I am thinking about openening an account with questrade as a way to learn to trade US stocks without having to have the $25k ususally required under teh pdt rule. I am in the UK in the application process they ask for the financial institution number for my bank. Is this a Canadian only term? I cant seem to find the financial insitution number for my UK bank(lloyds tsb) Is thre an issue with converting my funds from GBP to CAD in the accounf fundong process? Is anyone here trading with them from the UK? thanks
Being Canadian I cannot understand for the love of God why you would actually want to open an account with one of our Canadian thieves of brokerage firms but anyway... That being said, I suspect you will not be able to do it because you are not a Canadian resident. The institution number is a 3 digit code that can be found on your checks (in Canada anyway). For example here you would see on a check: 122 (check number) than 12821 (branch number) 006 (institution code) and 1234567 (bank account number) So thats: 122 12821 006 1234567 codes: 001 Bank of Montreal 002 Bank of Nova Scotia 003 Royal Bank of Canada 004 TD Bank 005 CIBC 006 National Bank of Canada etc... But I don't know about England's... In the end these are to facilitate EBT but I do not believe a regular ETB can be done with an English Bank. It would have to be a wire i think. My suggestion is to check with your bank if they have a Canadian subsidiary. If they do then you can have a bank account with said subsidiary. I know HSBC, Dundee and a few others do so maybe Loyd's too...
Are they that bad? Im only looking at them as, like i say, they do not require $25k for me to daytrade with them - as that is a US rule. Im gonna demo them for a week or so anyway. Only an idea at this stage...
Well I guess it depends what you are looking for. You are correct that they do not require 25K to day trade but commissions (although they are not too bad on stocks) are still higher - much more - than on the US side. Have you asked questrade directly but I'd be extremely surprised if they allow foreign nationals to open a brokerage account. If you had been a Canadian resident and moved to the UK that would be a different story but...
I still waiting for a reply from them, but im 90% sure that they do accept UK residents/british citizens. From reading their FAQ page, they do NOT accept US residents tho....
Doesn't seem to be on there. I imagine that if UK banks had them, a google search would give me the lloyds financial institution number in a few seconds..?...
To open up an account at a Canadian discount broker, you don't need to be a Canadian resident. In addition to the new account application, you need to submit an enhanced due dilligence questionnaire and a W8-ben form. Your bank account from UK should not be necessary, but SOME brokers may require it.
see my thread on my experience opening an account with questrade. worse than pulling teeth, like getting colonscopy trying to get my initial deposit back. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=166929&perpage=6&pagenumber=2 what blows me away is they refused to wire my funds back, claiming the wire information from my bank to theirs was insufficient to send it back, and that they could mail me a check in 5-10 business days instead. in other words, "bend over so we can stick this right up your ass."