Comments on: Canadian Online Discount Stock Brokerage Comparison

By: Jeach!

Jeach! — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:28:08 +0000

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.

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:51:04 +0000

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 ?

By: John Neufeld

John Neufeld — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:12:19 +0000

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.

By: Zig

Zig — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:05:32 +0000

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.

By: FrugalTrader

FrugalTrader — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:24:41 +0000

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.

By: Zig

Zig — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:18:42 +0000

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?

By: FrugalTrader

FrugalTrader — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:11:40 +0000

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.

By: Zig

Zig — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:08:39 +0000

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?

By: Ray @ Financial Highway

Ray @ Financial Highway — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:37:42 +0000

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

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:35:12 +0000

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

By: May

May — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:44:09 +0000

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.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:30:07 +0000

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.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:51:15 +0000

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

By: Micki

Micki — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:34:52 +0000

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

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:42:18 +0000

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.

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:56:10 +0000

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.

By: seriously!

seriously! — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:46:02 +0000

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 :)

By: Cebolao

Cebolao — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:45:44 +0000

Pardon my ignorance, but which company is eNorthern?

By: Greg Goss

Greg Goss — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:41:21 +0000

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.

By: ph

ph — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:34:38 +0000

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