How I Start My Investment in the Philippine Stock Market

I am one of the ordinary citizens of this country.  I have a  job and my income is enough for me and my son.  During good days I can save a little money.  Sometimes I have sidelines to have some extra cash in my pocket.  I have been working for almost a decade now and honestly I don't have a good savings, emergency fund and for my child's future.  So last year I made a promise that I'm going to save.  Every pay day I spare 500 pesos out from my salary.  And luckily I made it until November.  So by November I have 11 thousand pesos in my savings.  11 thousand is already a huge amount for a savings and I told myself that my one year of effort should not be wasted, I must put it a good place.  Luckily I have an officemate who introduced me to COL or Citisec Online.  She showed me how she growed her money.  Making it grow for almost double for almost two years.  She even showed me her portfolio.  Convinced I joined.  I applied last December 2012 and got approved a few days after I mailed my requirements.  After two months from buying stocks from the market the percentage increase is already more than 10% from the two stocks that I bought. 

So for those who wanted to know how I applied in online investing here are the steps:
1) What is COL?
COL is the no. 1 online stockbroker in the Philippine Stock Exchange.  Their site have an update for the current prices of the stocks in our country.  Here you can buy and sell the  stocks of your choice.  For a detailed information about this site here is the link

Click this to go to COL website

Main page of COL

I choose this site because they are online though I'm from the Visayas region I get the latest update every few seconds of the stock market prices. 

2) After choosing a stock broker.  In my case COL.  I follow the instruction from their site. 
a) I must have atleast 5 thounsand pesos.
b) I fill out the forms they provided.
c) I gather all their requirements, including valid ID's and billing statement.
d) After the requirements are completed I send it via LBC to

COL Financial Business Center
2403B East Tower, Philippine Stock Exchange Center, Exchange Rd. Ortigas Center, Pasig City 1605 Philippines

3) After 2 days I received a call from COL staff saying my application is already okay and they will send my account number via email.  And the account number will be used in funding my account.  You can deposit in BDO, Metrobank or BPI.

4) When my fund shows in my COL account I started buying the stocks I like.  As a first timer I read a lot of articles from the internet and from my officemate.  So my first  stocks were suggested from my officemate. 


I pray and hope that my investments will helped me in my long term goal.