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Basics: Brokers – Determining what’s right for you

HOSTS Alec Renehan & Bryce Leske|6 July, 2020

From Warren Buffett to someone researching their first stock, every investor starts their journey in the same way – signing up to a broker. With so many options available these days it can be difficult to know where to start. Even for experienced investors, the industry is constantly changing, making it hard to know if there is a better option out there.

So given there have been some new entrants in the Australian market and some incumbents have updated their models and pricing, we thought it was time to go back to basics and do a deep dive on brokers.

In this episode you will learn:

  • The different types of brokers available
  • How Bryce and Ren think about choosing a broker
  • The key factors to consider when choosing a broker
  • Points of difference between brokers in Australia
  • The brokers that Bryce and Ren use personally, and why

We then unpack some of the most common ‘investor types’ and give our opinion on the most suitable broker. These include:

  • Looking for the cheapest option to buy stocks
  • Looking to buy international stocks
  • Wanting to dollar-cost average
  • Looking for all the bells-and-whistles
  • After a community of investors
  • Wanting to buy more than just stocks
  • Day traders

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The hosts of Equity Mates Investing Podcast are not financial professionals and are not aware of your personal financial circumstances. Equity Mates Media does not operate under an Australian financial services licence and relies on the exemption available under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in respect of any information or advice given.

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Bryce: [00:00:57] Welcome to another episode of Equity Mates, a podcast where we help you learn to invest in 45 minutes or less. We break down the world of investing from beginning to dividend so that you can hopefully make some returns. My name is Bryce and as always, I'm joined by my equity buddy Ren. How's it going? [00:01:11][13.9]

Alec: [00:01:11] I'm very good. Bryce excited to be with you for another episode. We have pumped out a lot of expert investor episodes lately, which has been great. We've had some great guests. Yes, but now it's just the two of us again.[00:01:23][12.3]

Bryce: [00:01:24] Bit weird in the studio [00:01:25][1.1]

Alec: [00:01:26] one on one now. [00:01:27][0.9]

Bryce: [00:01:29] As we said, we've got a few things planned for the Monday episodes. And this episode is a bit of a back to basics. Yeah, we have a lot of stuff coming through all of our channels regarding the community members starting their investing journey and wanting to know what is the best broka to get started with. Of course, there are many brokers out there with many different offerings. [00:01:50][21.2]

Alec: [00:01:51] Yeah, there's obviously many brokers out there because if there was only one, it wouldn't be a question that would [00:01:55][4.8]

Alec: [00:01:56] go out just super easy. [00:01:57][1.5]

Alec: [00:01:58] Yeah, there's been a lot of interest in markets lately, obviously, with everything that's going on and there's a lot of new people in the Equity Mates community, but there's also a lot of people in the community that are probably a little bit confused by all the options out there. And so we thought, get back to basics. This will definitely stimulate some debate in the community because people definitely won't agree with everything we say in this episode in terms of what brokers. Right. But that's kind of the point in a way. So we'll get into that. [00:02:24][25.5]

Bryce: [00:02:24] Yeah, I'm going to say we're not going to say which brokers are the best. We're just going to try and frame the brokers to particular investor styles that may suit you. [00:02:34][10.0]

Alec: [00:02:34] Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's different brokers that are right for different people who want different things, but more importantly, who invest in different ways. So we're going to try and scratch the surface of this broker is the best and go a step deeper and say, if this is you, this might be the brokers that you want to check out. None of it's sponsored. So just our opinions. Importantly, it's our opinions. So, yeah. [00:02:55][21.0]

Bryce: [00:02:56] So Ren for those that have just joined the show, this is the first episode they've ever come across and they have no idea what a broker is. Let's go back to basics and pardon the jargon and explain the key term being broker. What is it. [00:03:10][14.0]

Alec: [00:03:10] So it is basically the person or platform that buys and sells shares on your behalf. So if I want to buy a share, I don't call up someone that owns it and asks to buy it from them. Unless we have serious cash and we're looking to buy serious positions, we do it through a platform and then that goes into the market and matches a buyer or seller and gets us the shares or sells the shares for us. [00:03:33][23.0]

Bryce: [00:03:34] Nice. So one thing that we also want to call out is that sometimes it sounds like people feel like they need to choose the best broker at the time and that's going to be it. I think our comment to that Ren would be that there is no need to a lock into a broker will get to that in a second. It doesn't cost anything to sign up to brokers. You can play the field a bit, go in, understand what it's all about, and then make a decision. And if things change, you can change. [00:04:00][26.0]

Alec: [00:04:00] It's like prices, tinder profile. You know, he's always got multiple options. [00:04:04][4.0]

Alec: [00:04:05] That is not true. Not true, I think. [00:04:09][4.0]

Alec: [00:04:09] Yeah, you're right. Like with supah you want to have one super fund and you want to make the right decision because if you have multiple super funds, you're paying multiple sets of fees. And so that decision is more like I need to make a choice. What's going to be the right decision? The great thing with brokers is that you can play the field a bit and it's very easy to change those days and it's very easy to sign up to new brokers. So the biggest takeaway from my personal investing experience, and I think that people can remind themselves when they're making this choice is don't let perfection be the enemy of the good here. The most important thing is that you're getting into the market, starting your investing journey, learning what works for you in terms of investing and what works for you in terms of what broker you want. You don't have to hit it out of the park the first time. You're not married to your broker. The minute you sign up and it doesn't cost you anything to to leave them. So you don't let perfection be the enemy of the good. Play the field just like Bryce does [00:05:04][55.5]

Alec: [00:05:05] not try [00:05:06][0.3]

Alec: [00:05:07] and yeah. Be willing to change if you're not happy or you want to try something new. [00:05:11][3.5]

Bryce: [00:05:11] So there's a lot happening in this space at the moment. You've probably picked up over the last few episodes. We've had a partnership with a Torro and we've got a number of new players coming into this space, which is great for us as retail investors. The more competition, the better. There's probably four ways that you can frame brokers. First is obviously your full service. Give them a call. You pay them a fee each month or year, and they really help you out with stock picks and all that sort of stuff. But they're not for us. [00:05:37][26.1]

Alec: [00:05:38] Yeah, the personal touch is a little too expensive for us at this point, but I'm going to say forever probably. [00:05:44][6.3]

Bryce: [00:05:45] I don't think I'll I don't think we will ever need it. So we're not going to be discussing them today. What we will be talking about are the brokers that are generally attached to to the banks, the big banks. Then there are your. Online only brokers and platforms, and then, of course, there's the micro investing brokers, I guess give you access to stocks in a different way. So before we crack into that, there are a number of themes that we're kind of seeing coming through this space at the moment around social engagement. Obviously, low fees are becoming heightened. [00:06:16][31.2]

Alec: [00:06:16] Hate the fact that social engagement is first, but it is what it is. [00:06:20][4.1]

Alec: [00:06:21] I mean, it doesn't have to be for us. So how will you make the list and you put it first? That's one thing. [00:06:26][5.2]

Bryce: [00:06:26] I think it's one of the newest trends that is coming through, as we'll discuss in a bit. Obviously, information is very important when it comes to brokers as well as access to different asset classes. Anything from your point of view? Ren know, [00:06:39][12.5]

Alec: [00:06:39] I think they're the main ones face social engagement, the information you get and with information, it's also the education and support that comes with it. And then finally, the asset classes in the markets that you can access. So what you can actually buy through the broker. [00:06:54][15.1]

Bryce: [00:06:55] Now, we have answered this question a number of times on the show, so apologies for repeating ourselves if you have listened from Episode one. But for [00:07:01][6.6]

Alec: [00:07:02] ourselves in every interview with the [00:07:04][1.7]

Alec: [00:07:04] same questions we tried, we could be. [00:07:06][2.2]

Bryce: [00:07:09] So Ren, what brokers do you use and why? [00:07:11][2.5]

Alec: [00:07:12] To extend the analogy of Bryce playing the field, I have three different brokers that I'm signed up to and hold shares in, and for me they sort of all engaged at different points in my investing journey. So I started with Comsec and that's because I was a loyal Commonwealth Bank customer from the time of my first Dolomites account. They got me while I was young and they've kept me. And so what I wanted to start investing, the easiest way to do it was just to extend my banking services into investing. So I have a Comsec account. The earliest shares I ever owned were in the Comsec account, and I still use them from time to time, but I also just hold those existing shares with them. Along the journey we started Equity Mates stake launched in Australia. I wanted to access the US stake, offered a cheaper and easier alternative to access the US market than CommSec did. So I signed up a stake and I have US shares with stake. Then a bit later on I found out about IJA. IJA offers more markets than stakes. It offers lower brokerage than CommSec. And so I also have holdings through IAG and it's not like I moved on from one to the other to the other, depending on what I want to buy. I make a decision about what I you know, what I think is going to be best. So, yeah, there are three that I have. What about you? [00:08:30][77.7]

Bryce: [00:08:30] What about a broker is important to you [00:08:32][1.6]

Alec: [00:08:32] face and face the market so I can access the two most important things. This is personally for me. So you know my feelings about social media, aside from the Equity Mates community that we've built on social media, I, I'm not one for the massive social engagement that doesn't really interest me that much in terms of the information. I think I'm not too worried about that. There's plenty of sources of information out there. So for me, getting the access to markets, access to the US markets, access to European markets and obviously Australia as well is really important and then doing it at the lowest possible cost. [00:09:06][33.6]

Bryce: [00:09:07] Nice. I guess that's why we're Equity Mates, because everything that you said really applies to me as well. [00:09:11][4.9]

Alec: [00:09:12] Comsec you love the social stuff. [00:09:14][1.8]

Bryce: [00:09:14] I like the brokers, but I don't engage in the social activities. I don't get on there. And, you [00:09:19][4.3]

Alec: [00:09:19] know, your look at your brokerage platform. [00:09:22][3.4]

Bryce: [00:09:23] Look, I have CommSec, which is holding, but I don't trade through it anymore. It's just sitting there with some stocks in there. I've got IGY, which I don't trade through anymore as well, but I still have the the platform. [00:09:35][12.2]

Alec: [00:09:36] So you just paying a fifty dollar a quarter fee. [00:09:37][1.7]

Bryce: [00:09:38] No, because if you don't have any open positions you don't have to pay the fifty or so. [00:09:44][5.8]

Alec: [00:09:44] You don't hold any stocks. [00:09:44][0.6]

Bryce: [00:09:45] No I've still got it open. Did hold stocks through but when that fifty dollar fee came in I changed out. [00:09:49][4.6]

Alec: [00:09:50] There you go. You just lost a customer. No, no. Rethink your fifty dollar for the big one [00:09:54][3.9]

Bryce: [00:09:54] I traded with at the moment is self worth and and stake there. My two, two main ones that I trade with. So let's get stuck into it. Ren. As we said at the top, we've identified sort of some investor types, I guess, that are coming through the community. And so we thought we'd apply them to some of the brokers that might be applicable. So the first [00:10:12][18.0]

Alec: [00:10:12] line hold on. Before we go, what we're about to say, people will be listening and saying, like, I think they're wrong about this. I think why you know, we'll say the lowest that I want to buy stocks at the lowest possible cost as one sort of characteristic. And we'll say what we think and people will be listening, buying, like, I think that's wrong. [00:10:28][15.4]

Bryce: [00:10:28] But you can't you can't argue against the literal brokerage. [00:10:31][2.3]

Alec: [00:10:32] Maybe that's a bad example because the brokerage is just a dollar amount. Yeah, but [00:10:35][3.8]

Alec: [00:10:36] even even with brokerage like IAG for May is cheaper than self worth because eight dollars a trade or five dollars if I do three trades in a month. But for people who are not trading as frequently as frequently, then the fifty dollar fee comes into play and then potentially self wealth is cheaper. So even there there's a bit of debate. Yeah. But for me, that is the point, for me, the point is there's no clear answer to a lot of these questions, and that is why it's important to remember that this decision isn't the be all and end all. Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good. All of that stuff that we sort of started the show with, the fact that there's debate means for a lot of these categories, there's a number that are all pretty close to each other. They're all competing for the same type of investor. They're all trying to have the same strong point because bad information, whatever it is. And so the fact that people may disagree with where Weland on these things is a point for why you should just get started. [00:11:31][55.3]

Bryce: [00:11:32] So the first one, Ren, is I want to buy stocks as cheap as possible. Pretty classic question that always comes through. So if we look at the Aussie market, got a number of pretty good brokers that are competing with each other. Funnily enough, they're all the online big boys. So you've got obviously Ren users iji igy come in with to what you said, Ren brokerage at eight Dollars. If you are trading less than three times a month, if you trade more than three times a month, brokerage is five bucks, you do need to consider that they charge a fifty dollar subscription fee if you trade less than three times per quarter, something that you need to consider as well. CMC pretty good. They come in at eleven bucks and Saxo markets. Now, this is an interesting one. Ren Sacci markets offer 699 brokerage, but that's if you take the custodian option. Do you want to explain that? Does it [00:12:31][58.6]

Alec: [00:12:31] matter? Not really. [00:12:31][0.5]

Alec: [00:12:33] I mean, how deep do we want to go here? If you chest's sponsored, then it's held in your name. If it's custodian, then it's the broker is holding it or the company sitting behind the broker is holding it on your behalf. Yeah. Chess sponsored is Cipha. I guess if if the broker goes belly up, those stocks are yours. If it's custodian it becomes a little bit more difficult. But most of the online only players are custodian, not all of them. But like especially if you're looking at the US, there's no chest sponsorship. [00:13:01][28.5]

Bryce: [00:13:02] Yeah, it's becoming more common now, this custodian thing. So they're coming in at six ninety nine sexo. So pretty cheap there for the custodian model chess is fourteen point ninety per trade and then of course self wealth. All of these companies other than self wealth usually have a trade limit for these prices. If you then trade above a certain limit, the brokerage changes generally to a percentage. But self worth coming in and saying 950 flat, regardless of the size of your trade. So obviously, if you're trading in the sort of tens of thousands, it becomes very cheap. [00:13:29][27.4]

Alec: [00:13:29] Yeah, yeah. So that's for Australia now also in Australia. And this is where the debate really kicks off. Like if you're if you're just looking to buy ETFs, then the micro investing apps, your Comsec pocket, your Vanguard and your spaceship give you a really low cost to trade. And then also now the banks are getting their lunch eaten by the online players. So they're trying to get cheaper as well. So now CommSec offer, what, nine ninety five the trades below a thousand dollars. So they're trying to play in that space as well. So, yeah, there's a lot of trades that sit between the sort of eight and 12 dollar a trademark. If you want to buy actual stocks. Micro investing is gives you a lower cost of trade but really restricts your options. So if this person wants to actually buy stocks, they're probably not those micro investing that's probably out there. Yeah, but I think I think for me, the long and the short of it is if you want to buy Australian shares, there's a number of options that sit around that eight to 12 dollar cost to try. Yeah. [00:14:29][59.4]

Bryce: [00:14:29] And we'll cover some of the advantages of thinking just beyond the price a little later. If you're looking internationally, Ren if we talk specifically us, [00:14:37][7.8]

Alec: [00:14:38] this is a little easier. [00:14:38][0.5]

Bryce: [00:14:39] Yeah, we've obviously got steak coming in at zero commission on trades, but you absolutely need to consider the fact that they have an exchange rate of zero point seven percent when you transfer across. And there are also a couple of other fees when you set up your account equally. Torero for Australian investors are also doing zero per cent commission on their US stocks. So a great sort of competition going on there. You can access international stocks through the major players. But if you look at CommBank, for example, they charge nineteen ninety five US day. So it starts to become pretty ridiculous in terms of brokerage when you're looking at other brokers. So Suncorp. Sixty nine dollars, you know, so that's sixty nine for international us only. They charge twenty four. Ninety five. But it gets a bit ridiculous. So I would certainly look out for the brokers that specialise in international markets for the US if you're looking to get into those sort of stocks. [00:15:37][58.0]

Alec: [00:15:37] Yeah. Yeah. And then like if you want to go to Europe and stuff like that through a bit of research or actually sorry, we should have plugged this earlier, Bryce has done a lot of the legwork for the Equity Mates community and pulled out all of those details that we're going to talk about and look at today. We're not just going to raid his spreadsheet out, but. We are going to publish his spreadsheet on our website, so Equity Mates dot com slash brokers, if you want to actually look line by line, column by column and say all of these all of these actual details that we're talking about. So if you want to if you want to look at what's the cheapest way for an Australian to buy UK shares or German shares, we're not going to go to date now. But you can go to Equity Mates dot com slash broker. Get a load [00:16:20][42.9]

Bryce: [00:16:20] of this outside of the U.K. if you wanted to invest in the European market. Westpac charged us a hundred and fifteen dollars for Westpac. [00:16:30][9.8]

Alec: [00:16:31] Come back to us unless [00:16:33][2.3]

Bryce: [00:16:34] unless I've just got that completely wrong. But that was on the brokerage and fees. So the UK, they charge fifty seven, ninety five. But anyway, let's not associate. [00:16:42][8.4]

Alec: [00:16:43] So when we said don't let perfection be the enemy of the good. If you're trading international shares with Westpac, you're not even in the good range of the bad right. You need to sort of sort of sort it out. [00:16:54][10.8]

Bryce: [00:16:54] So the next kind of category we've see come through Ren is I want to buy stocks in Australia and internationally. Now, we've kind of just spoken about the fact that you don't need to have one broker to do both. There are a number of brokers, though, that do certainly offer huge range of markets that you probably can. SAC's obeying one [00:17:14][19.7]

Alec: [00:17:15] sec. So from our research offers the most markets in Australia for Australian investors, they offer access to 36 markets through their platform. Runner up in this category was the big four banks that offer twenty six markets. All of them. Yeah, I imagine they're the same. Twenty six. Just in terms of pure access to markets, those are the biggest names. But obviously, as Bryce correctly pointed out, one of those big four banks literally take your arm and your leg, like literally come to your house and chop the arm in the leg off if you want to try and [00:17:46][31.4]

Bryce: [00:17:46] think about ways in which you can probably access those markets in a cheaper trade, which would most likely be through some ETFs. So, yeah, look, a lot of options, though. It's certainly becoming easier to pick and choose which markets you want to be able to buy equities in the next one. Ren. I want to dollar cost average. This is really this is really important [00:18:06][20.1]

Alec: [00:18:07] to really explain the term before we get into [00:18:08][1.4]

Bryce: [00:18:09] it. Sure. So dollar cost averaging is where you take the same amount of cash and invest that at a consistent cadence or a period of time. And by doing so, you smooth out the average price at which you buy the stock. What this does is reduce your risk exposure, I guess, and it's something that if you can set it up correctly, you can really forget about worrying when to buy. If you're just comfortable with buying every time you pay comes in or comfortable buying every three months, set it up to do that. In a way you go. The challenge is Ren that to do so you either have to pay brokerage every time that you dollar cost average in or you need to consider, I guess, how much your you're putting in and how often. I don't believe personally that there is a broker that has nailed this yet it's still depending on how often you're buying it can become quite costly. But we've now seen Comsec Pocket come to market, which is an app by Commonwealth Bank where they have seven different ETFs that you can invest in, and it's two Dollars brokerage, up to a thousand bucks. And I think there's a minimum investment there of not really a hell of a lot from memory. It was 50 bucks, I think. Yeah, 50 bucks. So you can set that up to tick away in the background. Do consider, though, that two dollars seems cheap at face value, but if you're only investing 50 bucks, you know, you need to consider what that means as a percentage. [00:19:35][86.5]

Alec: [00:19:36] Yeah. The other one. Well, I mean, spaceship is and then Vanguard personal investor are also good options. These are options for the investor that is earning a salary and is taking, you know, 100 bucks a week out of their salary or a hundred bucks a month, whatever it is, and wanting to put that in the market. If you're that person, you don't want to be paying nineteen ninety five or trade or you don't even want to be paying eight bucks a trade. So these micro investing apps are really good for that investor. Now the trade off. Yeah. Is that the access is a little bit constrained. Your choice of what you buy is limited, but you can get it for a cheaper price. So it's a really good one to start with. But a lot of people, I imagine, will graduate from micro investing at some point or have it as an ongoing thing, but then also look to invest with a broker that offers more full access to the market as well. [00:20:29][53.1]

Bryce: [00:20:29] For those of you who haven't heard about the Vanguard personal investor, it's a new product that they've just launched, which I think it's good. Again, it's competitive for what it is, is you pay zero dollar brokerage on Vanguard's ASX listed ETFs, and this is done through their website, unsure if they have an app, to be honest, but zero dollar brokerage on their ETFs. And then there is an account maintenance fee of point two percent, but that's capped at six hundred bucks a year. So. It's a good way to access their ETFs for, again, zero brokerage, so, you know, if that's all you wanted to do, certainly go and check that out. Second thing to the point around dollar cost averaging Ren is dollar cost average. It's a strategy of mine. But again, I'm comfortable to pay the nine fifty. I do it every three months. Bang, bang. So it just it comes down to you as a person. [00:21:15][46.4]

Alec: [00:21:16] Yes. I've identified a few ETFs and managed funds that I just want to drip feed money into probably for the rest of my life. Well at least what I'm trying to make some money rather than spend it. And so, yeah, I do that. But then I also try and do some individual stocks and stuff on the side. So as you dollar cost average through my main broker and I do it in larger parcel sizes, so I save up my money a bit and then yeah, it just sort of a thousand, two thousand at a time rather than one hundred or two hundred. So again, it just comes down to personal preference. [00:21:49][33.1]

Bryce: [00:21:50] So the next sort of investor type is the one that wants all the bells and whistles in a broker Ren. And we've broken this down into the trader who wants all the bells and whistles. And then I guess your longer term investor who wants all the bells and whistles because bells and whistles might be a little different to each. So if we take the trader as the first one, they're obviously going to want live data, they're going to want shotting that is through the roof and allows them to do everything that they can. They might actually want exposure to different commodities and currencies as well. And they're going to want, you know, a platform that really caters to that sort of high frequency thinking and execution. [00:22:28][38.5]

Alec: [00:22:29] These are people with dual screens, four screens, 100 screens, watching, watching the market more closely. If you want to short term trade, who would you be looking [00:22:40][10.7]

Bryce: [00:22:40] at the same say you're a big player in this space. They have frequent trade, a programme where you can sign up. And I guess there's sort of subscription based models where you can. And same with eBay as well, where they offer you all those bells and whistles the more you trade. So they really encourage, like, you know, 11 trades a day kind of thing or 30 trades, whatever it is. These sorts of online brokers, those are probably the two big players as well as Saxo Bank as well. They they play in that space. So if you're interested in that day trading sort of vibe, [00:23:10][29.8]

Alec: [00:23:11] I think you only said one and then you said success. [00:23:12][1.8]

Bryce: [00:23:13] So you say EMC igy. I will provide that really big platform for trading. Yeah. [00:23:19][6.7]

Alec: [00:23:20] Yeah. Now, on the other hand, if you want the bells and whistles as an investor and what I think about this is like analyst report, education tools, stuff like that, maybe like model portfolios, you'd be more looking at the big banks like Crono CommSec offer a few of those things. Anyone else? [00:23:37][16.9]

Bryce: [00:23:37] So, yeah, the big banks all have relationships with Morningstar, for example. So they get all of the Morningstar reports come through. CommBank also have some of the investment bank reports coming through for some of the larger companies in on the ASX. Look, it's not unsurprising that a majority of the banks have that sort of stuff. A lot of the online brokers, that's where they kind of fall down with this. That's probably why it's a bit cheaper, because they don't have the resources in the cost to actually go and do this sort of stuff now. [00:24:04][26.7]

Alec: [00:24:04] Next one is one that's way up your alley. So I'm going to ask the question and let you riff on this one for a bit. What if I want to feel part of a community while I'm investing aside from this Equity Mates community? [00:24:16][11.3]

Alec: [00:24:16] Well, good on you. [00:24:16][0.5]

Bryce: [00:24:17] Now, this is an interesting one, and it's something that has been coming through as a value add, I guess, from brokers, so etcetera and so forth. Are the two that come to mind for this one self worth? I am part of [00:24:29][12.8]

Alec: [00:24:30] Bryce was bragging before that he's in like the top five percent of software traders or something like self rank you top 10 percent. [00:24:36][6.5]

Bryce: [00:24:37] I originally thought this was a bad idea. You get him email every week that kind of told you where you placed how you'd gone that week. Relative, very short term [00:24:45][8.3]

Alec: [00:24:45] thing, very short. Encourages a lot of activity. [00:24:47][1.9]

Bryce: [00:24:47] Yeah. And that's what it drives. But if you can manage that sort of emotion, then it's not bad to kind of just see where you're going relative to [00:24:55][7.6]

Alec: [00:24:56] if you can manage that emotion or you do well trading short term, correct? Yeah. [00:25:00][4.2]

Bryce: [00:25:01] Yeah, exactly. And so what both ATRA and so forth, what they're trying to do is take away the need for you to, I guess, think for yourself, [00:25:08][7.2]

Alec: [00:25:11] which [00:25:11][0.0]

Alec: [00:25:11] is always a good thing for people to do with their money, [00:25:14][3.2]

Alec: [00:25:15] because what [00:25:15][0.2]

Bryce: [00:25:15] you can do is target people's portfolios or through self-worth. You can target what they call alignment portfolios and then it will tell you what you need to buy and sell to align with your target portfolio. And with Atauro, for example, you can literally do copycat trades where you say, I want to follow this trader, whatever he does, notify me and I can follow suit. So, look, it has its positives. It has its negatives. It's not something that I personally do with these platforms. I'm just recognising that this is now becoming a trend, a value add. And if it's something that is of interest to you, those are the two brokers that do it. [00:25:52][36.8]

Alec: [00:25:52] And if you want to follow Bryce portfolio and sell. Well, it's 40 percent ATV's, 40 percent individual stocks and 20 percent cash that he's taking to the pokies on Saturday. [00:26:02][9.9]

Alec: [00:26:03] No, I'm not sure. Again, not true. No, it's 40 [00:26:06][3.2]

Bryce: [00:26:06] percent ETFs, 60 percent Afterpay. [00:26:09][2.5]

Alec: [00:26:11] No, that's why you're rolling in money right now. And that is [00:26:16][4.8]

Bryce: [00:26:16] also not true. So Ren, as we said, you know, it's not all about stocks. What if we want to buy more than just stocks? So we're talking commodities. Forex is a big one. Bitcoin or crypto currencies, cocoa tin. [00:26:29][13.3]

Alec: [00:26:30] Keep going. That's about it. Yeah. [00:26:33][3.1]

Alec: [00:26:33] So if you want to buy more than stocks, a number of platforms cater to it. But a few, we think probably cater to it more. So it has some stupid amount of assets, like five thousand assets. So that's probably going to be your main one if you want to do that. Saxo and Sam say I'm not as familiar with, but I do believe they also offer a variety of assets. [00:26:54][20.6]

Bryce: [00:26:55] Yeah, and what you're saying is, well, there are a lot of them are now offering access to the bond market and they're offering access to what are called M funds, which are the ability to buy units in unlisted managed funds. So you don't have to go direct into the managed funds that's starting to come through. Now, a lot of information on that on the ASX, if you wanted to find out more and then options and warrants and that sort of stuff. So a lot going on. But to Ren Point, Azzaro, Sexo, CMC, Belder Direct and then a lot of the big banks as well, Covid that sort of stuff. [00:27:24][29.7]

Alec: [00:27:25] All right. Lost character. I guess we're going to play what if I want to day trade [00:27:29][4.0]

Bryce: [00:27:30] then you're listening to the wrong podcast, [00:27:31][1.4]

Alec: [00:27:32] I guess. [00:27:32][0.2]

Alec: [00:27:32] I guess the distinction should be made. We all we already spoke about day trading in terms of all the bells and whistles, the charting, the live data, all that stuff. But I think this is more what if I want to trade at the lowest possible cost to explain that? Because the frictional cost of paying brokerage every time you move in and out of a trade can add up very quickly. [00:27:51][18.9]

Bryce: [00:27:51] Absolutely. And that is where. Yeah, you're right, Ren. You don't want to be paying nineteen ninety five per trade if you're trading 10 times a day and only clearing 50 bucks a trade like that's pointless in doing that. So you want to find brokers that are specifically targeting these sorts of traders and giving you a reward when it comes to your fees to trade more and more. And that is again, IJI CMC Bill Direct also play in this space. But yeah. And Sam, say your two big ones that really focus in on this, the more you trade, the cheaper it almost becomes. And as I said, they also have specific trading programmes for this. [00:28:29][37.5]

Alec: [00:28:29] I think you missed the two biggest ones though. What's that? If you want to trade in and out of stocks at zero commission, well, you got you got to isolate yourself to just US stocks. But Stake and Etoro, it would be. [00:28:40][10.9]

Bryce: [00:28:41] Yeah, that's a fair call. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a yeah. Absolutely. [00:28:44][2.7]

Alec: [00:28:44] Yeah. If you want to day trade Australian stocks, to my knowledge no one will beat it because you'll be trading enough to get five dollars a trade. But if you want to do it in the US state cannot or will do it for you for free in terms of moving in and out of positions. So yeah, from my perspective, that would be the way to go. [00:29:01][16.5]

Bryce: [00:29:01] Yeah, nice. So that kind of is a high level wrap of some of the brokers that are out there at the moment. And hopefully we've been able to cover sort of what investor type you are. As Ren said, we will get this information up on our website for you to take a closer look. But I think the main message from this is what we said at the start. I don't feel like you need to commit to one broker for life play the field. And as we've spoken about from our own experience, as you go through your journey of investing, you're likely to also change partners as [00:29:34][32.4]

Alec: [00:29:34] well, 100 percent. [00:29:34][0.6]

Alec: [00:29:35] But also the market's going to change. If you look at what happened in the US ten years ago, there was this race to the bottom where I don't know all of their names, but like Charles Schwab, Ameritrade, Robin Fidelity and Fidelity, and they all just had this race to the bottom where they prioritised customer acquisition over revenue, I guess. And it basically means that now trading in the US is commission. And I mean, this isn't really a big call, but I think the same will happen globally. Cost of trade will go down, competitive pressure will rise, venture capital will move into the space. Customer acquisition will be prioritised over revenue per trade. They'll find other ways to make money with the large customer base. So I think even if you reckon you've got the perfect broker now, if we asked you again in 10 years, you probably will have changed because it's likely that everyone's going to improve their offer and new offers will come into the market. [00:30:23][48.4]

Bryce: [00:30:23] Yeah, it's exciting space. [00:30:24][0.9]

Alec: [00:30:25] Yeah, nice one. [00:30:26][0.7]

Bryce: [00:30:26] Ren will. Always good to chat stocks. Stay tuned, because next Monday we're going to be reviving the hypothetical portfolio Equity Mates portfolio. [00:30:34][8.3]

Alec: [00:30:35] So what broker are we going to use for the portfolio? [00:30:37][1.9]

Bryce: [00:30:37] I can't say Ren we're under an NDA agreement that we can't talk about. [00:30:40][3.3]

Alec: [00:30:41] We can't talk about the broker [00:30:42][1.4]

Bryce: [00:30:43] because this is something that we're discussing at the [00:30:45][2.2]

Alec: [00:30:45] moment. So we'll leave it there [00:30:49][3.4]

Bryce: [00:30:49] on a cliff-hanger and looking forward to getting stuck into what our portfolio is going to be looking like. Going ahead, sounds good. [00:30:56][6.9]

Speaker 4: [00:30:56] Thanks for listening to Equity Mates investing podcast, a production of Equity Mates Media. Please remember that everything you hear in Equity Mates investing podcast is general advice on link. The content has been prepared without knowing the personal objectives, specific financial circumstances or goals. The host of Equity Mates investment podcast may maintain positions in the companies discussed before considering any investment. Please read the product disclosure statement and consider speaking to a licenced financial professional. [00:30:56][0.0]

[1734.6]

More About

Meet your hosts

  • Alec Renehan

    Alec Renehan

    Alec developed an interest in investing after realising he was spending all that he was earning. Investing became his form of 'forced saving'. While his first investment, Slater and Gordon (SGH), was a resounding failure, he learnt a lot from that experience. He hopes to share those lessons amongst others through the podcast and help people realise that if he can make money investing, anyone can.
  • Bryce Leske

    Bryce Leske

    Bryce has had an interest in the stock market since his parents encouraged him to save 50c a fortnight from the age of 5. Once he had saved $500 he bought his first stock - BKI - a Listed Investment Company (LIC), and since then hasn't stopped. He hopes that Equity Mates can help make investing understandable and accessible. He loves the Essendon Football Club, and lives in Sydney.

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