Best broker for my investment amount

Hey Alex,

I’m a co-founder at Pearler so noting I will be biased… but to be totally honest, by far the most important factor here is that you have found and understood the benefits of the DCA approach (so well done). The broker is a minor detail that shouldn’t make or break you, and anyone who tells you different is probably just trying to sell you something.

Before I add some thoughts below, there is an argument that the simplest way to DCA is in a managed fund, custodial or nominee structure. Think Vanguard’s app, some of the comingled HIN apps, and of course managed funds like Raiz or Pearler Micro. Always check the PDS / TMD of each of these.

But, with these options the investment choice / vehicle may not always offer everything you want. So, let’s focus on CHESS-sponsored investing (where you get your own HIN).

The way I see it (again from my conflicted position) is:

At one end of the spectrum is the free option with CMC, but watch your investment size as once you go over a certain $ the fees jack up. As far as I know, you need to do everything manually, transfer money, log in, choose your investment, trade. So, it’s cheap to do regular small amounts but doesn’t help with automation.

At the other end of the spectrum, is the most holistic, powerful automation tech (in my conflicted opinion) and that is Pearler’s Automate. You can have different automation rules for deposits, round-up daily purchases, rules for how excess cash is treated (if you come into some cash), multi-asset investments (US and ASX), automated selection of rebalancing, then even different rules for how dividends are automatically put towards future investments. If you prepay, each buy costs $5.50.

There are a few options in the middle like commsec pocket.

So to over-simplify, you’ve got free & manual at one end of the spectrum or $5.50 and comprehensively automated at the other.

Like pretty much everything in finance, this is something you will need to decide

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