

OUE Commercial REITs portfolio consists of four commercial properties: OUE Bayfront, One Raffles Place, OUE Downtown and 91.2 strata interest in Lippo Plaza, a Grade A commercial building in Huangpu district in Puxi, Shanghai.

Sound Financials

As you can see from the chart above, OUE Commercial REITS has stable cashflow.

Stable Occupancy Rate

When you talk about REITs, which stands for Real Estate Investment Trust, you are actually investing in a cluster of properties. In this case, you are investing in commercial properties. It’s no use having beautiful buildings if no one rents the place. Hence, the occupancy rate is very important. That is where the money comes from.

As you can see from the chart above, OUE Commercial REITs’ occupancy rate has been consistently been over 90%, achieving higher-than-market occupancy rate.

Warren Buffet says, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

The steep drop in stock price is due to the acquisition of OUE Downtown. ProButterfly questions why OUE C-REIT is acquiring an asset when other REITs are selling as the commercial office sector in Singapore has been on a rally.

I know that I am probably very amateurish in my analysis and investment. Please let me know what you think of my analysis and OUE Commercial REIT stock in the comments below.

Tags Investment, Stocks