Commissions

[skimmy]

I see on these forums that $9.95 seems to be the standard for commission. I am currently with RBC ActionDirect and they are charging $28.95 per trade. Where can I find an online trading company that offers $9.95 trades on Canadian markets?

Thanks for any help,
Tim

[warrdogg]

I am currently with Questrade. I have found them to be a good broker and their new democratic pricing suits me. The trades are $4.99 to $9.99. I have been with them for a few years now.

I hope this helps.

[LuckyWon]

Hi Tim,
I am currently with InteractiveBrokers.  From my research they seem to be one of the brokers with the lowest commissions.  Min $1.00 to a max of 0.5% of the trade value.  They do have a $10US fee per month, but you still save money if you are following SSP, due to the number of trades required.

I have been considering opening an account with another broker as IB has no plans to offer TFSA accounts when they are available.  So I am curious to see some of the other responses here.

This site www.elitetrader.com has numerous ratings for most brokers, and is a great resource.  From what I have read Tradefreedom doesn't seem to have a great rating.  Bugmapper, can you comment on your experience with Tradefreedom?  Have you had to deal with any support issues?  Do you like the platforms they offer?  Do you know if they plan to offer TFSA accounts when available?

Cheers,
LuckyWon

[LuckyWon]

Bugmapper,

Thanks for the comments. I do believe that most brokers require large amounts of paper work to get an account open, so I am sure TradeFreedom is not so different in that respect.

Quest trade seem to be a good alternative as well.  Currently seems to offer all types of registered accounts so I assume that they will offer TFSA when available. 

Cheers,
Luckywon

[LuckyWon]

Just received an inconclusive response from Questrade.  But my spidey senses tell me they will offer TFSA when available 

Subject: Tax Free Savings Account

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

As of now there are no releases on that, but keep checking your Monthly Statements, as all new anouncements are made there.

Cheers,
Luckywon

P.S. I am not a customer and won't be getting any monthly statements.

[pwarna1458]

Hi there:

I am new to this forum and website and have been trading with Scotia Bank online brokerage paying $28.95 per trade. I read about Trade Freedom in this forum and noticed that their safekeeping fees are $50/ month which seems to be quite expensive. Am I reading the fees correctly?  I asked this question because I am seriously thinking of opening an account.

I have gained a lot of knowledge already and thanks to everybody for their postings.

Prasanna.

[Super Stock Picker]

Hello,

Not sure about the TradeFreedom fees, but I can invite you to also have a look at our partner JITNEYTRADE.

They offer to the SSP members to trade for $8.99. You can see the details of the offer on this page and visit their website for more info about the other fees:
http://www.superstockpicker.com/jitney.php

[viasystems]

5$ by trade with disnat direct but you must have 15000$ minimum in your portofolio.

[micro.trader]

Hi pwarma,

TradeFreedom does not charge safe keeping fees when held in street form. If you deposit certificates with them and sign them over to trade (street form) then there are no fees - if you send them certificates and keep them in physical form for "storage in a vault" then your charged safekeeping fees. Safekeeping is like keep stocks certs in a safety deposit box at the bank - the bank charges you for the deposit box. same concept.

They don't charge RRSP fees either, they pay transfer-in charges from other brokers, their direct access trading platform is free and allows you to trade premarket and aftermarket for the same commission charge as you would do during regular trading hours, the quotes are "streaming" so you never have to refresh - most companies charge for real-time streaming quotes, the direct access platform is free and it also provides market depth on US securities (shows the bids and offers on the US ECN")for free. You can also subscribe to additional quote feeds if you like and you can obtain them for free depending on your trade volume - I think its 30 per rolling quarter.

The best thing to do is test them out for yourself - the minimum is only $1000 - one of the lowest in the industry.

All in all they are a good company and now have the backing of Scotia - I agree that the posts on Elite Trader are way too old to take into consideration when choosing a broker - any broker. Word of mouth helps a lot.

Hope this helps

[wm]

If you are making at least 10 trades per year there is nothing cheaper than interactivebrokers.ca I pay less than $1 when I trade 100 shares and I have real time data. I moved all my RBC and BMO accounts to them. At $29.95 big banks charge about 50 times more than interactivebrokers for less services (no real time data, bad customer service, higher rate on margin, no option or short selling allowed, etc.).

[garilou]

Wow there, wm!
You write:

At $29.95 big banks charge about 50 times more than interactive brokers for less services (no real time data, bad customer service, higher rate on margin, no option or short selling allowed, etc.).

It's true that if you do not trade enough, or do not have a minimum amount invested, the commissions are higher.
I do not know about BMO, but I know pretty well RBC and TD Waterhouse: name me ONE that does not offer at least real time data and that does not allow short selling!
If they don't offer short selling (except in RRSP where it is not allowed anywhere), it's because they have too few shares available, to few clients, and that's bad!
Again, (it was discussed somewhere else), you one way or another, you pay for what you get. If you only want cheap, that might be what you get!

I have visited many other discount brokers sites, but as long as you have not opened an account, you can't really know, and that's bad.

They all want to make money, and if it's not on commissions, it's on other services!

I guess we should open a new serious topic on the different discount brokers!

It might be a delicate subject to discuss here, because SSP is partner with Jitneytrade, but it could be worthwhile.

I guess it's like your dentist: he (or she) is always the best 

In between, you can visit:

Rating Canada's on-line brokerages

http://gold.globeinvestor.com/servlet/GIGoldFile/static/brokersurvey/index

It was the first year when TD Waterhouse dropped from # 1 to # 3, others have been obliged to improve, but so does TD Waterhouse: every month you get a new - and free! - service. And for the help by phone I challenge you to find a better one! 24/24 7/7.

Anyway, this whole topic is in the wrong forum: here is the forum The Super Stock Picker and You. This topic should have been started in the Stock Market Talking Forum or in the Beginner's Guide Forum!

Louise

[Super Stock Picker]

It might be a delicate subject to discuss here, because SSP is partner with Jitneytrade, but it could be worthwhile.

No problem with that, members can discuss freely what they think about brokers.

Anyway, this whole topic is in the wrong forum: here is the forum The Super Stock Picker and You. This topic should have been started in the Stock Market Talking Forum or in the Beginner's Guide Forum!

Topic moved!