My regular half-yearly investment should have already happened in October but it was delayed, due to difficulty in finding a suitable platform to buy global bond ETF—Saxo refused to add the global bond ETFs I requested because it is multiple-currency while POEMS added the ETFs but their commission is high, read my post here. The portfolio asset allocation has been within the 5% threshold from the target 75/25 stock/bond ratio since October, but within the bond portion, global bond is under-allocated and requires top-up. That’s why I am looking for global bond ETF to add. I prefer not to add to the current global bond unit trust fund in my portfolio because of the fund’s active management.
Recently, a reader left a comment that a multiple-currency ETF was added to Saxo upon his request. I have sent a request to Saxo again to add the two global bond ETFs. Will update when I have their reply.
Hi zm
I came across the iShares S&P 500 Index Fund (ETF) listed on the SGX. The “Sell minus Buy” spread seems to be nominal (0.4%) and the mgt fees low (0.09%). The prospectus says they use replication/swap methodology but seems to be restricted to max 10% of their portfolio.
Have you considered this vs investing in Vanguard through Saxo?
Any other factors that I need to consider to decide (this vs investing in Vanguard via Saxo)? Liquidity (as in ability to sell/buy as much as I need to at any time)?
I was trying to find a comparable Europe ETF on the SGX and I notice a few from db xtrackers and Lyxor; have you considered any of these?
Thanks
Hi Ask,
The iShares S&P 500 ETF is dual listed in SGX and NYSE, where you can, for example, buy in SGX and deposit it in US repository. If you read the prospectus, it has two parts: one for Singapore listing, where it says there is no estate duty; one is for US listing, where it says there is estate duty. So the question is, if I buy it in SGX and deposit it in CDP, will it attract estate duty for Singapore investor? I am not sure about this.
How about buy/sell volume? Is there any buy/sell volume during trading hours? So that you can buy/sell.
For Europe ETF in SGX, I have considered them but not sure if I want to go with them, as they are swap-based. And for Lyxor Europe ETF, it is very small, only $7mil in size.
Thank you for your comments.
I went onto Saxo’s website and looked up the list of ETFs –> I could not find EU – iShares MSCI Europe ETF (IMEU) that you have in your portfolio.
http://sg.saxomarkets.com/trading-products/online-funds/exchange-traded-funds-etf
Are you using another brokerage for this fund?
Thks
Ashwin
Hi Ashwin,
I use saxo for IMEU. May be that web page is not up to date.
regards,
Choozm
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