by Pat Garrett Robinhood is a popular US share trading app that gets a lot of media attention in Australia and around the world. However, Robinhood doesn’t trade in Australia – it’s a US-listed company.
So if you’re interested in share trading, what are some of the other platforms you can consider? And what’s the difference between share-trading platforms such as Robinhood and longer-term services such as Six Park?
Other share trading platforms in Australia
If you’re looking to trade shares, there are several platforms you could consider, including Stake, Superhero, eToro and SelfWealth.
You can see our review and comparison with SelfWealth here.
These platforms all have different trading costs and ways of operating, but all allow you to trade shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are listed on the ASX and, in some cases, international exchanges.
However, share trading and investing aren’t the same thing. Trading shares involves timing the market and picking stocks. These aren’t easy things to do, even for professionals – data from Standard and Poor’s shows that more than 80% of fund managers underperformed the ASX200 over five years.
Active trading vs passive investing
There’s a phenomenal array of investment methods and strategies available to investors, but ultimately most of them fall into one of two broad classifications – actively managed investments and passively managed investments.
At Six Park, we are strong advocates of passive investing – although we believe this should be combined with an engaged and thoughtful approach that continuously reviews asset allocation and portfolio management. Read more about our investment philosophy.
Active investing focuses on trying to ‘pick winners’ – or choosing investments that someone believes have the best chance of outperforming the market as a whole. Active investors also aim to ‘time the market’ – that is, they aim to buy when prices are low and sell when prices are high.
Passive investing minimises trading and is shown to outperform active investing. Passive investing doesn’t focus on distinguishing between investment opportunities, forecasting likely prices or timing the market. Instead of choosing individual investments, passive investors will invest broadly within and across the entire index of interest. They effectively ‘buy’ the whole index in which they are interested (for example, an index that follows the ASX200), allocating their funds across every company in the same proportion that those companies represent of the index that they are seeking to track.
By doing this, passive investors ensure their portfolios mimic the performance of their targeted index. While this means they trade off the opportunity to ‘outperform the market’, it also ensures they avoid the risk of significantly underperforming the market at the same time.
Six Park uses exchange-traded funds to build portfolios that include up to seven different asset classes that each track a different index. This gives you
Some investors will choose to use a combination of active and passive investing – that is, using a service such as Six Park to passively invest a portion of their assets while actively trading a portion of their money.
Why use a Robo-advisor like Six Park?
Six Park helps you build a globally diversified portfolio of ETFs at an affordable price point.
Our Investment Advisory Committee includes some of Australia’s most respected financial minds, while our secure technology simplifies the investment process and reduces costs.
We have a proven track record of more than five years, and we’re proud of the performance we have delivered to our clients during that time.
This article may contain general financial product information but should not be relied upon or construed as a recommendation of any financial product. This information has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs.
For further details on our service please see our Financial Services Guide at http://www.sixpark.com.au. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
How it works
Take the free assessment
Take our short online assessment so we can understand your investment goals and how long you plan to invest. We will then recommend an appropriate portfolio for you. You can then choose to take on less/more risk and between our standard or sustainable portfolios.
Fund your account
We set up your accounts, including a cash management and brokerage account. Add money to your cash management account, and when your balance is $2,000 or more, we’ll invest your money in carefully selected exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Grow & track
Grow your investment by regularly adding money to your account, and we’ll provide regular rebalancing, reporting and reviews, which keeps your investments on track and gives you insight into how your investments are performing.
Six Park’s strong performance is the result of our carefully curated combination of a stellar team, investment philosophy, proven strategy and low fees.
Performance
Annualised performance for our standard portfolios to the end of July 2023.
+1.6%
Conservative
+3.3%
Conservative Balanced
+5.8%
Balanced
+7.0%
Balanced Growth
+9.0%
Aggressive Growth
Annualised performance for our standard portfolios to the end of July 2023.
+2.4%
Conservative
+4.1%
Conservative Balanced
+6.3%
Balanced
+7.6%
Balanced Growth
+9.3%
Aggressive Growth
Annualised performance for our standard portfolios to the end of July 2023.
+2.2%
Conservative
+3.5%
Conservative Balanced
+5.0%
Balanced
+5.9%
Balanced Growth
+6.7%
Aggressive Growth
Returns are after fees. Read our full performance disclaimer
Don’t just take our word for it. See what others are saying.
What others are saying
Investing with Six Park means avoiding the hazard of a groupthink where I am making all the calls on my investments all the time – this is diversifying my brains trust to professionals who’ve been in the markets for a very long time.
Ben Ereira
Investment consultant
The reason I chose Six Park over other Aussie robo-advisers was the sleek design, easy to understand and navigate process and the customer service where they engage on a personal level.
Jess Picton-Warlow
International model
I didn’t know anything about share investing and Six Park was easy to set up and use; I wasn’t confused at all.
Brent Snook
Melbourne IT Professional
You can start building your wealth with Six Park for as little as $6.25 a month. Get started with our free online assessment and get an investment recommendation in minutes.