Plain-English definitions of terms that come up in the weekly wrap, weighted towards the Singapore and Hong Kong mechanics that general glossaries tend to skip.
Singapore market mechanics
Buying and selling the same counter before the trade settles, so no money changes hands for the shares themselves — only the difference is settled. A profit is a contra gain, a loss a contra loss. Convenient, but it means you can lose money without ever having funded the position.
The Central Depository holds SGX-listed securities directly in your own name. You appear on the register, receive corporate communications, and can move holdings between brokers.
Your broker holds the shares in its own nominee name on your behalf. Usually cheaper to trade, and the standard arrangement for foreign markets, but you don't appear on the register and corporate actions are handled through the broker.
The standard trading unit on SGX, currently 100 shares. Smaller quantities trade separately in the unit share market, typically with wider spreads and thinner liquidity.
If you don't pay for a purchase by the settlement due date, the broker sells the position to close it out, and you carry any loss plus charges. The reason contra positions need watching.
Buy cum-dividend and you're entitled to the declared dividend; buy ex-dividend and you're not. The price typically adjusts downward on the ex-date by roughly the dividend amount.
Specified Investment Products are instruments regulators consider more complex — you must pass an assessment of your knowledge or experience before you can trade them. Excluded Investment Products are the simpler ones, such as ordinary shares, with no such requirement.
Accounts & financing
The standard trading account. You buy, then pay by the settlement date. Contra trading is possible.
Funds sit in the account before you trade. Usually attracts lower commission rates, and removes the risk of an unfunded position, at the cost of tying up cash.
Borrowing against cash or securities pledged as collateral to increase position size. Amplifies losses as well as gains. If collateral value falls, you face a margin call and may be sold out.
A demand to top up cash or collateral when your margin ratio falls below the required level. Fail to meet it in time and positions are liquidated for you, at whatever price the market offers.
A leveraged contract that tracks a share or index without owning it. You settle the price difference. Losses can exceed your deposit, and holding costs accrue.
The CPF Investment Scheme, letting you invest part of your CPF savings in approved products. Rules on what qualifies and how much you may invest are set by the CPF Board.
The Supplementary Retirement Scheme — voluntary contributions that reduce taxable income, invested through an SRS operator bank. Withdrawals before the statutory retirement age carry a penalty.
Instruments
A real estate investment trust holds income-producing property and distributes most of its income to unitholders. S-REITs are the Singapore-listed ones, which make up a large share of the STI and are sensitive to interest rates.
A fund listed and traded like a share, usually tracking an index or asset class. Many are classified as SIPs on SGX.
A listed product giving fixed leverage — commonly 3x, 5x or 7x — on an index, reset every day. Because the leverage resets daily, returns over longer periods diverge from the index move multiplied by the leverage factor. Built for short holding periods.
A listed instrument giving the right to buy or sell an underlying at a set price by a set date. Time decay works against the holder, and it can expire worthless.
A US-listed receipt representing shares in a foreign company, allowing you to trade the exposure in US dollars during US hours.
An SGX-listed receipt representing a beneficial interest in a share listed overseas — currently Thai and Hong Kong companies. You trade it in Singapore dollars during SGX hours, even when the home market is shut. The practical draw is size: because board lots differ, an SDR can cost a fraction of what the underlying Hong Kong shares would. The trade-off is liquidity, which is usually thinner than the underlying, so larger orders can move the price. SDRs are issued on an unsponsored basis, meaning the issuer has no formal arrangement with the company itself, and they can be converted into the underlying shares through an issuance and cancellation process.
Bonds traded over the counter are usually quoted clean, excluding accrued interest, which is added separately at settlement. Bonds listed on SGX are typically quoted dirty, with accrued interest already in the price.
Hong Kong & China
Hong Kong's headline benchmark. The weekly wrap tracks every constituent, which is why the HSI table runs long.
H-shares are mainland-incorporated companies listed in Hong Kong. Red chips are mainland state-controlled but incorporated offshore. P-chips are privately controlled mainland businesses incorporated offshore.
The trading links between Hong Kong and the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. Northbound is international money buying mainland shares; southbound is mainland money buying Hong Kong shares.
The CSI 300 tracks 300 large caps across Shanghai and Shenzhen. The Shanghai Composite covers all Shanghai-listed shares, so the two can move apart when large and small caps diverge.
Reading the weekly wrap
A company inside an index. The weekly tables show every constituent so you can see what moved beneath the headline number.
How many names participated in a move. An index can rise on a handful of heavyweights while most constituents fall — narrow breadth, and usually worth noting.
A constituent's share of the index. A 1% move in a heavily weighted bank shifts the STI far more than the same move in a small constituent.
Performance from the start of the calendar year to the latest close.
A period of sideways trading in a range, without a clear trend in either direction.
Price levels where buying or selling has repeatedly appeared. A level that has been broken often acts in the opposite role afterwards — former resistance becoming support.
Macro & data
Three inflation measures: consumer prices, producer prices, and personal consumption expenditures. PCE is the gauge the US Federal Reserve targets.
Headline includes everything; core strips out food and energy, which are volatile. Policymakers watch core for the underlying trend.
A purchasing managers' survey. Above 50 signals expansion, below 50 contraction.
Non-oil domestic exports — Singapore's key trade indicator, and a useful read on external demand.
The US Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the federal funds rate. Its scheduled meetings are the calendar events most likely to move global equities.
The extra yield investors demand for holding longer-dated bonds rather than rolling short ones. A rising term premium lifts long yields even when policy rate expectations are unchanged.
Bond yields plotted across maturities. It steepens when long yields rise relative to short, flattens when the gap narrows, and inverts when short yields exceed long.
These are general explanations written for readers of this blog, not definitive or legal definitions. Product features, eligibility rules and settlement conventions change, and the official documentation from the exchange, the regulator or your broker governs in every case. Nothing here is investment advice.
