Money Magazine’s, best feature-packed online Broker, Silver & Bronze winner 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Special Offer: Open a new directshares account and receive up to 25 free trades.* shares.com.au/Affiliates/LinkRedirect.aspx?SOURCE=SGB70&ACTION=SGBAFFILIATE2″ target=”_blank”>Click here to find out more.

Making the most of your investment opportunities is easy with St.George’s online trading service, directshares. Whether you’re a beginner to the share market or an experienced trader, you’ll benefit from a range of comprehensive research and market leading trading tools that give you the power to control your investments online.

As a self-directed investor, directshares offers you:

Value for money
You can trade shares from as little as $21.95 per trade. Plus, trade 10 times or more per month on an account, and access to directshares Power, our active trader platform, is totally free.

Superior trading tools
We offer a range of innovative trading tools to suit all types of investors. It’s a big reason why directshares has been awarded the silver medal for Money Magazine’s Best-Featured Online broker award.

Independent research and stock tips
We provide convenient access to a range of research providers and analyst research to help you spot investment opportunities, and improve your knowledge of the stock market. Plus, there’s Weekly stock tips from leading analysts to help you spot the next opportunity.

Join today, it’s free
It costs absolutely nothing to become a customer. You only pay when you trade. Apply today and start taking control of your financial future. After all, it’s your money.

Open your account
Setting up an account is easy. And if you’re an existing St.George customer, you’re half way there. Simply link your directshares account to your St.George Bank account.

Not already banking with St.George? Simply sign up for a Power Saver account or an Express Freedom account to take advantage of our competitive deposit accounts.

Helpful tips for online trading

Today over 800,000 Australians regularly invest in the share market online. If you’re thinking about becoming a self-directed investor, or already trade online, here’s some tips you might find helpful.

1. Be prepared – A lot of people think investing online is easy, especially in a bull market! Self-directed investors must be disciplined and prepared to set, and stick to a trading plan. This plan should be part of an overall financial plan, structured around your long-term goals.

2. Do your research – If you don’t have time to do your own research and stock selection, there are a mountain of quality independent research available to help you decide which stocks to buy. There’s even ‘model portfolios’ available that will provide a small basket of stocks to invest in depending on your risk profile. This can also help diversify your portfolio.

3. Set a stop loss – Before you invest, determine how much you are willing to lose on a particular stock should the price fall, so you can establish a Stop Loss (exit price) before you buy the stock. Then use Conditional Orders that will trigger a sell order if the share price falls to a certain level. Apart from not having the worry of constantly watching your portfolio, it also helps remove the emotional barriers many investors face when coming to terms with a stock that doesn’t perform. Cut your losses, and move on!

4. Learn the tools of the trade – There are many tools and products that online brokers can offer for every type of investor. Take the time to look around the web site, work out which ones work best for you, and use them. A lot of them are free.

5. Keep learning – The quickest way to learn is to attend seminars and meet other like-minded investors who trade online. Online trading can be a lonely sport, so make friends. You could even join an investment club, which are becoming quite popular, to share ideas.

Joining Offer

Open a new directshares account and receive up to 25 free trades.*

* Terms and Conditions.

1. Offer applies to new directshares customers over 18 years of age who open a directshares account and is only open to residents of Australia and New Zealand.

2. 25 free trades will automatically be allocated to the customer’s trading account. The Offer applies to trades up to a value of $30,000 each made within the first 60 days of the account being opened (the “Qualifying Period”). directshares standard brokerage is $32.95 (GST-inclusive) on equities trades up to $30,000, and 0.11% (GST inclusive) on trades over that amount. For the purpose of this Offer, brokerage will not be charged on your first 25 equities trades placed within the Qualifying Period for trades up to a maximum value of $30,000 each. The brokerage value on your first 25 equities trades where directshares standard brokerage does not exceed $32.95 (GST-inclusive) will be deducted from the 25 free trades Offer, until the Offer value has been reached. No brokerage will be shown on the directshares contract notes issued in respect of such trades. Where any of the trades has a value in excess of $30,000, directshares will charge brokerage at its standard rate (0.11%, GST-inclusive) on the excess in trade value above $30,000. These charges will be disclosed on your directshares contract note. Brokerage charged on trades above $30,000 will not form part of this Offer, and will not count toward the 25 free trades.

3. The offer only applies to ASX-listed equities conducted online through the directshares service.

4. The offer is not available to employees of the Promoter or ETRADE Australia Securities Limited (“ETRADE”) or their immediate families.

The directshares service is provided by ETRADE Australia Securities Limited (“E*TRADE Australia”) ABN 93 078 174 973 AFSL No. 238277, a Participant of the ASX Limited Group, at the request of St.George Bank Limited (“St.George”) (ABN 92 055 513 070). Execution, settlement and clearing occur through E*TRADE Australia. Neither St.George nor E*TRADE Australia are representatives of the other. Investment advice is not provided to online directshares clients.

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