What is DMA?

One of the most important aspects of successful trading is dealing at the best prices. There are two types of trading methods for CFDs – the Direct Market Access (DMA) model and the Market Maker model. At MF Global Singapore Pte Limited, we use the Direct Market Access model because we believe it is the most transparent, providing the best and fairest prices for our customers. MF Global Singapore CFD share prices ALWAYS reflect the EXACT price of the shares under The Singapore Stock Exchange, which means the price offered will never be re-quoted.

MF Global Singapore allows you to join or improve (where possible) the bids and offers of our DMA CFDs. Not only can you be a price taker, you may also be a price maker i.e. you can post your own bids and offers directly into the cash market (via the eMpower trading platform), which is available for all market participants (share and CFD traders alike) to deal on.

It is important to consider the price spread between the bid and offer prices offered by CFD providers using the Market Maker model compared to the Direct Market Access model when assessing the overall costs associated with your CFD trading.

Perhaps the most important and little known aspect of successful trading is dealing at the best prices. Some companies charge no commission, but instead have the ability to add cents to both sides of the price of the underlying stock, creating a wider spread. If the price is around $1.00, a one cent addition to the spread would be equivalent to charging commission of 1% per trade. Using the MF Global Singapore DMA model you can trade on or improve where possible the underlying spread.

The "spread" is the trader’s biggest cost, yet it never appears on the contract note. It is the cost of entering and exiting a financial market. The wider the spread the higher the cost. The cost of the spread therefore needs to be considered, even before taking any commission into account.

MF Global Singapore Pte Limited does not widen the spread on CFDs. Instead MF Global Singapore provides real market price CFDs. MF Global Singapore's CFD prices are ALWAYS the underlying cash market prices for share CFDs and as we hedge our position 100% in the real market there is NEVER a requote. MF Global Singapore also allows you to join or improve the bids and offers available in the cash market. The term cash market is often used to describe the everyday stock market (e.g. SGX).

So if a customer were to submit an order to buy 10,000 CFDs in SIA, MF Global Singapore would simultaneously enter the SGX share market, buy 10,000 shares in SIA as a hedge, and write a CFD to the customer at the same price. The customer establishes the position that they want, e.g. Long 10,000 SIA CFDs and MF Global Singapore has hedged their short CFD contract with the customer by buying stock in the underlying cash market. This entire process takes approximately one second when using the eMpower trading platform.