I’m a trader, of course I use SGX L2 market data

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Trading SGX stocks and ETFs on FSMOne just got even better with free Level 2 (L2) market data on top of our flat processing fee of S$8.80*! In the world of buying and selling stocks/ETFs, having more in-depth market data certainly helps investors to make a more informed choice based on volume of activity at various prices of an individual security.

For investors who are familiar with unlisted Unit Trusts, where price and liquidity are managed by fund managers, market data might be a foreign concept to grasp as Unit Trusts are valued once at an NAV (Net Asset Value) without bid/ask prices or volume. However when it comes to listed securities like Stocks/ETFs, they are traded on the exchange and change hand with other investors. Being able to see the volume of trades in queue at various prices is akin to having a superpower of an x-ray vision.

The most basic level of market data would be Level 1 (L1), which provides investors with the real-time price and volume of individual securities – helping to give investors a snapshot of the current state of the market.

Here are some key information provided by L1 data and what they represent:

1. Bid and Ask Prices: The bid price represents the highest price a buyer is willing to pay while the ask price is lowest price a seller is willing to accept.
2. Last Done Price: The price at which the last trade for the security was sold/bought at.
3. High and Low Prices: The highest and lowest prices at which the security has traded during the current trading session.
4. Volume: The total number of shares of the security that have been traded during the current trading session.

However, there are limitations to L1 market data. You might find this scenario familiar: you are queueing to buy a stock on the SGX at your target price. The price was executed and reflected in the last done price but your order is still not filled.

The above scenario is a common occurrence as someone earlier could have placed a large volume of order at the same price as yours. This is where L2 market data helps to provide greater transparency on price and volume by showing you more data points on top of L1 data.

These are the additional data points that are available on L2 market data and what they mean:

1. Market Depth: The number of orders at different price levels in the order book.
2. Bid and Ask Sizes: In addition to bid and ask prices, L2 data also provides information on the size of the orders at each price level.

Being equipped with L2 data, you would be in a better position to fill your buy order given the more comprehensive view of the market you have. On our platform, the market depth would be displayed like this:

While investors can make use of L1 and L2 market data to gain insights to market trends, there are also limitations to note. For instance, market data is historical and should not be used as an indication of future performance. Moreover, market data can be subject to delays and other issues that can affect reliability.

SGX L2 market data is now available to all FSMOne customers for free till the end of 2026! For a guide on redeeming your free SGX L2 market data, refer to our previous write-up:

[Promotion] Level up your trading strategy with FREE SGX Level 2 Market Depth Data

Another reason our clients love using FSMOne for SGX trade is our S$8.80* flat processing fee for trading SGX stocks and ETFs. Regardless of your trade amount, be it S$10,000 or even S$1,000,000, we still charge you flat S$8.80.

To help investors further save on processing fees, we are happy to share that trade amalgamation applies automatically to ALL SGX transaction (for same counter and same payment method executed on same trading day). This means you can place a buy order multiple times and if these trades are executed at different prices/timing on the same day, you only have to pay S$8.80 for all the trades done. Also, stocks and ETFs are not subjected to any platform or custody fees.

It might come as a surprise, our processing fees are lower than most of the expense ratio incurred in Funds/ETFs! Putting it all in perspective, depending on your trade volume, here is an illustration of how competitive our fees are:

Investment Nominal	$15,000.00	$50,000.00	$1,000,000.00
FSMOne Processing Fee	S$8.80 flat fee
Expressed in % terms	$$$ 0.05867%	$$ 0.01760%	$ 0.00088%