My First $100 Investment in Stock Market on GRAB
I have heard a lot about investing in the stock market through my spouse for over two years. He talks about companies, stocks, earnings, profits, losses, etc., almost every weekday. I thought this investment thing looked quite exciting and thought to try it with my pocket money.
So I asked my spouse to give me free training about the stock market basics and how to start investing in the stock market. A summary of what I have learned is below.
- We can buy shares of companies listed in the stock market, which we call public companies. i.e. Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Google. These big companies are public companies listed on some stock exchanges in the US.
- Every public company has a unique stock symbol (also known as a ticker). The ticker of Google is GOOGL; Apple is AAPL; Tesla is TSLA
- Every company listed on a stock exchange is legally bound to release company-related news accurately to the public, including earnings, financial reports, partnerships, changes in the management team, etc.
- We need a broker to connect to the stock market.
- We need to put orders to buy or sell stocks. Buy orders to buy and sell orders to sell stocks.
- If the order is executed in the stock market, we call it a trade.
- We have to pay a small commission to the broker for every trade.
Steps I followed
- I created an account with the stockbroker IBKR (Interactive Brokers), and IBKR approved my account in 2 days.
- I deposited SG $100 from my Singapore bank account to my trading account (IBKR)
- I made a forex trade and converted SGD 100 to USD. I got nearly USD 70.
- I purchased some 10 GRAB stocks. The price per share was US$ 2.95, and the broker commission was US$ 0.31. Here is the trade report.
Why did I choose GRAB as my first stock?
Grab is a Singapore company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in the US. Grab is a famous application in Singapore for taxi booking and food delivery. Also, during my Kuala Lumpur tour (I will write about the KL tour later), I noticed that almost everyone in Kuala Lumpur uses Grab as their primary taxi booking application.
Also, I only deposited US$ 70. I can’t buy an Apple share using it. Maybe in future (once I start my job in Singapore), I wish to buy some AAPL. Since GRAB is currently trading below US$ 3, I can buy a few stocks of it for now.
Funny: I recently visited near to Grab office in Singapore. Here is a photo.
I am thinking of increasing my capital slowly and buying more stocks from other companies.
Consider following me in the medium for more updates about my investment journey.
Thank you for reading.