Any ideas for the best trading brokerage for Canadians?

sp2020 · Oct 7, 2011

Can someone here help... I am looking for the best brokerage with professional trading platform available for Canadians. I have account with Questrade and extremely disappointed with their platforms. TDWaterhouse doesnot have any better flatform either. So those two will be out, I am not interested in them at all. And I am looking for low trading fees for active trader, $5 unlimited is my preferred commission prices.Thank you for any suggestions in advance.

Confessor · Oct 9, 2011

Hi sp2020,

I have been using Questrade too (Elite version) for about 2 years and never been very happy with it either, but it was the best I could find at the time for my needs. (low commissions, fast order entry, CAD accounts, pre/after market hours)

Before settling on Questrade though, I had done extensive research and demo trials and, fyi, it turned out that TD's ActiveTrader and Questrader Pro/Elite were the exact same software offering underneath, one that is called 'AxisPro' developed by Nexatech. (So much the same indeed that I always used TD's green skin in place of Questrade's nexa-blue!)

I am also looking for an alternative, and TD told me last week they were planning of having their Canadian version of thinkorswim ready by mid-2012 -- one that would offered accounts in CAD -- and all other types of accounts such as RRSP, LIRA, TFSA, etc. in about 1 year's time.

I will definitely give it a shot when it is out.

Hope this helps,
Confessor

sp2020 · Oct 10, 2011

^^ Thank you very much for your reply. Have you tried Interactive Broker? From this forum, it seemed to have the highest rating... I'd like to try it but it seemed to have very bad customers service. You are very much on your own and they don't like customers calling them because they said they already gave low commission fees. I was so turned off by such response after calling them, obviously.

"ThinkorSwim" is for traders who do options, I spoke to TDWaterHouse and they said yes that software is designed for option traders, more than for equities traders.

Thank you once again.

shopster · Oct 10, 2011

http://www.interactivebrokers.ca/en/main.php

open retail here......

IB has no bullshit, but no handholding either.

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some front ends avail....

http://www.tradinggraphs.com/software/charts-software/8-charting-software-for-interactive-brokers

http://www.tradinggraphs.com/category/software/charts-software

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http://www.tradecision.com/index.htm

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if the bank / brokerage supplies the trading platform it is usually crap.

cheers,

s

shopster · Oct 10, 2011

if you know how to trade, you do not need retail service.

execution is the priority and i do use them.

s

drukes1234 · Oct 10, 2011

Quote from Confessor:

Hi sp2020,

I have been using Questrade too (Elite version) for about 2 years and never been very happy with it either, but it was the best I could find at the time for my needs. (low commissions, fast order entry, CAD accounts, pre/after market hours)

Before settling on Questrade though, I had done extensive research and demo trials and, fyi, it turned out that TD's ActiveTrader and Questrader Pro/Elite were the exact same software offering underneath, one that is called 'AxisPro' developed by Nexatech. (So much the same indeed that I always used TD's green skin in place of Questrade's nexa-blue!)

I am also looking for an alternative, and TD told me last week they were planning of having their Canadian version of thinkorswim ready by mid-2012 -- one that would offered accounts in CAD -- and all other types of accounts such as RRSP, LIRA, TFSA, etc. in about 1 year's time.

I will definitely give it a shot when it is out.

Hope this helps,
Confessor
More...

How has the execution been on Questrade Elite because the execution on Questrade Pro is absolutely awful if you're a real trader.

Confessor · Oct 10, 2011

Quote from sp2020:

^^ Thank you very much for your reply. Have you tried Interactive Broker? From this forum, it seemed to have the highest rating... I'd like to try it but it seemed to have very bad customers service. You are very much on your own and they don't like customers calling them because they said they already gave low commission fees. I was so turned off by such response after calling them, obviously.

"ThinkorSwim" is for traders who do options, I spoke to TDWaterHouse and they said yes that software is designed for option traders, more than for equities traders.

Thank you once again.
More...

I tried Interactive Broker's demo at the time and remember the platform to be quite good. Commission-wise, they were the best and they had just about every product one may wish to trade. However, RRSP accounts and the likes were not available (just CAD margin) and I wanted all my accounts at the same place (just rechecked -- registered accounts still not offered and they have no plans to do so in the foreseeable future). Beside, I did not like the fact that the .ca site was not tailored for Canadian customers at all, but rather just a wrapper page that kept redirecting me to the main US site. That bothered me (a lot) having to deal with all the US regulations while they obviously did not apply to me. But if this is no concern to you, then you should definitely have a look.

As for thinkorswim, yes, it is designed for option traders, but stocks are definitely part of it. TD Watherhouse is Canadian-based, so I would be more comfortable with it, but that is just me

Hope this help again,
Confessor

Confessor · Oct 10, 2011

@druke1234:

Q-Elite is the only active-trading platform I used so far. Lacking a comparison base, I cannot tell if execution time is better/worse than something else, but I can certainly say that I was quite satisfied on that aspect. Very fast order-entry (DOM view if you want if faster) and execution almost instantaneous.

Best regards,
Confessor