Hi guys, Could you recommend a broker for selling options on futures for Canadians ? I am with Interactive Brokers Canada now. Their commissions and execution are great, but margin for close to expiration contracts is terrible. It could easily be +100% to SPAN. So I am looking for reputable broker with SPAN or close to SPAN margin and reasonable commissions, who will open account for Canadian resident. Many US brokers wouldn't, namely trademonster, ameritrade, option house, tradeking etc. I know about Vision Financial and this seems to be a viable option. Anything else ?
Try RJO Canada. For U.S. brokers, it does not depend on whether you are in Canada or not, it depends on whether you are in a province like BC that forbids foreign (US) futures brokers from accepting its residents, or one like Ontario that allows it with a waiver signed by the client. Most U.S. brokers go by whatever is allowed under provincial law (which is the level at which brokers are regulated in Canada).
Thank you, comintel. Will send them an e-mail. It's weird, but almost unanimous response I got from the top US option brokers is like "Thank you for your inquire, but unfortunately at the moment we can't open an account for Canadian residents" They even did not ask me for the province of residence.
Probably some just find the situation with the different provinces too hard to deal with. Which province are you in? If it is BC nobody will accept you. If Ontario, many well. I know because you can find the form on some of their web sites.
RJO Canada is TERRIBLE!! I tried them a couple years ago and on their futures trades they charge and extra "service fee" per side that the US clients don't get charged. It was something like $10 per trade. Did one trade, had them reverse the extra charge and closed the account down.
No, it isn't. I tried to complain about it. We're institutional investors and told them no one else we deal with does this. We were referred to them from a guy in Canada who goes through their US office but that was before they opened a Canadian office. Since that is now open, we were told we had to deal with the Canadian office and that the extra service charge per trade was just a fact of doing business in Canada. I told them we also have an IB account and they don't charge it and if it's not permanently removed, I'll close the account and move everything to IB. They said "go right ahead, there's nothing we can do about it".
I wish I was from BC, but I am still here, in QC. Just wondering, folks from BC, where do you open accounts ? Anyone from BC here and willing to shed light ?
Also if you email them and ask about accepting Canadians, you may get an incorrect answer because a lot of junior broker staff do not understand Canada and provinces etc,, and you are sort of asking a question that cannot be answered as such. They may have a chart that says Canada (except as below) - No. Ontario - Yes. or some such. I know many U.S. futures brokers will accept Ontario residents.
Very well could be. I should've been more specific, and mention province explicitly. I am in QC, so should have no problem like BC or ON people.