Questions about SMSFs & Macquarie Prime

[tecks]

Hi all,

My Dad has about 100k in his super fund, about half of which is invested in some not terribly exciting company's (TLS, SUN) and the rest is just sitting there doing nothing. It is set up as a SMSF but currently not much self managing is happening We are looking to learn as much as we can and be a bit more active with the whole thing, just had a couple of questions.

1/ We are looking at using Macquarie Prime as the platform, because brokerage fees are quite low, interest on positive cash is decent, shares and cfd's can be bought from the one account. Would there be anything else out there that we'd be better off using?

2/ Macquarie Prime doesn't have any charting software, so I thought I might use FreechartsSE (http://www.spacejock.com/FreechartsSE.html), which requires you to find your own data source. Does anyone know if Macquarie provide data that can be used in this software? Otherwise I'm stuck with the free data that doesn't update until after midnight. Probably not a huge deal but it would be nice to have data updated at the end of the trading day for perusal that evening.

3/ I know that borrowing to invest is not allowed in a SMSF, but I've heard some on these forums say that you can gear with CFD's, as it's a contract, not technically a loan. I've been unable to find a definite answer as to whether this is allowed or not. Does anyone know? (not that we plan on gearing at this early stage, but it would be nice to know)

4/ Are stock market reports such as Fat Prophets worth the money?

I have plenty of other questions but I'm sure I'll be able to find an answer by searching So much to read, so much to learn. Thanks to the ASF mods for creating such a valuable resource!

 

[bvbfan]

2)
You can get EOD from Investorweb around 8pm and its free (for now)

See what happens once CBA takes over IWL

 

[Miner]

Dear Tecks
Not sure if your dad's SMSF is under advice of any other person and administraton is done by funds like Cavendish etc. However my recommendation will be stay away from Fat Prophets. Please see separate blog on them. Fat Prophets are basically a high speed marketeers and lot of bull talks with not enough knowledge.
I will not put my money there.
There are many good reports like GuPPY, Eureka report, Inside Trader, Investorweb (alredy some postng has been made in this blog), etc.
You can buy some of the charting tools from ASF itself. Ask our administrator Joe and ask for some discount too
With about $3000 flat cost per SMSF please do own research to see how much return would be fetched without much research on a fund level @$100000 by running its own.

Regards

Miner

 

[tecks]

Thanks for the replies.

Well I have since discovered that Macquarie Prime can't actually be used to trade from a SMSF, something to do with the high level of gearing offered. But according to the chap at Macquarie they will have the platform available to SMSFs in a couple of months time, presumably with the ability to borrow removed.

As for my Dad's fund, the more we learn about the stock market the more we realise just how little we know
So we have decided to take a step back and put the money into a normal superfund, and maybe just scrounge up some cash to dip a tentative toe into the world of shares, wish me luck