Comments on: Globe and Mail’s Discount Broker Rankings

By: wx_junkie

wx_junkie — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:12:21 +0000

I’ve been with CIBC Investors Edge since 2000, but did not actively trade / invest until a few years ago.

Their Edge Advantage package, to which John spoke to in Post #20, is superb. I pay $395 cash in January out of my own pocket . I write this off as an investment expense (not a commission), so I get back about $158 of this. 50 trades – $0 commission. Doesn’t get any more complicated than that. IF I use up all 50, which I don’t, trades are only $6.95 flat commission.

I’m not sure why CIBC isn’t higher up on the ranks.

By: phlypper

phlypper — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:06:40 +0000

thinking of moving locked in rrsp to qtrade, want to have more control over my investments. looking at etf and other equities. wondering what experiences others have had and what things to be aware of. perhaps i should consider another brokerage?

thanks

By: bman

bman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:03:09 +0000

I was thinking of changing from TD to either Qtrade or IB. 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.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:03:50 +0000

I have Telus shares. I left Telus and now they are asking me to move them out. Which broker do you recommend? The shares value is around $3000. Not that much but I do not wanna sell them now. I just need to store them somewhere til the shares go up then sell. I do not intend to make it a profession.

What about putting them in a TFSA? Please help.

By: spider

spider — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:35:31 +0000

1) McLeod provides free access to to Financial Post reports. (Much better than TDW crippled access).
2) TDW has free access to INK research.

Would like to know how research tools with RCB and CIBC compare. Anybody here can comment?

By: tony

tony — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:53:36 +0000

i am with TD waterhouse (active trader) does anyone find that the system slows even stops working when there is a surge of activity in the markets?I called them many times about this and they act like nothings wrong on there side.Ibought a top of the line computerand high speed internet now, and i still have the same problem. I lost a $1000 today just because i couldn’t get out of a trade today
because it froze.the other day it also stopped .it has happened
many imes.Is there a better system out there thats more reliable with $7 commisions? thanks

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:19:57 +0000

Just finished switching all my RRSPs from Scotia Mcleod and Scotiabank after to TDWaterhouse (ActiveTrader). Scotia Mcleod had an inexcusable internet outage for 4 or 5 hrs of the trading day on Oct 30,2008. After 32 years of doing business with them and paying the very high commission fees, they basically told me to pound sand after I raised the issue. The difference between TD ActiveTrader and Scotia Mcleod trading platform is like night and day. Why didn’t I do this years ago. With the 9.99/trade fees I can play much smaller swings in stock prices.

Customer Service at TD has be great. Everyone I have spoken to was very knowledgeable and helpful. Although the bar was set pretty low by my experience with Scotia Mcleod’s Customer Service.

By: John Richardson

John Richardson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:34:12 +0000

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.

- 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.

Thank you

By: Canuck Finances » Blog Archive » Discount Broker

Canuck Finances » Blog Archive » Discount Broker — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:30:50 +0000

[...] for the past couple years. It’s alright. Nothing special. But after reading this recent post, I’m thinking of switching. Does anybody have any experience with Qtrade Investor? They keep [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:12:58 +0000

Thanks for the feedback DAvid and Gene. I’m going to shop around. While I recognize that Scotia McLeod has every right in the world to maximize revenues, they really should be suffering for not competing against other brokerages. Heck, for not even TRYING to compete!

Cheers,
Dave