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Disclaimer: This article was written in collaboration with FUTU SG. While we are financially compensated by them, rest assured that what we have written below is the result of thorough research and presents our independent opinion! As always, we write with our readers’ interest in mind.
Introduction
Sign-Up Promo till 31 March 2022!
Personally, I have been very satisfied using well-established stock brokerage platforms (Interactive Brokers, Saxo and OCBC Securities). So when I saw news that Futu Singapore Pte. Ltd (FUTU SG), a new online brokerage company which offers competitive fees, was launching their moomoo app in Singapore, I immediately assumed that the interface would be tacky, with only very rudimentary stock analysis made available…and boy was I wrong.
I truly believe that moomoo powered by FUTU is an extremely powerful app, having used it myself. My account set up and fund transfers were fast and seamless, the app’s interface is user-friendly and intuitive, trading costs are extremely competitive, and the stock data analytics is unrivalled.
Sign-up Promo (Fund Deposit)
The current sign-up promo lasts till 31 March 2022 (9:59AM SG time), and includes:
- Free Sea Ltd (Shopee) Share worth S$120 as of 9 March
- Stock Cash Coupon worth S$30
- Commission-free trading for the first 180 days for US ,HK & SG markets
- Free Level 2 market data for US stocks
- Free SGX securities Level 1 real-time market data
To be eligible for the Sea Ltd Share, new users must deposit initial funds of at least S$2,700 (or US$2,000 or HK$16,000).
Additional Sign-up Promo (Share Transfer)
In addition, if users transfer in shares, there’s a reward depending on the value of the shares transferred. This promo also lasts till 31 December 2021 (9:59AM SG time).
- S$20,000 to S$50,000: Free US$50 Cash Coupon and US$50 Stock Cash Coupon
- S$50,000 to S$200,000: Free US$100 Cash Coupon and US$150 Stock Cash Coupon
- >S$200,000 to S$1,000,000: Free US$150 Cash Coupon and US$450 Stock Cash Coupon
- More than S$1000,000: Free iPhone 13 (256GB) worth S$1,469 (limited to first 50)
Click Here to Participate.
If you would like a run-through on how to get the sign-up promo, skip to Section 6 of the article.
Article Summary
1) Who is FUTU Holdings, FUTU SG & moomoo and is it a safe broker?
2) Stock exchanges and products available on moomoo app
3) Brokerage fee comparison against other Singapore brokers
4) Best-in-class user interface and data analytics
5) Sign up Promo (till 31 March 2022)
- Free Sea Ltd (Shopee) Share worth S$120 as of 9 March
- Stock Cash Coupon worth S$30
- Commission-free trading for the first 180 days for US ,HK & SG markets
- Free Level 2 market data for US stocks
- Free SGX securities Level 1 real-time market data
6) Steps to get a moomoo ID & open a FUTU SG Securities account
Appendix: moomoo app’s stock analysis tools
1) Who is FUTU Holdings, FUTU SG & moomoo, and is it a safe brokerage app?
FUTU is the company, moomoo is the app
Futu Holdings Limited (FUTU) is the company behind digitizing the online brokerage platform app – moomoo, and currently boosts a user base of over 13 million. FUTU and its subsidiaries have 35 licenses globally in key financial markets such as United States, Hong Kong SAR, Singapore & others.
I consider moomoo powered by FUTU a safe trading platform app because of the following reasons:
- In Singapore, Futu Singapore Pte. Ltd (FUTU SG), a subsidiary of FUTU, holds a Capital Markets Services (CMS) Licence from MAS. Before granting a CMS licence, MAS takes into account several factors such as the firm’s track record, key shareholders and personnel, and an assessment of the firm’s risk management and capital adequacy.
- FUTU is a sizeable company that’s listed on Nasdaq, with a market cap of US$18 billion. For context, iFast Corp (which operates FSMOne) and Interactive Brokers have market caps of US$1.3 billion and US$29 billion respectively.
- FUTU is backed by strategic investors which includes Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners.
- US securities are covered by Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), up to US$500k, in the event of financial failure by the broker. See SPIC website for more details.
2) Stock exchanges and products available on moomoo app
US, HK, and SG stocks
In Singapore, investment products available through the moomoo app are offered by FUTU SG. This includes the current access to US, HK and SG stocks.
In addition to single stocks, FUTU SG also allows users to trade options (on US and HK stocks), as well as SGX-listed futures. There are plans to further expand the derivatives product offering over time. Do note that FUTU doesn’t yet support covered calls, so your short calls will still be margined even though you hold sufficient underlying shares.
Although FUTU SG doesn’t offer access to the widest range of stock exchanges but it works well for most stock investors given that it covers the key markets. I’m hoping that access to the London Stock Exchange gets included in time, as many Singapore investors do invest in Irish-domiciled ETFs given the withholding tax considerations on US-listed ETFs.
3) Brokerage fee comparison against other Singapore brokers
Brokerage Rate Comparison
We have compiled the brokerage rates of selected brokers in Singapore, for investment into US/SG/HK stocks,to give you an idea of how competitive FUTU SG’s rates are.
The Result: Most Competitive Rates for 1st 180 Days
FUTU SG offers the most competitive pricing during the 1st 180 days promo period, where users would have their “trading commissions” waived and would only have to pay for “platform fees”.
Note: As a fully digitized platform, FUTU’s “platform fee” is used to invest in technologies that enables FUTU to continuously improve its platform services for a better user experience.
After the 1st 180 days, FUTU SG’s normal rate is on par with the most competitive rates that one can get when buying SG, US and HK stocks in Singapore.
4) Best-in-class user interface and stock analysis functions
Functionalities of moomoo
Prior to downloading the moomoo app, I thought that it would be used more for low-cost trade execution, rather than stock analysis. I was very wrong on the latter point…
There are many functionalities offered by moomoo powered by FUTU which are either not present in other brokerage platforms or would require the user to pay extra for.
Listing some functionalities in the moomoo trading app that I found particularly useful:
- Level 2 market data for US stocks (free of charge)
- In-depth company financial data
- Top shareholders, dividend history and share buyback history
- Stock comparison tool for peer analysis
- Stock’s short interest
I will first elaborate on what Level 2 market data is, since it’s advertised as a sign-up gift. For the other above-mentioned functionalities, we discuss them in greater detail in the Appendix.
Very importantly, free Level 2 market data (for US stocks)
Level 2 market data is useful for investors because it shows:
- real-time prices
- and market depth.
On real-time prices: Most brokers show stock price data that is 15 minutes delayed, particularly for overseas stocks. It’s common to have to pay extra to get access to real-time price data.
On market depth: When you see a stock price quote, most often you would see a bid and ask price, and the respective volumes that are queuing at both price levels. Having Level 2 market data would allow you to see the bid and ask orders across all price levels (see below image).
This is useful because it can help ascertain the stock’s support and resistance levels (see image below).
With this information on hand, possible scenarios could include:
- For stop loss orders, I could place it a tick below the price level where there’s substantial buy volumes (the support). This is because in the event that the support is broken, it is possible that the stock could see a meaningful sell off.
- For buy limit orders, I could place it a tick above where there’s a lot of buy volumes (the support). This would allow me to avoid having to queue behind a large amount of orders and risk my order not being filled. If my buy order is filled, there’s comfort in knowing that there’s strong buying volumes to support the stock price.
5) Sign up Promo (till 31 March 2022)
Details of Sign Up Promo
From now till 31 March 2021 (9:59AM SG time), moomoo powered by FUTU is offering a generous welcome gift bundle for new moomoo users.
Sign-up Promo (Fund Deposit)
The current sign-up promo lasts till 31 December 2021 (9:59AM SG time), and includes:
- Free Sea Ltd (Shopee) Share worth S$120 as of 9 March
- Stock Cash Coupon worth S$30
- Commission-free trading for the first 180 days for US ,HK & SG markets
- Free Level 2 market data for US stocks
- Free SGX securities Level 1 real-time market data
To be eligible for the Sea Ltd share, new users must deposit initial funds of at least S$2,700 (or US$2,000 or HK$16,000).
Additional Sign-up Promo (Share Transfer)
In addition, if users transfer in shares, there’s a reward depending on the value of the shares transferred. This promo also lasts till 31 December 2021 (9:59AM SG time).
- S$20,000 to S$50,000: Free US$50 Cash Coupon and US$50 Stock Cash Coupon
- S$50,000 to S$200,000: Free US$100 Cash Coupon and US$150 Stock Cash Coupon
- >S$200,000 to S$1,000,000: Free US$150 Cash Coupon and US$450 Stock Cash Coupon
- More than S$1000,000: Free iPhone 13 (256GB) worth S$1,469 (limited to first 50)
6) Steps to get a moomoo ID & open a FUTU SG Securities account
How to Sign Up!
Step 1: Sign up using this link
Step 2: Click “Claim Now” (see image below)
Step 3: Key in your email, desired password and Click “Sign Up” (see image below)
Step 4: Download the moomoo app and log in
Step 5: Register for a FUTU SG Securities Account
You have the option to use MyInfo to fill up most of the required info, and I took about 2 minutes to complete registration.
Step 6: Wait for account approval
You will receive an email to notify you once your account opening application is approved. Mine took only 9 minutes!
Step 7: Complete an initial deposit of SGD 2,700/HKD 16,000/USD 2,000 within 30 days
My SGD fund transfer was immediately received in my FUTU SG Securities account, , when using the “Instant Deposit via DDA” option below. That was a pleasant surprise.
The InvestQuest View:
moomoo powered by FUTU left us very impressed, by offering what investors need most – competitive pricing, an intuitive user interface, differentiated data analytic tools, and a very smooth account set up and fund transfer process. The generous sign-up bonus would be icing on the cake.
Our main gripe is that moomoo powered by FUTU currently doesn’t offer access to the London Stock Exchange, where bulk of the Irish-domiciled ETFs that are more tax-efficient for SG investors are listed. However, we heard that they are planning to expand to other markets soon – so we’re keeping a close watch on that.
All-in-all, we’re planning to add moomoo powered by FUTU to the list of our regular brokers! Beyond the free Apple (AAPL) and Nio (NIO) share, a competitive brokerage fee and the user interface makes it a very compelling choice.
Appendix: moomoo’s stock analysis tools
Earlier in Section 4, we listed several stock analytic tools that we found useful on the moomoo app, which includes:
- Level 2 market data for US stocks (free of charge)
- In-depth company financial data
- Top shareholders, dividend history and share buyback history
- Stock comparison tool for peer analysis
- Stock’s short interest
Having covered what Level 2 market data is previously, we will provide more details on the other tools below.
In-depth company financial data
Being able to view company financials is not uncommon. However, the moomoo app offers more in-depth information and better data visualization tools.
Using Apple (AAPL) stock as an example, the below screenshots were some of the company financials that I could retrieve via the moomoo app. I could even get access to the firm’s income statement, balance sheet and cashflow statement.
Stock comparison tool for peer analysis
moomoo app’s stock comparison tool can be useful for shortlisting the “best” stock within a peer group.
In the below example, I compared Apple, Facebook and Alphabet (Google). The stock comparison tool immediately retrieved the latest financial and valuation metrics across the three stocks, for an easy side-by-side comparison. You can even compare up to 6 stocks at once!
Another aspect that’s immensely useful is the charting of valuation multiples (such as P/E or P/B ratios) of the selected stocks in the same chart, across a time-series (see top section of the below image). This can help an investor to judge if there’s one particular stock that’s offering good relative value.
Top shareholders, dividend history and share buyback history
Knowing who the largest shareholders of a company, as well as the change in their shareholdings over time is important. For example, the recent purchase or sales of shares by substantial shareholders or key company insiders is often used as a trading signal for investors.
Information about upcoming dividends, historical dividend payouts, and share buybacks may also be found in the app.
Short interest
More investors are now paying attention to short interest ratios, in the hope of finding the next GameStop.
In the below image, we can view GameStop’s daily shorts transacted in recent trading days, as well as its short interest ratio over time (blue line in the bottom chart).
Disclaimer: All graphics and charts presented in this article are for illustration purposes only.
Costs, fees and freebies aside, I don’t recommend Tiger broker.
For me, Tiger broker is not for serious options traders. I have been using Tiger broker since Feb 2021 and was comfortable using it as you mentioned. However, as I learnt more about trading, I realized Tiger does not provide me with enough “weapons” to fight the battle.
1) Not able to make concurrent trade orders such as “Stop Loss Order” and “Sell Order” for the same trade. I make at least 100 trades a month and sometimes have as many as 10 open positions. How can I possibly monitor the price of every single one of them and manually do a buy or sell?
2) Being in Asia and trading US options, there is a huge time difference and I will not be able to monitor the market overnight. Each time, I have to choose to either defend (Stop loss) or attack (Limit order). I have no choice but to defend right? But so many times, the market went up, hit my target profit level and came down, taking out my stop loss order.
3) No “Trailing stop loss order” to choose from. This is a very useful “weapon” and allows you to ride the up or down trend until it reverses. I am not sure how everyone else is trading with Tiger, but if you are a serious day trader, you certainly need this “weapon”.
4) I have changed to Moomoo and now I have 8 “weapons” to choose. “Limit, Market, Stop Limit, Stop, Limit if Touched, Market if Touched, Trailing Stop Limit and Trailing Stop”. Best of all, I can also make concurrent orders for the same trade!
5) This is really really important because by setting all your stop loss and target margin, you completely remove your emotions and just let the bot execute your plan. You only have to focus on finding the right setup for entry. How many times have the market come down and you find yourself hesitating to cut the loss, hoping it will rebound and then market just goes down further and further until you bleed till you have no blood left?
6) Lastly, the only freebie I got from Tiger was when I made >100 trades a month to qualify as a “Gold trader” and I got 1 x free UBS share worth around US$17 from Tiger. For Moomoo, I deposited SGD$2.7K and I got 1 x free Pfizer share worth around US$47. After I made 3 trades, I got another 1 x free Pfizer. (All vaccines come in 2 shots right?)
My conclusion: IF you find yourself losing more than winning with Tiger, you have to wonder is it your problem or you don’t have enough “weapons” at your disposal? I have already feedback before to Tiger but so far nothing changed. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself and good luck!
Thanks for sharing your experience SJ, and glad to hear about your positive experience so far.