You will open both accounts, fund or link payment, and confirm the account is ready to place a trade.
By now you know which broker you're opening, what the applications ask for, and how money moves in and out. This exercise is where you do it. It takes about 30 minutes of your time spread over a week or two, because most of the elapsed time is waiting for approvals.
Work through the steps in order. Nadia's account is used as the example, and her numbers and dates are made up.
Open the CDP application and the broker application. Where Singpass Myinfo is offered, use it. If your broker opens the CDP account for you as part of its own form, you only need to fill in one. Lesson 3.1, Opening a CDP account and a broker account with Singpass, covered what each one asks for.
Choose a cash account. Read the fee schedule before you agree to it, and check the commission and minimum fee match what you wrote on your comparison sheet in lesson 1.4. If they don't, stop and find out why before you submit.
When you submit, save the confirmation emails in a folder of their own. Write the date and any reference number in your note. Nadia submitted on a Saturday morning and wrote down both reference numbers.
Expect a few working days for each account. You'll know CDP is done when you receive your CDP account number. You'll know the broker is done when it sends login details or tells you the account is active.
If a week passes with nothing, check the application status page or contact the broker. A small mismatch in your details can hold things up without anyone telling you.
Once both accounts are active, log in to the broker's platform or app. Find the page that shows your account details. It should show your CDP account number, which tells you the broker has linked the two.
Compare that number, digit by digit, with the one CDP sent you. They must match exactly. If they don't, or if no CDP number appears, contact the broker before you do anything else. A trade made on a wrongly linked account can settle into the wrong place, and untangling that takes far longer than a phone call now.
Nadia found her CDP number on the account profile page. It matched.
Next, make sure the broker can collect money from you. What you do depends on the method you found in lesson 3.2, Link your bank for funding and dividends.
If your broker debits a linked bank account, complete the authorisation and check that the platform shows it as active. Some take a few days to approve. If your broker needs cash deposited first, transfer a small amount and check it appears in your cash balance. If you pay after each trade, write down the payment details the broker gives you, so you're not searching for them on a deadline.
While you're here, apply for CDP's Direct Crediting Service if you haven't, so dividends from your CDP-held shares go straight to your bank.
Nadia's broker debits her bank account. The platform showed her debit authorisation as "pending" for three days, then "approved". She didn't place any order until it changed.
Before you place an order, turn on two-factor login if the broker offers a choice, and set it to the strongest option it has, such as an app or a hardware token rather than SMS alone. Then turn on trade notifications, so you get an email or app alert for every order placed, filled or cancelled on your account. If someone else ever gets into the account, those alerts are how you'll find out quickly.
Check that your contact email and phone number are correct. Contract notes and statements will go there.
With the account secured, put the record together. Keep it in a secure place, such as an encrypted note or a password manager's notes field, and not in a group chat or an email to yourself.
Nadia's note records her broker's name and its legal company name, her CDP account number, her broker account number, the funding method and the linked bank account (last four digits only), where her dividends will be paid, and the dates both accounts were opened. She also saved a screenshot of the broker's account page showing the CDP number, the approved funding link and her cash balance or buying limit, the screen that tells her the account is ready.
What the note never holds is just as important. No passwords, no Singpass details, no one-time codes, no answers to security questions.
Your account is ready to trade when four things are true. Both accounts are active. The CDP number on the broker platform matches yours. The funding method shows as working. And two-factor login and trade alerts are on.
If any of those is missing, fix it now. It's much calmer to sort out a funding link on a quiet weekday than when you've just placed an order and the payment deadline is two days away. Go ahead and open and fund your account, then put the record and the screenshot in your secure note.
Open and fund the account, then record your CDP account number, broker, funding method and a screenshot of the ready-to-trade screen in a secure note.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).