The weekend edition of Report on Business ranked twelve Canadian online brokerages on ten different criteria. BMO InvestorLine took the top honours closely followed by E*Trade Canada and TD Waterhouse.
RBC ActionDirect, which I use exclusively for our retirement accounts and trading Canadian equities, received poor marks and ended up in the bottom of the pack. It is easy to see why: the webpage is clunky (in my opinion), accounts are updated only once every day (really, how hard is it to have this feature?) and I’ve never been able to locate their equity research.
For US equities, Ameritrade Canada is the clear winner. I care most about equity research, ease of use and low commissions (in that order) and Ameritrade is a clear winner in those categories. It would be interesting to see what happens when TD Waterhouse acquires Ameritrade Canada.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 N. Ginsberg // Sep 13, 2005 at 7:30 pm
Great find for those of us who don’t get the Globe. Did TD Waterhouse really acquire Ameritrade Canada? I am a TD customer, but the stock commissions are stifling. I would love to be able to transfer over to Ameritrade Canada without paying transfer fees. Whenever I see which brokers are cheaper than TD it is mostly frustrating, due to the transfer fees that prevent it from being worthwhile to switch.
Ginsberg
The Earning Curve
2 Canadian Capitalist // Sep 14, 2005 at 10:39 am
Actually, Ameritrade is in the process of buying TD Waterhouse and TD Bank gets equity in the combined entity to be called TD Ameritrade. As part of the deal, TD Waterhouse Canada will buy Ameritrade Canada.
FD: I own shares in TD Bank.
3 Joe // Dec 21, 2005 at 2:34 pm
you mentioned you use action direct for “our” (yours and your wifes) retirement account.
If you had 20K in each of your accounts, does action direct charge 50$ annually (even though, collectively, you have $40K)?
4 Canadian Capitalist // Dec 21, 2005 at 3:06 pm
Joe:
Unfortunately, Action Direct charges $50 for each account that has less than their $25K threshold. So, yes, in your example above they will charge a $50 fee for both accounts.
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