Best trading platform/brokerage account?

[arruga]

Hi
I found elswhere that the CommBank had the best on-line trading platform...Westpac came second ?
Any comments to share ? PC and IPad would be my trading devices...
I hold accounts for myself and wife at Westpac...would you reccommend going for westpac so it simplifies the process ? or should I go for CommBank and spread the risk somehow, should a debacle come around sometime from now and the next 30 years....If I wanted to go for CommBank platform, would I need to open a current account with them ? If I go with Westpac, is my current account enough, or I need to open a separate brokerage account ? how does really the trading/brokerage account work within those platforms.....bloody westpac documents are useless explaining this.....in concrete, to buy shares, do I need to transfer moeny from my account to a borkerage account ? when I sell, money goes to current account or brokerage account ?....in brokerage account, profit pays taxes or only when money goes back to current account ? tax for every single share sale that makes profit ? if money doesn't go out of brokerage account and gets reinvested in other shares.....how is this treated tax-wise ?
thanks

 

[burglar]

Re: Best trading platform / brokerage account

Hi
I found elswhere that the CommBank had the best on-line trading platform...Westpac came second ?
Any comments to share ? PC and IPad would be my trading devices...
I hold accounts for myself and wife at Westpac...would you reccommend going for westpac so it simplifies the process ? or should I go for CommBank and spread the risk somehow, should a debacle come around sometime from now and the next 30 years....If I wanted to go for CommBank platform, would I need to open a current account with them ? If I go with Westpac, is my current account enough, or I need to open a separate brokerage account ? how does really the trading/brokerage account work within those platforms.....bloody westpac documents are useless explaining this.....in concrete, to buy shares, do I need to transfer moeny from my account to a borkerage account ? when I sell, money goes to current account or brokerage account ?....in brokerage account, profit pays taxes or only when money goes back to current account ? tax for every single share sale that makes profit ? if money doesn't go out of brokerage account and gets reinvested in other shares.....how is this treated tax-wise ?
thanks

You can have more than one broker.
If you go with one and you find a better one, you can add it.
But it gets confusing.
Regarding the tax, it is Capital Gains Tax(CGT).
Learn a lot about it, search the forum.
Also information at Australian Tax Office (ATO).
Online or office.
And you can ring them (I think they provide translators. You can ask.)
They are friendly and helpful (until you break the law)!