Sell, Sell, Sell - How To Sell Your Shares

Apr 2, 2017

Many many moons ago I bought shares in an Australian gold mining company because I was given a top tip from my boyfriend at the time, he thought the share price was going to rocket up and that I should get involved. But I had no clue how to do it myself so basically I gave him my money and he invested it under his name (fear not, this story works out better than the boyfriend did). His top tip was correct and the share price went up and up. Then I got the YIPS and wanted my money OUT. But he got busy and forgot to do it and by this stage I was freaking out. Finally he sold and I ended up even better off. Phew!

That was the last time I sold any shares and technically I never even sold them as technically I never owned them. This time around it is my husband who is selling, with me helping out.

Back in July 2016 I helped hook him up with some SmartShares. I ended up writing three blogs about the process and today is the fourth.

You can catch up here:

He only bought a very small amount because it was always my intention to use it as an experiment to blog about. I have SmartShares under my name and each month I buy more but his ones have just sat there waiting for me to sort myself out and sell them. A lot about personal finance is timing i.e. finding the time to do stuff. Also called procrastination…

Today is sale day!

Disclaimer: Fear not financial watch dogs! He is fully engaged in this process from the comfort of his desk on the other side of the living room and has given me the OK to do this. Think of it as a team effort.

Here we go...

There are many companies that assist you to sell (and buy) shares. Find one you like the look of at: www.nzx.com/investing/find_a_participant

I went with ANZ Securities because ANZ have a branch in my town and I knew he would have to visit them in person. I also gave their help line a call and discussed options regarding trading shares and what they would advise. I never hesitate to pick up the phone, generally I find it reduces reading and gets my questions answered clearly. Even though this trade will be minuscule she was awesome and helpful.

Just like baking a cake you need to be organised and have all your ingredients out and ready to go. You need on hand your IRD number and CSN number (nine digit number starting with 3). Remember it is the number that all of your New Zealand shares are registered to. You will have this number if you have already purchased shares (they will allocate one to you if you do not). Keep your RWT (resident withholding tax) details handy too. Address, D.O. B, security questions etc - you know the drill!

To access the correct paperwork I went to: www.anzsecurities.co.nz/directtrade/static/home.aspx

You can start your application by following the link at the bottom to open an “ANZ Securities Account Online”.

Side Note: The help desk advised that I COULD have set up a ‘one off trade’ but I’m interested in the process of ongoing trading instead.

Therefore I followed this link www.anzsecurities.co.nz/directtrade/static/omcaintro.aspx to sign up to an Online Multi Currency Account. Why the account? They need to put the money somewhere when shares are sold (and somewhere to pull the money from if he decides to buy again). It took about a week and a half to set up a meeting with the bank and get this transactional account open (no fees by the way). He had to provide the usual docs to do this - passport, IRD number and evidence of address etc. It is rare for us to go into a bank, so it was a bit of an outing (nice wallpaper and quite a busy place for a Friday morning).

With the bank account sorted he then needed to phone ANZ to activate his online share trading account. As with setting up anything he needed to dream up new passwords etc to get in. When that was done he was now able to buy and sell shares via the ANZ Securities website. Another option, not that he’s taking it, for buying and selling were via telephone. That kind of appealed to me as I thought of all the old movies I’ve watched with share traders barking their orders on a busy trading floor!

The whole process was confirmed by email and took about two and a half weeks to get him set up to buy and sell shares and create an account to put the money into. I’m not going to lie, I found it a bit of a labyrinth negotiating the websites and paperwork. If you are poised to crack into it do it with a clear head and no interruptions would be my advice.

Even if you, like me, don’t plan to sell anytime soon it makes sense to get yourself signed up now because it takes time to open accounts etc. Once done, it can lay dormant until required.

NOW we can sell!

I should point out that I am about to break Warren Buffet’s rules of investing:

Rule Number 1: Never Lose Money

Rule Number 2: Never Forget Rule Number 1

But it is in the interests of education so is an ‘investment’ in itself right? I can justify just about anything. Mr Happy Saver invested $500 six months ago when he bought MDZ SmartShares. He lost money immediately because there was a one off fee to set up, meaning he ended up with $469.35 or 112 shares. His buy price was $4.19058 per share. And he is about to lose more of his investment to fees which is another blog topic right there folks. Ah fees, fees and yet more fees.

He went onto www.linkmarketservices.co.nz and logged into his account to get a snapshot of what he currently has. He plans on selling them all.

Link Market Services screen showing current holdings.

He then logged onto his new share trading account on www.anzsecurities.co.nz

Selected SELL

Selected the ticker code for his units - MDZ

He filled out the boxes as follows:

He then confirmed his order:

Now what? I wait for someone else to be sitting at their computer at 6am this morning thinking “I really want to buy 115 units of MDZ at this sharp price”. It is a supply and demand market.

Willing Seller + Willing Buyer = Share Trade

3.30pm on the same day we received a “contract note” by email saying that all 115 units have sold and that the money will be deposited in his account in four days time. Job done. Just a note: they may all sell at once (highly likely for such a tiny amount) or they may sell bit by bit, in which case you are paid out bit by bit. Another thing of course is that they might not always sell so quickly, it depends on what you are selling and worst case scenario is they might not be wanted by anyone and not sell at all. You might have scooped up shares in a company making video cassettes, just as consumers moved to buying DVD’s and then purchasing movies off the internet. Bugger.

Well. I ENJOYED THAT. Not the losing $60 to fees, that was awful, but the time spent working out the system was great. There are costs to trading and therefore it is not my intention to be getting in and out of the market. I think I make it pretty clear I’m not qualified to give financial advice and the purpose of this blog is to learn as I go and then share it with you. Setting this up sure was a learning curve. Remember those pick a path books when you were a kid? This was similar, it seemed like there were a dozen different websites I could have gone to and this is the one I chose; rightly or wrongly. For a newbie it was confusing getting everything completed in the right order. We got there in the end but if you have had a similar experience please share YOUR journey in the comment section below so we can each help the other out!

So that sees Mr Happy Saver out of the share market entirely. And he is not exactly poring over listings on the NZX looking for his next purchase. However if he has a change of heart, he is all set up to start buying whenever the urge takes him. Luckily for him I am saving for the two of us with monthly ongoing buying into Index Funds. With the amount I hold now building up nicely my money is starting to make more money. I have no intention of selling any for a very long time so should manage to avoid those fees (ouch) for some time yet.