Commsec & Etrade - Trading tools

[motion]

Hi,

I'm very new to all of this trading but I opened 2 accounts one with commsec and 1 with etrade Just to get the feel of both companies.

I have used the commsec account as I found the interface very easy to use. but now I'm looking for more information on my stocks and whats coming up.

I was looking at the Aegis reports you can buy with the commsec account. Then I noticed you can get it for free after 2 trades on etrade. (maybe I'm wrong but this is how i understand it )

I really wanted to know if people use all the tools etrade provide and if it's worth switching over for more tools....or if commsec has all the info you need but just on a more basic level and u should pay the extra for the other tools.

Thanks alot...

 

[The Y-man]

Hi Motion,

Perhaps you might want to elaborate on what you are looking for in what you refer to as "tools" - more charting capability? fundamental data? etc etc

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[investforwealth]

I was looking at the Aegis reports you can buy with the commsec account. Then I noticed you can get it for free after 2 trades on etrade. (maybe I'm wrong but this is how i understand it )

I really wanted to know if people use all the tools etrade provide and if it's worth switching over for more tools....or if commsec has all the info you need but just on a more basic level and u should pay the extra for the other tools.

Thanks alot...

I'm a CommSec client and have a subscription to the Aegis Research. I use CommSec's Professional Trader platform and in my opinion, it's one of the best trading platforms available in Australia, and is far superior to WebIress.

With eTrade's "two trades every six months" deal, you're getting access to what they call their Standard Service Level. If you're going to stay with eTrade, it's almost certain you'll qualify for this service level. I doubt anyone who trades could live with the basic service level. I have an eTrade account, mainly as a backup in case CommSec is overloaded or down, and use the standard service level.

What you get with eTrade's Standard Service Level that you don't get with Basic is:

• Real-time quotes
• Market Depth
• Advanced Charting Tools
• Independent Stock Recommendations

As a CommSec client, you'll get all those things, except the recommendations, as part of their standard free service. I do, however, believe that eTrade's "advanced charting" may just be a bit more advanced than CommSec's "advanced charting". But that doesn't affect me at all, as I'm using CommSec's Professional Trader platform.

Regardless of your eTrade service level, you'll still get the current stock picks from Fat Prophets, Intelligent Investor, Wise Owl and Ecinya. These are just a taste of the stuff that each of the newsletters offers, obviously offered by these companies to encourage you to subscribe to their individual newsletters. You'll also get a very small set of PUBLIC reports from Aegis Equities Research (AER).

If you go to http://www.aer.com.au/ you'll find that you're able to access the same ones as you can get on eTrade plus a few more. AER offer subscription services, primarily to wholesale and institutional investors, brokers, etc. They offer subscription services to retail investors through their other site, http://www.shareanalysis.com.au/ which seems to offer access to pretty much the same research as the AER site, through a variety of subscription levels.

If you subscribe to AER through CommSec, you'll get almost all of what you'd get through AER or ShareAnalysis, although the newsletters and some other stuff is CommSec-branded... same info, different logo! : You simply cannot compare the Aegis stuff eTrade offers with the subscription-based service through CommSec, it's like having a few pages of a book compared to having the whole book.

That said, if you're on eTrade's standard service, you'll get Aspect Huntley's recommendations on individual stocks.

You can get a free trial of Huntley's newsletters, Your Money Weekly and Smaller Companies Guide from the Huntley's Newsletters website. I subscribe to both newsletters and find them to be reasonably good value. At least by taking up a trial subscription, it won't cost you anything to determine if having access to their recommendations on eTrade is worth putting a couple of trades through eTrade every six months.

I suggest if you do subscribe to the newsletter(s) that you don't bother with the print version... the PDF versions are released on Friday afternoons and the earliest you'll get the print version is Monday, or Tuesday if you live outside of a capital city. You can also get a free trial of the Aspect Equity Review/Shareholder which doesn't offer recommendations but does offer access to a bit more fundamental data than Huntley's Newsletters.

Sorry if I've rambled, or gone a bit OT.

 

[investforwealth]

...in my opinion, it's one of the best trading platforms available in Australia, and is far superior to WebIress.

Woops, that's supposed to read HTMLiress!

 

[salpal]

Hi Investforwealth you say in your post that you use CommSec's Professional Trader platform - does it crash or go down a lot or only very rarely.
I use EtradePro however I have had a bit of a bad experience with Etrade lately and may choose to go with Comsec. I find Etrade Pro good, having said that I have nothing to compare it with.
Just wanted to know your experience with the Professional Trader platform?
Any feedback would be much appreciated- thanks

 

[investforwealth]

...does it crash or go down a lot or only very rarely.
...
Just wanted to know your experience with the Professional Trader platform?
Any feedback would be much appreciated- thanks

Hi Sal

Like any software product, it hasn't been faultless. I had some minor issues towards the end of March where it wasn't loading my saved layout. I had to basically recreate my workspace each time I started the platform, despite saving it over and over again.

I run two monitors and like to have windows on both screens. This allows me to have a chart or two on one screen, and a few other windows on the other. I wondered if it was an issue with my particular setup, but felt that there must be plenty of other traders running multiple monitors.

After it frustrated me for two or three days I emailed tech support outlining my setup and the issues I was having. I noticed three days later that my workspace loaded correctly and assumed they must have done something about it. I got an email the following day, saying the problem with "floating windows" had been resolved by the developers. I haven't experienced the problem since.

I was obviously annoyed that the problem arose in the first place, but was thankful that the developers seem to be very responsive to issues that arise with the software.

The only other issue I've had, which I haven't reported to tech support so far, is that on rare occasions, after I make changes to a watchlist with portfolio columns displayed, those changes don't seem to save the first time. This is probably an issue on CommSec's servers, as all of the application settings, including watchlists, are stored at CommSec, rather than on your own PC.

Minus the aforementioned problem, this is really handy. It means I can save my workspace/watchlists/portfolios running on my desktop PC, then take the laptop outside and have Professional Trader load everything as it was on the desktop machine at the time I saved it. It would also mean that you could run Professional Trader at home, and at work, and always have the settings for the two synchronised.

I've generally been very impressed with the speed at which charts and other windows load the information I've requested, especially as I run most of the windows "linked" so that when I change the security on one window, the other linked windows change simultaneously. I trialed The Bourse recently because I wanted more comprehensive charting abilities, but found that its charts and other information panes didn't load anywhere near as rapidly as Professional Trader's. As I often undertake intra-day trades, that was enough to put me off the idea of switching platforms.

There have been a few days when some windows, particular live charts showing tick data, have been a bit reluctant to load and I was fairly quick to curse CommSec in those instances. However, I've been able to trace this back to problems at my end, such as a server or workstation other than my own downloading updates and saturating my link or my own machine being obnoxious (as the issue has been resolved by a reboot). I've recently ensured that no automatic updates run on our network during trading hours, and have just ordered myself a new faster-than-the-speed-of-light PC, so hopefully those issues will become a thing of the past.

I've heard of people who use the normal web interface to CommSec having some issues with timeliness during particularly busy days on the market, but at the times those people were having issues, I was having no trouble getting data through.

I cannot recall a single application crash so far, but it's inevitable in the long run I guess. All-in-all, I've been impressed and quite satisfied with the platform. I'm going to incorporate a more comprehensive EOD charting package into my setup; probably Bull Charts from the evaluations I've undertaken so far.

If you were to setup an account with CommSec (it's free after all) and contact them and explain that you're thinking about switching to them as your primary trading broker, perhaps they'd be willing to offer you a trial of the Professional Trader platform? It can't hurt to ask, can it?

 

[salpal]

Thanks Investforwealth for your detailed views and experiences it's very helpful - Thanks again

 

[motion]

Hi The Y-man.

Thanks for your reply. Sorry my message did not have enough info. I do think investforwealth has hit it on the head.

investforwealth this was information I was looking for. Thanks investforwealth some great info and feedback here.

Thanks again

Motion

Hi Motion,

Perhaps you might want to elaborate on what you are looking for in what you refer to as "tools" - more charting capability? fundamental data? etc etc

Cheers,

The Y-man