Best Canadian retail firm with stocks, options and futures.

R

Rob227

Hey can anyone give me some suggestions on a good Canadian retail firm that has stocks, options and futures? I have a family member that wants to get set up so I'm doing a little checking for them.

I looked into Interactive Brokers which overall seemed pretty good but it seems they apply the pattern day trader rule to all accounts which isn't going to work. Questrade was ok but they don't have futures and the commissions were higher.

Can anyone give me some idea's on possible choices? No PDT rule, reasonable commissions?
 
Interactive Brokers is your best bet. I'd open an account with ThinkOrSwim but theyre owned by TD Waterhouse in Canada (not TD ameritrade) and they told me I need to make a minimum of 30 trades per quarter which is fine (if you're doing combos- opening and closing a butterfly is 6 trades. Do that 5 times in 3 months... and you're set)

But the biggest issue was I felt like the Customer service in Canada with TD Waterhouse might suck... So I opted for IB.

Not to mention expensive commission on TOS ..
 
IB is practically the only choice in Canada for futures and Forex and the best choice for options. For low priced stocks, however, their commissions will kill you, TDW will make much more sense. Please keep in mind that for Americans a "penny" stock is a stock below $5 and IB's commissions reflect this culture. So you might have to split your business between IB and TDW.

IB applies US rules, like PDT, to all
customers regardless of their country of residence. TDW, of course, doesn't have PDT restrictions.

If you decide to go with IB and TDW, you would need to get the best platform from TDW. It used to be AxisPro from Nexa Technologies (called Active Trader by TDW). Other brokers, like Scotia iTrade, offer the same platform, but TDW charges no ECN fees. I'm not sure if they finally offer TOS in Canada, this has been on to-do list for a long time.

Also, there has been a similar thread here not long ago about Canadians opening an account with a US based futures broker.

You should also check these Canadian-only forums for more info:

http://www.financialwebring.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=39
 
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