Rakuten Trade Ups the Ante on Contra Trading

Caption: Kaoru Arai, Managing Director of Rakuten Trade

The fintech landscape in Malaysia gets one notch more exciting with Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd (“Rakuten Trade”)’s recent reiteration of its Contra Account features, aptly named Contra 2.0. Contra 2.0 touts the benefit of traders being able to trade more for less, with lower brokerage fees and rebate.

First-in-market, the platform now features a reduction of Rakuten Trade’s original Contra Account brokerage fees to mirror its Cash Upfront facility. Contra 2.0 will see fees ranging from a minimum of RM7 to a fixed maximum of RM100.

In addition, Contra 2.0 has a Day Trade Rebate Programme for investors who trade (BUY and SELL) frequently on the same stock counter within the same day. The rebate will be applied to their “SELL” brokerage fees and be credited into their account at the end of the trading day.

Mr. Kaoru Arai, Managing Director of Rakuten Trade said, “Contra 2.0 is game-changing. It completely revolutionizes the contra trading platform currently available. Our objective is to encourage more people to trade online and we believe that by keeping things simple, such as reducing our brokerage fees and adding a Day Trade Rebate Program on top of the current platform, we can do exactly just that.

“We operate in a fast-paced digital landscape where traders’ expectations are constantly changing. With the improved Contra 2.0, we are confident that our seamless upgraded contra trading facility will resonate well with both the more experienced investor and those who may have previously only used our Cash Upfront platform.” 

A Contra Account is a trading account where investors are extended a spending limit based on the share(s) and/or cash placed as collateral. Depending on the shares the investor intends to buy, Rakuten Trade will extend a multiplier of up to 5x more. Settlement though, is required within three days.

Rakuten Trade currently has more than 27,000 accounts as at 1 March 2019, of which more than 10% are contra account holders. Rakuten Trade’s Contra Account serves as a complement to Rakuten Trade’s existing Cash Upfront facility. In the last nine months, post introduction, contra trading has attracted investors below 40 years old with trading experience of between one to three years. Contra trading contributes approximately 27% towards Rakuten Trade’s earnings monthly.