In the last few years, we have seen quite a number of independent brokerage firms popping out of nowhere. The idea that their platform charges an extremely low brokerage fee seems to make us think about their sustainability and how they are make money to survive the long game.

Low Cost Brokerages

Well, for consumers and folks who are talking about low costs – such competition will only benefit retail consumers and I will definitely take them into consideration. Interesting enough, the backers of Tiger Brokers are a Chinese online security brokerage firm in Beijing founded in 2014. Their investors are Interactive Brokers Inc, Jim Rogers, ZhenFund and Xiaomi Inc. Tiger Brokerage is listed on Nasdaq under ticker: TIGR.

Tiger Brokers

In Singapore, Tiger Brokers is under their subsidiary, Tiger Brokers (Singapore). The biggest sell for them is their 0.08% fee on the share value with no minimum fee for equities on SGX. They also do not charge a custodian fee.

The on boarding process is pretty simple and easy. You can also use SingPass to ease the sign up process. For funding purposes, SGD transfers takes only an hour or so during the weekdays. I transferred some funds to the platform at around 7.30 pm and funds were approved at around 8.15 pm. At the same time, I also tried out their withdrawal process. It takes about 24 hours to receive the funds in the bank account. It could be due to a first time withdrawal but I shall try it out to find out more. One important point is to deposit and withdraw funds in the same name as the one you use to register for the platform otherwise there will definitely be delays.

An impressive in-depth study on Tiger Broker can be found on Seedly article here: https://blog.seedly.sg/tiger-brokers-review/ and one of the key points about custodian was discussed in the article.

Mentioned on one of their paragraph: “Unlike the other brokerages operating in Singapore, Tiger Brokers does not have a custodian license and has to rely on a third-party broker or bank.” It means that they use a third party custodian bank and specifically two other banks (ANZ and CIMB). It also means that you do not need to worry about Tiger Broker going default since banks are holding your securities and funds.

I think that they are a good platform to invest some funds in but definitely not your core or bulk of your funds.

TIGER Promotions

There are some promotions for new signups which doesn’t seem too shabby:

• Free level 2 data on US or HK stocks for 30 days after registration
• Commission-free for 1 order of US&HK stocks in 30 days after opening an account
• Get up to $100 worth of stock vouchers when you deposit funds or transfer shares

1. Fund account with SGD 2,000-5,000 to get Stock Voucher worth SGD 30
2. Fund account with SGD 5,000-10,000 to get Stock Voucher worth SGD 50
3. Fund account with SGD 10,000-30,000 to get Stock Voucher worth SGD 70
4. Fund account with more than SGD 30,000 to get Stock Voucher worth SGD 100

Referrals

• Get an additional $100 worth of stock vouchers when you refer friends

1. Invite a total of 5 people to own SGD 10
2. Invite a total of 9 people to own SGD 20
3. Invite a total of 12 people to own SGD 30
4. Invite a total of 15 people to own SGD 40
5. Invite a total of 25 people to own SGD 100

If you find this as something interesting, please do use my referral code link here: https://www.tigersecurities.com/accounts?invite=S5LTM6

Here you can also find a funding guide from Tiger Brokers: https://youtu.be/AmgLNhDvA68

Disclaimer

If you like what I am sharing or if it resonates with you, do use my referral codes for other services at https://atomic-temporary-178675883.wpcomstaging.com/contact/

The pictures were taken from Tiger Brokerage website for this article.