Question to Canadian Traders

D

dajester147

I was curious as whether or not Canadian's can use American based brokers like echotrade, global, etc. I know there are a couple in Canada, like IB canada, Questrade, Tradefreedom, but their commisions are kinda crappy. I am a IB customer, but after a recent run-in with their Customer Service, I've been looking elsewhere. Needless to say, I wasn't very satisfied with the way they dealt with me.

Thanks for the info.

Dan
 
I guess it depends on the platform that comes along with the broker. After youv'e checked them out personnal preferences will decide but ultimately commish and cust service play a heavy decision. How did you square off with IB. I'm currently using them and so far so good. Although a backup plan is always great to have. Stay away from E Trade their service is mediocre with high trade cost. Questrade seems interesting with their Cyber platform and two minute trade add on rule under one ticket. Commisions are seemingly reasonable as well. Don't now where your located but their in Toronto and the manager there some time ago had an open invite to visit their shop. That says something.

Regards
 
I guess I should have worded it better. Are there any sort of tax/revenue laws that doesn't allow us to trade futures/stock through a broker that is based in the US. Do we have to trade through a Canadian establish company ? Cause most Canadian posts I read all deal with brokers that have a Canadian branch, but I don't recall seeing any Canadian use a US only broker.

And my IB story is nothing new then what is on the forums already. I don't want to change this into a bitch fest on IB :D

Thanks,

Dan
 
There are no laws barring canadians from opening accounts with us brokers. However, because of the near monopoly of the Canadian brokerage industry, they have succesfully pressured most US firms into not accepting Canadians on the basis that the firms have to be registerd with the provincial securities agency first. There were some fines levied on a couple of them last year which got some press, but the whole thing is a lame attempt to maintain their grip on the business here. IB had to jump through every kind of roadblock imaginable before they could set up here.

If you can come up with a US address it makes setting up with an American broker pretty easy.
 
Many US DAT brokers will not accept to open an account even with a US address. Now, they check your passport, and if the brokers see that your are canadian, the process will be stop immediately. Also, if they use Penson service, Penson do a check on your nationality. Some exception are available, as RJT or PointDirex (for PointDirex you have to use a US address). Often, brokers with Future will accept to take canadian, because Future account are not available usually in Canada, this field is tolerate by the canadian brokers. After the future account is open, you can add stock trading easily.

If you use a canadian corporation, you will have the same problem.

Since the 911, the US brokers are more strict, don't hope to find too many holes. I have seen on this forum, that some some canadian use offshore corporation, this seem an effective workaround for them. Just scan for this topic on this forum.
 
Quote from trader42:



RJT closed all Canadian accounts when they were bought out by TD Waterhouse (a subsidiary of TD Bank Canadian) ...
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Thank you for the information, because the last summer AB Watley have attempt to transfert Canadian at RJT but I have choose another DAT broker. For ABWatley, this is Penson that have do the cleanup.
 
The guys at Questrade are very good and flexible, they have some great deals depending on your style of trading.
 
Some companies won't deal with canadians even with futures accounts. IB coesn't accept Canadian corp. clients at this time, if that is in fact an issue for you. For many, like Advanced Futures (there are many others as well) as long as you sign a non-solicitation dislcosure (states that you sought out their services, they did not solicite you) you should have no problems. You will be responsible for your own tax reporting. Hope this helps.
 
I seem to recall reading something about this. There is/was apparently some reciprocating agreement between SEC and OSC and other provincial securities agencies to prevent U.S brokers from opening accounts for Canadians. But it has been relaxed recently to allow for exceptions under the 'Non-Solicitation declaration'. At least that seems to be my recollection of it, can't remember exactly. Maybe some one else can confirm or refute this with references to specific info.
 
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