“i am concerned about the risks of brokerage insolvency and street-name ownership.”

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by all of that, but if a ‘broker’ becomes insolvent, it is quite different than a bank. At a bank, you will lose all monies greater than what the government protects. But at a broker, you own the title to your securities, so it can go broke all it wants, those titles still belong to you and would get transferred to whomever would take over.

Additionally, you say: “Costs are important and this table helps.”

Then that leaves pretty much two options (in my opinion):

Questrade and Interactive Broker

14. Margin:
The following provisions apply only to margin-enabled accounts.

Everybody do that when you OWN money… Read before posting things out of context please.

I did some research and found this on the CRA site: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it320r3/it320r3-e.html#P216_33921

“¶ 23. The writing of a naked call option, whereby a plan trust sells a call option in respect of an underlying property which it does not own, may result in the plan trust being considered to be carrying on a business. The same result may arise where a plan trust engages in a short sale, i.e., the plan trust sells property that it does not own. An RESP that is carrying on a business is revocable. An RRSP or a RRIF will be liable for income tax on its taxable income for any year in which it is carrying on a business.”

In summary, it says that you can’t hold a naked call or a short sale in your RRSP, RRIF or RESP.

The above doesn’t mention TFSA’s, so I did some digging and found this:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/tfsa-celi/glssry-eng.html#Nonqualified

“Prohibited investment: This is an investment to which the TFSA holder is closely connected. It includes: a debt of the holder;… ”

“Qualified investment: Common types of qualified investments includes: money, Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs), government and corporate bonds, mutual funds, and securities listed on a designated stock exchange. The types of investments that qualify for TFSAs are generally similar to those that qualify for registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs).
“

Also (in case you missed it)” There is a more recent (also useful) analysis of online brokers in the Globe & Mail ’s Nov 2011 annual rankings.

I checked again, this time with the trade desk and a Cash Secured Put requires a Level 2 authorization for US retirement accounts. I have a level 2 authorization but it is modified for RRSP’s. Canadian regulations are the culprit.

Sooooo NOT ALLOWED.

OCO orders. Both companies have free trial versions of their platforms.

OptionsXpress Canada (Margin, RRSP and TFSA accounts, USD only)
and ThinkorSwim Canada (Margin only, USD only)

I trade major Canadian companies on these platforms, I just do it in US dollars.
I try to fund the accounts whenever the C$ pops above the US$

Thanks!

I was wondering if there is a Canadian online brokerage that does the same.
I would rather not have the added complication of maintaining a short position on the stock in order to write a put when I either want to just collect premiums or I want to actually buy the stock.

If you’re thinking about signing up for Options Express, send me a note (totorofurball@gmail.com). If I refer you, we can both get $100

If so, you may be in luck because they have branches everywhere and I would recommend you walk into one. It doesn’t have to be the financial division either.

Many, many years ago, I had issues at RBC in my trading account similar to what you are describing. So I walked into my RBC branch and demanded that I talk to a person authorized to take decisions (normally you have to talk to lower people, they saw that I was furious… but respectful). I ended up talking to the bank manager. Not only was she able to waive these fees, she ended up giving me a bunch of advantages also (lowering my margin account to prime + 1, free safety deposit box, etc).

These people that you usually call at some help desk have almost no power and also are not mandated to think for themselves. If it says you owe $100 in fees, there is no arguing with them. But a bank manager will recognize your business value and can change things.

Talk about not seeing the forest and staring at the tree! Oh, and I have been an account holder for over 20 years with BNS and 11 yrs with SMDI.

I became concerned after I was unable to amend an order or cancel it.

Customer service is dreadful. It’s taken me countless phone calls, faxes of documents and a series of stalling tactics by Questrade before they closed my account. They insisted it could only be done by phone (1-855-222-3009). I made two separate calls and it quickly became apparent they only wanted to try to convince me to keep my account open. The agent offered me a bonus(?) if I’d consider staying, He said they were working on new software that should correct their trading problems. He admitted they’ve employed customer service agents that aren’t well trained. Getting my funds returned was even more difficult. They insisted that I provide either a void cheque or a stamped and signed deposit form from my bank, in spite of the fact I had added funds from that same bank account less than 2 weeks previous. After I provided both forms they said my cheque had been rejected because they don’t accept temporary cheques. They apparently expected me to order cheques that would never be used in order to satisfy one more of their anal rules. I reminded them I had also provided a stamped and signed deposit slip and they quickly backed off.

They offer cheap commissions but in my opinion their poor service and trading problems are far more expensive in the long run. It seems Questrade is a company with a trading system that is archaic and has become mired down in bureaucratic nonsense by a management that doesn’t know how to solve its problems.