(This post is sponsored by SGX and aims to introduce the brand new SGX Investor Portal. The views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author.)
I started investing in 2007 where one lot size was 1,000 shares. Now it is just 100 shares.
I had to physically visit a stock brokerage firm to open a Central Depository (CDP) account in the past. Now you can do it online.
I used to receive CDP letters in the mail but I have opted for e-statements because they are easier to transfer into my personal storage.
The previous generation had to rely on Teletext to get updated stock prices. Now I have the convenience of the internet and I can get stock information and prices on the go.
I have also downloaded the SGX mobile app to receive company announcements from the companies I follow.
At times, I would go onto SGX’s main website to use the stock screener and to download annual reports.
Investing in the stock market has been made easier over time and now I can do all the above in one place – SGX Investor Portal!
How to utilise the SGX Investor Portal
The SGX Investor Portal is a one-stop and mobile friendly portal to enable an individual investor to find information conveniently in one place. Some of the features you have seen in the SGX main site, the CDP website and the SGX Academy website, can be accessed via the SGX Investor Portal.
I will share with you some of the features I use and you can take advantage of them too.
#1 – Screening for stock ideas
Stock screening is the first step of my investment process. There are specific metrics to help me narrow down the list of stocks to look at. It is a great time saver. The stock screening function is available on the SGX Investor Portal and you can filter SGX-listed counters by:
- Sector
- Total Revenue
- Market Capitalisation
- P/E
- Dividend Yield %
- 4-week % price change
- 13-week % price change
- 26-week % price change
- 52-week % price change
- Net Profit %
- ROE %
- Price / Book Value
- Price / Cash Flow
- Debt/Equity
- 1-year % Revenue change
You can access more information in the individual stock pages, including financial statements in the past 5 years. I find the financial ratios more useful for a quick overview of the companies’ financial status.
There’s a ‘Resources’ section on the SGX Investor Portal that provides useful links to more advance information such as the securities lending pool (for those who lend out your securities) as well as the CDP buying in reports (for those who watch the short selling activities).
#2 – Follow important company announcements
I prefer to get my latest information from the companies rather than from news outlets. This is because I will get the information faster and there will be no loss in translation when I get it at source.
As public-listed companies, the management is obliged to promulgate important information to the public via company announcements. We can access them on SGX Investor Portal too.
I observed that seasoned investors use this extensively while majority of the other investors do not. This can really give you an advantage so use it!
#3 – Receive market updates
The SGX team has been diligently producing useful market updates for investors. I am a numbers person and I like the interesting statistics reported by the team. One recent example: “Top 10 Mid-Caps with Most Institutional Inflows Since 23 March” indicates the mid-sized stocks which institutions are interested in. I can use this list to validate my own investment thesis.
Now we can access the updates via the SGX Investor Portal.
#4 – Access your CDP records (if you have a CDP Internet Account)
Like most investors, I used to be lazy and not record my investment transactions because it is tedious administrative work! But I can’t stress enough that proper records should be maintained if you want to improve your investment results.
There’s a management mantra – what gets measured, gets improved. And it applies to investing too.
I log in regularly to the portal to download the CDP monthly and transaction statements to my cloud drive and subsequently update my portfolio performance tracking sheet. However, you can also add in your purchase prices of your stocks directly in the portal and your profit and loss would be calculated automatically.
The portal provides up to 24 months of past CDP account statements. That’s more than enough records to do an annual review of your investments. CDP also provides notifications such as your trade settlements and e-statement’s availability. You can access these notifications within the past 60 days. All these are provided without any cost to you.
Note: past account statements and CDP notifications are only available from your date of enrolment with CDP Internet.
More features to come!
We are in the early days of the SGX Investor Portal and there are more features that I look forward to.
There will be a Currency Conversion Service to ensure your payouts are always converted into Singapore dollars at competitive rates. The payouts will also be credited directly to your linked bank account with transaction fees waived. You will automatically enjoy this service.
Currently, you need to submit a form to CDP to lend out your shares. You can apply for Securities Borrowing and Lending directly on the portal in time to come!
Corporate actions today require a lot of paperwork, requiring you to sign and mail physical reply forms. Last but not least, the SGX Investor Portal will allow you to apply and pay for rights issue and accept a takeover offer directly on the platform.
I applaud the move towards a more integrated, user-centric design of the features. Reducing the friction in the administrative aspect of investing will allow investors to focus on picking the right investments.
P.S. SGX has also prepared a 4-min video and a user guide for the portal. Go try out the SGX Investor Portal!
