For many years I have had an online trading account with Commsec and have been pretty happy with them.
I started comparing brokerage fees for both share trades and options and was about to open an account with Bell Direct because based on my trading habits (buy/sell parcels of shares worth $20-30K) I could save about $5 in brokerage per trade. However, it appears that you cannot enter a buy order for shares unless you already have cleared funds in your associated settlement account. At Commsec cleared funds is not a pre-requisite to placing a buy order - you just have to have the funds available on the settlement date i.e. T+2. I often have 2-3 buy orders pending at prices a fair bit below market price but I can't have $60K sitting in a settlement account waiting for trades to execute. Can anyone advise on which brokers operate similar to Commsec and don't require pre-cleared funds, particularly any brokers whose brokerage fees compare to Bell Direct?
Also in the past it appears that Bell Direct offered credit to its customers for referring a new customer. The existing and new customers got $100 each. If this offer is still available and you are an existing Bell customer, please let me know.
Seems a lot of hassle to save $5 on a $25k trade … are your trading margins really that thin?