UOB Kay Hian-Overview of Minimum Deposit, Leverage, Spreads

GENERAL INFORMATION

Launched at the beginning of the 20th century by Khoo Kay Hian, the then-called Kay Hian & Co (Pte) traded commodities and securities. The firm was one of the founding members of the Stock Exchange of Malaysia and Singapore. Kay Hian & Co (Pte) was incorporated as a private company in 1970 and became a member of the stock exchange following the splitting of the Stock Exchange of Malaysia and Singapore. In 1981, the current CEO Wee Ee-Chao joined the company as Managing Director and was later promoted to Chairman in 1996.

In 2001, Kay Hian & Co (Pte) was renamed UOB Kay Hian Holdings Ltd following a merger with UOB Securities Pte Ltd and The United Overseas Bank Group. During the years following the turn of the new millennium, UOB Kay Hian merged with the corporation United Mok Ying Kie Ltd and acquired sales bases of Credit Suisse First Boston and JM Sassoon, amongst others. Recently, in 2019, UOB Kay Hian bought and transferred the remisier base from DBS Vickers.

ACCOUNT AND LEVERAGE

There are several account options on UOB Kay Hian that provide different benefits and serve different purposes. The client onboarding process involves filling out a form to specify the account type and whether it is a joint account or not.

Securities Trading

The most basic trading account provides users access to equities, bonds, unit trusts, ETFs and other products in any of the Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and US markets

UTRADE Edge

This UOB Kay Hian account offers lower commission and fees than the Securities Trading account. Users with a UTRADE Edge account have access to markets in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the USA.

UTRADE PLUS

This is similar to the UTRADE Edge account, users must pay cash up front before making any trades. The key difference is that the fees and commission are lower than the Edge account and that users may only trade in SGX.

The amount of leverage is expressed as a ratio, for instance, 50:1, 100:1, or 500:1. Assuming that a trader has $1 000 in a trading account and is trading ticket sizes of 100 000 USD/JPY, that leverage will equate to 100:1.

Traders should always keep in mind that, although high leverage offered may be a plus point for the brokerage, but trading at such high leverage should only be attempted by experienced traders that know how to prevent big losses.

UOB Kay Hian allows its traders to use the following maximum leverage ratios:

For Forex 1:50, for CFDs 1:10, for metals 1:50 and for energy sources 1:50.

TRADING INSTRUMENTS

UTRADE is UOB Kay Hians main platform, where users can trade ETFs, forex, stocks, CFDs, bonds, and Unit Trusts. UTRADE has a range of advanced features, including automated trading support, customisable indicators, charting tools, stock scanners, integrated screeners and graphical analysis objects. Creating an account with UOB Kay Hian on the UTRADE platform is free and there is no minimum deposit, making it highly accessible and competitive.

The assets supported by the UTRADE platform include:

• Stocks – Access to nine global markets such as the NASDAQ and London Stock Exchange, including IPOs.

• CFDs & ETFs – CFDs can be purchased on both equities and indices. Clients can trade as many as 500 assets, utilise up to 1:20 leverage on indices.

• Forex – Spreads as low as 0.8 pips for low-cost currency exchange. Over 30 currency pairs to choose from and leverage of up to 1:20.

• Bonds – Access to over 300 bonds made up of sovereign bonds, corporate bonds and dim sum bonds. Lower fees by placing bonds in custody with the Singapore Exchanges Central Depository.

• Unit Trusts – Invest in funds that are managed by over 20 asset management companies with a range of different objectives and time horizons.

TRADING PLATFORM

Some companies provide their own proprietary platform, which may benefit traders due to specific characteristics developed by specialists employed by the broker, while others prefer to provide the better-known platforms that were tried and tested through time.

If there is a choice, the trader should keep in mind what he would like to trade and find the platform that suits his needs best.

UOB Kay Hian offers UTRADE as a platform, which is designed to streamline the trade process and keep its users informed on investment trends. Its main features are:

• Multi-market trade

• Live price chart

• Sophisticated Tools

• Online statement

SPREADS AND COMMISSION

The cost of trading depends on different factors like commissions, spreads, and margins.

The spread of a currency pair is the difference between the bid and the asking rate. A pip represents the smallest increment that an exchange rate can move. One pip is 0.01 for currency pairs with JPY as the term currency and 0.0001 for all other pairs.

The amount of money required in your account to open a position is called the margin and is calculated according to the current price of the base currency against USD, the size (volume) of the position, and the leverage applied to your account.

Commissions are the charges imposed by an investment broker on a trader for making trades on the traders behalf. The level of commissions depends on the asset being traded and the type of service offered by the broker.

Execution-only brokers, which do not involve in personal investment advice and give traders complete control over how they trade the markets, usually charge lower commissions.

UOB Kay Hian mentions transaction charges such as a CDP imposed clearing fees (0.0325%) and SGX trading fees (0.0075%) which will be applied on gross contract amounts. All brokerage fees and other charges are subjected to 7% GST.

For all other fees and charges, traders should refer to the UTRADE fee schedule under ‘Fees and commission’, on their website.

DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL METHOD

UOB Kay Hian does not give any indication of minimum deposit amounts to open or maintain any of these types of accounts, To make a deposit in Singaporean dollars (SGD), users have several options. Options include cheques, GIRO form, EPS, bank transfers and internet banking bill payments, though the most convenient is through the PayNow system. This is a quick and easy way to make deposits as the funds are transferred almost instantly and at no extra cost. The process is simple as you can either type in UOB Kay Hian‘s UEN into your mobile banking app or simply scan the QR code on their website. It is important to note that not all banks will allow you to use PayNow, so you should check to see the list of participating banks on UOB Kay Hian’s website.

If you are making a payment in CAD, GBP, CNY or EUR then you can only use a Telegraphic Transfer. Payments in USD can be made either through Telegraphic Transfer or by cheque.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

There is an extensive customer support service in place with teams of experienced traders and staff that users can contact either via hotline phone call or email between 08:30 and 17:30 SST during the day or between 22:00 and 02:00 SST for the night desk, Monday to Friday