I was searching today for any broker in Canada that would trade large amounts of Canadian shares for any kind of a reasonable price. The only thing that came anywhere close was the possibility of Questrade expanding into the Canadian markets. I talked to them on the phone today and from what I can gather there may be the possibility of trading 5000 shares on the TSX for fees close to the $9.95 that Cybertrader charges in the US. The people there told me that the more they hear from Canadian Investors asking for this, the better the possibility of it happening. You can email them at support@questrade.com Here is the email I received from them today: Hi Mxxxxx, Funny you should mention it but we are in the process of firming up Canadian trading rates right now. If it's ok, I'd like to call you tomorrow with a per share deal on Canadian trading which should save you a bundle. Ill be in touch, Gary Miskin VP Business Dev., Questrade ----Original Message----- From: Mxxxxx Exxxxxxxxx [mailto:exxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 5:11 PM To: support@questrade.com Subject: Expanding to the Canadian Markets Dear Sir/Madame, I trade equities quite often in the Canadian and American markets with a couple of different brokers. I have a few hundred thousand dollars in some RRSP accounts that I'd also like to trade. The type of trading I would like to do with these RRSP accounts would be for short term trading, a few hours or days for around 1000 to 10000 shares. The problem is when I try to do this with any Canadian Broker I'll have to pay huge commissions. Say for example if I were to buy and sell 10,000 shares of a $2 stock in one day I would have to pay $200 X 2 =$400. This would make it virtually impossible to take advantage of any short term profit opportunities. I've heard that Questrade is considering expanding into the Canadian markets. If they do this and they continue with pricing comparible to what is charged in the US I would be very interested in transferring all of my accounts. I'm sure there are many other Canadians that would also consider transferring their accounts as well. I hope that your company expands into the Canadian markets very soon. Regards, Mxxxxx
IB is almost through the beauro maze in Canada. Either in late summer or early fall. You think they'll let QT beat their rates?
It looks like Interactive Brokers will soon be expanding into the Canadian markets but they won't offer RRSP accounts for awhile. Here is a recent quote from IB's discussion forum: "Tim O'Meara IB Staffmember Username: Ibtim Post Number: 30 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Monday, May 05, 2003 - 02:09 pm: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't know what our price structure will be for the TSX, you can bet it will be the lowest in the industry. RSP accounts will most likely not occur for awhile. " For my cash accounts I'd just as well prefer to trade in the US for better liquidity and smaller spreads as opposed to the TSX. The only reason I'd want to trade in Canada is because I have to with my RRSP. Questrade already has RRSP accounts and I believe they'll soon be offering trading on the TSX. (For our American friends RRSP accounts are the Canadian equivalent of IRA's)
IB is registered in most provinces now, but as far as I know they don't allow trading in Canadian equities, or RRSP accounts. Does anyone know if this is in the works for IB? I'd be there with all my retirement funds in a second.
If you look in my post just above yours you'll see the quote from the IB Staffmember: "RSP accounts will most likely not occur for awhile"
you may want to press the point about TSX being mostly useful in RSPs in that same thead, maybe it would help IB change their thinking on RSPs ... http://www.interactivebrokers.com/discus/messages/347/11378.html?1052356264
Take a look at Australian commissions in comparison to ours: http://www.stockbrokerguide.com/australianstockbrokers.htm If I wanted to buy 10,000 shares of Air Canada today at $2.00 it would have cost me $200. In the US it would be about $10 in Australia it would be $25. Does anyone have any idea why our commissions in Canada are so ridiculously high?
About TSE, Tim O'Meara, mentionned that IB have submitted already their formula, and it seem that this could be completed for this summer (if everything is right). Recent seminar from him gave to us this message in his presentation and on IB Forum we can see a message in this direction also. For RRSP, as you can read in this thread, no hope in near future, very sad for us! I don't know if a middleman or proxy with «Introducing Broker» that could act for them in this area as suggested on the IB Forum. This could be a nice workaround for every body and IB. For the moment, in direct acces in Canada with RRSP, the only true solution for the moment are JitneyOnline (subsidary for Terra Nova in Canada), and DisnatDirect a new bank brokers with per share fee. This is a special case for Canada, because many people have their investment in RRSP and the only brokers that do this are the banks usually, but now that the Canadians begin to trade truly their problems is to find a direct access brokers and the knowledge is in the USA. The biggest challenge for US brokers is to broke the Canadian bank mopolistic practice, and it seem hard to do until now ...
The majority of people in Canada oppose any kind of integration with the US. They believe that integration is something driven by big business so they can take advantage of Canadians. Who's being taken advantage of right now though with $400 commissions? I've read that if Canada started to use the American dollar we would lose part of our identity. However I've also read that currency exchange is one of the biggest money makers for the banks. They can make an instant 2% every time they convert from one currency to another. The last things the banks would want is a single currency. 2% doesn't sound like much but any daytrader would love to make that kind of return every day with so little risk or effort. I suppose it's nice to be proud to be a Canadian but does it have to be this expensive?
what integration with the US has to do with (predatory?) monopoly pricing services (stock/options commissions, mutual fund MERs) which you are required by law (foreign content limit) to use for your retirement savings?