Journaling shares between USD and CAD side of your brokerage acct

Discussion in 'Forex' started by Rhiinoo, Nov 20, 2017.

  1. Rhiinoo

    Rhiinoo

    This Q didn't get any replies in the "Stocks" forum, so thought I'd try it here since posters may have a better grasp on the interlisted component, which I guess is FX-related:

    I have previously used the DLR / DLR.U pair to execute Norbert's gambit, but I have heard conflicting things about whether it's possible to similarly journal equity stocks that are interlisted on both US and Canadian exchanges.

    Take Shopify, Inc., for example, which trades under symbol 'SHOP' on each of the NYSE (USD) and TSX (CAD). If I held 1,000 shares of SHOP on the USD side of my acct and for whatever reason wanted 1,000 shares of SHOP on the CAD side instead, could a brokerage simply 'journal them over' so I didn't have to sell 1,000 x SHOP.U and buy 1,000 x SHOP.C (for which I'd incur both trading fees, and some slippage due to the spread)?

    If so, just what is the brokerage doing to effect that journaling? They can't just 'convert' the shares, since they're entirely different floats that trade independently on different exchanges, right? So are they...essentially just doing the 1,000 x Sell(SHOP.U) & 1,000 x Buy(SHOP.C) themselves and eating the transaction costs as a courtesy to the client?