Advice and Resources for first time Stock trading.

mattyman174

mattyman174

Active Member
Hello.

I am thinking of beginning my journey on the Stock Market.

To begin with I would like to do a bit of reading, I have some understanding of a safe first time strategy (long term holding of stable, well founded and profitable companies that pay a dividend).

However I would like to know of some resources that you would recommend that can help navigate the market for first timers.

Any other advice is welcome.

Thanks.

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Also, thoughts on utilizing brokers that are tied to major banks as an easy method for beginning a portfolio would be appreciated.

ANZ offer Stock Broking through CMC Markets Invest and is tied to their phone app and your bank accounts to make it easy and quick to add and withdraw funds. I believe Commbank has something similar but I am not sure what it is.

How much of a big decision is choosing a broker?
 
The 4 banks, the 3 miners, Coles and Woolies, and lastly Telstra, these 10 companies pay 1/2 of all corporate tax in Australia, it’s hard to go past them for a long term strategy. Mac bank, CSL and Gina would be the next 3 if you wish to broaden a little.
 
Take a look at https://www.rask.com.au/

Rask have a set of free education courses on investing, finance, and managing your money, together with investing and finance podcasts. Lots of good free advice.

They also run a paid-for investment service which focuses on investing through ETFs rather than individual companies.

Disclaimer: I'm a Rask member.
 
After years of listening to brokers I learnt that I was a lot better off if I did the opposite to what they recommended. So realising this was not a good relationship I dropped them and just did my own. I like LICs and EFTs with a low MER, as they provide a good spread of risk, peace of mind and a dividend. Some of the shares I currently have are: AFI, ARG and VAS.
 
If you're looking to buy and hold for the long term (as opposed to actively trading) then ETFs are a good option. If you buy VAS and VGS your basically covering the market.
https://www.vanguard.com.au/adviser/products/en/detail/etf/8212/equity
https://www.vanguard.com.au/adviser/products/en/detail/etf/8205/equity

I like IWLD and IESG but that's because I prefer to avoid coal companies, weapons manufacture etc.

NDQ is also a good option if you like a greater tech %

I trade through Commsec (Commbank) because I like the ease of use, linked to my main accounts etc. and I've tried a lot of others - in the end I'd recommend going with whatever is convenient for you even if the brokerage is slightly higher.

Also keep it simple, some people just have one ETF like VDHG, this might suit you fine but try not to go overboard because in the long run it'll be easier to manage/keep records etc.
 
I use Selfwealth as my main platform, access to US markets, $9.95 trades, ETF buys are fee free, you get your own HIN, they also have a fair bit of educational material available along with Owen Rask. You can set up a number of different portfolios within the same user account eg main, corporate, minor etc. As @Revils said ETFs are a good option you just have to be careful with fees, Vanguard are cheap compared to others, also sometimes with all fund managers when they bundle up an ETF you might not really be getting exposure to the asset class/sector you think. This happens in tech stocks mainly from what I see for example you might think you're buying a "robotics" themed ETF but the majority of holdings may actually have very little to do with robotics and are just tech stocks that might have some small exposure to the robotics market eg it might just be a chip manufacturer or own shares in a company that might dabble in robotics.

I've found Nanalyse a good source of info for tech stocks, they tend to look for pure plays in the different themes (they also have a large growth portfolio) and if you're interested in the gold industry on the ASX then Michael from Between the Lines Finance puts out some good stuff on Patreon.

I subscribe to a couple of paid subscription services for macro stuff and a couple of freebies just for their insights.

I also use Stake and Superhero for a couple of small portfolios. You can buy partial shares (again ETFs are fee free) with them though they're held in trust on your behalf. My goal with those two platforms is that down the track if I've built up a substantial portion of any one holding which I intend to hold long term I'll sell it and buy them back on Selfwealth.
 
Revils said:
If you're looking to buy and hold for the long term (as opposed to actively trading) then ETFs are a good option. If you buy VAS and VGS your basically covering the market.
https://www.vanguard.com.au/adviser/products/en/detail/etf/8212/equity
https://www.vanguard.com.au/adviser/products/en/detail/etf/8205/equity

I like IWLD and IESG but that's because I prefer to avoid coal companies, weapons manufacture etc.

NDQ is also a good option if you like a greater tech %

I trade through Commsec (Commbank) because I like the ease of use, linked to my main accounts etc. and I've tried a lot of others - in the end I'd recommend going with whatever is convenient for you even if the brokerage is slightly higher.

Also keep it simple, some people just have one ETF like VDHG, this might suit you fine but try not to go overboard because in the long run it'll be easier to manage/keep records etc.
Click to expand...

mmm....shiney! said:
I use Selfwealth as my main platform, access to US markets, $9.95 trades, ETF buys are fee free, you get your own HIN, they also have a fair bit of educational material available along with Owen Rask. You can set up a number of different portfolios within the same user account eg main, corporate, minor etc. As @Revils said ETFs are a good option you just have to be careful with fees, Vanguard are cheap compared to others, also sometimes with all fund managers when they bundle up an ETF you might not really be getting exposure to the asset class/sector you think. This happens in tech stocks mainly from what I see for example you might think you're buying a "robotics" themed ETF but the majority of holdings may actually have very little to do with robotics and are just tech stocks that might have some small exposure to the robotics market eg it might just be a chip manufacturer or own shares in a company that might dabble in robotics.

I've found Nanalyse a good source of info for tech stocks, they tend to look for pure plays in the different themes (they also have a large growth portfolio) and if you're interested in the gold industry on the ASX then Michael from Between the Lines Finance puts out some good stuff on Patreon.

I subscribe to a couple of paid subscription services for macro stuff and a couple of freebies just for their insights.

I also use Stake and Superhero for a couple of small portfolios. You can buy partial shares (again ETFs are fee free) with them though they're held in trust on your behalf. My goal with those two platforms is that down the track if I've built up a substantial portion of any one holding which I intend to hold long term I'll sell it and buy them back on Selfwealth.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info on ETFs. I took a quick look into them and I think I understand the broad strokes of what they are.

However after doing some quick back of the napkin math in Excel, Im not sure I fully understand what the differences between some ETFs are.

Given the following:

iShare Core S&P 500 (IVV)
Vanguard Australian Shares INDEX (VAS)

It seems as though IVV provides a much better return. Could someone explain what the catch is? Between these 2?

ShareComparison.PNG
 
mmm....shiney! said:
One holds US companies and the other Australian?
Click to expand...

Given they are both on the ASX, why would anyone want VAS over IVV? I feel like I am missing something from the picture above that would cause someone to consider VAS a better option other than the makeup of the ETF?
 
mattyman174 said:
Given they are both on the ASX, why would anyone want VAS over IVV? I feel like I am missing something from the picture above that would cause someone to consider VAS a better option other than the makeup of the ETF?
Click to expand...

I guess it depends upon whether you consider the US holdings to be overvalued or not compared to the Oz ones and there's probably the FX component thrown in as well. Do the returns reflect the falling value of the AUD? If so, what effect could a rising AUD have?

I'm just taking stabs in the dark.
 
mmm....shiney! said:
I guess it depends upon whether you consider the US holdings to be overvalued or not compared to the Oz ones and there's probably the FX component thrown in as well. Do the returns reflect the falling value of the AUD? If so, what effect could a rising AUD have?

I'm just taking stabs in the dark.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

I suppose there are a lot of factors that go into determining the value of a stock that isn't easy to boil down.
 
The makeup of the ETF is the point - previous performance isn't a good indicator of future performance.
Some ETFs (like ASIA) performed really well for a while, then tanked.
If you were looking in January 2021 you'd think why would you buy VAS, but then in the last year VAS has vastly outperformed ASIA

upload_2023-1-17_16-48-18.png
 
Just an update, I fkd up with the comment about Selfwealth, ETF trades are not free on that platform, I've been paying brokerage (duh) so ignore what I said earlier. US ETFs have no brokerage fees on Stake and Superhero as they charge FX fees.
 
Hi,

I use both CBA and CMC for trading. I can recommend both.

I use them for different reasons.

cm

CMC allows you to buy $1000 of shares/efts ect. with no commission. ( all be it once a day). So this is my long term saving investing broker. ( I buy RDV which is an ETF focused on dividends) they pay a dividend 4 times a year and I DRIP ( Dividend reinvestment plan) the dividends into the holdings. I am sure I will get stung on comission when I sell these shares but as this is 10/20 year time frame i'm prepared to take the hit at the end..

Downsides is that they need cleared funds from my CBA bank acc. this can take two days.

CBA for my trading accouint. ( short/ medium term trades). Advatage is I'm a CBA acc holder so don't need funds to clear for t+2 days which can be handy at times. downsaide is the brokarage can be a little high.

I also do some short term trades on IGmarkets. ( i use leverage trading and CDFs on this account). This has the best interface imo.
My only advice to a beginner is not to use leverage trading until you are really aware what you are doing as this can wipe you out very quickly.


I should also mention be organised in your investing and trading. read a lot both TA and FA. and finally keep clear reocrds for the tax man.
 
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