Personally using Firstrade for my long term US stocks investments. I wrote an article about it here which you may want to find out more!
In essence, Firstrade is a US-based broker with 40+ years of history operating in the US, which is why I trust it as it has a longer history than most brokers in Singapore.(eg FSMone/POEMs/Tiger Broker)
So some key differences between Firstrade, TD and IB are as such:
Zero Commissions Fees ( TD also offers this but IB still has trading fees per trade)
Free access to premium MorningStar analysis. (These are exclusive for Firstrade customers. If you were to use morningstar premium yourself, you need to pay annual fees of hundred bucks USD per year.)
Easy to use app which allows trade execution less than half a second.
FDIC insured (up to 200k i think) and member of FINRA.
There may be more details I missed out but this is the big picture of it if you wish to find out more you may wish to check out my article above.
As for exchange rate, you are required to do a wire transfer through a bank account. I personally use Stan Chart for its attractive bid-ask spread and $0 remittance fees. The transfer is also extremely quick as I can do the transfer at 3pm (Singapore Time) and it will be availble by 12am-2am (Singapore Time) or even earlier. This allows me to trade as soon as possible. Hope this helps!
Personally using Firstrade for my long term US stocks investments. I wrote an article about it here which you may want to find out more!
In essence, Firstrade is a US-based broker with 40+ years of history operating in the US, which is why I trust it as it has a longer history than most brokers in Singapore.(eg FSMone/POEMs/Tiger Broker)
So some key differences between Firstrade, TD and IB are as such:
Zero Commissions Fees ( TD also offers this but IB still has trading fees per trade)
Free access to premium MorningStar analysis. (These are exclusive for Firstrade customers. If you were to use morningstar premium yourself, you need to pay annual fees of hundred bucks USD per year.)
Easy to use app which allows trade execution less than half a second.
FDIC insured (up to 200k i think) and member of FINRA.
There may be more details I missed out but this is the big picture of it if you wish to find out more you may wish to check out my article above.
As for exchange rate, you are required to do a wire transfer through a bank account. I personally use Stan Chart for its attractive bid-ask spread and $0 remittance fees. The transfer is also extremely quick as I can do the transfer at 3pm (Singapore Time) and it will be availble by 12am-2am (Singapore Time) or even earlier. This allows me to trade as soon as possible. Hope this helps!