What is the main difference between Saxo and DBS Vickers for a new investor?

If you are looking for low fees, I would recommend TD Ameritrade and Tiger Brokers. They can trade pre-market and post-market hours unlike other brokerages.

https://seedly.sg/questions/anyone-has-a-tiger-...

Hi there, full disclosure, i used to exclusively use DBS vickers (which can deal with US stocks as well), and now using TDameritrade and Saxo. I mostly deal in US stocks, so your mileage may differ. For this answer, let me just compare vickers vs TDameritrade in 3 aspects: Custodian fees, Commissions and Platform.

Before i begin, i would say the chances of the broker closing down and you losing all your money is so low in Singapore, that i wouldn't bother comparing. For instance, TDameritrade is being merged with Charles Schwab (a discount broker), who has 3 trillion assets under management. At best, DBS has <500B assets under management.

If you're dealing in Singapore stocks, then Vickers is your only choice as TDAmeritrade Singapores only deals with the U.S.
Custodian Fees

If you're dealing with U.S stocks, then it's useful to compare the difference.

Vickers charges a Custodian fee of SGD2 per stock per month, capped at SGD150 per quarter (about SGD50 per month, which means 25 stocks). These fees do add up, as SGD150 per quarter is SGD600 per year. This custodian fee is waived if you have at least 2 transactions per month or at least 6 transactions per quarter.

TDameritrade charges no custodian fees.

Commissions

Next is commissions. For US Stocks, DBS vickers charges 0.18% or a minimum of USD25 per trade, this means breakeven at around 13.8k worth of stocks. In contrast, TDameritrade charges USD10.65 flat per trade.

Depending on how big your trade is, for big trades, i would go with TDameritrade, since they charge a flat fee. For example, if you're doing 50k USD, Vickers will charge you USD90, and TDAmeritrade charges 10.65 flat. The difference is a pretty decent meal.

For small trades, say 5k. Vickers will charge you minimum USD25, and again, TDameritrade charges you 10.65 flat. not a very big difference, so i wouldn't bother.

Platforms

Lastly and perhaps more importantly, i will check out their individual platforms, charting capabilities, options etc. Haven't used Vickers in a while, so i can't comment on their current capabilities, but TDameritrade's Thinkorswim platform is very sophisticated, and their ThinkBack function allows you to "paper-trade" decades of data. So if you think you have some fantastic sure-make-money strategy, useful to try it (i do have a referral code, let me know!)