Share markets at home and overseas have experienced their fair share of volatility over the past few months and it remains to be seen whether further sharp drops in value are on the cards or if the partial recovery in the ASX and some other markets over the past few weeks is set to continue.
While individual investors will inevitably vary in terms of their appetite for the risks and rewards offered by markets that are in flux, most will relish the opportunity for consistency of performance and value when it comes to their trading platform.
To help investors in search of that value, Canstar has rated 42 online share trading platforms from 20 providers on its database. Read on to find out which ones were deemed to offer 5-Star Value in 2020 and which provider won Canstar’s Online Share Trading Broker of the Year Award.
How are online share trading platforms rated?
Canstar Research assessed platforms based on both price (brokerage and ongoing fees over a year) and features (including account support, research/charting tools, security and markets available, among other features).
Products were rated against at least one of the following consumer profiles:
Casual Investor – Trades once a month on average, using a long-term strategy. Values ease of use, competitive costs and access to educational resources.
Active Investor – Trades four times a month on average, and may have an interest in investing in managed funds. Values comprehensive research tools and competitive costs.
Trader – Trades 30 times a month, on average. Availability of a dynamic trading platform and access to real-time data is usually important, as is cost and the availability of derivatives. As such, only dynamic platforms (e.g. platforms that offer live data) were rated against this profile.
Each of the profiles is assigned a weighting of price and features based on consumer behaviour. The Casual Investor and Active Investor profiles use a 50%/50% split, whereas the Trader profile uses a 60%/40% split for price and features respectively.
Products’ final scores were then used to determine their Star Ratings, and the Broker of the Year Award was given to the provider with the strongest overall performance across the profiles.
For more information on how platforms were rated, read the online share trading Star Ratings methodology document.
5-Star Rated online share trading platforms in 2020
The tables below display the 5-Star Rated online share trading platforms in each profile, sorted alphabetically by provider name. You can also view the full results.
Active Investor
| CMC Markets – Share Trading | Classic |
| IG Markets | Share Trading |
| Interactive Brokers Australia | Share Trading |
| nabtrade | nabtrade |
| Saxo Capital Markets (Australia) | SaxoTrader PRO/GO |
Casual Investor
| CMC Markets – Share Trading | Classic |
| Interactive Brokers Australia | Share Trading |
| nabtrade | nabtrade |
Trader
| Amscot | valueRate webIRESS |
| CMC Markets – Share Trading | Active Investor |
| CMC Markets – Share Trading | Classic |
| CMC Markets – Share Trading | Premium Trader |
| IG Markets | Share Trading |
| Interactive Brokers Australia | Share Trading |
Broker of the Year 2020 – CMC Markets
CMC Markets has also won Canstar’s overall Broker of the Year Award for the 10th year in a row, having received a 5-Star Rating across all three consumer profiles. CMC Markets once again offered the top performing product across all three profiles, despite the fact that this year saw several new and competitive entrants enter the ratings. Canstar Research said CMC Markets managed to remain on top due to its strong combination of competitive pricing and extensive feature offerings.
CMC Markets’ online share trading platform offers a number of features to investors, including:
- Unlimited free conditional orders
- Tax and portfolio reporting tools
- Risk management tools
- Access to live data
- Ability to invest in domestic and international shares, options, ETFs, managed funds, and bonds among other options
Source: CMC Markets
When it comes to fees, CMC Markets’ Classic tier investors pay the greater of $11 or 0.10% per trade, Active Investor tier investors pay the greater of $9.90 or 0.10% per trade, and Premium Trader tier investors pay the greater of $9.90 or 0.075% at the time of writing. CMC Markets says this makes its brokerage fees among the lowest in the market.
For more information on how the online share trading Star Ratings & Award are calculated, read the methodology.
Main image source: Sakchai Jinawong (Shutterstock)
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