Brokerage Cost

The standard brokerage fee is AU$6.50 and is always deducted from your AUD Cash account.

What are the fees for converting between AUD < > USD?

We follow our FX provider's (Currency Cloud) market FX rate and charge a 0.5% fee. Check out this article for an in-depth explanation.

* There is a daily AUD > USD instant funding limit per account of US$20,000

When is the US market open?

US market (NYSE/NASDAQ) are as follows:

• 1:30am - 8am (AEDT) during the wintertime (First Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March)

• 11.30pm - 6 am (AEDT) during the summertime (First Sunday in April to the first Sunday in October).

Please see the full list of U.S. market holidays here, as well as bank holidays here.

Fractional Investing

US investments allow you to hold fractional units of shares/ETFs, which means you will be able to buy/sell in fractional units. An example would be if AAPL is $130 per unit, you can buy 0.1 of a unit for $13.

Limit orders can be placed for full units only

Can I access all US stocks?

Alpaca offers shares in US equities and ETFs. You can view all available options on our Explore > Invest page.

W8-BEN tax form

The W8-BEN tax form is pre-filled and filed on your behalf by us when you open a US investment account! No further action is required from you (until the 3-year renewal period comes around).

Are the stocks held under my name? or Pearler?

Your holdings are held under our brokerage partner in your name. Here is a snippet of the legal statement from our US broker (Alpaca) :

---

Alpaca custodies Securities and Other Assets held in your Account at approved Depository Trust Company Custodians (“DTC Custodians”). Alpaca holds all positions in nominee name with the DTC Custodians; Alpaca maintains all records related to the holdings in your Account.

---

CHESS-Sponsored vs Custodial vs Micro-investing

Insurance

Our brokerage partner (Alpaca) is a US broker-dealer registered with FINRA (US regulator) and is a member of SIPC.

If Pearler fails, you will still have access to all your cash and securities. Alpaca will establish contact with you on how to proceed.

If Alpaca fails, the SIPC gets involved and appoints a trustee to manage the liquidation of the firm and protect customers' cash and securities up to $500,000. ($250,000 for claims for cash). Alpaca has additional SIPC insurance through Llyod's of London as referenced here - https://alpaca.markets/support/is-my-account-insured-what-is-sipc

Share Registry?

Since the shares are held custodially by our US brokerage partner, you won't have a direct relationship with the company or its share registry.

Dividends

You will receive any dividends of a share in proportion to your holding (accounts for fractional units) and it will go into your USD Cash account on Pearler.

What happens when I sell?

Your USD will remain in Pearler Cash USD which you can use to buy other US shares, if you want it back as AUD in Pearler Cash AUD, you will have to make a USD -> AUD transfer which normally takes 2-4 business days.

If you have the "Hide US Cash" experimental feature turned on, any USD over the amount of $2 will be automatically converted to AUD.

https://pearler.com/settings/customer/other/experimental

Autoinvest

Yes! You can include US shares and ETFs as part of your Autoinvest portfolio.

Can I transfer US shares to Pearler?

Yes, you can, please check out this article for more information.

Pattern Day Trading (PDT) Rule

The Pattern Day Trading (PDT) rule applies to accounts that make four or more “day trades” (buying and selling the same stock on the same day) within a rolling five-business-day period.

To help protect clients from being flagged prematurely, accounts with less than USD $25,000 in end-of-day equity are restricted from placing a 4th day trade within that period. This safeguard is called PDT protection.

Once an account completes its 4th day trade, it’s officially flagged as a Pattern Day Trader. To continue day trading freely, the account must maintain an end-of-day equity of at least USD $25,000.

If an account is flagged as PDT and its equity falls below this threshold, day trading restrictions will apply until the equity is brought back above USD $25,000 or the PDT flag is removed.

See this article for a detailed explanation and examples of what counts as a “day trade”.

Note: US investing is currently only available with an 'Individual' entity account