Best online broker for NZX and ASX? and do they give you research?

[elZorro]

I have been using Direct Broking for a few years, and I still have my training wheels on. I don't need a full service broker, the transactions aren't too big in general. But I'm a customer of ASB Bank, and am thinking about swapping to them for share investing. Can I have some advice about that please?

Here's one thing, the ASB overall fees might be a lot less, just a flat 0.3% with a minimum $30 on NZ and Australia trades.

https://www.asbsecurities.co.nz/section91.asp?

You do have to have all of the cash waiting ready before placing an order with ASB. Direct Broking do it quite differently, if you have a Call Account setup like I do.

http://www.directbroking.co.nz/Direc.../ourrates.aspx

On the face of it, the first $15,000 at $29.90 then 0.2% fee NZ, 0.3% AU for internet purchases on the Call account look cheaper. They are, if you have every single cent of the money ready in the Call Account. If not, a new scale of fees applies. You have to look for this when you place the trade, and you get an invoice showing the brokerage/fee amount. At the end of the month, the statement is emailed to you, but those fees are bundled into each transaction, so you can't easily find out what you've spent with Direct Broking. (Is this legal?)

I've had a better look, here's how it works: You have a figure called the Trading Balance in your account setup. If you place a bid below $15,000, say, and you have at least the bid amount as a Trading Balance, then the fee will be $29.90. If you are one cent short, tough. The new fee will be $29.90 plus 0.4% of the whole share parcel cost (NZ) or a whopping 0.7% if they're Aussie shares (min A$40). You are now paying the standard internet DIY fee. It doesn't seem to matter that the trade won't be due for payment for another three days, and that the entire system is normally automated with software. This is partly in place to deter "free-riding".

That could explain why yesterday I made a gross return of $200 on a daily trade, but gave $117 of it to Direct Broking. Everyone is entitled to some profit, and the service is usually polite. Direct Broking (now owned by ANZ) has helpfully provided a list of staff on the contacts page. About 26 staff and maybe more. These people will need to invoice out at least NZ$2.6 million in brokerage fees, just to tread water each year.

That's just 100 customers spending like I do sometimes, but each trading day. One other thing that ASB might do, that DB don't (well not any more), is allow trading on the TSX, good for goldie shares.

I have just figured out (by using the spreadsheet service on "My Trades") that in five years I've spent $25,000 on brokerage with Direct Broking. The largest fee was over $400 for a TSX purchase, and I have spent about $90 on some ASX trades. Well done DB, you're doing better than I am with my shares. A lot better.