Any Canadian day traders here who trade US Stocks?

G

gambleditall

Hi,

As the topic title states.

I am basically looking to get set up for day trading. As far as the broker is concerned, all the research online points to IB so I have that part sorted out.

But IB doesn't give Level 2s by default so I will need another service for that and a scanner. BearBullTrader.com suggests using DAS Trader Pro integrated with IB and TradeIdeas for scanning stocks.

I looked into the above services and they cost the following on a monthly basis:
DAS Trader Pro: $150-200
TradeIdeas: $60-100 (depending on if you can get a discount)

This results in a recurring fixed monthly cost of $210-$300 + commissions. This is clearly unaffordable if you are using an account size of $25-50k (which was what I was planning on, at least initially). I am pretty conservative right now and not comfortable using leverage so even if it is available to me my BP will be as much cash as I have in the account.

If there are any Canadian traders who day trade US stocks, I have the following questions:
1. What services are you subscribed to in addition to IB and what is your fixed monthly cost?
2. I was planning on using my TFSA for long positions since IB allows TFSA integration and then using a margin account for short positions. This will prevent me from being taxed on my gains (if any) on long positions at least. Is this a viable strategy?

Mainly looking on what kind of setup Canadian traders who trade US stocks frequently are running.

Thanks for the help!

Cheers!
 
gambleditall said:
Hi,

As the topic title states.

I am basically looking to get set up for day trading. As far as the broker is concerned, all the research online points to IB so I have that part sorted out.

But IB doesn't give Level 2s by default so I will need another service for that and a scanner. BearBullTrader.com suggests using DAS Trader Pro integrated with IB and TradeIdeas for scanning stocks.

I looked into the above services and they cost the following on a monthly basis:
DAS Trader Pro: $150-200
TradeIdeas: $60-100 (depending on if you can get a discount)

This results in a recurring fixed monthly cost of $210-$300 + commissions. This is clearly unaffordable if you are using an account size of $25-50k (which was what I was planning on, at least initially). I am pretty conservative right now and not comfortable using leverage so even if it is available to me my BP will be as much cash as I have in the account.

If there are any Canadian traders who day trade US stocks, I have the following questions:
1. What services are you subscribed to in addition to IB and what is your fixed monthly cost?
2. I was planning on using my TFSA for long positions since IB allows TFSA integration and then using a margin account for short positions. This will prevent me from being taxed on my gains (if any) on long positions at least. Is this a viable strategy?

Mainly looking on what kind of setup Canadian traders who trade US stocks frequently are running.

Thanks for the help!

Cheers!
More...


I used to use DAS with IB. For a front end it was good, especially the time and sales and level 2, but I find that I could trade off of real-time google quotes nearly as well if I had to, so it was a wasted expense in the long term for me.

Keep in mind that the CRA will tax your tfsa gains if they are the result of short-term trades (ie. you're not value investing for the long term). You'd be better off opening a regular margin account and paying the tax on your gains rather than attracting undue attention. There is plenty of publicity about the cra 'recuperating' taxes from tfsa trading accounts.
 
mbondy said:
I used to use DAS with IB. For a front end it was good, especially the time and sales and level 2, but I find that I could trade off of real-time google quotes nearly as well if I had to, so it was a wasted expense in the long term for me.

Keep in mind that the CRA will tax your tfsa gains if they are the result of short-term trades (ie. you're not value investing for the long term). You'd be better off opening a regular margin account and paying the tax on your gains rather than attracting undue attention. There is plenty of publicity about the cra 'recuperating' taxes from tfsa trading accounts.
More...

Have they been successful at this? My understanding was that this was a loophole that was closed, but they were never able to retroactively go back and successfully steal more money.
 
nooby_mcnoob said:
Have they been successful at this? My understanding was that this was a loophole that was closed, but they were never able to retroactively go back and successfully steal more money.
More...

I admit to not having backchecked my statement in a few months but the last I read, yes, the CRA were indeed successful and at one point, were bragging about how much tax they'd reclaimed. I feel, as most Canadians do, slightly invaded that my non-taxable account is subject to tax under certain conditions. Gotta love Canada!
 
nooby_mcnoob said:
Why would you expect $300+commissions to be unreasonable costs of doing business to earn a living?
More...
Well, take forex or crypto for example, anyone can get started with a small account because they only have to pay commissions relative to their accounts.

On the other hand seems like with equities, you have to pay a high amount in fixed monthly costs just to get started. And, since I am just getting started, I want to keep these to the minimum so I wanted to know if there is any alternative to what I have mentioned in the post to reduce those costs. If not, then so be it but its my obligation to be sure before I go ahead and subscribe to these costly services.

mbondy said:
I used to use DAS with IB. For a front end it was good, especially the time and sales and level 2, but I find that I could trade off of real-time google quotes nearly as well if I had to, so it was a wasted expense in the long term for me.

Keep in mind that the CRA will tax your tfsa gains if they are the result of short-term trades (ie. you're not value investing for the long term). You'd be better off opening a regular margin account and paying the tax on your gains rather than attracting undue attention. There is plenty of publicity about the cra 'recuperating' taxes from tfsa trading accounts.
More...
What are you using now? There are some brokers which provide DAS Trader by default like Lightspeed (maybe?) and Suretrader so it may make sense to just go with them. But, the caveat is that they don't support TFSA.

Regarding taxation, I think TFSA only bothers if you run up your account too large. This is not going to be a problem anytime soon since I am starting off with only a $25-30k account. But okay, lets say I don't have this additional condition of integrating my TFSA account, in that case, what are my best options?
 
gambleditall said:
Well, take forex or crypto for example, anyone can get started with a small account because they only have to pay commissions relative to their accounts.

On the other hand seems like with equities, you have to pay a high amount in fixed monthly costs just to get started. And, since I am just getting started, I want to keep these to the minimum so I wanted to know if there is any alternative to what I have mentioned in the post to reduce those costs. If not, then so be it but its my obligation to be sure before I go ahead and subscribe to these costly services.


What are you using now? There are some brokers which provide DAS Trader by default like Lightspeed (maybe?) and Suretrader so it may make sense to just go with them. But, the caveat is that they don't support TFSA.

Regarding taxation, I think TFSA only bothers if you run up your account too large. This is not going to be a problem anytime soon since I am starting off with only a $25-30k account. But okay, lets say I don't have this additional condition of integrating my TFSA account, in that case, what are my best options?
More...

I am just with IB, I have no front end anymore.
Lightspeed does not cater to Canadian residents.
As for the tfsa... I have no suggestions.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
 
mbondy said:
I am just with IB, I have no front end anymore.
Lightspeed does not cater to Canadian residents.
As for the tfsa... I have no suggestions.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
More...
No worries! Thanks for the help!

Do you still actively day trade? Are there any tools besides IB that you use - a scanner for example? Would love to hear about which tools you are using.

Thanks and cheers!
 
gambleditall said:
This results in a recurring fixed monthly cost of $210-$300 + commissions. This is clearly unaffordable if you are using an account size of $25-50k (which was what I was planning on, at least initially).
More...

Your expectation of what you need to daytrade is way too low. $210-$300 for data is cheap.
 
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