The location of trade is nearly as important as what to trade. The question of platform has become more consequential to the retail investor community in Singapore since the range of options available to them has increased and the distinctions between them have become more material. Competition based on commission rates no longer applies to the brokers who now are rated on the speed of execution, the breadth of instruments, educational facilities, and the quality of their mobile experience. The outcome is a highly selective market, consisting of users who have in most instances opened and closed accounts in various platforms before they end up with one that suits them in a specific manner.
IG Group is a well-established participant in the Singaporean retail trading environment, and its market persistence contributes to the reasons why to some extent. IG was established in London in 1974 and is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and has been able to develop a reputation based on reliability in execution and the sheer variety of instruments it offers access to. Singapore based clients are able to trade in thousands of markets including indices, forex, commodities and shares and the proprietary interface of the platform is developed by decades of feedback and ratings by both professional and retail clients. IG still comes as a default option to traders that value depth of market access and institutional-quality tools in retail form.
Saxo Bank is in a distinct part of the competitive market, which is on the more advanced end of the retail market. Its platform, SaxoTraderGO, has been generally considered as one of the richest interfaces that a non-institutional trader can use in any part of Asia. The charting library, order management capabilities, and built-in research tools indicate the investment in the quality of the product which proves the positioning of the platform as a high-value option. The minimum deposit requirements at Saxo are also more than most of the rivals, which inherently limits its user base to traders who are not only serious about the activity but also do not want to test it on small amounts of money. The article suggests that that self-selection will tend to create a platform environment in which the quality of support provided to clients and platform stability are placed in the priority list.
CMC Markets has developed a huge following among active traders in Singapore and especially those who highly appreciate the charting experience. The Next Generation interface of the platform incorporates more than 115 technical indicators, a pattern recognition tool created with Autochartist and a client sentiment service that shows the aggregate position of other traders in real time. This is the final aspect that is discussed within the trading circles of Singapore, where the contrarian trading of thinning the retail crowd has become popular among the more seasoned members. The pricing model of CMC (uses spreads instead of commissions on most instruments) is more appropriate to traders who trade middle volumes of positions as opposed to those operating high-frequency strategies where a basis point can grow exponentially.
Plus500 represents the platform-as-simplicity philosophy taken seriously. Placing certain competitors with a multitude of data and analysis within their interfaces, Plus500 has actively chosen to minimise cognitive overheads and presented an interface that allows novice traders to navigate without the need to learn as intensively. The sacrifice is depth. The offering is small by comparison to IG or Saxo and will not satisfy experienced traders seeking finer order types, sophisticated charting, or integrated news feeds. To a first time CFD trading participant however, the transparency of the execution and the visual clarity of the site can potentially alleviate the intimidation aspect by a significant margin and Plus500 risk management defaults such as guaranteed stop-loss on select instruments can offer a certain level of structural protection that MAS insists on suitability.
Interactive Brokers is in a niche position by being technically more than a CFD platform. Its main product to advanced retail traders is the ability to access the market directly across all global markets, though its CFD products have gained greater interest with Singapore clients who desire to operate out of the same account in conventional securities and leveraged derivatives. The complexity of the platform is a fact and even its supporters admit this but the price structure of high volume traders is one of the most competitive in the market and the global market access is truly unparalleled with other retail-facing brokers. Those traders who have long since left behind the simpler platforms tend to refer to the migration to Interactive Brokers as the move that took time to get used to but eventually gave them more that they could do.
In addition to the set of established international brands, several Singapore-based or Asia-based platforms have strived to earn the loyalty of local residents by focusing on regional market knowledge and native language customer services. Both Phillip Capital and Tiger Brokers have invested in the development of CFD products as well as their main offerings in core equities and both have a local presence that is managed remotely by international competitors. To traders who appreciate the option of being able to communicate with a support representative who has an intuitive grasp of the Singapore regulatory environment without explanation, or who favor platforms whose design sense are in line with Asian patterns of user behaviour, these regional players offer a truly competitive alternative to the worldwide incumbents.
The choice of platforms is finally determined by the individual priorities of a trader, but those priorities are more likely to change with experience gained. The novice CFD trading participant can possibly appreciate simplicity, low minimum deposits and risk management features. An eighteen-month old trader who has a sizable account to manage and trades in various asset classes is likely to have different needs related to the speed of execution, depth of analysis, and cost effectiveness. The sites to which users stick through that transformation are the ones which have made investments in the low-end and high-end tier of their product at the same time, since they appreciate that the current entry-level user and the future advanced user are often the same person.