Which brokerage do you use?

[trinity]

hi,

Just curious which brokerage people use around here. Please indicate whether,

1. online/traditional, which brokerage
2. how long been with the brokerage
3. whereabouts based, in Australia or overseas
4. trading Australian market or overseas or both
5. positive feedback about your brokerage
6. negative feedback about your brokerage

my answers:
1. online - with commsec
2. 5 months, started trading only 5 months ago
3. based in Australia
4. trading australian market

Thanks

 

[nizar]

hi,

Just curious which brokerage people use around here. Please indicate whether,

1. online/traditional, which brokerage
2. how long been with the brokerage
3. whereabouts based, in Australia or overseas
4. trading Australian market or overseas or both
5. positive feedback about your brokerage
6. negative feedback about your brokerage

my answers:
1. online - with commsec
2. 5 months, started trading only 5 months ago
3. based in Australia
4. trading australian market

Thanks

Hi,

I use Morrisons Securities to trade online.
Been with them since beginning of this year.
They are a boutique brokerage firm based in Sydney.

I couldnt recommend them enough. Very professional and personalised service. A real person answers the phone EVERYTIME and I have NEVER been put on hold.

And I found their price very reasonable.
$22/trade for upto $50k.

Commsec personally Iv had alot of problems with them with orders not being executed and would NEVER trade with them again.

Of course another risk with the high volume guys (commsec and etrade) is that they might let you down at the crucial times eg. February 27.

 

[bloggs_oz]

hi,

Just curious which brokerage people use around here. Please indicate whether,

1. online/traditional, which brokerage
2. how long been with the brokerage
3. whereabouts based, in Australia or overseas
4. trading Australian market or overseas or both
5. positive feedback about your brokerage
6. negative feedback about your brokerage

I've been trading for about 4 months now, and use commsec. I trade shares & options and also have a margin loan (but trade the aussie market only at this point). I like that you get protrader for free as part of trading options with them, however apart from that I'm not a fan. Their site seems to go down when there's any more than above average volume, and if you ever have to call them you're on hold for about 20 minutes. If I didn't pay 12 months of interest in advance on my loan I would've switched to IB by now.

When my prepaid interest period expires I'll switch to IB. The margin loan at IB is _much_ cheaper than commsec; 7.75% vs 9.25% if i recall correctly. Brokerage is also a lot cheaper; $6 per share trade vs $20/$30 (depending if my loan is used). And as an added benefit I can trade international shares cheaply.

It's amazing comsec can get away with charging so much!

 

[josh_in_a_box]

1. online with etrade
2. just over a year now
3. its australian
4. just aus market, they dun provide international
5. simple to use
6. on very busy days it simpliy just crashes, and its not very cheap either

 

[professor_frink]

hi,

Just curious which brokerage people use around here. Please indicate whether,

1. online/traditional, which brokerage
2. how long been with the brokerage
3. whereabouts based, in Australia or overseas
4. trading Australian market or overseas or both
5. positive feedback about your brokerage
6. negative feedback about your brokerage

1.Online- IB
2. Just under a year and a half.
3. O/S
4. Both
5. Huge variety of markets to trade, lots of different 3rd party software vendors that can hook up to the main software to assist in trading execution/charting, etc, good reliable platform(hasn't crashed on a busy day like some of the local companies do), excellent execution speed and dirt cheap brokerage.
6. So far I don't really have any.

 

[rowes]

1. Online with Sanford Securities
2. Joined a year ago, trading with em for 6mnths
3. Australia, WA
4. Australian
5. No problems with executing trades, platform easy to use
6. Ocassionaly have problems checking quotes early in the morning, but have never had a problem during trading hours

 

[DionM]

hi,

Just curious which brokerage people use around here. Please indicate whether,

1. online/traditional, which brokerage
2. how long been with the brokerage
3. whereabouts based, in Australia or overseas
4. trading Australian market or overseas or both
5. positive feedback about your brokerage
6. negative feedback about your brokerage

1. Commsec
2. 10mths
3. .au
4. .au only
5. Site is easy to navigate, most things work okay. I like the simple direct debit/credit arrangement with accounts, I have it linked to an investment loan with CBA and it all works seamlessly.
6. Site does seem to slow down when busy, but I'm not that big a buyer.

I used to be with Sanford, but I found their site is just a bit too weird for me. Also sucks that you can't even get simple stuff like market depth when you're just a casual user.

 

[MS+Tradesim]

Hi Nizar,

Interesting that you use Morrisons. I found them independently and liked the look of them. Had a chat on the phone and they seemed alright. One question I forgot to ask them. Can you buy on credit or do you need cleared funds in your account? eg I will sell stocks and then buy more straightaway.

Ps. Nice blog.

PPS. I notice you found the Elite Trader forum. Have you read his online book?
http://www.elitetrader.com/tr/index.cfm?s=17

EDIT: Adding answers to questions of OP

1. Comsec
2. Since they bought out my prev. broker -TD Waterhouse
3. Oz
4. ASX only, used to trade Forex but had no idea
5. Nice fat credit limit for intraday trading. Visually appealing platform (PT1)
6. Often bad fills as large orders go to be manually approved ergo, increased slippage

 

[Fab]

I use Commsec but I find them expensive when transaction gets over 30k. Can anyone suggest a broker that is charging low fee for transaction between 30 k and 100k ?

Cheers

 

[nizar]

Hi Nizar,

Interesting that you use Morrisons. I found them independently and liked the look of them. Had a chat on the phone and they seemed alright. One question I forgot to ask them. Can you buy on credit or do you need cleared funds in your account? eg I will sell stocks and then buy more straightaway.

Ps. Nice blog.

PPS. I notice you found the Elite Trader forum. Have you read his online book?
http://www.elitetrader.com/tr/index.cfm?s=17

EDIT: Adding answers to questions of OP

1. Comsec
2. Since they bought out my prev. broker -TD Waterhouse
3. Oz
4. ASX only, used to trade Forex but had no idea
5. Nice fat credit limit for intraday trading. Visually appealing platform (PT1)
6. Often bad fills as large orders go to be manually approved ergo, increased slippage

I haven't read the book, but I will get onto it.
Thanks for the link bro.

Morrison's don't give you credit, so you need clear funds before you can trade. So you can't T+3, for example.

Fab,
Trader dealer is $33 flat fee upto $200k.

 

[MS+Tradesim]

Thanks Nizar, but I may still use them for the bigger dollar trades and save.

 

[Fab]

I haven't read the book, but I will get onto it.
Thanks for the link bro.

Morrison's don't give you credit, so you need clear funds before you can trade. So you can't T+3, for example.

Fab,
Trader dealer is $33 flat fee upto $200k.

Nizar,

Thanks . I just talk to them and indeed it is $33 flat fee up to 200k but then they charge $66 per month for there Web platform and $33.90 for their data . These fees are waived if you do more than 12 transactions per month.

I probably would do 3 transactions per month. Trader dealer sounds good without the monthly fees ? Is there another one you can recommend ?

 

[niknah]

For Aust shares...
1. online - westpac
2. 1.5yrs
3. aust.
4. aust only.
5. simple and fast
6. not the best fees but not expensive, some people might not like the simpleness of the interface, it's not convenient.

For US...
1. zecco
2. 4 months
3. US
4. US + overseas ETFs/ADRs
5. costs $0
6. slow interface, customer service is not so good.

 

[nizar]

Nizar,

Thanks . I just talk to them and indeed it is $33 flat fee up to 200k but then they charge $66 per month for there Web platform and $33.90 for their data . These fees are waived if you do more than 12 transactions per month.

I probably would do 3 transactions per month. Trader dealer sounds good without the monthly fees ? Is there another one you can recommend ?

Do you want live dynamic data?
If you don't need it and as you don't trade often, Morrisons I think is very reasonable.

$22 per trade upto $50k.
And then $44 for trades from $50,001 upto $100k.

No other fees.

BUT you must maintain $5k in cash.

 

[dj_420]

hi,
1. online/traditional, which brokerage
2. how long been with the brokerage
3. whereabouts based, in Australia or overseas
4. trading Australian market or overseas or both
5. positive feedback about your brokerage
6. negative feedback about your brokerage

Australian shares

1. Comsec
2. 2 years
3. Australia
4. Australia
5. Simple platform, easy to understand
6. Has gone down around 2-3 times since I started using them, and brokerage costs

Indices and Futures (Does CMC classify or is a market maker not a broker?)

1. CMC Markets
2. 3 weeks
3. International
4. International
5. Fairly easy to use
6. Spreads (But thats because they are a market maker)

 

[gregcourageous]

Just to vent some rage, I just amended a sell order for my ANU shares on comsec from "Limit" to "At Market" It came up and said "Amendment Pending" meanwhile there was a few nice buy orders around $1.9, the order is still "Pending" and the bids have been all filled and pushed back down to $1.77, thats 8% i've lost due to their co*k up. NOT HAPPY!

 

[gregcourageous]

there is no excuse whatsoever for their platform bugging up when you are paying $30 per trade. I've spent thousands with them and I expect the bloody thing to work.

 

[trinity]

Thanks for all your inputs. I've got another newbie question. I find commsec brokerage fees quite expensive. I trade once every 3 months or so. Would it be worth it to open an account with IB (or should I post this question on the IB thread?). Are there monthly fees with IB that I should be aware of, even if I just want the basic interface?

Thanks.

 

[Chrizzz]

Which brokerage website to use

Hi all,

I'm just reading into trading and I'm getting really interested in starting to buy some shares. But which website do you use for that and why? Can you give me some suggestions? Thanks a lot

 

[CanOz]

Re: Which brokerage website to use

Hi all,

I'm just reading into trading and I'm getting really interested in starting to buy some shares. But which website do you use for that and why? Can you give me some suggestions? Thanks a lot

How often do you plan on buying/selling? How long to you plan on holding?

Actually...what is your PLAN?

CanOz