Opening a US Brokerage Account

Opening a US Brokerage Account

I still remember buying my first US stock ( Citibank) back in 2009.I used a local brokerage and I must tell you that the brokerage fee is killing you. It is even more so if you are a trader because local brokerage charges an exorbitant fee. As you all know, Citi proves to be the worst investment I made, I bought at the price of about USD4 per share and later on it went into reverse 10:1 split and I sold my holding after almost 6 years with a profit of only 15 percent!

A few years back I started to use DBS Treasure to buy US stock and again it charges minimal USD18 per transaction.

Starting this year, I started to use Interactive Brokers and I IB has the best fee structure ( as low as USD0.35 per transaction) and best platform for longterm investors as well as day traders.

If you are a Singaporean, it is even better because you can use FAST to transfer your fund into IB Singapore account and the money appears almost immediately in your account. The exchange rate is pretty competitive  as well.

For Malaysians, funding your IB account can be irritating if you plan to line up in bank and being asked one hundred and 10 questions the reason behind transferring your money to US. I was very agitated a few months back when attempting to send money to IB account in US. ( Malaysians have to send to money to US in USD when they want to fund their account).

Anyway, I found a good way to bypass the hassle of lining up in bank or doing this via internet banking. There is an easy way to transfer your fund to IB account just a few clicks and the daily limit is RM30K.

Will share it with you all in my next post.

WHY DOCTORS ARE LOUSY INVESTORS?

WHY DOCTORS ARE LOUSY INVESTORS?

Doctors are always lousy investors, after working for so many years,  I notice a few obvious common behaviour doctors are sharing, these characters might explain the reason behind why doctors are lousy investors,

1) Doctors are non-risk takers
We do things according to procedure and statistics, doctors only perform certain surgical procedures and prescribe certain medications based on best clinical evidence and trials. Doctors get used to sticking to rules and regulations, we do not take risks. Investing needs risk-taking and you might be losing money which is unacceptable to a lot of doctors.

2) Doctors are too busy to handle their finances
Doctors are busy people. We handle patients' complaints, do our best to treat them, We spend too much of time thinking of how to make our patients recover. Unfortunately we are not always being appreciated by patients nor their family members. We are too busy looking at our finances. Frankly, I personally do not look at whether patients pay me or not. During this MCO period in Malaysia, since I have more time and finally look at my revenue statement hospital sends me every month, I am shocked to know that patients owe me hundreds of thousands since 2016.

3) We think we can make it
Doctors always think that if we work hard, we will be able to retire in one day. We are well above average but the truth is, a lot of doctors are broke even though they are high earners. Many of my friends are getting fat cheques every month but they are big spenders as well. They can not retire because they are basically living paycheck by paycheck like a lot of Malaysians and Singaporeans.

Some doctors are still working at the age of 70 years old, I doubt that they love their jobs, they keep working because they just can't retire. Doctors lives are stressful, and I hope that I can retire soon and work part-time.

COMMON MISTAKES IN INVESTING

COMMON MISTAKES IN INVESTING

Yes, I made a lot of mistakes in my early life of investing and I have learned my lessons. There are so many common mistakes people make, I would like to highlight a few as below,

1) I can time the market
There is no way you can time the market, no matter how good your technical analysis knowledge is, do not try  to time the market. Buy and sell in short term will make you lose more money in long run.

2) I can beat the market
Personally I never met any investor that can beat the market or anyone who knows any investor that can beat the market consistently.You can't beat the market, trust me! The best you can do is trying to follow average return!

3) Buy low and Sell High
That is the biggest joke that you hear from experinced investors.It is not true and most investors are actually doing the opposite- buy high and sell low. When market is in bull run, everyone throws in money and most of us are doing the opposite during market downturn. It is not easy to control your emotion during bear market, people are panic and they are not thinking of what shares to buy but instead thinking what other shares in his/her portfolio that can be sold!

4) I can select the correct stock
Hell no!You might be right 80 percent of the time but there is no way you can 100% right! Even Warren Buffet made mistakes by picking up airline stocks and he had to sell everything during Covid-19 pandemic!!