yes But if you want to transfer out to a canadian currency account you might prefer to do a base currency in cdn. (That's what I did)
Then you can change to USD with IBs fx trading, much better then the banks. Don't use US base currency, makes no sense for canadians.
I trade with the both in the moment, my preference go to IB, low commission, reliable trade and data, very efficient in daytrading. I would like to see some addition for IB, but for the price, I don't complaint. If your are very active you can use eSignal software, this will give you a very good package. If you go with TradeFreedom, the direx Level II is a nice application for to send yours orders in the system, but the fee are higher than IB, and you will have to consider Cyber in this case. If you trade penny stock or if your average lot is inside 1000 and 5000 shares by trade, Cyber could be a better choice in this case. Also, I don't recommend RealTick from TradeFreedom, not reliable in fast market (and many I know many other traders that could say the samething), but I love their Direx LevelII for the speadier environnement.
If your do a comparaison between IB plateform and CyberTrader PRO (QuestTrade), no doubt that Cyber is a better plateform for to daytrade, because your can enter more quickly your order, have more combinaison and route available for daytrading, but the fee a much higher than IB. When you send an order on the same route, the respond are the same base on my experience. Also, for scaling or incremental trade, IB fee are better for the trader. Your trading style should give you, what you should use.
Watch out some limitations on cybertrader integrated into esignal. Well, its broken badly. Cyber by itself is ok. Cyberpro is good for beginners but soon you may need good technical analysis (charts in cyber are poor and sometimes unreliable). Trend lines drift around, for example, in cyberpro. eSignal seems really solid for technical analysis. A good combo for trading would be eSignal for charting and a good broker for order execution. IB seems to be integrated well into eSignal (unlike cyber, which is really a mess in there). But keep in mind that commissions in IB are expensive if you trade large numbers of shares: 500 shares = $5.00 1000 = $7.50 2000 = $12.50 3000 = $17.50 4000 = $22.50 5000 = $27.50 etc.. Happy New Year everybody!
Watch out some limitations on cybertrader integrated into esignal. Well, its broken badly. Cyber by itself is ok. Cyberpro is good for beginners but soon you may need good technical analysis (charts in cyber are poor and sometimes unreliable). Trend lines drift around, for example, in cyberpro. eSignal seems really solid for technical analysis. A good combo for trading would be eSignal for charting and a good broker for order execution. IB seems to be integrated well into eSignal (unlike cyber, which is really a mess in there). But keep in mind that commissions in IB are expensive if you trade large numbers of shares: 500 shares = $5.00 1000 = $7.50 2000 = $12.50 3000 = $17.50 4000 = $22.50 5000 = $27.50 etc.. Happy New Year everybody!
<b>Quote from paulr: Do most people agree that IB is best for Canadian traders? Has anyone had any problems transferring or getting money from the Canadian IB branch?</b> To my knowledge, trading with IB is not protected by the CIPF. Should this be a big issue when it comes to choosing the right brokerage firm? Thanks for the great replies guys!