Newbe: Questrade vs iTrade vs ??

[THINKPADT61]

So I am looking to open up a trading account and seems like questrade or itrade are poplar for RFDer....

Questrade seems to have a lower cost per trade, but what's the data access fee about?

How about itrade, not too familiar with it, any hidden fee?

I am by no means going to be a day trader anytime soon, so recommendation is appreciated!

[DanielCarrera]

I don't trust Questrade at all. I have heard a lot of horror stories from Questrade customers, and my limited experience with them left me with the distinct impression that their programmers are incompetent. I would not trust my life's earnings to that kind of company.

I like ShareOwner (http://shareowner.com) because it is especially suited for the buy-and-hold investor who wants to put his money in good quality companies, and is not interested in market timing or speculating. With ShareOwner your fee is $9 for every trade up to a maximum of $36. So if you are buying 18 different stocks, you'll only be paying $2 per "trade".

Why do I say that this is for buy and hold investors? You can only buy any given stock once a week. They pool all the orders together. And you can only get stocks from a list of major Canadian and US stocks and ETFs. This is how they keep the commissions low. This is great for conscientious investors but bad for market timers and people who want to invest in obscure companies like penny stocks.

[sjweyman]

I don't trust Questrade at all. I have heard a lot of horror stories from Questrade customers, and my limited experience with them left me with the distinct impression that their programmers are incompetent. I would not trust my life's earnings to that kind of company.

I like ShareOwner (http://shareowner.com) because it is especially suited for the buy-and-hold investor who wants to put his money in good quality companies, and is not interested in market timing or speculating. With ShareOwner your fee is $9 for every trade up to a maximum of $36. So if you are buying 18 different stocks, you'll only be paying $2 per "trade".

Why do I say that this is for buy and hold investors? You can only buy any given stock once a week. They pool all the orders together. And you can only get stocks from a list of major Canadian and US stocks and ETFs. This is how they keep the commissions low. This is great for conscientious investors but bad for market timers and people who want to invest in obscure companies like penny stocks.

First time I've heard of them here on RFD. Good job bringing another option to the table, I like it. On the other hand I've had 0 problems with Questrade. A few unexpected very minor fees here and there but overall a great service and great savings. I've only probably executed about 30-50 trades with them so that doesn't mean something won't go wrong in the future.

[dealzuser]

With ShareOwner your fee is $9 for every trade up to a maximum of $36. So if you are buying 18 different stocks, you'll only be paying $2 per "trade".

Why do I say that this is for buy and hold investors? You can only buy any given stock once a week. They pool all the orders together.


I don't understand the attraction of Share Owner... If I'm only buying/holding a stock, why would I care if I'm paying ~$10 per trade at most institutions for high net worth / frequent traders, and have the flexibility to buy and sell it whenever I want.

Do they also restrict when the order is placed (i.e. at end of day) when the pool the orders together?

I don't think it's worth it considering the savings (max of ~$10 per trade, esp if you don't trade often), and the restriction that comes with it.


I use TD Waterhouse. I'm liking it more and more. The only thing I don't like now is the lack of real time portfolio value. I would love to use Interactive Brokers, because I trade ~10-20 times per quarter, but I can't stand the interface. I know it's powerful, but it's more than what I need, and more complex than I'm comfortable with.

[java]

Shareowner should be way cheaper then $9 a trade, for co-op trading it's a scam. It should be like $2 a trade (for every trade) with a cap of $40, then I would use them...

[ray420]

If you are looking for registered accounts (RRSP, TFSA etc) than you have several choices depending on how active you trade and your asset seize.

Questrade is the cheapest discount broker on the block, I know there are some unhappy customers, but I have 3 accounts with them (personal, investment club and one for the wive) and we have not had any problems with them.....yet anyways.....$4.95/trade you cant really beat that.

itrade would be my second choice with as they also have a lower trade cost than the big banks....but it depends on your trade frequency and asset seize.

If your registered accounts are all maximized and you are looking for a none registered account, which I highly doubt you need. Than look at Interactive brokers.

Here is a Review of Canadian Discount Brokers (http://financialhighway.com/canadian-discount-brokerage-review-and-comparison/)

5 Tips to choose the Best Discount Broker (http://financialhighway.com/discount-brokers-5-tips-to-choose-the-best-discount-broker/)

[DanielCarrera]

On the other hand I've had 0 problems with Questrade... I've only probably executed about 30-50 trades with them so that doesn't mean something won't go wrong in the future.

Yeah. In my opinion you have to be careful selecting a secure broker because you are going to use it many times (how many trades will you do in the next 40 years?) and the consequence of a computer bug could be significant (you are entrusting them with your life's savings). So a bug rate that would be acceptable for your webmail would be unacceptable for a stock broker. As an analogy: Most people manage fine with Windows in spite of the regular reboots, but would you want Windows running an airplane?

[DanielCarrera]

I don't understand the attraction of Share Owner... If I'm only buying/holding a stock, why would I care if I'm paying ~$10 per trade at most institutions for high net worth / frequent traders,

(1) Not everyone is high net worth. I am not, so I would save money with Share Owner.
(2) Imagine someone who wants to Dollar Cost Average every month into a collection of 12 stocks and/or ETFs. With ShareOwner he saves $1,008/year compared to $10/trade, and $2,448/year compared to $20/trade.

Knowing that adding additional stocks costs you nothing, you could decide to have a portfolio of many stocks. So, I would say that Share Owner is great for a particular type of investor. I am not interested in market timing, and I have no interest in selling. I like the idea of buying a diversified portfolio with many different ETFs or stocks for the lowest fee. Therefore, I am a good candidate for Share Owner.


and have the flexibility to buy and sell it whenever I want.

And if that is important to you, then Share Owner is not the best option for you. Personally I don't care. I don't plan my purchase orders with more than a 1-week accuracy, since I don't believe in market timing.


I use TD Waterhouse. I'm liking it more and more. The only thing I don't like now is the lack of real time portfolio value. I would love to use Interactive Brokers, because I trade ~10-20 times per quarter, but I can't stand the interface. I know it's powerful, but it's more than what I need, and more complex than I'm comfortable with.

Here I immediately notice a difference between you and I. You say "trade". I don't "trade" stocks, I buy and hold them.

[DanielCarrera]

Another thing I like about Share Owner is that they allow fractional shares up to four decimal places, at no cost, and they have a good DRIP (Dividend Re-Investment Plan) where they use dividends to buy more stock for you, for no fee, up to four decimal places. If the stock is worth $35.34 and you get $12.16 in dividends, ShareOwner will add 2.906 shares to your account.

[THINKPADT61]

This is not a easy decision... as I have to stick with the account for a longtime~

[SecretFire]

Does questrade still make you use 3 different logins depending on what part of the operation you're using?

[sjweyman]

Does questrade still make you use 3 different logins depending on what part of the operation you're using?

Yes, but it isn't that hard. Just bookmark all 3 (I only really use 2) and make your passwords the same. I also use an online notebook to keep track of any special usernames I get assigned for various accounts that I can't set myself. This allows me to access it from anywhere, just in case I forget the username. Obviously I don't store the passwords there though.

[SecretFire]

What options for parking cash does questrade have? I know itrade has their cash optimizer, but I hear that doesn't work inside RRSP accounts.

[cmackie]

What options for parking cash does questrade have? I know itrade has their cash optimizer, but I hear that doesn't work inside RRSP accounts.

None - the closest thing would be buying a money market fund but you'd get charged $10 in and out. Their cash rate is prime - 4% or something.

[markj]

What options for parking cash does questrade have? I know itrade has their cash optimizer, but I hear that doesn't work inside RRSP accounts.

thats correct, i wish it did work inside rrsp accounts...

[MoreMiles]

ScotiaITrade sucks. I transferred an amount from BMO Investorline using a US$ draft since you cannot do EFT. They hold that cheque for over 1 month! In fact, if you look at iTrade's information, they use BMO to clear their fund trasnfer... so they are just holding it for no reason.

They told me to use wire transfer next time.... and what? Pay $200 in wire transfer fee. I give up. I'm going back to BMO.

[Coolisme]

I'm actually thinking about itrade since I heard Scotia's removing Mcleod for itrade. Currently with Questrade but recently, problems are starting to occur at a more frequent pace, not reinvesting my dividends, etc.

Anyone know if Scotia is still replacing Mcleod with itrade? It will be easier for me since my cash flow accounts are with Scotia.

[smihaila]

Shareowner sucks because: 1-it's communist :) and 2-they assume that you will always buy. But what about the moment when you wish to sell. No longer communism and you pay big time for each individual stock part of your portfolio. Buy-and-holder, yes but you need to sell eventually at least once, no? :)

[DanielCarrera]

Shareowner sucks because: 1-it's communist :) and 2-they assume that you will always buy. But what about the moment when you wish to sell. No longer communism and you pay big time for each individual stock part of your portfolio. Buy-and-holder, yes but you need to sell eventually at least once, no? :)

1. You are joking.
2. They assume that you buy a lot more often than you sell, which is true for the passive buy-and-hold investor. A $12 transfer-out fee is hardly something to weep about after you held your securities for 10 years.

[smihaila]

The transfer out fee is $25 and the commission for selling each individual security is $19. In fact I don't understand why they call it "cooperative selling" because it's not the same as in the case of buying. I guess it's because at least for $19 you can sell unlimited number of securities of the same type.

Thanks.