Step-By-Step Guide To Opening a Syfe Trade Account – And Buying Fractional Shares (With Commission-Free Trades Each Month)

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By now, many investors in Singapore would already be familiar with Syfe’s robo-advisory solutions. Since its launch in 2019, Syfe has built out its range of managed portfolios that we can invest in. They include Syfe’s main Core Portfolios (Core Equity 100, Core Growth, Core Balanced, Core Defensive) as well as its Satellite REIT+ and thematic portfolios and even Custom Portfolio. In addition, Syfe also allows us to grow our cash savings by parking it in money market funds via its Cash+ solution.

These solutions have positioned Syfe as a trusted and comprehensive digital wealth advisor in Singapore. Keeping with its track record of providing innovative new features for investors, Syfe has now launched Syfe Trade – a low-cost, MAS-regulated, brokerage service enabling Singapore investors to buy and sell U.S. stocks and ETFs.

With Syfe Trade, investors can now access a unique fintech solution enabling us to integrate our robo-advisory managed portfolio with self-directed investing. On the Syfe app, we now have the ability to take a bird’s eye view of our entire investment portfolio that includes individual stocks and ETFs that we invest in AND also robo-advisory portfolios and cash savings within a cash management account.

Essentially, we no longer need to keep our robo-advisory portfolios and the individual stocks/ETFs that we invest in on different platforms. With Syfe, we can now have it all done on a single platform.

For those interested in Syfe’s all-in-one investment solution, or just its low-cost brokerage solution, here’s a step-by-step guide to opening our Syfe Trade account.

Read Also: Investing With Syfe: 6 Things You Need To Know About This Singapore’s Robo-Advisor

Step 1: Download Syfe mobile app on your phone

Note: If you already have a Syfe account, you can skip to step 4.

First, download the Syfe app on our phone via the Google Play, Apple’s App Store or Huawei’s AppGallery. You can also access the Syfe website directly via your browser. For this article, all screenshots for the steps below are from our mobile phone.

Step 2: Open your Syfe account

If we’re not already investing in Syfe’s managed portfolios, then we will need to open an account with Syfe first. We can open our Syfe Trade account entirely online, either by using Singpass to verify our identities and details or by manually entering it and uploading supporting documents.

We should click “Create account” under the Syfe Trade window.

Thereafter, we can start the registration process. We chose the Singpass method…because it takes 3 to 5 mins compared to having to compile documents and waiting 1 to 2 business days if we did this manually.

Step 3: Complete Your Investment Knowledge Assessment

Next, we need to complete an investment knowledge assessment form. There are two parts to this.

First, we need to verify if we have the relevant knowledge to invest in a Specified Investment Product (SIP). Secondly, we’ve should also have completed the SGX Online Education on SIP in the past 3 years, and that we scored above 50% for the assessment. We should also not have been refused on four occasions by other financial institutions to open an SIP trading account.

Step 4: Sign off on Syfe Trade contract details

After completing the forms, we can provide a final sign-off electronically. This is a simple verification that we understand the agreement and that the information we’ve already provided is accurate.

An email with the forms that we have signed will also be sent to us for record-keeping.

Step 5: Transfer funds into our Syfe Trade Account

Once the formalities of signing up are done, we can start transferring funds into our Syfe Trade account via PayNow, Fast, TT, or other methods – to start investing.

We can do this by hitting the “plus” logo that is beside “Buying Power”. For us, we use PayNow to transfer funds into our Syfe Trade account. This means we would insert Syfe’s UEN and our reference code to verify that the transfer is from us.

 

After depositing our funds into our Syfe Trade account, we can be assured that our investment funds are safe.

Firstly, Syfe Trade is an MAS-regulated capital markets services licence holder and the investment funds that we deposit are held in a custodian account. What this means is that the funds are meant solely for any investments we make, and are not accessible by anyone else including Syfe for their own working capital. Individual accounts are also insured by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) up to US$500K against brokerage failure.

Trade Fractional Shares With Syfe Trade

Apart from being the only fintech solution to marry both robo-advisory and self-directed investing, Syfe Trade is one of the few brokerages in Singapore to offer fractional trading. What this means is that we can buy and sell a fraction of a single share.

Unlike the Singapore market, many popular blue-chip shares in the U.S. can trade in the tens, hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars! Fortunately, we can invest in just a single share in the U.S. markets as opposed to 100 shares for SGX-listed stocks.

For example, some stocks we’re looking at in our watchlist include Intel Corp, which is trading at US$32.81. This means we can invest in one Intel share for as little as US$32.81 and one SEA Limited share for about US$84.08.

However, to own just one share of Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class A, we need to fork out US$478,005, which just isn’t possible for most of us retail investors – that’s the cost of an HDB flat!

With fractional trading, we can start investing in shares including those like Berkshire Hathaway that have a large sticker price. We wouldn’t need to have several thousand dollars just to start gaining exposure to companies with high share prices.

The other benefit of fractional investing is that we don’t have to leave unutilised funds in our trading account if we don’t want to. Instead, we can deploy the entire amount to purchase fractional amounts of a share.

For example, if we have US$1,000 in our account and want to purchase Microsoft shares today (US$291.60) as of 7 April 2023, a traditional broker would only allow us to purchase 3 shares – which costs US$874.80. This leaves us with US$152.20 in our account that is undeployed. However, with Syfe Trade, we can do fractional investing which means we can choose to invest all US$1,000 to own about 3.43 units of Microsoft shares.

We can even invest with a much smaller starting capital. Even if we had US$200 to invest, we could choose to allocate US$100 each to Tesla (US$185.06) and Alphabet (US$108.90) to buy about 0.54 Tesla shares and 0.91 Alphabet shares. This allows us to more easily implement a Dollar-Cost Averaging strategy in the companies that we want to invest in, based on the monthly budget that we set aside.

Read Also: ESG, Disruptive Technology & Healthcare Innovation: Why It Makes Sense To Start Investing In These Themes With Syfe (And How To Get Started)

Enjoy Commission-Free Trades Each Month

Syfe Trade allows us to trade for free every month! During the first three months when you sign up, we can enjoy 3 commission-free trades each month – which should be more than enough for most investors, unless you are into day trading. After the promotional period, we will continue to perpetually enjoy 2 free trades each month on Syfe Trade. These free trades can be enjoyed without having to jump through any hurdles such as providing a referral or making a minimum number of trades.

Not only does Syfe maximise our funds into investments we want to make via fractional trading, but it also maximises our returns by offering one of the cheapest brokerage trading fees. Syfe’s brokerage fee is a flat US$1.49 thereafter. Remember, this fee is only applicable after you have utilised your free trades each month.

Compared to many traditional local brokers – which continue to charge a minimum of US$20 to US$25 per trade – this is much lower. Even when compared to other low-cost brokerages in Singapore, this flat fee is one of the lowest.

This is also provided without any caveats such as inactivity fees, withdrawal fees or platform fees.

When we start trading, there also aren’t any hidden costs in receiving real-time stock quotes. What many investors may not realise is that their traditional local brokerages may be providing delayed stock prices. Certain low-cost brokerages may also be providing real-time stock quotes currently but this is only offered for a promotional period. With Syfe Trade, you get real-time stock quotes for free!

Start Investing (For Free) With Syfe Now

Syfe is an easy way for any new investors to get started on their investing journey. New investors can choose to invest in one of Syfe’s core portfolios, and/or choose to make some self-direct investment decisions on their own by investing in specific companies or ETFs if they want investment exposure too. The minimum of two free trades each month also means you may not pay much commission fees unless you trade extensively each month.

If you are interested to get started on investing with Syfe, DollarsAndSense has an exclusive partnership with Syfe where you can enjoy a 0% management fee for the first $30,000 during the first 6 months after you sign up. Find out more about this promotion here.

Disclaimer: Not financial advice. References to specific securities are meant to illustrate the concept of fractionalisation and are neither intended nor to be construed as a recommendation or advice to buy any specific security. Please do your own research before making any investments at your own risk. Any form of investment carries risks and you should not interpret any returns in the article as what you’ll get. This advertisement has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

This article was first published on 19 January 2022 and we have updated it with the latest information.

Investing With Syfe: 7 Things You Need To Know About This Singapore’s Robo-Advisor

The post Step-By-Step Guide To Opening a Syfe Trade Account – And Buying Fractional Shares (With Commission-Free Trades Each Month) appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg.