Best Canadian Online Brokerages

21 responses so far ↓

• 1 simms // Oct 8, 2007 at 10:37 pm

  Interesting how Interactive Brokers is not in that article..

• 2 FourPillars // Oct 8, 2007 at 10:43 pm

  I was a bit concerned that some of the brokers don’t have a security guarantee - although I’ve read that some of the ‘guarantees’ aren’t really that solid (ie they will argue that your computer didn’t have proper security etc).

  Mike

• 3 Sam Luu // Oct 8, 2007 at 11:30 pm

  How come it’s so difficult to find US exchange spreads. Most of the wanted ETFs, includings the ones suggested on this site are bought of US exchanges.

  A 1% exchange spread for a 100K porfolio is huge especially over time over multiple investments. Isn’t it better to stick with CND ETFs even with the slightly higher MER?

• 4 MillionDollarJourney // Oct 9, 2007 at 7:36 am

  I’m also interested in hearing people’s experience with QTrade. I’ve read that Qtrade also provides wash trades.

• 5 Canadian Capitalist // Oct 9, 2007 at 8:21 am

  simms: I’m guessing that only brokers that offer RRSP accounts are included in the survey.

  Sam: Most banks charge a 1% spread either way. You’ll have to decide if the initial 1% exchange fee is worth the benefits. In my opinion it is. VEA’s MER is 0.15%, XIN’s is 0.50%. Without any growth, you can make the MER within 3 years. Similarly, VTI is 0.07% and XSP is 0.24% and you get one-stop exposure to all US equities with VTI.

• 6 FourPillars // Oct 9, 2007 at 8:37 am

  Sam - you should check out the discount brokerage comparison at Million $ Journey. He includes conversion rate as well.

  http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/review-canadian-discount-brokerages.htm

  Obviously there is no guarantee that everything is up to date but you can use it to narrow down your search and then verify the key points yourself.

  Mike

• 7 MillionDollarJourney // Oct 9, 2007 at 9:10 am

  Thanks for the plug FP.

• 8 alvanson // Oct 9, 2007 at 9:45 am

  I’m a Qtrade customer (non-registered account only, however). When you open an account with Qtrade, they open both a CAD and a USD cash account and allow you to make trades out of/in to either one. There is no conversion fee except for the initial transfer between CAD and USD cash (and the one back if you decide to transfer funds out of your USD cash account).

  As for customer service, Qtrade is one of the rare companies that will answer their 800 number with a live person after the second ring. As well, they are quick to respond to emails sent through their online form (and will even call you back if you leave a phone number). Every dealing I have had with Qtrade has been quite smooth.

• 9 Novice // Oct 9, 2007 at 12:53 pm

  Hi, I’m a 32 year old guy just getting into finding out more about stock trading. I’ve had an RRSP for many years, and recently sold our loft and bought a house, and would like to purchase stocks with some of the left-over funds but am a bit confused about how to get started (from a practical point of view, I am reading all about ratios, etc). CC I realize you’re probably not interested in posting something on this topic, but I’ m hoping one of your readers can give me some pointers - who to use, why, etc. I have questions on how to read fees - ie https://www.qtrade.ca/investor/en/aboutus/services/fees.j
  sp#fees - it seems there’s a lot of hidden little fees that can really eat into a small investment fund (leaving money aside for an emergency fund and new home expenditures, I’ll have about $5,000 I can invest). I’m thinking that an index fund is the best way to go, but don’t know how to get started. I’d also like a little bit (say $1,000) to just buy stocks in companies I admire, outside the fund. I’m hoping there’s a reader out there who won’t mind taking a few minutes to help me out - and I bet i’m not the only one reading this great blog by the way CC who sometimes feels out of their depth but keeps reading anyway.

• 10 Canadian Capitalist // Oct 9, 2007 at 1:35 pm

  Novice: Before you do anything, I’d suggest doing some reading. The books on investing in the Recommended Reading page will give you a good grounding to get started. I have a sample portfolio built using TD e-Series index mutual funds that you may want to check out. The bonus with e-Series funds is that apart from the built-in MERs (fees), there are no other fees.

  For $1,000, you might want to consider a DRIPs and SPPs offered by blue-chip Canadian companies. Canadian Money Saver magazine usually has a section devoted to DRIPs. Good luck!

• 11 Phil S // Oct 9, 2007 at 3:57 pm

  In a complete twist of irony based upon what the main subject of today’s comments are - my banker just called me up today to chit chat about stuff. I have a personal banker at BMO who I guess is assigned to take care of my accounts. Anyways, she asked whether I would be interested in having a chat with their investment advisor or their financial planner(for free).

  After thinking about this subject for a bit, it seems like a bit of bitter irony that maybe a decade ago, when I could have definitely used that service, it wasn’t available to me - especially for “free”. But now that my net worth is getting up there and they assign to me all of this personalized service, I don’t feel as though I really need it anymore. Still, I appreciate all of the effort that BMO is putting forth, but I’m at the point now where I no longer need it - it’s like the old adage, where the big banks only want to loan money to people who don’t need it.

• 12 Sam Luu // Oct 9, 2007 at 11:05 pm

  CC: Thanks for the input. I’m still trying to gauge how much of my investment should be in Canadian securities/ETFs. Since I plan to retire here, I’m thinking I want between 10%-15% in Canadian securities/ETFs.

  As for currency risk, is there more risk in the international ETFs? I assume they are all denominated into USD to trade on the AMEX, that’s risk #1. Second is that we have to convert to USD at the current rate, that’s risk #2.

  Bottomline though, I guess you need to have your money internationally to get somee growth, but you need to accept the currency risk?

• 13 Qtrade Review // Nov 19, 2007 at 7:36 pm

  [...] is a bit of a mystery despite being ranked the #1 discount broker in the Globe and Mail survey for two years running. I personally don’t have an account with [...]

• 14 Qtrade Review // Nov 19, 2007 at 7:36 pm

  [...] is a bit of a mystery despite being ranked the #1 discount broker in the Globe and Mail survey for two years running. I personally don’t have an account with [...]

• 15 How Would I Invest if I Were Just Starting Out? — benway.net // Dec 16, 2007 at 12:56 am

  [...] For more information on Canadian brokers, take a look at Canadian Capitalist’s post on the Best Canadian Online Brokerages. In the U.S., genXfinance has done a bunch of broker profiles at his [...]

• 16 Unbundling the iShares CDN REIT Index Fund (XRE) // Jun 24, 2008 at 8:47 pm

  [...] video interview with Jon Chevreau) recently wrote that the ultra-low commissions offered by the discount brokers allow investors with large portfolios to buy the stocks that comprise an index directly and avoid [...]

• 17 Jamie // Jul 16, 2008 at 6:18 am

  I have used Qtrade, E*Northern, Questrade, TD Waterhouse & E*trade Canada. Qtrade is by far my favourite with TD Waterhouse coming in second. With Qtrade I’ve come across no problems with any of my trades (no news is good news!) And when I call to tender a takeover offer or if I have a question, a real ‘Canadian’ person answers quickly after 2 rings!! That’s #1 for me too…

• 18 John Richardson // Nov 26, 2008 at 6:12 pm

  I have looked at these 6 banks.

  Scotia Bank, HSBC, TD Waterhouse, CIBC Investors Edge, RBC Direct Investing, and BMO Investor Line.

  Not sure of what Scotia Bank and HSBC offer.

  - TD Waterhouse offers $100,000 investment and $9.99
  trades and 3 months free commission up to $1500 value=
  150 free trades. Account must have $100,000 on the 4th
  business day of each month to avoid fees.

  - RBC Direct Investing offers $100,000 investment and
  $9.99 trades. Account must have $100,000 at the end of
  each month to avoid fees. Until Friday Nov 28th RBC Direct Investing is offering 1% back= $250.00 paid after 6 months on a $25,000 switch and will cover your transfer fee as well.

  - BMO Investor Line offers $100,000 investment and $9.99
  trades and $300 credit in cash into your account after 6
  months. Account must have $100,000 to avoid fees.

  - CIBC Investors Edge on $10,000 investment offers a
  package that contains 50 trades that cost $395 during the
  calendar year which is $7.90 per trade and after 50 trades
  $6.90 per trade. Account must have $10,000 value during
  August and September to avoid annual fees. Rest of year you
  can zero in the account.

  Based on these comparisons I feel that CIBC Investors Edge offers me the best deal and the least hassle.

  What do you all think? Please give me your input. I want your opinion and feedback. If you know of better deals or if I have made any errors please let me know.

  Thank you

• 19 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 27, 2008 at 9:45 am

  John: It depends on how many trades you do. I don’t make anywhere near 50 trades across *all* our account, let alone one account. So, I’ve decided that CIBC isn’t the ideal broker for me. Your mileage may vary.

• 20 bman // Feb 12, 2009 at 9:20 pm

  I was thinking of changing from TD to either Qtrade, IB, or BMO. The main problem I had with TD is they abruptly reduced the margin loan value on my stocks from 70% to 25% even though both stocks were well above 5$. They said something like they had low volume and were volatile even though both had a beta of only around 1.5 and traded more than 2% of the float per day. You can say what you want about bad service and computer glitches but at least Qtrade isn’t arbitrarily droping the margin loan percentage by a huge factor for no particular reason and putting their customers into incredibly difficult margin calls. TD is the worst broker now in my opinion for people that use a margin account. I’m willing to put up with a few computer and service glitches so I won’t be worried about TD pulling the rug out from underneath of you at any moment. For cash or RSP account TD is OK, but I would never invest on margin with them.

• 21 Zack C. // Mar 24, 2009 at 12:22 am

  BEWARE OF QUESTRADE’S SHADY
  ACCOUNTING PRACTICES

  I have had the single worst experience of my entire life with Questrade over the last few days, as I write this MY ACCOUNT IS MISSING $923.45 or 35% of my entire account balance & life savings after 3 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF ACCOUNT IMBALANCES. I am actively spreading the word of my ordeal through any medium I can until the problem is fixed I have gotten a letter to the editor posted in the Kingston Whig-Standard and am awaiting publication of my letters to the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun and the Globe and Mail. My uncle is one of the webmasters at Craig’s List so I should have a leg up in informing as many people as possible.

  I have personally traded stocks, options and funds for 7 years and ETF’s, FOREX and bonds for 5, so I consider myself informed about the online broker business. I am not a wealthy person but I enjoy investing in a ‘hands on’ fashion. I had an account with E*Trade for 6 years with no problems. A few months ago I left them for Questrade because of the cheaper commissions and their favorable consumer ratings.
  Up until the morning of March 5, 2009 I had a very good experience with Questrade, I even got my account set up in only 4 business days, which was very impressive!

  *Note all figures include commissions and exchange rates at the time of the transaction. Also, I have a TaxFreeSavings account, which means no margin account, no loans, no borrowing, no overdrafts. I can do transactions up to my current cash balance, any more money and it will reject the order because of insufficient funds. I can prove all claims/ figures through screen shots of history and physical account activity forms mailed to me after every day that I traded. With that in mind……

  The night of March 4, 2009 at 4:05PM I bought 23 shares of FAZ (an ETF) @ $79.80 USD=$1,840.44 USD (total after trade commission) x 1.27(the exchange rate at the time)=$2337.36 CAD worth of stock in my account + $54.72 CAD in cash left in my account=$2392.08 CAD is my total account balance.

  The morning of March 5, 2009 at 9:33AM I sold the same 23 shares of FAZ I carried over from the day before @ $86.86USD=$1992.81 USD (after trade commission) x 1.2785(the rate at the time)=$2547.81 CAD + $54.72 CAD (cash left in account since night before)=$2602.53 CAD total cash in account now. But there was actually $2232.04 CAD showing in my account balance when I checked it after the trade like I always do. That means my account was $370.49 CAD… just like that.

  I’m not going to go in to greater detail but the same thing happened the next two days as well taking $165.04 CAD on the morning of March 6,2009 and then again for $396.96 on the morning of March 9, 2009. I suspended my account at that point and stopped trading. They had taken $923.45 CAD by the end of it, or 35% of my life savings (I am still young and busy paying off student loans). I would’ve suspended it after the first day but they assured me it would be fixed and after the second day I was waiting for this manager to call me back, which he failed to do.

  Now you would think that in the face of this irrefutable evidence, and the fact that they admit a computer glitch took money through faulty a exchange of currency from a bunch of other people’s Tax Free Savings Accounts over these same days, that they would admit the error. Boy was I wrong, the real fight had just begun as I spent 2 hours and 06 mins. that day (have long distance phone bill to prove it) on the phone to 3 different people at customer service, trading desk, etc. They just tried to explain it away going down a checklist of things; didn’t add in trade commissions (even though the totals I used from webtrader history have them added in), exchange rate (which I took from the forex website), my miscalculations, etc. Each person would say they would “send a report to the back office and someone would follow up with me in the next few days. Guess what, not one of them did, I called again on Friday March 6, 2009 and asked to speak with a manger that didn’t call me back for 4 business days and when he did he brushed me off, even though they admitted “some money was taken from my account and put back”, $181.82 CAD on March 5, 2009. He refused to understand that I sold stock for this price and then my account balance said I had much less then what I sold the stock for, even though this is very simple concept. Robert Chandler is the name of the “manager” I spoke with. He at one point 30 mins. into the conversation said hold on for 5 mins. and pretended to have an audit done on my account, even though another manager told me audits take at least 3-5 business days. Apparently Rob is a superhuman adding computer… either that or a bald faced liar. I called him on the amazingly quick audit he was able to do and he hung up (I have a witness who was also listening to the call), after 45 mins. of denials. I spoke with him a few days later and said he couldn’t bully me into submission, that I wanted a real audit of my account. He told me a real audit is $75 an hour charged to my account. I asked if Questrade was found to be at fault, would the audit be free? He said no the audit would be around $500.00 in total and would not be refunded even if they found that Questrade took money from my account.

  I then attempted to go higher then Rob by using a good comment blog post and contacting Emil Vojkollari and Nicholas Roussos, both in middle management, who seem to help people on the blog I saw solve problems with Questrade, and guess what? I have left 2 messages for Emil seeking assistance in the matter and 4 for Nicholas asking him for help as well and both HAVE YET TO RETURN ANY OF MY 6 MESSAGES. That is not client support, that is an abomination and I intend to make it my hobby for the next few months until every cent of my $923.45 CAD is returned to me with an apology of mass proportions. The ironic thing is that after my forensic auditor finishes his assessment I can take them to small claims court where if found guilty of taking money from me they would be on the hook for $1000’s to pay for my legal counsel (my dad, who charges $300/an hour) and $1000’s for their own legal counsel plus have to explain the verdict to the IIROC Canadian securities regulatory body and risk losing their retail broker license.

  Sorry it took so long to read, but PLEASE, ANYONE WHO DOESN’T ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH QUESTRADE…DON’T, ANYONE THAT HAS AN ACCOUNT ALREADY…CLOSE IT. THIS AGGRAVATION HAS GIVEN MY WIFE AND I WEEKS OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS AND UNTOLD STRESS. This recession has been hard enough on everyone let alone being taken for 35% of my families entire savings. Questrade are at best a terrible company with horrendous customer service and complaint response, and at worst criminal with gross misconduct on the part of ROBERT CHANDLER. You don’t hang up on someone or lie and say you are doing an “audit” that was magically finished in 10 mins. instead of the standard 3-5 days. The fact that neither Emil nor Nicholas has bothered to return my calls proves that the upper management is also not taking customer’s complaints seriously. It’s sad what this world is coming to sometimes, I hope between the huge ad on Craig’s list and the letter in the Whig-Standard, the letters hopefully in the Tor. Star, Tor. Sun and Globe & Mail: people will recognize the absolutely vile way they have handled me. I was only trying to get my family ahead using a discount broker to save fees, I didn’t deserve this, my wife didn’t deserve this and my 5 month old daughter certainly didn’t deserve this. Shame on you Questrade.

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