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.
I have shares in the UK, but with an Australian address it is hard (impossible) to find a UK agent to help with their sale. What is the best Australian option for a single trade (sell)?
My suggestion is that you do an off market transfer with a third party who is willing to buy the shares from you and arrange private cash settlement.
Hi Rich,
Thank you for your inquiry.
Unfortunately, we cannot recommend what is best for you. Our company finder.com.au is a financial comparison website and general information service designed to help consumers to make a better decisions. Please note we do not represent any company we feature on our pages.
Thankfully, you can always check the list of online share trading platforms on our website. This should give you a good place to start searching for the right platform.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Harold
I noticed that amscot Stockbroking is not on the comparison list.
Hi Ben,
Thanks for your question.
Although we cover a wide range of products, providers and services, we don’t cover every product, provider or service available in the market so there may be other options available to you. However, you can find more information about the amscot Stockbroking through our website.
Cheers,
May
I am delighted to read this analysis. Hope to see the competition on going and interesting in future. I recently was going through some trading applications and found Forex Signals to be really successful and dependable. It helped me increase my profits in comparison to previous one.
Hi Lee,
Thanks very much for your feedback and for your suggestion. We’re always adding to our content so keep eye out for new content from us.
Cheers,
Clarizza
Hi there I think I will have to take my iPad to fountain gate plaza to have it looked at the 500pluse app is getting rejected by my I as a last resort I will get my iPad Looked at in the Apple Store at fountain gate if nothing else can be done by me!
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your question.
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