Hi guys. I am looking into opening up and account with questrade. The allow UK citizens (me) to open up daytrading account with $5000 with no PDT restrictions (because they are Canadian i guess) I did want to just trade 100share lots, but their commissions would eat me alive ($4.95 minimum) so I am thinking that when I start I will be trading around 300 to 500 share lots making the share/commission ratio more respectable. I am new to direct access brokers and have a few questions. *On the demo, sometimes I buy, for example 400 shares of a stock, and when i go to close the trade the platform breaks it up into 2 or 3 seperate executions. (e.g to cover the 400 shares it might say sold 200, sold 155 sold 45) The system then tells me that 4 executions have been made. Would this equal me paying more commissions? Does each execution carry the $4.95 ommission? If so that seems like a great way to rip people off. Im hoping im wrong. *Do any of you brokers do this baring in mind im talking about a smallish number of shares. *Anyone else here from the UK have an account with questrade? Opinions?
If you start out trading that kind of size, you will blow up before you get a chance to learn. Find a broker with more respectable commissions; when you get partial fills, yes, you'll get dicked on commissions. $10+ per round trip is prohibitively expensive; you might want to try a US based prop firm that lets you trade remotely instead.
Thanks for responding mate. At least now I know that partial fills do add to commissions. Do they do it on purpose to rip people off? I have been demoing the directaccesselite platform and the questrade platform and it only really happens on the questrade platform. Being from the UK i really dont know much about prop firms. Do they accept UK people? I can daytrade with less than $25k? ta.
Don't jump to conclusions regarding partial fill commissions. Many direct access brokers DO NOT charge multiple commissions for partials, if the partials are part of a single unmodified order. You must ask the broker how they treat partial fills.
I do not have an account with Questrade. I do not remember being charged more than one commission on a stock trade, even if the order is split. I use several brokers, all charge one commission per transaction even when orders are split as you mentioned. I use USA brokers, not Canadian. You might contact Questrade and ask about their commission rates.
Good advice. I just spoke to someone from questrade and it appears that it only counts as ONE trade as you suggested aboove. There's hope for me yet.
Yes, they should accept you, with $2-5k as a minium deposit... and they'll give you about $200,000 in buying power and MUCH lower commissions than you are getting from your retail broker... you shouldn't pay more than 50 cents to trade 100 shares, and even that's a little bit of a ripoff... Apparently I was wrong about being charged on partial fills; I'm used to how prop firms do that. Prop firms charge you per order, so if you get a partial fill, you do get charged... though you pay so much less per trade with a prop firm vs a retail firm, and partial fills are relatively rare and only occur on ECNs, so it shouldn't cost much...
paul_alan, none of the firms with per-trade commissions schedule--regardless of its direct access capabilities--ever charged me more than 1 trade's commission even if the whole order was executed in parts so long as it gets executed on the same day. You better ask your broker directly.