Macquarie Prime targets direct retail traders
Macquarie Equity Markets Group has launched a new product aimed at providing retail investors who trade directly on the stock exchange with an online platform that will enable them to manage all of their equity investing activities.
Called Macquarie Prime the offering combines an online trading service with a high yield cash account, and a variable lending facility.
Macquarie Prime has also incorporated the popular features of contracts for difference (CFDs) and specifically adapted them for the Australian investor market, taking into account parameters such as local taxation regulations.
“We really see CFDs now as a really great hedging facility whereby you can take a synthetic short position to hedge a long position that you may have in the market,” Macquarie Equity Markets Group associate director Dan Semmler said.
“We think the consolidation of products on the same platform makes trading easier for people as they don’t then need extra collateral and they haven’t got their profits and losses going into separate accounts,” he added.
Customers who use the product can customise the level of gearing to suit their needs ranging from no gearing to a portfolio that is 95 per cent geared.
To help clients manage their investment risk the product also has built in guaranteed stop-loss protection.
“So people can actually take a guaranteed worst case scenario on a share position. So for a $20 share the person can nominate a worst case of $19 and if the stock opens up at $15 the next day they get out at $19 guaranteed,” Semmler said.
The product also includes several features that deliver tax advantages including the ability for customers to benefit from franking credits as well as the facility that lets clients prepay their interest expense.
“We think the product feature that really stands out is convergence. The convergence of people not having to have a whole heap of accounts, and a whole heap of passwords, and a whole heap of different providers. Converging that all into one through cost benefits should save them a lot of money,” Semmler added.
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