Hey all, Canadian here. Wanting to get into trading. I will be day trading/swing trading. Want to do paper trading for a few months first. My bank is TD. I originally wanted to use ThinkorSwim (as it is a TD subsidiary), however it doesn't seem to be easily compatible for use in Canada? I won't have much to put in at at first: ~2000. I am wondering if you could give me some suggestions as to what setup I might use to trade? Thanks
Don't discretionary trade you'll lose it all, I suggest you learn quantitative trading thats the only real trading in my eyes
Think or swim is compatible in Canada just it needs to be a margin account of atleast 10k deposit and for u.s securities. Questrade charges penny a share, 4.95 minimum ,9.95 max. So it’s really only a penny a share from 495 shares to 995 shares. They have an advanced trader package but doubt you’d meet the minimum. Be weary of ECN fees, don’t want to be one of those dummies ranting about their broker lying about commissions. Commissions and ECN/SEC fees are completely different. Theirs two types of brokerages I find. Those that have set fees that seem high at 9.99 a trade or whatever it is. Then the discount brokerages like Interactive Brokers or Questrade with penny a share fees but they do not include ECN/SEC fees. Both have their pros/cons depending on your average trade size, whether you use marketable orders or limit orders, etc. Just have to crunch the numbers for what is best for your trading. But to be completely honest , if you plan on actively trading with 2k cash, your going to get clobbered by commissions in no time, market data fees, administration fees perhaps with such a small account. Things to look out for is commissions, whether they apply ECN, minimum account size, administration fees, platform fees, market data fees.
With 2000 to play with, you may want to use a CFD broker. Commissions scale with order size, so while you'll be making(or losing) cents, you'll also be paying cents in commissions. As long as you keep the notional lower than your account size, it's about the same risk. You'll lose a bit due to funding fees, but that's mostly irrelevant for day trading. Do be careful with the commission structure since some brokers will charge you a minimum when trading stock like a regular broker.