Canadian Capitalist

72 responses so far ↓

• 1 MillionDollarJourney.com // Aug 13, 2007 at 7:10 am

  Thanks for the link back CC. I’m glad that you’re enjoying Questrade thus far. I didn’t know about the USD transfer issue, perhaps they’ll fix that in the future.

• 2 Mark // Aug 13, 2007 at 7:32 am

  I was also surprised to find that conversions from $CDN are not made automatically in order to settle $US purchases. Since I had no $US balance, my purchase of a US stock was treated as a margin transaction and I had to struggle with the interface to figure out how to move the money once I discovered it.

• 3 Phil S // Aug 13, 2007 at 7:55 am

  Hmm… I recently opened a Questrade account and moved money into it, but I have yet to execute my first trade. I’m still waiting for things to keep falling… I think the recent actions by the BoC to stabilize the market will only temporarily stop the fall. I believe that everything will now continue to “drift” down as opposed to a dramatic collapse as the yen carry trade continues to unwind.

• 4 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 13, 2007 at 8:14 am

  Mark: I had trouble figuring that out also. You have to go into MyQuestrade, transfer funds from CAD to USD and then buy some US dollar shares. It was all confusing because I am used to simply pointing to the account you want money taken from or put into.

• 5 GIV // Aug 13, 2007 at 12:53 pm

  the broker’s target audience seem to be traders

  you have to write a cheque that takes as long as 20 days to clear

  Those two things seem to be contredictory. I’m not surprised that lower commissions would be particularly appealing to people who trade a lot, but I’m shocked that it can take three weeks to have cash clear.

  I mean, how much has the market changed in the last three weeks?

• 6 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 13, 2007 at 7:26 pm

  GIV: To be fair, Questrade does allow sending funds via certified cheque or wire transfer, but they all cost money and negate the advantage of low commissions somewhat. I do hope they will have a EFT facility soon.

• 7 The Dividend Guy // Aug 13, 2007 at 10:27 pm

  CC, I also have accounts with Questrade - one RRSP and one non-RSP which I have yet to fund. I do agree that the trading platform is not as user friendly as other brokers but it is quick and gets the job done. If you don’t want or need hand holding, then it is a good pick.

  TDG

• 8 Emil Vojkollari // Aug 14, 2007 at 4:40 pm

  Thank you for your review of Questrade.

  I would like to comment briefly on the Cons:

  1. We have platforms for traders as well as investors. The WebTrader platform is a very intuitive platform and the learning curve should not be more than 30 minutes. The more sophisticated platforms, Axis and CyberTrader, will take longer to learn. There are, however, manuals for both of these platforms available that help shorten the learning curve. We are also working on some tutorials that should be available soon.

  2. You can withdraw US or Canadian funds via an EFT. This feature is accessible via myQuestrade on the Withdraw Funds page. We can send the US and Canadian dollars directly in your bank account. For depositing US dollars the EFT option is not available. This is a limitation of the Canadian banking system and not Questrade. If the banks would allow US dollar bill payments, Questrade would accept them.
  Canadian dollars can be deposited via an EFT (online bill payment), both Canadian and US dollars are available via a Wire Transfer. Again due to the banking system, uncertified Personal cheques are also accepted but they take 21 business days to clear. We have had several instances where cheques have bounced more than 2 weeks after deposit and as a result we are forced to institute this policy. Certified cheques and bank drafts are accepted with no delay. If you have Canadian funds and would like to trade in US markets, I would suggest depositing Canadian dollars in your Questrade account and exchange the currency to US after that is done. This is significantly faster and most likely more effective than exchanging the currency at your bank.

  3. I do agree with you that remembering 3 sets of login info may be a bit overwhelming. Security was our main concern when we designed the process. 3 sets of login information are less likely to fall into the wrong hands at the same time. We are, however, working on this as well, and it should be resolved soon.

  I hope this helps. I encourage anyone who has any other questions or comments, (good or bad) to post them on this blog or contact me directly. I will make sure all the questions are answered promptly. Furthermore, please check out http://www.tradingacademy.com/canada if you would like to learn how to trade professionally.

  Good luck trading,

  Emil Vojkollari
  Client Acquisitions Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

  Trade Stocks for $4.95

• 9 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 14, 2007 at 5:19 pm

  Emil: Thank you for the comments. I don’t understand why transferring US funds from and to a USD Bank account is a problem for you but not for E*Trade. I have personally moved money from my E*Trade account into my RBC US dollar chequing account many times in the past using their free EFT service. The money appears in my account in a couple of days. So, it definitely can’t be a limitation of Canadian banking system.

• 10 Emil Vojkollari // Aug 15, 2007 at 1:01 pm

  I apologize for not explaining it properly.

  If you want to withdraw US dollars you can make a request on our side and we can electronically send the US funds to your bank account.

  If your bank allows you to pay a bill online to Questrade, then you should be able to deposit funds into your Questrade account as well.

  I hope this helps!

  Emil Vojkollari
  Client Acquisitions Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

  Trade Stocks for $4.95

• 11 Earl // Aug 16, 2007 at 8:07 pm

  I found the conversion process for purchasing US ETF confusing as well. Thankfully I was using the simulator and I didn’t end up purchasing on margin.

  Emil can you reconfirm the steps needed to purchase a US ETF like Vanguard?

  From what I gather now it seems you.:

  1. Transfer money from a current bank account (via cheque, transfer) to my Questrade Account.

  2. In the Questrade system, convert the CDN cash to a US equivalent.

  3. Login to WebTrader, and in WebTrader submit my execution order to purchase a US ETF.?

  Is this correct?

• 12 Average Joe // Aug 16, 2007 at 8:45 pm

  I just checked at Scotiabank and Questrade is available as a ‘bill payee’ so I assume one would be able to transfer US$ from a US$ directly to Questrade.

• 13 Average Joe // Aug 16, 2007 at 8:46 pm

  ooops. Meant to say

  …’transfer US$ from a US$ account directly to Questrade.’

• 14 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 16, 2007 at 10:40 pm

  Earl: Your steps are correct. I followed the exact same steps in my recent purchase of VEA.

  Emil: My Royal Bank USD account also has a bill pay feature. Would I be able to use that feature to transfer USD from my bank account into Questrade USD account? I am going to try sending a small amount anyway to see how it works.

  AJ: I checked with Royal Bank and they offer bill pay too. I am going to try and see if it works.

• 15 Average Joe // Aug 17, 2007 at 10:23 am

  On their site, they say the following:

  “1. BILL PAYMENT VIA INTERNET BANKING:
  Electronic Bill Payment via Internet Banking using the ‘Pay Bills’ function at most banks. Direct deposits can only be made in CAD funds. Simply choose ‘Questrade Inc’ as the payee, reference your Questrade account number provided and ‘pay’ the funds directly to your Questrade account.”

  It seems to clearly say CAD funds only. I have sent Questrade an email asking for clarification. Maybe Emil can answer.

• 16 Average Joe // Aug 17, 2007 at 10:40 am

  Just got my answer back.

  “If your bank allows USD bill payments then you are able to fund it in USD and the US side of your account will get credited. However, the fastest method will be by wire in which your bank will most probably charge you for.”

  So it looks like your test should work.

• 17 Emil Vojkollari // Aug 17, 2007 at 11:02 am

  Hi all,

  I’d like to fist clarify the difference between an ETF and an EFT:

  ETF – Exchange Traded Fund – As the name suggests, these are funds that are traded on a stock exchange. These are traded exactly the same way as stocks. You’d enter the symbol of the ETF, the quantity (# of shares/units), price, and click “BUY”.

  EFT – Electronic Fund Transfer – It is used interchangeably with Online Bill Payment. This is the way to deposit and withdraw funds into and from your Questrade account.
  The reason why we say in the website that the Bill Payment Option is available in CAD only is because the banks do not allow USD EFTs.

  C.C., please let me know if you are able to move USDs online from your USD bank account into your Questrade account. We’ll need to update the website right away.

  Thanks,

  Emil Vojkollari
  Client Acquisitions Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

  Trade Stocks for $4.95

• 18 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 17, 2007 at 11:22 am

  Emil: I didn’t know EFT is the same as Online Bill Payment.

  It is incorrect to say that banks do not allow USD EFTs. I have an account with E*Trade through work and I have sent money to and fro my Royal Bank USD Chequing account many times. So, at the very least EFT works with Royal Bank’s USD accounts.

• 19 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 17, 2007 at 11:38 am

  Emil: I *cannot* send USD funds to Questrade. RBC’s bill pay insists on converting USD into CAD funds before sending.

  I still can’t understand why EFT in USD funds is possible for E*Trade Canada but not Questrade. The 20 business days holding period for cheques is far too long. I sent a cheque on 9/Aug, it was cleared at my bank of 15/Aug and it is unacceptable that the funds won’t be available in my account until September. Sometimes, a month’s worth of lost interest payments will wipe out any savings on commissions.

• 20 Ann // Aug 19, 2007 at 12:20 am

  E-trade might be working like a bank. For example, ING direct can transfer USD from/to external US dollar account in Canada

• 21 Jennie // Aug 19, 2007 at 1:34 am

  I am surprised to hear that “EFT is the same as Online Bill Payment.”

  Based on my experience with E*trade, EFT is a service/function provided by brokerage firm E*trade, and I simply ETF while logging into my E*trade account.

  Bill payment, I believe, is the function provided by the bank, has nothing to do with the brokerage firm.

  Ann’s comment looks quite reasonable.

• 22 Reader Query: Should I Choose Index Mutual Funds over ETFs? // Aug 21, 2007 at 5:58 pm

  [...] in expenses is $120 per year. You can also consider a broker who charges ultra-low commissions like Questrade and implement an all-ETF portfolio. If you implement a portfolio like the Sleepy Portfolio, [...]

• 23 Emil Vojkollari // Aug 22, 2007 at 1:07 pm

  Hi all,

  To clarify, Bill Payments and EFTs are essentially the same technology used by the banks. EFTs must be initiated by the owner of the account and as such the funds are being “pushed” out of the account by the account holder. As we have said and CC has verified, banks will not allow you to initiate a payment in USD to a payee and this continues to be a limitation of the banking system and not Questrade.

  We have looked into what is being referred to in this discussion as EFTs in USD at E-Trade. What in fact is happening is that USD funds are being “pulled” out of client accounts using a pre-authorized payment (PAP) form. This is a process initiated by E-Trade and not by the account holder. Settlement date for these transactions is T+1 for major banks (includes HSBC), T+2 days for some banks such as PC Financial (because they flow through CIBC) and T+3 days for most credit unions. It will not show in your brokerage account for one additional day due to processing time.

  In response to the comments in this forum Questrade is setting up this service now and will be rolling it out shortly. This will allow Questrade to “pull” USD from client accounts upon receiving their authorization to do so. Questrade continues to offer EFT payments in USD into client accounts.

  Please contact me with any further questions.

  Emil Vojkollari
  Client Acquisitions Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

  Trade Stocks for $4.95

• 24 Canadian Capitalist // Aug 22, 2007 at 10:15 pm

  Emil: It is nice to hear that Questrade will be rolling out a EFT transfer for USD accounts. In my view, it will address the biggest issue with Questrade.

• 25 Frank // Sep 7, 2007 at 9:19 am

  The QuestraderPro trading platform is the worst trading platform I have ever used. Questrade needs to get their act together and offer a more powerful trading platform to their clients. I pretty much won’t be trading until a better trading platform is released.

• 26 Questrade // Sep 10, 2007 at 10:26 am

  Dear Frank,

  Thank you for your comments. Questrade welcomes positive as well as negative feedback.

  We have thousands of clients that trade on the QuestraderPro platform. All of them are quite satisfied with it.

  I would appreciate it very much if you could provide me with the reasons why you do not like the platform. It would be very helpful if you could comment on the features that your ideal trading platform would have. We will try to accommodate as many of your requests as possible when we are ready to offer a third trading platform.

  Regards,

  Emil Vojkollari
  Client Acquisitions Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

  Trade Stocks for $4.95

• 27 Pablo Corzo // Sep 12, 2007 at 11:21 pm

  Hi Mr.Emil , i’ve a client for questrade for over a year now , i’ve used cybertrader pro , in May i took a break (contract compromise) from trading and i was returning this september , sadly i’ve read they have switched the cybertrader pro to the new questraderpro , i agree with Mr.Frank , although i dont believe its the worst platform , i believe that for an active trader it lacks certain requirements that are crucial , specially for scalpers or day traders, although i believe its a very strong plataform with great potential , the following remarks should be taken into consideration:

  - 4 charts max (In today’s market its crucial for a trader to watch several indices and stocks at the same time , not to mention overall market trend , 4 charts is just not enough , now my 2 of my 3 screens are not doing anything)
  -multiple order box should be allow as well, for scalpers its crucial that they react fast with the market ,changing symbols in only 1 order entry box is not fast enough .

  I really appreciate questrade, and i’ve been told they are looking for a more complete platform soon , i believe questrade is by far the canadian stock broker leading company , i hope they do something soon about it , in the meantime i will be using questraderpro just to submit my entries but using quotetracker as my technical platform.

• 28 Questrade // Sep 17, 2007 at 1:41 pm

  Hi Pablo,

  Thank you for your valuable feedback. I forwarded your e-mail to the team in charge of evaluating the new platform. All the points will be considered when choosing the CyberTrader replacement.

  I will let you know about the features of the new platform as soon as we make a decision. At this point, the team is still evaluating a few of them.

  I appreciate your good words about Questrade.

  Good luck trading,

  Emil Vojkollari
  Client Acquisitions Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

  Trade Stocks for $4.95

• 29 Frank // Sep 18, 2007 at 2:42 pm

  To add to Pablo Corzo.

  1. Where is the Manual for QuestraderPro?

  2. This Java based program is sluggish on slower machines.

  3.The Virtual Trailing Stop (VTSO) doesn’t seem to always work.

  4.Needs smart route orders like CybertraderPro. I would see a price on the inside ask, and I try to buy it at that price using the Route AUTO, but I would not get filled.

  5.Needs to be able to draw support, resistance, and other trend lines on the graphs. These are just basic tools for technical analysis.

  6.The Account box needs to display my actual funds, not just my buying power.

  7.I only see 3 prices on the bid and ask.(This is level 1 quote for QuestraderPro?)

  8.Short selling takes extremely long! “Pending… Pending… REJECTED!” If your going to accept or reject the short selling order, just make it faster.

  9.There one simple thing I hate about the login screen. It doesn’t save your user name! I have to type my dam user name every dam time I login.

  10. I think thats all there is to hate about this Platform. The only feature I like about questraderPro is that you can change the background color of each of your window.

• 30 Richard Massicotte // Sep 22, 2007 at 10:35 am

  I just opened an account with Questrade last week.

  As I was familiarizing myself with the trading platform I found that I had been set up on what appeared to be a different and more expensive platform than I had signed up for.

  Luckily, there is a live chat function for help. Unfortunately, the individual I chatted with was unable to assist me and referred me to his manager that I subsequently had to call to rectify the problem.

  The manager explained to me that it was too late to switch platforms and that I would be charged regardless, period. He said his records showed that I had chosen the more expensive platform. It didn’t seem to matter that I just opened the account and I alerted Questrade to the discrepancy immediately.

  I am unimpressed by the way Questrade poorly treats new customers. Unfortunately, I found the manager somewhat condescending and patronizing.

  Today, after a week with Questrade, I found out that the platform has been changed to the cheaper one that I originally wanted, yet I am still being charged for the more expensive platform for the entire month.

  The manager did say that with discount brokers you get what you pay for… In my case, you pay for what you don’t get.

  My advise to others: STAY AWAY FROM QUESTRADE!
  There are other, better discount brokers out there.

  Sincerely,
  Richard Massicotte

• 31 Giving up on Questrade // Sep 25, 2007 at 7:16 pm

  [...] months back, I moved our investment accounts to Questrade, attracted primarily by their ultra-low commissions and good word-of-mouth recommendations. [...]

• 32 Canadian Capitalist // Oct 3, 2007 at 8:06 am

  Richard: You may want to contact Emil from Questrade about your problem. Like I mentioned in a recent post, I am frustrated with Questrade as well.

• 33 Alex // Oct 4, 2007 at 2:49 am

  Has questrade implemtend EFT for USD? (Pull from your USD account at a bank)

• 34 Canadian Capitalist // Oct 4, 2007 at 11:00 am

  Alex: Not to my knowledge. To fund your USD account quicker, just follow the steps I outlined in another post:

  Link

• 35 Jim // Oct 5, 2007 at 11:25 pm

  I recently left Questrade, for 2 reason:

  1) On multiple occasions they were unable to fulfill my OTCBB Orders, even though they were market orders and friends w/other discount brokers filled market orders the same day no problem. Resulting in me missing on a literally thousands of dollars of capital gains.

  2) On multiple occasions I submitted requests for deposits/withdrawals, and it took unnecessarily long time to fill (in some cases, requiring me to call them up to “remind” them that the request was sent.

  I’m going to try Interactive Brokers next, as I’ve heard good things about them. Anyone know anything about ib?

• 36 Questrade // Oct 9, 2007 at 5:26 pm

  Jim,

  There are multiple order routes for OTCBB trades. I’m guessing you left the route as “Auto”? Please contact me directly with your account number and your e-mail address. I will look into the reasons for the delay and get back to you with a detailed explanation.

  Thank you,

  Emil Vojkollari
  Client Acquisitions Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

  Trade Stocks for $4.95

• 37 Rene // Oct 12, 2007 at 5:52 pm

  I signed up with Questrade a few weeks ago, and so far it has been ok, but I just phoned customer service for the first time and they were painfully unprofessional.

  I have been using the demo account for access to live level II data and then simply making trades on my actual account. The website clearly states that if you make a certain number of trades you can have access to level II data free (40 trades per month). I intend to trade frequently so I wanted to sign up, but the option to add data services was nowhere to be found in MyQuestrade. I tried the online support and they told me that I had to phone Questrade to activate it.

  When I got in touch with a CSR, the guy I spoke to had no clue what I was talking about. He insisted that since I had signed up for Questrader Web with Quotestream, that I had access to all the level II data. I tried explaining to him repeatedly that they were optional packages, but he couldn’t understand that in any way. He insisted that my account did have Level II. I told him that the demo had what I was looking for, live level II, but not my actual trading account. Then he seemed to think that I was confusing the demo with the actual trading account. He even made me doubt myself to the point that I opened quotestream in my account and tried to access level II data and it gave the message “Level II market depth not available in delayed” so then I knew for certain.

  It’s amazing that the CSRs can know less about the company’s services than the clients. At the end of the phonecall he told me he had signed me up for the services, but he never even convinced me that he knew what I wanted. I guess I’ll wait and see if anything happens.

  I’m an undergrad student in Finanace, and I appreciate Questrade for being the only company that is affordable enough to provide even a student with the opportunity trade. Otherwise there would be no chance for me to to actually apply what I learn in school on the markets. I have had several strange experiences with this company, but this one really topped the charts. I’ve been a client for a couple weeks now so I’m starting to wonder what will happen next… Anyway, I guess you get what you pay for.. .

• 38 Questrade // Oct 16, 2007 at 5:44 pm

  Dear Rene,

  I apologize for the misunderstanding about your data levels. Just to confirm, we did resolve the issue exactly as you requested – in fact, the client service specialist made the correction the same day the two of you spoke.

  Also, I appreciate the feedback you’ve given us here. I encourage everyone to let us know what we are doing right – and wrong. We are constantly trying to improve and we cannot do that without your help.

  Regards,

  Emil Vojkollari
  Client Acquisitions Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

• 39 Jason // Oct 29, 2007 at 2:52 pm

  My wife and I were just about to courier to Questrader our application this morning. I had already made the funds transfer as well but that has also been stopped.

  My wife placed a simple phone call to the head office in Toronto to inquire about how transfers were setup this morning. The gentleman on the other line was very short with her and could not wait to get her off the phone. He also explained we would be paying $20 per stock/fund purchase which was news to me. The website application was also fairly confusing in selecting services as well so even if we did choose this fee I do not recall anywhere in that form where this was indicated.

  If this is how your company treats people at the START of the relationship process - I can only imagine how worse things will get.

  Can anyone else recommend a good broker Canada side?

• 40 Canadian Capitalist // Oct 29, 2007 at 10:02 pm

  Jason: I understand your frustration. I personally have experienced Questrade’s less-than-stellar (to put it mildly) customer service. If you have more than $100K in assets you may want to consider TD Waterhouse. I’m with them and fairly happy about it.

• 41 Adieu to Questrade // Oct 31, 2007 at 8:53 pm

  [...] few months back, I moved our investment accounts to Questrade to take advantage of their rock-bottom trading commissions. Since then, the bigger discount brokers [...]

• 42 Marc // Nov 11, 2007 at 5:13 pm

  I am a new user of Questrade. Over the years I have traded with BMO Investorline and TD Waterhouse. I am very happy with Questrade so far. I have used the live help chat a couple times and both times they resolved my issue right away.

  Like another poster, I also had the problem wherein I had signed up for LevelII but it didn’t show up on my account. He had it working within two hours of my online chat with him.

  I do have a question for the forum though. I have never used Trailing Stop Loss Orders. I believe I understand the concept well enough, but…with Questrade when entering a VTSO, what number exactly am I entering? a percentage? the price compared to what I bought? or the price compared to what it’s worth at last close?

  Thanks for the help.

• 43 Jack // Nov 22, 2007 at 8:34 pm

  Looks like we’re forced to use WT or QtPro in a matter of weeks. Tried both of them. QTPRoNot comparable to CyberTrader, especially the charting.

  These platforms practically force me to buy charts from another party.

  As for WT, what other charting program in the world offers 5 daily candles for a 5-day chart? Please! that should have intraday data as well, NOT daily.

  Why is there no straddle layout for puts/calls? Who wants to view one OR the other only?

  QTPro charts don’t permit trendline drawing, from what I can see. Just as well, since anything more than a 1 day chart requires horizontal scrolling, thereby making an overview of the last few days impossible.

  By the way, folks at QT, regarding MACD: pretty much all vendors permit MACD Ma/trigger line/histogram. They don’t force people to choose between histogram or MA, and don’t try to make the histogram substitute for the MA line.

  As for all the complaints about requests not being done in a timely mannery, or without reminders, that’s an old story. Been with QT for years, and not improving any. This forced imposition of the new platforms may be what I need to move to IB. The decision on their part to charge for currency conversions (figure out what it will cost to flip your entire account back and forth if you have to do that to stay out of a depreciationg currency like the USD when you trade US equities/options exclusively, and you’ll see that it adds up, even at ‘only’ 1%. Particulary galling in view of the fact that Penson used to do it for next to nothing. Also, conversions not automatic after a trade.

• 44 Jack // Nov 22, 2007 at 8:48 pm

  Oh, and: scalpers won’t be happy with the lack of tick charts. Cyber has these, but apparently QTPro does NOT.

• 45 Shayan // Dec 30, 2007 at 4:30 pm

  I’ve been a Questrade customer for about 7 months now, and I have been experiencing several discrepancies between their PENSON Online system (which keeps track of all the financial details of your account) and their QuestradeWeb (their trading platform).
  One problem I’ve been experiencing is that they charged me about 1 week worth of interest $62 on $50,000 when I only had the position for approximately 3 hours within the same trading day.
  They are not a bad company, their LIVE HELP reps TRY to be helpful but are not always successful. Their $4.95/per trade is very attractive but if they continue to have huge discrepancies like the ones I’ve been experiencing, that will start outweighing the cheaper trade pricing very quickly.

• 46 Brian Matthias // Jan 7, 2008 at 6:54 am

  I have read this entire blog of people not happy, I can understand where everyone is coming from. I recently downloaded Qtrader Pro. For the recorded, I am a Microsoft Certifed IT Professional and work in the Auto Finance field.

  I downloaded the software, installed it and tried to log onto the system as a demo account, I was first prompted by an immediate update. The program stalled at 12 percent and then up can a third window saying installing update 1 of 1. After a few pots of coffee it still sat at “Zero” percent.

  I assumed they were having a technical problem and gave up. 6 hours later I tried again, exact same issue. I send off an email and a screen shot picture of my desktop and decided to wait for a response. I did look into the issue myself and I know how to fix it, if I don’t get the correct response with the correct answer. It will show me how incompetent there support department is.

  Staring at a screen that shows a “Zero” only leads me to believe they pay their employees the same amount.

  $4.95 is cheap, if I need to make a trade now. I would be will to pay 100 times that amount. I will let you all know how long it takes for a response and what the outcome is.

  Brian

• 47 Alex // Jan 29, 2008 at 5:37 pm

  I had very rough start with QT (actually, was not able to start). It seems that these folks at QT do not honor their own application guidelines.

  My wife tried to open an account online a month ago. She went through all the requirements and sent all the necessary documents. That’s where the fun started.

  They requested extra documents (not required according to their sign-up procedures). When you fax those extra documents they tend to lose them. They requested an EFT for $5 as a proof of identity. Now it turns out that this is not enough for them. In fact, they need full details of the relinquishing financial institution by fax. What about those $5 that have already been paid? The guy said he does not know how to pay them back…

  Am I dreaming or what? Is this how we do business in Canada? If so, then we suck big time.

  A month later, I am $5 short and my wife does not have an account yet. What is more troubling is the thought of what these guys could do to sensitive info that I have sent to them.

  I just hope that my case is idiosyncratic as opposed to normal. In any case, this is unacceptable as far as I am concerned.

  Alex

• 48 ZT // Feb 7, 2008 at 5:41 pm

  My application for an account with Questrade was delayed (could even be refused eventually). The reason is that my signature on the acceptance does not match that on my driver’s licence. They ask me to re-sign the document and re-send the doc. I sure can do that. But I cannot guarantee that my second signature will be the same as that on my driver’s licence. This sounds weired. The licence may be signed years ago, your hand may be shaking when the weather was hot, the pen may be too big or small, the scanning machine may ignore the light ink, and most important, you may have changed your signature!
  Can anybody gurantee that the signature will be the same. I never have had any problem with my signature. Fully frustrated.

  They already have my SIN, bank info, date of birth, driver’s licence, phone number,email etc, what else other than going to their office physically I can submit to prove that I AM THE GUY who signed the doc and who is on the licence? I am leaving in western, not in Toronto, man!

  By the way, their email system seems to have problem. They claimed they sent email to me regarding my signature days back, but I never recevied it. Then I asked them in the LiveChat to send me again, they said they did. But I still had not received any email. This would confirm their suspect that I may not be the person who had signed the document.

  I am very frustrated.

• 49 James L // Feb 10, 2008 at 12:49 am

  Do not use questrade.
  I had an account with them and their system made too many errors. Cost me more than what I would have paid in commission with any other brokers, and cost me close to 20% of my equity account.
  I did not receive a cent from their operational errors. One of their answers for an error was that I should have called them to place a trade instead of doing it in the online system. How I would know?? When in the system showed that the transaction was done!

• 50 curious // Feb 11, 2008 at 8:34 am

  To ZT, if you lost money because someone stole your identity or forged your signature wouldnt you be the first person to blame the brokerage?

  Don’t you know how much identity theft is out there these days??

• 51 keith // Feb 29, 2008 at 7:09 pm

  I opened two accounts with Questrade back in November 2007 so far things have been good . except i was told i would be paid the closing out fee from my other broker accounts . This has not been done yet???

• 52 Lynn Suderman // Mar 4, 2008 at 1:32 pm

  Keith - You are referring to our account transfer promotion.
  You became eligible for the rebate three months after your account was fully funded. As you opened your account at the end of November, this means the end of February.

  I asked our back office team as to your rebate status and it is in the queue. It should be posted this week.

  Please note that this promo expired on March 1st. All accounts that are in process and referenced the promotional code will still qualify.

  Lynn Suderman
  Communications Manager
  Questrade

• 53 Drew // Mar 7, 2008 at 10:24 am

  looking for a service oriented company - then take a look at http://www.shirtoffourback.ca campaign by TradeFreedom

  I have been a client for 5 years and like the model of a designated account manager they offer - something that is now copied by other online brokers. They also offer an Elitye client status kinda of like the Presidents Account TD has.

  And I don’t have to worry about any trade minimums to get a low commisison rate.

• 54 Vincent // Mar 10, 2008 at 11:36 am

  Could someone from Questrade explain the reason that $5 and a blank check must be sent to open an account. I am not comfortable providing authority to anyone, to access my bank account and withdraw funds without my permission.
  Secondly, Is $5 a charge for opening an account with Questrade?.

• 55 Brian // Mar 22, 2008 at 9:32 pm

  Vincent…You open a aouunt with questrade. You then use your online banking to send them a “bill payment”. To setup a bill payment type in or select “questrade” as the payee and then put your 6-digit account number. Simple. I sent $1000 the very first time. You don’t have to worry about questrade fraudulantly taking money out of your account. Your first initial deposit takes 1-2 weeks. Any deposits after that take from 1-2 business days to transfer. Hope this helps.

• 56 Brian // Mar 22, 2008 at 9:36 pm

  P.S. If you decide to send $5 only via bill-payment, it will be deposited to your questrade account. I don’t think they just keep it. After that you will need to send the other $995 to get started.

• 57 Derek // Mar 31, 2008 at 10:09 am

  I was just wondering if anyone else has issues with theie system freezing when using QuestraderPro. I was a user of Cybertrader and the system worked fine. When we were forced to swith, my quotes periodically freeze, my systems CPU is constantly maxed because the viewer is taking all of the juice, and occasionally the system takes minutes before recoginzing a purchase or sale request. I have the same issues on both my home and work computers, so I know it is not a problem on my end. I have also used ameritrade and have tried the Sterling demo and it both these cases I also did not have any issues.

  Any comments ?? I heard they were working on something which was suppose to be out in Jan, but as of yet I have heard or seen nothing

• 58 How to Quickly Fund Your Questrade account with US Dollars // Apr 16, 2008 at 3:29 pm

  [...] take advantage of commissions as low as $4.95 per trade. However, I found that funding Questrade (Read my review) with US dollars was very frustrating. First, there is no free way to fund the account other than [...]

• 59 Peter // Apr 21, 2008 at 6:08 pm

  Emil,

  What does Questrade charge to exchange $CAD to $U.S?
  I have a U.S bank account, therefore wouldn’t it cost me less
  to send a U.S bank draft?

  Thanks,

  Peter

• 60 matt // Apr 23, 2008 at 2:53 pm

  Currently I have a TD bank account and a TD Waterhouse account which I just set up. The only thing I am disappointed with for TD is the $29 per trade… everything else is stellar.. account setup time, no other fee’s, easy and convient access and transfers since I have a TD bank account etc…

  Is there any advantage of switching to Questrade or another discount brokerage to get the lower commission rates ? I have between 2,000-4,000 to invest, and I do want to play with making some short investments. Im just worried that the lower commissions really wont be worth it in the end when you consider the extra fee’s associated with using another brokerage for US stocks (transfers, currency exchange, extra fees).

  If only TD had a lower price then $29 a trade… would be perfect.

• 61 Questrade // Apr 28, 2008 at 4:43 pm

  Hi Peter,

  If you already have USD, it’s probably best to send us a Certified Cheque or a Bank Draft. If you need to exchange currency, it will be more economical for you to exchange it in your Questrade account.

  Matt,

  With Questrade you can transfer funds electronically from your bank account just as easily. You can make a bill payment and in 1-4 business days the funds will be in your Questrade account. You can withdraw funds electronically as well.
  Keep in mind that Questrade is competitive not only in commissions, but also in other fees such as exchange fees. Please review our “Pricing” section on our website and you’ll discover that we are very competitive indeed.

  Best regards,

  Emil Vojkollari
  New Accounts Supervisor
  Web: http://www.questrade.com
  Phone: (416) 227-9876 ext.380
  Toll Free: 1-888-783-7866 ext.380
  Fax: (416) 227-0078
  _____________________________________________________________________________
  Questrade Inc. | 5650 Yonge Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M2M 4G3

  Trade Stocks for $4.95

  Ranked # 1 for both Fees and Customer Satisfaction - The Globe & Mail

• 62 Dan Baker // May 6, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  DO NOT use Questrade. I have had nothing but poor service, silly responses to issues. Been using them for over a year, and I cannot even get my equities transferred cleanly to another company. It has been over a month, the paperwork was flawless, according to the new group, and still Questrade is unresponsive and unprofessional. From safe-keeping charges that they do not know how to eliminate, to poor annual reporting, Questrade seems to lack any depth in customer service. They never respond in a timely manner, if they respond at all.

• 63 Canadian Capitalist // May 6, 2008 at 2:43 pm

  Dan: I’ve had my shares of issues with Questrade but when I did request a transfer, it was executed smoothly. My recommendation is to contact Emil; I’m sure he’ll sort out any issues you have.

• 64 Lynn Suderman // May 7, 2008 at 10:54 am

  Dan – we attempted to sort this out however I gather “Dan Baker” is a pseudonym. Can you please email your co-ordinates to me and I will forward them to the senior client service representative in charge of your file. He will follow up with you personally.

  Lynn Suderman
  Communications Manager, Questrade
  lsuderman@questrade.com

• 65 Grad Student // Jun 10, 2008 at 5:59 pm

  Has Questrade implemented their “pull” of USD yet? It has been almost 10 months since Emil announced they were working on it. Is there any canadian bank that allows bill payment in USD?

• 66 Unbundling the iShares CDN REIT Index Fund (XRE) // Jun 25, 2008 at 7:49 am

  [...] for instance, has 60 stocks, charges a MER of 0.17% and an investor paying $5 at Questrade needs a portfolio in Canadian equities of $175,000 to invest in the underlying stocks directly, [...]

• 67 Jake // Jun 26, 2008 at 10:58 pm

  I am struggling for the last 4 months to try and get an account transferred into Questrade which was presumable suppose to take 3 weeks. It’s nothing weird (well at least I don’t think it’s weird) it’s a RSP savings account (note savings account, cash only, no holdings) at TD. So here is a synopsis:

  Feb 2008 mail in request for transfer of the account. Three week later I contact them to determine what happened to my transfer. I am informed that they have not received any forms from me. After some deliberation it appeared on some person’s desk. (Lesson one: always courier forms to Queatrade so you have proof when they received the forms).

  Three weeks later (so now 6 weeks after the mail in) I call again and I am informed that Questrade is still processing the request. Some more deliberation and a promise the forms will be sent to TD ASAP.

  Call again 3 weeks later (12 weeks) and low and behold the forms were not sent (lesson two: follow up frequency of a week or less) call the next day yes, the forms is sent to TD. Finally.

  Mid May I receive a statement from TD showing the account was closed. So mid June I called and asked where the transfer is, they promise to investigate and call back, never called back, so week later i follow up again, another promise to call back which they never did, so now i am reaaaaaaly starting to worry that these guy have no clue where my money is!

  Tomorrow going to call again to follow up but have very little hope. So for July, I plan to take time off from work, go to their offices and will not leave until somebody can explain where my money is.

  Lesson 3: Trading systems works as expected for the price you pay but your own sanity DON’T TRANFER AN ACCOUNT!

• 68 Canadian Capitalist // Jun 27, 2008 at 6:54 am

  Jake: Try contacting Emil Vojkollari or Lynn Suderman. I’ve been frustrated with Questrade myself (see posts elsewhere on the blog) and Emil took care of it.

• 69 Bill Seguin // Aug 1, 2008 at 3:28 pm

  I have been reading about Questrade through the Globe & Mail web and am interested in opening an account. Do you have another email site that I can ask a few questions etc.? Or a live talk ‘phone?

  Thanks — Bill

• 70 Lynn Suderman // Aug 4, 2008 at 8:55 am

  Hi Bill,

  On the Contact Us page of our website, all the details about getting in touch are listed. There is also a link to Live Help, for instant online chat with a client services specialist.

  http://www.questrade.com/contact_us/default.aspx

  Lynn Suderman
  Communications Manager
  Questrade

• 71 Max Power // Aug 22, 2008 at 5:38 pm

  Thought I’d share my experience with Questrade with everyone. Was warned about the bad customer service but decided to go with them anyways because of the low fees and decent platform. Had a problem with a Pre-Auth Deposit due to my own error, called Customer Service mulitple times. On two occassions the Customer Service Rep said they would call me back but didn’t. It took 2 weeks and numerous follow ups on my part for them to identify the issue and another week after I corrected my error to resolve the problem. As a customer I do not get the feeling that I am of value to them.

  After the 1st issue was resolve I ran into a second issue regarding their 30 Free Trade Promotion. They said that I did not input the promo code during registration, I am positive that I did enter the code but unfortunately it’s my word against theirs. I signed up for the account on July 28th and received a confirmation from them but they tried to tell me that because the platform was not activated until August I was past the deadline. The promotion page of the website only says “Sign Up” and does not mention anything about “Platform Activation”. They say that they are investigating this issue and I am not sure when they will get back to me. I will definitely post the outcome once they do.

  Conclusion……
  Fees and Platform - Good
  Customer Service - Poor

• 72 Max Power // Aug 25, 2008 at 12:01 pm

  Questrade’s 30 free trades promotion is a scam. Make sure you have proof that you entered the promo code or they will claim you didn’t and not give you the free trades.

  I agree that fees are low but customer service is slow and if your looking for customer statisfaction you will not find it here. This is a Company that would risk their reputation for a potential savings of $148.50. Consider this before you sign up.

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