NZX - New Zealand's Stock Exchange access

[The Investor]

Hi all,

 

Does anyone know the reason quite a few brokers such as Interactive Brokers don't have NZX as an option?

[oddballstocks]

Fidelity does. I've traded on it for years.  It's convenient as a North American, the exchange is open at 5pm EST and closes right near midnight.  When I was more active in NZ I'd buy/sell/watch while my wife watched TV at night.

[Jurgis]

Fidelity does. I've traded on it for years.  It's convenient as a North American, the exchange is open at 5pm EST and closes right near midnight.  When I was more active in NZ I'd buy/sell/watch while my wife watched TV at night.

 

I heard you could buy a ring of invisibility, slightly burned, but still beautiful... my preciousss.

 

8)

[The Investor]

Thanks oddballstocks, Fidelity is expensive right?

 

I own some NZ shares via a company I own, but paid a fairly steep fee (0.25%, using Charles Stanley here in the UK), compared to paying "close to zero on IB".

[Jurgis]

Thanks oddballstocks, Fidelity is expensive right?

 

I own some NZ shares via a company I own, but paid a fairly steep fee (0.25%, using Charles Stanley here in the UK), compared to paying "close to zero on IB".

 

If you're in UK, I don't know if Fido allows accounts from there. Also their UK commissions would likely differ from US commissions, so US commissions rate may not be very helpful for you. If you'd open US based account with them, then you're likely suffer currency exchange twice...

 

Fido commissions on foreign exchanges vary from $9 to $19 to higher. Whether that's expensive, depends on the size of your order.

Edit: I just tried an example trade and commission shows as 35NZD. Not sure if that's variable or not.

 

FWIW.

[oddballstocks]

Thanks oddballstocks, Fidelity is expensive right?

 

I own some NZ shares via a company I own, but paid a fairly steep fee (0.25%, using Charles Stanley here in the UK), compared to paying "close to zero on IB".

 

Depends on the price.  Fidelity is maybe $20 a trade? I don't remember exactly, but it's in that ballpark.  IB CAN be cheap, or expensive.

 

IB charges based on the number of shares.  If you're buying a few high price shares it's cheap.  I went to place a trade on a low price stock, and it was a $150 commission for something like $2k worth of stock. Purchased on Fidelity instead for $5.

 

If the commission cost is going to sway my investment decision, then I think it's safe to say I don't have a solid thesis or solid upside.

 

There have been times I've pushed around orders to save a few cents and in the end up paying $.03 more or something by dinking around.  That three cent upcharge has been multiples of the commission I was trying to be tricky with.

[Hielko]

Thanks oddballstocks, Fidelity is expensive right?

 

I own some NZ shares via a company I own, but paid a fairly steep fee (0.25%, using Charles Stanley here in the UK), compared to paying "close to zero on IB".

 

Depends on the price.  Fidelity is maybe $20 a trade? I don't remember exactly, but it's in that ballpark.  IB CAN be cheap, or expensive.

 

IB charges based on the number of shares.  If you're buying a few high price shares it's cheap.  I went to place a trade on a low price stock, and it was a $150 commission for something like $2k worth of stock. Purchased on Fidelity instead for $5.

While IB can be expensive when you do orders for low priced stock, the commision is capped at 0.5% of trade value. So for $2K worth of stock it shouldn't be more than $10...

[The Investor]

Hielko/odballstocks,

 

Are you guys referring to IB charges for non-US equities? I only opened an account with them fairly recently (friends & family). And the charges for US shares are tiny. For example, calculating now, I paid 0.0015% (and 0.0017% for GBP to USD). This is only commission I'm counting, not the spread etc.

[oddballstocks]

Thanks oddballstocks, Fidelity is expensive right?

 

I own some NZ shares via a company I own, but paid a fairly steep fee (0.25%, using Charles Stanley here in the UK), compared to paying "close to zero on IB".

 

Depends on the price.  Fidelity is maybe $20 a trade? I don't remember exactly, but it's in that ballpark.  IB CAN be cheap, or expensive.

 

IB charges based on the number of shares.  If you're buying a few high price shares it's cheap.  I went to place a trade on a low price stock, and it was a $150 commission for something like $2k worth of stock. Purchased on Fidelity instead for $5.

While IB can be expensive when you do orders for low priced stock, the commision is capped at 0.5% of trade value. So for $2K worth of stock it shouldn't be more than $10...

 

I don't think options are capped

[writser]

I don't think options are capped

 

IB charges a fixed fee for option, yeah. So if you buy a few $0.01 options then IB is expensive ($0.25 per contract) but your story regarding $150 commission for $2k in stocks is total nonsense.

[maybe4less]

 

While IB can be expensive when you do orders for low priced stock, the commision is capped at 0.5% of trade value.

 

Not anymore for US stocks. Very annoyingly, they increased the cap to 1% earlier this year.

 

Don't understand how they think they can be raising prices when their competitors are all lowering prices.

[oddballstocks]

If their app didn't suck as much as it does I'd look back at my order history.  But I can't figure out how to find it.

 

I know about 50% of the time IB is crazy in terms of pricing.  The other 50% it's dirt cheap.  I've had some wild commission quotes on there.

[writser]

If their app didn't suck as much as it does I'd look back at my order history.  But I can't figure out how to find it.

 

You are a smart and very computer savvy judging by all your posts here and the fact that you have a blog, newsletter and banking website). Surely you are exaggerating. You can generate an annual statement in account management with a few mouse clicks / screen touches and find the trade in question within a few minutes. Maybe you don’t want to spend the time, but I’m 100% certain you can figure it out and 99.9% sure that you already know how to do that.

 

The guy telling us that the IPMI module on Super Micro servers is junk doesn’t know how to find back a trade on a website? Come on. I graduated in computer science but I had to look up IPMI on Wikipedia :P .

 

But this is getting off-topic. Apologies.

[benhacker]

If their app didn't suck as much as it does I'd look back at my order history.  But I can't figure out how to find it.

 

You are a smart and very computer savvy judging by all your posts here and the fact that you have a blog, newsletter and banking website). Surely you are exaggerating. You can generate an annual statement in account management with a few mouse clicks / screen touches and find the trade in question within a few minutes. Maybe you don’t want to spend the time, but I’m 100% certain you can figure it out and 99.9% sure that you already know how to do that.

 

The guy telling us that the IPMI module on Super Micro servers is junk doesn’t know how to find back a trade on a website? Come on. I graduated in computer science but I had to look up IPMI on Wikipedia :P .

 

But this is getting off-topic. Apologies.

 

Chuckle... Love me some Oddball, but +2. :)

 

Also, for NZ stocks at Fido, don't they take a forex spread as well?  It's embedded (or should be) into how you think about Commission.  IB allows you buy and close forex position at the same time in spot (1-2 pips usually)... Fido charges the below:

 

Currency exchange fees

If you choose U.S. dollars as the settlement currency for your international stock trade, a foreign currency exchange fee (in the form of a markup or markdown) based on the size of the currency conversion will be charged when the foreign currency exchange executes.

 

Amount of currency exchange in U.S. dollars Currency exchange fee (basis points)

> $1M 20 bps

$500–$999K 30 bps

$250–$499K 50 bps

$100–$249K 75 bps

< $100K 100 bps

 

--

 

Just pause and think of what ya'll are saying comparing IB's commission structure to the above at Fido... but not mentioning this forex fee?

 

Crazy talk.

 

It's like Bond commissions when you leave out other brokers charging markups... "don't include the markup it's not a real commission".  <broker somewhere salivates>

 

 

[oddballstocks]

I use the fat client. I used their web UI once. I’m sure in the web there is some way to generate a report. But I’ve never cared enough to look.

 

And yes, I can figure this out, but it just hasn’t ever been worth it to me. The UI is extremely cumbersome and confusing.

 

And Ben hits on something really important. Forex is dirt cheap on IB. U did a test trade for a thousand euro last week and the commission was inconsequential. Fidelity charges 1%.

[oddballstocks]

To rant on IB. I like the fat client thing, it sort of feels like a cheap BB terminal.

 

The UI seems really powerful, but really unintuitive. For example if I get a quote on a stock it will populate the pinned chart. But the chart never refreshes unless I reply a quote.

 

But the platform has potential. I have kicked around building out some trading app via their API. Which is really well documented vs their fat client. You can’t do this as cheaply with anyone else.

 

Maybe there are tutorials or something. I should look. I’ve been able to buy/sell shares and options so I never looked further.

[oddballstocks]

Had a Board call tonight that started to dry out, did some Googling.

 

Here is the IB user guide: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/software/tws/twsguide.htm#usersguidebook/getstarted/login.htm%3FTocPath%3DGet%2520Started%2520with%2520Mosaic%7C_____1