Action on your big market conviction with smaller capital outlay
Learn how investors use structured warrants to gain leveraged exposure to market opportunities
Markets move quickly. Are you positioned to capture the opportunity?
Whether it's a surprise announcement/earnings, geopolitical developments, strong trend in a chart’s technicals or a sharp move in interest rates, opportunities often emerge in the short-term.
What is one way investors can express a market view with less upfront capital?
How Structured Warrants work
Structured warrants are SGX-listed instruments designed to track the price movement of an underlying stock, index or ETF. Investors can buy and sell them through their brokerage account, just like shares.
There are two main types:
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📈 Call Warrants for investors expecting the underlying asset to rise.
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📉 Put Warrants for investors expecting the underlying asset to fall, or looking to hedge existing holdings.
Why use Structured Warrants?
Leverage: Also known as the gearing effect, warrants can magnify gains and losses relative to movements in the underlying asset.
For example, if a warrant has an effective gearing of 10x, a 1% move in the underlying may translate into approximately a 10% move in the warrant price.
Warrants offer some of the highest gearing amongst listed leveraged products in Singapore, magnifying as much as 50 times more (as of 22 October 2026)
Lower capital outlay: Warrants typically cost a fraction of the underlying share price (often under $0.20), requiring less capital.
Limited loss: Maximum loss is capped at the initial investment, unlike margin financing, comes with no margin calls even if the market moves against an investor.
A simple example of using a DBS call warrant DBS MB eCW270226 (IJMW).
Suppose you are bullish on DBS shares and believe it may head higher from its current share price toward the $80 level.
Rather than committing $148,940 (before trading fees) to buy 2,000 DBS shares at $74.47, the DBS call warrant IJMW call warrant will allow you to express the same view with a smaller investment of $16,925 while gaining leveraged exposure of around 8.8 times more to the potential upside.
Source: Exposure Simulator for IJMW on 22 October, https://warrants.com.sg/tools/exposuresimulator/IJMW
Should DBS shares head higher by 7.4% to $80, call warrant IJMW can produce absolute returns of ~$11,000, similar to that if an investor were to buy the shares with a higher capital outlay, provided that DBS shares head higher to $80 in 27 days from the date of entry.
Source: Exposure Simulator for IJMW on 22 October, https://warrants.com.sg/tools/exposuresimulator/IJMW
Of course, leverage works both ways and losses can be magnified if the market moves against your view. For example, should DBS fall 7.4% to $68.95 instead, IJMW would fall by a larger percentage of 54.1%, which translates into an absolute loss of $8,852 versus a shareholder’s $11,040 loss while holding onto DBS shares.
Before trading, read and comprehend the features, terms and risks to assess if warrants are suitable for you.
Learn more about warrants at www.warrants.com.sg/home/edu or ring Macquarie Warrants Singapore at 6601 0289 for a chat. This article is brought to you in collaboration with Macquarie Warrants Singapore, a sponsor of Tiger Trade Experience 2026.
Disclaimer: Warrants can be volatile instruments and may be subject to considerable fluctuations in value. The price of Warrants may fall in value as rapidly as it may rise due to, including but not limited to, variations in the frequency and magnitude of the changes in the price of underlying share or index, dividends and interest rate, the time remaining to expiry and the creditworthiness of MBL. Therefore Warrants run the risk of expiring worthless resulting in a total loss of your investment. Where past performance is referred to, it is not indicative of future performance. In preparing the information contained herein, Macquarie did not take into account the investment objective, financial situation and particular needs of the reader. Before making an investment decision on the basis of the information contained herein, you should consult, to the extent necessary, your own independent, competent, legal, financial and other professional advisers, to ensure that any decision you make is suitable for you with regard to your investment needs, objectives and financial circumstances. MBL makes no representation nor can it give any assurance as to the liquidity in the trading of Warrants as MCSSPL, the Designated Market Maker, may be the only person quoting prices in the Warrants. In deciding whether to acquire or continue to hold an investment, you should obtain the base listing document and the relevant supplemental listing document from us and consider its content carefully before making any decision about this financial product. Copies of the listing documents may be obtained from the offices of MCSSPL at 9 Straits View #21-07 Marina One West Tower Singapore 018937 and on www.warrants.com.sg
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Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.
Many investors focus on 8x or 10x effective gearing. But the bigger question is whether their market timing is right.
Structured warrants allow investors to express bullish or bearish views with less upfront capital. Call warrants target upside, while put warrants capture downside or hedge existing positions.
However, leverage has a hidden enemy: time.
Unlike ordinary shares, warrants have expiry dates. Even if your prediction is correct, time decay and changes in implied volatility can erode returns before the underlying moves in your favour.
My approach is to treat warrants as tactical instruments, not long-term investments. Always assess gearing, expiry, liquidity and maximum potential loss.
Remember: leverage amplifies your decisions, not your investment skills. Capital preservation comes before chasing multiplied returns.
@Tiger_SG [龇牙]