If you are

• A beginner in the Philippine stock market totally blank and clueless about stocks and investing in Philippines stocks echange
• Or an already-investor but looking to have a more practical understanding of investing in the Philippine stocks market

then this is definitely the page for you.

Here you’ll finally be able to nail down the basics and essentials of investing in the Philippine stock market even if you have zero experience.

The goal is to give you as few information as possible so you can start quickly but never carelessly. Few info lang muna because I want you to avoid information overload which frustrates newbies that stop them in taking the first steps. Time is your best ally when it comes to investing, so making sure that you start as soon as possible is of utmost importance for you. With that said, you can download our quick start guide to investing in Philippine market pdf for beginners here. Its the summary form of this page =).

Lets begin!

In this page, expect that

• You’ll be able to confidently start your baby moves as a beginner in the Philippine stock market world.
• You’ll also have access to various tool and resources that will equip and help you more as you go along your financial journey of investing
• Youll learn where you can get your personal support group to cheer you up, holding your hands while youre just starting investing and shortening your learning curve
• And lastly and more importantly, you’ll have a sound mindset that will keep pushing and inspiring you and that is far more rewarding than any profit you can get in the stock market. Why focus on mindset? Because maniwala ka o sa hindi, your money problems is 90% mind problems. And soon youll realize that investing in Philippine stock exchange has also got to do with controlling this mindset.

Note: What follows are my first-hand experiences when I was starting in this stocks investing thing. Enclosed in green boxes (like this one) are the actual steps I recommend to you based on what I have learned so far, with some links to simple tutorials for beginners to help you jump start your investing journey in Philippine Stock Market. In case you have other questions on each of those steps, just let me know in the comments below.

But before that, let me share my own story how I actually started investing. I was really ignorant financially before. let alone on investing in the Philippine stock market.Totally had no idea about financial and investment ek-ek ( I finished a highly technical engineering degree!).

I just first considered thinking about stock investing weeks after I had read Bro Bo’s book which ignited my financial freedom expedition. Then it was followed by an invitation from one of my lecturers during my board exam review.

Up to now, I could still clearly remember how that kind professor said his regret on his late entry to the market. That it took him many long years before he and the stock market met along the road.

So when I finally decided to give it a try, I went the next day to an online trading brokerage firm. I started really small 10k lang. (Yes you can start with as small as 5k lang actually).

Just like starting anew in anything, my clueless personality made all the moves for me in a wide vast field of unknown.

All I had to hold on was my mustard dream of financial freedom and the belief that stock investing might be a path for that dream. I managed to cut the chase, and applied for an account.

STEP 1. Assuming youve learned the basics of financial planning and decided to go into directly investing in Philippine Stock Market, the first step youd need to do is to open a stock trading account. This account is the one youre going to use to actually buy and sell stocks or shares of companies.

For beginners,  I recommend  opening an ONLINE stock trading account because of the convenience it offers compared to a traditional broker.

Unlike using traditional brokers which is the practice before where you have to call your live broker to place stock orders in your behalf, having an online trading account allows you to do the same on your internet-connected computer/mobile screen on your own, anytime and anywhere (even if youre outside the Philippines).

Opening an online trading account is just like opening a regular bank account (think of your payroll/ATM). All you have to do is go to the website of your preferred online broker, read the account opening instructions, download all the forms,fill them out and submit it together with all the other requirements to their office. After submission, you just wait within the next 2-3 days  for their email confirming that your trading account is ready for step 2 which is funding it.

I have made in this review post a summary of four online brokers you can choose from COL Financial, First Metro Securities, Philstocks and BPI Trade, and at the end shared my recommendation.

You can also check HERE a simple tutorial on completing this first step with the click by click tutorial shown below that will guide you how to open account in COL Financial (formerly Citiseconline) as online stock broker.

Philstocks was my first online broker, precisely because it was the one I initially found out in the net that required only 5000 initial deposit to actually start trading. But now I discovered that you can start opening your online trading account just by opening a bank account even if you dont have 5k, like in the case of online brokerage firms BPI Trade and FirstMetroSec. Currently though Im happy as a loyal client of COL Financial, formerly Citiseconline.

Minimum investment required was 5000, but I put down 10k just to put a front that I have more than the minimum. Pride I guess haha. The lady in charge gracefully accepted it after examining my forms, then handed me an official receipt, which was also the highest-valued receipt I received ever since.

With my humble 10k initial investment, I was too excited to buy a company share and brand myself a part-owner of a giant company. Hard-core traders would laugh on me for that, but I was already more than happy just giving it a try.

STEP 2. After opening your online trading account and receiving an email confirmation from your chosen online brokerage firm that your account is ready, the next thing youd need to do is to FUND your account.

You can actually do this during your account opening day in their office by making an initial deposit just like what I did above but you also have the option to postpone this and just do the funding after youve received their email confirmation containing your account details. This email will include your account number which youll use in your funding-your-account step. Note that your initial deposit already forms part of your investments which you can use to buy your first stock.

Funding your trading account works  via merchant payment through a bank (BPI/BDO/Metrobank). If youre aware of paying utility bills(Meralco/Mobile plan) through banks merchant payment, thats exactly it, with the difference that you use your trading account details given to you by your broker through your email.

An example taken from online broker COL Financial website is shown below for manual bank deposits.

What I recommend though is the more convenient option which is doing merchant payment online with your banks online system (ex: via BPI Express Online as below).

Theres NO required monthly funding

How much youre going to put to your trading account on top of the initial deposit you is completely up to you. While your online broker may require a minimum of Php5,000 initial deposit to activate your trading account (activation means your account is ready to buy your first stock), its all your decision whether to add more on that later on.  As such, theres totally NO required amount you need to add regularly (weekly, monthly, etc) to your investments. However, take note that your buying power will obviously depend on the amount of fund you put into your trading account.

Check on the respective procedure of your online broker on this step but this should be a very simple task.

The moment I received my account details in my email after few days ready with buying power from my initial 10k deposit,  I made my first stock order.

And my first ever transaction: buying 2000 shares of Megaworld Corporation (stock symbol MEG) at 1.87 per share!

Total cost is 3763.60 only. Wheee!