Which is the Better, BPItrade or Citiseconline (COL)?
There is no question; BPItrade and Citiseconline are the two well known online stock brokers in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). But which one is better? Well, it depends on your trading style and objective.
I have my stock trading account at BPItrade. Although I don’t have an account yet at Citiseconline (COL), I have close friends that use COL as their broker. I also inquired and tried to open an account with them, so I’m quite familiar with their type of products and services.
Here’s my comparative review of the two online brokers;
1. Reliability. I’m confident that both brokers are reliable and won’t scam their clients. Both companies are regulated by SEC and both are publicly listed in the stock market (PSE) - BPItrade’s parent company, BPI is publicly listed while Citiseconline, itself is also listed. However, if Citiseconline is reliable, BPItrade, I think, is more reliable because it has backing from its parent company, BPI, which is one of the largest banks in the Philippines.
2. Trading Platform Performance. The platform of the two brokers are both online, however, according to some of my friends who have both BPItrade and Citiseconline, the latter is superior to the first one. BPItrade, also, has some reported IT problem cases where their website suddenly crashes in the middle of the trading session – especially during big market movement. I also have a first hand experience of this. This is very important factor for short-term and day traders – they won’t want a platform such as of the BPItrade.
3. Fund Deposit and Withdrawal. If you have a BPI Bank account and a BPIexpressonline account, funding your BPItrade account, as well as withdrawing your fund from BPItrade, is extremely easy – just do a fund transfer (or withdrawal request which is also essentially a found transfer), no fax request or what so ever is needed. On the other hand, you could also do a fund deposit using BPIexpressonline for funding Citiseconline account, however, there are some hassles in notifying them about your fund transfer; also, withdrawal still needs a fax request.
You earn interest in your unused funds in BPItrade account, I don’t know in Citiseconline. BPItrade has a minimum maintaining balance of Php500 while Citiseconline have none. BPItrade have no minimum initial deposit requirement to start trading while COL requires Php 25, 000.00.
4. Products. Stock trading is the specialization of COL so they don’t offer fixed income securities like Treasury bill (T-bills), Treasury bonds, mutual funds, etc. BPItrade, on the other hand offers these securities but trading is done through phone calls. However, there is a move initiated by their management to transfer the management of securities trading to the BPI branches. Thus, sooner or later, they would just be even in offering only stock equities. Citiseconline now offers margin trading while BPItrade is not.
5. Brokerage/Commission Fees. NO issues here, both are at extremely low price of 0.25% of the trade price/cost (for online trade) or a minimum of Php20.00.
6. Customer Support. Both are quite Okay.
In short, both brokers have pros and cons. If you’re having a hard time to decide, why shouldn’t you try opening an account on both of them? But for small time and newbies in PSE stock trading, I suggest that you use BPItrade.
Filed in: Stocks and Stock Market
Local date: February, 2012
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