I wonder if anyone used interactivebroker.ca to trade in Canada? It seems that their fees is ~7 times less of others discount brokerages. Are those guys reliable?
I am a Canadian using IB.ca and don't have much complain except for the Customer Service like everyone else. As for taxes, my goal now is to be able to pay as much taxes possible This will imply that I make $$ in trading. Only when I 'could' pay lot of taxes that I will think about how to lower the taxe payments. I have active trading accounts that I declare as business, long/short stocks, futures, options with IB and Refco; and a more passive account that I declare as 'investing' (capital gains/loss) with TD. One good thing if you declare a trading business and trading at home is you could legally deduct part of your rent/morgage, utility bills, internet connection, computers, ect... as business expenses. Cheers!!
As you guys know, IB.com and IB.ca mostly operate online. Before openning an account with them, I went to visit their Montreal office, just to see how they look like (18 y.o. computer geeks?), and mostly to make sure if they wear any pants sitting behind their desk... .... hahaha... Cheers!!
Cdn Trader, Better than that: Rent a flat (1 room), trade in day time, and receive mistresses in nite time... and of course, business expenses as well as business related 'activities' expenses.
I suppose that your IB account is a personnal account, because IB Canada are waiting about their official authorization for to do that with corporation, am I right?
We had a talk with Mark Bennett, and Timothy O'Meara was doing some paperwork at another desk. Both probably in their 25 -30 ish, appropriately dressed (including pants ) for VP's of IB.ca. Bennett stated that he worked on the floor of the Montreal Stck Exchange before comming to IB.ca He gave us a demo/tour of the TWS. To answer to our questions, he had to look in the FAQ webpage of IB.com... Mind you, it was back in June or July, when they first openned their office in Montreal, they should be more 'informed' about IB by now. My first impression with them was good, however, it also reinforced my believe that IB operates almost 95% online. I've been trading with IB since mid Sep '02, so far so good, I did get some disconnections from time to time for about 2-5 min., fortunately, I did not have any open positions at those time (... but it will come... SNAFU ! ) My next test will be to see how fast I recieve my cheque when I request a withdrawal. One last thing: the presence of Def from IB on this board makes me feel a bit more comfortable to trade with IB. Def, you are very appreciated ! Cheers!!