Best Brokers for Canadians???

J

jimclark

Hi Guys,

I live in Ontario, Canada and am thinking to start actively trading, maybe not Day-trading at the begining but definately short-term or swing trading. I will start active trading about mid June. I have about $20,000 USD in my Ameritrade Canada account.

I am looking for a company with sound software and pricing.

My question is: What are some of the best available Canadian brokers? I read all the posts regarding Canadians trading and gained some familiarity with SwiftTrade, Questrade but these are prop traders where I'll have to go to their office or somewho be "employeed" by them. I also read about Intractive Brokers and TradeFreedom.com but don't seem to find a happy medium. I also have E-Trade account and checked ouk their Power.E-trade but not sure if this is write for me just yet with their crazy fees.

Any suggestions for Canadians who need to do active trading?

Thank you much.
 
Ameritrade - The web based interface really is not good enough for fast trading. However, you can use QuoteTracker's integrated trading features to trade with Ameritrade Canada (Select DATEK since that is what Ameritrade Canada uses).

Same can be done for QuestTrade (CyberTrader), Interactive Brokers, and soon TradeFreedom.

That may give you some more options since you would be able to use a common interface regardless of which broker you select, plus you can use it with your existing Ameritrade account for quotes, charting and trading.

http://www.quotetracker.com

QT can be used for free with ads, or paid registration ($7 per month or $60 per year) with no ads, and longer time frame on charts. Clients of some brokers get the full registered version free. TradeFreedom will be one of them.
 
None of the brokers such as E-Trade, TD Waterhouse, Ameritrade come even close to Interactive Brokers of Canada (IB) for active traders. IB has all types of orders such as bracket order , trailing stops, etc. that others do not have. You can trade stocks listed on most exchanges in the world (including US and Canadian), Futures and currency. $10.99 to $29 commissions that others charge would really make it impossible for you to compete with others that pay only 0.01$/ share at Interactive Brokers. The only downside for us Canadians is that they do not have RRSP account.

There are too many advantages using IB to list. Do your homework, look at their site http://www.interactivebrokers.ca
 
Quote from gr8stock:

None of the brokers such as E-Trade, TD Waterhouse, Ameritrade come even close to Interactive Brokers of Canada (IB) for active traders. IB has all types of orders such as bracket order , trailing stops, etc. that others do not have. You can trade stocks listed on most exchanges in the world (including US and Canadian), Futures and currency. $10.99 to $29 commissions that others charge would really make it impossible for you to compete with others that pay only 0.01$/ share at Interactive Brokers. The only downside for us Canadians is that they do not have RRSP account.

There are too many advantages using IB to list. Do your homework, look at their site http://www.interactivebrokers.ca
More...

FWIW, RRSP accounts should be coming to IB by the end of summer.
 
Yes, I agree with you IB has access to many more markets and prices seem to be fine. I emailed and asked about their upcoming seminars in Montreal.

Anyway, I spent some time exploring their TWS Demo http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/tws/demo.html

Is this what you use? How does it rank compared to CyberTrader or TradeStation that seem to have advanced charting/graphs options?

Any insight appreciated.
 
def,

could you please try and make mgmt understand that they need to green light ALL trusts?

I talked to the top guy in Canada for IB but with all due respect, I don't think he gets it.

If IB implements RRSPs and fails to implement full access to trade ALL trusts, I think it will be at best a mild step forward. Why? The vast majority of people's RRSPs are in trusts!

So how do you expect people to transfer over their RRSP accounts when you will not allow them the ability to trade what is in their accounts?

:p
 
I currently live in the US and am thinking about opening an account with IB and using Esignal with execution using IB. I will be returning to BC shortly and expect I will continue to trade on the same platform using an IB canada account.

This has the added advantage of Esignal charting, which from reports is superior to Cybertrader and has the added benefit of backtesting.

I am not sure about IB reliably and execution times as a very active trader and certainly Cybertrader is well known for a good platform and very fast execution.

Any comments on the Esignal/IB combo would be appreciated
 
I currently live in the US and am thinking about opening an account with IB and using Esignal with execution using IB. I will be returning to BC shortly and expect I will continue to trade on the same platform using an IB canada account.

This has the added advantage of Esignal charting, which from reports is superior to Cybertrader and has the added benefit of backtesting.

I am not sure about IB reliably and execution times as a very active trader and certainly Cybertrader is well known for a good platform and very fast execution.

Any comments on the Esignal/IB combo would be appreciated
 
I think with I.B. you'll need 25 (not 20) K u.s. in your account, otherwise you'll be subjected to the PDT (Pattern-Day-Trader) rule.
 
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