Hi,

I'm new to the forum and to stocks in general, and hope someone can help.

I know this has been asked before, but many of the posts are old, and many international traders have stopped supporting New-Zealand residents (ETrade, OptionExpress).

Can anyone give a recommendation for a good way to purchase US stocks.

Largish volume, VERY low frequency (maybe once a year, maybe not even that).
No need for time sensitive trading, no need for market analysis or any fancy tools.

I checked ASB Securities, and they charge a percentage fee, and paying hundreds of dollars for a single transaction seems a bit harsh given others charge less than a tenth of that, but I may end up doing that just for simplicity.

IB has a minimum monthly fee, so not really much better for what I need.

Halifax has all the right fees, but people here don't seem too positive about them. I know they just resell IB, but they don’t have the monthly minimum fee. Would I be risking my money going through them? As I understand, they don't actually hold anything with them - is that correct?

Any others I should check out?

Thanks
Jon