Gday All,
Im new to Aussie stock forums but i have been scoring your pages for a week straight now trying to find some information, i think i may have found it all but id like a sounding board. I currently have an Etrade account with a portfolio filled with mostly Aussie stocks. I wish to trade in the US markets and while Etrade allows you to do that - man do they sting you for brokerage costs. They are just too high ($200 for 5k worth of stocks) and also im none to keen on the 0.1% p.a custodial costs. I am looking for a lower cost alternative.
As i said i have looked all throughout the forums and have used the search tool many-a-times and i have found and read many articles and posts with regards to Interactive Brokers (who seem to be the way to go). From what i have gathered IB seems to be more geared towards active traders then low trading, sit and hold investors like myself.. If IB have a minimum commission fee of $10 a month (excluding all extras) and If i were to buy 5k worth of stocks as above..
then i would pay; $5000 x 0.08% = $4 (add another $2 to equal the minimum trading fee) for that transaction.
If i were to not make any more transactions for the month i would still be required to pay the minimum commission fee of $10 and so being that i didn't quite make the minimum they would charge me the extra $4 to bring it up to $10.
I am thinking that i would do two trades a year of 5k a pop or seeing as ill be paying the $120 commission fee for the year anyway - make 12 trades a year (one a month) and just keep topping up on my selected stocks.
If i were to do this through Etrade i would be paying $200 for each 5k trade and a 0.1%p.a custodial fee on top of that which would equal $400 +. (not to mention only being able to make the two transactions a year - to save on fees)
So $400+ per year for Etrade or $120 per year for IB....
Have i gotten this right? Or have i slipped up somewhere in regards to hidden fees etc with IB?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Im new to Aussie stock forums but i have been scoring your pages for a week straight now trying to find some information, i think i may have found it all but id like a sounding board. I currently have an Etrade account with a portfolio filled with mostly Aussie stocks. I wish to trade in the US markets and while Etrade allows you to do that - man do they sting you for brokerage costs. They are just too high ($200 for 5k worth of stocks) and also im none to keen on the 0.1% p.a custodial costs. I am looking for a lower cost alternative.
As i said i have looked all throughout the forums and have used the search tool many-a-times and i have found and read many articles and posts with regards to Interactive Brokers (who seem to be the way to go). From what i have gathered IB seems to be more geared towards active traders then low trading, sit and hold investors like myself.. If IB have a minimum commission fee of $10 a month (excluding all extras) and If i were to buy 5k worth of stocks as above..
then i would pay; $5000 x 0.08% = $4 (add another $2 to equal the minimum trading fee) for that transaction.
If i were to not make any more transactions for the month i would still be required to pay the minimum commission fee of $10 and so being that i didn't quite make the minimum they would charge me the extra $4 to bring it up to $10.
I am thinking that i would do two trades a year of 5k a pop or seeing as ill be paying the $120 commission fee for the year anyway - make 12 trades a year (one a month) and just keep topping up on my selected stocks.
If i were to do this through Etrade i would be paying $200 for each 5k trade and a 0.1%p.a custodial fee on top of that which would equal $400 +. (not to mention only being able to make the two transactions a year - to save on fees)
So $400+ per year for Etrade or $120 per year for IB....
Have i gotten this right? Or have i slipped up somewhere in regards to hidden fees etc with IB?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
