Sunday, July 28, 2013

Nikko STI ETF

As mentioned in my earlier post, I will be performing my own manual regular savings plan via my Stanchart brokerage account. The advantage of this platform lies in its low brokerage fees. There is no minimum brokerage fees imposed. You only need to pay a 0.2% brokerage fee. In addition to this, clearing fee and GST is being charged.

The plan is simple. I will buy one lot of Nikko STI ETF every month. The details of the transaction price and costs will be recorded here. We can then review this plan at a later point on the effectiveness of this manual regular savings plan. 

I do know that this does not exactly mirror a typical regular savings plan where the amount is fixed. In a typical plan with fixed investment amount, you get to purchase more units with that fixed amount when prices are low. However, as I can only purchase in fixed lots via the brokerage account, I will buy 1 lot of the Nikko STI ETF per month. This will also mean that the amount to be invested monthly will vary month to month. However, the low commission outweighs the limitation where I can only purchase in full lots for now.

The details of the transactions will be tracked under the embedded Google spreadsheet below:

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi I am new to investment. so hope that you can help me with it (:

can I check with you

1) how do you check the pricing of this nikko etf when you wish to purchase a lot of it?

2) where did you get the STI closing rate from? and how do you read it? Closing rate of 3108.99 means its $3.10899 per unit?

3) whats the fees involve? brokerage, clearing fee and gst? so you were saying SCT charge 0.2% brokerage fee, then how much is the clearing fee and gst?

thanks for helping. im sorry to be so noob in this haha

Mad Stranger said...

Hi Anonymous,

1) During online trading hours, you will be able to see the buy and sell prices/volumes for Nikko STI ETF like any regular stocks.

2) STI closing is just the closing STI index value of the day where I topped up my Nikko ST ETF. The ETF is supposed to track the index.

But you do not expect the ETF to be at $3.10 when index is 3100. The pricing is likely to be slightly higher.

Do note that the ETF do give out dividend, so the pricing difference will differ at different times of the year.

3) For fees involved, you can take a look at my other post:

http://madstranger.blogspot.sg/2013/09/standard-charted-brokerage-account-faq.html

Cloud said...

It takes great discipline to buy on your own every month

Mad Stranger said...

Hi Cloud,
Yes, it takes some discipline to force yourself to buy on a fixed day.

You can make use of google calendar to set a recurring event for each month to remind yourself to top up your ETF.

You can also remind yourself that each 0.01 difference for a top up of 100 units only translates to $1 before commission charges. I personally find it a hassle to monitor and try to enter in another day to save that $1.

Mr Cheapskate said...

Hi,
Where can I check the dividend amount announced by Nikko STI ETF?

Mad Stranger said...

Hi Mr Cheapskate,
You can go to SGX (www.sgx.com). Dividend info is under:
Company Disclosure -> Corporate action

Choose "Nikko STI ETF" under the company name

http://www.sgx.com/wps/portal/sgxweb/home/company_disclosure/corporate_action

The Turtle Investor said...

Hi Mad Stranger! I'm doing the exact same thing as you, just that I started in Dec 2012. Great to see another blog that is interested in Index Investing and REITs - I'll be linking you up on mine!

Cheers.

Mad Stranger said...

Hi Turtle Investor,
Nice to see fellow investors using similar strategies. =)

I have added your blog to my blog list as well.

乌龟凌~心 said...

Hi I am new to ETF investment. do you mind to share your spreadsheet here? I am confused in the set up of this spreadsheet...

Thanks for helping...sorry im bad in this :)

Anonymous said...

Hi I am new for this investment...do you mind to share the way you did the spreadsheet?

thanks for helping...:)

Mad Stranger said...

Hi 乌龟凌~心,

You can see my spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArjHhR3BpCp5dHR1czFGbE1oMk5ZazFZRHg1M2Q2QXc&usp=sharing

If you are interested, you can click on File->Make a copy if you are signed in to our google account.

lindy said...

hi,

would like to understand more, i saw that you've sold 900 of your Nikko AM, and bought 1000 STI ETF on the same day. is there any strategy in it? is the 1000 from Nikko as well, or you've bought it elsewhere like SPDR? newbie here, thanks!

Mad Stranger said...

Hi Lindy,
The Nikko STI ETF typically has a lower trading volume. There are times that you can see a spread of more than 1c between the buy and sell price.

The STI ETF also gives slightly higher dividend.

The 2 transactions you observe was to "convert" my Nikko STI ETF to the STI ETF

http://madstranger.blogspot.sg/2014/04/sti-etf-rsp-apr-2014.html

keylock said...

Hello Mad Stranger,

I would like to have a cope of your google spreadsheet for my own tracking. Can you share it with me? :) Thank you. My email is barnnod@gmail.com

Mad Stranger said...

Hi keylock,

You can refer to my sample spreadsheet here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b53XOlFhMCiVMPeyqiGnnDVLKRgRqXUZV9KLBPGYYao/edit?usp=sharing

You can click on File->Make a copy if you are signed in to your google account.

Unknown said...

Hi Mad Stranger,


I am new in STI ETF.

I just bought G3B.SI through POSB invest saver recently(12Aug).
I saw your speadsheet it is quite in details, but i am unsure what is fee means.
Could you kindly explain.

My investment plan is a total of $400/mthly

Could you kindly guide me.

It will be quite useful to me thanks!

Best Reagrds,
Alison

Unknown said...

Hi Mad Stranger,

Firstly, i would like to say your blog is a great help to me.

I'm new to investment, i have looked at your spreadsheet and i don't quite understand the "fee" part. Fee meaning by commission to broker? Could you kindly please explain.

My investment plan is $400/mthly start (12 Aug 2016) G3B.SI through POSB invest saver.

Kindly please assist me it will be great for me thanks((:

Mad Stranger said...

Hi Alison,
The fees refer to the commission to broker. I was using stan chart trading account to perform the regular savings plan (rsp) previously as they were having no minimum commission. However, they are now imposing a minimum commission of $10 currently, which is why i have paused my monthly rsp.

If you are using the POSB invest saver, the commission is 1%. In your case, since you are fixing the amount invested, your monthly commission is $4. The remaining $396 will be used to purchase your monthly units.

I also recall they have the concept of rounding the units purchased.
Example:
if the purchase price is $2.94, With $396, you can purchase 134.69 units. Only 134 units is credited to your account.
The remaining 0.69 units will be refunded to you (including the sales charge for that 0.69 units). Refund value = 0.69 * 2.94 * 1.01 = $2.04

Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been checking the blog much for the past few months.