OpenTrader review; can you trust $5 trades?

OpenTrader review from an experienced and long term investor. Can you trust Australia’s cheapest broker with your share portfolio?

OpenTrader review

OpenTrader is an online independent share trading platform established in 2014 as a joint venture between OpenMarkets and FloorTrader; two massive wholesale stock broker tech companies. OpenMarkets actually provides the stock brokerage and clearing technology behind some of the biggest names in the personal finance and investing market like SelfWealth, Pearler, Superhero, Raiz, and Sixpark.

“OpenTrader is Passionate about revolutionising the way financial services does business.”

OpenTrader Managing Director

OpenTrader is their venture into the retail stockbroking market, which gives retail (individual) investors access the markets cheapest fully CHESS sponsored investing platform with $5 trades. OpenTrader is not just for Australian investors, and is open to a number of international investors to provide access to the Australian stock markets through the ASX, Chi-X and NSX.

So is Australia’s cheapest brokerage worth it, and can you trust them with your portfolio?

The Good

  • $5 Australian share trades
  • CHESS sponsored
  • Retail investing arm of one of the largest wholesale broker tech companies
  • Responsive on social media and Reddit

The Bad

  • Basic Web interface
  • Must subscribe and pay for live data
  • No app
  • Lots of mixed reviews

Verdict: OpenTrader is new and low cost brokerage platform, however it has mixed feedback and lacks tools like automation features on Pearler

Don’t confuse the OpenTrader.com.au share trading platform with the OpenTrader.com course by Spark analytics

CaptainFI is not a Financial Advisor and the information below is not financial advice. This website is reader-supported, which means we may be paid when you visit links to partner or featured sites, or by advertising on the site. For more information please read my Privacy PolicyTerms of Use, and Financial Disclaimer.

openTrader review
Some of the benefits OpenTrader offer

OpenTrader Introduction

OpenTrader is an independent online share trading platform based in Melbourne, Victoria. Created in 2014, they offers services for both beginner and experienced investors and traders. With a base brokerage cost of $5 (up to a $5000 trade), it is the cheapest of all Australian CHESS sponsored brokers.

It offers a free basic web based trading platform, as well as a pro subscription version (OpenTrader Pro) which is targeted at frequent traders and provides more tools such as live pricing and advanced charting.

OpenTrader also offers a range of insights about trading, investing and personal finance through their blog roll which they call the education center.

OpenTrader Mission “Our mission is to revitalise financial services with an injection of modern bleeding edge technology that pushes the boundaries of what’s possible. We started by building derivatives risk management infrastructure and ended up completely turning this space upside down. Next up – we will revolutionize compliance and communication.”

Ivan Tchourilov – Managing Director of OpenTrader

OpenTrader Vision “We believe that the financial services industry is completely unprepared for the largest transfer of wealth in history from baby boomers to millennials. Our vision is to use our industry-leading expertise in engineering technology solutions to real-life problems to act as conduit for communication with the future generation of wealth clients.

Ivan Tchourilov – Managing Director of OpenTrader

OpenTrader Management

OpenTrader is a joint venture between TradeFloor and OpenMarkets.

openTrader review

“OpenTrader is the love child of OpenMarkets, Australia’s largest independent retail stockbroker by volume, and TradeFloor, Australia’s leading technology provider of derivatives risk management software & trading platforms.”

OpenTrader

OpenMarkets is a broker which provides the back end for a lot of fintech share trading platforms like SixPark, Raiz, Pearler, Superhero and SelfWealth;

“OpenMarkets is the 2nd largest ASX retail broker by volume, helping power over 100 financial services with our white-labelled wholesale trading, clearing and settlement offering. OpenMarkets is a Market Participant of ASX, Chi-X and NSX and an ASX Clear and Settlement Participant with offices in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.”

OpenMarkets

TradeFloor is a trading service primarily used by trading firms and financial advisor services such as Morrison securities, Phillip Capital and Gleneagle securities;

“TradeFloor is a Wholesale trading & execution services powered by TradeFloor’s Blixen AI technology, which helps over 500 professional advisers do smarter business.”

TradeFloor

OpenTrader are positioning themselves to rapidly expand in Australia and have been growing a dedicated team of professional developers, techs and support staff operating out of their Melbourne headquarters.

openTrader review
Ivan Tchourilov – Managing Director of OpenTrader

“When we set out to build industry-changing technology in 2014, one of our most important goals that we had in the management team was to ensure that our culture and structure was correct before we would scale.

As a result, we have a very strong team culture where every member has complete creative control & freedom in their area.

We know that when we all put our minds together to achieve our company vision we attain the best results in the industry.

100% of our success is driven by the high-quality team that we have powering our innovative technology.”

Ivan Tchourilov – Managing Director of OpenTrader

OpenTrader features

In my opinion, the most desirable thing about OpenTrader is that they offer are the cheapest Australian brokerage, through a fully CHESS sponsored system. When it comes to these investing fintechs, trust and security is the name of the game – and OpenTrader is benefits from being run by the same people that run OpenMarkets – the system behind pretty much all of the share tradin fintechs out there.

  • CHESS sponsorship through OpenMarkets (the parent company)
  • Security and reliability that comes with being an ASX Trading and Settlement Participant (i.e. an Actual Stock broker)
  • Australia’s Cheapest brokerage rate – $5 per trade (under $5,000)
  • Resources and insights into investing and trading through the education centre
  • Simulated trading account for free trading practice (similar to the ASX share trading game)
openTrader review
Features of OpenTrader – Free vs Pro platforms

OpenTrader Pro

If you sign up to OpenTrader, you will autmatically get access to OpenTrader Pro for two months – this will give you;

  • Live ASX news
  • Live streaming pricing data – ASX, Chi-X etc
  • Custom Dashboards
  • Advanced charting
openTrader review
Open Trader Pro

After the two months, you will revert to the base free model, and can then upgrade again if you choose to. In my opinion, you don’t really need OpenTrader Pro, especially if you are just buying and holding index tracking ETFs for the long term. I won’t be getting a Pro subscription if I ever sign up to OpenTrader.

The fact that they offer a premium version is a good thing by the way – this way they can split their customers into ‘investors’ and ‘traders’. Because they can profit off the ‘Traders’, us disciplined ‘Investors’ get a much better deal in the form of cheaper brokerage.

OpenTrader’s Brokerage Fees

OpenTrader offer an industry leading brokerage on trades; a base-rate of $5 brokerage per trade (up to $5000 trade value). The Brokerage increases to $15 for trades between $5000 and $15,000, and then costs a percentage fee of .10% above $15,000. This makes OpenTrader the cheapest brokerage of all Australian share trading platforms.

openTrader review
OpenTrader Brokerage structure

Is OpenTrader CHESS sponsored?

Yes, OpenTrader is CHESS sponsored. It is sponsored through its parent company OpenMarkets, which is an ASX Trading and Settlement Participant. CHESS Sponsorship is an attractive feature and one that I definitely look for in a broker, as it means your shares are directly registered to you via a Holder Identification Number and legally they are in your name.

How to sign up for OpenTrader

Getting an account with OpenTrader is just a matter of following the prompts on their website. Feedback from a number of users online in forums is that this process is a bit clunky and takes a few days to complete.

Opening an account is free, and you will not be charged for OpenTrader Pro unless you select that during registration or choose to upgrade to it after your free trial period runs out.

To open an OpenTrader account you will need;

  • To fill out the online application form
  • Provide Personal contact details (name, DOB, email address, residential address etc)
  • Tax information (Structure and Tax File Number)
  • Original certified copy of your Drivers licence or passport*
  • Recent bill in your name*

*Boo we are living in the internet age OpenTrader – why on earth would we need to provide these things – Get with the times already!

openTrader review
Signing up to OpenTrader can be done on their website, but takes some tiime to complete.

Investing with OpenTrader

You need a linked cash transaction account (which will be set up through the registration process), and to make a trade on OpenTrader trades require a minimum $500 value trade

This is fairly standard across most platforms – although Superhero let you do a minimum trade of $100, and Stake lets you do a minimum of $50 for US stocks.

Fair advice here – I personally do not have an OpenTrader account yet, so I can’t go into too much more detail yet – when I do I will let you know my experience.

OpenTrader customer support

OpenTrader provide a pretty comprehensive blog which covers education and support for the platform. There are hundreds of articles and videos about investing, trading and even specialised tutorials on how to use the platform.

If you are still stuck, OpenTrader provide both email and phone support during standard working hours. This was a bit slow but they will get to you eventually. Actually, one of the best ways I have found to engage with OpenTrader is literally through Reddit – where they are very active – you can track them down and pose publicly visible questions at https://www.reddit.com/user/OpenTrader/ – I love doing this, because it is in the public domain where they are forced to reply to you in a reasonable time frame or else they look bad. LOL!

Interview with OpenTrader

I have reached out to the team at OpenTrader, and hope to have a chat with Ivan Tchourilov (Managing Director of OpenTrader) about the platform. I will report back here when I have more details!

OpenTrader vs Selfwealth

OpenTrader provides everything Selfwealth does, but at half the price for trades under $5000. They are both CHESS sponsored. For trades over $5000, Selfwealth is cheaper.

Conclusion

OpenTrader is an online independent share trading platform established in 2014 as a joint venture between OpenMarkets and FloorTrader; two massive financial companies (wholesale stock broker and trading platform). OpenMarkets actually provides the stock brokerage and clearing software behind some of the biggest names in the personal finance and investing market like SelfWealth, Pearler, Superhero Raiz, and Sixpark.

OpenTrader is their venture into the retail stockbroking market, which gives retail (individual) investors access the markets cheapest fully CHESS sponsored investing platform with $5 trades. OpenTrader is not just for Australian investors, and is open to a number of international investors to provide access to the Australian stock markets through the ASX, Chi-X and NSX.

At this stage, I don’t have an OpenTrader account however I am looking into opening one as a trial to test out their platform. $5 CHESS sponsored trades is a pretty attractive starting point, backed by the wealth of experience of both OpenMarkets and FloorTrader.

Financial Disclaimer

Financial Disclaimer: CaptainFI is NOT a financial advisor and does not hold an AFSL. This is not financial Advice!

I am not a financial adviser and I do not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). In this article, I am giving you factual, balanced information without judgment or bias, to the best of my ability. I am not giving you any general or personal financial advice about what you should do with your investments. Just because I do something with my money (or use a particular service or platform) doesn’t mean it is automatically appropriate for your personal circumstances. I do not recommend nor endorse any financial or investment product, and my usage or opinion of any product should not be interpreted as an endorsement, advertisement, or intent to influence.

I can only provide factual information based on my journey to Financial Independence, and that is provided for general informational and entertainment purposes only. I make no guarantee about the performance of any product, and although I strive to keep the information accurate and updated as it changes, I make no guarantee about the correctness of reviews or information posted.

Remember – you always need to do your own independent research and due diligence before making any transaction. This includes reading and analysing Product Disclosure Statements, Terms and Conditions, Service Arrangement and Fee Structures. It is always smart to compare products and discuss them, but ultimately you need to take responsibility for your use of any particular product and make sure it suits your personal circumstances. If you need help and would like to obtain personal financial advice about which investment options or platforms may be right for you, please talk to a licensed financial adviser or AFSL holder – you can take the first steps to find a financial advisor by reading this interview, or by visiting the ASIC financial adviser register and searching in your area.

For more information please read my Privacy PolicyTerms of Use, and Financial Disclaimer.

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5 thoughts on “OpenTrader review; can you trust $5 trades?

  1. I moved from commsec to open trader because I am a small (1-2k) investor. $5 trades are great, BUT, I find the site very difficult to navigate, ( commsec is easy). Opentrader offered 5 free trades which I have NOT received ( i have sent messages with no response), i want to withdraw funds so i can use them and opentrader making it VERY difficult to get my hands on MY money. I will be looking for another platform, maybe pay a bit more but get better service. I feel opentrader is preventing me getting my hand on my OWN money by making the process so difficult.

    1. Hey Phil, yeah that doesn’t sound great. They do come across as a budget platform so one of the risks with that is poor customer service. I haven’t personally used OpenTrader before so can’t comment from a personal perspective but that sounds super frustrating! Hopefully you get a resolution soon

    2. Hey Philip, I’m sorry that you’ve had a bad experience with us. If you still need help, please don’t hesitate to email me at sofie.bergkvist(a)openmarkets.com.au. I’d be happy to help you.

      Cheers, Sofie.

  2. Tried several times to open an account, tried different email addresses and computers and many phone calls. The support did reply and tried to help but everything needed to go to the IT department. Absolutely a Waste of time and effort for a $5 trade. Gave up and went elsewhere.

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