GHansen, I think Quest's rates are so much lower than props I've seen (with 100% payout) that the 7% tax is worth it. If I trade 100,000 shares in a day, and gross $800 that day, I'd rather pay the $43 tax on my $615 in profit, than pay the whole $800 in commissions to the firm. (and that's at a .008 rate, which some of these US prop firms will probably act like they are giving you the deal of the century!) My understanding is their ECN fees are not marked up (ARCA .003, INCA .003, ISLD .0019), so maybe their site is incorrect. I'll let the owners address that one. My understanding is that if you trade retail, you can't get the .0013 rate, you gotta pay the per ticket retail rate. I agree the leverage is very important. This is probably the one thing that would give me pause about Quest. Personally, my style is arb so the only things I really care about are commissions and leverage. I need the leverage to do alot of volume and LOW LOW costs. I suppose the attraction of Quest's prop rates to me, is that you have a very low probability of losing money overall at these rates, if you can give liquidity at least some of the time.
Not quite. If the tader made $1000 profit and requested a cheque, the trader would invoice Questrade $934.58 + 7% GST = $1000. The trader would be responsible for the GST but again a portion of it will be deductible, the effective rate is less than 7%. There are also other benefits to working as a consultant such as the ability to deduct certain expenses related to your trading. Talk to your accountant on how to do it properly.
I again confirm that ECN fees are not marked up for the prop offer. The only ECN rates listed on the site are those for trading retail on the CyberTrader platform, for prop it says to ask for a schedule. Professional margin...as mentioned before if there is a business case for extending additional intraday margin from the firm's own capital that is something we can discuss on an individual basis.
Dude you've got S.A.D.D. (Stock Attention Deficit Disorder)! 20 stocks a day, dude you get around. Given that though, you are absolutely right... Questrade's deal definitely would not suit you. At $50 / stock/ day clearing that's a G-note a day for clearing. Doesn't make sense. I think this deal is better suited to an individual or a group of traders who trade a limited group (2-3) stocks per day.