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How to buy and sell shares in Online Share Trading

Online Share Trading is an easy and cost-effective way to buy and sell New Zealand and Australian shares. It provides online tools so you can place your own buy and sell orders and track their status through to completion. You can even execute more advanced order types, like stop loss sells and target buys. This guide will walk you through the basics of making your first few trades online, together with your options if you want to make any changes to an order. 

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Markets you can trade online

Online Share Trading is a DIY service that lets you buy or sell shares in more than 170 companies listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) and over 2000 equities listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). In addition, you can buy and sell exchange traded funds online on the NZX or ASX.

The markets you can trade online with ASB Securities are:

New Zealand Stock Exchange Main Board (NZSX)

New Zealand’s original equities market and home to some of the best known brands and companies.

New Zealand Alternative Market (NZAX)

The market place for small-to-medium-sized fast growing businesses, looking for a safe and efficient capital raising facility.

Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)

Australia’s main securities exchange gives you access to shares, exchange traded funds and some hybrid securities in the Australian market.

To place orders on other NZ markets like (NXT and NZDX) or on international markets, please call our team of experienced brokers on 0800 272 732.

Orders you can place online

Online Share Trading allows you to place a number of different types of orders and instructions. The most common orders are buy and sell. We also provide more advanced options, including stop loss sells and target buys. You can find out more about the different types of orders and how they work in our guide to understanding different orders.

Buying shares online

Buying shares online is easy. You just need to know how many shares you want to buy and how much you’re willing to pay, then it’s a quick step-by-step process. Simply log in to Online Share Trading and click either Place an order or Buy/Sell (either will take you to the place an order page).

Buy shares in Online Share Trading

1. Start a buy order

Select Buy, pick your stock exchange (NZX or ASX), and choose a stock by typing in the company name or entering the stock code.

Then click Next.

2. Enter the details
First, enter the number of shares you want to buy in Quantity and choose if you want to set limit price (the maximum price you’re prepared to pay), or the market price (this option is only available if you’re placing a trade during market hours).

Your selected settlement account (the account that your funds will be credited to) and your phone number (in case we need to contact you about your order) will automatically appear.

Double check these are correct. If you’re happy, click Preview order.

3. Confirm your order
Check the details of your order before you click Proceed. Make sure you do this, because once you proceed, your order may trade instantly and you won’t be able to change the details.

 

More options

To place a target buy order, simply complete the same steps and you’ll also be asked to provide your trigger price. You can find out more about the other conditions of buy orders in our guide to understanding different orders.

Selling shares online

Selling shares is also a straightforward process with Online Share Trading. Much like a buy order, you start by working out how many of your chosen shares you want to sell and what price you’re happy to accept. If you want help with this you can try some of our Online Share Trading tools.

To sell shares on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX), you will need to know your Faster Identification Number (FIN). This information will be required to complete your order.

Once you’ve everything sorted, log in to Online Share Trading and click either Place an order or Buy/Sell.

Sell shares in Online Share Trading

1. Start a sell order
Select Sell, pick your stock exchange (NZX or ASX), and choose a stock by typing in the company name or entering the stock code.

Then click Next.

2. Enter the details
Start by entering the number of shares you want to sell under Quantity and choose if you want to set a limit price (the minimum price you’re prepared to sell for) or the market price (this is only an option if you’re trading during market hours).

You’ll also need to enter your FIN number. This is so we can confirm that you own the stock that you are putting up for sale.

Your Common Shareholder Number (CSN), your selected settlement account (the account that your funds will be credited to) and your phone number (in case we need to contact you about your order) will automatically appear.

Double check these are correct. If you’re happy, click Preview order.

3. Confirm your order
Check the details of your sell order before you click Proceed. Make sure you do this, because once you proceed, your order may trade instantly and you won’t be able to change the details.

More options

To place a stop loss sell order, you’ll simply complete the same steps and you’ll also be asked to provide your trigger price. You can find out more about stop loss sell orders and the other conditions of sell orders in our understanding different orders guide.

Amending and cancelling orders

Amending or cancelling an order before its been placed

Before you press Proceed on any order, it’s vitally important that you check all the details. Once you press the Proceed button you may find you can’t make any amends, so it’s best to triple check everything.

If you decide not to continue with placing your order, simply click the blue Cancel link. If you need to amend your order BEFORE your press Proceed, you can do this easily:

  1. Click the blue Edit link to go back to Place an order
  2. Make any changes you need to
  3. Click Preview order and review your order again

Amending or cancelling an order after it's been placed

Once you press Proceed, your trade will either happen immediately (in which case you won’t be able to further amend or cancel it) or it will remain valid for 20 business days. During the 20 business day period, if your order hasn't traded or has only partly traded, you can amend or cancel your order at any time.

1. Click Amend/Cancel order under My Menu
This will take you to a list of your outstanding orders

2. Select the order and choose Amend or Cancel
The options to Cancel order and Amend order will be highlighted in blue for you to select (these are greyed out if you have not checked the tick box)

3. If you choose to Amend, this will take you to the Amend an order form for you to complete
When you have made the changes, click Preview order then review you order and click Proceed if you’re happy

4. If you choose to Cancel, a prompt will appear at the bottom of the page
You'll need to confirm Yes or No if you would like to cancel the order

Some orders cannot be amended or cancelled

There are a number of specific circumstances where online trades cannot be amended or cancelled. For instance; a market price (or ‘At Market’) order cannot be amended or cancelled as these trade instantly.

Tracking orders

Once you place an order, you can view its status and track its progress by clicking on View My Trades under the left navigation menu within Online Share Trading.

By default, this will display all your open orders, but you can also look at past orders by using the filters in the top area. These filters allow you to drill down to specific orders by setting different criteria:

What it means
Type
View Buys, Sells, Target Buys, or Stop Loss Sells
Completion
View Open, Completed or Cancelled orders
Stock Exchange
NZX or ASX
Stock Code
View trades of just one stock
Status
View orders that have the same stage of progress
Date
View trades over a time period

Once you have selected your filters, you will see a table listing the orders you’ve made using Online Share Trading that fit your criteria. For each order you’ll see a range of information including:

What it means
Type
What type of order it is
Stock
The unique stock code
Exch
The stock exchange for the trade
Date
The date the order was placed
Qty
The quantity of shares the order was for
Price
The buy or sell price set for the trade
Status
The current stage the order is at. For instance: Order created, Order on market, Order pending, Order rejected, Order traded or Partially traded
Traded Qty
The amount of shares currently bought or sold under this order
Still to trade
The amount of shares still to be bought or sold to complete the order

If you want to amend or cancel an order, you can also do this here. Simply tick the checkbox beside the order you want to change and click either the Cancel order or Amend order buttons at the bottom of the table.

Track your shares after your trade is complete

Once your order is completed, it will be added to your automated portfolio in the portfolio tool. You can find this tool by clicking on Portfolio in the main left navigation of Online Share Trading.

Your automated portfolio will display pricing data for all the shares that you’ve purchased through Online Share Trading. It can also show any buy or sell transactions that you’ve manually added. You can then monitor which shares have gained or lost value and how this has impacted your overall portfolio.

You can learn more about the Portfolio tool in our helpful guide on how to use your portfolio in Online Share Trading.

Next steps

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Contact the ASB Securities team from 7am to 6pm NZT, Monday to Friday.

0800 272 732

+64 9 448 8120

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ASB Securities Limited is an NZX firm. When you trade on the NZX markets through ASB Securities you must comply with NZX rules as outlined in the ASB Securities Trading Conduct for Online Share trading. ASB Securities terms and conditions apply. Pricing data supplied by ASX and/or NZX. ASB Cash Management Account, ASB Foreign Currency Account, ASB Margin Lending and ASB Term Deposits are provided by ASB Bank Limited. ASB term's apply. Rates and fees may change. Refer to asb.co.nz for other fees and charges. This page does not have regard to the financial situation or needs of any reader. As individual circumstances differ, you should seek appropriate professional advice. See the ASB Securities glossary for share trading and investment terms or Morningstar for research terms. 

ASB Securities How to buy and sell shares in Online Share Trading