Who Should Make Use of Our Online Brokers Comparison?
To put it simply, our online broker comparison can be used by anyone and everyone who has even the most fleeting interest in using an online brokerage in Australia in 2023.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a complete beginner searching for your first ever online stock broker, an intermediate who’s looking to venture into CFD trading or an expert high volume trader browsing the web for an online futures broker – Wetten.com has you covered. With our online brokers list, we’ve taken anyone and everyone into account – so we’d urge you to check it out.
All Tradable Assets Covered
With our crypto brokers review, we tackle the volatile digital currency assets that have attracted so many to online trading, despite their risky nature. For those looking for a more stable investment, we cover regular stocks traders and search for the best forex broker in Australia.
We’ve also covered anything and everything in between with our broker review – from CFDs to ETFs, futures and options – you’ll definitely find a brokerage here that offers what you’re looking for to some degree.
Day Trading Australia, still largely remains the playground of the professionals, however, today’s trading sites and apps have now brought it to the comfort of your home or handheld devices. If you’re a casual retail trader, then you’ll want to take advantage of our recommended social trading brokers, which helps up to pool your ideas with other traders on a platform that’s more secure than Reddit or Facebook.
We might’ve digressed a little bit there, but the point is, if trading’s what you’re after – Wetten.com is what you need!
Our go-to brokers for CFD trading:
Are Online Brokers Safe? Our Top 5 Steps for a Secure Experience
Check for Encryption
Firstly, you want to make sure that your details and, more importantly, your funds are safe. When landing on the webpage look for the symbol to indicate that the site is encrypted using SSL or HTTPS technology., If it is, this will ensure that all financial transactions are carried out safely and securely.
In addition, have a look to see if your funds are kept, at least partially in cold storage. What this means is that your funds are kept offline, meaning that you’re safe from hackers and/or theft. When it comes to our account itself, you want to have a two-factor authentication process.
Licensing and Jurisdiction
To start things off here, you want to look for a relevant business, banking and/or trading license – whether that be one granted here in Australia or somewhere overseas. Brokerages that function here in Australia and are available to Australian customers should be licensed and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
ASIC is independent from the Australian government, however, it has been given the task of regulating companies and financial services here in Australia.
You might find some sites that only have foreign regulation but do allow Australian users to sign up. While not a dealbreaker, this should raise a red flag and cause you to investigate the brokerage further by consulting the steps below.
Check the Track Record
The best online brokerages available in Australia today are either online extensions of established traditional brokers or have a proven track record in the online world. However, with new platforms popping up every day, our broker reviews do include some newer, lesser-known service.
No matter what type of brokerage you’re looking at, you should do some research into the company’s history so find out their track record based on trust and if they have had any major law breaches or have been the subject of wide-scale hacking.
This might be harder with newer brokerages, however, dig a little deeper and you’ll usually find they are owned or affiliated with a larger financial company or were started by people with some standing in the business or financial worlds.
Read Online Broker Reviews from other Users
Expert reviews like ours are naturally a good place to start – and should help form the main part of your opinion on an online broker. However, at the end of the day, you know your experience level and what you’re looking to get out of an online broker better than any experts.
That’s why we also always advise finding a broker review or two that’s been written by a customer of a similar persuasion to you. Seeing the experience of your fellow traders will help to give you an idea of what to expect – and to make sure that no one has been scammed or lost a lot of money on the site.
Our best picks for trading options:
Customer Service
You might be sitting there asking yourself what customer service really has to do with security when it comes to an online broker review. However, when we refer to customer service in terms of your online safety, we’re going beyond the realms of “we phoned up to ask about the banking options and spoke to Trudy who was very helpful.”
First of all, you want to actually make sure that the online brokerage you’re using can actually be located and contacted.
You then want to test the channels to make sure that the customer service team is helpful and act completely within the confines of the law. Your own money is on the line with an online brokerage, so you want to be 100% safe in the knowledge that it’s in good hands.
The Best Broker Review – Editor’s Recommendation
With so many bases to cover and types of traders to please, choosing the ultimate best brokerage to recommend above all else is no easy task. How do we do it, you ask? The answer on behalf of our editor – it’s all about balance.
There are seemingly endless elements to look for when conducting our online broker reviews and tests, and the majority of websites we access are strong in some areas and weaker than others.
For example, a broker that’s good for beginners will more often than not be a bit restrictive for advanced traders. Modern sites that specialise in crypto trading generally have weaker trading options on stocks and forex pairs.
There are, however, some big brokerage sites that have successfully pulled off the not-so-easy-feat of offering a quality service that balanced the multitude of assets and services that online brokerages are expected to offer in 2023.
Our favourite Futures Brokers:
The Best Online Broker Review in 2023
We like to keep our editor’s recommendation constantly up to date, especially in a world where online brokerages are constantly improving, and with new sites and services being added to the market every single day. It almost goes without saying that our editors take into account the fact that we’re looking for a site, Aussie based or not, that does the best it can for customers and traders based here.
You can find a current list of our top-rated brokerages right here on this web page. All of our broker reviews are updated consistently, so you can expect this list to change with the financial times in which we are living.
Online Broker Reviews – How We Test Sites
When creating each and every broker review that we provide here at Wetten.com, our experts don’t simply relay the nonsense information that you can find anywhere. We actually sign up to the online broker site ourselves and use it like any other customer would do. The only difference is that in doing so, we’re putting the brokerage through rigorous tests, based on a number of criteria on which we ultimately rate the site on.
Below, we’ve provided a list, complete with short explanations of the most important criteria we looking for when conducting a broker review here at Wetten.com:
Cryptocurrencies
This is an aspect that has skyrocketed in terms of importance when it comes to conducting broker reviews in 2023. Despite being volatile and risky in nature, cryptocurrencies are the thing that’s perhaps most attributed to the rise in popularity of online trading.
Attracted by the spike and subsequent fall of bitcoin in 2017, many retail traders have stayed on with online brokerages and continued to trade in other assets. It’s therefore important for a modern trading site to have a good selection of cryptocurrencies available for its users to trade.
However, when it comes to beginner traders, cryptocurrencies are far riskier than most realise, which is why we believe that online brokerages today have a responsibility to educate their novice clients about the risks involved with cryptocurrency trading.
Other Trading
It might be the beacon of the modern retail trader online, but cryptocurrencies are far from the be-all and end-all of online trading. It’s annoyed some professional traders, but one of the wonders of online brokerages is that they have made it possible for the everyday millennial to trade stocks, options and other assets in the same way that professional Sydney and Wall Street traders can.
That’s why here at Wetten.com, you’ll find everything from options broker reviews to the best places for buying ETFs in Australia.
Looking to trade ETF?
Jurisdictions and Limits
We’re an Australia based online broker review site, therefore we only want to bring you reviews and comparisons of sites that are actually based here in Australia. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the broker has to be based here and ran out of an office in Australia, but it does have to be available to traders here and have Australia 100% legally within its jurisdiction.
We have to look closely and carefully here, as some sites boast about having very broad jurisdictions globally, however, look a little closer and you’ll find that their service range is limited for users in certain countries.
Fees
No one likes fees, no matter what form they come in. Therefore, ideally, we’re looking for no fees or as little fees as possible. However, in cases where there are brokerages with higher fees, we want to ensure that the service makes it worthwhile, which also works the other way around.
A top quality site with fees, as better than a zero fee site with an overall poor service and range of tradable assets. Fees come in many shapes and sizes in the trading world.
From commission fees to trading, fees to deposit and withdrawal fees – there are so many ways they can get you. Therefore there’s a lot of extensive reading of the fine print that goes on here. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!
Security, Usability, Look and Feel
This is a very important aspect of all our online broker reviews here at Wetten.com, as it covers a lot of bases and requires balance. The site needs to be user-intuitive and simple enough to use for traders of all levels. However, at the same time, you don’t want a site that will quickly leave experienced traders feeling restricted in terms of what they can do. Sites also need to be properly encrypted to ensure that your funds and personal data are safe as a user – usually through SSL or HTTPS technology.
Lastly, and still, quite importantly, the site has to look good as well. A site can have near-perfect functions, but if it doesn’t look easy on the eye, that serves as a terrible first impression and, additionally, no one is going to want to spend any length of time using it.
Payments
These days, the payment method that you use to fund your account has a lot of influence when it comes to your online security and safety. If you pay using your bank account directly, then you’re already making a large amount of financial and personal details available on the internet. When conducting our broker reviews, we’re looking for secure payment services such as PayPal, who act as a go-between and don’t share your details with the merchant, ultimately keeping you safer and more secure online.
License and Security
Not the most exciting aspect of any broker review, but definitely among the most important – making sure the site is actually legal and safe. We mentioned it in our above tips toward having a safe and rescue experience, but the main license we’re looking for here is ASIC, which is the government-commissioned independent regulator for the financial sector. In terms of security, we’re looking for SSL encryption or equivalent and two-factor authentication to help keep accounts secure and safe from hackers.
How to Trade
Probably the most important part of any online broker review is testing the actual trading process itself. For beginners, we’re looking for this to be as easy as possible, with step by step guides and educational tools to make your first buy as easy as it possibly can be. Of course, such a process would be too simplistic for intermediate and advanced traders, so we, therefore, want to ensure that more complex trading options are available – and work every bit as seamlessly.
Reputation and Customer Feedback
Another one we mentioned in our top 5 tips earlier that’s also an important part of our broker review criteria. There are two aspects to this section in all truth – firstly we want to take a look at the brokerages’ reputation on an industry level. How is the site rated in the financial world by experts reviewers and their concurrents? Secondly, and just as importantly, we want to check out online broker reviews from other customers – after all, they’re the most important people in any service industry and our broker comparisons and tests are here to help you select the right operator.
Finding the Online Broker That’s Right for You
Ultimately, there’s only one person that our broker reviews exist for and that’s you, the reader. We currently have heaps of reviews available here at Wetten.com, covering pretty much all of the online brokerages that are available in Australia today. As such, a wide variety of bases have been covered – so you’re guaranteed to find something that’s right for you. Whether it’s crypto, stocks or forex, and no matter if you’re a beginner, intermediate or expert trader, our site aims to provide a one-stop-shop that will help you to find your best broker today.
The Most Important Sections of Our Broker Reviews Sites
Reviews
First and foremost, there are the reviews, which we like to think are the lifeblood of Wetten.com finance. Covering a range of brokerages, the reviews summarise everything we’ve been talking about here and are what we’d encourage you to make the most out of. Our expert reviews follow the same formula, so you can use them as a fair comparison of all the online brokerage sites available to Australian customers today.
Bonus Comparison
Did you know that many online brokerages now offer bonus, much the same way as online betting sites do? Well if you didn’t you know now – and our experts have sought out and reviewed the best ones here at Wetten.com.
Strategy Guides
This is especially true if you’re a beginner, but you should never barge into the world of trading like a bull in a china shop. Successful trading requires doing your homework and a lot of calculated planning. It’s not just beginners we serve here though – we have strategy guides designed to help traders of all levels.
Trading Tips
Tied in with strategies but more one for the short term, we follow the news and financial markets across the world to bring you our best trading tips that you can implement. TO use betting once again has a comparison, it’s like tipping a horse to win at the Melbourne Spring Carnival – and we know our horses better than anyone here at Wetten.com.
Concluding Our Online Broker Reviews
We’ve almost come to the end of this page, but your trading journey with us here at Wetten.com is only just beginning, as you can now go forth and make use of the exciting expert broker comparisons and trading reviews on the site. Ultimately, we’re 100% confident that with our guidance, you’ll find the best online brokers for you – no matter what your specialist interests are or your trading level!
Broker Review FAQ
🇦🇺 Which broker is best for trading in Australia?
As well as there being many Australian online brokerages, there are also heaps of overseas stationed sites available to Australian traders of all levels. Therefore how can you find the best one? It depends on your interests and skill levels, but that’s why our broker comparison here is designed to find the site that’s just right for you.
📈 How do I find a trustworthy broker?
There are a lot of things you can do in order to find a trustworthy broker or online trading site for yourself, no matter what your level of trading is. The best thing to do is to simply do your research. The best place to start is with the broker Australia reviews or best brokers for beginners guide here at Wetten.com, where experts test sites fairly.
🏆 Which online broker is best?
Tough question there, as there are quite literally thousands available globally – with a great many of them available to customers here in Australia. Trading with a broker is no longer confined to the Sydney Stock Exchange, thanks in no small part to the explosion of the online sphere. Here at Wetten.com Finance Australia, you can find our editors top pick every month for the top broker in Australia.
