Questions about Trading with asbsecurities

[brettdale]

Hi, I have bought shares online with asbsecurities.

Yesterday, I sold online with them for the first time.

I received an email that my the sell order was traded, it had Settlement Instructions: CMA

I presume that means the money will be put into my account.

Well I checked today, and it hadnt? When you sell shares online, does it take a few days for the money to go in?

Or do they pay you by cheque, how does it work?

Like I said, I have bought shares before, but this is the first time, I have sold them.

[AMR]

Yes yes, it takes a few days for the money to be recieved with ASB Sec. CMA means your funds will be placed into your Cash Management Account.

From what I heard, it's not like that with all brokers though. Some traders here can buy and sell right away, and their broker sends them the difference.

[777]

I don't deal with ASB but would imagine that they use the T+3 (Trade day + 3 days) method of payment.

Direct use the same but once sold your funds are still able to be used because any purchases will also be T+3. My account shows what is available quite clearly.

[seaosh]

I use ASB, and although you have to wait a few days to see the funds from a sale appear in your account you can still trade with those funds.

So if you want to purchase some other stock just calculate how much will be going into your account based on how much you sold, and put the order into the system. It should trade normally.

[brettdale]

Thanks to everybody for replying to my question.

[Serpie]

ASB can get a bit cranky when you purchase shares before proceeds from a previous sale have cleared, but they usually just give you a call.

As their left hand sometimes doesn't know what their right hand is doing, all you need to do is point out that you've sold some shares to finance your latest purchase. They may tell you off, but that's their problem.

Of course, if you've got a squillion bucks tucked away in another ASB account somewhere (which I don't) then you can probably do whatever you want.

[MoSteph]

Can anyone tell me if they know of a fast NZX broker, for ASB have reached the terminal velocity of slowness.

Not long ago I needed to place a sell order at market. Once placed, I waited and waited, watching depth for 45 minutes before the trade was finally actioned. Naturally the market moved away from me during this time, losing me 2%.

I had a chat to them, saying they should indemnify me for the loss. But, of course, I had contracted away the right to claim.... borrrrring.

[mibo]

If you click on Portfolio/Account and then click on Account Summary (on the left) this will show;

Account Summary in New Zealand Dollars
Cash Management Account Balance $ 0.00

Awaiting Settlement
(Ledger Balance) $ 0.00

Buy Trades Today $ 0.00

Sell Trades Today $ 0.00

Unfilled Buy Orders $ 0.00

Margin Lending Facility Limit $ 0.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Available Funds $ 0.00

Unfilled Sell Orders $ 0.00

Margin Used%
(Margin Lending Clients Only) 0.00%


Once you sell, the Sell Trades Today will show the amount due to you and the Available Funds will show the total funds available to trade. This update will occur fairly quickly (5-10 min) so once the available funds shows the money is there you can buy with that amount (even though the money will not go into your CMA for 2-3 days). In 3 days your CMA will be credited with the sell order amount less any buy order you did.

Hope this helps.

[Caesius]

Can anyone tell me if they know of a fast NZX broker, for ASB have reached the terminal velocity of slowness.

Not long ago I needed to place a sell order at market. Once placed, I waited and waited, watching depth for 45 minutes before the trade was finally actioned. Naturally the market moved away from me during this time, losing me 2%.

I had a chat to them, saying they should indemnify me for the loss. But, of course, I had contracted away the right to claim.... borrrrring.

Customer service is crap and I'm quite sure they hire intelligent chimpanzees to look after their servers, but First NZ Capital is fairly swift. When I buy I can watch my trade on market depth within about 5 mins, max 10 mins.

[brettdale]

If you click on Portfolio/Account and then click on Account Summary (on the left) this will show;

Account Summary in New Zealand Dollars
Cash Management Account Balance $ 0.00

Awaiting Settlement
(Ledger Balance) $ 0.00

Buy Trades Today $ 0.00

Sell Trades Today $ 0.00

Unfilled Buy Orders $ 0.00

Margin Lending Facility Limit $ 0.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Available Funds $ 0.00

Unfilled Sell Orders $ 0.00

Margin Used%
(Margin Lending Clients Only) 0.00%


Once you sell, the Sell Trades Today will show the amount due to you and the Available Funds will show the total funds available to trade. This update will occur fairly quickly (5-10 min) so once the available funds shows the money is there you can buy with that amount (even though the money will not go into your CMA for 2-3 days). In 3 days your CMA will be credited with the sell order amount less any buy order you did.

Hope this helps.


Hi I have done this, but all the amounts are Zero, expect for my Balance and available funds. Its got zero on sell trades today and zero for awaiting settlement(I sold yesterday)

Why would this be???

[brettdale]

Would it make a different, that it was an Australia company that I sold shares in?

[mibo]

Would it make a different, that it was an Australia company that I sold shares in?

Ah. In that case you may need to check your foreign exchange account. Click Portfolio/Account, Account Summary, then AUD

[jdg]

If you click on Portfolio/Account and then click on Account Summary (on the left) this will show;

Account Summary in New Zealand Dollars
Cash Management Account Balance $ 0.00

Awaiting Settlement
(Ledger Balance) $ 0.00

Buy Trades Today $ 0.00

Sell Trades Today $ 0.00

Unfilled Buy Orders $ 0.00

Margin Lending Facility Limit $ 0.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Available Funds $ 0.00

Unfilled Sell Orders $ 0.00

Margin Used%
(Margin Lending Clients Only) 0.00%


Once you sell, the Sell Trades Today will show the amount due to you and the Available Funds will show the total funds available to trade. This update will occur fairly quickly (5-10 min) so once the available funds shows the money is there you can buy with that amount (even though the money will not go into your CMA for 2-3 days). In 3 days your CMA will be credited with the sell order amount less any buy order you did.

Hope this helps.


i've used asb securities for three years and never knew of this function! thanks, mibo.

[brettdale]

Okay, I have been on the aussie market buying through my CMA account,

I have clicked on account summary, then on aud, and it does come up with foreign currency account balance and of course "Waiting settlement ledger balance " has the money in it."

How to I actually access my foreign currency account, when I log into asb, only my CMA account comes up?, I actually didnt think I had a foreign currency account??????

[Serpie]

You have to ring them to set up a FCA. They can do it right then, over the phone, for you.

[Nita]

It works both ways with ASB. If you buy it will take a couple of days before your funds are used and vica versa.

One thing i have done with ASB is to sell and buy shares the same day without any funds in the cma. what i did do was contact asb first to see if its ok. As long sell (first trade)was enough to cover the buy order

[brettdale]

You have to ring them to set up a FCA. They can do it right then, over the phone, for you.


I rang them, and they said , once its settled it will go straight to my Cash management account. Even though it showing up in the foreign currency account balance at the moment.

Im guessing this is correct, its, just the person i spoke to, didn't speak good English, I just hope she could understand me.

[tobo]

Some confusion is caused by there being a couple of ways to do things and ASB being a bit vague about which way you SHOULD do things.
I use ASB and rang til I got clear explainantions.

Terminology: CMA refers to your NZD cash management account and not other currency accounts. If you have an AUD account, ASB securities call this a FCY (foreign currency account) even though you would think this is just a CMA denominated in another currency.
First, note you can trade on ASX without having an AUD FCY. You just use you CMA and they will do a FX (Foreign Exchange) conversion for you. They will ring you to do this.
Or you may have a AUD FCY account but not use it when buying: As long as sufficient in CMA (NZD) they again will ring you and do the FX transfer necessary.
Whether they seem grumpy about this varies: they assured me that this was fine, just not the standard way to do it.
The standard way is you set up an AUD FCY account, you put NZ$ in your CMA, you ring them to exchange some into AUD. If you ring before noon you can buy as soon as ASX opens. If you ring in the pm, you can't buy buy shares til tomorrow.

Sales proceeds: If you have a AUD FCY account, the proceeds go there and are available to spend IMMEDIATELY.
But you cannot take the AUD back to NZD and withdrwa it as cash for the 3 days.

Seeing your AUD balance:
Wierdly, the balance is only updated overnight but all other entries in the AUD acc show immediately (eg a sale or purchase of shares), so this can confuse you: You have to figure out what you balance is having regard for transactions you can see but disregarding the out-of-date balance that displays.

The above relates to you ASB Securities account. If yopu also have ASB as a bank account there is a tab at the top to switch to banking, and quess what, you can see you AUD account balance there, but again only updated overnight, so REALLY unhelpful as you don't see todays trades there and have no prompt to alert you to this. You need to work you balance out on a bit of paper so reading it there is just pointless.

This overnight updating is the one thing that lets ASB down in my experience, but no big deal if only doing 1 or 2 trades in a day

[brettdale]

Wow, thanks for all that, I guess I will wait till Friday to see what happens.

[POSSUM THE CAT]

Better still swap to Direct Broking hell of A lot simpler

[soltrader]

Better still swap to Direct Broking hell of A lot simpler

I find ASB Securities pretty good, convenient, and very simple. A also bank with ASB.
How does one fund their account with Direct Broking?

[Lawso]

Quote:
Originally Posted by POSSUM THE CAT
Better still swap to Direct Broking hell of A lot simpler

I find ASB Securities pretty good, convenient, and very simple. A also bank with ASB.
How does one fund their account with Direct Broking?


I'm an occasional, not a frequent, trader but I'm really happy with Direct Broking. Fast, simple, efficient, never any hassles. If I need to add funds to my call account, I make a deposit through BNZ and the funds are available next day. Brokerage only $29.90 using the call account, for transactions up to $15k value.

[Treetops]

I find ASB Securities pretty good, convenient, and very simple. A also bank with ASB.
How does one fund their account with Direct Broking?
How's this for simple at ASB Sec. :(

If you buy ASX shares with the CMA acct money they withdraw it from the FCA acct temporarily. This really can stuff you up until settlement occurs and it is rectified. Apparently a glitch in their software that they are working to fix. I have never been rung to do the exchange when using the CMA. It just gets converted at the time of the transaction and in about two minutes an email arrives giving the exchange rate used. Once you get used to the quirks it isn't too bad. So if you sell the same will occur. Proceeds go to the AUD FCA temporarily. Pays to keep careful track of balances.

[soltrader]

How's this for simple at ASB Sec. :(

If you buy ASX shares with the CMA acct money they withdraw it from the FCA acct temporarily. This really can stuff you up until settlement occurs and it is rectified. Apparently a glitch in their software that they are working to fix. I have never been rung to do the exchange when using the CMA. It just gets converted at the time of the transaction and in about two minutes an email arrives giving the exchange rate used. Once you get used to the quirks it isn't too bad. So if you sell the same will occur. Proceeds go to the AUD FCA temporarily. Pays to keep careful track of balances.

Ok. I see what you mean. I think that's becasue I use a CMA, acct myself. Don't have an FCA acct.

[Year of the Tiger]

Ok. I see what you mean. I think that's becasue I use a CMA, acct myself. Don't have an FCA acct.

Soltrader, I don't have a FCA either, however when I sell shares on the ASX, the funds do temporarily go into an FCA Account. You can see this by going into Portfolio/Account then Account Summary. You can see the balance of your CMA account, but if you click the link AUD where it says "Links to Accounts" and select AUD, you should be able to see your funds sitting there for a couple of days till cleared.

One little thing that catches me out on ASB Securities is that when I put a BUY order in on the ASX, the Settlement Account box always defaults to Foreign Currency Account. You soon get a reminder prompt when you place the order saying System Error, then tells you to select a correct settlement account. It's not really a biggy, but it catches me every time.

I think there has only been once where I have rung ASB to see what the exchange rate is before putting in an ASX BUY order. Now I always work out roughly what the exchange rate is, plus the AU Brokerage fee and get an approximate value in NZ$. I check to see then that I have got sufficient funds available to execute the order. Only once did I mis-calculate and as I always immediately check my CMA balance after I've hit the BUY button, I had time to go back and amend the order before I got the phone call from ASB.

Other than that, I am quite happy with ASB as it does all I need it to. And if I need to put funds into my CMA, it is easy to do an Internet transfer from my Westpac account and it is in the bank the next day.

I have to say that I am not dealing with big amounts of money and only the odd BUY and SELL so it is all easy to keep tabs on. It may not be the same if I was making lots of trades at the same time involving large amount of money.
Cheers
YOTT

PS. I have always found the ASB staff on the phones extremely helpful.

[I.T.Ancient]

I happily use ASB. I can understand how awkward it would be to trade the ASX directly from CMA, but it is easy to setup an FCA and with that in place, it's plain sailing.

[whiteheron]

If you are trading in Aussie shares it will save you heaps to open an AUD CMA and use this for all Aussie transactions

If you settle Aussie transactions in NZD you will be done by the difference in the NZD/AUD buy and sell rates every time

[Year of the Tiger]

If you are trading in Aussie shares it will save you heaps to open an AUD CMA and use this for all Aussie transactions

If you settle Aussie transactions in NZD you will be done by the difference in the NZD/AUD buy and sell rates every time

Thanks whiteheron, I had sort of thought that but hadn't really been too concerned as only occasionally I am tempted to test the water across the ditch. However, saying that, I am now in the process of getting a FCA (AU) set up so I will report back on the efficiency of ASB... ;)

YOTT

[POSSUM THE CAT]

Soltrader with direct Transfer to Direct Broking call account and they will transfer to MACQUARIE BANK cash management account for Aussie dollars you get choice of settlement currency with every ASX trade and the exchange rate I get is better than any bank I have used for $A conversion either way. It is better for me to transfer money from an australian bank to Macquarie buy shares through direct and settle In $A and resell them with settlement in $NZ is better than going through the normal banking system

[777]

The Macquarrie CMA comes under the FDR regime which raises all sorts of complications with moving money in and out regularly.

[Alkie]

Based on what is said above - since the ASB has USD and GBP also on the account summary page, does this mean it is possible to trade on these markets also without a foreign account?

[shasta]

Based on what is said above - since the ASB has USD and GBP also on the account summary page, does this mean it is possible to trade on these markets also without a foreign account?

Yes, you just buy/sell at the spot rate at the time...

Pros: If the USD/GBP goes up you dont lose money sitting in $US/GBP

Cons: Reverse of the above

I don't operate a $A a/c to trade on the ASX, no need IMO

[Hoags]

I am sorry but I have to disagree, an FCA is a must have have IMO. How else can you manage your exchange rate rate risk, not to mention the crap rate you get from the bank every time you transfer money. Best to have holding accounts for all FCA that you deal with so that you can have dividends etc paid into them and transfer money around when the rate is best for you!

[shasta]

I am sorry but I have to disagree, an FCA is a must have have IMO. How else can you manage your exchange rate rate risk, not to mention the crap rate you get from the bank every time you transfer money. Best to have holding accounts for all FCA that you deal with so that you can have dividends etc paid into them and transfer money around when the rate is best for you!

Hoags

Im with ASB & CMA has a high interest rate & there is zero downside to currency fluctuations, yes there is no upside, but you get my point?

Whats the point putting money into an $A a/c now?

At 83 - 84c its not going to plummet to 70c?

I was buying ASX shares when the $A was 90 - 92c, thats when an $A a/c would have been good, not now

[Serpie]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but:

If you just run a CMA then the ASB perform a currency conversion for you for each transaction, but like any foreign currency transaction the buy and sell rates are different.

During the August madness I bought and sold shares on the ASX within 4 minutes (so the exchange rate wouldn't have moved noticably) settling into my CMA. When I checked the transactions the exchange rates were quite different, and not in my favour. That's when I set up a FCA, so I don't have that problem anymore.

[shasta]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but:

If you just run a CMA then the ASB perform a currency conversion for you for each transaction, but like any foreign currency transaction the buy and sell rates are different.

During the August madness I bought and sold shares on the ASX within 4 minutes (so the exchange rate wouldn't have moved noticably) settling into my CMA. When I checked the transactions the exchange rates were quite different, and not in my favour. That's when I set up a FCA, so I don't have that problem anymore.

Its always NOT going to be in your favour, thats how the banks make there money.

My point is quite simply, why leave your money in a $A a/c with little no interest & subject to the daily fluctuations?

The interest received (approx 7% i think?) would offset the exchange risk i would have thought?

[tobo]

ASB's CMA pays 5% and it's AUD Fca pays 5% too.

Secondly,
Okay everyone complains about bad excange rates, but as long as you are dealing with banks (vs ripoff travel industry) that's the best you can do. The important thing is the spread between buy and sell, so best to minimise going backwards and forwards between currencies. So open a AUD Fca and leave sales proceeds and div proceeds in there as AUD and buy new AUD shares without converting back to NZD and save yourself a bit. And that enables the other main ccy strategy - pick your own times to convert. You guys are all good at picking lows and highs after all (heh heh)

[shasta]

ASB's CMA pays 5% and it's AUD Fca pays 5% too.

Secondly,
Okay everyone complains about bad excange rates, but as long as you are dealing with banks (vs ripoff travel industry) that's the best you can do. The important thing is the spread between buy and sell, so best to minimise going backwards and forwards between currencies. So open a AUD Fca and leave sales proceeds and div proceeds in there as AUD and buy new AUD shares without converting back to NZD and save yourself a bit. And that enables the other main ccy strategy - pick your own times to convert. You guys are all good at picking lows and highs after all (heh heh)

Thanks Tobo

I may look into a FCA now...(never thought they paid interest on the FCA)

That would make a difference

[whiteheron]

Serpie and others

This is exactly the point I was trying to make in my last post

If everything to do with Aussie shares is settled in NZD you are done by the difference in the FX buy and sell rates every time you buy and sell --- or more correctly sell one share and buy another

The Bank makes a percentage on every FX deal that it does, being the difference between the buy and the sell rates --- buy and sell rates are available on any of the Banks websites

I remember that when I started trading Aussie shares I traded at a profit in AUD but when I worked out how I had done in NZD I found that I had made a NZD loss which was somewhat disturbing

Ever since I have traded Aussie shares through an AUD CMA A/c so dont incur FX losses on each transaction

[Serpie]

Sorry WH,

Didn't read back that far, so ended up repeating your point.

Glad to see that rumours of your demise were exagerated. Had me worried for a while!

[Year of the Tiger]

Thanks Tobo

I may look into a FCA now...(never thought they paid interest on the FCA)

That would make a difference

Interest Rates on ASB site

http://www.asb.co.nz/story493.asp?

ASB's CMA ..................................ASB's FCA (AUD)
0-4,999 = 5% .............................10,000-75,000 = 5%
5,000-19,999 = 5.10% ..................75,000-250,000 = 5.25%
20,000-99,999 = 5.25% ................250,000+ = 5.40%
100,000-249,999 = 5.50%
250,000-499,999 = 5.75%
500,000+ = 5.90%

I did get my FCA set up yesterday. All done via email and staff were very efficient. I haven't used my FCA yet so I have still got that bit to go. All in all, good work ASB.

Disc: I have no financial or personal interest in ASB other than for online sharebroking services.
YOTT

[777]

For the record

Direct Broking Call a/c is paying 7.6% interest on all balances and the Macquarie CMA is paying approx 5.7% on all balances.