Canadian Online Discount Stock Brokerage Comparison

1. 1. Traciatim

   I just recently signed up to ShareOwner Investments. They have some drawbacks, but at 9 bucks a trade for co-op trading, the ability to do scheduled automated trading and a select list of companies and ETFs it’s great for the beginner like me who wan’t to try my hand but doesn’t know a thing about what I’m doing.

   Dec 28th, 2006 @ 10:22 am

2. 2. Mark

   The E*Trade high-interest (4.15%) account is not available within your RRSP account, only outside the RRSP.

   Dec 28th, 2006 @ 10:22 am

3. 3. FrugalTrader

   Traciatim,
   Does ShareOwner Investments have RRSP accounts? What do you mean by “co-op” trading?

   Mark,
   Thanks for the info, i’ll add it to the post.

   FT

   Dec 28th, 2006 @ 10:30 am

4. 4. Nick

   Thanks for thus FrugalT, I was just about to open up an E-Trade account, but now I think I will reconsider and open up one at IB. I will be starting with a small investment, so $19.99/trade wouldn’t work for me.

   Nick

   Dec 28th, 2006 @ 2:58 pm

5. 5. Traciatim

   I don’t see anything on their page or in my account details mentioning RRSP accounts. I assume that they don’t offer them. Co-Op trading saves cash by bundling trades with other people making it so you can buy any dollar amount of a stock or ETF. They kind of collect up a bunch of orders and then buy them all at once on your behalf. I’ve only recently signed up so that I can get my automated ETF investing under way so I can’t really comment on the service so far but you can read more on their page at:

   http://investments.shareowner.com/coop_trading/coop_trading.html

   It’s kind of neat, they charge $9.00 per trade for each security you buy, up to 4 times. Then for that security it’s free. A nice easy way to put some investments on auto-pilot.

   Dec 28th, 2006 @ 3:01 pm

6. 6. FrugalTrader

   Nick,
   Perhaps you should look into Questrade as well as they have a low min, only $4.95/trade as well as real time quotes included.

   IB doesn’t have real time quotes unless you pay for them. If you do decide to go with IB, make sure to try their demo software on their site. It can be a bit tricky at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll love it.

   FT

   Dec 28th, 2006 @ 3:02 pm

7. 7. Traciatim

   Actually… they do RSP accounts I think. They have an RSP administration fee and a Non-RSP to RSP transfer fee in their fee schedule, it’s just not displayed prominently on their page. Not too sure how to set it up.

   Dec 28th, 2006 @ 3:06 pm

8. 8. FrugalTrader

   Shareowner does sound like a great way for a beginner to get started. I’ll have to look into it a bit deeper.

   FT

   Dec 28th, 2006 @ 3:22 pm

9. 9. Canadian Money Blog Reviewers

   ETrade offers DRIP as well .. I’ve been using it for a while and it works like a charm :-)

   Dec 29th, 2006 @ 12:20 pm

10. 10. FrugalTrader

    Hey CMBR,

    Thanks for the heads up. The last time I emailed E-Trade, they did not support DRIP. Hmm… that makes it very interesting. Now, E-Trade offers everything a big bank offers, but cheaper. Perhaps i’ll wait until my RRSP value reaches 50k then i’ll transfer my assets.

    How do you find their real time quoting system? Do they offer real time charts as well?

    FT

    Dec 29th, 2006 @ 12:30 pm

11. 11. Canadian Money Blog Reviewers

    they don’t support native DRIPs offered by companies, meaning you can’t get the bonus that sometimes comes with “native drips”, but they do offer their own Dividend Reinvestment Plan on a lot of securities …

    the real time quotes work great, you just need to accept an agreement first .. I don’t remember seeing real time charts (maybe they don’t offer it!?)

    Dec 29th, 2006 @ 12:44 pm

12. 12. FrugalTrader

    Yes, that’s the same DRIP plan that the big banks have. So really, there is no reason to stay with the big banks, E-Trade offers pretty much the same thing EXCEPT they are much cheaper.

    FT

    Dec 29th, 2006 @ 12:52 pm

13. 13. Discount Broker Review

    That is a very interesting review indeed. Do you give me permission to reproduce this table on my website? (Of course with proper attribution)

    Jan 14th, 2007 @ 11:26 am

14. 14. FrugalTrader

    Discount Broker Review: Sure, you can reproduce the table on your site providing that you provide a link back to me.

    Jan 15th, 2007 @ 6:09 am

15. 17. Haha

    I think every one concern the investment safety. What are IB and Questrade’s backgrounds? Are they safe to your investments? That’s my one of the big concerns. Because all of us know these big banks well. But we dont’ for IB and Questrade.

    Thanks,

    Feb 8th, 2007 @ 4:19 pm

16. 18. FrugalTrader

    Haha: Both IB AND Questrade are insured by CIPF which is the exact same insurance that the big bank brokerages have. CIPF will insure your portfolio up to $1 million.

    FT

    Feb 8th, 2007 @ 5:13 pm

17. 19. Qubikal

    Great articles – been reading some of the stuff throughout the web, but great to see someone compile everything about Canadian Finance into one site.

    I wanted to ask about the ease of transferring your hard-earned cash into these discount brokerages. It’s the one reason why I am using the Credential Direct brokerage – they just decreased their fees to $19 per trade, and I don’t make many trades per month.

    For those thinking about implementing the Smith Maneuver, you would not want to sign up for the DRIPs under the non-reg plans because you would want to use those dividends to pay down the mortgage, re-borrow, and then re-invest.

    Feb 9th, 2007 @ 1:41 pm

18. 20. FrugalTrader

    Qubikal: In terms of transferring cash to the brokerages, this is how I do it with IB, Qtrade, and CIBC:
    IB: EFT, you go into your IB account and request the money from your bank account. Takes around 10 days in total to get (approval process).
    Qtrade: Bill payment from online banking.
    CIBC: Request the cash transfer from within investors edge.

    FT

    Feb 9th, 2007 @ 1:54 pm

19. 21. DudeOnTheBlock

    FrugalTrader: About safety. It is true that IB and Questrade are insured by CIPF but what it does not tell you is… you are not covered if IB or Questrade is stealing your money (fraud). Think about the Norbourg scandal. CIPF provides coverage for members in the event of insolvency.

    Feb 14th, 2007 @ 10:42 am

20. 22. FrugalTrader

    Dude: I’m not sure IB, but Questrade has a security guarantee against fraud.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070210.wxstmain10/BNStory/Business/home/?pageRequested=3

    Feb 14th, 2007 @ 12:51 pm

21. 23. canadian dollars

    I read somewhere that Etrade also has an inactivity charge of $20 a quarter if you don’t do any trading.

    just an fyi :)

    Feb 17th, 2007 @ 11:34 pm

22. 24. FrugalTrader

    CAD$,that is confirmed, $25/quarter charge by E-Trade for Low Activity. Updating the article now.

    Feb 18th, 2007 @ 7:08 am

23. 25. canadiandollars

    Actually just read the fine print and it turns out the low activity fee only applies for accounts with less than $5000 in it. Not too hard to reach that in an account :)

    Feb 18th, 2007 @ 9:40 pm

24. 26. dw

    I know Questrade has been in Canada for a few years now. My question is with other discount brokerages, are you suppose to provide them with your SIN number and your driver’s license info? I’m concerned with identity theft, should that be a valid concern? Any input would be much appreciated, thanks.

    Feb 19th, 2007 @ 4:04 am

25. 27. FrugalTrader

    Dw: Identity theft will be a risk where ever you go. The key is to be proactive in protecting your information and regularly checking your credit report. CIBC has a free credit alert system if you have one of their visa’s. I believe that most, if not all, discount brokerages will require your SIN.

    Feb 19th, 2007 @ 5:31 am

26. 28. Nick

    I believe they would need your SIN card to report any income you receive from your investments. When they send you your T-slips, it has to show your SIN number to be valid for tax purposes.

    Feb 19th, 2007 @ 5:38 am

27. 29. dw

    Perhaps I was a little paranoid. Thanks FrugalTrader and Nick for your input!

    Feb 19th, 2007 @ 3:58 pm

28. 31. john

    Credential Direct, owned by the credit unions is the cheapest. Flat commisions, and free level II quotes. I have used them for 6 months and am very happy with the service.

    Feb 20th, 2007 @ 9:13 pm

29. 32. FrugalTrader

    John: Thanks for pointing out Credential Direct. However, after briefly checking them out, yes, they are cheaper than the big banks @ low volumes, but not cheaper than Questrade ($4.95/495 shares or $9.99 for unlimited).  At high volumes, if you are an active trader (at least 50 trades / year), it will only cost $7.90/trade @ CIBC with no limits to the number of shares.  At Credential direct, you need to make at least 75 trades / year to qualify for the $9.95/trade.  I guess it could work for some people, but it’s definitely not the best solution for everyone.
    For those of you interested in checking out CD, here is the link:
    https://www.credentialdirect.com/Fees/CompareFees.aspx

    Feb 21st, 2007 @ 7:04 am

30. 33. outroupistache

    A very good basic table. Here are a few further comparisons I’d find useful.
    - forex rates into and out of the USD for an RRSP; if I sell then buy US holdings in my RRSP, BMO Investorline obliges me to convert back and forth into CDN$; what is the spread between USD-CDN buy and sell for different brokers?
    - forex again: do any brokerages offer USD accounts within an RRSP? is this really against CRA rules?
    - international diversification: do any offer reasonable cost trading in foreign markets? e.g. in the UK BMO will do it but at very high cost like min $170 per trade. there are discount brokerages operating in the UK.
    - RESP accounts available?
    - account performance and analysis tools: can one have overall registered plus non-registered summaries of returns, assets etc for people like me who who have non-reg, RRSP, LIRA? I manage my accounts as if they are one big one and must do all my own spreadsheets to do rebalancing etc.
    - trust and estate tax summaries: do any provide proper tax summary forms for anything other than year-end Dec.31 for those accounts whose financial year-end is other than Dec.31?

    Feb 23rd, 2007 @ 10:05 am

31. 34. FrugalTrader

    In terms of purchasing USD investments within your RRSP, you will have to convert from CAD$ to USD$ every time. There is only ONE brokerage that I know of that will allow “wash trades”, and that is TD. When you sell a USD stock, instead of converting it to CAD$, they will instead purchase a USD money market instrument so that you can keep your USD. The downside is that you need to call them on the phone before you do such a transaction.

    There are no brokerages in Canada, that i know of, that allow USD accounts within an RRSP.

    I will look into your other questions.

    Feb 23rd, 2007 @ 10:16 am

32. 35. outroupistache

    Another useful piece of info is the fee charged to transfer an account out to another brokerage. These fees can be fairly punitive as the brokerages want you to think twice before leaving. Conversely, will the destination institution reimburse transfer out fees to get the new account and how much will they reimburse?

    Feb 25th, 2007 @ 12:08 pm

33. 36. Jon Lee

    Thanks for the comparison – I’ve always wanted to invest in stocks but was put off by the brokerage fees at CIBC. I will look into IB and Questrade

    Mar 15th, 2007 @ 8:22 pm

34. 37. Canadian Money Blog Reviewers

    if you want to read about my latest problems with Etrade, go here:

    http://www.canadianmoneyblogs.com/2007/03/etrade-ive-changed-my-mind.html

    I used to like them!

    Mar 17th, 2007 @ 10:55 pm

35. 38. Emil Vojkollari

    I am a representative from Questrade. I just wanted to correct a few points on the Canadian Discount Brokerages table.

    With Questrade clients can trade Mutual Funds by calling our trading desk.

    The minimum to open any account is lowered to $1000. We have yet to update the website. It will be done shortly….promise.

    Apart from these….thank you for the review.

    Emil Vojkollari
    Senior Sales Representative
    Questrade Inc.
    416-227-9876 x 380
    1-888-783-7866 x 380
    evojkollari@questrade.com
    http://www.questrade.com

    Mar 26th, 2007 @ 12:42 pm

36. 39. FrugalTrader

    Hey Emil,

    Thanks for keep us updated. When do you expect that Questrade will offer free real time charts for Canadian stocks in the web trader?

    FT

    Mar 26th, 2007 @ 12:49 pm

37. 40. Emil Vojkollari

    Hi,

    Thank you for updating the website so quickly.

    I’m sorry I’m not able to give you an exact answer to your question.

    The new WebTrader Platform is expected to be available in the next month or 2 if everything goes well. I have not seen the platform but I’ve heard it will have level 2 quotes. I have not heard anything regarding free real time charts.

    Regards,

    Emil Vojkollari
    Senior Sales Representative
    Questrade Inc.
    416-227-9876 x 380
    1-888-783-7866 x 380
    evojkollari@questrade.com
    http://www.questrade.com

    Mar 26th, 2007 @ 1:15 pm

38. 41. Sam

    hi,
    i am new to investing..wanting to open a brokerage account..i was looking at Canadian share owner, E*Trade canada etc…because of lower fees..
    while browsing through the website http://www.dividendgrowth.ca…..it says we would be better of sticking with bank brokerages(even if expensive)because it’s much safer…

    i would appreciate your valuable comments..
    sam

    Mar 28th, 2007 @ 5:19 pm

39. 42. Emil Vojkollari

    Hi,

    I would like to let you know that Questrade is a member of the IDA and every account is protected by the CIPF for $1 Million / account with additional coverage of an extra $10 Million.

    When it comes to safety….Questrade is as safe as it gets.

    When it comes to fees…..Questrade is as cheap as it gets.

    Please let me know if you have any questions.

    Sincerely,

    Emil Vojkollari
    Senior Sales Representative
    Questrade Inc.
    416-227-9876 x 380
    1-888-783-7866 x 380
    evojkollari@questrade.com
    http://www.questrade.com

    Mar 28th, 2007 @ 7:38 pm

40. 43. FrugalTrader

    Sam: As Emil said, unless you have over $1 million to put into your portfolio eTrade and Questrade are both good choices. If you are starting off with a smaller portfolio, Questrade may be your best bet to keep the costs down.

    FT

    Mar 28th, 2007 @ 9:20 pm

41. 44. Traciatim

    Hey Sam,
    Instead of comparing fees alone, why not compare the services. Questrade, I believe, is geared toward a more active investor. If you are someone who actively is managing your portfolio, have a few different trades every month or so and likes to shift money around I think this is the way to go.
    On the other hand if you are more of a ’set it and forget it’ and want to pick companies that you can do monthly deposits to for dollar cost averaging and want to check it every 6 months to a year or so just to re-balance I think ShareOwner is for you.

    I opened an account with ShareOwner a while back. I haven’t made any trades yet because my significant other for some reason got an itch to buy a house so I’ve been a little busy lately. Once we get settled in I’m planning on getting a monthly ETF deposit in just to sit back and let things ride. At 36 bucks for a 5 ETF portfolio, I think I’m in it for the long haul.

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 12:11 am

42. 45. Sam

    THANKS to Emil,Frugal & Traciatim for your kind
    replies…
    i have read that these brokerages are insured upto 1 million..my current portfolio is only around $5,000…is there any way i could lose money in these brokerages,some acts on their part not covered under the legal fine print…

    you might consider me paranoid..i am just hyper sensitive since i work for minimum wages…

    and hi traciatim in shareowner..
    if you were to invest $1,000 every month in 5 etf
    $200 dollars on each ETf you pay commision of $36 every month..

    if instead you invest in only the 1st ETF..all the $1,000 for the month…you pay only $9 commission..

    in the 2 nd month invest all the $1,000 in 2nd etf..pay only $9 commsision…

    if you keep repeating the cycle every 5 months..you commsions would be only 25% of what you propose to pay..for people looking for real term..i believe there might not be much difference investing $200 every month in an ETF..
    or investing $1,000 once very 5 months…

    would my assumption be valid…thanks

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 1:29 pm

43. 46. FrugalTrader

    Sam,

    If you’re looking at reinvesting small amount in the indices, perhaps you should look at the bank mutual funds. With the bank, you can purchase small amounts of each mutual fund every month for NO FEE. When you’re account rises above $20k, then consider moving to a discount brokerage.

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 1:34 pm

44. 47. Sam

    HI FRUGAL,
    thanks again for your prompt reply…
    i am now using TD E-funds for indicies..MER is tolerable..but i now wnat to invest in Canadian dividend companies…TD does not have a elctronic(E) fund for dividens..just a regular fund..MER is very prohibitive…

    thanks

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 2:15 pm

45. 48. Emil Vojkollari

    Thank you everyone for your responses.

    I know my opinion is bias but I will lay all the cards in the table and let you decide which is the best way to start investing.

    I noticed several different topics and I’ll try to tackle all of them at once.

    Questrade does not have any monthly fees, inactivity fees or platform fees if you go for the WebTrader basic platform. That will offer you direct access trading without forcing you to make a minimum number of trades.

    We offer 2 commission plans. 1 cent/share with $4.95 minimum and $9.95 flat fee. These fees apply to stocks and ETF’s.

    When it comes to Mutual Funds, Questrade may not have the best commissions, but one way to get around paying the MER is to buy the biggest holdings of the Mutual Fund.

    If you are an investor you benefit from trading with Questrade.

    If you are a trader, I challenge anyone to find a better platform than Cyber Trader.

    You can download a demo if you go to http://www.questrade.com and click on “Platforms”.

    Emil Vojkollari
    Client Acquisitions Supervisor
    Questrade Inc.
    416-227-9876 x 380
    1-888-783-7866 x 380
    evojkollari@questrade.com
    http://www.questrade.com

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 2:25 pm

46. 49. Traciatim

    If you want to pick your own companies I would suggest going with a discount brokerage rather than going with ShareOwner investments. You have to keep in mind that ShareOwner will only allow the purchase of their pre-selected list of securities.

    As for the fees, I was under the impression that you could set up a monthly purchase plan through ShareOwner and pay $9 each purchase for the first 4 purchases, then any subsequent purchases of that security are at no cost to you. So in your example of the single security for $1K/month you would be investing 991, 991, 991, 991, 1000, 1000 . . . and on an on.

    As far as I was aware the $36.00 charge is if you set up a monthly purchase plan on multiple securities that it was a one time fee. It’s not very clear on their web site if it’s one time or not though.

    Keep in mind with ShareOwner your purchase and sales are bundled with other people, so they don’t happen directly when you want them to sometimes. Like I said, it’s for more of the ’set it and forget it’ people. It looks to me like you already have your indexing up and running for the ’set and forget’ portion of your portfolio and are looking for more control. If this is the case, go with a discount broker like Questrade, E*Trade or something similar.

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 2:29 pm

47. 50. Emil Vojkollari

    I forgot to mention that Questrade has a free Dividend Reinvestment Plan.

    Thanks,

    Emil Vojkollari
    Client Acquisitions Supervisor
    Questrade Inc.
    416-227-9876 x 380
    1-888-783-7866 x 380
    evojkollari@questrade.com
    http://www.questrade.com

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 2:41 pm

48. 51. Sam

    hi traciatim,
    i am under the impression..
    if you buy a stock you pay $9..if you buy 2 stocks $18..3 stocks $27..4 stocks & above- $36

    quantities within the stock do not matter…

    you pay these fees everytime you place a purchase order…..

    if we go as per your understanding..then the brokerage firm will make no money after the 4th month(or 4th transaction)…

    i guess the only way to know for good is after getting a bill when we do the transaction..lol..thanks

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 4:06 pm

49. 52. Traciatim

    Hmmm, looks like I may have completely misunderstood their graph. I figured with the co-op investing that they could offer it for that price since they bundle everyones orders and there would always be someone paying for the transactions. Plus with the other fees for selling and transfers I figured they would get you in the end anyway.

    It seems to make much more sense the way you describe it. Maybe I’ll just take my money back out and switch up to Questrade. Shareowner probably made much more sense when other companies were charging $19 a trade and bank brokerages were at $28.

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 7:44 pm

50. 53. Sam

    hi traciatim,
    i will bother you with one further question…
    i have never traded in North america…is there any minimum lots to purchase shares..

    if there is..then shareowner brokerage might still make sense..since you can buy small quantities of shares..even a fraction of a share…

    the country i come from we have the concept of market lots..anything smaller would be called odd lots…difficult to see even if you get a buyer it would be at a steep discount…

    thanks

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 8:01 pm

51. 54. Traciatim

    That’s something I’ll have to leave to more experienced traders. The only things I’ve purchased are mutual funds for RESPs, Mutual Funds for my company matched RRSP, My Stock purchase plan at work, and I opened a an account at ShareOwner. I’m just starting out on my investing career.

    Mar 29th, 2007 @ 10:39 pm

52. 55. Warren

    I am just getting into DRIP and have an existing E-Trade account. So far I’m pleased with them, but their DRIP program mentions that you have to have enough dividends to purchase a full share, I thought this was dependent on the individual stock? Also does DRIP in your chart refer to DRIP and SPP?

    Great info and discussion.

    Apr 2nd, 2007 @ 6:15 pm

53. 56. FrugalTrader

    Warren: The DRIP indicated on the chart represents the reinvestment of dividends when you purchase a dividend paying investment with no fees. However, this only works if you own enough of the company that the quarterly dividends are equal to, or greater than the price of the stock.

    For example, if BMO is $70/share today and has a 3.54% dividend ($2.48/share), which means you would get $0.62/share/quarter. So at a minimum, you would need to buy around $70/0.62=112 shares to be able to repurchase 1 share of BMO every quarter. To be on the safe side, you might want to purchase a little more than 112 shares in the case that BMO rises above $70.

    If you don’t have enough in dividend distribution in the quarter to purchase a share of the company, then the dividend will be paid out in cash to your account.

    Hope this helps,
    FT

    Apr 3rd, 2007 @ 9:23 am

54. 57. Warren

    FT: Thanks I understand that part, but where does SPP/OCP come in? Is that dependent on both the brokerage and the company supporting it?

    I’ve also heard of fractional DRIP, although I’m not sure how that work work either.

    Apr 3rd, 2007 @ 1:40 pm

55. 58. FrugalTrader

    I believe SPP is the stock purchase plan offered to employees of a publicly traded company?

    Some public companies that offer DRIP offer fractional DRIPS. If you’re looking for this feature, you’ll have to start the DRIP with the company itself.

    Apr 3rd, 2007 @ 1:59 pm

56. 59. Warren

    Yes it is, thanks for the clarification. SPP sounds like a great tool, but obviously there are some more steps to get into one.

    Apr 3rd, 2007 @ 2:03 pm

57. 60. Sam

    hi frugal,
    in DRIP through Canadian share owner…you don’t have to have dividends equal to price of atleast 1 share….they use DRIP to buy shares to four decimals….

    thanks

    Apr 3rd, 2007 @ 3:38 pm

58. 61. zquoc

    Hi Lady & Gents,

    All this information about fees and available service is great.

    FrugalTrader: What i was wondering was if you already have a separate review on these discount brokers about the topic of customer satisfaction, customer service, and accessibility of the money?

    In the end, these are the three things that keeps me happy.

    Apr 14th, 2007 @ 3:26 am

59. 62. zquoc

    And one more thing, comments on their performance about sending out the tax slips on time and in proper format.

    Apr 14th, 2007 @ 3:35 am

60. 63. sunny

    Hi,guys,

    I just want to know whether it is safe if i open an account in Questrade? Is Questrade a big trader?

    Look forward your comments.

    Thanks

    Apr 17th, 2007 @ 2:24 am

61. 64. Emil Vojkollari

    Sunny,

    Questrade is a member of the IDA and every account is protected by the CIPF. Please see link:
    http://www.questrade.com/disclaimers/ida_cipf.html

    In addition; the website is protected by Very Sign which uses 128bit encryption.

    I hope this helped.

    Emil Vojkollari
    Client Acquisitions Supervisor
    Questrade Inc.
    416-227-9876 x 380
    1-888-783-7866 x 380
    evojkollari@questrade.com
    http://www.questrade.com

    Apr 17th, 2007 @ 1:45 pm

62. 65. Jay

    Does Questrade accept clients from other countries? I am living in Singapore and am interested in investing in Canadian stocks?

    Apr 22nd, 2007 @ 12:42 pm

63. 66. Jay

    Emil

    Does Questrade accept accounts from people from other countries. I live in Singapore and I am to
    benefit from the boom in Canadian Stocks.

    Thanks

    Apr 22nd, 2007 @ 7:37 pm

64. 67. Emil Vojkollari

    Dear Jay,

    We accept applications from clients all over the world except United States. (Industry regulations)

    As per my e-mail, we need a notarized copy of the passport for every international client.

    Emil

    Apr 23rd, 2007 @ 11:09 am

65. 68. Mike

    I have a question about the exchange rates/fees for converting CDN$ to US$.

    I’ve narrowed down my search to Questrade and TDW online. My rsp portfolio will have a large component of US$ trades ie VTI and this will be the largest expense for me.

    I’m not going to be doing ‘wash trades’ – just moving the money to the discount broker – buying a bunch of ETFs and leaving it.

    Does anyone know if the different brokers charge different amounts or use different spreads on the conversion?

    May 1st, 2007 @ 12:38 pm

66. 69. Mike

    Ok, I answered my own question by calling up and getting the exchange rates for today.

    Questrade definitely has a better exchange rate than TD WaterHouse.

    May 1st, 2007 @ 4:13 pm

67. 71. wood

    Anyone have idea how Interativebrokers charges the exchange rate? I got mixed information about questrade. I’ve seen 0.9%, 1.25%, and 1.5% in the comment streams. Even 0.9% would be a big transaction cost. I wonder how’s Interativebrokers relative to others.

    Jun 15th, 2007 @ 11:12 pm

68. 72. FrugalTrader

    Wood:
    Interactive Brokers charges the going exchange rate x 1 basis point. 1 basis point = 0.0001 with a min. commission of $2.50USD. In other words, a very low spread relative to other brokers.

    Jun 16th, 2007 @ 12:04 am

69. 73. Beth Loggins

    Hi there. Thank you for this very informative article. I have a question about IB. You said that there’s a $10 / month fee. So does that mean that even if you don’t trade in a month they’ll charge you $10? I guess what I’m trying to say is that while IB is cheap when it comes to trading fees, you basically pay a sort of maintenance / activity fee per month. Clarification would be much appreciated. Thanks!

    Jun 17th, 2007 @ 12:20 am

70. 74. FrugalTrader

    Hey Beth,

    Yes, even if you don’t trade $10/month, they will charge you the difference. So the min amount that you’ll pay in fees with IB is $120USD/year. This is well worth the fee if you trade regularly, b/c $120/year is equal to about 4 trades with a big bank.

    Jun 18th, 2007 @ 9:00 am

71. 75. penny

    Hi,
    Thank you for this wonderful info. I’m new to investing and been looking for a Cdn online brokerage for many months and finally found some up to date and useful information. I want to trade options and will want to trade from 15 to 20 trades a month. Questrade has the same price of 9.95+ and is equivalent to others. I also want to maintain a US account instead of switching to CDN funds each time. Has anyone had any experience working with Tradefreedom? I found their trading platform extremely confusing.
    Thanks
    Penny

    Jun 18th, 2007 @ 5:53 pm

72. 76. FrugalTrader

    Penny, if you are new to investing, you may not want to start with options. With that said, if you do decide to go with options and trading 15-20 times / month, then IB will be your best bet in terms of cost. Not only will the commissions be cheaper, the IB’s forex exchange fee is the lowest around.

    Jun 18th, 2007 @ 6:43 pm

73. 77. Emil Vojkollari

    Dear Traders,

    I wanted to point out some differences between Questrade and the other brokers mentioned.

    Questrade offers a free direct access platform called WebTrader Basic. With that platform you will only be charged the commissions whenever you make a trade. There isn’t a maintanance/innactivity fee.

    A more advanced direct access trading platform that is excellent for trading options is CyberTrader. You can trade multilegged options and pay 1 commission for 2 legs. (Example: Spread = $9.95 + $1/contract)
    The platform comes for free if you make at least 20 trades/month.

    Tradefreedom does not have a platform that allows multilegged option trades. The Canadian commission on stock trading is not flat.

    IB is well priced, but do not expect any service from them. If you are having problems with the platform or the trading, better solve it yourself. I have confirmed this with several IB traders. I think IB will admit it if you call them up.

    The best value for you money is definitely Questrade. It is very well priced, and it offers the support that is so important when needed.

    Try us out. The application is done online; it will take about 20 minutes to complete. There is no charge for opening or closing an account with Questrade. The minimum initial deposit is only $1000. I am certain you will very soon consolidate all your accounts with Questrade.

    Good luck trading,

    Emil Vojkollari
    Client Acquisitions Supervisor
    Web: http://www.questrade.com
    Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
    Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
    Fax: (416) 227-0078
    _____________________________________________________________________________
    Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

    Trade Stocks for $4.95

    Jun 19th, 2007 @ 12:14 pm

74. 78. FunTrader

    Hi Everyone,

    Great website/table/information. This is something I’ve been looking for for a long long time so thank you.

    One thing that would be really useful is a rough idea of the forex rates for the various accounts. I can say from experience that TDW is around 0.9% spread each way for a total of 1.8% there and back. Does anyone know what CIBC Inverstor’s Edge is like, or what questrade’s is (perhaps Emil can answer?). This would definitely be a column worth adding.

    Jun 21st, 2007 @ 3:32 am

75. 79. Outroupistache

    Re the Forex rates, at BMO Investorline, the buy-sell spread is just over 0.9% each way.

    Jun 21st, 2007 @ 5:12 am

76. 80. FrugalTrader

    Yes, I’ve been meaning to add FOREX information into the table. I will do some digging and post the info.

    This is what I have so far:

    BMO: 0.90% each way
    TDW: 0.90% each way
    Questrade: 1% each way (confirmed by support)
    IB: 0.01% + 2.50USD each way (on the website)

    Now i’m missing CIBC, E-Trade, RBC, and BNS.

    Jun 21st, 2007 @ 9:55 am

77. 88. Paul Evans

    Hi Frugal Trader;

    I’m a fellow Newf presently living in Saskatchewan.
    I do my investing thru RBC Direct Investing and I must say I’m getting fed up with the $29.00 trading fee. It is abit much especially after reading on your website about Quest Trade’s fee’s. I’m seriously contemplating switching. I’m holding off becasue I do use RBC’s market commentaries on Canadian equities (there buy,hold,sells etc). Can you tell me if Quest Trade offers such market commentaries. I checked out there website but I’m still not totally clear on this. Thanks for your help and keep up the excellent work. This is a great benefit to many people.

    Paul

    Sep 2nd, 2007 @ 6:47 am

78. 89. FrugalTrader

    Hey Paul, thanks for stopping by. As far as I know, Questrade does not offer market commentaries. What you could do is keep enough in your RBC account to avoid the maintenance fees, and put the rest with another brokerage.

    Sep 2nd, 2007 @ 9:21 am

79. 90. Moe Mentum

    I am currently in a trading course and paper trading for experience. I have started to research canadian discount brokers and I am very impressed with the info and knowledge I have found here.

    My cuurent plan is to open a registered account and I was leaning towards CIBC’s Investors Edge because of the fee schedule. I will be an active trader, but won’t be trading a lot of shares per trade to start. Then I heard about QuestTrade and their fees work even better for me as most trades will be under 1000 shares.

    My biggest concern with a Registered account is the exchange rate to USD. I plan on trading NYSE and NASDAQ as well as TSX, but to pay an extra 1% when making a USD buy, and another 1% when making a USD sell is crazy. Am I misunderstanding how this fee works?

    Sep 7th, 2007 @ 4:54 pm

80. 91. Questrade

    Dear Moe,

    The automatic currency conversion in RRSP accounts is only 0.5% each way. I would not recommend trading very actively in US markets inside your RRSP account since the fee will add up.

    You will definitely need a direct access platform in order to minimize the costs of trading. I would caution you if you are thinking of opening an account with CIBC.

    If I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me directly.

    Regards,

    Emil Vojkollari
    Client Acquisitions Supervisor
    Web: http://www.questrade.com
    Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
    Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
    Fax: (416) 227-0078
    _____________________________________________________________________________
    Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

    Trade Stocks for $4.95

    Sep 7th, 2007 @ 5:04 pm

81. 92. Moe Mentum

    Thanks for the quick reply Emil.

    This might be a Noobie question, but what exactly do you mean by “direct access platform”?

    Sep 7th, 2007 @ 5:13 pm

82. 93. FrugalTrader

    Moe, if you want to USD stock actively, then doing so in your RRSP is not recommended. As you pointed out, cash needs to be converted every trade. Even if you wash trade with TD, it would take WAY too long for an active trader.

    Keep your active trading outside your RRSP so that you can maintain a USD account to avoid the fees. If you’re going to be doing a lot of FOREX exchanges, then no one comes near IB. However, Questrade is a decent choice also.

    Sep 7th, 2007 @ 5:14 pm

83. 94. Questrade

    Direct access technology is a desktop software or web-based trading application. When linked — ideally by a high-speed connection — to the Internet, that platform becomes your own personal trading floor. Live market data from market makers, securities exchanges and ECNs update in real time. Traders or investors can spot price differentials, trade volume, liquidity, and other market intelligence, and act on it directly.

    This is an enormous change from pre-direct access, when information was masked by the middleman — full-service brokerages — and all trades had to be funneled through a number of steps – any of which could slow or alter the original trade.

    The ability to see market opportunity in real-time and act on it immediately means you have a better chance of capturing the buy/sell price you’ve targeted. Through a traditional brokerage, the lack of control after you’ve placed your order can significantly impact your profits and/or losses.

    In fast moving markets, order execution speed can be the difference between a gain or a loss, between taking advantage of an opportunity and missing it entirely. Direct access almost eliminates the time gap between execution and trade confirmation as well.

    Slippage, the gap between the estimated cost of the transaction and its real cost, is an important factor when executing a trade. This is particularly relevant in a fast-moving market. There are other hidden costs at non direct access brokers as well that affect the prices that consumers receive. Direct access is the most transparent method of accessing the markets.

    Please see link: http://www.questrade.com/services/direct_access.aspx

    Best,

    Emil Vojkollari
    Client Acquisitions Supervisor
    Web: http://www.questrade.com
    Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
    Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
    Fax: (416) 227-0078
    _____________________________________________________________________________
    Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

    Trade Stocks for $4.95

    Sep 7th, 2007 @ 5:19 pm

84. 95. Moe Mentum

    Emil,

    I understand the direct access platform, thank-you. Another issue I have when choosing a discount broker is I am a Mac User and I haven’t found any brokerages that offer a desktop platform of the Mac OS, thus leaving me with Web Access as my only option. Does your WebTrader still offer the same level of control and speed as your CyberTrader platform?

    Sep 7th, 2007 @ 5:28 pm

85. 96. Questrade

    Moe Mentum,

    The CyberTrader platform is not available anymore. QuestraderPro is another software based platform that we have. QuestraderWeb is a direct access platform as well. It is slightly slower than the software based platform. Instead of the order being executed in ½ a second, it may take a second or two until the platform responds.

    Unless you are trading based on tickers (minute by minute trading) I don’t think it will make a big difference.

    Thanks,

    Emil Vojkollari
    Client Acquisitions Supervisor
    Web: http://www.questrade.com
    Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
    Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
    Fax: (416) 227-0078
    _____________________________________________________________________________
    Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

    Trade Stocks for $4.95

    Sep 7th, 2007 @ 5:52 pm

86. 97. FourPillars

    Hi Emil – Yesterday, I bought some US securities in my rrsp at Questrade – I phoned to find out an exchange rate and one rep said they charge 0.5%, another rep said 1% and you say it’s 0.5%. In the chart above – FT has 1% for this.

    Can I assume that you are correct and it’s 0.5% (50 bps) when going from Cdn$ to US$?

    Mike

    Sep 7th, 2007 @ 8:58 pm

87. 98. Questrade

    Dear Mike,

    Rest assured that the automatic currency conversion in Registered accounts is 0.5% during normal trading hours (until 4pm) and 1% after 4 pm (for trades made after hours).

    I have personally confirmed this more than once.

    Best,

    Emil Vojkollari
    Client Acquisitions Supervisor
    Web: http://www.questrade.com
    Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
    Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
    Fax: (416) 227-0078
    _____________________________________________________________________________
    Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

    Trade Stocks for $4.95

    Sep 10th, 2007 @ 10:52 am

88. 99. goldmember

    I just joined Questrade. Week one and customer service is BRUTAL.

    You get what you pay for.

    Sep 18th, 2007 @ 6:22 pm

89. 100. bobloblaw

    great blog. extremely helpful info. was wondering if any info/experience with tradefreedom. presently, looking at questrade…want to purchase ETFs regularily (small numbers and want to keep costs down) inside RRSP. Looking for the lowest possible fee for currency conversion (heard tradefreedom is 20 basis points). any info greatly appreciated. thankd

    Sep 19th, 2007 @ 1:25 am

90. 101. Trizi

    thanks, this was useful.

    Just an FYI – If you want the TD Waterhouse low commissions ($9.99), one of the two basis is the final balance in your account each month. So if you join early in the month, your account value at last month-end is deemed $0 and you have to pay the $29 for the first month. Better to join a few days before the end of the month.
    If based on number of trades I don’t know for sure.

    Sep 27th, 2007 @ 11:17 am

91. 102. Beth Loggins

    Hi everyone. Great comments! Just wondering, do you folks have a good way to get broad exposure to the TSX Venture Exchange?

    Sep 28th, 2007 @ 1:49 pm

92. 103. Sam Luu

    I’m with TD Waterhouse now for my RRSPs, I have a substantial holding in e-funds with low MER ~0.48%, however I’m looking for more options for ETFs. I trade some stocks, however I’m mainly an ETF guy.

    I’ve looked over E-trade that has some great ETF, but can’t find information on Questtrade ETF or ShareOwner. Any suggestions for the best ETF site with decent service?

    Oct 3rd, 2007 @ 9:20 pm

93. 104. FrugalTrader

    Sam, ETF’s are traded on the stock exchanges, so all of the discount brokerages mentioned in my article have access to the same ones. If you want to research more info on Canadian based ETF’s, you’ll have to visit:
    http://www.ishares.ca/

    Let me know if you have any other questions.

    Oct 3rd, 2007 @ 10:21 pm

94. 105. Paul Evans

    Sam, you could also check out more Canadian based ETF’s at http://www.claymoreinvestments.ca

    Oct 3rd, 2007 @ 11:45 pm

95. 106. f_n_g

    Does anybody else know where I can get Cybertrader Pro? My Questrade feed will end in December and I don’t want to use anything else.

    Oct 11th, 2007 @ 3:36 pm

96. 109. melvin

    Hello. I am a new investor looking to open an account.. i originally was going to use ETRADE due to their low fees. However, Interactive brokers and questrade look even better. But, do either of these services protect against fraud. The 2007 october review by the globe and mail does not indicate that questrade guarantees that members will not lose money if their account is acessed by a hacker? they got a 0 out of 5? And interactive brokers were not even reviewed?

    Oct 22nd, 2007 @ 3:33 pm

97. 110. FrugalTrader

    Melvin, I agree that Questrade doesn’t have very high security compared to other brokerages. They only require a login and password. E-Trade and Interactive Brokers now require a keyfob encryption passkey with every login along with the pwd.

    Oct 22nd, 2007 @ 3:38 pm

98. 111. Melvin

    what is a keyfob encryption passkey? and is Interactive Brokers as secure as Etrade??

    Oct 22nd, 2007 @ 4:01 pm

99. 112. FrugalTrader

    Melvin, the keyfob encryption is basically a device that gives you a passkey to type in at the time of login.

    In terms of security, they both use the same web encryption as any other brokerage does. However, how they deal with fraud cases i’m not sure of. It really comes down to the user keeping their passwords safe (imo).

    Oct 22nd, 2007 @ 4:14 pm

100. 113. Melvin

     thanks for the quick response.. i really appreciate it. The two most important things to me is security and low fees.. So i guess i will research further. This may be a silly question, but how does trading U.S. equities work as a canadian and the exchange rate? Thats an additional chrg on top of the fees/commisions?

     Oct 22nd, 2007 @ 4:25 pm

101. 114. FrugalTrader

     Melvin, there are a couple ways that you can trade US equities. You can purchase US dollars (exchange fees – see article above), and purchase US shares. Or, you can get a margin account and purchase US shares with that account. Purchasing with the margin account will hedge against currency flucuations, but interest will be charged.

     Oct 22nd, 2007 @ 4:37 pm

102. 116. Melvin

     Im just about to go ahead and open an Interactive broker account.. Ive done my research and what not.. Just wondering, anything that stands out in your minds that i should address or consider before I go forward?

     and how long does it take to start trading, once i send my papers/check?

     The paperwork is quite extensive. How secure is this process of opening an account? All of our information is being sent over the web ex. Social security #, correct? dangerous?!

     Oct 30th, 2007 @ 12:39 pm

103. 117. FrugalTrader

     Melvin, IB uses secure web encryption like any online bank. Also when you get your account, they will require a login, password, and encryption code before you can start trading. Definitely among the more secure online brokers out there. I know that my accounts with CIBC and Questrade don’t require encryption keys.

     Oct 30th, 2007 @ 2:28 pm

104. 118. pjwlk

     Point of interest: As far as I can tell reading this page https://www.canada.etrade.com/pages/home/fees1.shtml#MR), E-trade shows 4.15% interest on cash balances only with their Cash Optimizer account. All other accounts appear to pay only 0.50% interest on cash balances.

     Oct 31st, 2007 @ 3:00 pm

105. 119. Warren

     I’m an E-Trade customer, and I can tell you that yes the 4.15% is only offered on the “cash optimizer” account. And, you can’t make stock purchases directly from that account. But you can make instant transfers into your other cash account and buy from there. Strange but true.

     Oct 31st, 2007 @ 3:22 pm

106. 120. Paul

     I am looking for cheapest Discount Brockerage Service for my RRSP and going to invest to ETFs
     Who knows the answer for these two questions:
     1. Why MER for Canadian ETFs ~ 0.5%, but in US Vanguard MERs are ~ 0.07-0.22% for the equal fund. Where are not expensive Canadian ETFs
     2. RRSP and US funds – exchange rates is one of te issue. TD Waterhouse recommends to use “Wash” Trade. It looks it is a big advantage to save money on exchange. Can anybody comment it?

     Nov 8th, 2007 @ 7:31 pm

107. 121. FrugalTrader

     Paul, MER’s for Canadian ETF’s are so expensive because we lack competition in the ETF market.
     The exchange rates are listed in the article. TD is the only brokerage to offer “wash trades” that I know of. Canadian Capitalist has written about wash trades a few times on his blog.

     Nov 8th, 2007 @ 9:11 pm

108. 122. Trizi

     Paul – I joined TDWH in September with a lot of cash and began building a Portfolio over the past two months with a lot of US trades.

     Just make sure when you do the washes that you check that they have been put through on the settle date. It’s a laborious manual process and mistake-prone if you are trading a lot. Staff is good about it but just look over their shoulders.

     Nov 9th, 2007 @ 2:16 am

109. 123. Paul

     Hi Trizi,
     Your oppinion, is wash trade worth it?
     What is beter – buy canadian ETFs with higher MERs or use wash trades and buy Vanguard ETFs

     I am only going to have 10-20 trades per year.

     Nov 9th, 2007 @ 3:13 pm

110. 125. Cross the river

     What about adding registration fees to complement the DRIP column?

     Great table.

     Nov 22nd, 2007 @ 4:56 pm

111. 128. research required

     Has anyone used http://www.tradefreedom.com? I see that it is not in the comparison chart and I am wondering why as it seems to have all the same services as the others…

     Also, looking for info as to which online broker would have the best interest rate on cash balances both in RSP accounts and non-RSP accounts.
     Any info would be great!

     Nov 23rd, 2007 @ 9:09 pm

112. 131. cebolao

     Does anybody know of an updated comparison of discount online brokerage firms?

     I opened an account on IB, but on the very last minute, they changed the minimun account requirement from 5g to 10gs! and no warning!
     Cant seen to find anything as cheap with a lower required minimun

     Jan 2nd, 2008 @ 4:24 pm

113. 132. FrugalTrader

     cebolao,
     This table is updated on a regular basis. I’ll look into the new $10k min deposit.

     Jan 2nd, 2008 @ 4:39 pm

114. 133. cebolao

     Hi Frugal, thanks for the quick reply.
     I am a very new to trading, so forgive me if the following questions are common knowledge:

     1. The fact that IB changed it’s minimum fund requirement (which I consider to be a major change) so suddenly and without even an notice doesn’t seem to be very professional to me. Specially after I have completed, singed, and mailed all the forms! This makes me wonder the IB’s credibility(and of other smaller online brokerages).
     Does the Canadian Gov guarantees the funds deposited in these online brokerages just as they would with regular Canadian banks? Or is there nothing preventing IB from going belly up ( supposedly)and taking all you cash with it?

     2. Is there a credible source where I can look up the credibility of online brokerage firms?Ie any place where these companies have to be listed? Like a government run institute?

     thanks again

     Jan 2nd, 2008 @ 5:27 pm

115. 134. FrugalTrader

     cebolao:
     1. Brokerages change their requirements all the time. You could contact IB directly and ask them to accept the old limit since you applied before the changes. However, with that said, if you’re with IB to strictly trade stocks, $10k isn’t a lot of initial money to start with. IB is covered under CIPF which guarantees your account up to $1 million in case IB goes belly up. When researching brokerages, make sure they have CIPF protection (all in the table are covered by CIPF).

     2. Other than looking at CIPF (http://www.cipf.ca/) protection, i’m not sure what other source you could use. Do some searching and you may find other reviews.

     I like IB for their extremely cheap commissions, forex spreads along with their login security (key fob). The biggest downside is that if you don’t trade, they charge you a min fee. I’m also with Questrade which charges a bit more / trade $4.95, but no minimum.

     Jan 2nd, 2008 @ 5:37 pm

116. 135. cebolao

     Frugal:
     thanks allot for the info. CIPF website will be most useful.
     Btw, I did call IB, but all I got was “I don’t know”, and “there’s no way around it”. But I guess that doesn’t matter now.

     Yes I did see Questrade,but to get that price, they want over 100k of assets or over 150 trades a quarter, otherwise they are no different than TDWaterhouse, is that correct?
     Since I am a recent college grad,and just starting to trade, I am out of that category.

     So would IB be my best bet for now then? or is there anything else that fit my requirements a little better?

     Jan 2nd, 2008 @ 6:07 pm

117. 136. FrugalTrader

     Hey ceblolao,

     No Questrade only requires $1k as an initial deposit and the $4.95 or $9.95 trades are for everyone regardless of portfolio size. If you aren’t trading very often and with lower capital then Questrade is your best bet. You can find my questrade review here.

     FT

     Jan 2nd, 2008 @ 7:49 pm

118. 137. cebolao

     Thanks FT
     I have just read the review. Looks like a good choice for me. I will read more about it later. But one of the comments following the review brought up the point of wash trading.
     From my understanding, at IB being a Canadian, to buy any US stocks I need to open a margings account, and buy any US stocks on marging. And then pay for it using the daily exchange rate.

     Now how does that work with Questrade? So if you were to use it, you really have to pay 1.9% of the trade value?

     Jan 2nd, 2008 @ 10:42 pm

119. 138. FrugalTrader

     cebolao, if you are a new trader, i would avoid IB anyways as it is meant for more experienced traders. Not only that, you don’t get free stock quotes with IB, they’re extra.\

     If you are just starting out, Questrade is probably your best bet. No mins, low commissions, and free quotes.

     Also, IB doesn’t have an RRSP account whereas Questrade does. To my understanding, you don’t “need” a margin account in order to trade US stocks, you simply buy USD and trade the US exchange. You can however use margin to buy US stock also.

     With Questrade, within the RRSP account you’d buy USD with your Canadian dollars. So you’d pay an forex rate when you buy AND when you sell. If you open a non-registered account, then you can purchase USD and trade US stocks as you please without paying forex with every trade.

     Jan 2nd, 2008 @ 10:56 pm

120. 139. cebolao

     FT, thanks for explaining all this.
     I will call them tomorrow, and hopefully everything goes smooth. Meanwhile, when you said I can buy USD without paying forex, you mean Questrade wont charge me the 1.9% fee? To my understanding forex is just a on going market rate for USD/CND right?

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 4:40 am

121. 140. FrugalTrader

     cebolao, sorry, I wasn’t clear. If you buy US stocks within your RRSP account, you’ll have to pay the forex TWICE. If you buy stock within a non-registered account, then you can buy US dollars directly and only end up paying the FOREX once (unless you want CAD again). Oh and Questrades rate is closer to 1% not 1.9%.

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 8:02 am

122. 141. cebolao

     ok i will call them up today clarify that

     thanks, and will keep you posted.

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 2:42 pm

123. 142. cebolao

     one thing i gorgot to ask
     For the 4.95, does questrade offer access to european and asian markets?

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 4:51 pm

124. 143. Osmium

     I was unpleasantly suprised to discover that TD Waterhouse has raised their foreign exchange CAD->USD fee/spread from 0.9% to 1.4% for up to $10k USD. It’s 1.3% for $10k-$25k USD, and 0.7% for over $25k USD. This quietly happened sometime in the last three months. That puts a big damper on the commissions dropping from $29 to $10 for assets > 100k last year.

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 7:19 pm

125. 144. cebolao

     Sorry for my ignorance, but what is this “spread” that I keep on reading regarding forex?

     And also I want o 100% clear, to my understanding, if I open a CND account with questrade, and I want to buy american stock this is what I need to do:

     1. buy USD using CND CASH I have in my account, at the on going market ( can this be called forex?) exchange rate. ( or is this rate set by the brooker? which in this case would be questrade)
     2. Pay the extra fee of 1% ( or whatever that number is) on the total amount exchanged.

     3. Use the USD just bought, to buy US stocks

     Is that correct?
     Can I have 2 accounts:?
     1 account for trading canadian stocks, and link it to my CND bank account, and
     1 US account for US stocks and linked to my US bank account?

     With this, wouldn’t I be able to just exchange funds between my bank accounts and avoid the 1% exchange fee?

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 7:59 pm

126. 145. FrugalTrader

     cebolao, those are questions you should ask Questrade directly just to make sure that you get the facts straight.

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 9:05 pm

127. 146. Osmium

     cebolao,

     1. Spread is the currency conversion difference between what the broker charges you or gives you (rate set by the broker) and the ’spot’ rate. ex: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CADUSD=X (set by the global market)

     2. The spread won’t show on your account activity or statement. They don’t want it to be transparent.

     3. Yes

     You definately should have two accounts. My two TD Waterhouse accounts are linked to my two bank accounts through the President’s Account Moneylink system. That minimizes currency conversions. Don’t know if Questrade offers this kind of system.

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 9:09 pm

128. 147. cebolao

     FT you are right, I will ask Questrade.

     Osmium, thanks for explaining.

     The reason I asked is because during my application with IB, they told me that I can’t not have 2 different currency accounts(ie USD and CND). If I chose to buy US stock and my account is CND,( or Vice versa), I have to have a margins account, and buy that stock on margin and repay later.

     So far still playing with the questrade web.
     And i dont see an option for currency exchange.
     1 more question to ask them.

     Jan 3rd, 2008 @ 9:27 pm

129. 148. matt

     Does any one offer a trading platform that has an API. (so I can do automated trading inside my RRSP account?)

     A lot of these firms offer Axis Pro (most of the time relabeled to something else) It doesn’t look all that robust for an active trader….

     - matt

     Jan 4th, 2008 @ 1:37 pm

130. 149. cebolao

     Hey guys,
     Ok, I called and got most of my questions answered:
     Yes I can have both USD and CND accounts with the questrade, and link each to a USD and CND account at my bank.
     And all accounts are defulted to be margin.

     However they couldn’t answer my question about the spread in forex. Actually it might be because of my limited understading in this matter:
     To trade(exchange USD/CND) in the with an Forex account I only need to pay a 3~5 spread on top of the spot price. and the minimun is only $2500 for standard account, and $250
     But when I want to exchange US to buy US stocks, the spread is 150PIP each way.

     So why would I choose the second option over the first one? whats the catch?

     The customer rep at questrade was very patient, and explained to me that these aren’t the same since there is a market risk involved when I trade forex. But just exactly what this risk is to be worth the 150Pips, I didn’t quite understand.
     If any of you can point me to a thread that explains this a little better that would be great! thanks

     Jan 4th, 2008 @ 3:50 pm

131. 150. Osmium

     FrugalTrader,
     Looks like it’s back to square one on your foreign exchange fee/spread table. Cebolao just reported 1.5% for Questrade (up from 0.5%) and I reported 1.4% for TDW (up from 0.9%). Fees are restructuring; in one pocket and out the other.

     Cebolao,
     I don’t know about forex accounts, but worth looking into. Hoping a Questrade user enlightens us here. Meanwhile, I’m trying a simplified version of Norbert’s gambit as a foreign exchange loophole. Will report on the results next week.

     Jan 4th, 2008 @ 8:12 pm

132. 151. cebolao

     Osmium, thanks for the note.
     Yes it’s 1.5%(150PIPS each way). I was unsure about this number until I had web chat with one of the cutomer reps, who later comfirmed this again on the phone. Seems like the registered RRPS remains to be 50PIPS.

     I really would like to undersdand the “risk” of the open forex marked that the questrade rep told me about on the phone. He was nice, but I really didn’t wanted to hog all his time asking something that i could have learned myself.

     But still no luck finding it ..
     And like some one posted above: to pay $300( 150 each way) on a 10K trade just on exchange rates, really seems to be alot to me.

     I dont know what kind of risk in the open forex market there is to be worth paying this much premium to avoid it

     Jan 4th, 2008 @ 8:28 pm

133. 152. FrugalTrader

     Thanks for the update guys. Keep the updated info coming!

     Jan 4th, 2008 @ 9:09 pm

134. 153. Trizi

     Hey everyone – They’ve gotten around a big obstacle course, and Think or Swim is finally open in Ontario.

     You can register there and get a permanent papermoney account to use the software, which is amaazzzingg. Here’s the website:

     http://www.thinkorswimcanada.com

     Jan 4th, 2008 @ 10:27 pm

135. 154. cebolao

     ok So I started my application for Questrade.
     Now I can understand why they need my Sin #, or a second ID for verification, and i guess there’s no way around that.
     Now why do they need to know where i work, and all my work related info?
     I am really uncomfortable giving out all that detailed private information! Feels like I am serving myself on a platter for identity fraud and asking for trouble.

     So my question is this:
     Which part of the application do I have to give them truthfully, and which part i can get away with random BS?
     I don’t want to lie, but not even IB asked for all these details.

     Jan 4th, 2008 @ 11:59 pm

136. 155. Jacky

     IB offers non-registered trading account….what does it mean?……..

     Jan 6th, 2008 @ 12:24 am

137. 156. Osmium

     Cebolao,
     Since they’re going to have your SIN anyway, your work info doesn’t change your identity fraud exposure very much. But if you’re uneasy, just leave the lines blank (or with *’s) unless they refuse your application. Better than outright BS.

     Jacky,
     A non-registered trading account is one that is not registered with the Canadian government. So it’s not an RRSP or RESP, and provides no tax benfits. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRSP

     Jan 7th, 2008 @ 6:29 pm

138. 157. HeMan

     TradeFreedom.com is a CIPF protected direct brokerage. Does anyone have any experience with this one?

     Jan 8th, 2008 @ 3:12 am

139. 158. cebolao

     Thanks Osmium, i just got it over with and finished the application.
     Lets hope that I was being overly paranoid.

     I will see what IB tells me tomorrow about “maintaining” the account with an account asset valued at 3K.

     Jan 8th, 2008 @ 5:17 am

140. 159. cebolao

     Hey FT, I just mailled the paperwork for Questrade. I put Milliondollarjourney under my referal, just like you said under your questrade review. Now they told me that person who refered me need to mail them my email address for this to work?

     Jan 8th, 2008 @ 2:27 pm

141. 162. Osmium

     $USD to $CAD or vice-versa without any foreign exchange spread–Tested and works!

     As promised, I’ve tested a simplified version of Norbert’s Gambit as a foreign exchange loophole, and I’m pleased to share that it works. I’ve posted an article comparing different ways of doing this on Financial Webring where this was first discussed:

     http://www.financialwebring.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=232146#232146

     This should alleviate currency exchange expenses for us cunning investors.

     Jan 16th, 2008 @ 8:50 pm

142. 164. Ryan

     This is a informative chart comparison chart but curious as to why Qtrade was left out. In most of these categories Qtrade seems to just as competitve if not better istn’t it.

     Jan 21st, 2008 @ 3:10 pm

143. 165. thrifty momma

     how many rrsp accounts can a person hold with different institutions? is there a benefit or a problem with holding more than one?

     Jan 21st, 2008 @ 7:33 pm

144. 166. FrugalTrader

     thrifty, to my knowledge, there isn’t a limit to the number of rrsp accounts that you have. However, it may be to your benefit to consolidate the accounts into one to reduce annual fees.

     Jan 21st, 2008 @ 7:42 pm

145. 167. emil

     emil, why are you on every website?

     Jan 24th, 2008 @ 8:10 pm

146. 168. bighead

     Hello,
     I was just wondering if IB accepts EFT in USD with major Canadian banks like RBC and HSBC.

     Thks

     Jan 24th, 2008 @ 8:27 pm

147. 169. cebolao

     bighead yes they do,
     but you can only have 1 currency, ie either canadian or us.
     Once you picked the currency, stockes traded on all other currencies are bought on margin

     Jan 24th, 2008 @ 9:18 pm

148. 174. Mr.T.

     TradeFreedom.com
     I have an account with them. They have great rates, and great Windows platform. (rich client Windows app that you install on your desktop) They also have a Web interface which lets you do all the trades, quotes and account maintenance, but it needs some work to make it look nicer. The Windows app is great, real time quotes, blotter, watchlists, all that you need. Trades are around $9.95 per trade (I didn’t quite figure out the formula, but it depends on how many shares, at what price, but for my last 5 trades I paid $9.95, $10.08, $11.03, $10.02, and $10.08) They have been bought by ScotiaBank, but so far they are running the shop independently. I suspect ScotiaBank will try to bundle some products there (I hope). I would like to see great FX rates and great premuim interest rate for cash balances. Currently cash balances earn 0% interest. With TradeFreedom you can have CAD or USD balance on the account. To transfer money to TradeFreedom, you just set-up a bill payment on your web banking, and there you go, you “pay a bill” to transfer any amount to your TradeFreedom account. To transfer money back, you need to call them, and after password validation on the phone, you can tell them to EFT your cash amount back to your bank. This takes about 2 days to EFT (electronic fund transfer). I believe you can open an RRSP with TradeFreedom, but I haven’t yet. I like this platform, and I hope it gets better with new management of ScotiaBank.

     Mar 8th, 2008 @ 12:53 am

149. 175. Michael Watkins

     TradeFreedom is literally the most expensive of the direct access brokers. Disnat Direct and ETrade are both far cheaper, if you are doing any volume of trades at all.

     TradeFreedom is using a strategy to suck in small accounts or those who do not take the time to add up the numbers, by making its platform “free”… when it is far from it. With every trade, you will pay more.

     Bear in mind that virtually every “direct access” brokerage these days is using the identical tools from Nexa technology, and most (perhaps all?) are using Penson Financial for their back office. Perhaps TD ActiveTrader might be the one exception for back office handling.

     So you are getting the same tool, and for all or almost all brokerages, the same back end processing. Bear that in mind when looking at costs.

     If your account is relatively small, and you do not trade very often at all, then TradeFreedom is a good provider.

     However if you are at all active – even swing trading I push through more than 30 trades a quarter – the transaction costs will quickly make TradeFreedom the most expensive choice.

     I’ve done the following costs based on 120 trades a year, moving 10,000 shares each time. 4 brokerages do not offer a direct access capability… and in those cases, even if prices are similar, you are likely to suffer from increased slippage that will be much more than commission in the long run.

     I’ve plugged in 125 a month for eSignal for those brokerages which have no real time charting package.

     Re commission, the devil is in the details. All of them have different approaches. TD and Credential are the cheapest for active traders because they are not passing on “removing liquidity” fees from the TSX (all these figures are based on worst case TSX trades, but would be similar with US ECN fees). In addition to ECN/TSX liquidity fees, TradeFreedom also charges 1 cent a share.

     These pennies all add up rather quickly. Better to pay for your tools up front, unless you only plan on trading a few times a year.

     eTrade is #2 ranked right behind TD because they cap the removing liquidity fee at max 30$. If you are trading larger sizes, this is very useful in holding costs down. For those with larger accounts, you can get their platform and commission rates without meeting minimum trade volume. This might be useful for those who trade more actively at different times of the year.

     A note on ScotiaMacleod Direct (SMDI) – if you are active with them and/or have a larger account, push them for a “flat” rate. Its still far from great, but instead of paying 200$ on a larger trade, you’ll pay 14.95 (or perhaps 8.95) although they will ding you for multiple fills on the same order on the same day – bad practice compared to the rest of the crowd, but still far cheaper than their standard brokerage rates).

     TradeFreedom is unable to be negotiated on pricing, but they tell me that they are going to have to respond to market pressures. TD is really putting pressure on people.

     Broker Commish Platform eSignal Annual Cost Rank Platform Notes
     TD 1,194.00 1,188.00 – 2,382.00 1 Qualify with 30/qtr
     TradeFreedom 17,514.00 – – 17,514.00 5 Platform costs “free”
     SMDI – Standard 36,000.00 – 1,500.00 37,500.00 No platform, not direct access
     SMDI – Flat (see note) 5,382.00 – 1,500.00 6,882.00 No platform, not direct access
     Disnat 5,274.00 1,188.00 – 6,462.00 4 99/month, free with 40/qtr
     Questrade 5,634.00 360.00 – 5,994.00 3 30/month, free with 60/qtr
     Qtrade 6,394.00 – 1,500.00 7,894.00 No platform, not direct access
     Credential Direct 1,194.00 – 1,500.00 2,694.00 No platform, not direct access
     Etrade 4,794.00 1,188.00 – 5,982.00 2 Qualify with 30/qtr or > 250K assets

     The above probably won’t look pretty, here’s a summation of 120 trades per year, 240, 360:

     120 trades per year:
     Broker Commish
     TD 1,194.00
     TradeFreedom 17,514.00
     SMDI – Standard 36,000.00
     SMDI – Flat (see note) 5,382.00
     Disnat 5,274.00
     Questrade 5,634.00
     Qtrade 6,394.00
     Credential Direct 1,194.00
     Etrade 4,794.00

     240 trades per year:
     Broker Commish
     TD 2,388.00
     TradeFreedom 35,028.00
     SMDI – Standard 72,000.00
     SMDI – Flat (see note) 10,764.00
     Disnat 10,548.00
     Questrade 11,268.00
     Qtrade 12,788.00
     Credential Direct 2,388.00
     Etrade 9,588.00

     360 trades per year
     Broker Commish
     TD 3,582.00
     TradeFreedom 52,542.00
     SMDI – Standard 108,000.00
     SMDI – Flat (see note) 16,146.00
     Disnat 15,822.00
     Questrade 16,902.00
     Qtrade 19,182.00
     Credential Direct 3,582.00
     Etrade 14,382.00

     Mar 25th, 2008 @ 3:17 pm

150. 178. Bruno D

     One thing to always consider before you switch, call your current broker and “complain” politely. I was able to get the same commissions than the “active trader” package at my broker, Disnat (9.99$ per trade always instead of 29$ per trade yukk!). Bottom line is it pays to complain a little, as with pretty much anything in life. Just gather a little bit of info and make it look like you’re just about to switch to another broker (and preferably mention their name to actually show you did some research).

     Apr 7th, 2008 @ 12:57 pm

151. 179. Michael Watkins

     I agree with Bruno, and in fact over the two weeks prior to sitting down with TD Waterhouse, I had called Scotia Macleod more than 6 times to a) complain about rates, and receive an adjustment (not enough) b) seek any information they could give me as to whether they were working on any programs which would be better suited to me, an active trader with a non trivial account, c) see if their subsidiary, Tradefreedom, could come up with a suitable program (they tried, but not in time).

     After switching I’ve had occasion to talk to a few representatives of SMDI and have had mixed commentary from them, but no one, no where along the way, has said “hey, I’ve got a deal for you”.

     In my case my annual commissions were larger than the average Canadian’s annual RRSP account contributions… by a factor of many times.

     You’d think they’d want to keep significant commission revenue. If they could.

     The only conclusion I could come to was that SMDI is quite content to market to a specific type of customers and let the larger banks get the rest, which happens to be the lions share.

     Another approach:
     One rep at Scotia suggested I try to get a better deal after I’m gone. Once you leave a broker, its very likely you’ll be offered a better deal to bring you back. The problem with these organizations – common to many sales organizations – is that they are not motivated to do anything they (individuals) are not specifically compensated for. No doubt the New Accounts group get bonuses based on the intake; while customer service and operations do not.

     Sorry, I’m not interested in switching brokers over and over, and its unlikely that SMDI would be able to meet the cost *and* offer the same type of services (an active trader solution).

     Having eliminated cost per share pricing model, cost per trade value, cost for removing liquidity (common among all direct access brokers *except* for TD Waterhouse), there is very little opportunity to further reduce costs. I don’t see the smaller brokerages being able to touch these low costs for active traders… not any time soon.

     Apr 7th, 2008 @ 1:41 pm

152. 180. Michael Watkins

     I agree with Bruno.

     (Before I launch back into the topic – Bruno, can you comment on your deal with Disnat? Is it 9.95 ALL IN? Or 9.95 plus 1 cent a share plus removing liquidity fees, if applicable to a specific trade?)

     Back on topic:
     In fact over the two weeks prior to sitting down with TD Waterhouse, I had called Scotia Macleod more than 6 times to a) complain about rates, and receive an adjustment (not enough) b) seek any information they could give me as to whether they were working on any programs which would be better suited to me, an active trader with a non trivial account, c) see if their subsidiary, Tradefreedom, could come up with a suitable program (they tried, but not in time).

     After switching I’ve had occasion to talk to a few representatives of SMDI and have had mixed commentary from them, but no one, no where along the way, has said “hey, I’ve got a deal for you”.

     In my case my annual commissions were larger than the average Canadian’s annual RRSP account contributions… by a factor of many times.

     You’d think they’d want to keep significant commission revenue. If they could.

     The only conclusion I could come to was that SMDI is quite content to market to a specific type of customers and let the larger banks get the rest, which happens to be the lions share.

     Another approach:
     One rep at Scotia suggested I try to get a better deal after I’m gone. Once you leave a broker, its very likely you’ll be offered a better deal to bring you back. The problem with these organizations – common to many sales organizations – is that they are not motivated to do anything they (individuals) are not specifically compensated for. No doubt the New Accounts group get bonuses based on the intake; while customer service and operations do not.

     Sorry, I’m not interested in switching brokers over and over, and its unlikely that SMDI would be able to meet the cost *and* offer the same type of services (an active trader solution).

     Having eliminated cost per share pricing model, cost per trade value, cost for removing liquidity (common among all direct access brokers *except* for TD Waterhouse), there is very little opportunity to further reduce costs. I don’t see the smaller brokerages being able to touch these low costs for active traders… not any time soon.

     Apr 7th, 2008 @ 1:46 pm

153. 181. Nitz01

     Re: SMDI

     Just for the record SMDI’s new active trader platform does not charge each time there is a partial fill as was suggested in a previous post. You will be charged a separate commission if you place multiple orders for the same security on the same side of the market in the same day.

     Example:

     Place order to Buy 5,000 shares @ 5.00

     1st fill 2,500 shares @ 11:00
     2nd fill 2,500 shares @ 12:00

     those 2 fills would be consolidated and charged one comm $14.95 or 8.95 depending on your tier (based on # of trades per quarter)

     If however you place the following:

     Buy 2,500 @ 5.00 at 11am
     another BUY 2,500@ $5.00 @ 1pm

     In this case BOTH orders will be charged either $8.95 or $14.95.

     Apr 10th, 2008 @ 7:55 pm

154. 182. Nitz01

     MW,

     I have been going over some of your numbers, just curious how you cam up with $5,382 for SMDI flat fee pricing, in your 120 trades per year example?

     Apr 10th, 2008 @ 9:05 pm

155. 183. Michael Watkins

     Nitz01: SMDI does indeed charge, via their “active trader” commission plan, for multiple fills, same day, same order. I have the commission bills to prove this.

     Re the 5382 – that was a cut and paste error… not sure where it came from. SMDI is closer to 16 – 17K for the example basket of trades I used to model costs. That’s based on larger orders (5000, 10000 shares) getting 2, or 3, fills, while smaller got filled once.

     Is it possible they are charging some people for multiple fills, and not others? Sure, its possible. SMDI is not well organized for the active trader crowd.

     Apr 10th, 2008 @ 11:27 pm

156. 184. Nitz01

     Hey MW,

     Looks like it was an error in your comm charges in that case. They don’t charge a separate comm on partial fills. Personal experience.

     Partial fills should not be charged a seperate commission. They are consolidated overnight. (it is a manual process). If however it is 2 separate trades than it would be subject to a separate commission.

     For SMDI, if you are doing 120 trades per year @ 10,000 shares a trade the total should be $1,794 = 120 * $14.95.

     *** this assumes you place a single trade for the full 10,000 shares 120 times per year.

     Apr 11th, 2008 @ 2:18 pm

157. 185. Michael Watkins

     Nitz01 – I hear what you are saying, and indeed their own order confirmation screens indicate that same day same order multiple fills should all be on one ticket/one price.

     However that is a) not what is (was) happening and b) specifically not what one of their reps informed me on the phone when they set me up.

     At the time of being “blessed” with the flat rate, the rep on the phone also rattled off other things which I would not have access to, such as Quotestream (I’ve no use for it anyway). I was struck with the impression that they are actively seeking to discourage people from going to the flat rate. No surprise – flat rate (as I modelled it) is 16K; the non-flat rate model puts the same basket of trades at 160,000 in commissions.

     Every time my commission rate has been changed, its as a result of *my* actions. Years ago I easily qualified for “select” status; I was looking at transaction costs way back and phoned them up and was told “oh yeah, you qualify, let me bless you”.

     And so on. High rates effectively work to reduce activities; at times I would neglect our RRSP accounts and just work on income producing trading in futures. SMDI loses in both respects.

     Very predictably I look at my returns in RRSP, decide I need to spend a few weeks jacking them up to 20, 30, 40%, and I do – and commission bills again go through the roof, I call SMDI, they offer me whatever rate plan of the day they have, I meet my goal, and ticked off by high transaction costs, go back to futures and a real order entry system.

     This cycle is a little different. There is sufficient competition and competitive offerings out there; I researched, found an appropriate alternative, and *then* gave SMDI and Tradefreedom every opportunity to try to retain my business… and nothing.

     I accept that your experience / rates might be different with them – that jives with my experience with them. I see multiple commission hits on some multiple fill orders; on others I see commission values which make no sense whatsoever. 5000 shares, multiple fills, 16.98 commission. Just doesn’t add up. Perhaps they aren’t disclosing some of their fees – I don’t know, but I’m done with guessing.

     The real problem with SMDI is that they have not recognized that the industry has multiple types of participants and they are not catering to several subsets of participants. Perhaps that’s intentional – I can respect an intentional business decision, but my sense of SMDI is a few executives with fingers in leaky dams.

     If only they were pro-active they could earn more customer loyalty. They a) do not pro-actively identify customers that *should* be at these rates, and b) have a myriad of special deals with customers. I’ve had SMDI reps tell me I’d be better off leaving, and then coming back and negotiating a rate at that time.

     That’s no way to run a railroad.

     I’m sure if I pushed the point I probably could have achieved a truly flat rate, but their other key deficiencies (from the perspective of my longer term needs) made that a non starter. I’d been managing “ok” for some time, but the trade/order entry process really was a kludge which I kept working around… being ticked off with their handling of rates pushed me into looking afield for a more compatible broker, fees, and platform.

     Regarding the difference between your calcs and mine, leaving out the multiple commission whacks per fills, my model costs ALSO include commission AND the use of a real time charting/quoting package. I used eSignal basic service fees for charting/quoting costs if a brokerage did not provide a charting/quoting package.

     SMDI does not provide an integrated order entry/quote/charting package. Their web interface is somewhat better (with the revisions they did over the last year or so) than TDW WebBroker, but certainly is not on par with the direct access features offered by Active Trader and similar competitive offerings by the other, smaller, firms.

     For an active trader, a static (non real time, non streaming) web based order entry system isn’t suitable. One penny on a trade pays for platform fees – if I had to pay them – for brokerages that charge fees for such things.

     Bottom line:

     - TD 7.00 or 9.95 truly flat. Acceptably powerful order entry, advanced order types. For TSX names – for direct access brokerage – they are without doubt the cheapest in Canada right now if you trade frequently and in size, and need the features of an advanced order entry/account management platform.

     - SMDI? 9.95 or 14.95, possibly flat, if the sky is blue and the moon is shining. You’ll need a large account, and lots of activity. No powerful order entry or advanced order types, not even a trailing stop.

     Apr 11th, 2008 @ 3:16 pm

158. 186. yp

     My accountrs are with TD Waterhouse. They do not offer trailing stops and GTC orders. Stock prices in the account are updated next day so cannoy sell a stock based on the price shown. Amertrade was able to offer both traling stops and GTC orders. TDW bought out Ameritrade and yet they do not offer what Ameritrade was offering. I am sticking with TDW because I have consolidated my registered and non-registered accounts with TDW plus because I have banking relationship with them for a long time. I have written to them about this but they are content to be the largest discount broker in Canada! I am thinking of moving at least the non-registered accounts to another broker. Does E-trade offer trailing stops and GTC orders? How soon they update the stock prices of securities already in the account?

     Apr 13th, 2008 @ 9:27 pm

159. 187. FrugalTrader

     I can’t speak for e-trade, but I know for a fact that Interactive Brokers allows trailing stop and GTC orders.

     Apr 13th, 2008 @ 10:19 pm

160. 188. Michael Watkins

     TD Waterhouse “Active Trader” solution does offer GTC and VTSO orders, however the barrier to qualification base on account size alone (100K) is higher than ETrade. Otherwise you need to meet some level of trading activity before you’d qualify.

     IB offers good order management, but, sadly, does not offer registered accounts and its probably a safe bet to take that they never will offer registered accounts.

     Apr 14th, 2008 @ 3:02 am

161. 189. Emma

     Hello

     I am interested in finding a discount brokerage that allows me to set up a non registered account but I am planning to only do a couple of transations a year (buy ETFs and rebalance once in a while, think couch potato investing). You recommend Interactive Brokers for non registered but when I read description is seems more suited to active traders. Any other recomendation for hat I am looking fore (with low budget to start with, about 5 to 10 k)
     Thank!
     Emma

     Apr 26th, 2008 @ 6:02 pm

162. 190. FrugalTrader

     Hi Emma, for a non registered, low activity and low balance, there are 2 practical low cost choices. Questrade and Tradefreedom.
     You can read my Questrade review:
     http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/questrade-review.htm

     My Tradefreedom review:
     http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/tradefreedom-discount-brokerage-review.htm

     Apr 26th, 2008 @ 6:28 pm

163. 191. Michael Watkins

     In addition to Questrade (small independent) and Tradefreedom (small independent now owned by Scotia Mcleod) you also have other choices some of which may influence your decision based on where you bank.

     Or your decision might partly be based on where you live – if you are from Toronto you can go to the offices of most brokerages and sign up there with knowledgable help right in front of you. Larger brokerages have remote offices. Disnat would be a good choice for folks from La belle province.

     You may find it more comfortable to deal with someone at your bank or a street corner office of a larger brokerage than to work remote control with others (such as IB or Questrade/Tradefreedom if they don’t have an office in your locale).

     You’ll get a “flat” fee for trading 1000 shares or less more or less everywhere. Given your account size, you are likely to be trading smaller sizes than 1000 shares more often than not. QTrade or IB both have the cost edge for sub-1000 share trades. If you only trade 100 shares, IB is only 1$.

     However IB doesn’t now nor will they likely ever have RRSP accounts. Having one broker to meet all your needs can be a positive which even if you don’t need it now you may in the future.

     If you only plan on trading a few times a year, costs are not quite as big an issue as they might otherwise be.

     But if you expect to trade more over time, or have other accounts which will bring your total account value up to the minimums that some brokerages require before they give their lowest fees, then perhaps you should look more closely at the range of offerings.

     Apr 26th, 2008 @ 8:03 pm

164. 192. TrendFollowing

     I am with InteractiveBrokers from more than 2 years and I am really happy with them. They are about 10 times cheaper than BMO and all data is real time.

     Apr 27th, 2008 @ 1:54 am

165. 193. Cash Instinct

     I am with National Bank Brokerage.

     I pay the 29$ regular as for any bank when you have low trading and less than X$ worth of stocks and cash.

     Their website is reliable, they answer emails very fast… but they have nothing distinctive that could make someone switch to them.

     They do not DRIP any Canadian Ishares!

     I am unsatisfied with the transaction fees that I have to pay because they will reduce them only if you have $250,000+ in the account with them (or trade 30+ by quarter, which I do not want to do for sure).

     I am currently considering other brokers, this thread was really useful to learn more about the different alternatives.

     May 2nd, 2008 @ 11:49 pm

166. 195. Cannon_fodder

     I’m wondering if IB is the best choice for the following scenario:

     - borrowing to invest in the six figures. IB’s rate is prime – .75% whereas a HELOC will probably be at prime.
     - purchasing a basket of Canadian dividend paying stocks. Lack of DRIP aspect is a negative.
     - will probably make 1-2 trades/month (taking dividends and buying ETF perhaps). Likely in the 25-50 shares/trade. No penny stocks.
     - no plans for options, etc. at this point
     - already have RRSP’s with another broker

     I’m wondering how I can access IB’s margin capabilities. Do I borrow half of what I intend from my HELOC, purchase securities and then borrow the additional money from IB to purchase the remainder of securities?

     The item I’m drawn to most is the savings on borrowing for investing. That would work out to hundreds of dollars / year even factoring in the tax deduction.

     Any thoughts?

     May 8th, 2008 @ 9:54 am

167. 196. FrugalTrader

     CF, IB is a good choice for low margin rates, however, margin usage runs the risk of margin calls. I’m sure a bunch of people got margin calls during the recent correction.

     IB’s margin is pretty simple to use, simply sign up for their margin account instead of their cash account. When the cash balance goes below zero on a purchase, margin will be used.

     May 8th, 2008 @ 10:23 am

168. 197. mk

     quick question…

     currently I have a TDW non-registered cash account… bank with TD so its very easy to transfer money, no fee’s etc… but the commission of $29 is ridiculous.. honestly it would be pretty much perfect if I could get the $9 trades from them, but I am not going to be trading 30 times a quarter, and even if I do im not willing to pay $29 for 30 trades to qualify…

     whats a good alternative to TDW with no fee for maintenance or transfers etc, easy cheap exchanges to US$, easy transfers, security, and cheap trades for a portfolio of around 10k or under ?

     I have my long investments done already with TDW so those are locked in… but basically I want to have a comparable brokerage to TDW with cheaper commissions so I can play around with trading a bit, $29 commission is to much to do this with..

     also I might be buying some stocks under $2… at TDW I believe commission for this is 1.5% prinicipal or minimum $29… anything better then this?

     cibc seems appealing (large bank with low commissions)

     thank you !

     May 13th, 2008 @ 3:08 pm

169. 198. Michael Watkins

     If you have a reasonable relationship with TD perhaps ask them if they have options?

     I am considered by CRA to be a professional trader, and have low cost brokerage accounts (IB for futures) but even with that in mind, I paid Scotia Macleod Direct fees – 25 – 29$ per trade. Yes, its a lot to pay if you have a small amount of funds to trade with; but that should give you some discipline to trade less, but trade better.

     We’ve just gone through the work to centralized all of our accounts at TD, pulling in accounts from Scotia and several other brokers and mutual fund companies. Having all our accounts in one place, a big chartered bank, one not as tainted by the credit issues going on (CM is), gives me some comfort.

     I like IB, but I feel better having my money in a Canadian bank these days.

     Even if I am currently shorting them.

     May 13th, 2008 @ 5:12 pm

170. 199. mk

     i agree about having my money at a Canadian bank, and i definately want to have the ease of having my money and accounts all at TD… and I am planning on calling before switching, but $29 is just plain to much for how much cash im playing around with

     May 14th, 2008 @ 2:15 am

171. 201. FrugalTrader

     mk, TD has a pretty decent commission option if you have over $100k balance between all your accounts with them – $9.99/trade.

     May 14th, 2008 @ 8:52 am

172. 202. mk

     yeah i would love to have to TD $9 trades, would be perfect… unfortunately I dont qualify for them, just called but no luck… so im looking for another discount brokerage to open this week sometime

     May 14th, 2008 @ 12:25 pm

173. 203. f bealle

     http://www.scotiabank.com/rates/fxrates.html

     country Currency/Code Client Buys (Pays Canadian) Client Sells (Receives Canadian)
     United States Dollar (USD) 1.024000 0.979000
     —- this is a spread of 4.5 cents, or around 2.25% for each buy or sell.
     This is the reason I dumped scotia mcleod and went to tradefreedom, which charges less than a tenth as much.
     BNS not only gouges, but conceals the evidence of the gouging in their statements. The forex amounts never specify the fees, just the totals.

     May 15th, 2008 @ 6:36 pm

174. 204. mk

     i read this in the questrade review…

     “The only drawback of questrade is that they don’t provide wash trade like many other brokers except TD waterhouse. If you are in Canada and mainly play with US stocks, you have to suffer the loss of currency conversion every trade. They charge 0.95%, so a buy/sell action will cost 1.9%. For $10,000 trade, it is $190, which is not acceptable.

     Another broker TradeFreedom charges much less, 0.2%, which is $40 for $10,000 trade. So it only beats TDW when the trade is less than 10,000.

     So that’s why I still stay with TDW.

     Just a personal thought.”

     just a quick question on this… I am trading US stocks, and I did a foreign currency conversion in my TD account(s) from CAD to USD to do so… once I sell my purchased stocks in USD the funds go into a US money market fund and I do not get charged any more exchange rate fee’s etc until I decide to tranfer the money back into CAD ?

     is this not the case with IB, CIBC, or Questrade ? you get charged other exchange rate fee’s with them ? does this make the lower commissions with them not worth it ? I think im missing something here or not understanding it 100%

     thanks for the help!

     May 16th, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

175. 205. Lynn Suderman

     Hi MK,

     From your reference to forced currency conversions, I presume you are writing about trading U.S. securities in RRSPs. I’d like to clarify Questrade’s service, as it has changed significantly since the review you quoted.

     This past January, Questrade launched a USD in RSP service that allows clients to hold both Canadian and U.S. currency in registered accounts. In other words, clients can settle U.S. securities trades in USD and Canadian trades in CAD and avoid the foreign currency spread from forced conversions.

     I hope this helps! If you want more details, just go to http://www.questrade.com.

     Lynn Suderman
     Communications Manager
     Questrade

     May 20th, 2008 @ 10:26 am

176. 206. mk

     actually the question was about non-registered cash accounts and currency conversion fee’s

     May 20th, 2008 @ 10:58 am

177. 208. Cannon_fodder

     I hope this will help anyone else using Interactive Broker’s for the first time as this mistake cost me a few bucks.

     If you set up your IB account to be funded by a bank account using an EFT, you first have to go through a test to make sure everything works. They put in a small amount into your account and then withdraw a small amount.

     Once you go through that phase (which takes a up to a few days), you are then ready to be able to transfer large amounts into your IB account.

     So, you go to the deposits/transfers page and choose EFT section. In there you have an option to choose the name you assigned to your funding bank. You then go to a page which only has one input – a dollar amount. What you do NOT see is the name of your funding account (so if you have multiple ones, you better be sure you chose the right one).

     You then enter a dollar amount and hit continue. BAM! The transfer instruction is gone and there is nothing that can be done about it. There is no confirmation page summarizing what you attempted to, there is no do you want to proceed. No, the EFT instruction has been sent and good luck if you made a mistake like I did.

     I have never seen any online brokerage or bank or even etailer that didn’t allow you to review the instruction you gave when it comes down to money.

     Let that be a lesson to you all – it cost me an overdraft charge because:

     1. I believed IB when it said the bank would simply reject it and nothing would happen.
     2. I didn’t call up my bank to let them know that this error was going to come through and issue a stop payment.

     I really don’t like IB’s interface – it is really not user friendly at all but that is the price one pays.

     Jul 28th, 2008 @ 12:42 am

178. 209. FrugalTrader

     Cannon, yes the IB interface is not very intuitive. I would suggest that you run through the demo a few times before making trades. IB has the ability to make really quick trades via their interface, which is ideal for “traders”.

     Jul 28th, 2008 @ 9:45 am

179. 210. Greenhouse

     OK, hopefully this post gets seen somehow. I really like this site but was suprised that I couldn’t see a general forum anywhere, so my only choice seemed to be to comment on the most relevant posting and hope for a reply.

     I’ve been meaning to set up an account with a discount online brokerage for several months. Between focussing on paying off debt and pure laziness, I haven’t actually pulled the trigger yet (and thank god considering the meltdown). I’ve also been waiting for Surviscor to update their Summer 2008 rankings – which were due in September.

     My question:
     I bank and have a credit card with BMO and also a long history of 15 years or so. I’m looking at Investorline but the other options also seem attractive. How much of an advantage is there in sticking with BMO for my investing? Does it matter? Are there benefits? Is there any risk in “holding all my eggs in one basket”? I expect my style will be 80%Investor / 20%Trader.

     Thanks all

     Net Worth = Zero (FINALLY!)

     Oct 2nd, 2008 @ 4:47 pm

180. 211. Traciatim

     Hey Greenhouse, picking a broker is a highly personal thing. One thing I would point out though is if you are starting with no investments it may be better to buy some index funds or something along that line until you can get a few grand together making your transaction fees lower.

     Say for instance you open a TD E-Funds mutual fund account. There are no transaction fees at all and you can set up a monthly payment plan. If you were to do something like put 500 bucks a month in to 2 different stocks each month and your transaction fee is $4.95, you are eating up near 2% in transaction costs.

     On thing you may want to look at is simply setting up a high yield saving account with a regular automatic savings plan and once this amount gets over a pre-set amount (say 2500 bucks) then search for one single stock to purchase or try something similar to this with ShareOwner Investments. ShareOwner lacks some flexibility, but if you commit to doing a once yearly contribution to 15 stocks that you like at the time your transaction fee will only be a total of 36 bucks (0.06% of a 5000 purchase).

     Once you have a substantial amount set aside (say $50K+ or something) you could transfer to a full service broker or discount broker and the transaction fees as a percent of your total invested will be much easier to swallow.

     Oct 2nd, 2008 @ 8:37 pm

181. 212. Returns Reaper

     FT,

     Great post. I’m currently with E*Trade, and I’ve been having a lot of customer service issues with them. So I keep referring back to this often as I consider changing my discount online broker.

     A great addition to this review would be to include whether or not the discount broker offers electronic trades on the Pacific Exchange. This is of particular interest to me lately since I hold several Vanguard ETFs in my RRSP account, and they were recently moved from the American Exchange to the Pacific Exchange.

     I would expect that many other people hold Vanguard ETFs in the investment portfolios as well, so this information may be of interest to a large group of people.

     I found that E*Trade does NOT offer electronic trades on the PCX. You can call in and make a broker assisted trade, and they do waive the $35 surcharge for broker assisted trades in this case. However, when I did this I found it very slow and time consuming — generally just an inconvenience.

     This would be a great piece of information to add to help me make my decision on who to use for a discount online broker.

     Oct 3rd, 2008 @ 11:25 am

182. 213. cannon_fodder

     Greenhouse,

     I was an E*Trade and Investorline customer at the same time. The higher trading fees at BMO, issues with getting simple things done like monthly preauthorized withdrawals and higher account minimums to reduce/eliminate certain costs made us move. We needed to have $250,000 in our BMO RRSP’s to enjoy some of the same features that E*Trade would provide for only $50,000.

     We transferred out of E*Trade to RBC DS for a year and then transferred back. (A good friend joined RBC DS and we were working with him. In hindsight, the lack of DIY with RBC DS was far too restrictive for me.) In the end, we transferred back not to Investorline but to E*Trade.

     I’m not saying that E*Trade is the best, just that for me it is better than Investorline.

     Oct 3rd, 2008 @ 12:25 pm

183. 214. Rino Scarsella

     Need help,

     I am with investorline back way when I had 15 000$ in my rrsp account. I held mutual funds which was fine, no fees.

     About 6 months ago I sold all my mutual funds and switched to etf, 3 to be exact. Ishares shortterm cnd bond and 2 vanguard etf, cheapest in the business.

     i only need to sell, buy to rebalance my asset allocation and paying a 25$ fee rips right into my sides, they freaking hurt my performance.

     I am thinking of moving to questrade until I reach 50 000$ and then move to etrade.

     Can anyone give their thoughts.

     Ps besides the high fees, if you don’t qualify for the 5 star program, all other aspects of investorline was great. From the customer service to the ease of navigating the site, like I said was great.

     Thank you

     Oct 9th, 2008 @ 10:48 pm

184. 215. FrugalTrader

     Rino, Questrade, Tradefreedom and Interactive brokers all offer super low commissions. Do you consider e-trade to be superior to these?

     To answer your question, I’ve been using Questrade for almost 2 years now without a hitch. They are a no frills discount brokerage and are great for basic buying/selling.

     Oct 10th, 2008 @ 9:11 am

185. 216. Rino Scarsella

     Thanks FT,

     The only aspect of why I will switch to etrade when I hit the 50 000$ threshold is because they offer alittle more bells and whistles. I want my online broker to have a performance history either be it on a monthly, quarterly or yearly. If i read right etrade offers this.

     If anyone is with etrade can you please let me know if they actually have this.

     I would love to go to IB, but I forgot to mention that my holdings are in a rrsp.

     Oct 10th, 2008 @ 3:45 pm

186. 217. prairie_dog

     I’ve been using Scottrade until recently when I moved to Canada. After reading this blog and several others, I thought I’d give Questrade a try. But my experience so far has been anything but frustrating.

     First of all, they are really slow in opening my account. It took them several weeks to open the account. Then, funding the account has been near impossible as I have been trying so many different ways in the last four weeks to move the money from my bank account to the Questrade. I thought everything finally worked after two weeks when I got a notification, so I logged in and made some purchases. But then, a few days later, they call me and say they didn’t really get the fund transfer (even though they had my check and they could easily fix whatever the problem they had). Because the money I used to buy the stocks didn’t make, they told me that they would liquidate my position. I begged them not to sell and offered whatever the money needed to cover the position as soon as possible, they still liquidated, giving me an instant realized loss of 15%.

     I immediately made another authorization. It has been another two weeks and half. They took the money, but I am still without access to the trading platform. Now they are tellling me to exchange currency (without knowing how much money that I have in my account) and rejecting the request if I guess it wrong.

     The whole process is very confusing, and the customer service tells me there is no tutorial :( I never had anything this confusing and bureaucratic process.

     Oct 20th, 2008 @ 4:26 pm

187. 218. smcmanus

     Does anyone know it any of the Discount Brokerage Houses offer Investment Loans? Would I be able to use this loan in my Margin account?

     Oct 30th, 2008 @ 12:13 am

188. 219. Cat

     I have been with TD Waterhouse for many years but I am thinking to change to Questrade. Does it cost anything to tranfer money to Questrade or back from Questrade to the bank account? How long this transfer take?

     Oct 31st, 2008 @ 1:59 pm

189. 220. Ahmad

     My experience with Questrade has been horrible at best. Now I am reading similar sentiments from prairie_dog above and several other readers.

     After hearing so many good things about questrade from Frugal Trader (this site), I transferred part of my international portfolio when I moved to Canada and have since wasted countless hours just to execute simple trades. 3 weeks to setup the account, 1% forex spread during trading hours, wash trades not executed as instructed to cust rep to name a few.

     Digging deeper into this site, it looks like FT is getting plenty of advertising and referral $ from questrade. Isn’t this gross conflict of interest while recommending them at the same time? I can understand if FT decides to remove this posting but I sincerely hope he would respond.

     Ahmad

     Jan 2nd, 2009 @ 12:18 am

190. 221. DAvid

     Ahmad,
     While I can’t speak to the blogging world, I do know in the print media that advertising & editorial departments are completely separate, and one has no authority over the other. Thus you have editorial content which may or may not favour advertizers, sometimes unknowingly. I expect a blog is little different — either advertising is supplied from a subscription (eg. google ads) or advertizers seek out the publications in which they want exposure. Therefore, if RFD, or Questrade or others wish to advertize on MDJ, they contact the publisher and enter into a contract, or they address it through some form of aggregator where the ads are distributed to blogs.

     Also, remember a blog is entirely editorial — it really is one person’s opinion, and although Frugal Trader attempts to publish with balance, we are not looking at in-depth investigative journalism here; rather a variety of opinions meant for exchange of ideas.

     People have had a variety of experiences with Questrade (and other on-line discount brokers), some satisfactory, some unsatisfactory (I’ve had none), and I expect your experience is within that range of variability. Beyond commenting here, continue to press for resolution with Questrade, and if you choose another broker, drop by with your experiences.

     I doubt there’s any conspiracy here.

     DAvid

     Jan 2nd, 2009 @ 11:28 am

191. 222. FrugalTrader

     Ahmed,

     Yes, I can see how it appears to be a conflict of interest. The truth is, I joined Questrade almost 2 years ago and I’ve yet to have a problem with them. Granted, I only do very simple trades with them but I would not continue to recommend Questrade on this blog if I didn’t believe in them.

     In addition, I had a public poll on MDJ a little while back, and Questrade won the poll as the favorite discount brokerage in Canada. http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/questrade-review.htm.

     Finally, I only get my trading credit after referrals get their trading credit (after 10-20 trades).

     I hope this clears things up. If you have complaints about Questrade, I would suggest that you contact Emil (evojkollari@questrade.com). He is usually very quick to respond to any client issues.

     Jan 2nd, 2009 @ 3:21 pm

192. 223. newbie

     Hi, I’m a newbie looking to open a non-registered account, am not looking to do a lot of trades per year (at least not for now). Which one would you recommend? Amongst the big bank brokerages, which one is most preferable?

     Jan 8th, 2009 @ 3:24 pm

193. 224. FrugalTrader

     newbie, if you want to stick with the big banks, I believe that TD Waterhouse has the best reputation. However, note that they all charge fees if your account is below a certain balance. If you want a cheaper solution, do your research on tradefreedom, Questrade, and e-trade. The review links are in the post. Hope this helps!

     Jan 8th, 2009 @ 3:43 pm

194. 225. Balabu

     I managing my friends account in Etrade. She has both registered and margin account. What bothers me with Etrade that for registered accounts they don’t offer Money Market funds like every other discount broker that I worked with. The interest on credit balances is almost nil. Actually they offer MM but require holding of 3 month which defeats the purpose of transfering cash to MM. There is a penalty charge for early withdrawal. I am looking for a direct trading brokerage to open a TFSA and move her accounts from Etrade. Her total portfolio is about 90k. My personal account is with TDW and is on lowest trading fee schedule. But for her the trading fee will be $29 which I find too expensive. Assuming 12 trades per quarter do you have any suggestion?

     Jan 20th, 2009 @ 12:44 am

195. 226. Matt

     Balabu, Does she have the same home address as you? TDW looks at a family’s assets (people living at same address) to determine if you are eligible for any discounts.

     Jan 26th, 2009 @ 5:59 pm

196. 227. I closed TDW

     hey i recently looked into TDW, their fees just went up and are killer:
     Canadian equities= 35$ + .06$ per share
     US equities=39$+.08/share
     options=35$ +3.5$ per contract
     yeah, how can they call this a discount brokerage?
     you can get deals though, like, if you do 150 trades/quarter you can just pay 7$ a trade… but if your mgmt is too active you’ll likely lose money anyways…

     Feb 23rd, 2009 @ 10:51 am

197. 228. wx_junkie

     I just found out that CIBC Investors Edge raised their commissions also.

     Market orders for equities went from $25 to $28.95.

     Feb 24th, 2009 @ 4:18 pm

198. 229. J.

     Among all the options, Questrade seems to fit my needs the best, but boy, their customer service is ever unhelpful! Processing new accounts is ever so slow, and they will no contact you even if there is a problem (They just put your account on hold and wait for you to call them.) I first opened my regular stock/margin account last year, and it took about a month to open that account (It required several trips to the banks and multiple attempts to electronically fund the account.) Now I am trying to open a TFSA account, and I started the process in the beginning of February, and it is still not active yet (March 1).

     I know the cliché of “you get what you pay for,” but I had a Scottrade account when I was living in the U.S., and I was treated with respect. I can’t wait to have enough account balance so that I can afford to switch to another firm with better service.

     I’m putting up with Questrade for now, but I’m a little frustrated.

     Mar 1st, 2009 @ 9:08 pm

199. 230. Professional / Non-PRO Subscriber

     I’m new to buying stocks etc, I’m currently employed with Citigroup. Is there an issue if I open up a Trading account with any of the above listed websites. Also would I be classified as a Professional Subscriber or Non-Professional subscriber what exactly do those represent?

     Mar 2nd, 2009 @ 1:23 pm

200. 231. John

     I will not recommend Trade Freedom to anyone. Their customer service is absolutety horrible, always on hold and was treated terrible as well. Even the smallest problem is not taken care of, Account Managers who do nothing and their servers are still not reliable in 2009. Their data fees are not cheap and they want you to do 150 trades per quarter to have any of them waived, which is pretty high.

     Unfortunately none of the banks are any better and I’ve seen TONS of complaints about Questrade all over the internet and their terrible service, long waiting times to open accounts, etc etc. Its too bad these small companies don’t understand how to take care of customers, that is the way to grow and have yet more customers. Questrade also charges for their platform and data fees unless you do 40 trades per month which is also very high.

     IB not having RRSP is really a deal killer, I mean they need to get with the program, that is an awful lot of business they are throwing away.

     I see Creditial does not even charge for data fees, does anyone have any experience with them?

     Any other suggestions?

     Etrade looks to be okay but they charge 100 per month for their platform.

     Mar 5th, 2009 @ 11:20 am

201. 232. wx_junkie

     Not quite sure why CIBC isn’t higher on people’s rankings.

     - $395 fee for 50 trades is unbeatable. I pay this fee out-of-pocket each January, and write it off as investment expense, so I get back about $158 of it – right on!

     - 50 trades for $0 commission – superb!

     - if you go over 50 trades (I don’t), pay only $6.95 per trade – awesome!

     I’ve been with them since 2000, and I’ve never had any issues to speak about.

     Mar 9th, 2009 @ 10:51 am

202. 233. Ahmed

     Scotia has recently launched “Scotia iTrade”. This is etrade Canada with Scotia makeup. I got an email from my Scotia Mcleod account saying they will be integrating all the accounts. And I’m happy to see that they will be reducing the fees to etrade levels.

     Mar 11th, 2009 @ 12:45 pm

203. 234. Mat

     I am currently with Questrade for my RRSP & TFSA. Their fees are cheap compared to the rest of the discount brokerages in Canada, but based on my experience with them, they have the worse customer service.

     It takes on average more than 5 business days for them to reply to emails. I have tried to call them during business hours many times, and found myself waiting hopelessly for eternity for a agent. It appears no one is working at their call centre/support line. In fact, I seriously think they are very understaff!

     I usually wait about 1 month for them to process my pre-authorized deposits, so by the time I actually get the funds transfered into my account, it is already too late and I would miss my buy points of the stocks I follow.

     Their trading platforms are the lowest quality I’ve seen in the online discount brokerage industry. Research tools are very poor. Free services such as Yahoo Finance and Google Finance provide much better tools than Questrade’s.

     I’m also with TD Ameritrade, Bank of America and TradeKing – all based in the US – and the quality of service and technology I get are far better than what I get with Questrade. TradeKing offers the same low fees as Questrade, but their service is very good – in fact one of the best. I remember posting an email after hour and 5 minutes later I received a phone call from their end – I was very surprised at that level of service at such low fees!

     I would advise those who seek quality of service to go with the big banks or at least not with Questrade. If you’re cheap like me, than go with Questrade but expect it to be your worst discount brokerage experience.

     Mar 11th, 2009 @ 10:35 pm

204. 235. John

     Now I am literally fed up with Questrade, it’s one of the worst brokerage firm on the web I have ever seen, may be even third world investors don’t accept its performance.

     Mar 16th, 2009 @ 5:24 pm

205. 236. Zack C.

     BEWARE OF QUESTRADE’S SHADY ACCOUNTING
     PRACTICES

     I have had the single worst experience of my entire life with Questrade over the last few days, as I write this MY ACCOUNT IS MISSING $923.45 or 35% of my entire account balance & life savings after 3 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF ACCOUNT IMBALANCES. I am actively spreading the word of my ordeal through any medium I can until the problem is fixed I have gotten a letter to the editor posted in the Kingston Whig-Standard and am awaiting publication of my letters to the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun and the Globe and Mail. My uncle is one of the webmasters at Craig’s List so I should have a leg up in informing as many people as possible.

     I have personally traded stocks, options and funds for 7 years and ETF’s, FOREX and bonds for 5, so I consider myself informed about the online broker business. I am not a wealthy person but I enjoy investing in a ‘hands on’ fashion. I had an account with E*Trade for 6 years with no problems. A few months ago I left them for Questrade because of the cheaper commissions and their favorable consumer ratings.
     Up until the morning of March 5, 2009 I had a very good experience with Questrade, I even got my account set up in only 4 business days, which was very impressive!

     *Note all figures include commissions and exchange rates at the time of the transaction. Also, I have a TaxFreeSavings account, which means no margin account, no loans, no borrowing, no overdrafts. I can do transactions up to my current cash balance, any more money and it will reject the order because of insufficient funds. I can prove all claims/ figures through screen shots of history and physical account activity forms mailed to me after every day that I traded. With that in mind……

     The night of March 4, 2009 at 4:05PM I bought 23 shares of FAZ (an ETF) @ $79.80 USD=$1,840.44 USD (total after trade commission) x 1.27(the exchange rate at the time)=$2337.36 CAD worth of stock in my account + $54.72 CAD in cash left in my account=$2392.08 CAD is my total account balance.

     The morning of March 5, 2009 at 9:33AM I sold the same 23 shares of FAZ I carried over from the day before @ $86.86USD=$1992.81 USD (after trade commission) x 1.2785(the rate at the time)=$2547.81 CAD + $54.72 CAD (cash left in account since night before)=$2602.53 CAD total cash in account now. But there was actually $2232.04 CAD showing in my account balance when I checked it after the trade like I always do. That means my account was $370.49 CAD… just like that.

     I’m not going to go in to greater detail but the same thing happened the next two days as well taking $165.04 CAD on the morning of March 6,2009 and then again for $396.96 on the morning of March 9, 2009. I suspended my account at that point and stopped trading. They had taken $923.45 CAD by the end of it, or 35% of my life savings (I am still young and busy paying off student loans). I would’ve suspended it after the first day but they assured me it would be fixed and after the second day I was waiting for this manager to call me back, which he failed to do.

     Now you would think that in the face of this irrefutable evidence, and the fact that they admit a computer glitch took money through faulty a exchange of currency from a bunch of other people’s Tax Free Savings Accounts over these same days, that they would admit the error. Boy was I wrong, the real fight had just begun as I spent 2 hours and 06 mins. that day (have long distance phone bill to prove it) on the phone to 3 different people at customer service, trading desk, etc. They just tried to explain it away going down a checklist of things;didn’t add in trade commissions (even though the totals I used from webtrader history have them added in), exchange rate (which I took from the forex website), my miscalculations, etc. Each person would say they would “send a report to the back office and someone would follow up with me in the next few days. Guess what, not one of them did, I called again on Friday March 6, 2009 and asked to speak with a manger that didn’t call me back for 4 business days and when he did he brushed me off, even though they admitted “some money was taken from my account and put back”, $181.82 CAD on March 5, 2009. He refused to understand that I sold stock for this price and then my account balance said I had much less then what I sold the stock for, even though this is very simple concept. Robert Chandler is the name of the “manager” I spoke with. He at one point 30 mins. into the conversation said hold on for 5 mins. and pretended to have an audit done on my account, even though another manager told me audits take at least 3-5 business days. Apparently Rob is a superhuman adding computer… either that or a bald faced liar. I called him on the amazingly quick audit he was able to do and he hung up (I have a witness who was also listening to the call), after 45 mins. of denials. I spoke with him a few days later and said he couldn’t bully me into submission, that I wanted a real audit of my account. He told me a real audit is $75 an hour charged to my account. I asked if Questrade was found to be at fault, would the audit be free? He said no the audit would be around $500.00 in total and would not be refunded even if they found that Questrade took money from my account.

     I then attempted to go higher then Rob by using this excellent comment post and contacting Emil Vojkollari and Nicholas Roussos who seem to help people on this blog solve problems with Questrade, and guess what? I have left 2 messages for Emil seeking assistance in the matter and 4 for Nicholas asking him for help as well and both HAVE YET TO RETURN ANY OF MY 6 MESSAGES. That is not client support, that is an abomination and I intend to make it my hobby for the next few months until every cent of my $923.45 CAD is returned to me with an apology of mass proportions. The ironic thing is that after my forensic auditor finishes his assessment I can take them to small claims court where if found guilty of taking money from me they would be on the hook for $1000’s to pay for my legal counsel (my dad, who charges $300/an hour) and $1000’s for their own legal counsel plus have to explain the verdict to the IIROC Canadian securities regulatory body and risk losing their retail broker license.

     Sorry it took so long to read, but PLEASE, ANYONE WHO DOESN’T ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH QUESTRADE…DON’T, ANYONE THAT HAS AN ACCOUNT ALREADY…CLOSE IT. THIS AGGRAVATION HAS GIVEN MY WIFE AND I WEEKS OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS AND UNTOLD STRESS. This recession has been hard enough on everyone let alone being taken for 35% of my families entire savings. Questrade are at best a terrible company with horrendous customer service and complaint response, and at worst criminal with gross misconduct on the part of ROBERT CHANDLER. You don’t hang up on someone or lie and say you are doing an “audit” that was magically finished in 10 mins. instead of the standard 3-5 days. The fact that neither Emil nor Nicholas has bothered to return my calls proves that the upper management is also not taking customer’s complaints seriously. It’s sad what this world is coming to sometimes, I hope between the huge ad on Craig’s list and the letter in the Whig-Standard, the letters hopefully in the Tor. Star, Tor. Sun and Globe & Mail: people will recognize the absolutely vile way they have handled me. I was only trying to get my family ahead using a discount broker to save fees, I didn’t deserve this, my wife didn’t deserve this and my 5 month old daughter certainly didn’t deserve this. Shame on you Questrade.

     Mar 23rd, 2009 @ 8:20 pm

206. 237. jim

     thanks zack….wouldn’t be setting up an account with Questrade…hope you get your cash back

     Mar 26th, 2009 @ 4:34 pm

207. 238. babysteps

     Zack, thanks for your information! I was about to open an account with Questrade….now i’ll have to think about it.

     I would like to open a TFSA account with either Tradefreedom, iTrade(etrade), or Questrade… well I’m a complete newbe so i’m taking small babysteps…

     I have a question for you folks using TFSA as trading account, I’m only looking to have it as a simple cash account (no margin, borrowing, etc), buy stocks and ETF up to the balance of money i have.

     What I dont understand, or the CS failed to explain to me is, eg, I initially fund my TFSA with 5K, and then, say i’m very lucky and very patentice to be able to make 5% to 5250, and buy again using the 5250 to buy and make another 5% after 4 months, etc… the earnings+intial fund will be more than 5K. Is this allowed without having the CRA penality? Can I use the profit I make from that 5K to buy again and expect no tax on them?

     In reality, my initial fund will be low (~2 to 3K) to learn some experience and insight, what would you experienced traders suggest to use? I am steer towards Tradefreedom right now.

     And what would be the difference between a TFSA and a Cash account (eg Etrade, no margin etc) besides the 5K limit?

     Thank you all for your time and patentice to answering my questions

     Apr 6th, 2009 @ 4:06 pm

208. 239. Ray

     @ babysteps: I know some people have experienced problems with Questrade customer service, and I admit they are not the greatest (zack also posted a complaint on my blog), but if cost is your concern questrade cant be beaten.

     As for your limit, from my understanding as long as the money is within the TFSA you can keep it.so if your 5k grows to be 5250 you can use 5250 to buy other stocks without any penalty. if your 5K goes down to 4K you can NOT add an extra 1K to bring it back up, so it works both ways.

     Difference between the different brokers you mentioned are mainly cost. FT has pointed this out in his comparison, as have i.

     itrade and questrade are the only ones offering FREE TFSA accounts. and trading costs are also lower.

     Apr 6th, 2009 @ 5:27 pm

209. 240. cebolao

     sorry Ray, what is itrade? and as far as i know ever since etrade canada was merged into stocia, the costs are comparable to that of waterhouse.
     is that right?

     Apr 6th, 2009 @ 5:50 pm

210. 241. Ray

     itrade=etrade since scotia took over etrade they renamed it itrade. They are somewhat comparable, but itrade still cheaper with their regular commission (19.99 vs 29.99 TD) and their TFSA account does not have a fee. As well the min. account seize for discount is lower.

     Apr 7th, 2009 @ 3:25 am

211. 242. cebolao

     thanks Ray

     Now does anybody know if there’s anything cheaper than the $20 by itrade other than questrade that can take a TFSA?

     thanks

     Apr 7th, 2009 @ 1:24 pm

212. 243. FrugalTrader

     cebolao, itrade is $9.95/trade if you have over $50k in assets with them. CIBC has $395 for 50 trades (~$8/trade).

     Apr 7th, 2009 @ 1:42 pm

213. 244. Michael Watkins

     In spring 2008 I wrote about moving to TDWaterhouse from Scotia. I had carefully entertained moving all our accounts to various other brokerages including Questrade and TradeFreedom. ETrade I never seriously considered.

     It’s my considered opinion that for me, an active trader trading in size and frequency, that moving to TDWaterhouse was the very best decision I could have made.

     Within a couple weeks of moving my per trade costs dropped from an already inexpensive *FLAT* rate of 9.99 to 7.00. I pay nothing for the platform to trade upon.

     FLAT means whether I trade 1000 shares or 20,000 shares, I pay $7.00, regardless of which account I trade in – RESP, RRSP, cash, margin, etc. I have never seen a commission cost other than 7$.

     At the time I did the comparison between brokerages most had per-share, ECN, or removing liquidity fees. Provided you use auto-routing with TD (I’ve never once felt I needed to do otherwise) you may no liquidity-related fees.

     This is a tremendous savings.

     (For example closing a trade I execute frequently in 20,000 lots would cost me an additional 74$ in “removing liquidity fees” – 0.0037/share – at firms like Questrade and others. At TD it costs me $7.00 flat.)

     Not only is the service stable, fast, reliable – but I’ve found all my interactions with staff to be top notch. Our account transfers were handled quickly; since then we’ve consolidated a few other smaller accounts and they’ve treated us in the same manner as they did when we moved our major accounts over.

     What I notice most is the consistency. TD acts the same way, in my experience, all the time. Maybe I’m just fortunate to hit the right people all the time, although truth be told I’ve not had many occasions to dial them up – things just work.

     I did not experience that consistency as an active trader with Scotia McLeod Direct Investing. I had to go out of my way to get a cheaper rate, despite having known some of the people in the active dept. since Schwab Canada / Priority Brokerage days. Their systems, and front line staff, just are not geared for folks like me, nor the ongoing trend in the industry. Perhaps wtih iTrade that will change but I remain a sceptic for now.

     While my style and level of trading is clearly not for everyone, if you are an active trader, particularly if you focus on Canadian markets as I do ad trade in some size, TD Waterhouse Active Trader fee structure is very cost effective. Its a reliable tool in my kit and I cannot recommend them highly enough for those whose activities look more like mine than those of the occasional trader/investor.

     Apr 7th, 2009 @ 1:54 pm

214. 245. Michael Watkins

     Incidentally, iTrade, for the active investor/trader, suffers from the same pricing issues that ETrade and Questrade have — ECN and “market” fees.

     ETrade always used to bury the notice about market fees deep in its website; I see iTrade carries on that tradition.

     https://www.scotiaitrade.com/pages/home/fees1.shtml
     [*] “Market and ECN fees for trades executed using the Scotia iTRADE Pro platform not included.”

     - and -

     [1] “The above pricing does not include the market and ECN fees that are applied to all trades executed through the Scotia iTRADE Pro platform. ”

     Good luck in finding what those fees are. Nowhere are they clearly linked, a deceptive sales practice bordering on the fraudulent. “Hey, our price is this”… but when you get to the checkout its “this plus THAT”.

     Bottom line: It is clear that Scotia isn’t interested, truly interested, in eating TD Waterhouse’s Active Trader program’s lunch.

     Apr 7th, 2009 @ 2:15 pm

215. 246. Charles in Vancouver

     @Ray: “itrade and questrade are the only ones offering FREE TFSA accounts. and trading costs are also lower.”

     Actually, Credential Direct and Qtrade also have free TFSA accounts. Sailing has been pretty smooth with me at Credential, although if my assets manage to grow past $50K, I would seriously consider iTrade for the lower fees. Since that’s not gonna happen for a couple years, I’ll wait and see if their fee structure remains stable post-merger.

     Apr 7th, 2009 @ 2:43 pm

216. 247. Michael Watkins

     TD Waterhouse charges $50 annually for TFSA; but it (and all other account types) are free for accounts subscribed to eServices (i.e. electronic, not snail mail, statements and confirmations) with total household account assets >= 100,000.

     Apr 7th, 2009 @ 2:59 pm

217. 248. TradingTrevor

     Does anyone have any experience with CMC Markets? I am curious about how they compare to the others in terms of service as their prices are quite reasonable at $5/trade.

     Apr 9th, 2009 @ 1:05 am

218. 249. deved

     sorry if this has been posted already, iTrade’s new fee when assets are below 50,000 or with 29 or less trades / quarter is 20.00 + 0.02 cents / share above the first 1000 shares. so lets see, my 11,000 shares would cost 220.00 to sell. thats a 2% commission assuming the shares trade at 1.00 9which they do!) unless i’m making some big mistake.

     Apr 24th, 2009 @ 7:40 am

219. 250. FrugalTrader

     deved, your calculations are correct. It can get pretty expensive if trading high volumes.

     Apr 24th, 2009 @ 9:04 am

220. 251. deved

     hi again re iTrade fees, thank you for the follow up. i took a closer look, the 0.02 cents a share applies to shares valued above 1.00 and that policy has always been like that. when i bought the shares they were just below 1.00 so the fee was a flat 20.00 but now that they are just above 1.00 it would have cost / will cost 220.00.

     Apr 24th, 2009 @ 5:46 pm

221. 252. Aamir

     I am planning to invest in ETFs, Futures , Stocks in International /Emerging markets. is there any brokerage / Platform available where i can invest directly in international markets in all the above instruments.

     May 13th, 2009 @ 6:46 pm

222. 253. FrugalTrader

     Aamir, for your needs, sounds like Interactive Brokers is the only choice. Note that they do not offer RRSP or TFSA.

     May 13th, 2009 @ 7:50 pm

223. 254. Seb

     The new ” Scotia ITrade” fusion will look nice on paper but as a Tradefredoom client, i’m scared like hell to loose my freedom soon and get the bill for that fusion + poor service !!! Don’t know if it’s the same for ”ex-Etrade” clients ???

     They’ve recently advise us of more fees for the data and soon it will be for the trading desk itself…visit the new web site https://swww.scotiaitrade.com to see all those new fees coming soon near you + it’s now very hard to get any answers clearly from their ”back office” rule about certain new fees lately…. doesn’t smell good at all… anyone have a good plan ” B ” to propose ??? Tks

     Jun 2nd, 2009 @ 6:16 pm

224. 255. Former Itrade client

     Scotia Itrade is pathetic. Their customer support is terribly inadequate. Itrade is notorious for losing personal documents in their departments, causing unecessary delays in opening and administering accounts. This has resulted in lost investment opportunities, for which I trade takes no accountability. They regularly lock up funds and assets due to their own incompetence.

     Their representatives are incompetent and have been caught lying on the phone. Stay away from this company. They are expensive, their investment platforms are inadequate and their service sucks.

     Jun 3rd, 2009 @ 1:53 pm

225. 256. ph

     #255: Do you work for Questrade?

     Jun 5th, 2009 @ 1:52 am

226. 257. seriously!

     #256: Do you work for iTrade?

     Jun 5th, 2009 @ 11:46 am

227. 258. ph

     I used to work at Questrade, actually. :-)

     Jun 5th, 2009 @ 9:04 pm

228. 259. Greg Goss

     TDW margin rate (for me) is prime plus 2. I haven’t been able to negotiate that down in several years of trying, so I finally moved my eNorthern margin acct (via questrade) to TDW.

     TDW RRSP fees are $100 per year if you have less than some cut-off. (You say $25K; I seem to remember $50K). However, if you’re only doing mutual funds and bonds, you can get an account that charges $25 a year.

     Jun 7th, 2009 @ 1:11 pm

229. 260. Cebolao

     Pardon my ignorance, but which company is eNorthern?

     Jun 8th, 2009 @ 4:15 am

230. 261. seriously!

     Do you guys really think Questrade or itrade really cares about what’s written here? The integrity of this info is as low as it can possibly get :)

     Jun 8th, 2009 @ 11:16 am

231. 262. Colin

     For beginning investors i would reccomend Q-Trade. As much as the commissions may be high, the help desk is top-notch. I call probably once a week. Here’s why i think qtrade would be best for newbies like myself.
     1) I’ve NEVER been put on hold. Not for a minute, not for a second, not ever.
     2) The staff speak clearly and will spend as much time as you require to answer your question.
     3) I’ve asked questions ranging from the most basic investing questions; “why can’t i short ABC stock?” to the most advanced straddles and strangles questions i could muster. It is like having your personal trading encyclopedia just a phone call away.
     4) The same people work at the call center daily! I know, amazing. No turnover as far as i can tell. That makes things allot better when you know you’re not going to get some pimply faced little kid who hates his job commenting on how to run your life savings.

     I’ve been extremely impressed with qtrade thus far. The commisions might be a problem later, but knowledge is more valuable right now. I must say, i wouldn’t be the trader i am today without the help i’ve received from qtrade.

     Colin.

     Jul 28th, 2009 @ 6:26 pm

232. 263. Alan

     Last winter I investigated all the online brokerages, and decided to go with Qtrade also. I was a trading beginner, and also find that their help is very, very good. at first I was intimidated to even ask questions, but now I call anytime. They have been great.

     I now have over 100K so got my commissions reduced greatly. I have moved all my “remote” (as in scatterd) RRSPs and cash accounts to Qtrade, so to make my investments more manageable. They will cover transfer fees up to $125 per account that is over $25K.

     Jul 29th, 2009 @ 3:12 pm

233. 264. Micki

     Hi,

     Does anybody deal with Disnat? They seem to have $5/trade >$10 000, which seems to rival all the best cheapy ones ($30/trade<$10 000 though). They also have TFSA’s and RRSP’s. I’m thinking of opening up with them, but really can’t find much info on them online, other than their own website…

     Thanks!
     Julie

     Aug 4th, 2009 @ 5:04 pm

234. 265. Greg

     Is there a CANADIAN broker that supports ALL the below:

     1)TFSA

     2)Contingency Orders: ie if stock price A goes up $3, buy a CALL option, if it goes down $3, buy a PUT option.

     3) Access to US and Canadian Markets

     4) Fees in Canadian Dollars!

     I could live with just the first 3!

     OptionsXpress.ca has a great platform that supports contingent orders BUT no TFSA, NO Canadian markets and Fees in $USD.

     All the other american sites masquerading as canadian ones are same NO TFSA or $CDN Fees and many with no CDN market acccess!

     I have yet to find any brokers that do TFSA and contingent orders please help!

     CdnTraderGuy

     Aug 10th, 2009 @ 9:21 pm

235. 266. Paul

     Hi,

     I want to open up a Interactive Broker account to do some day trading possibly. I am planning to invest 10K to open up the account, maybe withdraw 5k back once the account is open and do my trading with 5K. Should I be aware of anything with Interacive broker? Anything funny? Secondly does anyone know if 25K minimum limit also applies for trading in canadian exchanges for day trading. Finally if anyone is already doing day trading, how do you report income from dividend, capital gains?

     Thanks in advance.

     Aug 26th, 2009 @ 9:00 pm

236. 267. May

     I have very bad experience with questrade and look for a good canadian discount broker. I would like to read other people’s opinions to find a good one.

     Aug 30th, 2009 @ 10:14 pm

237. 268. Rick

     what is the safest way to invest/secure large amounts of money- Talking over $10,000,000.00
     Please advise

     Sep 15th, 2009 @ 4:05 pm

238. 269. Ray @ Financial Highway

     @ Rick with over 10Million i suggest you find a great Portfolio Manager and a CPA accountant.

     Sep 15th, 2009 @ 4:07 pm

239. 270. Zig

     Hi all.

     I visit theis site frequently, but rarely post. I love the site. I have a question that I hope someone can help with. I am just getting started investing my TFSA, using Credential Direct. I am only starting with $1,000 to get the hang of online trading, before putting more money into it.

     I have a question about the fees for online trading. How are they paid? Say, I have $1,000 in my TFSA account and want to invest $900, leaving $100 in my account. Then, the fee for the transaction is $19.95 — does that get deducted from the same account leaving a total of $80.05(ignoring taxes, etc) in the account?

     I have searched the site and am not sure how the fees and commissions are paid?

     Sep 15th, 2009 @ 11:38 pm

240. 271. FrugalTrader

     Zig, yes, the cost of commission is added to the cost of purchasing. So basically, if it costs $20/trade, and you purchase 10 shares @$10, then it would cost $120 for the trade.

     Sep 16th, 2009 @ 6:41 am

241. 272. Zig

     Thanks for the quick answer.
     Another quick question. I emailed(after business hours) Credential Direct on this, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to post the question here to see if anyone might know the answer.

     I finally tried to purchase some U.S. stocks (AMTY) with my TFSA account, but the trade request was denied stating that these stocks were not eligible for purchase under a TFSA account. Is this due to the stocks being in U.S funds? Is anyone familiar with Credential Direct or is this a TFSA issue?

     Sep 16th, 2009 @ 10:48 pm

242. 273. FrugalTrader

     Zig, when you tried to purchase these stocks, was it after hours? Some brokerages won’t allow after hours trading. Otherwise, US equities are allowed in a TFSA.

     Sep 16th, 2009 @ 10:54 pm

243. 274. Zig

     Just an update to my issue with purchasing a US equity through my TFSA. I tried again today to purchase a US equity with my TFSA, after the market opened, but still an error message displayed as TFSA ineligible. I called Credential Direct and they stated that AMTY, the stock I was buying, was an over-the-counter(OTC) stock and as per CDN Govt rules, could not be purchased with a TFSA.

     This seemed a little odd to me as it is listed with NASDAQ — I am not quite sure what identifies it as OTC — I wish I had asked, but I was not near a computer at the time of the call.

     Sep 17th, 2009 @ 11:35 am

244. 275. John Neufeld

     I have just received several “Pink Sheet” share certificates. Does anyone know a broker in Canada that will accept these? I must have contacted at least 20 brokers and no one accepts them.

     Sep 24th, 2009 @ 2:42 pm

245. 276. Jay

     i have read thru the majority of these posts and they are totally helpful.
     i’ve been watchin the market for about 7 years, basically since i was in skool. i finally pulled the trigger on the market back in august. i used tdw. man they are pricey, i’m talkin about the 29 per trade deally. i guess its not too bad if you have tons of coin in the market but I don’t. I recently called CIBC investors edge from what i understand they make you buy a pkg of 12 trades. the cost of this pkg is 99 beans. it works out to 7.90 per trade. thats a far cry from 29.i’m thinking of going that way, hell it would save me tons of quon. i figured out i spent 800 quon in commissions btw aug and sept. with IE i figured out i woulda spent 200… thats a rediculous difference. any one tried IE? what do you think ? i also thought of different stradegies i might have employed with cheaper commissions. i think i really blew a wheel by not doing my due dillegence when it came to brokers … and trading stradegies. does any one have any trading stradegies they would like to share ?

     Oct 1st, 2009 @ 5:21 am

246. 277. Jeach!

     I just wanted to point out that I saw a yearly brokerage review/report in the Globe & Mail recently and discovered something amazing (well at least for me).

     I’ve been trading the international market a lot more recently but only by means of ETF because our banks thinks those markets are not important and don’t offer them to us.

     The only one for which offers anything but the North American markets are Interactive Brokers. But for one, they don’t offer RRSP or TFSA accounts and their customer service support doesn’t seem too great either.

     But none-the-less, I found out that HSBC offers many European and Asian exchanges (direct and non-direct). And you can also have RRSP and TSFA accounts to do this too.

     They may not be too competitive in price and support but at least one bank (non-Canadian) offers it.

     Nov 18th, 2009 @ 12:58 pm

247. 278. Mike

     Does anyone have a US brokerage account. I have one with first trade but they are telling me that i have to close it because i’m not a US resident?? I have had it for 10 years.
     Does anyone know of any brokers that are accepting non resident accounts??
     Any help would be great!!!

     Jan 12th, 2010 @ 5:45 pm

248. 279. Hussein

     Just read the TD Waterhouse fees for 2010, which come into effect March 15th, and I’m not pleased. trades will now cost a minimum of $43, and there is significant upside on them depending on stock price and lot size. No longer qualifies as a ‘discount brokerage’ for me. I’m back in the market for a new provider, and will likely switch my TFSA over before the fees come in to effect. Not a heavy trader, just trying to direct my own tax free savings. Will likely go with Questrade unless I hear of another low-priced competitor with fewer complaints on this site and others…

     Jan 25th, 2010 @ 3:50 am

249. 280. dealSeeker

     I am looking for a good and cheaper discount broker too. But definately I will not choice Questrade. There are so many complaints from Questrade clients. Questrade does not treat its client well and so many people switched out. You better read customer comments before you open an account with them.

     Jan 25th, 2010 @ 6:53 pm

250. 281. JM

     Do not open an account with iTrade. It has been a month and they still have not been able to open an on-line account for me, due to their incompetent staff. Their customer service phone line is always busy, and you are on hold forever. Be warned, iTrade is the worse.

     Feb 21st, 2010 @ 7:05 pm

251. 282. Jay

     I am a non-resident of Canada, and living in Singapore. I am not a US cetizen.

     I would like to open a share trading account with a online brokerage from Canada. I defintely don’t like Questrade.

     Can anyone help whether any brokerage will open an account for a non-resident?

     Thanks for your ATTENTION and help

     Jay

     Feb 28th, 2010 @ 1:19 pm

252. 283. name

     Jay,

     here are some broker that offer accounts for foreigners and provide debit cards for money withdrawal: MB Trading, FirsTrade, TD Ameritrade.

     Also you may want to look at this list:
     http://www.broker-reviews.us/

     May 24th, 2010 @ 2:18 am

253. 284. AK

     BMO INVESTORLINE,

     I just want to express my frustrating experience with BMO investorline. I transfered my account from B2B a/c to BMO investorline, I was expecting some reimbusement of fees. Guess what, for $15,000 value account they offer only $25.00 refund on transfer fees. There are so many others who offer a lot more (even RBC discount brokerage offers more than $100).

     BMO investorline boasts of large selection of funds on their website. That’s true, but you can’t buy most of them. How funny? Why do they display funds on their shop front that they can’t even sell.

     I was not able to buy some simple index funds offred by TD bank via BMO investorline.

     Like Benjamin Graham once said,” the investor’s cheif problem-and even his worst enemy-is likely to be himself.” I can only blame myself for making a poor decision and not doing enough research about BMO investorline.

     My feedback may help other potential clients look to switch to BMO investorline.

     May 27th, 2010 @ 12:31 pm

254. 285. Connor

     @MDJ – You don’t suppose it’s time to update those charts above? 2006 seems like an eternity ago!

     Just to add to AK’s comments: No matter how much research you do, you still end up on the losing end. Brokerages rarely tell you everything on their site until after you open an account. Extra fees and “bundling” of products (such as allowing you to link only their own bank account with the brokerage account – apparently illegal in Canada) are very common. Even those “surveys” are suspect since they cannot get personal contact info from the brokerages and are often paid for by the brokerages themselves. (or the info is provided in aggregate from the brokerages).

     May 31st, 2010 @ 3:35 pm

255. 286. Z

     @Jay: I don’t recommend going with CIBC Investors Edge. I’ve been with them for about a year with a registered trading account, they totally suck. They advertise $7.9 commission, but you’ll see how many times they will be unable to fill your order, I’ve had one what they filled in in 5 parts charging the $7.9×5 for the trade. We’ve sent our transfer-out forms to their Toronto office in March. 2 weeks later since nothing happened, I gave them a call to follow-up. The guy said ‘Ah that address is not the right department, I need to resend the forms.’ The other address is in the same block, but no, they don’t forward the papers. Ok, we’ve sent the forms again, guess what it’s June, but they’re still sitting on the money. Very bad business practices. And all this for $150 Transfer out fee.

     Jun 13th, 2010 @ 1:33 pm

256. 287. Andy

     I have a Questrade account, signed up with eStatements but noticed that I had a charge for $1, and $0.05 GST for a ‘mail confirm fee’. I emailed customer service and they responded with “I am sorry for the inconvenience. You should not be charged this fee, and I will put request to rebate you this amount.” I’m disappointed that it showed up in the first place, if I hadn’t checked my statement I would have been charged an extra buck. I’ve had a good experience with Questrade so far so I’d just say review your statements every once and a while.

     Jun 24th, 2010 @ 3:10 pm

257. 288. David

     I am puzzled why TD-Waterhouse has not been included.
     There may be a minimum balance required to avoid any annual fees,
     But all stock trades are $9.99 and options seem to be $9.99 plus $1.00 per contract.
     Drips are automatic. Real time quotes provided as well as reports from most major companies that have reviewed the stock in question. e.g. for RIM they have Standard and Poor’s, Reuters, Ford Investor Value Graph, etc.
     A lot of features are included. Also easy switching to/from EasyWeb.

     Jul 9th, 2010 @ 7:06 pm

258. 289. FrugalTrader

     @David, TD Waterhouse is represented as TDW on the table.

     Jul 9th, 2010 @ 7:53 pm

259. 290. Christian Jean

     @David, are you actually with TD Waterhouse? I’m curious because I’ve been to a TD shop several times in the past few years. And believe me that once you actually ask questions about their platform and fees, you realize that they offer nothing but standard bank services and fees.

     When I asked them about all those ads I saw on TV, they said that’s for the Americans… go figure! When I ask them why Americans get to trade at such low cost (no strings attached) and why they charge Canadians so much, their answers are… “there is little competition in Canada”. That’s directly from the mouth of one of their managers.

     Don’t forget that all the big banks offer the low $9.99 deals, but in reality it’s set up in a way that its hard to get those deals and keep them. You must maintain the trading levels or loose it and must re-qualify each time!

     I and others may have had frustrations with Questrade… but you’ve got to admit… they are unbeatable in regards to prices!!! Let’s hope they will commit to their clients by listening to their needs and keep innovating while keeping costs as low.

     Jul 10th, 2010 @ 3:42 am

260. 291. Looking

     I heard TD Waterhouse is good but the price is high. I know Questrade has low price but their customer service is bad. I am thinking of using iTrade because it has lower price. Is anybody still dealing with iTrade? Is iTrade getting better now?

     Jul 10th, 2010 @ 1:16 pm

261. 292. huzzee

     I agree – in fact, I left TDW because the new fee structure requires a minimum transaction cost of $43 up from $29. As a low frequency trader with less than 100 K to invest, switching to Questrade made sense. haven’t had any issues, but have only made a couple of trades thus far, so we’ll see how it goes.

     Jul 12th, 2010 @ 8:00 pm

262. 293. mikeee

     Online stock trading are very much helpful and this can help in many ways.It also beneficial for trading fields.

     Jul 31st, 2010 @ 4:32 pm

263. 294. sam

     CIBC Investors Edge has no compassion for small time investors. I’ve been trading with them for years reaping from me thousands of commissions. They have no consideration at all. Don’t open an account with them. Try questrade or trade freedom.

     Aug 19th, 2010 @ 4:40 pm

Trackbacks

1. iClubbin’ in the Hills … » Some Reviews for Questrade - Jan 30th, 2007
2. Who should contribute to an RRSP? - Million Dollar Journey - Feb 6th, 2007
3. CIBC Offers Low Trading Commissions! - Million Dollar Journey - Feb 20th, 2007
4. We Opened a New RRSP Account with… Questrade! - Million Dollar Journey - Jun 6th, 2007
5. Interactive Brokers Review - Million Dollar Journey - Jun 25th, 2007
6. Canadian Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) - Million Dollar Journey - Jul 11th, 2007
7. E-Trade Canada Review - Million Dollar Journey - Jul 19th, 2007
8. Carnivals and More - Million Dollar Journey - Jul 20th, 2007
9. Low Interest Credit Cards WebLog » Blog Archive » Through Foreign Eyes - Jul 25th, 2007
10. CIBC Investors Edge Review | Million Dollar Journey - Aug 12th, 2007
11. Best of August 2007 and More! | Million Dollar Journey - Aug 31st, 2007
12. chrisperruna.com » Blog Archive » Friday Elite Money Links - Oct 19th, 2007
13. Friday Elite Money Links - Stock Trading To Go - Oct 19th, 2007
14. Questrade Referral Promotion - Oct 27th, 2007
15. Choosing a discount broker « centsprout - Nov 15th, 2007
16. Weekend Reading - Nov 23, 2007 | Million Dollar Journey - Nov 23rd, 2007
17. RESP - How To Get Started - Nov 23rd, 2007
18. 25 Ways I Save Money | Million Dollar Journey - Dec 3rd, 2007
19. Best of Million Dollar Journey: 2007 Edition | Million Dollar Journey - Jan 1st, 2008
20. MFs, HFs, and ETF’s oh my - Jan 10th, 2008
21. Questrade USD RRSP and Referral Promotion | Million Dollar Journey - Jan 14th, 2008
22. The Basics of RRSPs: Registered Retirement Savings Plans ? Get Rich Slowly - Jan 17th, 2008
23. Discount Broker Options for Dividend Reinvestment Investors » The Dividend Guy Blog - Feb 5th, 2008
24. Just Starting out with RRSP’s | Million Dollar Journey - Feb 7th, 2008
25. Think or Swim Discount Brokerage Review | Million Dollar Journey - Feb 12th, 2008
26. VISA IPO is going to be Huge! | Million Dollar Journey - Feb 25th, 2008
27. Questrade Improves Commission Structure | Million Dollar Journey - Apr 4th, 2008
28. Questrade Offers Free Trades in July! | Million Dollar Journey - Apr 4th, 2008
29. A Guide to Trading « Early Investor - May 6th, 2008
30. Reader Mail: How Do I Reduce Investment Fees? | Million Dollar Journey - May 14th, 2008
31. How to Buy and Sell Shares on the Stock Market | Million Dollar Journey - Jun 16th, 2008

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