Interested in trading Vanguard ETFs (from Canada)

I

Iwilldoit

Hi there,

I am interested in trading Vanguard ETFs, but I want to trade the US market not the Canadian market.

1) Do you have to have a broker to trade Vanguard ETFs, or can you trade it sans broker?

2) If you do indeed require a broker, then would anyone reading this thread be able to recommend a broker which allows Canadian clients to register? (I would prefer a US broker)

3) best advice for a newbie in "trading" (looking for a long term investment) ETFs, however I have traded futures (ES,CL) in the past.

Thanks,

IWDI




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Any reason you want it to be a U.S broker if your looking for a buy/hold ETF? Vanguard has plenty of Canadian listed ETF's that follow U.S underlyings. Theirs hundreds of options on the Canadian markets. The benefits of trading a Canadian listed ETF are that you won't have to worry about converting funds to U.S to buy a U.S fund and then convert back when you decide to cash out.
 
Metamega said:
Any reason you want it to be a U.S broker if your looking for a buy/hold ETF? Vanguard has plenty of Canadian listed ETF's that follow U.S underlyings. Theirs hundreds of options on the Canadian markets. The benefits of trading a Canadian listed ETF are that you won't have to worry about converting funds to U.S to buy a U.S fund and then convert back when you decide to cash out.
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Ok do I need a broker? or can I buy them directly?

Also would you know of any brokers that do not charge inactivity fees? b/c I want to hold for like a year

@Metamega
 
You will need a broker, as they are traded on an exchange and you'll need a broker to access the exchange. Questtrade would be a good option.

http://www.questrade.com/pricing/self-directed-investing/commissions/stocks

Depending on what type of account you want their may be some fees. RRSP and TFSA accounts usually hold some sort of quarterly/yearly fee if the account is under a certain value.

Most the big banks would be another option but you'd have to search their inactivity fees. Don't know off by hand.

QuestTrade says they have a suite of ETF's that are free to purchase. You just have to pay the commission to sell.
 
The Vanguard ETFs are just exchange traded etfs of Vanguard mutual funds. The mutual funds can be purchased directly from Vanguard with no commision and often have trading restrictions of 3 months and they have a min usually 3k and sometimes an additional fee if less than 10k in a fund.
You will need a broker (check out interactivebrokers) to trade the etfs. No min, you can buy 1 share and daytrading restrictions apply if your account is less than 25k. Both the index mutual funds and the identical index etfs have extremely low costs.
 
Metamega said:
You will need a broker, as they are traded on an exchange and you'll need a broker to access the exchange. Questtrade would be a good option.

http://www.questrade.com/pricing/self-directed-investing/commissions/stocks

Depending on what type of account you want their may be some fees. RRSP and TFSA accounts usually hold some sort of quarterly/yearly fee if the account is under a certain value.

Most the big banks would be another option but you'd have to search their inactivity fees. Don't know off by hand.

QuestTrade says they have a suite of ETF's that are free to purchase. You just have to pay the commission to sell.
More...

I used to have an account with questrade, you have to pay $25 inactivity fee if you dont trade at least once a quarter.

So will I have to pay MER + inactivity fee + commissions? thats ridiculous!

@Metamega @java
 
They state it's only 24.95 if your assets with them are under 5k. Most brokers will have some sort of similar minimum amount except maybe some of the larger banks that offer brokerage accounts.
 
Metamega said:
Any reason you want it to be a U.S broker if your looking for a buy/hold ETF? Vanguard has plenty of Canadian listed ETF's that follow U.S underlyings. Theirs hundreds of options on the Canadian markets. The benefits of trading a Canadian listed ETF are that you won't have to worry about converting funds to U.S to buy a U.S fund and then convert back when you decide to cash out.
More...

I want to trade an ETF that tracks the S&P500......
 
SPY is listed in the U.S and you'll have to convert to U.S dollars. VFV is vanguards SnP 500 canadian listed ETF, volume is subpar but it tracks it. ZSP is BMO's listed ETF for SnP 500. XSP is iShares version.

HSU is a 2x leveraged one listed on the TSX offered by Horizon.

Plenty of options. Like I said the charts are gappy due to lack of volume but for a longer term hold I wouldn't say you need to worry about liquidity, just costs and transaction fees, and transferring currencies aren't fun either. Theirs also lots of currency hedged ETF's that track the SnP 500 but I remember reading an article that showed the returns of both compared and the cost of the Hedging by the ETF really ate away any of the benefit.
 
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