Sharesies

What is Sharesies?

Sharesies is an online investment platform that was founded in 2016 in NZ.

What can people invest in through Sharesies?

Through Sharesies, you can invest in over 6500 companies, exchange traded funds and managed funds across NZ, OZ and the US.

• Shares: When you buy shares, you invest in a particular company, like Tesla or Facebook. Shares can be bought or sold between people on an exchange, which is a market where people can trade shares.
• Exchange traded funds: ETFs are a group of different assets rather than one particular company, but they trade like shares on an exchange. Think of it in terms of a bakery. Buying individual doughnuts is like buying shares. You pay the price for each different kind of doughnut. An ETF is like buying a box of doughnuts, you get all the different types, which can be grouped by a theme.
• Managed funds: These work a bit like ETFs, except they don’t trade on an exchange. There’s a person behind the fund doing the calculations. You can buy them directly from the fund provider or through an investment app.

Sharesies provides access to the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX), Nasdaq, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Some key features of Sharesies include:

• Low brokerage fees when buying shares
• The option to auto-invest, making it easier to invest affordable amounts regularly
• Investing educational materials
• Low-cost kids plans
• Range of plans

How much does it cost to invest with Sharesies?

Sharesies has reintroduced their monthly paid plans, however, the standard unpaid option is still available. There are three monthly paid plans available, which can be cancelled at any time:

$3 monthly plan

Each month you’ll get:

• Transaction fees covered on $500 of buy and sell orders
• Transaction fees covered on $1000 of auto-invest orders

$7 monthly plan

Each month you’ll get:

• Transaction fees covered on $1000 of buy and sell orders
• Transaction fees covered on $3000 of auto-invest orders

$15 monthly plan

Each month you’ll get:

• Transaction fees covered on $5000 of buy and sell orders
• Transaction fees covered on $10,000 of auto-invest orders
• NZX market depth
• US live pricing

A $1 monthly kids plan is also available. More information about paid plans can be found here.

Standard unpaid option

There is no minimum investment with Sharesies, which charges transaction fees, known as brokerage fees, on each purchase. Up to the capped amounts, there is a 1.9% transaction fee on the amount invested. Cap amounts are region dependent:

• NZ shares capped at NZD$25 per order
• OZ shares capped at AUD$15 per order
• US shares capped at USD$5 per order

If you buy shares in more than one investment, they’re treated as separate orders and have separate transaction fees.

Sharesies charges a foreign currency exchange fee of 0.5%

There’s also a management fee built into the price of ETFs and managed funds, charged by the fund manager. The fees are different for each fund, so check the fund info before you invest.

How do I sign up to Sharesies?

Sharesies is available to all NZ residents 16 or over with an NZ bank account. An adult can set up an account for a child under the age of 18, but it needs to be linked to an adult’s account.