You will place your first buy order with a limit price and confirm it settled correctly.
Everything in the course so far has led here. You have a broker, a funded account, a goal, a chosen fund and a plan for what to check afterwards. This exercise is the order itself, and the records that make it something you can look back on.
Budget about 25 minutes on the day and a few more over the following days for settlement. Nadia's order runs through every step as the worked example, with a made-up fund, prices and fees, so swap in your own.
Pick a time when the market has been open for a while, away from the first and last minutes of the day, as lesson 6.2, Limit orders, market orders and the bid-ask spread, suggested.
Then check three things. First, the current price, bid and ask for your fund, and whether the spread looks normal for it. Second, your available cash or buying limit with the broker, or the balance in the bank account it will debit. Third, your order sum from lesson 6.1, redone at today's price: how many lots you can afford, the order value and the fees.
Nadia opened her broker's app at about 10.30 on a weekday. Fund X showed a bid of S$3.49 and an ask of S$3.50, a one-cent spread, which was normal for it. Her linked bank account held the S$5,000 she'd set aside. At S$3.50, fourteen lots of 100 units came to S$4,900, and the rest would cover fees.
Search for your fund by its code. Names can be confusingly alike, and some funds have two counters, one in SGD and one in USD, each with its own code. Hold the code on the order screen up against the one on the factsheet you read in lesson 4.4, and stop if they differ by even one character.
Then fill in the order: buy, limit order, the quantity in units in whole board lots, and a limit price at or very close to the current ask. Before you submit, check how long the order will stay open if it doesn't fill.
Nadia entered Fund X's SGD counter code, buy, limit, 1,400 units at S$3.50, valid for the day. The confirmation screen showed an estimated total of about S$4,911 including fees. She read every line once more, then submitted.
After you submit, the order shows as open, or queued, until it fills. Watch for the fill notice in the app or by email. It should show the number of units bought and the price.
A complete fill means you can move on. With a partial fill, the rest stays open at your limit. And if nothing has filled after an hour or so because the price moved up, you can wait, move your limit to the new ask, or try another day. What you shouldn't do is chase the price with a much higher limit.
Nadia's order filled in full within a minute: 1,400 units at S$3.50.
When the contract note arrives, save it in a dedicated folder, named with the date and the fund so you can find it years from now. Check it against your order using the checklist you wrote in lesson 6.3, After you click buy: settlement, contract notes and your CDP statement.
Note the payment due date and the settlement date from the contract note. Make sure the money is in place before the due date. After settlement, log in to CDP's portal on the SGX website, or check your broker statement if you used a custodian, and confirm the units are there.
Nadia's contract note showed S$4,900 for the units and S$11.50 in commission and fees, a total of S$4,911.50, with payment due two market days later. The debit went through on the due date, and her 1,400 units appeared in her CDP account the next morning.
Finally, record the trade in an investing log. A spreadsheet works well. Give it these columns: date, fund name and code, buy or sell, units, price, fees, total cost, settlement date and a note.
Nadia's first row reads: trade date, Fund X and its code, buy, 1,400 units, S$3.50, S$11.50 in fees, S$4,911.50 total, the settlement date, and the note "First purchase, from starting S$5,000."
Each future purchase gets its own row. Over time, the log shows you how much you've put in, what you paid in fees, and your average price. It also gives you the record you'll need if you ever have to prove what you bought and when.
The S$88.50 left from her S$5,000 stayed in her bank account, ready to join her next three months of saving.
That's your first ETF. You'll know it's done when the units appear in your account and the log has its first row. Go ahead and place your own order, save the contract note, and record the trade in your log.
Place your order, save the contract note, and record the date, units, price and fees in an investing log.
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