how to invest in the philippine stock market

What if I tell you you can invest in stocks in your sleep? How would you react? I realized you actually can…literally. Read on to find out how.

Before I proceed, I would like to clarify what I mean when I say “invest in stocks in your sleep”. I don’t mean logging on to your computer like a zombie, eyes closed, still dreaming in your sleep, typing away at your keyboard in the middle of the night and placing an order to buy shares of stock.

I also don’t mean it’s easy to buy stocks. Doing anything “in your sleep” figuratively means it’s easy. What I mean is more literal than that.

If you’re halfway around the world from the Philippines, you can put your order during your day, and while you’re asleep at night, the official trading hours of the Philippine Stock Exchange begins and your order automatically gets processed and invested in shares of stocks of your choice.

In short, while your order is being processed and buying stocks, you are practically sleeping. How about that? 🙂

Ok, I must admit, it’s more accurate to say “how to buy stocks in your sleep.”

Now, that I’ve got your attention, let me show you exactly how.

How To Buy Stocks In Your Sleep?

I’ve been asked many times before how someone can invest in the Philippine Stock Market outside the trading hours which is from 9AM to 12 noon. Here’s one from Jezz logged under the comment section of my article Online Stock Market Investing in the Philippines.

“Mr. Allan, Am I right to assume that I can only trade from 9am to 12nn Philippine time? You see, I’m somewhere in the Middle East and 9am Philippine time is only 4am here. I find it quite difficult to trade in CitiSeconline because of this time difference.”

I’ve also had this dilemma myself so I was actually looking for some answers but with no luck. Until now.

CitisecOnline, Inc has officially allowed placing an order to buy stocks outside the Philippine Stock Exchange trading hours (9AM to 12NN) starting September last year (apologies for sharing this to you just now). It starts from 1PM to 8AM the next day. Here’s a definition of Off-Hours orders from FAQs of the CitisecOnline site.

What are Off-Hours orders?

An Off-hours Order or ‘After Trade hours Order’ (ATO) – the Off-hours ATO Order is provided to allow customers to enter orders after closing in preparation for the next trading day. ATO orders are accepted after 1:00PM and before 8:55 AM weekdays and anytime on weekends. Off-hours orders will be collected on a first come first serve basis, and will be sent to the Exchange for posting on a first in first out basis during pre-open session. After posting, all Off-hours orders immediately become Limit Day Orders and cannot be cancelled/modified during (9:15AM-9:30 AM). All orders will be governed by the Exchange’s order regulations. For orders during market activity (9:00 AM to 12:10 PM), please use the regular “Enter Orders” function.

There are many reasons why someone would want to invest outside of the trading hours. The most common is due to schedule restrictions.

For example, you may be working on a night shift and during the day, you would rather be taking your much needed sleep than go and buy stocks during the normal trading hours at 9AM to 12NN.

Or like Jezz you may be living in the Middle East or somewhere on the other side of the world. Now, you don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night just to place an order to invest in your favorite stocks.

I was so excited about this development I decided to try it out. Here are steps I followed to place an off-hours order.

How To Place an Off-Hours Order

1. Log-in to your account at CitisecOnline.com

2. Click on the ‘Trade/Portfolio’ tab

3. Click on the ‘Off Hours Order’ section

4. Enter your order details: Stock Code, # of shares to buy, and price, etc

5. Click the ‘Preview Order’ button

6. Review your off-hour order details

7. Enter your password

8. Click ‘Place Buy Order’ button

After following the above steps, you should receive a confirmation that your order has been placed. Once confirmed, your order will be processed during the next day’s trading hours, regardless whether you’re in front of your computer or not at that time.

It’s a good idea to go check your order again the next day just to see if it was processed successfully.

And yes, you can be sleeping while your order is being processed. Now, that’s investing in stocks in your sleep! 🙂

Happy investing!

For the past few months, I’ve been investing in the Philippine Stock Market using Citiseconline’s EIP (Easy Investment Program). In a nutshell, it’s an investment program where you invest a fixed amount on a regular basis to take advantage of the cost averaging method. I plan to do this for at least 5 years for the most stable stocks that I feel have the most probable chance of being profitable in the next 5 to 10 years.

The Super EIP of Bo Sanchez

I mentioned in my Truly Rich Club Review that Bo Sanchez recently launched his Stocks Updates Newsletter along with his e-book “My Maid Invests in the Stock Market”. Through the Newsletter, Bo aims to share his stock investment advise. He plans to tell you what stocks he is buying, what stocks he recommends people to buy and when to sell those stocks.

This very helpful information is available only to Truly Rich Club members. Since you’re an avid reader of this blog, I’ll give you a sneak peek on what Truly Rich Club members are getting.

In the first issue of Bo’s Stocks Update Newsletter, he introduced the SUPER EIP investment program. The strategy is to search for “undervalued” companies with proven track record and buy them at a low price. For example, if a stock is valued at $2 $1.50 and it is currently being sold at $1, you have a 50% potential profit once the market aligns with the stocks’ true value. After the stock reaches $2, you can then sell your stocks and get 50% profit. Keep in mind that this may happen after weeks, months, or even years. For Bo’s case, his PhP 148,000 actually increased to PhP 441,000 when he sold his stocks after more than 1 year! That’s a profit of around 200%!

At this point, I need to mention that the results will definitely vary from case to case and some people may even lose money. In the end, you should still be responsible in making your own investment decisions. Citiseconline, Bo Sanchez or even this blog may tell you what stocks to buy and when to sell but the reality is that it is still YOUR OWN MONEY. There’s no one more concerned on how to make your money grow than you.

In an attempt to try out the SUPER EIP investment strategy, I’ve invested some of my money into 2 stocks (one valued at 47% upside profit, and the other one a 42% potential upside) starting this month. As with Bo’s strategy, I also plan to take advantage of EIP cost averaging for these 2 stocks. Every month, I plan to invest a fixed amount and once it reaches the target price, I will sell the stocks to take my profits.

I am really excited to see how this strategy will fare out in the future. I can’t wait to share to you whether the money I invested will grow to its potential or I end up losing money. Watch out for that in the coming months.

How about you? What investment strategies are you using when investing in the Philippine Stock Market?

P.S. If you want to know the 2 companies I invested in for the SUPER EIP and other undervalued stocks in the Philippines, you can contact me or join Bo Sanchez’ Truly Rich Club and read Bo’s Stock Updates Newsletter.