Singapore: The Making of a Global Capital Gateway
Singapore’s strategic location made it a key trading post on the maritime Silk Road in the 14th century. By the 18th century, it became a vital British port. Gaining independence in 1965, Singapore has since grown into a globally respected financial hub.
Lian Tuck Lee (LT) began his financial services career 30 years ago—parallel to Singapore’s own financial evolution. His journey reflects the city-state’s rise in influence, complexity, and innovation. Hear from LT on how he and his team continue to facilitate global trade from Asia’s Lion City.
Featuring: Lian Tuck Lee (LT), Gregory Kallinikos, Rama Pillai, Chik Seng Ching (Now), Richard Lau, LiPing Chen
Trailer: StoneX Boots on the Ground
What sets StoneX apart? Discover how we draw on deep market knowledge and personal connections to deliver an unrivaled advantage to our clients that we call “boots on the ground.”
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Our clients enjoy direct access to 18 global exchanges including CME group, EUREX, ICE, SGX and more, which translates into substantially lower trading fees.
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Video transcript
SUPER: StoneX presents Boots on the Ground
Lian Tuck Lee (LT): Yeah, it is a nice feeling coming back to this SGX trading pit again. The traders are the most important commodity in all trading. Now, we're back into that. SGX trading floor where we used to do this many, many years ago.
SUPER: Lian Tuck Lee (LT) Head of Listed Derivatives – Asia StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd.
SUPER: SIMEX trading floor, 1994 Merged with SES to form SGX in 1999
SUPER: SGX Trading Pit Singapore Today
Lee: So today, we're just showing you some of the hand signals that every one of us know, if you're somebody. So for the first time, if you're buying, it's always a palm facing in and they're selling is palm facing out.
SUPER: Chik Seng Ching (Now), SVP, Listed Derivatives – Asia StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd.
Lee: So I think for now I'm buying one for me if I'm buying one. The opposite of me. Can you show the month?
SUPER: Richard Lau, SVP, Listed Derivatives – Asia StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd.
Richard Lau: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
Lee: It is something that, once you have done it, you learn it and you'll never forget it.
SUPER: Local Access Global Advantage
Lee: Giving, you know, something very exciting, operating, working through this part of the world. More than half of the world's population resides over here. To the Eastern market, growth is just phenomenal. Everyone does not come and to be part of this region. You're missing out on huge growth opportunities for your businesses.
SUPER: Lian Tuck Lee (LT) Head of Listed Derivatives – Asia StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd.
Lee: Is this coincidence? But when I just joined the SIMEX in 1995, it was the four-story building where SIMEX training floors are situated. In the early 2000s, we went to the OB building and then in 2019, everything comes full circle, and we join Stone X, and the office is right where we started 30 years ago.
SUPER: One Raffles Place StoneX Group – Asia Pacific Headquarters Singapore
Gregory Kallinikos: Stonex established its presence in Singapore in 2006.
SUPER: Gregory Kallinikos CEO, Asia Pacific StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd.
Kallinikos: Making the election to establish a headquarters for Asia in this particular city country, so whilst we look after the local market here, we also facilitate and provide services to the entire APAC region.
Rama Pillai: The challenge in trying to operate in the Asia Pacific region is one of the size and scale.
SUPER: Rama Pillai Marketing Director & Global Head of Sales SGX Group
Pillai: To reach out and still service clients and markets in this region takes expertise to actually address all the challenges that one faces when you're trying to offer products and services for clients who want to trade the Asia Pacific markets.
Kallinikos: Like in any other region that StoneX operates, the customers place great importance on being able to interact and engage with somebody who has local know-how, understands the marketplace where the client operates. It could not do this as easily from outside the region. So in an effort to be as close to customers as possible, we need to be in Asia Pacific.
SUPER: 100 Years of Experience
Lau: Back in the trading floor days, that environment is chaotic.
SUPER: Richard Lau, SVP, Listed Derivatives – Asia StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd.
Lau: Every day is different; every day is war. You get a different war every day. You have to be at your best. You have to think fast. You have to be faster than the calculator. In those days, you need a team of traders. Runners, line handlers, you know, to buy as a team to get the whole thing done. They're working together back then and now it's the same, teamwork.
Lee: My 2 colleagues, Richard, now we are all from the trading floor among us, we have almost 100 years of training experience. We learn to adapt to those kind of stress conditions. That's the difference. Those adverse movement you still make logical, difficult decisions.
Lau: Obviously you want to give the client the best, so during the training for days you always want to get your best traders, and your best order fillers, to get the best price at the quickest time. Get your orders filled for the clients. Fast forward to today, you do the same but in an electronic way. Provide them with the best systems, the best trading solutions, growing the business together with them.
Kallinikos: The importance of being in Singapore and being able to offer the full suite of products under the StoneX umbrella is we become the bridge between east and west, west and east. So we are a local shop for local customers but also we are an APAC expert for our international non neighbor customers.
SUPER: StoneX Client Advantage
Lee: Many people already know Singapore to be international cultural hub. But many people might not know is Singapore is one of the busiest global ports in the world. As you can see, the number of ships and oil tankers here. And Singapore is definitely born out of the international trade. Having traded all the commodities on the screens, I think it's good for everyone who's working on those trade to go down to where the warehouse is to look at the metals that we are handling so that we can relate to our customers.
LiPing Chen: Today we are in one of our customers LME approve warehouses.
SUPER: LiPing Chen Head of Base Metals StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd.
Chen: Before we sell the customer, we know the metal is right there and in good shape. When you can sell all the metals within the LME network, can be in Europe, US, Asia-wide including Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Wherever the customer is convenient for them to ship to their country, they can pick them the right location for themselves.
Lee: Present this this opportunity for us to relate better to the client is not just a 5-minute phone call, it's through days, weeks, years of client engagement. Will this level of service be achieved? So next thing, they've been out there for many years.
Chase Cai: Mr. LT and the StoneX team, they’ve been our clearers for many years.
SUPER: Chase Cai Oil Trader NW Corporation
Cai: So over the years we have had a very strong relationship together and we can rely on them to help us to solve problems. This is really part of our day-to-day operation and that's one of the main benefits we get from LT’s team. A lot of business and negotiations happen outside of the business venues. And we have definitely a lot of chitchatting and discussion about the market information.
Lee: In this financial district., it’s all very modern, an institutional financial center. But here right in the mix we have a hawker center. And the hawker center culture in Singapore is quite unique. A lot of discussion, a lot of deals are actually made out in the coffee store or coffee in the center in the early morning before market open, or in the evening when markets shut, you can see a lot of business deals, all discussion about how the market has been going on, happens in all these hawker centers.
Cai: It's kind of like a culture in Singapore. It gives us the opportunity to catch up with each other.
Lee: We cherish this relationship as the counterparty, as the client, as a friend, which I think is paramount to how we will succeed in Asia.
SUPER: Singapore: Hub of Trade, Hub of Opportunity
Lee: Singapore literally was born out of the international trade. As we are standing here, this amazing statue here you see the Chinese businessman with the ponytail and the Abacus doing business with an Indian businessman with accounts. Come forward with the 1980s, we actually have the SIMEX trader, in her distinctive jacket, they're walking around this Raffles place where SIMEX in the 1980s, set our international exchange, where it epitomized Singapore's economic growth. I am also part of that fast-growing economy growth of Singapore.
Kallinikos: We've seen Singapore growing for all the right reasons over the last few years. It's a major financial center. It's the place that a lot of people aspire to be, a lot of businesses are making an entry into the market, and it's a springboard by which we enter other markets, neighboring and beyond. So Singapore is the right location to be for us.
Pillai: By being on the ground, you hear the needs of the marketplace better, you're able to also build a rapport with the regulators, with the exchanges. We are all in this business for long-term development. I'm very glad that StoneX took the decision to come out into Singapore and in Asia.
Lee: StoneX, as a group, we are here to serve. We speak the same languages. We have the same culture. We understand our clients. The success of StoneX is a combination of the success of our clients. If our clients succeed, StoneX will succeed.
SUPER: StoneX Boots on the Ground