The best online brokerage service for trading.

[zyreon]

Are all online brokers the same?

i.e. Does any one in particular have a tangible advantage over the others in respect to the harrowing activity; trading?

[This is a particularly pertinent thread given the recent discussions about trading]

[Smeagol]

Of the two I've used Direct Broking is my favourite.

- Better brokerage rates
- Easy to Buy/Sell online
- Provides the ability for a limit order
- Very helpful if you give them a ring in need of assistance, (from my experience).

Compared to my first broker (who shall remain nameless) I find the website a dream to use. They have charting and depth analysis along with a bunch of other features.

I can't see why DB wouldn't be ideal for an active 'trader', or short term holder :)

[Lawso]

And DB is a Dorchester subsidiary - good reason to support both!

[Major von Tempsky]

Sounds like a bit of slick salemanship is going on by DB aficionados.
Last time a few months ago that I looked ACCESS had the cheapest rates and the National Bank had the second cheapest. And ACCESS had all the features mentioned in the posting above.
What are DB's rates? You can find ACCESS's rates on their website. ACCESS has a stepped rate so that if you do your buying in selling in lots of under $25,000 you can keep it really really cheap altho its a bit of bore and I sometimes lose patience and say bugger it I'll do it all at once.
Any other candidates?
I have to say a moderate statement would be - it's not a very thorough or enlightening discussion to date....

Which reflects the whole Sharetrader forum.....no discussion on Contact, stuff all on Telecom, Carter Holt, Fletcher Building....

But then the apparently only opposition Sharechat is much worse, very thin and often dominated by "technical" (i.e. subjective charting) whackos.
But Sharechat does sometimes scoop the pool on its quick news roundup open up webpage.

[bermuda]

Access Brokerage provides a very good service with excellent background info,research,charts,depth,news releases,etc all at a very low brokerage.You can trace your trades instantaneously and I have had no problems.

[Phaedrus]

After a lot of chopping and changing over many years, I have settled on the following brokers which I can recommend :-
NZ Access
Aus Sanford
USA Ameritrade
But then, as a "technical whacko" my opinion is probably considered worthless by such as the Major.

[kittydashwood]

This junior technical wacko returned 30% per year for the last three years. Although I must admit my best performer was chosen from fundamentals.

[TheBossMan]

Access Brokerage mostly (no provision for stop loss orders) and ASB for margin lending (nice site, poor performance).

[stolwyk]

Well said Phaedrus, one of the most able and helpful in TA in Australasia.

Yes, I have come across a few of them on the major chatsites over the last few years: Phaedrus and Arco in NZ, Oavde and Acouch in Australia. Also AlphaCenturion. These are at the very top and are all very helpful as well. They spend a lot of their time advising people.




Suggest you take good notice of what Phaedrus recommends.



Gerry
Mainly FA

[bull....]

Dont consider any broker service in NZ as good enough to actively trade fast moving stocks they are all far too slow on execution.

[Risk]

I've tried only a few, but find that Access Brokerage meets my needs for trading the NZX and ASX.

[star]

Can someone answer me a question:-

Can we have more than one broker? When we do a particular transaction, can we choose any one we want to use?

For eaxmple if you choose First NZ Cappital or ABN Amro as your broker, you have to pay 1.5% brokerage fees for every transaction. But if you use on-line service, it only costs you $30-$32. Sometimes you do not want to use FNZC or ABN Amro, because you know what you do. Will First NZ Capital or ABN Amro still claim brokerage fees from you, because some times they ring you or send you emails to give you some recommendations?

Any replies appreciated.

[zyreon]

star, yes

a broker charges you when you place an order and they send the order to the market and it gets executed. only the broker who you give the order to will extract a fee from you

as far as i know

[Stock Man]

I think they all have their pros and cons. Access appears to be the cheapest, although I have not painstakeingly looked too indepth into this. Personally, I currently have a 'no frills' service, so am just interested in a cheap service. Also maybe worthy to consider other issues like short selling. Access will not allow you to do this. Although you can have several brokers.

Cantab, have to agree, I hold no nzx stocks currently...even recently sold my ngc!

Cheers

[Tim]

which to use internet broker. Who is best direct or access? Confusing comments on this thread. Thanks

[Contrarian]

Gidday
I use Direct, Access & ASB
I like the direct credit purchase facility.
The other chap above liked ASB margin lending, but I do my borrowing, tax deductible , much cheaper.
Access is Ok, but the secure site is too slow to open for quick trading, too many tabs.

E*trade Asx rocks (disc shareholder)

[Oracle]

Contrarian

Your comment re ASB margin lending seems contrarian! What are you talking about?

[Steve]

I have been using Direct since the pre-internet days and have found no compelling reason to want to change.

[blackcap]

quote:Originally posted by Steve

I have been using Direct since the pre-internet days and have found no compelling reason to want to change.


Ditto

[k1w1]

At the risk of upsetting our sponsor, can I put my vote in for Access. I think Iguana do cool graphics.

Mostly, mostly I like that its based in Wellington so it isn't staffed by Aucklanders.I could elaborate on their unjustified over confidence, arrogance when queried, ignorance when asked anything not written in the Standard Answers Manual and general JAFA behaviour.

On the other hand the more cerebal Wellingtonians have an active spirit of inquiry, will find out what they dont know, will give a reasoned intelligent answer to a query and refer you on if they can't help.The negative is having to wait overnight to get your next lot of funds in place, plus they get beaten to the punch in some of the more competitive share issues becos they can't give contras (unlike Auckland Spa & BBQ Securities)

Should you need either a bbq, or spa pool or have a penchant for poor graphics and stone age speed order execution try ASB Securities. Positives are margin lending is available, funds transfer is same day for ASB account holders and they seem to get allocations on things.

Direct Broking has ex DFMainland'ers involved- weren't they a great crew to deal with.Don't get me started. I know this board has a love affair with Dorchester.Cheers,

[kiwigold]

k1w1 I think you'll find Access have branches in both cities ,but they do offer a very good service...and they'll readily notify you if you make errors with your trades.The fact that the IRG research available on their website is now free to account holders is a plus too,as their research is comprehensive and up to date.If there is one poster on this site worth listening too,then it would have to be Phaedrus ,his TA tips have helped me greatly (and made me $$$ with FPA)in the past

[Futurz]

quote:Originally posted by k1w1

At the risk of upsetting our sponsor, can I put my vote in for Access. I think Iguana do cool graphics.

Mostly, mostly I like that its based in Wellington so it isn't staffed by Aucklanders.I could elaborate on their unjustified over confidence, arrogance when queried, ignorance when asked anything not written in the Standard Answers Manual and general JAFA behaviour.

On the other hand the more cerebal Wellingtonians have an active spirit of inquiry, will find out what they dont know, will give a reasoned intelligent answer to a query and refer you on if they can't help.The negative is having to wait overnight to get your next lot of funds in place, plus they get beaten to the punch in some of the more competitive share issues becos they can't give contras (unlike Auckland Spa & BBQ Securities)

Should you need either a bbq, or spa pool or have a penchant for poor graphics and stone age speed order execution try ASB Securities. Positives are margin lending is available, funds transfer is same day for ASB account holders and they seem to get allocations on things.

Direct Broking has ex DFMainland'ers involved- weren't they a great crew to deal with.Don't get me started. I know this board has a love affair with Dorchester.Cheers,


Just a point of note k1w1, but Direct is also based in Wellington with an office in Auckland too. The online service is run through the Wellington office for NZX trading. The DF Mainlanders are all on the advisory side and not associated with the online service.

[k1w1]

See that ASB has currently crashed again, the IT people are trying to fix their current system. Maybe that is where the DFMainland IT people went to, Futurz ?

Deckchairs on the Titanic in terms of IT I reckon.

[Tim]

looks like should use full broker services and pay extra commision for safety. Who is best full broker? Abmocraig charge 1.5%??

[aeneas]

Well FNZC is the biggest player in the market so the must be doing something right.

I use their service with the NBNZ to do on line trading so I get 'real time' settlement out of my bank account. Since the bank account is in my name even if FNZC goes bust like access I keep the money.[|)]

I ring their brokers to get advice then use the on line to get the good brokerage, which I suspect is a bit naughty but who wants to pay 1.5% when $30 or 0.3 will do.

[Risk]

interesting to see this thread revived.

looks like Access had quite a few supporters.

Hopefully one of the other online brokers will upgrade their website to surpass that standard.
International broker websites make many of ours look primitive.

perhaps I should get back into web development...we need sites developed by programmers who actually trade! ;)

[Bobco]

quote:Originally posted by Lawso

And DB is a Dorchester subsidiary - good reason to support both!


Can anyone else comment on the exact relationship, the flashing thing above says "member of the dorchester pacific group".
bobco-still searching for the best broker

[belgarion]

Suggest punters open more than one account ... Me? Currently three in NZ. Three is the minimum. At one stage I was using 5 in NZ. This makes things more confusing and competitive ... both for me, the brokers and the IRD ... ;)

[rawdata]

It is clear now that Access was going broke because brokerage revenues did not cover expenses. So much for the wonderful service if the wonderful service was being funded by clients in the first place!

So you get unsustainable cheap brokerage and wonderful service and now pay for that cheap brokerage with a loss of capital.

Sounds fair to me.

[SCOTTY]

quote:Originally posted by Tim

looks like should use full broker services and pay extra commision for safety. Who is best full broker? Abmocraig charge 1.5%??

Hi Tim
A full (but hopefully sober [:I]) broker is in the same business as an on-line broker but with a hihger cost structure. In my view there could be the same sort of risk for foul play and therefore risk to the client. Wouldn't the audit conditions be the same?
Cheers

[Silly Duffer]

Tim re ABN Amro Craigs.....you may like to try to negotiate with them. I would imagine that the volume and $ size of trades you undertake may be taken into account by your contact broker but I for examaple pay less than half that brokerage with them for both NZ and Aus trades. Is worth a try...I was pleasantly surprised at their flexibility

[aeneas]

FNZC also gives you a tax statement for all of the markets, if that helps anyone.

[Lawso]

quote: quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Lawso
And DB is a Dorchester subsidiary - good reason to support both!
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can anyone else comment on the exact relationship, the flashing thing above says "member of the dorchester pacific group".
bobco-still searching for the best broker

Both Direct Broking and Equity Investment Advisers and Sharebrokers are wholly owned subsidiaries of Dorchester Pacific, Bobco. What more do you want to know?

Not being a frequent trader, I've never traded online. I get some advice/analysis from DB and place most transactions through Equity. The 1% brokerage I pay seems good value in light of the Access fiasco.

[George]

No one seems to mention AOT in Aus, either on this or many other related topics, is it because most kiwis prefer a local broker.
After logging in to AOT a trading platform opens in its own window and you can minimize it and surf other sites at will then go back to the IRESS platform to check the market.
It’s like being there with numbers changing as you watch rather than having to refresh all the time – and I’m in the South Taranaki country with just a dial up as Jetstream is unavailable. Now I don’t need it, although the Access charts were a bit slow to load – hope they keep their site going. You need IE 5 or better as Netscape doesn’t seem to work.
When you put in a bid or offer it shows up in yellow so you can see exactly where it is in the queue – when it trades the yellow figure displays in the appropriate column.
You can have 1,2,3,4,6,8 or 9 frames set up and manually adjust their size to suit – I only have a 14 inch monitor but 17 or bigger would be ideal.
Your account balance is instantly available in its own frame if you wish – unlike the ASB site where one must go through a number of doors to check your own balance. In the same frame a mouse click takes you to your order status
Warrants are also instantly available on many Aus and some NZ stocks and one can trade these while watching the head stock in another window at the same time. Warrants are traded same as stocks whereas options have to go through another system and are dearer compared to $30 for both stocks and warrants.
You can put a small position on early in the day and see how the price does, then put up to 5 more trades on the same stock for no extra brokerage. This can be done whether daytrading or planning on holding longer term.
Same when selling, sell part early to lock in any profit and sell the rest later that day.
There are extra charges if less than 8 or 16 trades in a month but DB and others charge for extra services like live watchlists etc. so there’s little difference there.
All contracts are emailed that night about 7-8pm and consist of 2 pages, but only 1 needs printing out.
You can use a margin lender such as Leveraged Equities where they lend up to 75% for banks and a few others eg. 10,000 own money, buy 40,000 worth. If daytrading the cost is only $60 for up to 6 buy and sells and no interest charge as not holding overnight. If you traded that 6 times, it’s $240,000 for only 0.025% brokerage – but you need to get out quick as the losses can mount up.
With warrants the leverage can be 10 or more times so one must be careful here plus the brokerage is a larger percentage of the smaller amounts involved.
Just a few thoughts
George

[whatsup]

George whats the address of AOT and how hard is it to join up on ?

There are many sites like AOT in australa for trading if you are prepared to pay $200 a month in data charges unless you make an awful lot of trades.George Does not make much mention of this. If you want something similar to Access Brokerage Try Westpac Broking Trades at $24.95

[George]

www.aotonline.com.au
I think there is a demo you can try. Go to the faq section which explains most of it.
Took a week or two to get the forms etc. and transfer funds.
I found I needed to ring them a few times to clarify things.
You have to decide who will hold the funds.
This from their faq

AOT clients can use one of two Cash Management Accounts through our business relationships with Adelaide Bank Limited, Macquarie Bank Limited.

To find out more about Macquarie Cash Management please visit
https://www.macquarie.com.au/acrobat/adviserprospectus/cmt_aotonline_2734.pdf

To find out more about Adelaide Bank Cash Management please visit

http://www.aotonline.com.au/pdf/ADB_CMT_Prospectus.pdf

However, if margin trading you use either Leveraged Equities or ANZ Margin Lending NOT one of either Macquarie or Adelaide - this was where it got confusing for me and a phone call helps a lot.

Happy to help
George, I may not be doing you any favours :)