Trading Information FAQ

Our brokers, custodian banks and counterparties have started to impose restrictions and requirements on certain transactions to comply with sanctions/actions taken against Russian individuals and entities. As such, your trades that are processed by us via these brokers, custodian banks and counterparties may be impacted. Specifically, instructions relating to trades with a Russian nexus may not be processed or only processed partially. Settlement delays or failures may also occur. For more information, please contact your Relationship Manager. For clients of DBS Treasures, please contact our Treasures Hotline (852) 2961 2338.

Yes, you can trade virtual asset-related products through Online Equity Trading, before trading virtual asset-related products, please acquire Virtual Asset Knowledge (VAK) and Derivatives Knowledge (DK).

DBS Online Equity Trading Platform allows you to trade in 7 markets – Hong Kong, Singapore, U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia and United Kingdom. In order to obtain real-time quote and information of the U.S. market on the trading platform, you are required to accept the Market Data Agreement for U.S. market before proceeding to trade.

You may review and accept the above Market Data Agreements during the first time accessing DBS Online Equity Trading Platform or visit “Account Management” page under “More” anytime after you have entered into DBS Online Equity Trading Platform.

Customers are eligible for trading U.S. Stocks if they are

• Non-U.S. persons.
• Able to provide a valid identification document such as a permanent Hong Kong Identity Card or passport.

For DBS Private Bank and DBS Treasures Private Client customers, you may place orders via your Relationship Manager. For DBS Treasures customers, please call our DBS Treasures Securities Service Hotline at (852) 2290 8033.

You can obtain free real-time quotes on equities listed on the Hong Kong, Singapore, and U.S. markets. You can obtain free delayed quote on equities listed on the Canada, Japan, Australia and United Kingdom markets.

Stock markets operate from Monday to Friday except for public holidays. You may refer to websites of exchanges for public holidays of respective markets. The market trading hours are as follows:

*Hong Kong (16:00 to 16:08-10 / 12:00 to 12:08-10)
This phase will end randomly at any time from 16:08 to 16:10 hours (for normal day trading) or 12:08 to 12:10 hours (for half-day trading).

**Pre-Open Phase (08:30 to 08:58-59 hours)
Singapore (08:30 to 08:58-59)
This phase will end randomly at any time from 08:58 to 08:59 hours.

***Pre-Close Phase
Singapore (17:00 to 17:04-05 hours/12:30 to 12:34-35 hours)
This phase will end randomly at any time from 17:04 to 17:05 hours (for normal day trading) or 12:04 to 12:05 hours (for half-day trading).

The trading hours for the markets stated above are for reference only and subject to change. Please refer to websites of exchanges for updated trading hours.

Trading services in the Pre-opening Session and Closing Auction Session are provided as below

Pre-opening Session
Time Range	Period	New Order Input	Amendment	Cancellation
09:00 - 09:15	Order Input Period
09:15 - 09:20	No-cancellation Period
09:20 - 09:22	Random Matching Period^
After matching - 09:30	Blocking Period

^{^}In the Random Matching Period, order matching randomly starts between 9:20 – 9:22, and upon start of order matching, input / amendment / cancellation of orders is not allowed.

Price Limits for POS

A two-stage price limit is applied to control the price of at-auction limit orders which are input during the POS.

Closing Auction Session
Time Range	Period	New Order Input	Amendment	Cancellation
16:00 - 16:01	Reference Price Fixing Period
16:01 – 16:06	Order Input Period
16:06 – 16:08	No-Cancellation Period
16:08 – 16:10	Random Closing Period*

^*In the Random Closing Period, at-auction orders and at-auction limit orders can still be inputted until the market close randomly within the two-minute period.

Price Limits for CAS

A two-stage price limit is applied to control the price of limit orders which are either carried forward from CTS to CAS, or newly inputted during CAS.

Trading will be available if overseas stock markets are open. You can place your orders during Hong Kong public holidays.

Types of Orders
Markets	Market Order	Limit Order	At-Auction Limit Order	Enhanced Limit Order	All Or None	Good for day	Order Duration (max 30 calendar days)
Hong Kong							(max 10 calendar days)
Singapore	#
U.S.
Canada
Japan
Australia
United Kingdom

^# The Market Order type can only be entered during normal trading hours, from 09:00 - 17:00 HK time

An MO is an order to buy or sell stocks at the prevailing market price immediately without setting a limit price. This order will be placed to the market by matching it up to the 10th queue at 9 spreads away at the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong at the time when the MO is processed. Any unfilled quantity of your MO would be cancelled immediately.

The filled price may deviate considerably from the expected price at time of placing such order. The order processing time required will depend on the prevailing market situation and the number of orders that need to be processed. The possible delay in order processing could incur great loss, and you are advised to enquire the order status after placing the order.

For Hong Kong market, a MO will be sent to the market in the form of Special Limit Order during continuous trading session. The order price will be set as the prevailing best bid price (for sell orders) / ask price (for buy orders) for matching at the time of order submission by you. Any unfilled quantity of the order after matching will be cancelled immediately. Under a fluctuating market, the order may be rejected or unfilled if (but without limitation to) the prevailing best bid price goes down (for sell orders) / ask price goes up (for buy orders) before the order is sent to the exchange successfully leading to unmatched orders and hence immediate order cancelation (due to feature of Special Limit Order).

When you place a LO, you are stating the price at which you wish to buy or sell a stock. If that price is not met, your order will not be filled. A LO guarantees a price but does not guarantee an execution. Please note that LO is not provided for Hong Kong trading on our platform.

An ALO is a Limit Order that can be input during Pre-Opening Session or Closing Auction Session.

For ALO input during Pre-Opening Session - after order matching, unfilled ALO in the pre-opening session with input price not deviating nine times or more from the prevailing nominal price will be converted to Limit Orders (LO) at the input price and carried forward to the continuous trading session.

For ALO input during Closing Auction Session – after order matching, unfilled ALO would be discarded and would not be carried forward to the next business day.

More information about ALO is available on the website of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX).

An ELO is similar to a Limit Order, except that it allows matching of up to 10 price queues (i.e. the best price queue and up to the 10th queue at 9 spreads away) at one time. After order matching, unfilled ELO will be converted into a Limit Order (LO) and placed in the price queue at the order input price.

More information about ELO is available on the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) website

'AON' is a type of restricted order where the entire order must be filled at one time or nothing will be filled at all. If you do not specify your order as 'All Or None' when placing a limit order, there is a possibility that your order will be filled partially. Full commission fees and charges apply for each partial fill, except those transacted within the same business day. Please note that AON feature will only be available for U.S. market and if the quantity is equal or over 100 units.

A Good for Day order is a limit order good for that business day only. If the order is not filled by the end of the trading day, the order will expire. A Good for Day order placed after the market is closed is good for the next business day, unless it is placed specifically for after-hours trading.

A Good till Date order is an instruction good for up to next 30 calendar days after the order is placed. The order will be cancelled on the morning following the expiration date being set. When you cancel and replace a good for 30 days order, the order will be given a new 30 calendar days expiration period. Good till Date order for Hong Kong market allows 10 calendar days only.

For stocks listed in The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (the “SEHK”), orders within the spreads as prescribed by the Bank from time to time of the relevant current market bid/offer prices will be sent to SEHK for queuing; for stocks listed outside SEHK, orders will be sent to corresponding exchange where the stock is listed regardless of the spreads. In this context, your order will to be sent to corresponding exchange where the stock is listed for queuing unless such order is fully filled, cancelled by you or rejected by the exchange during the order period. Please note that your order will still be carried forward to next trading day after it is partially filled.

A Good till Max order is a limit order similar to Good till Date order. Order will automatically be good for the next 30 calendar days after the order is placed, and cancelled on the morning following the 30th day, unless order is fully filled, specifically cancelled, instrument de-listed, or purged for corporate actions. Good till Max orders are available in the Singapore market only.

You will be able to see “Your cash and buying power” in the Overview page once you login to DBS Online Equity Trading Platform. It is displayed in the nominal currency of the stock you have selected (default in HKD) considering available cash balance and receivable stock sales proceeds in that particular currency in your Wealth Management Multi-Currency Settlement Account (MCSA).

Your buying power may also be subject to a trading limit as prescribed by the Bank from time to time. Any purchase orders via the DBS Online Equity Trading Platform with purchasing amount exceeding your unused trading limit will not be accepted.

Your unused limit will be reduced by the exact amount of all executed but not yet settled buy orders for all markets conducted via the DBS Online Equity Trading Platform (transaction amount plus all related transaction fees and levies inclusive); and only restores when the orders are settled (number of trading days required for settlement varies across markets. However, you will still be able to place sale orders online any time regardless of the selling amount or your current usage of the limit.

You may transfer in new fund or exchange currency in the DBS iBanking page if you wish so (you must first open any of Current Accounts, Save & Cheque Accounts, HK Dollar Savings Accounts or Multi-Currency Savings Accounts in corresponding currencies).

Upon successful order submission, you will receive an online order confirmation with a reference number provided. This confirmation indicates that we have received your order instruction. To check if your order has been filled, you can view the order status online by clicking View Order Status or Order History.

Two ways to find out if your order has been filled.

• Check order status online by clicking view Order Status.
• Opt in to receive trade confirmations via SMS and/or email as per your DBS iBanking Alert setting.

If you have an outstanding order placed on the Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia & United Kingdom markets, you may amend it by clicking "Amend" on the Orders page to proceed with the amendment. The Orders page will indicate if your amendment has been successful. We provide different amendment actions for different markets. Details are as shown below:

If you have an outstanding order that is not yet filled in the market, you may cancel it by clicking "Cancel" on the Orders page to proceed with the cancellation. The Orders page will indicate if your amendment has been successful. Please note that all cancel orders are subject to prior fills.

All unmatched orders will expire at the end of the business day. If you wish to keep the order for the next business day, you will have to re-enter the order after the trading hours. If you have selected "Good till date", your order will be cancelled automatically on the expiry date.

Orders can be entered throughout the day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, please be reminded that an order will be routed to the market in the next trading session if it is placed during non-trading hours.

Your order could be rejected under any of the following circumstances (for illustration only and not exhaustive):

• You do not have sufficient funds for your buy order.
• You do not hold the stock or you have insufficient stocks for your sell order.
• The trading limit for your account has been exceeded.
• The buy or sell stock price is 100 spreads away from the market price for ELO, 20 spreads away from the market price for ALO placed during Pre-Opening Session, or 5% away from the reference price for ALO placed during Closing Auction Session
• Your order quantity is greater than 3,000 board lots.
• The order you want to amend or cancel has been filled.
• Your amended buy/sell order price is 100 spreads away from the market price for ELO (except for orders that have already been submitted to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and amended buy/sell orders with a price 20 spreads away from the market price), or 20 spreads away for ALO.
• Your inputted order price for an ELO is beyond the 9 best price spreads from the current price of the other side of the market (i.e. 10 bid/ask spreads).
• Your order price or amended order price is not valid depending on the prevailing market situation.
• Your order amendment is the same as the original order.
• The stock has been suspended.
• The stock you selected has been delisted.
• Any other reason for rejection provided by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
• The system has encountered technical problems - such as outages, glitches and other delays.

There are a number of reasons your order could be rejected and the common ones are listed here:

• You do not have sufficient funds for your buy order.
• You do not hold the stock or you have insufficient stocks for your sell order.
• Your order input price exceeds the allowable input price range of the stock set by the Singapore Exchange (the allowable input price range is usually within 10-30 spreads of a stock’s prevailing nominal price, depending on the denominated currency and asset type of the stock. Please refer to the Singapore Exchange’s website for more information.)
• The trading limit for your account has been exceeded.
• The order you want to amend or cancel has been filled.
• The stock you selected has been suspended.
• The stock you selected has been delisted.
• Any other reason for rejection provided by the Singapore Exchange.
• The system has encountered technical problems - such as outages, glitches and other delays.
• The limit price of your order is not the same as the closing auction price during Trade At Close session.

Yes. You can do so as long as the buying and selling were done through us.

Yes. Our system will first hold the amount required for your new buy order from the receivable funds of your sell order which is fully filled or your sell order which is partially filled (after market close) before the settlement date of your sell order. (The settlement date varies across markets. For details, please refer to the Corporate Actions & Settlement FAQ.)

If the amount of your buy order is larger than the amount of the receivable funds, the remaining balance to be debited will be held from your account according to your instruction.

No. However, for DBS Private Bank and DBS Treasures Private Client customers, you may place orders via your Relationship Manager. For DBS Treasures customers, please call our DBS Treasures Securities Service Hotline at (852) 2290 8033.

For DBS Private Bank and DBS Treasures Private Client customers, you may place orders via your Relationship Manager. For DBS Treasures customers, please call our DBS Treasures Securities Service Hotline at (852) 2290 8033.

Transaction advice will be sent to you by ordinary post. You may choose to receive preliminary notification via email or SMS alerts. Please update your mobile number and email address for alert notifications via DBS iBanking.

No. DBS Online Trading Platform will not accept trade instructions via email.

Short selling means selling shares that you do not own. In compliance with Hong Kong regulatory requirements, the Bank does not allow short selling.

A new 10-minute long trading session introduced by SGX called “Trade At Close” (TAC) for the securities market that will take place after the closing auction routine ends.
During the TAC session, trades can only occur at a fixed price, that is "Closing Auction Price" (CAP) established by SGX during the “Non-Cancel Last” session. Order amendments and cancellation is allowed during TAC.
If there is no closing price established during Non-Cancel Last session for any counter, then all the order entries will be rejected and there will be no order matching during TAC session on that business day for that counter.

Only Limit order and established closing auction price (CAP) will be accepted.

All unfilled Good till Date (GTD) during TAC, will be carried over to the following trading day.

A market Fill or Kill (FOK) order is only applicable to the Singapore market. The entire quantity placed must be matched in full or the order will be cancelled. A market FOK order can only be entered during continuous trading hours from 09:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 17:04.

A market Fill and Kill (FAK) order is only applicable to the Singapore market. Any portion of a market FAK order will be matched as soon as the order is placed and the remaining order will be cancelled. A market FAK order can only be entered during trading hours from 08:30 – 17:04

Risks associated with using market orders

Please take note that by placing a market FAK order during SGX Opening Routine, Mid-Day Break or Closing Routine, the order will be participating in Matching during Non-Cancel Phase. Orders that can be matched are matched at a single price computed based on SGX Algorithm.

For more information, please click here

A buy order can be filled at a much higher price than intended, or a sell order can be filled at a much lower price than intended. Using market orders during a volatile market is not recommended as there is a higher probability that the prices will change quickly. Hence, the incidence of ‘slippage’ is higher in fast-moving markets or for illiquid securities with thin order book and wide bid-ask spread. The order may be split across multiple investors on the other side of the transaction, resulting in different prices for the order.

DBS Online Equity Trading platform does not facilitate the trading of US (OTC) Over-the-Counter Shares, Preference Shares and Bonds.

For DBS Private Bank and DBS Treasures Private Client customers, please contact your Relationship Manager for more information. For DBS Treasures customers, please call our DBS Treasures Securities Service Hotline at (852) 2290 8033.

Dividends from Japanese listed equities and coupon payments of Japanese bonds payable to Japanese residents are subject to a 20.315% withholding tax rate pursuant to the relevant tax law in Japan*. Our custodians have informed us that they cannot administer and impose the abovementioned withholding tax to Japanese residents.

In view of the above, with effect from 31 March 2023, the Bank has stopped accepting buy trades and transfer in of Japanese listed equities and Japanese bonds from Japanese residents. Meanwhile, online equity trading capability of Japanese residents has also been suspended until further notice.

For more information, please contact your Relationship Manager or DBS Treasures Customer Service Hotline (852) 2961 2338.

^*subject to change and announcement by the National Tax Agency Japan without prior notice.