Investing is a marathon journey that most of us would probably have to cope with for a long time in our lifetime.

Choosing the right brokerage service and platform to safely put your money is an important aspect of the entire investing and trading journey for an investor. This is especially so for the beginner investors as they seek to trial and error on a variety of different assets that suits their needs.

Some may like the excitement of the fast and furious markets such as FOREX or Cryptocurrency while others may enjoy the stability of investing in a relatively less volatile market such as equities.

This article is written to address both needs - the availability of trading in multiple products in the convenience of one account under one platform.

We'll discuss about this in more detail later on but first let me introduce who and what Phillip Futures is all about.

About Phillip Futures

Phillip Futures Pte Ltd was inaugurated in 1983 as a member of the PhillipCapital Group and is one of the founding members of the Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading (SGX-DT).

The Group has been dominant in setting up a presence and clearing membership in 21 major global exchanges which include APEX, BMD, CME Group Exchanges, DGCX, HKEX, ICDX, JPX and SGX.

Together in total, PhillipCapital has become one of the major powerhouse in the industry with assets under management amounting to more than USD 35 billion and shareholder funds in excess of USD1.5 billion.

While sharing the same parent group, Phillip Futures is actually a different entity altogether with Phillip Securities (some know it better as POEMS) but both offered overlap in products such as CFD on POEMS and CFD on Phillip MT5.

Phillip Futures holds a Capital Markets Services ("CMS") license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and customer's funds are held in a separate trustee licensed bank account so the funds cannot be used to pay for the obligations even in the unlikely event Phillip Futures Pte Ltd goes into liquidation.

Multiple Products In One Platform

One of the most challenging experience as an investor myself is to own multiple accounts on different platforms to trade on multiple products.

It is not only difficult to keep track on the progress of each individual accounts and statement but it can also be messy when you're trying to consolidate your positions , especially if you are also trying to keep tab on the performance of each account individually.

Phillip MetaTrader 5 (MT5) offers a one stop platform for investors to trade on a comprehensive range of products available such as CFD, Bullion and FOREX that meets the suits and needs of the investor.

0% Commission For CFD Trades

Some of you might know that I have frequently used CFD as one of my active investing strategies.

Trading in CFD enable users to trade on margin, which incur interests costs for overnight charges. These charges are called "financing costs" - which vary between 2.8% and 3.2% across for different brokerages. Similarly, Phillip Futures charges a competitive financing costs which varies from product to product. Since there are individual elements associated with the financing costs for each product and it floats on a daily basis, it will be difficult to put an absolute figure in this article.

To view the financing costs for each individual product on Phillip MT5, you can:

• Right-click on the desired product you wish to trade
• Pick "Specifications"
• Scroll all the way down on the pop-up window
• Look at the long or short rates

Commission charges is another trading costs that can quickly add up to your overall charges. This is especially so for traders who get in and out of the market frequently.

You can see below how much I spent on commission charges just based on a few trades I made in February using other CFD brokers previously.

3Fs Previous CFD Trading Activity

With Phillip Futures, you are able to eliminate that costs as trading on Philip MetaTrader 5 is commission-free. 

They were also open to share with me that they are able to offer 0% commission (and no platform or admin fee) because they wanted provide an avenue for traders and investors to earn as much as possible from these savings. In turn, Phillip Futures earn their money from the bid-sell spread as market maker.

For instance, the buy and sell spread for EURUSD is 0.6 pips, which is a rather small change if we compare it against the commissions other brokerages might have charged. Similarly, the buy and sell spread for Apple (Nasdaq: APPL) is 0.053, which is only 0.04% if we translate it into percentages.

0.6 pips spread

Nasdaq - Apple bid-sell spread

Ease of Opening an Account

One of the considerations almost every investor would have is the easiness of opening an account, especially in the 21st century digital environment we are living today.

In order to ascertain the efficiency of their account opening workflow, I have tested it myself by sending in my application on a weekday evening.

I used my phone to scan on the below QR link and register myself using a SingPass MyInfo, where it will help to populate all my information and details at an instant. 

If you prefer to register using your desktop, you can also click the link here to register.

The entire registration process was seamless - it took me 5 minutes to complete the registrations (including uploading my bank statement), and Phillips came back to finalize my application within the next half-hour (speaking of efficiency).

Scan QR here to sign-up

I also received an email instruction notifying me that the registration was successful and I can deposit my funds using the different funding method available.

PayNow seems to be the quickest method at the moment for transferring funds inside so I chose this method.

In a blink of an eye, my funds are successfully deposited and I can start to trade immediately at any moment.

Mobile Apps view

In case you wanted to give the platform a try first, you can also download their free 30-day Phillip MT5 Demo account in this link here.

In the next chapter, I will write more about the pros and cons of trading CFD, including the risk management involved and what as investors or traders you should be looking out for.

Disclaimer: This post is written in a collaboration with Phillip Futures. However, all opinions stated are that of my own, based on my experience and services received from Phillip Futures.