Online stock trading platform targets Japanese investors

Regina Online Investing (ROI) will attempt to lure more foreign funds to the local bourse at the retail level, starting with Japanese stock market investors through its new online trading service, the company said.

Following the signed introducing broker agreement with Japanese firm Seven Seas Properties Corp., the stockbroker said it was launching an order management system designed for Japanese investors where they can place their buy and sell orders online.

Touted as the first of its kind in the market, this web-based application is aimed at creating better access for foreign retail investment in the country, with greater efficiency and improved responsiveness.

In a briefing last Friday, ROI noted that seasoned Japanese equity traders in the Philippine stock market use trend and range trading—a strategy involving the buying or selling of stocks depending on the breakout or breakdown price, which can be difficult to implement using the conventional online trading platforms.

Trade Pro enables Japanese stock investors to post their orders on these price points. Once placed, Regina floor traders will immediately execute the trade when the specified prices are hit. The client will then see the updated status of his order in the system upon completion.

“Being one of the more sophisticated investors in the world, Japanese individuals require specialized desk assisted execution on their orders, which online trading platforms cannot provide,” ROI sales manager Fernando Martinez said. “Trade Pro is designed to make things easier for overseas-based accounts to have a seamless desk-assisted trading experience.”

Aside from managing buy and sell stock requests, Trade Pro also provides market and stock quotes, performs portfolio management and monitoring of profit and loss, enables users to build and customize stock watch lists and access charting and drawing tools that can save unlimited charts.

“Our goal in creating the Trade Pro is to have a greater efficiency in managing and executing orders through a structured order status workflow,” ROI sales officer and head of the order management system development team Ves Legaspi-Cuyugan said.

More importantly, Trade Pro is customized in Nihongo to allow ease of access for Japanese investors who are not accustomed to using trading tools in English.

“One of the biggest reasons why most Japanese investors do not use stock market services in the Philippines is because they only offer it in English, which is a struggle for Japanese traders, and if they did have it in Japanese, there would be a thirty-minute delay in charting that causes missed opportunities,” Seven Seas executive vice president Yusuke Uejima said.