BPITrade Updated Fee Structure as of April 1, 2009

NOTE: This is an old post and most of the details are not current anymore. We are not updating this post anymore since its posting on April 11, 2009. So, readers are advised to go straight to the BPI Trade website for more details. Here is the link to the BPI Trade FAQs:

BPI TRADE FAQs

BPITrade Updated Fee Structure

BPITrade updated its fee structure beginning April 1, 2009. Here is the email message sent to BPITrade clients:

From: bpitrade@bpi.com.ph
Subject: BPITrade Updated Fee Structure
To: Marginal Investor
Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 1:48 PM

Dear BPITrade Client,

In line with the implementation of the Documentary Stamp (DST) for Buy transactions, we are sending an updated Excel file which will aid you in determining your Buy and Sell transaction costs and proceeds. The breakdown of your Net Buy and Net Sell amount are presented in detail.

In addition, we are also providing you with our updated fee structure in the table below. Effectivity and implementation of the updated fees/charges will be on April 1, 2009.



For further inquiries, please call us at 816-9190 or 816-9192. Thank you very much.

BPI Securities Corporation

For illustration purposes, let us use a buy and a sell transaction under 8,000 pesos in value that we did while trading our Ayala Corporation shares:

From our total sell price of 4,414.27 pesos , we take out the total buy price of 4,067.08 pesos to give us a capital gain of 347.19 pesos or about 8.5% yield based on total buy price.

In these two transactions, our selling price of 223 pesos less buying price of 202 pesos will make a 420 pesos gross margin for 20 shares.

Then, we split our gross margin with BPITrade by about 4:1 ratio. We take over 80% while BPITrade gets under 20% of the gross margin in this completed stock trading operating cycle.

Next Post: How to Build Equity for Your Speculative Stock Trading Operations

Marginal Investor Swings with the Stock Price

The Starter Investor Learns Swing Trading

Effective from our update on April 5, 2023, we have rebranded from Marginal Investor to The Starter Investor. For additional details, please visit our About Us page.

BECOMING A GENUINE INVESTOR in common stock is our ultimate goal. You may read that the previous two posts are parts of a series that will show how Marginal Investor understood and applied the principles and techniques described in the book The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham in the context of a beginning investor who is a Filipino, residing in the Philippines and with a shoestring budget to begin with.

Investment Money

You may also find in Awakening of the Marginal Investor or Speculator that I suggested using the speculative method of stock trading and taking advantage of quick price changes until one has the amount of over 50,000 pesos. Of course, one may invest in common stocks through the Philippine Stock Exchange with funds under 50,000 pesos. But this would be insufficient to create the suggested diversified portfolio of common stocks giving one the expected 4% to 8% average annual return. For this reason, I would put on hold the series about the Intelligent Investor until that time when we have complied with Marginal Investor's proposed fund requirements.

Investors and Stock Traders

Nevertheless, Chapter Two of The Intelligent Investor is so much related to the stock trading game that I would still venture to include some portions of it here. Entitled The Investor and Stock-Market Fluctuations, this chapter offered some description of the proper attitude that investors should take in the matter of price fluctuations in common stocks. Since, for the time being, we shall play the role of stock traders with speculative tendencies at that, we shall note the warnings and pick up suggestions as they apply to us.

Buy Low, Sell High

In discussing Market Fluctuations in Individual Stocks, it mentioned that the principle of buy-low-sell-high can be applied more satisfactorily with primary reference to individual stocks and with comparatively little regard for the level of the general market. The maxim is: "Buy during periods of of pessimism and low prices; sell during periods of optimism and high prices." This is just exactly what we need to understand because we are focusing only on one issue: Ayala Corporation. And we shall use the facilities of BPI Trade for our online stock trading.

Swing Trading

Furthermore, while we were digressing from our main focus of investing towards stock trading, we will be maintaining a clear view of our overall goal at all times. Talking about stock trading, stock traders typically gravitate around any one of the major styles of equity trading and stick only to that style. For our stopover, this Starter Investor decided to play the role of a swing trader.

Playing the role of a swing trader, we shall hold our Ayala Corporation shares for a period of time, generally a few days or two or three weeks, and we will trade this stock on the basis of its intra-week or intra-month oscillations between optimism and pessimism, following our maxim.

Stock Trading Operating Cycle

In the introduction to my previous post, I explained how I completed my first stock trading operating cycle, from 4,050 pesos cash to buy 20 shares of stock to generating receivables, then collecting the receivables and converting it back to cash and picking up 350 pesos appreciation of my principal in the process. Here is what the operating cycle looks like:

Waiting for the Swing

In the first week of April, we started a new roundtrip by using 4,080 pesos of our cash to buy 20 shares of Ayala Corporation at 204 pesos per share. Since our goal is to generate a minimum return of 6% for our total available cash position every roundtrip - which at this time is 4,400 pesos - then we need to obtain net capital gains of 265 pesos.

Transaction Cost

Transaction costs for selling our stock inventory are about 1% to 2% of gross sales. For this cycle, we should consider selling only when the price is over by a minimum of 8% based on our total purchase cost of 4,080 pesos, which means an offer price of 221 pesos per share. What we need to do now is simply wait for the stock price to swing from 204 pesos to 221 pesos per share.


Next Post: BPITrade Updated Fee Structure and Stock Cost-Proceeds Computation

Awakening of the Marginal Investor or Speculator

The Stater Investor Triangle

As of our April 5, 2023, update, we have changed our name from Marginal Investor to our current name, The Starter Investor. Please refer to our About Us page for further information.

TO SELL AT A MODEST PROFIT was an opportunity so tempting I took advantage of it without hesitation. I am referring to my decision last week of selling all of what my so-called stock portfolio consists - the 20 shares of Ayala Corporation at 220 pesos per share. I bought these shares in two board lots of 10 shares each:

• 10 shares on January 29, 2009 at 207 pesos per share; and
• 10 shares on February 23, 2009 at 198 pesos per share.

My total acquisition cost for these 20 shares is 4,050 pesos. This trading cycle gave me a net earnings of 350 pesos or close to 9% capital gains in three months.


Precisely, this is one situation the book The Intelligent Investor warns about when one is seriously involved in investing. Specifically, Chapter One of the book was entitled What the Intelligent Investor Can Accomplish. This chapter was organized as follows:

• Introductory paragraphs

• Investment Before World War I and Today

• Results to Be Expected by the Defensive Investor

• Tax-Exempt Bonds: State and Municipal

• Results to Be Expected by the Aggressive Investor

• "Yes" and "No" Table for the Investor

• The Investor as Security Owner

Of course, some portions of this chapter may no longer be relevant today. But that is offset by the larger portion describing the valuable insights and suggestions that any beginning investor should know. The introductory paragraphs presented several concepts that are fundamental to understanding this whole idea of investing.

Investing Defined

"An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal, and a satisfactory return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative."

The Investor

Our typical investor contemplated by the book is one who:

• emphasizes the safety of the principal.

• buys securities outright.

• holds these securities for a considerable period.

• more interested in annual income than in quick price changes.

The word intelligent was given the meaning endowed with the capacity for knowledge and understanding. Interestingly, however, the intelligent investor is more about character than of the brain.

The two categories of investors are the defensive or conservative investor, and the aggressive or enterprising investor.

Defensive investor

For the defensive investor, intelligent action is largely the exercise of firmness in the application of relatively simple principles of sound procedures. 

Aggressive investor

In contrast, the first rule of intelligent action for the aggressive investor is never to embark on a security purchase which he does not fully comprehend and which he cannot justify by reference to the results of his personal study or experience.

Investing in Common Stock

The emerging trend at the time the book was written, was the inclusion of common stock as an integral and important part of a sound investment program. Among the advantages cited, related to tax considerations, is that common stock can be selected more on the basis of capital gains expectation rather than current income. There must be some caution, however, because paying attention to the appreciation of the principal may lead the investor into speculative attitudes and operations resulting in financial loss.

Another advantage of common stock is based on long-term experience. A diversified holding of representative common stocks was found to be more profitable than a bond portfolio. Provided, the shares were purchased at reasonable market levels, that is, levels that are reasonable with respect to well-defined standards derived from past experience.

Results to Be Expected by the Defensive and Aggressive Investors

Defensive return on investment

The defensive investor may expect a 4% return for his money. True, this is not a brilliant achievement. Nevertheless, it is attainable with minimum intelligent effort. 

Aggressive return on investment

The aggressive investor, should he or she listen to the warnings and positive suggestions presented, may expect to double the average annual return of the defensive investor.

Furthermore, The Intelligent Investor offers this encouragement: The genuine investor in common stocks does not need great equipment of brains, and knowledge, but he or she does need some unusual qualities of character.

Marginal Investor Notes

Let us go back to the main purpose of this website described in our page About Us. We said that it is about how one may start his or her stock trading and investing activities in the Philippines from scratch. In addition, we also said that we shall limit our investment to common stock and with only one issue: Ayala Corporation.

Considering the suggestions of The Intelligent Investor and the practical situation of our beginning marginal investor, it led me to the observation that there can only be a meaningful talk about investing when one's fund is in excess of 50,000 pesos.

For any amount less than this, it is impractical to create a diversified portfolio of common stocks because of the minimum board lot requirements for purchasing shares of stock in the Philippine Stock Exchange.

In addition, focusing more on capital gains at this level may easily give one more opportunity for earnings than just waiting for the dividends. This is why we sold out my portfolio of 20 shares of Ayala Corporation and gained 9% in the process. All we need to do now is to wait for the next price change until we could buy the same number of shares at our lowest purchase price of 198 pesos or even just about 10% discount on our selling price.

Stated in a different way and sounding more like an oxymoron, we shall grow our starting capital of 5,000 pesos using the speculative methods of stock trading that take advantage of quick price changes until we have the amount of over 50,000 pesos required for our investment goals. Therefore, any lesser amount should better be applied in the only alternative available: stock trading.


Previous Post: Awakening of the Intelligent Marginal Investor: Introduction
Next Post: The Investor and Stock-Market Fluctuations