How do we know whether these political and government policies have an impact on the businesses you invest in?

Perhaps a review of a slew of companies will tell you something. That is lots of work. But if you want your money to be safe, you got to do it. If this is not for you, there are always index funds.

Shangri-la Asia Limited (Stock code: 69) is a hotel operator listed in the Hong Kong Stock exchange. It is owned by Robert Kuok, His Daughter is the executive chair person.

Yesterday, Shangri-la Asia released its interim results.

It’s business involves

1. Owning and operating the hotels it owns. This can be directly or with joint venture partners Kerry Properties Limited (KPL) which is also affiliated with Robert Kuok


2. Owning and operating investment properties


3. Development of hotels


4. Management of hotels

The main bulk of its profits or EBITDA have come from owning and operating the hotels.

In total they operate around 102 hotels around the world.

Like a lot of property stocks in Hong Kong, there is a big discount to NAV. At the share price of HK$8.65 the market capitalization is about US$3.86 bil. Dividend yield is about 2.6%. Share price was as high at HK$18 at one point in the last 2 years.

If we take the annual report and value it, your RNAV could be US$6.8 bil if you use the historical cost minus depreciation for hotels or US$8 bil if I roughly estimate based on their EBITDA and Cap Rate.

You can see the upside.

Perhaps there is a need to look at the results more. These firms in HK all trade at a large discount but the unique thing about Shangri-la is that 10% of their EBITDA is in Hong Kong. Not too much but also not too little.

This period of protest brings out a learning lesson about the benefits of adequate diversification. You will notice that some of these service residence and hotel players are pretty diversified around the world.

A single protest event in HK affects Shangri-la but it could have been worst if its very concentrated. It would take a global slow down, or a secular shift in travel and hotel dynamics to really affect them.

Sometimes looking at the results of these companies gives you an assessment of just how bad or good things are in certain regions you are interested in.

China is one. How were they impacted by trade war, or for the matter are things slowing down?

And how was the protests affecting business.

A large amount of the properties owned by Shangri-la or under the associates is in China. They have hotels in Hong Kong as well.

So it is great that they provide some color on the Hong Kong and China situation.

The interim results show the results for the first 6 months.

Occupancy for both HK and China in the first half of the year was pretty good. The average daily rate (ADR) for China have weakened yer on year while the average daily rate for HK was better.

When we put occupancy together with ADR, it shows that the charge rate and quality for the HK hotels were doing better. China worse off.

RevPar for both declined, with China being more significant.

Here is the data, broken down by different cities in China.

Shangri-la Asia also furnish some general Hong Kong GDP and retail sales figures. I am more interested with the retail sales figures for the past 6 months. Not very optimistic about it.

According to the general tourism and restaurant data the 1.5 month’s protests really affected the visitor arrivals.

In the slide above, we can really appreciate the difference between the RevPar, ADR and Occupancy for the first 5 months of the year in 2 different sub-market in Hong Kong and the past 3 months.

If your business operates in an environment where it is dependent on good relations, tourism, these data does show that these protests will caused an impact of a larger degree.

Shangri-la’s China data gives me some glimpse of the situation there. Together with some other companies, it seems the slowdown is pretty evident.

DoLike MeonFacebook. I share some tidbits that is not on the blog post there often. You can also choose to subscribe to my content viaemail below.

Here are My Topical Resources on:

1. 
   Building Your Wealth Foundation– If you know and apply these simple financial concepts, your long term wealth should be pretty well managed. Find out what they are


2. 
   Active Investing– For the active stock investors. My deeper thoughts from my stock investing experience


3. 
   Learning about REITs– My Free “Course” on REIT Investing for Beginners and Seasoned Investors


4. Dividend Stock Tracker – Track all the common 4-10% yielding dividend stocks in SG


5. Free Stock Portfolio Tracking Google Sheets that many love


6. 
   Retirement Planning, Financial Independence and Spending down money– My deep dive into how much you need to achieve these, and the different ways you can be financially free


7. 
   Providend – Where I work doing research. Fee-Only Advisory. No Commissions. Financial Independence Advisers and Retirement Specialists. No charge for first meeting to understand how it works

The post Shangri-la Asia’s Presentation shows the Impact of Hong Kong Protest and China Slowdown appeared first on Investment Moats.

$Shangri-La HKD(S07.SI)

How do we know whether these political and government policies have an impact on the businesses you invest in?

Perhaps a review of a slew of companies will tell you something. That is lots of work. But if you want your money to be safe, you got to do it. If this is not for you, there are always index funds.

Shangri-la Asia Limited (Stock code: 69) is a hotel operator listed in the Hong Kong Stock exchange. It is owned by Robert Kuok, His Daughter is the executive chair person.

Yesterday, Shangri-la Asia released its interim results.

It’s business involves

1. Owning and operating the hotels it owns. This can be directly or with joint venture partners Kerry Properties Limited (KPL) which is also affiliated with Robert Kuok


2. Owning and operating investment properties


3. Development of hotels


4. Management of hotels

The main bulk of its profits or EBITDA have come from owning and operating the hotels.

In total they operate around 102 hotels around the world.

Like a lot of property stocks in Hong Kong, there is a big discount to NAV. At the share price of HK$8.65 the market capitalization is about US$3.86 bil. Dividend yield is about 2.6%. Share price was as high at HK$18 at one point in the last 2 years.

If we take the annual report and value it, your RNAV could be US$6.8 bil if you use the historical cost minus depreciation for hotels or US$8 bil if I roughly estimate based on their EBITDA and Cap Rate.

You can see the upside.

Perhaps there is a need to look at the results more. These firms in HK all trade at a large discount but the unique thing about Shangri-la is that 10% of their EBITDA is in Hong Kong. Not too much but also not too little.

This period of protest brings out a learning lesson about the benefits of adequate diversification. You will notice that some of these service residence and hotel players are pretty diversified around the world.

A single protest event in HK affects Shangri-la but it could have been worst if its very concentrated. It would take a global slow down, or a secular shift in travel and hotel dynamics to really affect them.

Sometimes looking at the results of these companies gives you an assessment of just how bad or good things are in certain regions you are interested in.

China is one. How were they impacted by trade war, or for the matter are things slowing down?

And how was the protests affecting business.

A large amount of the properties owned by Shangri-la or under the associates is in China. They have hotels in Hong Kong as well.

So it is great that they provide some color on the Hong Kong and China situation.

The interim results show the results for the first 6 months.

Occupancy for both HK and China in the first half of the year was pretty good. The average daily rate (ADR) for China have weakened yer on year while the average daily rate for HK was better.

When we put occupancy together with ADR, it shows that the charge rate and quality for the HK hotels were doing better. China worse off.

RevPar for both declined, with China being more significant.

Here is the data, broken down by different cities in China.

Shangri-la Asia also furnish some general Hong Kong GDP and retail sales figures. I am more interested with the retail sales figures for the past 6 months. Not very optimistic about it.

According to the general tourism and restaurant data the 1.5 month’s protests really affected the visitor arrivals.

In the slide above, we can really appreciate the difference between the RevPar, ADR and Occupancy for the first 5 months of the year in 2 different sub-market in Hong Kong and the past 3 months.

If your business operates in an environment where it is dependent on good relations, tourism, these data does show that these protests will caused an impact of a larger degree.

Shangri-la’s China data gives me some glimpse of the situation there. Together with some other companies, it seems the slowdown is pretty evident.

DoLike MeonFacebook. I share some tidbits that is not on the blog post there often. You can also choose to subscribe to my content viaemail below.

Here are My Topical Resources on:

1. 
   Building Your Wealth Foundation– If you know and apply these simple financial concepts, your long term wealth should be pretty well managed. Find out what they are


2. 
   Active Investing– For the active stock investors. My deeper thoughts from my stock investing experience


3. 
   Learning about REITs– My Free “Course” on REIT Investing for Beginners and Seasoned Investors


4. Dividend Stock Tracker – Track all the common 4-10% yielding dividend stocks in SG


5. Free Stock Portfolio Tracking Google Sheets that many love


6. 
   Retirement Planning, Financial Independence and Spending down money– My deep dive into how much you need to achieve these, and the different ways you can be financially free


7. 
   Providend – Where I work doing research. Fee-Only Advisory. No Commissions. Financial Independence Advisers and Retirement Specialists. No charge for first meeting to understand how it works

$Shangri-La HKD(S07.SI)

How do we know whether these political and government policies have an impact on the businesses you invest in?

Perhaps a review of a slew of companies will tell you something. That is lots of work. But if you want your money to be safe, you got to do it. If this is not for you, there are always index funds.

Shangri-la Asia Limited (Stock code: 69) is a hotel operator listed in the Hong Kong Stock exchange. It is owned by Robert Kuok, His Daughter is the executive chair person.

Yesterday, Shangri-la Asia released its interim results.

It’s business involves

1. Owning and operating the hotels it owns. This can be directly or with joint venture partners Kerry Properties Limited (KPL) which is also affiliated with Robert Kuok


2. Owning and operating investment properties


3. Development of hotels


4. Management of hotels

The main bulk of its profits or EBITDA have come from owning and operating the hotels.

In total they operate around 102 hotels around the world.

Like a lot of property stocks in Hong Kong, there is a big discount to NAV. At the share price of HK$8.65 the market capitalization is about US$3.86 bil. Dividend yield is about 2.6%. Share price was as high at HK$18 at one point in the last 2 years.

If we take the annual report and value it, your RNAV could be US$6.8 bil if you use the historical cost minus depreciation for hotels or US$8 bil if I roughly estimate based on their EBITDA and Cap Rate.

You can see the upside.

Perhaps there is a need to look at the results more. These firms in HK all trade at a large discount but the unique thing about Shangri-la is that 10% of their EBITDA is in Hong Kong. Not too much but also not too little.

This period of protest brings out a learning lesson about the benefits of adequate diversification. You will notice that some of these service residence and hotel players are pretty diversified around the world.

A single protest event in HK affects Shangri-la but it could have been worst if its very concentrated. It would take a global slow down, or a secular shift in travel and hotel dynamics to really affect them.

Sometimes looking at the results of these companies gives you an assessment of just how bad or good things are in certain regions you are interested in.

China is one. How were they impacted by trade war, or for the matter are things slowing down?

And how was the protests affecting business.

A large amount of the properties owned by Shangri-la or under the associates is in China. They have hotels in Hong Kong as well.

So it is great that they provide some color on the Hong Kong and China situation.

The interim results show the results for the first 6 months.

Occupancy for both HK and China in the first half of the year was pretty good. The average daily rate (ADR) for China have weakened yer on year while the average daily rate for HK was better.

When we put occupancy together with ADR, it shows that the charge rate and quality for the HK hotels were doing better. China worse off.

RevPar for both declined, with China being more significant.

Here is the data, broken down by different cities in China.

Shangri-la Asia also furnish some general Hong Kong GDP and retail sales figures. I am more interested with the retail sales figures for the past 6 months. Not very optimistic about it.

According to the general tourism and restaurant data the 1.5 month’s protests really affected the visitor arrivals.

In the slide above, we can really appreciate the difference between the RevPar, ADR and Occupancy for the first 5 months of the year in 2 different sub-market in Hong Kong and the past 3 months.

If your business operates in an environment where it is dependent on good relations, tourism, these data does show that these protests will caused an impact of a larger degree.

Shangri-la’s China data gives me some glimpse of the situation there. Together with some other companies, it seems the slowdown is pretty evident.

DoLike MeonFacebook. I share some tidbits that is not on the blog post there often. You can also choose to subscribe to my content viaemail below.

Here are My Topical Resources on:

1. 
   Building Your Wealth Foundation– If you know and apply these simple financial concepts, your long term wealth should be pretty well managed. Find out what they are


2. 
   Active Investing– For the active stock investors. My deeper thoughts from my stock investing experience


3. 
   Learning about REITs– My Free “Course” on REIT Investing for Beginners and Seasoned Investors


4. Dividend Stock Tracker – Track all the common 4-10% yielding dividend stocks in SG


5. Free Stock Portfolio Tracking Google Sheets that many love


6. 
   Retirement Planning, Financial Independence and Spending down money– My deep dive into how much you need to achieve these, and the different ways you can be financially free


7. 
   Providend – Where I work doing research. Fee-Only Advisory. No Commissions. Financial Independence Advisers and Retirement Specialists. No charge for first meeting to understand how it works

$Shangri-La HKD(S07.SI)

There are a bunch of investors who are always searching for a cost effective broker platform. Through these platform they wish to handle the majority of their transactions.

I think cost is one aspect but there are other considerations

1. Think in terms of whether the broker will continue to be in business


2. If you have a problem with the platform, or your trade, are they responsive


3. The variety of products they allow you to trade


4. How easy will it be for you to transfer your money in to start and transfer the money out


5. How intuitive is the interface

One of my friend told me that Interactive Brokers (IBKR) are in the midst of setting up their Singapore office. They are probably in the process of getting the necessary license through MAS to operate in Singapore.

My friend did a check in ACRA (that is diligent of him) and it seems they really did setup this year.

Subsequently, a reader from Telegram group informed me that Interactive Brokers have posted an ad on LinkedIn looking for a role in Singapore:

Interactive Brokers was in Singapore but this time round, maybe they are looking for something more.

The Benefits of Interactive Brokers

The biggest deal about having an overseas broker having a local office is perhaps that it gives both sides an opportunity to build trust with each other.

The older investors would feel uneasy having their net worth in anything other than CDP, or the traditional brokers such as Vickers, Kay Hian and GK Goh.

The younger investors do not know what the big deal about this. They probably assume some of worries of the older investors would not happen to them. They are more accepting about this.

The more savvy local investors are familiar or at least have heard of IBKR. In my Dimensional Fund Advisers article, I pitted the cost for the Roboadvisers, the banks and my current company against do it yourself investing with a IBKR broker.

Comparing the cost stack for various ways to invest in low cost funds

Their commission for the fixed tier, which is 0.05% subject to the minimum of US$5 is pretty hard to beat.

In recent years, the local brokers such as iFAST, POEMS, Kim Eng, and like, have started to offer pre-paid accounts. These are accounts where you keep your shares with the broker. They become your custodian. You are able to get 0.08% to 0.12% per transaction commissions.

We should not be comparing against transaction cost of 0.25%, which is what offer by traditional brokers (full disclosure: I am still paying at such obscenely not cheap charges)

The appeal of IBKR is the whole package:

1. It is a listed US Company. Actually, it may be a company you wish to invest in


2. The way I think about it, people outside of US are looking for a platform that is cost effective enough to invest through. Turns out the savvy folks out of US, whether is Europe, Hong Kong or Singapore uses IBKR


3. If your account size is US$100,000, there are no custodian charges. If you have less it is $10 per month unless you make certain trades. As you make some trades, it gets deducted from this $10. To me this is not a problem even if your amount is small. Eventually, if you follow my wealthy formula, it is likely you will have US$100,000. Your $120/yr is just going to spread over the future years


4. The commission is low as previously stated


5. They allow you to invest in a lot of markets


6. Thus those who wishes to buy UCITS Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) that is relatively low cost, listed in London Stock Exchange are able to do so at very low cost


7. With different broker platforms, you tend to incur some cost when you convert between SGD to USD, GBP or HKD. This is typically in the 0.50% range more or less. What I understand is the slippage in this is very very low


8. Many have complained that their platform is not intuitive. To me this is perhaps just trying to get used to. I heard they are able to compute your portfolio overall return and let you review these numbers. I think that is a benefit of housing all your net wealth in one platform


9. Currently, Singaporeans can FAST transfer their money in. You can Google around to see the process

A lot of advantages, very little disadvantages. The main one from what I understand, as Singaporeans, you cannot trade Singapore stocks through IBKR. Overseas investors can (very ironic)

My friend have list out some of the advantages he sees as a private investor:

1. It is easier to manage your account through a local office in Raffles Place area


2. It gives greater confidence in Singapore based users


3. May be easier for Independent Financial Advisers to set up and manage B2B enterprise accounts with IB


4. Put pressure on local brokers. So this may result in things cheaper for everyone

I like the B2B angle. A lot of the current B2B business is undertaken by IFAST. IBKR have their institutional side of the business.

It remains to be seen whether they prefer to focus on the B2B or B2C portion of things. I think there might be very little alternative to IFAST. The rest of the B2B platform, from what I heard, were not able to deliver as good of a service than IFAST.

With some competition, we might be able to enjoy better rates. Of course, we may benefit when local brokers scramble to try and offer what IBKR is able to.

DoLike MeonFacebook. I share some tidbits that is not on the blog post there often. You can also choose to subscribe to my content viaemail below.

Here are My Topical Resources on:

1. 
   Building Your Wealth Foundation– If you know and apply these simple financial concepts, your long term wealth should be pretty well managed. Find out what they are


2. 
   Active Investing– For the active stock investors. My deeper thoughts from my stock investing experience


3. 
   Learning about REITs– My Free “Course” on REIT Investing for Beginners and Seasoned Investors


4. Dividend Stock Tracker – Track all the common 4-10% yielding dividend stocks in SG


5. Free Stock Portfolio Tracking Google Sheets that many love


6. 
   Retirement Planning, Financial Independence and Spending down money– My deep dive into how much you need to achieve these, and the different ways you can be financially free


7. 
   Providend – Where I work doing research. Fee-Only Advisory. No Commissions. Financial Independence Advisers and Retirement Specialists. No charge for first meeting to understand how it works

The post Interactive Brokers setting Up Singapore Offices appeared first on Investment Moats.

There are a bunch of investors who are always searching for a cost effective broker platform. Through these platform they wish to handle the majority of their transactions.

I think cost is one aspect but there are other considerations

1. Think in terms of whether the broker will continue to be in business


2. If you have a problem with the platform, or your trade, are they responsive


3. The variety of products they allow you to trade


4. How easy will it be for you to transfer your money in to start and transfer the money out


5. How intuitive is the interface

One of my friend told me that Interactive Brokers (IBKR) are in the midst of setting up their Singapore office. They are probably in the process of getting the necessary license through MAS to operate in Singapore.

My friend did a check in ACRA (that is diligent of him) and it seems they really did setup this year.

Subsequently, a reader from Telegram group informed me that Interactive Brokers have posted an ad on LinkedIn looking for a role in Singapore:

Interactive Brokers was in Singapore but this time round, maybe they are looking for something more.

The Benefits of Interactive Brokers

The biggest deal about having an overseas broker having a local office is perhaps that it gives both sides an opportunity to build trust with each other.

The older investors would feel uneasy having their net worth in anything other than CDP, or the traditional brokers such as Vickers, Kay Hian and GK Goh.

The younger investors do not know what the big deal about this. They probably assume some of worries of the older investors would not happen to them. They are more accepting about this.

The more savvy local investors are familiar or at least have heard of IBKR. In my Dimensional Fund Advisers article, I pitted the cost for the Roboadvisers, the banks and my current company against do it yourself investing with a IBKR broker.

Comparing the cost stack for various ways to invest in low cost funds

Their commission for the fixed tier, which is 0.05% subject to the minimum of US$5 is pretty hard to beat.

In recent years, the local brokers such as iFAST, POEMS, Kim Eng, and like, have started to offer pre-paid accounts. These are accounts where you keep your shares with the broker. They become your custodian. You are able to get 0.08% to 0.12% per transaction commissions.

We should not be comparing against transaction cost of 0.25%, which is what offer by traditional brokers (full disclosure: I am still paying at such obscenely not cheap charges)

The appeal of IBKR is the whole package:

1. It is a listed US Company. Actually, it may be a company you wish to invest in


2. The way I think about it, people outside of US are looking for a platform that is cost effective enough to invest through. Turns out the savvy folks out of US, whether is Europe, Hong Kong or Singapore uses IBKR


3. If your account size is US$100,000, there are no custodian charges. If you have less it is $10 per month unless you make certain trades. As you make some trades, it gets deducted from this $10. To me this is not a problem even if your amount is small. Eventually, if you follow my wealthy formula, it is likely you will have US$100,000. Your $120/yr is just going to spread over the future years


4. The commission is low as previously stated


5. They allow you to invest in a lot of markets


6. Thus those who wishes to buy UCITS Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) that is relatively low cost, listed in London Stock Exchange are able to do so at very low cost


7. With different broker platforms, you tend to incur some cost when you convert between SGD to USD, GBP or HKD. This is typically in the 0.50% range more or less. What I understand is the slippage in this is very very low


8. Many have complained that their platform is not intuitive. To me this is perhaps just trying to get used to. I heard they are able to compute your portfolio overall return and let you review these numbers. I think that is a benefit of housing all your net wealth in one platform


9. Currently, Singaporeans can FAST transfer their money in. You can Google around to see the process

A lot of advantages, very little disadvantages. The main one from what I understand, as Singaporeans, you cannot trade Singapore stocks through IBKR. Overseas investors can (very ironic)

My friend have list out some of the advantages he sees as a private investor:

1. It is easier to manage your account through a local office in Raffles Place area


2. It gives greater confidence in Singapore based users


3. May be easier for Independent Financial Advisers to set up and manage B2B enterprise accounts with IB


4. Put pressure on local brokers. So this may result in things cheaper for everyone

I like the B2B angle. A lot of the current B2B business is undertaken by IFAST. IBKR have their institutional side of the business.

It remains to be seen whether they prefer to focus on the B2B or B2C portion of things. I think there might be very little alternative to IFAST. The rest of the B2B platform, from what I heard, were not able to deliver as good of a service than IFAST.

With some competition, we might be able to enjoy better rates. Of course, we may benefit when local brokers scramble to try and offer what IBKR is able to.

DoLike MeonFacebook. I share some tidbits that is not on the blog post there often. You can also choose to subscribe to my content viaemail below.

Here are My Topical Resources on:

1. 
   Building Your Wealth Foundation– If you know and apply these simple financial concepts, your long term wealth should be pretty well managed. Find out what they are


2. 
   Active Investing– For the active stock investors. My deeper thoughts from my stock investing experience


3. 
   Learning about REITs– My Free “Course” on REIT Investing for Beginners and Seasoned Investors


4. Dividend Stock Tracker – Track all the common 4-10% yielding dividend stocks in SG


5. Free Stock Portfolio Tracking Google Sheets that many love


6. 
   Retirement Planning, Financial Independence and Spending down money– My deep dive into how much you need to achieve these, and the different ways you can be financially free


7. 
   Providend – Where I work doing research. Fee-Only Advisory. No Commissions. Financial Independence Advisers and Retirement Specialists. No charge for first meeting to understand how it works

There are a bunch of investors who are always searching for a cost effective broker platform. Through these platform they wish to handle the majority of their transactions.

I think cost is one aspect but there are other considerations

1. Think in terms of whether the broker will continue to be in business


2. If you have a problem with the platform, or your trade, are they responsive


3. The variety of products they allow you to trade


4. How easy will it be for you to transfer your money in to start and transfer the money out


5. How intuitive is the interface

One of my friend told me that Interactive Brokers (IBKR) are in the midst of setting up their Singapore office. They are probably in the process of getting the necessary license through MAS to operate in Singapore.

My friend did a check in ACRA (that is diligent of him) and it seems they really did setup this year.

The Benefits of Interactive Brokers

The biggest deal about having an overseas broker having a local office is perhaps that it gives both sides an opportunity to build trust with each other.

The older investors would feel uneasy having their net worth in anything other than CDP, or the traditional brokers such as Vickers, Kay Hian and GK Goh.

The younger investors do not know what the big deal about this. They probably assume some of worries of the older investors would not happen to them. They are more accepting about this.

The more savvy local investors are familiar or at least have heard of IBKR. In my Dimensional Fund Advisers article, I pitted the cost for the Roboadvisers, the banks and my current company against do it yourself investing with a IBKR broker.

Comparing the cost stack for various ways to invest in low cost funds

Their commission for the fixed tier, which is 0.05% subject to the minimum of US$5 is pretty hard to beat.

In recent years, the local brokers such as iFAST, POEMS, Kim Eng, and like, have started to offer pre-paid accounts. These are accounts where you keep your shares with the broker. They become your custodian. You are able to get 0.08% to 0.12% per transaction commissions.

We should not be comparing against transaction cost of 0.25%, which is what offer by traditional brokers (full disclosure: I am still paying at such obscenely not cheap charges)

The appeal of IBKR is the whole package:

1. It is a listed US Company. Actually, it may be a company you wish to invest in


2. The way I think about it, people outside of US are looking for a platform that is cost effective enough to invest through. Turns out the savvy folks out of US, whether is Europe, Hong Kong or Singapore uses IBKR


3. If your account size is US$100,000, there are no custodian charges. If you have less it is $10 per month unless you make certain trades. As you make some trades, it gets deducted from this $10. To me this is not a problem even if your amount is small. Eventually, if you follow my wealthy formula, it is likely you will have US$100,000. Your $120/yr is just going to spread over the future years


4. The commission is low as previously stated


5. They allow you to invest in a lot of markets


6. Thus those who wishes to buy UCITS Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) that is relatively low cost, listed in London Stock Exchange are able to do so at very low cost


7. With different broker platforms, you tend to incur some cost when you convert between SGD to USD, GBP or HKD. This is typically in the 0.50% range more or less. What I understand is the slippage in this is very very low


8. Many have complained that their platform is not intuitive. To me this is perhaps just trying to get used to. I heard they are able to compute your portfolio overall return and let you review these numbers. I think that is a benefit of housing all your net wealth in one platform


9. Currently, Singaporeans can FAST transfer their money in. You can Google around to see the process

A lot of advantages, very little disadvantages. The main one from what I understand, as Singaporeans, you cannot trade Singapore stocks through IBKR. Overseas investors can (very ironic)

My friend have list out some of the advantages he sees as a private investor:

1. It is easier to manage your account through a local office in Raffles Place area


2. It gives greater confidence in Singapore based users


3. May be easier for Independent Financial Advisers to set up and manage B2B enterprise accounts with IB


4. Put pressure on local brokers. So this may result in things cheaper for everyone

I like the B2B angle. A lot of the current B2B business is undertaken by IFAST. IBKR have their institutional side of the business.

It remains to be seen whether they prefer to focus on the B2B or B2C portion of things. I think there might be very little alternative to IFAST. The rest of the B2B platform, from what I heard, were not able to deliver as good of a service than IFAST.

With some competition, we might be able to enjoy better rates. Of course, we may benefit when local brokers scramble to try and offer what IBKR is able to.

DoLike MeonFacebook. I share some tidbits that is not on the blog post there often. You can also choose to subscribe to my content viaemail below.

Here are My Topical Resources on:

1. 
   Building Your Wealth Foundation– If you know and apply these simple financial concepts, your long term wealth should be pretty well managed. Find out what they are


2. 
   Active Investing– For the active stock investors. My deeper thoughts from my stock investing experience


3. 
   Learning about REITs– My Free “Course” on REIT Investing for Beginners and Seasoned Investors


4. Dividend Stock Tracker – Track all the common 4-10% yielding dividend stocks in SG


5. Free Stock Portfolio Tracking Google Sheets that many love


6. 
   Retirement Planning, Financial Independence and Spending down money– My deep dive into how much you need to achieve these, and the different ways you can be financially free


7. 
   Providend – Where I work doing research. Fee-Only Advisory. No Commissions. Financial Independence Advisers and Retirement Specialists. No charge for first meeting to understand how it works