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Share traders calling it a day as market volume dries up Average net commission on the decline, slumping to about S$1,000 from around S$6,000 to S$8,000 a decade ago By Kenneth Lim [email protected] 23 Oct5:50 AM Singapore KISHORE Rochey was a trading representative for 20 years before calling it quits in September this year. He said that the average net commission earned by his peers has been on the decline, with through-the-grapevine estimates falling from around S$6,000 to S$8,000 a decade ago to about S$1,000 when he left. "It made no sense to stay around." Mr Rochey's story is not unique. Market liquidity in Singapore is at a multi-year low, commissions are suffering and many in the industry are either looking for other sources of income or simply moving on. While many in the industry acknowledge macroeconomic effects in the market, they also blame regulations that have raised the costs for speculative traders and cut spreads and commissions for trading representatives. In response, Singapore Exchange (SGX) stressed that it cannot jeopardise long-term market quality for short-term liquidity droughts, and noted that it has taken several initiatives aimed at helping the industry. The numbers do not paint a pretty picture. Market turnover fell 21 per cent in the financial year ended June 30, 2014, to S$286 billion, according to SGX. That is the lowest turnover since fiscal 2006, when the size of the total market was less than what it is worth today. Looking at turnover as a proportion of market capitalisation, the average turnover velocity in FY2014 was just 40 per cent, compared to 71 per cent back in FY2007 (view infographic). UOB-Kay Hian Holdings posted a 31.8 per cent decrease in first-half commission income this year, to S$113 million. DBS Group Holdings' brokerage income for the first half of 2014 fell 29 per cent to S$85 million. OCBC Bank matched DBS's decline, with brokerage income dropping to S$26 million. An executive at a brokerage who deals with remisiers said that the number of trading representatives in Singapore has fallen to about 3,900 in 2013 from more than 4,300 in 2011. Jimmy Ho, president of the Society of Remisiers of Singapore, remarked: "I quote one remisier who's been in the industry for over 40 years, and he said it's never been like this before." Those who are still in the game are looking for other ways to make a buck. Mr Rochey noted that some brokerages are encouraging their remisiers to help refer their clients to specialists of other products and asset classes such as contracts for difference and forex. "But at the end of the day, when the commissions are so low . . . there's just not enough meat," Mr Rochey said. A trader who has since moved to another part of the desk said that investors are also looking to overseas markets for more action. Emerging markets such as Thailand, for example, offer more inefficiencies that investors are better able to capture, he said. "You have to look to where the money is," the trader said. "Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, even the US, where the volatility is there. If you're talking about money flow, in South-east Asia, you don't have to look that far beyond Thailand and Indonesia." Industry veterans cited a number of factors for the industry's current woes. The first, and most obvious, is that equity trading volumes across the world have not been great ever since the Global Financial Crisis. "From 2009 until now, the market has gone out, so people don't have the courage to come in big time," Mr Rochey said. "You need a whole new breed of investors to come in and create the volume, who didn't experience the pain of 2008 and 2009. That will take a decade." Singapore has been hit especially hard because of the penny stock collapse that began in October 2013 and continues to weigh on small and mid-cap counters. But the industry said that regulations, some of which were in response to the penny meltdown, have made it hard for the market to recover from that hit. The trading executive said that SGX's removal of its S$600 clearing-fee cap in June has crimped large-volume day trades. "Now the clearing fee has no cap, so it's very expensive for them to trade," the executive said. "Low liquidity and volumes mean it's also hard for them to trade more, and the bid-ask size is smaller now, so for them to make money from day trading is very hard." Mr Ho said that proposed rule changes such as the shortening of the settlement period to two days from three days and the requirement for brokerages to collect collateral will suppress the liquidity provided by contra trading. Contra trading refers to the practice of taking and unwinding positions without collateral within the settlement period. "If you ask for margin, that's operating like a bank," Mr Ho said. "Any exchange doesn't operate this way, because any exchange must combine the speculative and fundamental elements. If you take out the speculative element, the market won't function." But SGX is adamant that some of those rules being complained about actually improve market quality, and changing them to address what it views as a short-term liquidity downturn would be myopic. "Yes, from an exchange perspective and from my perspective, I'd like to have higher turnover," chief executive Magnus Bocker said. "But the question is, I'm here to long-term service the investors, I'm here to protect the retail investors and the institutional investors, I'm here to protect the integrity of the market, I'm here to support that we can raise money for companies." Mr Bocker also argued that although liquidity is thin at the moment, other aspects of the market, such as ease of capital raising for issuers and the costs for investors are still robust. Programmes that incentivise market makers and liquidity providers are also showing early success. "If you go back and say it's not so good, I would say the three important functions of the equity market work well," Mr Bocker said. Mr Rochey, who said that he now makes more as a private investor, felt that brokerages should also be more aggressive in incentivising volumes. Graduated takes of commissions, where a remisier's share of commissions is stepped up if the remisier's volume crosses a threshold, should be utilised more, he said. "If the broking houses want to revive the industry . . . share more of the profit." The trader said that the market situation is unlikely to improve for the rest of the year. "In two weeks' time, we're into the month of November, and for the European and US funds, this is fund closure time for them . . . The market will get quieter."* http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/stocks/share-traders-calling-it-a-day-as-market-volume-dries-up#xtor=CS1-5

My kid is going to Primary One next year, so my wife is selling her business because she wants to take care of the our kid full time. Does anyone here know of a good Business Broker to recommend? Please PM me the contact, thank you.

hi guys check with you any insurance broker can recommend? guyver seems not responding to my sms even though i've been using his service for the pass 2 renewal. thanks

I would like to share with my experiences of being a car broker. As much bad press as car dealers have been made to receive, there are many car buyers who are also not any angels. I recently managed to broker two deals and boy, was it so different from 5 years ago. 1st customer: Customer was looking for a car to buy and I brought him to see both cars that were from direct owners and dealers. After testing so many cars (20 to be exact), he finally choose a car that he liked. This was where the headache came in: he offered 10k below the listed selling price of the car. This is to be expected as everyone wanted a good deal. We finally managed to come to an initial agreement of a discount of 4k below the selling price and was on the verge of signing the deal. At the last minute, my customer wanted another 6 months road tax on top of the 3 months still available on the car! it worked out to be another 600 for the road tax. Never mind, being so close to the deal, we also managed to agree to give a further discount of 500 which meant that the deal came out to be 4.5k lesser then the original listed price. The icing of the cake was that owner wanted us to make sure that the car interior is devoid of any scratches and worn parts. To me, this is a used car! No matter how much we do up, if the mark cant be removed we cant remove! 2nd customer: This customer is even better! He is looking for a conti car which has a dep around 10k and wants it to be in a super good condition ( accident free, low mileage, blah blah blah) I managed to find a car that he wanted with a very low mileage for a 3 year old car but the dep was about 13-14k. First question the customer asked was whether the odometer was tweaked since the mileage its unbelivably low. This really made me infuriated as I took so much time and effort to find a car that is in such a good condition for my customer. Also, he wanted to trade in his car and I gave him a price that was higher then the market rate. However, he told me he still wanted to get a higher price on his own. After encountering such issues, I told him off that if you want t get a deal which is out of the world, please get out of this world to get such a deal! And I also told my customer if he wants to get a conti car for a dep of 10k, I will go to the scrap yard and get a total loss car to restore it and sell him at a dep of 10k per year. To all bros and forummers here, car dealers and car brokers need to survive also. There is no such thing as a free lunch. No doubt there are many bad sheep in this industry, but when a sincere and hardworking car salesman or broker is helping you to source for the best deal, please do not assume that he is also out there to fleece a chunk of meat from you. Honestly speaking, will anybody who owns a car here is willing to sell their car at 10k below the retail price when you know that you can get a better amount? Sometimes, car buyers have to also look in the mirror to see and ask why they have gotten the bad end of the deal. * I am also a person who has bought cars and sold cars on a personal level. I believe that as long as the car is in a good condition, dont ask for more.*

Hi all,need to warn all potential car buyer of this car broker Tony n a used car shop Itrust. On e 2nd of dec which is about 10days ago,i collected a 2nd hand mazda 6 from this Itrust.E person who delt with me was Tony.Out of these 10days i own this car,i only drove for 2days n e rest of e days it was in workshop!!! When i first viewed e car,this broker told mi that this car everything is Ok!jus that e aircon gas no more n said that its cheap thing asking mi to settle on my own.Fine i told him.few 10 bucks i will settle on my own.After driving for 1day,i drove to a workshop n mechanic told mi that e fan is no running!so,i called that Tony n told him what e mechanic said.He then asked mi to drive to his workshop at AMK autohub.left e car that for 2days n repair cost is $240.Tony returned mi $100 which i have given him as i requested to loan from OCBC n buying my own insurance.He promised to fork out $200 from his pocket to help settle this aircon thingy but when he met me at AMK autohub,he returned me e $100 saying that "this $100 i return u".i thought he is gonna return mi $100 n foot e bill of $240 as well but he asked mi to foot e bill!Of course i talked back saying that he promised to cover up to $200!then he took out another $50 n showed mi his wallet saying that he no money liao! Fine,$100+$50=$150 so i jus need to pay $90.since $90 is not a big amount,i went to settle e bill n drove off. Now os e 2nd problem,when e day i collected this car,i demanded at least $20 petrol in e tank n Tony said ok but during collection,there was none!so when passing him e $100 which i promised him,i deducted $20 n he said can.First thing i do after i drove off,i went to e nearest petrol station to pump $20.after pumping,i noticed e petrol gauge din move at all!maybe too little petrol i thought so i went to pump another $20!But still it did not move at all!So i went to another workshop to have it checked n they said e fuel filter n fuel sensor spoilt.Another 4days in workshop!this time round,Tony said that he is a broker n itrust told him that they dun wanna hold any resposibilites which i reprimanded him!!!i told him will u want to buy such a car?!!if u want,i sell u! Then he kept saying that this car is under consignment,he cant do much.Fine,i said i wanna go down to itrust motor n talk to them.but he kept stopping mi from going down.saying that he will help mi to talk to itrust bla bla bla!Ended up telling mi that itrust dun wanna hold responsibility again!Then today after collecting e car which costed $570 for e repair,i went down to itrust.to my surprise,itrust moved!n a salesman beside told mi that they moved 2days after i collected my ride which Tony also knew. I think to finish e whole story,will take u guys at least 30mins to finish reading.To cut it short,i m gonna lodge a CASE complaint tomorrow. This is to warn u guy not to trust this shop itrust n this car broker Tony.if u c any car ad in sgcarmart n e seller name is T.M,thats him.

been losing money using MM brokers....how come some people say they cheat? is it true? any local mas registered broker to reccomend? dun like overseas brokers as may be hard to get back money

Will tat happen to you? If you are the boss ,would you let it happen?Looking at papers only? http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/...908-236225.html I myself wouldn't.

After reading how that rex tailgate a container again... i think i really respect Broker T

Hihi, What is the difference if you renew your motor insurance thru a broker OR ask for quote direct from insurance company OR thru a bank? Which the latter usually got freebies (eg. petrol voucher, car grooming....etc) So far now only DBS offers $80 petrol voucher for Driveshield and underwrite by MSIG. Any feedback on this ins. comp? I remember last year when I renew my old car insurance, got $80 petrol voucher and a car grooming session, and one month later sold my old car, got pro-rated refund from MSIG, they didn't ask me to pay back the freebies

Hope I dont get bash up by the MCF car broker here. Actually it does them good also. So far we only heard good comments about them. Theoritically or practically, there must be bad experience. Anyone having bad experience with them care to share here for the benefit of those buying cars? Ah Mei Lobangking Guyver Accordvtec Gabriel Lee Iziz