Compare: Fees & Charges of Online Stockbrokers

(click to enlarge)

I saw a post (click here) in Pinoyexchange.com where a PEXer compared the charges of two online stockbrokers -- AB Capital and COL Financial.

So I thought, why not make a broader comparison of charges and fees of several online stockbrokers? The result: click the picture for its full size.

BDO cuts interest rates too (after MBT and BPI)

(image from www.slatepropertiesnow.com. No copyright infringement intended.)

I already blogged in a previous post about the rate cuts on deposits products of Metrobank and BPI this year.

And now, BDO has imposed the same rate decrease on savings products. See the new rates on their website.

0.25% annual interest rate.  Seriously?

Benchmarking: Equity Mutual Funds and UITF

(source: Bloomberg)

When you are given a dozen eggs and inspect them closely, you will eventually see they are not of the same size (and sometimes shape) even though they came from the same poultry farm.

If you need a more human example: when you see a set of siblings, you will realize they are different from each other even though they came from the same mother and father.

Same with equity mutual funds and equity UITF, even though they are invested in the same stock market (same parent so to speak), the result of each fund differs from the others. You may compare them one by one... but you can also use just one "ruler" to measure all of them -- the Philippine Stock Exchange Index or PSEi.

Graphs after the jump.

After Metrobank, BPI to cut deposit rates too

(image from www.slatepropertiesnow.com. No copyright infringement intended.)

Because of the low interest rate environment, Metrobank welcomed the year with also lower interest rates for its depositors.

From 0.375% gross annual interest rate for regular savings accounts, this was lowered to the current 0.25% per annum starting January 1, 2013.

And now, BPI announced recently that it will also cut the rates of deposit accounts starting February 15.

Double your money in a mutual fund

"You could double your money by investing P5,000 a month for five years in mutual fund."

Sounds like a scam or hyped-selling? For some, it may.

But this is a real investment in the Save and Learn Equity Fund (SALEF) of First Metro Asset Management, Inc.

In mutual funds, there are no guaranteed returns. But historical figures from 2008 to 2012 suggest you could actually double your money, not just by lump-sum investing, but also by peso cost averaging.

(Note: lump-sum investing is not advisable for a fund that invests in volatile markets like equity funds. Please understand the risk and your risk appetite before investing.)

If you redeemed all your shares today, you would have a whooping 102% return of investment!

How? Read on.

Banks: BPI, BDO, or MBT?

I currently have accounts with the Big Three in the local banking industry -- namely: Bank of the Philippine Islands, BDO, and Metrobank. The order in which I mentioned them was the order in which I opened my accounts with them, and not based on their capital strength, branch network or any financial or industry fundamentals you can think of. What I will write here are just my observations and opinions. Let's call this "perception analysis."

(side note: Yes, that is a picture of a diskette. It will make logic as you read on.)

Being an IMG Associate

Somebody asked me about being an Associate of the International Marketing Group or IMG. He specifically asked whether he can do it in part-time capacity.

For the uninitiated, IMG is a brokerage firm with primary goal of educating Filipinos about financial literacy. Its head office is in Makati but has several satellite offices/sub-group in major Philippine cities and in other countries. Mind you, it is too big a network to be a scam. And there is no promise of exaggerated returns. You have to do some thing to be compensated.

Anyway, part of my answer to the question is after the jump.