ThinkMarkets review Australia: ASX share trading

Note: This review is for ThinkMarkets' share trading account only. For information on fees and features related to its CFD account, head to our ThinkMarkets CFD and forex review page.

About ThinkMarkets

ThinkMarkets is an online share trading, forex and CFD broker headquartered in London, England with offices located in Melbourne, Australia. The company is still owned and operated by its co-founder Nauman Anees.

Although it has traditionally been a forex and CFD broker, it launched a share trading option in Australia in August 2020 under the "Cash Equities" platform.

The ThinkMarkets share trading account offers Australian shares and exchange traded funds (ETFs) listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and Chi-X. In order to trade CFDs and forex, you'll need to apply for a new CFD account; however, you can switch between the 2 accounts under the same login.

Key features

ThinkMarkets has an easy-to-navigate and clean mobile share trading app. While minimal, it covers most of the basic requirements you look for in a share trading app, including conditional orders, watchlists, stock alerts and portfolio tracking. The main downside is that it does not include live pricing, even at an extra cost.

Low fees

Brokerage starts at $8 for ASX-listed stocks and ETFs, which is on the lower end of the scale. Importantly, ThinkMarkets doesn't charge any monthly account fees, subscription fees or inactivity fees if you don't place any trades within a certain time frame.

Quick sign-up

While the registration process can take up to 2 weeks with some brokers, you can sign up for a share trading account on ThinkMarkets within just a few minutes.

CHESS-sponsored shares

Shares are CHESS-sponsored under your personal HIN, meaning your ownership of the shares is kept on record by the ASX. Being registered on the ASX CHESS system means that you can track all your holdings under one identification number (HIN) rather than multiple reference numbers across different share registries.

24/7 customer support

You can access live chat, email and phone support 24/7.

News and training material

ThinkMarkets has a good selection of material for new traders, with training and basic how-to guides. More extensive educational material is offered once you sign up.

ThinkMarkets' proprietary ThinkTrader platform (CFDs only) also offers a news service powered by financial analysis provider FXWirePro. There's no news source available for share trading accounts and there are no broker ratings.

What account types are available?

There's only 1 account available for share trading and 3 account options for CFD trading, including a demo account.

• Share trading: Trade ASX and CHI-X shares starting at $8 a trade.
• CFD demo version: A free trial version is available with $10,000 in practice funds to play with for 30 days.
• CFD standard: You can open the basic account with no minimum deposit required and spreads starting at 0.4 pips.
• CFD ThinkZero: You'll get tighter spreads using the ThinkZero account with pips starting from 0.0, though you'll need to pay $7 for forex and there's a minimum $500 deposit to open the account.
• CFD Islamic account: A Sharia-compliant account that offers a limited selection of currencies.

What markets can you trade?

You can only access Australian-listed shares and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the ASX and Chi-X through the share trading account. There are no international shares and you cannot trade options

If you decide to sign up for a CFD account, you can trade forex, indices, commodities, metals, stock CFDs, ETF, CFDs and futures.

Trade options

You have the option of using a basic market order or 2 conditional orders:

• Market to limit: A market order that converts to a limit order at the best opposing price on entry
• Limit: An order instruction to buy or sell a stock at a specific price

As with most other share trading platforms, the minimum investment is $500 per Australian company or ETF. You may link a margin account if you choose, but it must be among the providers approved by ThinkMarkets.

There is no live data available on ThinkMarkets at this stage.

What are ThinkMarkets' costs?

ThinkMarkets has relatively low brokerage fees, especially compared to the major banks' share trading platforms. There are also no subscription, monthly or inactivity fees, so you won't be charged for an inactive account.

Brokerage fees

ThinkMarkets charges $8 brokerage for trades up to $200,000 and 0.05% for trades above that. This fee structure makes them particularly competitive for people looking to invest higher amounts.

For instance, if you bought $20,000 worth of shares in a company and sold $20,000 in another company, you'd pay just $16 in total on ThinkMarkets. Whereas with CommSec (Australia's largest broker), you'd pay $59.90 total.

Minimum deposit

As with most other share trading platforms, the minimum investment is $500 per Australian company or ETF. However, it's worth highlighting shares with ThinkMarkets are CHESS sponsored, which some of the smaller providers don't offer. You may link a margin account if you choose, but it must be among the providers approved by ThinkMarkets.

Other account fees

ThinkMarkets' fee structure is minimal. There are no inactivity fees and no subscription fees to access the share trading platform. You're not charged a fee when you top up your account, and there is no fee to transfer holdings to ThinkMarkets.

How to sign up

You can apply for a share trading account by downloading the ThinkTrader app onto your iOS or Android phone and selecting "EQs". The share trading platform is not yet available for desktop.

If you already have a CFD account, you'll need to reapply for a separate share trading account after logging in. Once you have both accounts set up, you can navigate between them using the same login details. You’ll need to provide the following identification details:

• Name
• Home address
• Mobile number

The sign-up and approval process takes just a few minutes, and you have the option to open an individual, joint, SMSF or corporate account.

Deposit methods: Bank transfer (POLi payments).