How to trade shares
The stock market is full of opportunities – whatever your level of expertise. With us, you have over 10,000 shares and ETFs to choose from. Follow this step-by-step guide to start trading shares.
If you’re ready to trade shares, here’s how to get started with us:
1. Choose which stocks CFD to focus on
At IG, you can speculate on the price movement of SG stocks and more via Contract for Differences (CFDs).
2. Select your
opportunity
Choose from over 10,000 leading international CFDs on stocks and ETFs.
3. Open a live CFD account with IG
Trading CFDs may not be suitable for everyone and can result in losses that exceed your deposits. Please ensure you fully understand the risk and costs involved by reading the Risk Disclosure Statement and Risk Fact Sheet available.
Or, if you’d like to learn more about share trading, read our in-depth guide below.
How to trade shares in Singapore
- Learn how the stock market works
- Discover how to trade shares
- Build a share trading plan
- Choose a stock or ETF to trade
- Understand the risks and charges
- Open a stock trading account
- Find a stock trading opportunity
- Open, monitor and close your first position
Learn how the stock market works
The stock market refers to the collection of markets and exchanges where shares in publicly traded companies are bought and sold. The buying and selling of stocks work in a similar way to any other marketplace, where parties negotiate a price at which to exchange an asset.
Institutions known as stock exchanges facilitate the trading of publicly listed shares. To be listed on a stock exchange, companies often undergo an initial public offering (IPO). Once shares have been made available to the public, individual and institutional investors can start trading them.
You’d buy a company’s shares if you believe it will experience strong growth. To earn a profit, you’d then need to sell them at a higher price. If, on the other hand, you believe that a company is going to experience difficulties that could affect its share price, you may decide to sell your shares to lock-in your current profit or limit any potential future losses.
Investing vs trading
Investing and trading are similar terms that some people will sometimes use interchangeably – but there are important differences.
- Investing in stocks means that you’re taking direct ownership of a company’s shares. This will make you a shareholder and you’ll be eligible to receive voting rights and dividend payments if the company grants them.
- Trading stocks means that you’re speculating on a share’s price movements with derivatives like CFDs without taking direct ownership.
What moves the price of shares?
Before it goes public through an IPO, a company’s shares will have a set price range – often determined by the underwriter of the IPO (normally a large bank).
This range will be set according to the anticipated interest in the listing, as well as the company’s fundamentals – including its revenue, its products, and its existing popularity. Once the IPO has completed, fluctuations in the share price are caused by changes in the supply of and demand for the stock. If the supply is higher than demand, the share price could fall; if the demand is higher than supply, the share price could rise.
There is always a limited supply of a company’s stock. It may make the decision to issue more shares, or buy shares back from investors to reduce supply, but the number of shares in circulation is always known.
There are several reasons why the demand for a stock varies over time, including:
- Earnings reports. Companies usually release interim reports on their financial performance once every quarter and a full report once a year. These reports can influence the company’s share price as traders and investors use figures including revenue, profit and earnings per share (EPS) as part of their fundamental analysis
- Macroeconomic data. The state of the economy a company operates in will affect its growth. Data releases such as gross domestic product (GDP) and retail sales can have a significant influence on company share prices – strong data can cause them to rise, while weak data can cause them to fall
- Market sentiment. Share price movements aren’t always based on fundamental analysis. The view that the public, as well as market participants, have on a particular stock can also cause demand to fluctuate. This is how speculative bubbles are formed.
- Interest rates. If interest rates are low, the stock market might see increased activity – despite the previous factors mentioned here. That’s because more people could turn to stocks and shares to achieve greater returns that they might otherwise be able to if they saved their money in a bank account.
When you create a trading account with us, you’ll be able to:
- ‘Buy’ (go long on) or ‘sell’ (go short on) over 10,000 international shares to speculate on their price rising and falling
- ‘Buy’ or ‘sell’ our range of ETFs to get exposure to a basket of shares from an entire country, index or sector
- ‘Buy’ or ‘sell’ a host of global indices – including the STI (STRAITS, CAC (France 40) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Wall Street) – to speculate on the performance of an entire economy with a single trade.
How to trade stock CFDs out of hours
We’ve got a market-leading-out-of-hours offering on over 70 key US shares CFD. Because volatility doesn’t wait for the main market session, you’ll be able to trade the pre-market open and post-market close.
How to trade shares with direct market access (DMA)
DMA is available with CFD trading, and it lets you open a position directly through the order book of an exchange – giving you deep liquidity, full market visibility and advanced execution.
Our DMA platform is called L2 Dealer, and it gives you access to Level 1 and Level 2 pricing data. Level 1 data will give you the pricing direct from an exchange, while Level 2 will also show the exchange’s order book.
Build a share CFDs trading plan
A good trading plan can be hugely beneficial to your stock CFD trading, as it will outline exactly what your aims are, how much capital you have at your disposal and what your appetite for risk is.
The aim of a trading plan is to take the emotion out of your decision-making, as well as providing some structure for when you open and close your positions.
Choose a stock or ETF CFD to trade
Every trader will have a different preference for the share opportunities they choose. For example, some people prefer the lower risks associated with established blue-chip stocks, while others might prefer to speculate on more volatile shares, like those found in the energy sector.
We’ve got over 10,000 international stocks and ETFs for you to choose from. If you’re looking for inspiration for a stock to take a position on, consider using our stocks screener tool.
When you’re choosing a stock, its important that you carry out your own due diligence on a company. You should use both fundamental and technical analysis when assessing a company’s financials and potential future share price performance.
- Technical analysis is concerned with chart patterns, technical indicators and historical price action.
- Fundamental analysis is based on a company’s financial metrics, including its net revenue, earnings calls, or profit and loss statements.
Understand the risks and charges
When trading CFDs on stocks, you’ll be charged a commission instead of a spread. There are other costs to consider, such as overnight funding fees. 3Trading is high risk, mainly due to the use of leverage – which can increase both your profits and your losses. Before trading or investing in shares, you should take steps to manage your risk. We’ve got courses at IG Academy that take you through risk management and how to mitigate your exposure to risk in the financial markets.
Stock CFD trading costs
Our costs and charges for investing vary depending on how you’d like to take a position.
- Trading shares
- Trading ETFs
- Trading indices
| About | Risk and reward | Costs | With us | |
Speculating on the price movements of individual shares.
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Your risks when trading are high due to the use of leverage – which can increase your losses as well as your profits. Attaching stops to your positions can help to mitigate your exposure to risk.1
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Share CFDs have a minimum 0.1% commission fee when you open and close a position.
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You’ll be able to trade over 10,000 international shares with CFDs.
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| About | Risk and reward | Costs | With us | |
Speculating on the price movements of an ETF.
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Your risks when trading are high due to the use of leverage – which can increase your losses as well as your profits.
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Share CFDs have a minimum 0.1% commission fee when you open and close a position.
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You’ll be able to trade over 6000 ETFs including different indices, sectors, currencies and commodities.
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| About | Risk and reward | Costs | With us | |
Speculating on the price movements of an index – which is a collection of many different companies’ shares, giving you exposure to an entire sector or economy at once.
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Your risks when trading are high due to the use of leverage – which can increase your losses as well as your profits.
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CFD spreads start from 1.2 on the Germany 40, 1 on the France 40, 1 on the FTSE 100, and 2.4 on Wall Street. |
You’ll be able to trade a range of global indices like the DAX 40 (Germany 40), CAC 40 (France 40), Dow Jones Industrial Average (Wall Street), and the FTSE 100 with CFDs.
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Open a stock CFD trading account
We’ve got a truly market-leading shares offering– with over 10,000 international shares and ETFs, as well as a host of global indices. With us, you’ll also benefit from our out-of-hours All Session stocks offering, which lets you take a position on over 70 leading US shares when you otherwise wouldn’t be able to.
So, if you want to take a position on shares, you’ve come to the right place. Traders have been using our services to access financial markets since 1974, and today we offer CFDs to retail traders who are looking to manage their next opportunity.
How to trade shares
To trade shares, follow these steps:
- Search for a company in our trading platform
- Assess whether you want to go long or short and take steps to manage your risk
- Open and monitor your share trade
Find a stock CFD trading opportunity
We offer a wide range of trading tools to help you to identify first opportunities, including our:
- Stock market screener. Filter shares by country, sector or index – and sort by EPS, market cap and more
- Technical analysis tools. Use our powerful HTML5 charts that include indicators such as Bollinger bands, RSI and moving averages
- News and trade ideas. Find information on stocks to watch and market opportunities from our team of expert analysts and in-house financial writers
- Trading alerts. Set notifications for when a share price reaches a certain level or moves by a certain amount
Open, monitor and close your first position
Once you have chosen a stock to focus on, you can open your first position.
Trading with CFDs
To start share trading with a CFD, the first thing to decide is whether you’ll ‘buy’ the market to open a long position, or ‘sell’ to open a short one. When you open a trade, you can also attach orders to your position.
Stop orders are designed to restrict losses to a maximum amount should the market move against you. They automatically close your trade if the market hits your chosen stop-loss level
Limit orders are designed to lock-in profits should the market move in your favour. They automatically close your trade if the market hits your chosen limit level
You’ll be able to monitor your open positions on from within our platform. Any running profit or loss will move in line with the underlying share prices, and it will be clearly displayed.
Once you are ready to close your trade, you can do so by clicking on ‘positions tab’ in the menu. When the tab is opened, select the ‘close’ button. By closing your trade, you’ll realise your final profit or loss.
Free share trading tools and resources
Before you start trading shares, you should consider using the educational resources we offer like IG Academy or our demo trading account. IG Academy has lots of courses for you to choose from, and they all tackle a different financial concept or process – like the basics of analysis – which can help you become a better trader.
Our demo account is a great place for you to learn more about leveraged trading, and you’ll be able to get an intimate understanding of how all our trading products work – as well as what it’s like to trade with leverage – before risking real capital.
FAQs
Can I make a profit trading stocks?
You can make a profit by trading shares if your forecasts about whether the share prices will rise or fall is correct. If you buy the shares via a broker on a stock exchange, you can only make a profit by ‘going long’ – i.e. if the shares you buy appreciate in value by the time you decide to sell them. However, if you decide to trade stocks through derivatives, you can also take advantage of a falling share price by ‘going short’. Due to the use of leverage, trading can be seen as more risky than traditional stock investment. Leverage can increase both your profits and your losses. If you decide to trade shares with our products, please note that all leveraged derivatives are complex instruments and your losses can exceed your deposits. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
How can I trade shares online?
You can trade shares CFDs online using our trading platform, which offers you a fast and smart way to trade via your web browser. You’ll be able to open, close and edit positions with just a few clicks.
Learn more about the IG online trading platform.
To start trading shares CFDs online with us, you’d need to:
- Create an account with us
- Research the market and carry out your own analysis
- Choose which shares you’d like to trade
- Open and monitor your position
Please note that all trading involves risk, and that past returns never guarantee future results. When trading, your capital is at risk. Your losses can exceed deposits.
Can beginners start trading shares CFDs?
Beginners can start trading shares by learning as much as possible about the market, before opening any positions. One way to achieve this is to take a look at IG Academy and its wide range of online courses.
Another way to gain confidence before trading stocks is by opening an demo account. Novice traders can create their strategies in a risk-free environment by practising trading with S$200,000 in virtual funds.
It is important to remember that all forms of investment carry risk. Trading CFDs may not be suitable for everyone and can result in losses that exceed your deposits. Please ensure you fully understand the risk and costs involved by reading the Risk Disclosure Statement and Risk Fact Sheet available.
What is an ETF and how are they traded?
An ETF (exchange traded fund) is an instrument that tracks the performance of an underlying asset or group of assets. You can trade a range of different types – stock index ETFs track an index or basket of stocks, currency ETFs track multiple currencies and sector ETFs track companies operating within the same industry.
Trading ETFs is a great way to capitalise on shorter-term price movements within certain sectors. You can trade ETFs with us using leveraged CFDs. While leverage can increase your profits, it can also increase your losses, so it’s important that you create a risk management strategy before you start trading.
What are the costs of trading shares online?
For CFDs on shares, you’ll be charged a commission instead of a spread. There are other charges to consider, such as overnight funding.
Learn more about our costs and charges.
Develop your knowledge of financial markets
Find out more about a range of markets and test yourself with IG Academy’s online courses.
Try these next
Learn more about what stocks are, how they work and why they’re traded.
Discover what an initial public offering (IPO) is, and learn how to trade it.
Start trading in more than 70 US markets pre-open and post-market close.
1 A premium is charged if your guaranteed stop is triggered. The potential premium is displayed on the deal ticket, and can form part of your margin when you attach the stop. Please note that premiums are subject to change, especially going into weekends and during volatile market conditions.
2 Winner for Mobile Platform / App based on the Investment Trends 2018 Singapore CFD & FX Report based on a survey of over 4,500 traders and investors. Awarded the best forex provider in Singapore by the Global Brands Magazine in 2020 and 2023. Awarded the Best Online Trading Platform by Influential Brands in 2019 and 2022. Awarded the best retail FX provider for Asia by FX Markets in 2021.
3 An overnight funding fee is payable if CFD contracts remain open through the official close of business of the underlying market. For CFDs, we will adjust your deposits to take into account the cost of financing your position. See how to calculate the overnight funding fee.
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Disclaimers:
- All forms of investments carry risks and trading CFDs may not be suitable for everyone. CFDs are leveraged instruments and can result in losses that exceed deposits, so please ensure that you fully understand, and are aware of, the risks and costs involved. Refer to the Risk Disclosure Statement and Risk Fact Sheet.
- IG Asia Pte Ltd (Co.Reg.No. 200510021K) is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and holds a capital markets services licence for dealing in capital markets products that are over-the-counter derivatives contracts and is an exempt financial adviser.
- IG provides an execution-only service. The information in this advertisement does not contain (and should not be construed as containing) investment advice or an investment recommendation, or an offer of or solicitation for a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. You should consider your specific investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs before making a commitment to trade, including seeking advice from an independent financial adviser regarding the suitability of the investment, under a separate engagement, as you deem fit.
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