Commsec - Excellent for beginners

I have used Commsec for my first trading experiences and recommend them to beginners.

Advantages - open a Commonwealth Direct Investment Account (CDIA) with $5000** and you get the benefits of many facilities within their website including:-

1. Charting

2. Advanced Charting (with usual indicators)

3. Watchlist which can show the days action or how your personal trades are faring over time (hopefully how much profit you have).

4. Prices continuously updated by "refresh" during the day.

5. Shares/IPO's/Derivatives/Options

6. CHEAP INTERNET TRADING
up to 10K - $19.95
up to 20K - $29.95

Conditional Trading:
"up front" - $9.95 OR

"on execution" - $14.95 ( i.e. if no execution - no fee).

7. Margin Lending Facilities - Interest Rate 7.9%

8. 13 xx xx number for HELP - so far I have had excellent service

9. Further upgrades depending on your number of trades (or you can pay extra).

10. EOD if you have software program.

11. Company information, announcements etc.


NOTE: ** You don't have to have a continuous balance of $5000 - just when you open your commsec account

Worth going to their site www.comsec.com.au

Please check the accuracy etc of this information at their site.

PS, THIS IS NOT A PAID POLITICAL ANNOUNCEMENT
LOL

__________________

Life is as easy as you want to make it

Agree..

I'm with Commsec and find it to be great..but hold E-TRADE (which has done well today).

so please if your not with Commsec, join e-trade

Or atleast buy a few ETR

Yes, ETrade looks good on the charts.

I'm with comsec too but would like to complain so that they improve (and so this thread is balanced). Here goes:
Took the far too long to clear my initial CDIA deposit and open the fund- bet they just traded my money on the short term money market. Also they should pay more interest for the CDIA ac balance. Entry level pricing should include charts which are updated EOD at least- some of their charts take two days to update. They use Paritech Charting. One good thing I've noticed is their pricing (data) is usually quite accurate. But they don't show all securities in a search (ie many warrants and derivatives don't come up on stock searches, you have to look it up via ASX or issuer and then type in code exactly). Stop loss tools etc are good, a bit cheaper would be nice.

Paritech Charting- Even a 30min delayed chart wouldn't be too much to ask as many sites have that for free. The 'Advanced Charting' function shows less details than the normal charting!! (ie only line graph for a limited period). Also help section is not accessible once you log in- only available once you log out- doh! Would be nice to see financials update overnight. Protrader features should be accessible via same ac login and interface rather than by having to log in twice to a separate ac.
Enough for now, just want to keep em on their toes, it's a big outfit.

Any views? I'm only getting started, it's a competetive market...

I find it irritating how the sell window doesn't show your current portfolio. I often find myself going back to double check how many I want to sell.

That said, I've not had any problems with execution of trades... yet...

I been using comsec for a few years now and don't have any real complaints. No problems with execution.

The basic charting is OK, the advanced charting is useless. If you need intraday charts then you'll need their Professional Trader package, which may be free if you do enough trades per quarter.

doctorj, you're right. I've done the same thing - gone back to check how many I have to sell.

Rod.