0:00
If you're paying over $10 per trade in brokerage fees, you're getting ripped off. There are some trading platforms that charge zero brokerage. And I'm going to show you which ones are actually worth it.
0:14
Hey, I'm Kylie and my job is to review share trading platforms. And by far, one of the most common questions I get asked is "Which share trading platform should I use?", "Which one is going to cost me the least?". And it's such a good question because it totally depends on how often you're trading, what you're investing in, and the amount that you're investing.
0:34
For example, some trading platforms charge really high fees for US stocks, but really low fees for Australian stocks. Other platforms charge the opposite, or they might charge lower fees for ETFs and higher fees for stocks. And if you're using the wrong share trading platform, it could be costing you hundreds or even thousands of dollars more every year.
0:53
And I know this because I put together this pretty intense sheet. If I move this a little bit. And I know this because I put together this sheet with every share trading platform we could find, with fees broken down based on how often you're trading, whether you're trading US stocks or ASX stocks, and the amounts that you're trading.
1:12
So, in this video, I'm going to break it down by strategy with real numbers to back it up. And there's definitely a few platforms in here that you wouldn't have heard of. And just a side note, there are a few different types of fees that share trading platforms can charge you.
1:23
But by far, the most important two fees would be the brokerage fee. That's the fee you pay every time you place a trade. It goes to the broker. And the currency conversion fee. This is when you're trading US or global stocks. And it's the fee to convert your Australian dollars into US dollars. So that's really important, too.
1:39
And I'm going to start today by looking at Aussie shares. That's shares listed on the ASX. And fee structures here can get pretty complicated. So, for the purpose of keeping it simple, we're going to look at placing a $1,000 trade.
1:52
So, according to my giant sheet, the cheapest brokers for Australian listed shares would be CMC Markets, Easy Equities, eToro, and Superhero. Then, we have a few here that charge $3 in brokerage. MooMoo, Saxo, Tiger, and Stake.
2:08
That being said, there are a few caveats. For instance, CMC Markets charges zero brokerage on ASX listed shares, but that's only on the first trade order of the day, and it's only for trades up until $1,000. And then when you look at Easy Equities, eToro, and Superhero, none of those offer CHESS-sponsored shares.
2:29
So, if you're looking at CHESS sponsorship specifically, you'd want to look at CMC Markets and then MooMoo Share Trading, Tiger Brokers, or Stake. Okay. Next we have US share trading. And in this case, we want to take into account the brokerage fees as well as the currency conversion fee.
2:46
So if I re-sort my sheet again, the cheapest brokers here in terms of brokerage fee for US stocks are CMC Markets, IG, Bendigo Invest Direct, followed by Webull and MooMoo for 25 cents and 99 cents. And just remember those are in US dollars. But just remember, you also need to take into account the currency conversion fee.
3:07
So, even if you have a broker that offers zero brokerage fees on US stocks, the currency conversion fee might be really high as well. So, looking here, I've got the currency conversion fee. I'm just going to move it over. The currency conversion fees can get a little bit complicated because they're all in completely different formats.
3:24
We've got 0.6% for CMC Markets, 0.7% for IG, and then you've also got 50 basis points, a basis point fee structure, and you've got the pips fee structure. It's a lot of information to go into now, so I'm just going to say that if you want more information on pips and BPS, you can check out our international share trading platform page, which is where I explain it better.
3:45
To keep it simple today, I did the calculations for you on a $1,000 US trade. You can see here the FX fee and dollar amounts, and I've also converted in this column the US brokerage fees into AU brokerage fees. Then I added the brokerage fee and the currency conversion fee together.
4:01
So if we re-sort this column, we can actually see that the order of brokers has actually changed. Now we've got Saxo Invested, Interactive Brokers, and CMC Markets Invest as the three cheapest brokers for US share trading. And that's because even when you're seeing a zero brokerage fee, you can see that it's actually in fact $6 with CMC Markets because of their currency conversion fee.
4:24
And if you're using a broker like eToro, that might go up to in this case $26. So, as you can see, it totally depends on whether you're investing in Australian stocks or US stocks.
4:33
But if you want to invest in both US stocks and Australian stocks across the board, then check out Saxo Invested, Bendigo Invest Direct, Webull, and IG Share Trading because they have pretty low fees right across the board.
4:45
If you're not super interested in investing in shares directly and you'd rather invest into exchange traded funds or ETFs, then the cheapest brokers for you are CMC Invest, Webull, and Easy Equities. Just remembering though that CMC Invest only allows you to make one zero brokerage trade into an ASX equity per day up to $1,000. And Easy Equities is not chess sponsored.
5:10
So there you have it. Those are Australia's cheapest share trading platforms depending on what you're investing in and how often you plan to invest. More information on Australia's cheapest share trading platforms, you can check out our guide. I'll leave a link in the description below.
Hi,
Can I know why CMC markets rated above MooMoo? I did some research and it seems as if MooMoo has lower fees compared to CMC. Is there other reasons? (Im currently using Commsec but I’m looking for a better option), I like how clean CMC looks but when comparing to MooMoo I find myself unsure as to which one to pick.
Please advise. If it helps Im not a beginner trader and I tend to Invest above 50k per trades so any benefits to trade below $1k won’t appeal to me.
Thank you,
Hi Deshi, For our best overall trading platform award we prioritise trades of $1,000 as this is around the average trade size for most investors. Because CMC offers $0 brokerage for ASX trades of up to $1,000 and $0 brokerage for global equities, it achieved a slightly higher score than Moomoo. We also found CMC Invest to be an easier platform to manage for everyday investors (including beginners). However, since you’re placing trades of $50,000 or more, Moomoo is the cheaper broker. It’s also worth considering what the brokerage fee is to sell your equities if you have a large portfolio built up over time. This is usually a percentage fee and can differ enormously between platforms.
Good luck
How do you transfer from one trading platform to another? Are there fees involved in doing this?
Hi Andrew,
It might be possible but you’d have to check with the brokers to see if they charge fees to transfer in or transfer out your shares. They all have different policies.
I hope that helps.
Which trading platform has the best tax reporting for the ato?
Hi Jack,
Thank you for reaching out to finder.
Though we do not have information on the best tax reporting for these companies to the ATO, you may want to contact the ATO directly to check on the statistics for this. They should have available historical data on these companies available for you. Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Reggie
I’d like to buy shares online myself, I’ll be a casual investing in semi longterm shares, looking for a $20 to $50 share minimum purchase. I’m hoping that’s possible, I’m mid 50’s an hoping to add a little extra for retirement, any advice would be muchly appreciated, cheers
Hi Karen,
Thanks for your inquiry.
Going into share trading is one of the good ways to grow your money. With share trading, please note that the minimum order when buying shares on the ASX is $500 and your online trading platform may require a higher limit. We have some guides on the following pages which could help you in your journey to share trading:
1. Beginner guide to share trading
2. Opening a share trading account
3. Compare online share trading accounts
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
May
I’m looking for a discount broker for trading Australian shares that provides data reports, particularly for end of f/y
Cheers, Allan
Hi Allan,
Thanks for your question.
You may want to check our page that discusses cheap stock brokerage in Australia. By checking that comparison table on that page, you should learn which share trading platform has the lowest brokerage fee. Most of them provide daily and yearly data reports.
Should you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach us out again.
Cheers,
Anndy