USA Share purchasing - Selfwealth platform

I use Selfwealth for domestic shares and whilst its basic, it does what I need it to do, reasonable fees and holds the portfolio in CHESS.

There have been a few times I'd have liked to have invested overseas but it always seems complicated. Now it appears that Selfwealth are soon to introduce a US section; for those with international shares, how do the proposed Selfwealth fees for investing in the US compare to banks and other share platforms? Transferring between the investors Australian and US Selfwealth account also seems a straightforward way of exchanging currency from AUD into USD.

SelfWealth. Trade smarter, every time.

Probably can't ask too much more on it until the fine print is available and its up and running before the end of 2020.

Thanks

 

Selfwealth say $9.50 USD flat per trade
Their FX spread is same as Commsec at 0.60%
I believe that each investors gets a USD cash account so auto exhanging doesnt impact every trade. Just choice of movements to and from AUD / USD

Custody is not as secure as local shares (Chess). Philips Capital Singapore will be a custodian. With a sub account in investor name.

 

Why not use Stake ? It is not complicated the tax forms are done for you, $9.50 is expensive for buying US Shares. With stake you can transfer funds at night a few hours before the market opens and buy fractional shares can you do that with Selfwealth ?. FX rate is 0.70 Stake will be custodians like other US brokers, but the US have strong, regulation and consumer protection laws, securities are insured up to $500,000 . Waiting 2 days that I believe it takes with Selfwealth to transfer funds can be expensive as often their can be 5 or 30% increase overnight.

 

Thanks to both responses.

I was unaware of Stake but on investigating, the ability to purchase a fractional share appears a useful function. As an example, if I initially elected to purchase and sell US shares via Stake but at a later date, they failed to deliver on their promises, do I have to sell all the shares under their portal or could I transfer them elsewhere. This is a generic question because I understand that the same question can be asked of Selfwealth or any other portal/manager. Its hard to find answers to these type of questions from a FAQ.

 

I have been using Commsec International mainly to buy Warrants and Nabtrade for US stocks.
But with Commsec International, if I transfer funds prior to 2pm, it will be available next day early morning so can trade before market close at 8am AEDT. Trading fees are higher with Commsec (min of USD19.95)

With Stake, can you transfer at 6pm and have the funds before the US market open?

I am also interested in Options trading but currently Stake doesn't offer Options trading but they have indicated it will be considered in the future.

 

I've purchased USA shares with SelfWealth, the actual buying was fairly pain free although the currency conversion takes a couple days. I sent some AUD for conversion on the weekend and expecting it will be available Tuesday for the Wed 1:30am trade (9:30am NYSE).

Processing my forms to open the US trading took a VERY long time though.
I may look at an alternative for "International" shares since there are other brokers that do multiple countries not just USA, for example Interactive Brokers. But I do like keeping my ASX listed funds Chess sponsored.

 

If you are going to purchase US shares regularly or have USD $100K assets, I'd suggest Interactive Brokers.

FX is 0.002% (min $2) compared with 0.6-0.7% with Selfwealth, Stake etc.

Only catch is a $10 monthly fee if you have less than $100K assets, but that $10 also goes towards brokerage so roughly equivalent to a monthly purchase on SelfWealth but with much better FX

 

IBKR have dropped the $10 monthly fee making them an even more compelling choice for US investing

 

are they CFD type of trading or proper share trading?

 

Proper share trading, although they also a full suite of other products including CFD's, Options, Futures etc.
Investment Products Overview | Interactive Brokers Australia Pty. Ltd.

 

hey, mate do you do trading of options? which is the cheapest way to try something?

 

No just a simple ETF portfolio

 

I am trying to open an account but it keep giving error on account type selection. what is the best account type, investment or trading?

in the help it says that for investment account minimum deposit is $2000 but for trading account minimum deposit is $10,000 is that true? in self wealth i can deposit $100 so why can't we do the same for IBKR?

also what they mean by minimum liquid net worth? does it mean i have to keep shares or cash worth $20k in the account for investment type account while $100k in the account for trading account type?

sorry bit confusing so thought to ask.

see below what i says about two account type:

Account Type
Investment
For individual or organization investors with 2K AUD minimum deposit and minimum liquid net worth of 20K AUD. No margin trading or short selling allowed. Limited options, unleveraged spot Forex and some low leverage derivatives trading allowed.

Trading
Similar to Investment accounts but fewer constraints on leverage. For individual or organization investors with minimum deposit of 10K AUD, and minimum liquid net worth of either 100K AUD, or 20,000 AUD + 50K AUD minimum income. No trading on margin but short selling, limited options and unleveraged spot Forex.

SMSF (Self Managed Superannuation Funds)
SMSF accounts are available for SMSF trustees only. SMSF accounts do not allow trading on margin or short selling, but do allow limited options trading, unleveraged spot Forex trading, and access to some low leverage derivatives.

Base Currency
Currency in which investor maintains a book of accounts. Base currency determines the currency of translation for statements. IB Australia will only supports holding cash in specific currencies (referred to as IBAU supported currencies), therefore one of those currencies is required to be nominated as your base currency.

How Does Base Currency Affect My Account?

• Base currency is typically the principal form of currency for cash and denomination of instruments you trade.
• You can hold cash balances and trade instruments in either base or non-base currency.
• For Trading accounts, you can change base currency any time in Account Management, and make deposits or withdrawals in any IBA supported currency.
• If you hold balances in any supported currencies due to trades in products denominated in different currency or from profits/losses from Forex trading, we do not automatically convert those balances in any IBA supported back to your base currency. However, as IB Australia can only hold balances in these IBA supported currencies, cash balances in currencies other than IBA supported currencies will be automatically converted into your nominated base currency.

 

I just have an investment account with just stocks and forex enabled. Never had any issues setting it up

what does the error say?

 

when i click continue nothing happens basically. i left message through their helpline so hopefully someone will get back on monday.

on the application it clearly says that they are only offering trading account not the investment that is why i am bit confused as trading account has high min. deposit amount and liquidity amount then investment account.