Trading stocks in Singapore begins with a choice between broker and account setups that determine how you hold assets and how your orders are executed. The primary venue for listed equities is SGX, and the market’s safety and integrity are supervised by MAS. From the investor’s perspective, the most visible layer is the trading platform—typically a broker’s proprietary interface—backed by a series of less visible yet crucial technologies.
Two holding models anchor the market. The first is direct ownership through a CDP (Central Depository) account, where Singapore-listed shares are recorded in your name. The second is a custodian model, where the broker keeps legal title on your behalf and maintains sub-ledgers. CDP accounts offer easy transfer between brokers and clear entitlement handling, while custodial structures may offer lower commissions, streamlined access to global markets, and quicker account opening. Your choice impacts corporate action processing, portability, and certain fee line items.
Platform variety is rich. Local institutions like POEMS, iOCBC, UTRADE, and DBS Vickers appeal to investors who want ties to domestic banks and research desks, often with access to relationship managers. Global brokers such as Saxo and Interactive Brokers specialize in multi-asset reach—stocks, options, futures—with robust risk tools and APIs. Newer entrants like Tiger Brokers and Moomoo build around mobile-first design, social/community features, and aggressive pricing campaigns.
Execution quality weaves together order types, routing, and market microstructure. SGX provides a central order book with continuous matching and auction phases. Most retail orders are limit or market-to-limit; conditional orders (e.g., stop-limit, trailing) help manage risk around catalysts. Time-in-force settings—day, good-till-date, immediate-or-cancel—shape how long orders rest. Institutional desks may access broker algorithms (e.g., TWAP/VWAP) or bespoke DMA pipes; retail users experience this indirectly through platform features like order slicing or bracket orders.
Technology standards make the ecosystem interoperable. FIX messaging allows brokers to connect to exchange gateways and risk engines consistently. Pre-trade risk checks (position limits, price collars) protect both clients and brokers. Post-trade, trades settle on T+2 with CDP or the custodian handling entitlement reconciliation. For speed-sensitive participants, SGX colocation and low-latency connectivity minimize hops; retail users benefit from stability and orderly price discovery more than from microsecond advantages.
Onboarding and safety have evolved rapidly. E-KYC using MyInfo compresses account opening timelines. Dual-factor authentication, device fingerprinting, and encryption are routine. MAS’s technology risk guidelines drive audits, disaster recovery testing, and vendor oversight—critical given the sector’s deep reliance on third-party infrastructure and cloud services.
Data and research complete the picture. Depth-of-market subscriptions expose multiple price levels, complementing time-and-sales for reading liquidity. SGXNet is the official disclosure channel, while broker platforms integrate screeners, valuation dashboards, and earnings calendars. For developers, APIs from IBKR and Saxo allow strategy automation; even without coding, many platforms offer rules engines for alerts and conditional triggers.
Fees matter: commissions, exchange and clearing components, market data packages, FX conversion for overseas trades, and potential platform subscriptions. Singapore typically does not tax capital gains for individuals, but frequent, profit-seeking activity could be treated differently—an area for personalized tax advice. In practice, you’ll want to rank platforms by reliability during volatile sessions, availability of depth and conditional orders, global access, and whether you value CDP portability over custodial pricing bundles.
