Risk CFD outcomes depend on leverage as much as on the direction you pick.
Investagrams offers a narrow, cash-market order set. Through InvestaTrade, orders are placed on PSE-listed equities and cleared by Investors Securities, Inc., a PSE trading participant that has been a member since 1969 and holds an SEC licence. The order types available here are the ones the Philippine Stock Exchange supports for a cash equity market, not the multi-order toolkit of an offshore forex or CFD broker. No stop-loss orders on the exchange side, no trailing stops, no OCO brackets, no pending orders on margin.
If your strategy depends on automated exits or on trading pairs, indices or crypto with leverage, Investagrams is the wrong tool. If you buy and sell Philippine stocks and want to decide the price yourself, the mechanics are workable.
The Orders You Can Actually Place
InvestaTrade runs on the standard PSE order book. Price and quantity are matched by the exchange, and your instructions come in three basic shapes.
| Order shape | What it does | When it makes sense |
|---|---|---|
| Market | Fills at the best available price | You want in or out now and accept the fill |
| Limit | Sits at your price or better | You have a target entry or exit level |
| Board lot | Quantity must match the PSE board lot for that price band | Every order, by exchange rule |
| Amend or cancel | Change price or quantity before a fill | Thin books, moving prices |
The board lot rule is not a preference, it is a requirement. Each stock has a minimum quantity that changes with its price range. You cannot buy 7 shares of a PHP 50 stock if the board lot is 100. The platform enforces this, so a rejected order is usually a board lot problem, not a system error.
The other practical constraint is the trading window. PSE trades Monday to Friday, roughly 09:30 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 14:45 Philippine Standard Time, with no daylight saving. Orders entered outside those hours queue for the next session rather than executing.
How InvestaTrade Differs From a CFD Broker
Most material written about "order types" online is written for forex and CFD brokers, where stops, trailings and one-cancels-other logic are standard. That vocabulary does not transfer here.
| Feature | InvestaTrade (PSE cash equity) | Typical offshore CFD broker |
|---|---|---|
| Market and limit orders | Yes | Yes |
| Stop-loss orders | Not offered | Standard |
| Trailing stops | Not offered | Common |
| One-cancels-other brackets | Not offered | Common |
| Leverage on orders | None, cash market only | 1:100 to 1:500+ |
| Instruments | PSE-listed equities | FX, indices, crypto, CFDs |
| Settlement currency | PHP | Usually USD |
The leverage row matters most. Because InvestaTrade is a cash equity account, every order is backed by settled pesos. No margin call, no liquidation price, no forced close at 3am. You can lose what you put in, but the order cannot be closed out from under you by a margin engine.
What Orders Cost You
Fees attach to the filled value, not to the order type, so a market and a limit order on the same stock cost the same. What changes the maths is frequency. Active order placement multiplies every line below.
| Cost line | Rate |
|---|---|
| InvestaTrade commission | 0.25% plus 12% VAT, no PHP 20 minimum |
| PSE fee | 0.005% |
| SCCP fee | 0.01% |
| Sales tax | 0.6% on sells only |
The 12% VAT is charged on the commission itself, and the absence of the PHP 20 minimum is the part that helps small orders. At a traditional broker with a PHP 20 floor, a PHP 5,000 buy can cost 0.4% before other fees. Here it costs 0.25% plus VAT, which comes to roughly 0.28% of order value.
Round trips are where this bites. A buy and a sell on the same position carries the commission twice, plus the sell-side sales tax. On a PHP 20,000 round trip, the stack lands somewhere near PHP 230 to 260 in total costs, depending on fill prices. That is your hurdle before any profit.
What It Costs to Fund and Move Money
Funding runs through the partner broker's channels, and because the base currency is PHP there is no conversion step eating your order size. That is a genuine advantage over offshore accounts, where a PHP-USD spread of roughly 1% to 3% hits the balance before you place a single trade.
| Channel | Typical speed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bank transfer | 1 to 2 business days | Uses InstaPay or PESONet rails |
| Online banking | Same business day to next | Depends on your bank |
| E-wallets (GCash, Maya) | Near-instant on deposit | Check withdrawal support first |
Two structural points shape how you place orders around your cash. InstaPay moves money in real time, 24/7, but caps each transaction at PHP 50,000. PESONet handles larger amounts in batch cycles, so it settles on the next cycle rather than instantly. If you are topping up a PHP 200,000 position, you either split it across InstaPay transfers or accept a PESONet wait. Withdrawals from brokerage accounts commonly take one to three business days once processed.
There is no minimum deposit and no maintaining balance on InvestaTrade. You can start with a small amount, test the order flow, and scale the funding only when you trust the mechanics.
The Exposure You Take On
The first point is regulatory. Retail forex and CFD trading is legal for individuals in the Philippines, but the SEC does not currently issue local retail forex or CFD dealer licences, so most Filipinos who trade those products use offshore-regulated brokers. Selling or soliciting investments without SEC registration is unlawful, and the SEC publishes advisories against unauthorised platforms at sec.gov.ph. Investagrams itself is a fintech and analytics provider, and the brokerage side runs through a partner that is SEC-licensed. That is the structure to understand before you assume the brand name alone is the licence.
The second point is tax. Trading profit here is treated as ordinary income, not as a separate capital gains regime. You report it under Other Taxable Income on the annual return, and only closed trades count. Resident individuals face the TRAIN-law progressive scale: 0% up to PHP 250,000, then brackets rising to 35% on income above PHP 8,000,000. Net losses may be claimed as itemized deductions. The authority is the BIR.
When a Wider Order Set Is Worth Paying For
A stop-loss needed on every position, or reasons for trading outside the PSE, is a signal about fit rather than a flaw in InvestaTrade. Offshore brokers regulated by the FCA, CySEC or ASIC offer the full order toolkit, leverage and multi-asset access, and they are the standard route for Filipino traders who need those features. The trade-off is real: USD base currency with a conversion spread, and a regulatory picture that requires you to verify the firm yourself through SEC advisories and the eRAMP portal before sending money. Choose on supervision quality, client fund segregation, published fee schedules and a long operating record, not on the leverage number alone.
Questions
Can I place a stop-loss order on Investagrams?
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No. InvestaTrade operates on the PSE cash market, and the exchange's order set does not include stop-loss orders. You manage exits with limit sell orders and manual monitoring, or you accept that a decline runs until you act.
What is the board lot and why was my order rejected?
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Board lot is the minimum quantity the PSE requires for a given stock, and it changes with the price band. An order below the board lot is rejected by the exchange, not by the platform, so the fix is to raise the quantity to the required lot, not to resubmit.
Do market and limit orders cost different fees?
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No. Commission and exchange fees attach to the filled value, so both order types cost the same. InvestaTrade charges 0.25% plus 12% VAT with no PHP 20 minimum, plus PSE and SCCP fees, plus 0.6% sales tax on sells.
How fast can I fund a PHP order?
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E-wallet and InstaPay deposits usually land near-instantly, though InstaPay caps each transaction at PHP 50,000. PESONet handles larger sums in batch cycles, typically settling on the next cycle. Bank transfers generally take one to two business days.