One of the first steps for anyone to kickstart their investment journey is choosing their ideal brokerage — whether to go for a traditional brokerage house or an online (and mobile) brokerage. As 2020 saw the rage of Covid-19 passing through, it might be an apt time to consider porting investments online — all within reach of your fingertips.
What are the differences between traditional brokerage firms and online brokers?
Both offline and online brokerages offer the same access to a variety of opportunities and markets. Traditional brokerages place pride in maintaining the broker-client relationship through more face-to-face interaction — where an assigned broker will guide and help you make investment decisions and inform you of opportune times to invest in a given asset. However, the catch would be potentially higher trading and commission fees. These extra costs could deter younger investors from attempting to invest as they do not necessarily have the same amount of investable income. Similarly, traditional brokerages’ service hours may be limited compared to an online brokerage to fetch data on-demand.
While online brokerages do not offer the customized broker experience, it provides the investor full control of their investment portfolio. Providing access to an avalanche of relevant trading data allows them to remain agile and abreast on the latest investment moves and experiment with their investment decisions. Those who would like to explore how the platform works could try out the paper version to familiarize themselves with the platform. Additionally, trades can be executed immediately, reducing the potential lag time between you and the broker. This lowers the entry barrier as costs are significantly reduced and may encourage young investors to jump on the bandwagon easily. However, that means online brokerage investors must be familiar with the service platform and much more research is required before any investment.
In a nutshell, before deciding on a traditional or an online brokerage, it’s wise to consider important factors such as your risk appetite, your schedule, whether you have enough knowledge on how the stock exchange works, the amount of capital you’d be investing, and ultimately, what you wish to reap out of your investment journey.
Bevy of investment instruments to grow your wealth via online brokerages
Online brokerages often have vast libraries of information, including up-to-date charts showing trading information and trends that are made accessible 24-7. Online brokerages, such as Tiger Brokers, have a bevy of tools that will help you make informed and enhanced decisions, ranging from news and market watches to candlestick charts and information about the given company or industry you are interested in. Knowing the difference between investing in stocks or mutual funds, for instance, is one of the first few steps to becoming a savvy investor, no matter new or seasoned.
At Tiger Brokers, we are constantly trying to improve our product offerings. The recent debut of our new product offering - Fund Mall allows you the chance to select public funds from world-renowned custodians with a wide range of fund categories such as money funds, bond funds and equity funds. These choices have been curated by the Tiger Brokers’ team under the fund’s assets under management (AUM), their track records and their investment strategies. Tiger Brokers does not charge additional platform fees if you buy, sell or switch funds in Fund Mall, giving more bang for your buck as your profit margin will not be impacted.
Having the right tools for your investment journey
Other than just data, many online brokerages today offer market diversification tools that could help investors diversify their portfolios or explore companies or industries they are passionate about. For example, the multi-asset accounts provide investors with exposure to different stocks and funds, which inherently prevents an investor from putting all your eggs in one basket. Having different types of assets in the various markets means that you will not be at the mercy of the markets’ volatility. It is all about the right tools, right information and the right help at the right time.
Tiger Brokers is always looking to add more platforms and uncover opportunities to present new options for all our investors. We always seek to provide the best to our clients anytime, anywhere, from complimentary real-time stock quotes, dedicated multilingual customer services during trading hours, and 24/7 finance news updates. In Q3 2020, Tiger Brokers amassed over 1 million customers worldwide, with a total trading volume of more than US$62.8 billion — making us a trusted source for all types of investments. With the push for digital acceleration in fintech companies, there is a growing appetite amongst the investor community to migrate to online brokerages.
Ultimately, there are always pros and cons to every decision made in life. While traditional brokers might give you a sense of security with their track record and reputation, online brokerages can harness the power of technology for you to chart your investment journey.
Investors who would like to take control of their investment portfolio can join the Tiger Brokers trading platform as an Ace Trader where you’ll get to enjoy 30% off commissions and free stocks! You’ll get a chance to relish stock vouchers and birthday gifts on the different tiers of being a Tiger Brokers’ trader!
Download the Tiger Trade app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or access it from your desktop. For more information on Tiger Brokers, please visit here.
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This article has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
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