Both Stake and CMC Invest register your ASX shares in your own name with a personal Holder Identification Number (HIN) through the ASX CHESS settlement system. In practice this means: your shares are visible directly at the share registry, you can transfer them to another CHESS-sponsored broker without selling, and you are not dependent on the broker holding assets on your behalf.

This matters because broker pricing can change. If either broker restructures its fee model in future, you can move ASX holdings out without triggering a capital gains event. International shares (US, UK, etc.) are custodial at both brokers — CHESS does not apply to those positions.

CMC Invest’s free first-buy condition benefits a specific pattern: buying one ETF, once per day, under A$1,000 per purchase. A monthly DCA investor buying A$800 of VAS fits neatly. An investor making a A$5,000 single contribution into VDHG does not — CMC would charge A$11 on the buy, A$11 on the eventual sell. Stake charges A$3 on both.

For two-ETF portfolios bought on the same day, CMC’s free-buy applies to the first purchase per security — so buying VGS and VAS in one session can still be A$0 + A$0 if both are under A$1,000 each. The more complex the pattern, the more you need to map your actual behaviour against the fee structure rather than the headline.

Stake charges US$3 brokerage per US order and applies its ~0.55% FX fee on funding events — not on every individual trade. If you fund your Stake account with A$3,000 and make five US purchases from that balance, you pay the FX cost once on the deposit, not five times on each trade. This is a structural advantage versus brokers that embed FX into every execution.

• Fractional US shares: available from US$10 — useful for expensive S&P 500 stocks and small portfolios.
• Pre-market and after-hours US trading: available via Stake.
• W-8BEN: Stake streamlines the form submission for US withholding tax purposes.

CMC Invest offers A$0 commission on US, UK, Canada, and Japan shares — a broader market universe than Stake. However, it applies up to 0.60% FX spread on every international order execution, and most international stocks require a A$1,000 minimum order. If you invest monthly into US ETFs and make multiple purchases, the per-trade FX cost compounds against you in a way that Stake’s funding-event model avoids.

• FX buffer: CMC applies a 2% AUD buffer on international buy orders at execution, returned after settlement — not a fee, but limits capital deployment temporarily.
• Currency account: CMC does not maintain a USD cash account — selling a US share and buying another can trigger AUD conversion and back again, amplifying FX drag.
• International custody: US, UK, and other international holdings are custodial, not CHESS-sponsored.

Stake’s free plan covers standard order types, basic news, and portfolio tracking. The A$17/month Stake Black subscription unlocks market depth, analyst price targets, detailed financials, and course-of-sales data. For a passive ETF investor, Stake’s free tier is typically sufficient. For an investor who wants deeper data, CMC Invest includes most of this at no subscription cost.

The honest frame: if you find yourself wanting Stake Black’s data, you should probably just use CMC Invest. The feature overlap between Stake Black and CMC Invest’s free platform is substantial — and CMC charges no monthly platform fee to access it.

Some investors split use cases: CMC Invest for small recurring ASX ETF DCA (where the free buy condition applies), and Stake for US fractional investing. Because both are CHESS-sponsored for ASX, you can always consolidate later via a broker transfer without selling.

That said, running two brokerage accounts adds complexity — two sets of tax records, two apps, two portfolio views. For most investors, picking one and optimising within it is the cleaner path. Only consider both if you have a specific behaviour that one broker handles poorly and the other handles well.