Stake is a desktop and mobile trading app that enables Australians to easily trade US stocks. It provides access to more than 3000 US stocks and ETFs, including some of the biggest global companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon. The US market is currently valued at over $30 trillion and growing rapidly.
The platform is exclusively for US stocks and doesn’t provide access to ASX-listed shares. Read on to learn more about Stake.
$0 brokerage fee
Brokerage
NASDAQ
NYSE
Markets
| Product name | Stake |
|---|---|
| Type of broker | |
| ASX products |
N/A |
| Available markets |
NASDAQ NYSE |
| Standard brokerage fee for ASX shares | $0 brokerage fee |
| Support |
You can access more than 3000 US stocks and ETFs via Stake. Stake currently does not allow users to trade derivatives, like CFDs or options.
Stake offers Australians easy access to major international brands like Apple, Tesla, Facebook and Google.
Stake doesn’t charge any brokerage fees when you buy or sell stocks.
Instead of buying individuals shares, you can invest smaller dollar amounts (minimum $10). For example, if one Google share cost $1,200, you have the option of investing just $100 if you choose. If you invest $1,800, you'd own 1.5 shares.
Stake’s platform is user-friendly and more like an online shopping site or a social media platform than a trading platform.
Users can apply a range of advanced filters when looking for stocks to trade. For example, you can filter by stocks that are trending, most up, most down, most traded or most watched. You can also filter by a range of categories including food, travel and technology or even the size of the company.
When you select a stock to look at, the platform also suggests a range of related stocks based on what others are trading. This is a helpful tool to discover some less well-known stocks.
Access the latest news and analysis for each individual stock from various sources across the Internet. Plus, access Stake’s own blog and stock commentary too.
Use the charts to see how a stock has performed over the past day, week, month, three months, year or three years. The charts are conveniently colour coded too, so you can easily see when a stock is trending down (red).
You can choose to buy or sell at market as well as place a limit or stop order.
Stake does not charge any brokerage fees when you buy and sell stocks. Instead, Stake makes money on the currency exchange when you fund your account or withdraw money from your account.
Before you can trade with Stake, you'll need to add funds to your account. Stake charge US$0.70 for every AUD$100 you transfer from Australian dollars into US dollars and vice versa. However, as Stake points out on the website, these foreign currency transfer fees are applied by other brokers, including many major banks, to international trades. With other brokers, this fee may be applied each time you trade, whereas with Stake, you're only charged the one fee when you transfer funds.
There are some other charges to be aware of. If you add funds to your account using a credit or debit card, you'll be charged 2% on top of the transfer fee (US$0.70 per AUD$100). You can avoid this fee if instead you do a bank transfer within the app using PoLi.
List of fees
You can create an account with Stake online in minutes and have your account funded and ready to go that same day.
Click “get started” on Stake’s site and follow the prompts to enter your personal details including name, residential address and contact details. Create an account by selecting a username and creating a unique password. You’ll need to verify your ID throughout the process, so make sure you have your driver's licence and/or Medicare card handy.
