First decision every investor makes: Finding a broker

Bryce: [00:00:27] Welcome to another episode of Get Started Investing a series of lessons to help you on your investing journey. This is for anyone who wants to start investing, but he's really unsure where to start. Our aim is to make the markets as accessible as possible for you. My name is Bryce and as always, I'm joined by my equity buddy Ren. How's it going, bro? [00:01:08][40.8]

Alec: [00:01:09] It's very good, Bryce. We passed what you can invest in. Now we're into actually the nuts and bolts of how to do it. Yes. Where the rubber hits the road. Yes. Separating the wheat from the chaff. Well, I'll see you go. That's about it. [00:01:24][15.3]

Bryce: [00:01:25] So you're right. Ren by now, we should understand why investing is so important. And also the huge opportunity that the stock market presents for everyone in terms of, I guess, reaching that goal of financial freedom. We've shared a few of our money saving tips. We've discussed some of the basics of the markets and unpack some of the major assets that you can invest in. So now it is time to get stuck into the nitty gritty and answer that age old question that we always get. How do I actually buy stocks? Yes. Now, we do say that it is as easy as buying something from Amazon or from Google or whatever it may be. It can literally be done in the matter of a few simple clicks. It's just a matter of figuring out where those clicks are going to go. And away we go. [00:02:10][44.7]

Bryce: [00:02:10] That's it, isn't it, Ren? Well, by that logic, almost anything is Lesedi. [00:02:15][5.1]

Bryce: [00:02:17] So in this episode, Ren, we are going to discuss all there is to know about brokers. And it's fundamental to investing to choose and find a broker. [00:02:26][8.9]

Bryce: [00:02:32] But anyway, during all things the brokers ren. [00:02:34][2.4]

Bryce: [00:02:35] So by the end of this, this is excited to say, hey, by the end of this episode, we're hoping that we've covered what is a broker factors to consider when choosing a broker. What are your choices? There's a lot of choices out there. And also, how do you actually decide what is right for you? And by the end of it, we're hoping that if you're following along, you may even have chosen a broker by the end of this episode. So. [00:02:58][22.8]

Alec: [00:02:58] Well, yeah, if you're going to get the most out of the episodes to come after this episode is probably the right time to make a choice and to sign up to one. The good news is signing up to one doesn't sign your life away. You can sign up to multiple and you can close your account at any time. So let's start with the basics. What are we talking about? This broker word is being thrown around a lot. Yeah. Trying to kick it off with a definition. [00:03:18][20.0]

Bryce: [00:03:19] Sure. So essentially, a broker is a person who acts on your behalf to buy or sell shares through the market. You probably see it in the movies. And you know where people are standing on the floor and throwing paper and yelling and shouting and all that sort of stuff. Now, that's not really how it happens these days, particularly in Australia brokers. A majority of them these days are online. But, yeah, essentially it's the middlemen between you and the company and or the other person selling or buying the stock from you. [00:03:46][27.1]

Alec: [00:03:46] If you've ever been to a housing auction and there's the people on the phone taking bids for someone else, think of them as your broker and you are the person on the phone. [00:03:56][9.9]

Bryce: [00:03:57] Yeah. Yeah. They're the person that if I want to sell 100 shares of Apple, they're going to go out there and find me a person who wants to buy 100 shares of Apple. It's it's pretty simple now. Traditionally, they actually were probably someone sitting in an office and your mum and dad would ring them up and say, hey, I want to buy one hundred dollars worth of Apple. And they'd go out there and find that. And hopefully they wouldn't go to the supermarket, not invest, but not worth it. [00:04:21][24.0]

Bryce: [00:04:21] Hopefully they wouldn't go to the supermarket. Otherwise they would be forced out of a job. [00:04:25][3.2]

Bryce: [00:04:25] But yeah, traditionally, back in the day before the Internet, it was very manual over the phone. And a good broker would be one who knew how to get a good deal, broker a good deal or find where the stocks are available or find people who, you know, want to sell and or buy stocks. [00:04:40][14.5]

Bryce: [00:04:41] However, in today's age, with the advent of technology, it's a whole lot easier. You can get brokers, I guess, in the palm of your hand, Ren. [00:04:48][7.3]

Alec: [00:04:49] Yes. So we've answered the question, what is a broker? It is literally just the person or the organisation who buys and sells your shares or your investments on your behalf. And as we've alluded to, traditionally, there wasn't a lot of options. Investment banks, a few big brokerage houses. That was really your choices were pretty limited. But as with everything these days, technology has just removed barriers to entry and it just has meant there are so many more options. Yeah. So as well as all of them, make the big four banks all have a brokerage section. There's a number of investment banks with something similar. But then there's just a whole bunch of start ups and a whole bunch of companies that have entered this space to try and make it far easier. Some may even say too easy these days to buy shares. So that's what they are. Now, there's a lot of angst and a lot of thought. Poured into this decision. What's the right broker? Because for everyone who wants to invest in the share market, bar none. Everyone has to make this decision at some point because it's the way you access the market. Yes. And with so much choice, the choice becomes crippling almost. Who's the right broker? Am I going to miss out on something? Am I paying too much for this or that? What about this person? What do they use? Why should I use this one rather than that one? The paradox of choice is that you then don't make a decision yet. And that is the exact wrong way to approach it. We're going to spend the rest of this episode talking about some factors to consider to help you guide your decision and talk about your options. But I think the most important thing is just make a choice. Yeah. Because the most important thing is getting into the market. [00:06:35][106.6]

Bryce: [00:06:36] So Ren, there's probably no better example than you and I when it comes to this whole. Don't get caught up on choosing the right broker because both of us to this day have more than one broker that we use. Now, I don't know if that's the best thing to be doing, but I think it's an example of just get on with it and you'll figure it out as you go. You and I both started with CommBank CBA because primarily we both had our money in a Commonwealth savings account. And at the time it was easy. It made sense. We didn't really know too much about brokers, to be honest. And then as we continued on with our journey, we came to understand what it was about brokers that we liked. And, you know, we'll discuss later on down the track about fees. And it became evident that CommBank probably wasn't providing the services that were best suited to our style of investing in our particular time in journey. So to your point, Ren don't get caught up, I guess, on finding that perfect one. So before we look at some specific brokers and, you know, online versus not online or big banks versus online only, what are some factors that I guess you should consider and maybe you personally also consider when it comes to brokers, maybe we'll bounce off each other here and I guess pull back the curtain on some of the major differences that you might need to consider when it comes to choosing a broker. [00:07:51][75.2]

Alec: [00:07:52] Okay, let's do it. So, number one for me, I've got a one A and one B, but I'll start with one A is the costs. Yes. So if you think about brokers, their business is buying and selling shares on the behalf of their investors. And the way that they make money is every time they do that, they charge the investor for doing it. And prices vary between brokers. And so a focus for me is finding a broker that charges the lowest price. [00:08:19][26.5]

Bryce: [00:08:20] Now, what do you mean by these? Like, where am I actually going to be absorbing fit or actually having to pay fees when it comes to brokering? [00:08:27][7.1]

Alec: [00:08:27] Yeah, it's a good question. Traditionally, it was pretty straightforward. Traditionally, most of the major institutions would just charge you per trade and that that was the main cost. Now what we see is that there are alternatives that charge in different ways. So we'll talk about some examples later. But you might find a broker that charges a lower cost for each trade, but then charges you sort of subscription fee or something if you're not doing enough trade. Yeah. So if the broker isn't making up the money they need to make up on the volume of trades you're doing, then you pay an additional fee. So that's one thing to look out for. There are other ways that they might try and make up for a lower fee option. So if you're investing overseas, they might give you a worse exchange rate than other brokers and that that difference that they make makes up for a lower cost per trade. So these are businesses. They need to make money. Free is never really free. There has to be a way for this business to make money. Otherwise, how would they be in operation? Yeah. So if you say very low cost per trade, have a look at what other costs are there, because there likely will be one. But for me, looking holistically at all the costs that will be borne, whether it's in subscription phase, whether it's an exchange rate, whether it's an an annual fee or whatever it is, add it all up and then figure out what a low cost one is. [00:09:52][84.6]

Bryce: [00:09:52] Yeah. So Ren, generally speaking, you will pay per trade, buy or sell. So that's really the main fee that you will be copping as an investor. So certainly that you're right. With time on our side, you want to reduce the long term implications of paying fees on your trade, because obviously the more fees you pay, the more it eats into your hopefully potentially profits. [00:10:13][20.7]

Alec: [00:10:14] Yeah. And when you think about that, like if you are paying too much in fees, your investment has to do really well just to make up where you've got to. Yeah. So if we use an extreme example, let's say you're investing 200 bucks and you pay 20 dollars to make that trade, that means instantly you're at one hundred eighty dollars. And so for one hundred and eighty dollars to turn back into two hundred dollars just to get back to level. Yeah. You've got to make over 10 percent on your money. Yeah. Just to get back to level so you can make a great trade. You can make 10 percent on it. And you know. Not even back to where you started. Yeah. So it just it kills your returns. [00:10:49][35.5]

Bryce: [00:10:50] That was one of the things that confused me right back when I started taking control of my own stocks. I couldn't understand. Well, I soon came to understand. But when I went to buy shares, as soon as I bought them, it was showing me that I was in the negative. And that's because then I was like, what the hell? I bought it at this price. It's at that price. How am I actually down? And that is because it's taken into consideration. You've actually paid for brokerage and you write Ren. [00:11:14][23.9]

Bryce: [00:11:14] You need to make up that difference before you even break even. Yeah. So that is why I think rule number one, really be careful how much you will be paying for brokerage and rule of thumb number two, which I don't think we've discussed, is try not to pay anything more than one per cent for each trade. Yeah, if you're paying one and a half, two and a half percent, then you need a stock that's going to be going up just to break even. So that's sort of our general rule of thumb, of course. Very open to interpretation and whatever works for you. But that's kind of what we're trying to do. [00:11:44][29.6]

Alec: [00:11:44] Yeah. So I said that was one A. One B For me is the markets that you can access and if you think about it. So we're Australian. We're talking about the Australian market. But obviously podcasting and investing are international. So whatever country you're listening to this and it applies. But I'm going to talk about Australia because that's what I know. So the Australian market is two percent of the global market. Tiny. Tiny. Yeah. And there are a lot of brokers in Australia that let you invest in Australia really easily, but may not offer overseas investing or just it may be really difficult to act. Yeah. And so if you think about your opportunity set, if you're only investing in two percent of the market. Sure. There might be some great companies in there, but there's a whole wide world out there. And then if you think about the risk of only investing in Australia, if something goes wrong in Australia, you're caught. But if you invest across the globe and if something goes wrong in Australia, then you've still got a whole bunch of investments in a whole bunch of other places. So I think accessing other markets outside of your home country is really important. And if you're listening to this in the US and you think, well, we've got the biggest stock market in the world, we've got the best companies in the world. I don't need to worry about investing outside of the US. I think the US is 51 per cent of the global market. Even the US with all of its great companies. And it's, you know, global economic dominance that almost half of the investable universe outside of your your contract. Yeah. So whatever country you're in, there's a massive opportunity set outside your country. So finding a broker that can give you access to that full opportunity set is really important. And it's just exciting as well. There's only so many Australian companies you want to look at that's not mining. [00:13:32][108.1]

Alec: [00:13:33] Yeah, yeah. The big four banks. He's mine. Yeah. [00:13:36][3.2]

Bryce: [00:13:37] And to that point, Ren, I think starting out and we'll touch on this in an episode a bit later on. But finding a company in the early stages, it's generally about looking around what's in your environment. Right. And there's you probably know more companies that are actually from markets overseas than you do Australian companies. Right. And so having access to those, especially the US market at this stage is, I agree, incredibly important when it comes to choosing what broker to go within, even since we started investing Ren four or five years ago. You know, the options now to invest overseas has just skyrocketed. I remember back in the day where it was almost impossible to do it through CommSec, you know, one of the biggest banks, if not the biggest bank in Australia. He was incredibly complicated process. Try invest overseas. But now you can do it quite easily. Again, consider the cost of doing so because the costs very much do vary between the two. So those are probably my two top focuses, Ren access to markets and the cost. Another thing that I'm going to throw in there is also market data. Now, it might not be so important when you start off, but as you progress on your journey, certain metrics may become important to you. And a lot of brokers do really give a good broad, I guess, cross section when it comes to financials and history of companies and that sort of stuff. But there's a real disparity between brokers that provide, I guess, comparisons and research reports and from research houses and information to really help you make the decision. And then those lower costs brokers that obviously don't provide that because they're a low cost broker. [00:15:05][87.9]

[00:15:05] So something to consider. [00:15:06][1.3]

Alec: [00:15:07] So what might an example of market data look like, you know, to sort of flesh it out for for us? What what would that be? [00:15:14][7.1]

Bryce: [00:15:15] Basically, that you can have pricing information. And so some brokers offer live market pricing data, which essentially will tell you what is the price right now. A lot of brokers have a delayed price coming in from the exchange, if that's important to you. Something to consider. But there's also stuff around its valuation. It's, I guess, balance sheet, its profitability, its previous annual reports, like good brokers, bring all this together into one place where you can essentially get all the information you need to try and help you make an. Form decision about the stock without really having to go to Google and Yahoo Finance or whatever it is to find additional information. You know, the good ones, for example, Commonwealth Bank. They provide a number of broker sorry research house reports from the likes of Citibank and Morningstar that actually you've got professionals giving their opinion on the stock and you can also read through that. So something to consider when you're choosing a broker. It might not be important to you right now, but by all means, give it some consideration. [00:16:13][58.1]

Alec: [00:16:14] Hundred percent. Yeah. The broker reports can be really useful when you're starting out to get a perspective on a stock. Yeah, but there are always just a perspective. That's the important thing. And that's probably something I tripped up on early on that buy hold sell recommendations on CommSec or gospel. They can they can be wrong just like we can be wrong. Yeah. Is there anything else? I know some of the ones that you're going to talk about, so I'll let you talk about them. I think one just broad and sort of very personal is the look and feel right for you. [00:16:43][29.5]

Alec: [00:16:44] Easy for you to use. Do you understand everything? There's a lot of different options when it comes to look and feel. I guess this is the way to describe it. So have a look at some of them. Find one you're comfortable with. Find one you think is intuitive to use. There's ones that are optimised for computers like desktop. Those ones that are optimised for mobile. So part of it is just what's going to be the right structure. And I feel for you to use. [00:17:11][26.8]

Bryce: [00:17:11] Yeah, absolutely. And it is important. It might sound stupid, but yeah, if it doesn't feel right and look right. I mean, and the other day phase for us are probably the most important thing. But I definitely don't like some of the brokers that I signed up to just by the nature of how they work. [00:17:26][14.8]

Alec: [00:17:26] One of the brokers that I use has a very ugly format. Yeah, we won't call them out, but I think you know what I'm talking about. They're cheap. So I use them. Yeah. But if I was in my shoes two, two and a half, three years ago and signed up for this broker, I would've very quickly been like, not don't feel comfortable using this. I don't know what's going on. Yeah, yeah. It's just a whole bunch of, like, numbers and flashing red and green. [00:17:48][21.9]

Bryce: [00:17:49] You really need to know what you want to buy. Yeah. I just use as a tool to buy. [00:17:52][3.4]

Alec: [00:17:52] And so I think if your brokerage platform is going to scare you off from investing, don't use it and change your brokerage platform. [00:18:00][8.1]

Bryce: [00:18:01] So two other things that I want to touch on Ren. The first one is order options. Now, there are a number of different ways that you can tell the market that you want to buy or sell your stocks. It's not necessarily just going there. And I want to buy one hundred dollars worth of Apple. You can do that in a few ways. So it's important to consider what options your broker gives you for ordering and selling stocks. That's probably where let's let's get into it. [00:18:25][24.0]

Alec: [00:18:26] But it's a I guess it's you know, you can put conditions on it. Yeah. [00:18:29][3.5]

Bryce: [00:18:30] So consider all options. The thing I want to close with on this part of the conversation Ren is around the growth and I don't know if you've noticed it, but the growth in community when it comes to brokers. So what's happening at the moment with a lot of the newer brokers that are coming to market is they're very much making it all about the investor community. [00:18:47][17.2]

Alec: [00:18:48] We spoke about one that you have signed up to, and I I'm not a fan. [00:18:52][3.8]

Bryce: [00:18:52] Yeah, it's it's really interesting. So what they're trying to do is, I guess, make you feel more comfortable when it comes to investing decisions based on what a lot of other investors in that community are doing now. This has its pros and cons, but I think investing is your own journey. It's your own game. And if you're comparing yourself to others and making decisions based on what others are doing, then you can certainly come unstuck. But if community and sort of following others is what you want, then have a look at some of the newer brokers that are coming to town at the moment because they really, I guess, foster this sort of sense of community and you can really track what everyone else is doing. So something to consider? [00:19:32][39.5]

Alec: [00:19:33] Yeah, definitely. And look, community is important. I mean, the fact that equity makes is where it is is all because we've managed to build a community of people that are interested in investing, want to learn together and want to grow as good investors together. Hundred percent get that. The fact that we talked about stocks so much before the podcast is testament to investing, being a collaborative and community based thing. Yeah, but where they foster a false sense of community in order to generate more trades is where I start to think maybe you should be joining a podcast community rather than a brokerage. [00:20:06][33.6]

Bryce: [00:20:07] Absolutely. Okay, Ren. So those are probably some of the major factors to consider. What are our options when it actually comes to brokers, though? Like, do you have a guy on the other end of the phone that you give a buzz? What are our options? [00:20:19][12.3]

Alec: [00:20:20] So yes, you could, but you have to pay for the other guys. So generally, I would say that's probably not an option that you would consider those days. Yeah, unless you've got extremely high net wealth and you have trading in extremely large multiples and then you need someone who's a professional to fill those orders. If you're that person hit us up, let's chat. [00:20:42][22.2]

Bryce: [00:20:42] They're known as full service brokers. And so. They essentially act on your behalf. They're real people. And in some instances, they also can give you advice on when to buy and sell, what to buy and sell. So that's the full service side of things which you and I don't do. And it's very expensive. You said you probably need to be high networth or of the like to make use of them. So what's the other option out there for us then? [00:21:04][21.6]

Alec: [00:21:04] So it's really based online. A lot of the new ones are online. Only some companies are both. So, for example, CommSec would have full service brokers for their bigger clients and then they have an online portal for the plebs like you and me. So as a beginner, you're looking online just because that's the easiest avenue to start. This isn't a sponsored section. We're not going to recommend any particular ones. Maybe we list a few. Yeah. Yeah. [00:21:31][26.7]

Bryce: [00:21:32] So I think Australian brokers, if you're listening overseas, then I think the best place to find a broker would be through maybe some comparison websites or something. Yeah. That's a good call. I like that because we're obviously not across all the brokers in all countries, but it's probably a good idea to just pull the curtains back on what our brokers are just to show the spread that we have and and maybe why we have them and what they're useful to start with. [00:21:54][22.3]

Alec: [00:21:54] The big four banks all have brokers. Yes. Am I going to be up to name them all? CommSec, Commonwealth, NAB try. Do you know? [00:22:01][6.9]

Bryce: [00:22:01] Well, the other ones are called I don't know what Westpac, but ANZ was a trader, I think right now. CMC. [00:22:06][4.3]

Alec: [00:22:07] Okay. Yeah. We'll get to that in a second here. So the big four all have brokerages. The advantage, I guess, of those is that if you've already banking with them, it's easy. It's an easy transition and just open another account. Yeah. And then when you want to transfer money to and from that to your normal spending or, you know, savings accounts, it's easy. The difficult the drawback I guess is mainly around cost. Generally, although not as much these days, but generally a little bit more expense day. [00:22:32][25.6]

Bryce: [00:22:33] But that's because the service they provide is probably a bit more comprehensive than some of your online only and also their big four. So they can charge you. [00:22:41][8.1]

Alec: [00:22:41] Yeah, yeah. [00:22:42][0.5]

Alec: [00:22:42] I guess the other big bank, one that's worth touching on is Macquarie. Macquarie are Australia's biggest investment bank. Yeah. And they have a retail investor platform. So you and I and people were just getting started. If you wanted to go in Macquarie, you could, they would be similar to the big four. They would be a bit more expensive. But more market data, more more information than some of your other brokers out there. Yeah, yeah. [00:23:07][24.5]

Bryce: [00:23:07] So our journey kind of started with us going with CBA because we were both with them. It was easy then we kind of figured out, hang on. As we learnt more about the impact of fees, we realised, well, CBA is actually charging a fairly high commission for every trade, so which they've reduced their averages. In fairness to that, with some conditions around it still. But anyway, so then we came across an online only broker called IJI dot com. Yeah. And we signed up for them because they were giving very cheap trades at eight dollars per trade up to a particular sum, and then it turned into a percentage. But I guess the main reason that we went to IG Ren was because we learn about the impact fees and we just wanted the cheapest broker possible. Yeah. Now the difference between them and CommSec is obviously user interface. Yes. And also some of the information that they provide is not as comprehensive as CBA. Yeah. The biggest advantage with them as well, Ren, is they give access to international markets. That's what's appealing. [00:24:00][52.3]

Alec: [00:24:00] That's a game changer in terms of just being able to access. [00:24:02][2.1]

Bryce: [00:24:03] Yeah, and not just the US. Yeah. They offer a number of different markets all around the world. So pretty good broker. [00:24:09][6.2]

Alec: [00:24:10] Yeah. Yeah. But with IG, there came a number of other competitors in that space and they all have similar pitches. Farje shape brokerage than the Big Four and other banks because they're most of them are online only and increased access to global market. Yeah. Well so without getting into too much detail, some of the main ones are CMC Market Self Wealth. Yeah. IJA we mentioned Saxo Saxo stay stake. Any others that you can think of? [00:24:39][29.5]

Bryce: [00:24:39] Not really. From the top of my head, I think that's pretty pretty much covered them all. [00:24:43][3.8]

Alec: [00:24:43] There's that. There's that one that keeps advertising. Etoro. They've been pumping. I haven't looked at that one at all now. [00:24:51][8.0]

Bryce: [00:24:52] Ren it's really important that you keep across your brokers because we both signed up to IJI and recently at the time of recording, what they do now is they still have their low brokerage, but they also have a subscription fee where if you don't trade more than three times a quarter, then they'll hit you up for a fifty dollar fee. So that's sort of encouraging you to trade more than three times a quarter. If you do not do that, then make sure you consider those sorts of fees that lurking in the background as well. Yeah. [00:25:18][26.7]

Alec: [00:25:19] Are there any other types of brokers that you think are worth touching on? [00:25:22][2.9]

Bryce: [00:25:22] I think we've covered the main ones. Yeah. Just to finish off, I guess, our broker story. So I'm still with, say, CBA. I'm still with IG. I've also opened Stake, which in Australia is a broker that lets us access directly the US market in U.S. dollars and they're commission free. They do take a clip on the exchange rate, but they're commission free and they can Give us access to the three, so sorry. [00:25:46][23.6]

Alec: [00:25:46] That term is different, so commission and brokerage are interchangeable. Yeah. It's the cost on each trade. Yeah. It's just, I think the first time values commission rather than brokerage here. [00:25:56][9.6]

Bryce: [00:25:56] So they are brokerage free. But yeah, they, they do take a clip on the exchange rate when you're converting to U.S. dollars, but just shows that as you said, Ren more competition coming to the market and more ways in which you can access the markets globally as well. So they're my three, are you? [00:26:10][14.0]

Alec: [00:26:11] They're my three as well. Yeah, that's it. [00:26:14][2.9]

Bryce: [00:26:15] Actually, I am with cell phones as well. So I just I just that's the one that we signed up to, just to see how. Yeah. Yeah. [00:26:22][6.7]

Alec: [00:26:22] So I think to finish this episode, we've sort of explained what a broker is. We've talked about some of the factors that we consider important. Yeah. We've listed some of the options, at least for the Australians. That's a lot of information. How would you go distilling that into. All right. What's my next step is to sign up. How would you go taking this episode and applying it? [00:26:42][20.0]

Bryce: [00:26:42] Firstly, I wouldn't worry too much about condensing everything that we've just spoken about and finding a broker that ticks all the boxes. Unlikely that that's going to happen as demonstrated by our stories. We still are with three, so I'd probably choose one or maybe two of what we've discussed as being important and find what is the most important to you. And then I would really just start start with that. You want it to be an easy process, then maybe it's through the banks. If you want it to be the cheapest broker possible, then maybe it's the online only and a simple Google search will help you on your way. [00:27:16][33.1]

Alec: [00:27:16] And I think you touched on it before that. There are comparison websites out there and they have compared brokers. So Canstar Starr, we interviewed find. Yeah, there's a bunch out there so quick Google should help. Yeah. To reiterate that, you know, we've done what, three? You're up to four. But we're we're not stopping looking. If there's a better option. Absolutely. And kept doing it. That's what you can do as well. Like you're not locked into one at any point. No. But the question that comes out of that is when you do open a new brokerage. What do you do with your existing brokerage? Have you been transferring all your shares from one to the other? [00:27:51][34.4]

Bryce: [00:27:51] I've done it twice. Yeah, I have transferred. So I've taken everything out of IG, surprisingly. And that's because at the moment I'm not trading enough through that platform to negate the fifty dollar fee. So I've taken out of IG still there because I still think there'll be value for me to have that at some point. And when I first took all of my very first trades away from Dad, when the stocks that I invested in Brickworks traded that into my CommSec accounts, I have done it twice. It's a pretty seamless process. Yeah. [00:28:21][29.6]

Alec: [00:28:21] So I've actually never done it. So I'm interested. Like what? [00:28:23][2.1]

Alec: [00:28:23] You just spoke to the old broker and you said to transfer the macro, you your new broker generally has a form transfer form that you fill in and then they do the whole process on your behalf. And was there any costs involved in the first one was one hundred bucks then the second was no cost. Okay. But what happened was essentially I sold out of the positions and then they bought them back in. So I'm not sure about the technicalities around it. [00:28:47][24.3]

Alec: [00:28:48] Yeah. What. And the tax as well. Because when you sell that, that's a tax event. Yes. I don't know how that all plays out. So for me, I've actually done the opposite. I've just said when I've opened a new one, I'm just going to leave what I have in the old one. The CommSec one was obviously my first. Yeah. Some of the positions they are I've sold out of. But some I've just kept A2 milk, which we've touched on. I have in there and there's no way I want to sell that. Yeah. Because of the tax events. Yeah. So yeah. Look, I think there's no harm in leaving them in separate brokerages as long as there's no unintended costs as you were talking about with IJA. So I think if you start with one and you make one trade and you decide you're not a big fan of it or you want something a bit different, no dramas about leaving it, they're opening a second one. If you're just paying per trade, doesn't matter. [00:29:36][48.1]

Bryce: [00:29:36] Yeah, absolutely. Well, Ren always good to chat. All things stocks and markets. I hope we have been able to break down another barrier that people face when it comes to starting their investing journey. Certainly, brokers is a very important one when we get a lot of questions about. But, look, don't panic. There's many options out there. And the good news is you're not signing any contracts that lock you into any sort of subscription or anything like that. So we'll leave it there. [00:29:58][22.1]

Alec: [00:29:59] We'll leave it there. Next episode is on buying your first investment. Go out. Sign up for a broker and then plug into the next episode. [00:30:07][8.0]

[00:30:08] Thanks for listening to get started investing. Production of the next media. Please remember that everything you hear and gets out of investing is general advice. [00:30:16][7.4]

[00:30:16] Only the content has been prepared that knowing your personal objectives, specific financial circumstances or goals, the hopes of investing, they maintain positions in the company before considering any investment. Please read the product disclosure statement and consider speaking to a licenced financial. [00:30:16][0.0]

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