Place your first buy order with a limit price and confirm it settled correctly.
Set aside about 25 minutes on a weekday when the market has been open for a while. Place your order away from the first and last minutes of the trading day, for the reasons covered in lesson 6.2, "Limit orders, market orders and the bid-ask spread". You'll also need a few more minutes over the following days while the trade settles.
By now you have a broker, a funded account, a goal, a chosen fund and a plan for what to check after buying. What's left is the order itself and the records that let you look back on it later. The example follows Nadia through her first purchase. Her fund, Fund X, and all her prices, fees and amounts are made up, so use your own figures when you place your order.
First, look up the fund's current price, its bid and ask, and whether the spread looks normal for that fund. Next, check how much you can spend. Depending on how your broker works, that's your available cash, your buying limit, or the balance in the bank account the broker will debit. Then redo the order calculation from lesson 6.1 at today's price, so you know 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 that is normal for this fund. She confirmed that her linked bank account held the S$5,000 she had set aside. The board lot is 100 units, so 14 lots at S$3.50 cost S$4,900, and the rest of the S$5,000 covers fees.
Search for the fund by its code, because fund names can be confusingly alike. Some funds have two counters, one in SGD and one in USD, and each has its own code, so pick the one you intend to buy. Compare the code on the order screen with the code on the factsheet you read in lesson 4.4. If they differ by even one character, stop and find out why before going further.
Set the order to buy and choose a limit order. Enter the quantity in units, in whole board lots, and set the limit price at or very close to the current ask. Before you submit, check the order's validity, which is how long it stays open if it doesn't fill. Read every line once more, then submit.
Nadia entered the code for Fund X's SGD counter and set up a limit buy for 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 again and submitted.
After you submit, the order shows as open or queued until it fills. A fill notice arrives in the app or by email, showing the number of units bought and the price. If the order filled completely, move on to the contract note. If it filled partly, the rest of the order stays open at your limit price. The price may rise and leave your order unfilled after about an hour. If that happens, you can wait, move your limit to the new ask, or try another day. Don't chase the price by setting a much higher limit.
Nadia's order filled in full within a minute: 1,400 units at S$3.50.
Save the contract note in a folder kept only for your investing records. Name the file 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". Write down the payment due date and the settlement date shown on the note, and make sure the money is in place before the payment due date.
Once the trade has settled, confirm that the units are in your account. Use CDP's portal on the SGX website, or your broker statement if you hold through a custodian.
Nadia's contract note showed S$4,900 for the units plus S$11.50 in commission and fees, a total of S$4,911.50, with payment due two market days after the trade. The debit went through on the due date, and her 1,400 units appeared in her CDP account the next morning.
An investing log is a record of every trade you make. A spreadsheet works well, with these columns:
date fund name and code buy or sell units price fees total cost settlement date note
Record this trade as the first row, and give every future purchase its own row. Over time the log shows how much you have put in, what you have paid in fees and your average price. You can also use it as a record if you ever have to prove what you bought and when.
Nadia's first row has the 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." She has S$88.50 left over (S$5,000 - S$4,911.50). It stays in her bank account and will be added to her next three months of savings.
Your first purchase is finished when the units appear in your account and your 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 and save the contract note. In your investing log, write down the date, units, price and fees.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).