Feedback (and direction) for starting out small (ETF)

[Smalltimeguy]

Hi all,

With so much books, official websites and forums with advice on how to start trading, rather than be a burden and ask step by step how to trade,

I'd simply like to have ya'll with experience check my current line of thoughts before I continue on and invest more time getting deep into learning.

So far I feel like ETF funds would be the go for my situation.

I have a really small pool to invest with (less than $10, 000) as I am a student at the moment.
I obviously won't be able monitor the market for 8 hours a day.
Since it's a small amount, I think I'll be hammered by broker fees for traditional stocks (lowest is like $19 or something per trade?).

I currently have money in Acorns, the robo advisor which primarily is made from ASX200 and S&P ASIA50 which in my mind are so far doing quite well.
I'm happy with the management fee, like $1.5 a month (or am I being ripped off).
The main thing I don't like is that it take ages to "buy" or "sell", buy up to 5 days and similar for sell.

So it's really a long-term game.
With the ASX200 and Australian market falling 22nd March because of Trump again, I ideally would've like to buy at that low, seeing as it has rebounded back up.
I've also had a look and there seems to be a lot of ETF's now, another one I was interested in selected "blue chip" funds if their performance was strong.

So my question is, is there any low cost/fee investment options for ETF's available?
In my situation would this be the better option than Acorns or bank savings account?
How about oversea ETF's, are they all bought and sold through foreign currency, adding another layer of timing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Indoril]

You can trade ETF's with CMC Markets. https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-au/stockbroking/exchange-traded-funds-etfs

First 10 trades in a month are $11 and $9.90 after that or 0.08% of the trade value.

$19 per trade sounds like ETRADE or something. Stupidly expensive. In fact, I think IG are even cheaper than CMC but CMC has a nice platform to work with.

 

[Smalltimeguy]

thanks Indoril.

You can trade ETF's with CMC Markets. https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-au/stockbroking/exchange-traded-funds-etfs

First 10 trades in a month are $11 and $9.90 after that or 0.08% of the trade value.


So to your knowledge, is there no way to avoid the trade fees? Instead, just having a management fee like 0.6%pa?

It would make it much more affordable, because say if I wanted to sell at a high every 3 months, thats like giving up 1% growth of a $1000 investment. Plus I would buy again at a low so it would really be eating into any progress I make.

 

[Smalltimeguy]

So to your knowledge, is there no way to avoid the trade fees? Instead, just having a management fee like 0.6%pa?

It would make it much more affordable, because say if I wanted to sell at a high every 3 months, thats like giving up 1% growth of a $1000 investment. Plus I would buy again at a low so it would really be eating into any progress I make.

You can trade ETF's with CMC Markets. https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en-au/stockbroking/exchange-traded-funds-etfs

First 10 trades in a month are $11 and $9.90 after that or 0.08% of the trade value.

$19 per trade sounds like ETRADE or something. Stupidly expensive. In fact, I think IG are even cheaper than CMC but CMC has a nice platform to work with.

 

[Indoril]

So to your knowledge, is there no way to avoid the trade fees? Instead, just having a management fee like 0.6%pa?

It would make it much more affordable, because say if I wanted to sell at a high every 3 months, thats like giving up 1% growth of a $1000 investment. Plus I would buy again at a low so it would really be eating into any progress I make.

That's just the cost of trading. You can shop around to see if other brokers are cheaper but CMC are pretty competitive. Places like Interactive Brokers are cheaper but they have a higher minimum required to fund an account.