Best Discount Brokers for Buying/Selling Stocks (Questrade?)

[boingo]

Super Stock Picker very much intrigues me and want to follow it precisely, but with a potential for a high # of buys and sells (ie, Price Momentum can hold up to 10 stocks) it seems commissions can understandably get crazy high quickly.

So,  I'm wondering what discount broker you guys that run Super Stock Picker, and those who read this forum, use.  For me, because i'm a noob i had been using my bank (TD) for several years but didn't realize until recently that i was getting shafted for things like inactivity.  So i've been doing some research recently by hunting for other Canadian discount brokers (ideally, not one of the big banks) and am strongly leaning towards questrade after reading this in-depth questrade review or even Interactive Brokers since both their commissions appear to be the cheapest i've found.  They dont have an inactivity fee, but IB does have one though   .  Are there better alternatives that i should consider?  Ideally, one that has low (to none  ) in commissions (if volume is high enough) and no inactivity or hidden fees.

Although i will be starting with a small investment in Ultimate Price Momentum v4 (yay! i'm subscribed to the daily emails!) my intent is to add more funds every month and follow Stock Picker very closely -- every buy; every sell.  But will trade volumes get so high (including re balancing buys/sells) that maybe even exploring a stock company's "high volume trader" accounts might be the best option when using Super Stock Picker?  Most high volume accounts offered charge a monthly/quarterly fee though.  Decisions...Decisions.  

[DCA]

Hi boingo,

Welcome to the Forum.  Every broker has their good and bad points and it can be rather difficult to determine with certainty ahead of time which might be the cheapest.  It does strongly depend on the number of trades, size of trades and total account holdings.  All offer additional discounts for larger customers. (strangely some claim not to!)

Questrade, for instance, gives me trades at 1 cent a share to a 6.95 maximum but charges for data ($134/month for the data you would likely need for SSP [before discounts]) so this will work best if you do a lot of trades, mostly small volume trades, or trade without data.

Banks, on the other hand, usually include data but charge higher commissions (typically ~$10) so high volume trading of small lots can start to add up rapidly.  On the other hand a buy and hold strategy would probably be the cheapest here.

There are other things to consider:  With Questrade, an electronic fund transfer to or from your bank account will be completed the next day, whereas with Scotia iTrade it will take the full three days allowed.  (I've also known them to hit me with a five day hold on the funds when they arrive at the bank.)

D

[newinvestor1]

Hi Boingo,

Please refer to this article.
http://www.superstockpicker.com/forum/index.php?topic=4319.0

Questrade has hidden fees called ECN fees. I realized it after opening Questrade account. Questrade fee is never $4.95, it is always $4.95 + ECN fees. Sometimes this ECN fee is more than $9 depending on the volume of shares you trade. So you may end up paying $12, $13, or even $15 dollars depending on volume of shares per trade and cost of each share. Other times, you get lucky and pay less than $9 per trade.

Please call Questrade and inquire about ECN fees if you need more details.