Interest in online trading has been unprecedented, said the chief executive of TD Ameritrade Singapore, who discussed the online trading boom in Asia amid market volatility caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the bullish outlook for online brokerages.
According to U.S. broker's proprietary, behavior-based Investor Movement Index, which aggregates investor positions and activity to measure what investors actually were doing and how they were positioned in the markets, TD Ameritrade’s Asia region clients measured 3.05 in May, up 20.6 percent from 2.53 in April.
The growth in exposure to U.S. markets is an ongoing trend, Christopher Brankin, who heads TD Ameritrade's business in Singapore, said in an interview with finews.asia.
«There is a huge desire among investors for U.S. exchange-traded products across the region,» he said, noting that the firm is well-placed to capitalize on this demand and is actively developing its capabilities to support its growing pool of clients in the region.
Rise in Trading
Ongoing market volatility has spurred many retail investors and first-time traders to seize on buying opportunities. While 1 million average daily client trades was previously a record in 2019, TD Ameritrade’s average daily client trades has since exceeded 3 million at the end of April. The firm's daily average client trades have also grown from 1.5 million in January to 3 million in April, Brankin said.
In May, the company also launched a web-based version of its thinkorswim platform for clients in Singapore, which allows retail traders located in Singapore to access equity and derivative trading from web browsers, in response to the market opportunities unleashed by the pandemic.
«We've seen a record number of new accounts and a record number of trades, but it's not surprising,» Brankin said, noting that the company has seen a significant uptick in account openings on its platform in the city-state even before the Covid-19 outbreak.
Asia Growth
Brankin, a former equity options trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and broker from the Chicago Board of Trade moved to Singapore in 2011 to lead the company's operations and strategic direction. He has spent the past decade building the business here, as the company was not as well known as it was in the U.S., where the brokerage is a household name.
«More important was building trust, and letting customers know that we are going to be here for the long-term,» he said.
«We are now maturing as a business, and have been adding staff and more office space,» he said. The Singapore office now services the region, which includes Malaysia and as of earlier this month, Thailand and Indonesia. TD Ameritrade's Hong Kong office supports China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Complete Experience
Brankin acknowledges the increased competition among brokers and wealth of platforms available in the retail brokerage space but said that what sets TD Ameritrade apart is its focus on the user experience and its wealth of training and educational materials.
«Right now we have a captive audience – people are stuck at home and we're a content-rich company in a content-starved environment,» he said, pointing out the platform's on-demand video content, webinars and training material available for free to users.
«At the end of the day, we want our customers to be successful and have a good experience. We want to build sticky customers who will become advocates for us,» Brankin said.
