Standard Chartered Online Trading

New to online trading? Here are some tips to bear in mind when you’re selecting an online trading platform that suits your needs.

Choosing an online trading platform is sometimes like choosing a life partner. Pick the right one and you’ll go from strength to strength, weathering any challenge that comes your way. Choose wrongly and you could end up deeply dissatisfied.

While knowing a platform’s strengths and shortcomings is important, it is equally important to know your trading habits and needs. Here are five tips on choosing an online trading platform.

1. Multi-channel platform accessibility
These days, we almost never leave home without our smartphone. With the right app, you could perform transactions of all kinds, from managing your shopping list and booking your air tickets to making a restaurant reservation and placing an online trade.

It is important to select a platform that supports your lifestyle. You would want one that gives you the convenience and accessibility to trade online from mobile phones, be it from an iPhone or Android handset.

Standard Chartered’s trading platform can be accessed via its SC Trading app. This allows you to manage your trade order or view your portfolio on the go.

2. Access to corporate information
One of the keys to successful investing lies in making informed decisions. Most online securities trading providers provide you with access to technical and fundamental information of a particular security.

You can find information, usually on the research or stock quote tab, regarding the security’s key financial data, such as price-earnings ratios, earnings per share, dividend yield, balance sheet and income statement.

There will also be a newsfeed panel to provide you with the latest and past market news. Hence there is no need to log out of the platform or go to other news portals to search for such information. On Standard Chartered’s platform, all the essential information is housed under one roof.

3. Know exactly what you are paying for
Speaking of unknowns, being informed of banking fees and service charges after you place a trade can put a damper on your personal profit-and-loss calculations.

Standard Chartered’s online trading platform has a Profit and Loss Calculator that gives you clarity on the indicative fees and charges you need to pay before you place a trade. This gives you a clear picture of the upfront costs.

4. Global connectivity
Do you intend to trade in local and regional stock exchanges? If you do, look for a platform that offers international access.

The Standard Chartered online trading platform gives investors access to 15 key global exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse, opening up a world of investment options that can be accessed wherever you are.
5. Smart trading tools
With smart trading tools, it makes it easier for you to trade online or place an order.

To limit your losses on a particular position, some online trading platforms – such as Standard Chartered’s – have a Stop Loss order option, where it will automatically sell a security when it reaches your pre-determined price.

If you have no time to monitor the price movements, having a Stop Loss order helps, especially if a stock price moves down sharply, instead of in a gradated manner.

Standard Chartered’s online trading platform also offers GTD or Good till Date (order type). By selecting GTD and indicating your preferred period of validity, there’s no need to re-enter your order if it didn’t get filled. The order will simply be rolled over to the next business day.

In addition, most platforms will send a confirmation email or SMS to you if your order gets filled so that you are updated on your trading transactions. On Standard Chartered’s platform, you can also set Market Alerts to receive notifications when a particular security meets the condition you have set. Once the set condition has been met, you will receive an alert in your Online Trading message box or an email notification.

For more information on Standard Chartered’s online trading platform, visit sc.com/sg/onlinetrading.

The information provided in this piece is not to be taken as investment advice.