>>1327819
Sorry to piss on your parade, but they don't set commission based on what you can afford.
Unfortunately, accounts that size are more of a pain than than they're worth to a brokerage.
You could try telling them you want a cheaper rate; they might actually do it (for 3-6 months or so) just in case you might trade more.
Other than that, a larger pile of capital is really all that will bring the numbers down.

>>1327827

yeh I see the problem, so I should really not trade till I have atleast 10k in my investing account? but even then isn't it out of the ordinary to put 100% of my portfolio/10k in one trade?

>>1327853
I wouldn't even trade with 10K.
Yes, it would be out of the ordinary to put 100% in one trade. Although if you have a decent brokerage, you could buy 10K worth of equities with $2,500.
The problem (for you) is that the brokerages you're dealing with are designed for investors, not traders. A trader wouldn't pay $20 per, but they wouldn't use your brokerage, either.

>>1327861

ahh I see so I should ask for a margin loan? Just worried I would lose it all and would be in debt but I guess that's what stop losses are for and would probably only happen so fast if the market crashed and I panic and sold all my shares?
so if I do find a brokerage that gives me 10k to borrow for every 2.5k I have, I could have 5k in my account and trade with 20k... for someone starting off that's alot of money to borrow my biggest loan has only ever been 4k (still living with parents) it would suck so much to see all that money I have borrowed go down the drain and have to pay it off over my life.

do people usually borrow this amount?

>>1327870
>margin loan
You don't ask for these, they're just automatically extended to you as part of a margin account.
The requirements for these are probably beyond what you have.

>for someone starting off that's alot of money
Which is why you should avoid that shit.

>do people usually borrow this amount?
Traders, yes. And much more than that.
The financial requirements are there to make sure you could take that kind of massive hit.

>>1327883
dayum so when you say investors are you saying people that buy low and wait a few years and hope their investment is doing good then come back to sell it for a much higher price in the future?

>>1327892
>people that buy low and wait a few years
Yes, but more like 20 or 30 years.
That's the only way charging a $20 commission works. The customers make a few buys at the outset, then a couple a year at most, so they don't care about shelling out 20 for the privilege.

I was asking about this here >>1325209, the it's seems to me that CommSec and Westpac are two of the more popular options and they both charge $19.95 per trade.

The alternative is CMC Markets which seems to be a bit cheaper, but I have to admit the sheer brand recognition of CommSec is making me lean towards them, even in spite of higher brokerage.

The distinction that the other poster in this thread is making regarding a "trader" and an "investor" is as follows: a "trader" is one who actively follows the markets and makes a relatively high volume of trades to maximise profit, whereas an "investor" is one who puts their money in the market and goes on the adage that, over time, the market will trend upwards.

>>1327903

oh that's strange, I saw a thread on here from someone buying and selling VRL whilst it was fluctuating to make abit of profit over a weeks time? is it possible this person was trading with a higher amount of money with a higher risk?

>>1327912
Yeah, buying and selling over a week is a trader's time frame.
Investors play the long term upward curve of the market they're in. In the US, that usually means riding the indices to eventual profit.

NAB is 14.95. With a 3K trade that's 0.5%.