Hello there, I realize that this brokerage has been discussed before in previous threads but I just wanted to clear a few things up and get some advice. I started investing in stocks about 9 or 10 months (am a university student) and have made only about 15 or 20 trades in total to date (basically buying and holding only 5 or 6 stocks) I am currently using TD Waterhouse, excellent service, but a rip off of trading fees. I want to move away from the banks. The stocks I trade are low value, from 20 or30 cents to 2 or 3 bucks and thus large volumes. Even though I'm a inactive trader, it seems Questrade would be great as its 17.95 flat for unlimited shares under $3, and $0.01 per share for shares above $ 3, a lot better than TD. Also I just want a simple cash account using the Basic Webtrader platform. Since I don't trade often Cybertrader would be useless to me? Am I correct? It seems like a no brainer but I just want to double ckeck if I'm missing something here especially since everybody seems to be a mad trader here (compared to me at least). ECN fees look low. Am I right then in saying nobody should have an account with the banks.(except those needing handholding which I don't) Is there other criterion I should be looking at since I'm an "inactive trader" maintenace fees, transfers fees, how to move money around in the account? If anyone could offer some advice or experience I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
as you have been trading for several months with a regular volume..you should have already an idea of what your costs are. If you are successful and you find this system user friendly then you have your answer. banks are there to make money as are brokers..you are alone in this/your business and it is not always about a few cents saved but a good working atmosphere.. try them, what do you have to lose.. good luck w
My comment would be to check out all of the platforms (and costs) that Questrade has to offer, then compare them against other Canadian brokers. The lowest cost brokers that I am aware of in Canada are: Interactive Brokers, Questrade and Trade Freedom.
Use IB for what you're doing. They charge 0.002% of the transaction value for commission. If you buy 1000 shares at $1, you pay $2 in commission compared to the minimum $29 TD will charge you. Since you are only interested in a cash account, it shouldn't be a problem opening an account with IB.
My first brokerage account was at TD waterhouse, and i moved to use questrade webtrader. I thought that webtrader was slow and annoying. I couldnt figure out for the life of me how to put in option chains, and the quote system seems clunky compared to TD. For 1500 share trades on a $3 stock i think i payed $45 at TD, and about 21 at quest. I have no experience with IB, so seeing that i dont have either a quest or TD account still open, i would try IB and if theres anyone else out there, them too.
Thanks for the replies. Hey Plugger, is the 0.2% max comission for TSX stocks as well? better yet is there a mininum number of trades you have to make to get that rate? Thnks again! I'm gonna contact them in the next couple of days.
I don't think your going to beat interactivebrokers but you should check out Disnat Direct. When I was looking to short Stelco they had it on their short list seeming well in the bankruptcy proceedings and the rates were pretty good. Also if you had an interactivebrokers account you could trade something better than Canadian small cap miners. The TSX is an electronic specialist system that makes it hard for small traders to get good fills. There is definitely no hope of retail trader scalping TSX stocks save maybe Nortel or Bomber.
There are a two things that I would say about IB when it comes to trading Canadian stocks. First their short list is rather small. With a firm like TD, you can pretty well short anything you want. Second, IB doesn't have certain stocks set up for trading. You will go to purchase a stock and receive a message that this stock is currently unavailable. You have to go and contact them to get it added. An example of this is GLA.U. As for bad fills or hard to receive fills, I really don't find that to be the case. As for scalping, most Canadian stocks lack the volume for this, especially junior mining issues. But, when it comes to commission rates, IB beats the others hands down. No comparison. The nice thing is when you are bidding and only receive a partial fill, a firm like TD will stick you with the full commission. With IB, you pay the $2 minimum. Very nice. TSX and TSX Venture commission schedules are the same. No minimums to get this rate.