Canadian Online Discount Stock Brokerage Comparison – 2020

Post author By Mike Holman
Post date October 26, 2010
100 Comments on Canadian Online Discount Stock Brokerage Comparison – 2020

Canadian Online Discount Stock Brokerage Comparison

This comparison is intended to show in one place, all the important information that someone who is looking for a discount brokerage would want to know – trading commissions, account fees etc. There are also links to more detailed individual brokerage reviews. Of course, all this information is available on broker websites, but as I’ve found out – it can be very difficult and time consuming to compile even basic information from a broker website.

Things to look for in a discount brokerage

Trading commissions – Don’t pay $29 for a trade when you could be paying a lot less. That’s just not a good deal.
Account fees – there are a lot of conditions for account fees, so study these carefully. Most of the time, investors with large balances can get the fees waived, but smaller investors should look for an account with no fees.

New to online investing? Learn how to buy an ETF or stock using a discount brokerage – step by step instructions.

Learn to negotiate

I can’t emphasize enough that if you have a decent amount of assets, then try to negotiate fees. As to how much you need in assets to negotiate – try it and find out for yourself. Here are some suggested negotiation areas:

Trading commissions – Are you at a big bank and are not too far away from having enough money to qualify for $10 commission? Ask for them now. TD and Qtrade just joined Scotia by lowering their cheap trade threshold to $50,000. Ask your bank to do the same for you.
Currency exchange fees – Before doing a trade between currencies, it is worthwhile to call and see what kind of preferred rate might be available.
Transfer to new brokerage fees – If you are moving to a new brokerage, ask them to pay your transfer fees.
Account fees – If you are close to the threshold for no account fees, ask if they can be waived.

Recommendations

Overall best

Questrade is my favourite – They have every account type, you can have US$ in your RRSP account, 2nd lowest trading commissions (after IB). As a very passive investor, I wouldn’t consider using anybody else. Check out the full Questrade discount brokerage review which also offers a $50 free trades promotion code.

Lowest commissions

Interactive Brokers has the lowest commissions and exchange rate of all the brokers listed. The main drawbacks of IB are that they only have non-registered accounts available and there is a $10,000 account minimum.

Active traders

Investors who trade frequently get the best deals on commissions. Interactive Brokers has the best deal for non-registered accounts with a minimum of $10,000 ($3,000 minimum if you are 21 or younger).
The big banks have good deals for active traders at $6 to $7 per trade, which is only slightly more than Questrade.

Table layout

It would be nice to be able to put all the data onto a table for easy reference, but unfortunately nothing is that simple. There are so many conditional fees that I ended up putting some information on the table and also created a detail section for each brokerage below the table.

If you see an asterisk * in the field – click on the field and it will take you to the appropriate information below the table. Alternatively look for fields with links – and click on them for more information.

For example in the “Online Trade Commissions” column you will see the commission range of “$24.99 to $6*” in the field next to “Scotia iTrade”. If you click on that link, you will then be taken to the detailed trade commissions for Scotia iTrade where you can read how to qualify for the different trade commissions.

I’ve also linked to my reviews of each brokerage which will contain more in depth information. Click on the brokerage name to see the review. At this time, there are only a few completed, but I will be publishing more in the coming weeks.

Please do not copy and paste the information in the tables to other websites. You are welcome to link to this page.

[table id=3 /]

More information

Please do not copy and paste the information in the tables to other websites. You are welcome to link to this page.

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Extra brokerage details

Questrade

Holding US$ in an RRSP and other registered accounts

Questrade has three currency settlement options for all registered accounts:

Managed Cdn$ – All cash is converted to Cdn$ (i.e., any US$ funds are automatically converted to Cdn$).
Managed US$ – All cash is converted to US$ (i.e., any Cdn$ funds are automatically converted to US$).
Trade currency – Both Cdn$ and US$ can be held and no automatic conversion takes place.

If you with to maintain US$ in a registered account, set the currency settlement to either managed US$ or trade currency.

Note that if you are doing a currency exchange more than $10,000,phone Questrade to try get a discount on the exchange rate.

Interactive Brokers

Note that IB only has non-registered accounts.
Real time data plans

Canadian exchanges – $6/month
US exchange – $10/month – waivable if $30 in trading commissions per month

Online trade commissions

Cdn stocks – $0.01 per share, $1 Cdn minimum, max is 0.5% of trade value.
US stocks -$0.005 per share, $1 US minimum, max is 0.5% of trade value.
Minimum trading activity of $10 per month ($3 if 21 years of age or less) or the difference is charged to your account.

Account setup minimum

$10,000 or $3,000 if 21 years of age or less.

Credential Direct

Annual account fees

TFSA/RESP/OPEN – No annual fees
Registered accts – $50 if balance is less than $15,000

Qtrade

Online trade commissions

$19.00 – If household assets are less than $50,000 and less than 30 trades per quarter
$9.95 – If household assets are greater than $50,000 or 30-149 trades per quarter
$7.00 – If 150 trades or more per quarter

Annual account fees

CDN$ RRSP and other registered accounts – $50 if balance is less than $15,000
US$ RRSP – $50
TFSA – none
Non-registered – none

TD Waterhouse

Online trade commissions

$29.00 – If household assets are less than $50,000 and less than 30 trades per quarter
$9.99 – If household assets are greater than $50,000 or 30-149 trades per quarter. Online statements.
$7.00 – If 150 trades or more per quarter

Annual account fees

Registered stock trading account – $100 if balance is less than $25,000
Registered GIC and mutual fund acct – $25 if balance is less than $25,000.
RESP – $50 if balance is less than $25,000
TFSA – $50 – waived if balance > $25,000 or sign up for eServices

National Bank

Online trade commissions

$28.95 – Personal balance is less than $100,000 and less than 30 trades per quarter
$9.95 – Personal balance greater than $100,000
$6.95 + 1 cent per share – max $9.95 Greater than 30 trades per quarter

Note that the $100,000 required balance is for the individual – not household, which is the norm for other institutions.

Annual account fees

Registered accounts – $100 if balance is less than$25,000
RESP – $50 if balance is less than $25,000
TFSA – $50 if less than one trade per year or total assets is less than $100,000
Non-registered account – $80 if balance less than $10,000 or less than four trades per year

CIBC Investors Edge

Online trade commissions

$28.95 is the default commission.
$6.95 if you have at least $100,000 in household assets. This includes any CIBC products including bank accounts, mortgages.
$9.95 if you have at least $50,000 in household assets. This only includes CIBC online brokerage assets.

Annual account fees

RRSP, RRIF, LIRA, LIF – $100 unless balance of all registered accounts is greater than $25,000.
RESP – $50 unless balance is more than $15,000
TFSA – $50 This fee is starting Sept of 2011 – waived if you have a registered account as well
FundPlus account – $25 This account can only contain GICs, mutual funds and fixed income
Non-registered – $60 unless balance is greater than $10,000 or you have a registered account

BMO InvestorLine

Online trade commissions

$29.00 if assets you have trading authority over are less than $50,000 and less than 30 trades per quarter.
$9.95 if assets you have trading authority over are greater than $50,000 or more than 30 trades per quarter.

Annual account fees

RRSP, LIRA, RRIF – $100.00 unless balance is greater than $25,000
RESP – $50.00 unless balance is greater than $25,000
Non-registered – $25 per quarter unless balance is greater than $10,000 or at least 2 trades per 6 months
TFSA – No fee

RBC Direct

Online trade commissions

$28.95 – If household assets are less than $50,000 and less than 30 trades per quarter.
$9.95 – If household assets are greater than $50,000 or 30-149 trades per quarter.

Annual account fees

No fees if total client assets are $15,000 or more.
If assets are less than $15,000, a $25 quarterly fee will be charged regardless of the number of accounts. Can be avoided by making three or more trades in all accounts.

Scotia iTrade

Online trade commissions

$24.99 per trade
$9.99 – If you have $50,000 in combined assets or 30-149 trades per quarter
$6.99 – 150+ trade per quarter

Annual account fees

Non registered account – $25 per quarter unless minimum balance of $10,000 or one trade per quarter.
Registered account – $100 if balance of all accounts is less than $25,000.
RESP – $25 if balance of all account is less than $15,000.
TFSA – No fee.

ShareOwner

Online trade commissions

Group trades are $9.95 each or $40 per group of trades

Annual account fees

RRSP – $79
LIRA/Locked in RSP – $100
RIF – $100
TFSA – $50

Account withdrawal fees

Non-reg – $12
RRSP – $48
Home Buyers’ Plan Withdrawal – $100
Life Long Learning Plan Withdrawal – $100
TFSA Withdrawal – $25

Disnat

Online trade commissions

$29 if less than 10 trades per month or balance is less than $50,000
$9.95 if than 10 trades per month or more than $50,000
Min. $5.00 – max $9.95 if 10 trades or more per month in the Disnat Direct solution.

Annual account fees

TFSA – none
RRSP – $100 if balance is less than $15,000
RESP – $50 unless you have $25,000 in all your accounts
Non-registered – $25 per quarter, unless a minimum of two trades in the last 12 months.
RRIF,LIF – $100 if less than $25,000 in the account

Options Express

Online trade commissions

$14.95 if less than 35 trades per quarter
$12.95 if 35 or more trades per quarter

US$ RRSP

They only offer US$ denominated accounts and only trade on US exchanges. No Cdn$.

HSBC

Annual account fees

TFSA – none
RRSP – $50 if balance is less than $15,000
RESP – $50 if balance is less than $15,000 or have premier bank acct
Non-registered – $50 if balance is less than $5,000 or less than 2 trades per year
RRIF – $50 if balance is less than $15,000
LIF – $50- if balance is less than $15,000

Virtual Brokers

Annual account fees

RRSP, Spousal RRSP, LIRA, RIF, LIF – $50 if less than $15,000
TFSA – none
RESP – $25
US$ RRSP, US$ Spousal RRSP, US$ LIRA, US$ TFSA – $50

100 replies on “Canadian Online Discount Stock Brokerage Comparison – 2020”

@My Uni $ – I can’t say I’ve ever had issues, although I know when they did a conversion to their new webpage a year ago – the phone call wait times were quite long. I think around several minutes.

Since then, it’s gotten a lot better.

It’s hard to evaluate things you read online – as I wrote about here

https://moneysmartsblog.com/my-online-opinion-on-online-opinions/

it’s typically the people who have the problems or love the product that post online. Another thing about Questrade is that because of it’s low fees and low entry barriers (ie you can start an account with $1,000 with no fees), it tends to attract beginners who are investing for the first time.

Beginners are likely to have more problems, especially when it comes to transferring between brokers.

Curious, do any of the online trading companies listed in your article include access to purchasing the stocks found on the Austrulian Stock Exchange?

@peter – I suspect not, but you might want to call IB. If anyone offers that sort of thing, they will.

Options Express now have cheaper rates and the number of trades per quarter is now 9!

@Seashells – what is the new rate? the website doesn’t show a difference right now, perhaps they haven’t updated it?

Hey Mike great post. I am very excited and scared to start self directed investing. I am at the point where I have an a small amount of money I am willing to risk and looking for a discount brokerage to start off with. I am however a rookie and do know about the companies I want to buy stock with but know nothing about the actual purchase of said stock ie which markets I can buy from etc. Is there a good brokerage for dummies like me?

@Jayisnew – Questrade is best for small investors because of the fees. In your case, you need to spend some time learning first. The brokerage won’t help you with that.

You might want to consider investing with TD e-funds until you have more money.

I am looking to trade on less mainstream exchanges for international trading. A brokerage like RBC Direct Invest is very limited. What is my best option?

Also, safety of funds is my biggest concern. Places like RBC and TD seem the most safe. Any comments on the security of the smaller operations?

Scotia iTrade increasing fees effective April 2012.

Now QTrade is best by far. I use to have TDW for the e-funds, but commission free ETF trading beats e-funds (no 90 day penalty). I then had Scotia for the bond a buck (and commission free ETF). But now they increase the minimum commission for bond trades to $24.99. So, now QTrade gets my business (19.00 minimum bond trade, and commission free ETF).

Safety of funds is all the same if you are not a millionaire since it is all insured.

i am a foreigner looking to open a trading account here (equity). any suggestions. i know other countries require residence before one can be opened? will have a permanent address in canada.

thanks for your helpful comparisons. There are a couple of things I didn’t see compared.
1. Are shares purchased through the brokerage owned directly by clients (direct registration), or are they held by the firm in the client’s name (i.e. clients are unsecured creditors)?

2. Do the brokerages engage in hypothecation and re-hypothecation of the clients assets, if so what are their policies in this regard?

I am a foreigner looking for a brokerage where I can trade the Canadian stock exchange in the name of a trust. Any information you can help with would be most appreciated.

I learned the hard way that you have to read the rules very carefully and some of the selection boxes are very confusing. I had trouble with Scotia i-trade since it was e-trade but it is getting worse. I had most of my money with Scotia McLeod, the fees were high but I had confidence in them. I am going to try some of the others to see which one suites me. I learned never to have US and Canadian accounts with the same brokerage. One of the statements gives them the right to move money and charge the exchange fees even if you have funds in the same currency.

@Sheldon ” I learned never to have US and Canadian accounts with the same brokerage. One of the statements gives them the right to move money and charge the exchange fees even if you have funds in the same currency.”

Ca n you tell me which statement this is – I am curious as I have never assumed they would do this unless you lacked funds to settle a trade or pay a fee.

My problem is what to do with “loose change” i.e. cash sitting idle in an account. TD offers access to several “high interest” accounts with a low minimum ($1,000?) whereas BMO requires a minimum of $25,000. Similarly, GIC minimums at BMO are $5,000, where they are (I believe) only $1,000 at TD. At Scotia one can put money into a government bond based ETF with no fee, but of course the value of the ETF is not guaranteed. As pointed out, researching all this information for the various brokerages is tedious.

Just wondering if you have looked into whether any of Discount Brokerages offer RDSPs? I know TD Waterhouse does, but I think they are alone in that. Is that correct? Anyway great job laying out the comparison, very helpful

You should include platform fees in your comparison!

Thanks Mike for your comparison.
I would love to read more about how do people like the different trading platforms. I have an account with OptionExpress and like it very much, however, they do not trade Canadian $, so I keep my account with TD, they trading platform is so hard to use terrible quality on: quoting, charting, account display, etc… I am so frustrated and wish so much to leave TD. However, who’s trading software is the best? I tried Quest Trade and did not like it.

Does anybody have a comparison of platform fees? I used to be with Trade Freedom there platform included intraday charting for free but Scotiai Trade is now charging 70-100$!

Scotia ITrade are introducing minimum account balances and annual fees for registered accounts. The deadline for existing clients was tomorrow but has been extended to Sept 21. The comparison table needs updating. Here is the information I was sent:

For registered accounts other than RESP accounts you need to have $25,000 or greater in combined assets with Scotia iTRADE to avoid a $100 annual fee (plus HST) charged to your registered account(s) on September 15th.

I used to be with iTrade then platform fee was $31.45 now it is $70 or $100 depending how often you trade, I finally switched to VB. I did a lot of research and find them to be the best priced online trading firm in Canada. iTrade is your typical Canadian bank which nickel and dimes you to death.

Can anyone tell me which brokers (if any) allow adjustable trailing stops on stock trades?

Hey Chepa
I’ve used the Scotia itrade Flight Desk platform and it’s probably as difficult to read as the TDW platform, but I figure I’ll get used to it.

Bill: I confirm your comments on Scotia itrade fees. I’ve decided to take all my funds regular broker and put it into tirade. I’ve negotiated to get the $100 fee back because I’m sticking 250K into it, getting 100 days free trading (although I’m not a new client), and they’re covering the fees for the transfers, and I’ll get their top trading platform for free. I guess you need that level of account to get the perks, but whatever you do “NEGOTIATE”.

Has anyone used Credential Direct? Their write-up looks good, but I’m wondering if they allow contingency trading. Anyone know? Guess I’ll give them a call early next week if I don’t hear back here. first.

Great post Mike – thanks.

Two questions for the group…

1) Any idea when this article was written? I’ve looked, maybe I’m missing it, but I’d be interested to know how current this is (this comment was written on Jan 4 2013, for the record).

2) I don’t know what a small vs. large amount of money is for a discount brokerage. I am looking to setup an account with ~$120K – is that large? Does that change whether or not I should look at a small brokerage (IB/Questrade) vs. a bank? As one poster pointed out, all the money is insured up to $1M so I don’t see why it would matter. We (my family) have about double that with one large institutional brokerage and we are getting…er…HOSED on the fees so I’ve decided to a) go direct b) follow a passive/couch potato/sleep Canadian investment strategy. Welcome comments on this idea…

@Dark Helmet – The article was written a couple of years ago, but as the title suggests – I try to keep it up to date with regular updates.

Small generally means less than $50k in assets. Less than that amount means very high commissions at the bank brokerages.

OX Canada shut down effective early December. All accounts were switched to Virtual Brokers.

OX was the best broker I have ever used in Canada, and I’ve used IB, Etrade, Fidelity, TD, and others. So far, VB has been an absolutely horrible experience. Most of the staff is incompetent. They don’t return emails. Phone wait times are huge. The trading platforms are messy, and some give you incorrect or incomplete information. The statements are bad. Trade rejections are commonplace, and they never tell you why.

I’d go to IB in a heartbeat if they offered RRSPs. I’m hoping TD will offer the ThinkorSwim platform with US$ RRSPs soon. Fingers crossed.

I wanted to comment on RBC; I’m not sure if you make a distinction between RBC Direct and their Direct Investing arm. However your statement that if you have over “50,000 or greater in household assets you pay $9.95”. I was trying to get that rate assigned to my account as I have over $80,000 in RRSPS, the balance of my mortgage and HELOC with them (lots of equity I’ve already paid them!) and they told me that it’s 50,000 with Direct Investing NOT RBC.

I’m NOT going to pay $30 +- per trade!!!

Just thought I’d share my crappy experience with Virtual Brokers.

I’ve been trying to open a new account for a few weeks now, but they don’t respond to e-mails, and when I call they put me on hold forever. The only reason I’m even calling is because they left me a message saying “we had a problem opening your account; we’ll call you back, but just in case we don’t, please call us at…”. Not exactly confidence-inspiring! So I’m going to try Questtrade…

I was happily trading with Options Xpress but they transferred all their Canadian accounts to Virtual Brokers. What a nightmare. Their site is confusing and totally bewildering with 3 different plattforms. Takes forever to connect with someone on phone. Trade details don’t post until next day. I trade options strictly as stock substitutes exclusively employing puts and calls. I’m strictly a stock-picker., going long and short. Anyone have a suggestion for a better alternative?

Been with Virtual Brokers since the takeover of OptionsXpress. Stay Away!!! I am mostly an income investor. Dividends arrive several weeks late, if at all. Requests to transfer funds to bank are ignored. I tried to transfer one account to another broker and it still hasn’t even been initiated after 7 weeks. It appears that once they have your money, they will never let you have it back! Also, be careful with DRIP plans, Virtual Brokers, Questrade, and some others have their own in-house plan. You will not be eligible to receive discounted re-investments or enhanced dividends offered by many companies.

Kevin is spot on about Virtual Brokers. They seem to have suffered some kind of meltdown since absorbing Options Express customers, winning the Globe & Mail 2012 online broker ratings and taking over their own clearing.

Don’t bother trying to open an account with them for the foreseeable future. Your application will fall into a Black Hole. They don’t answer emails or telephone calls.

I can’t comment on their platforms and trading performance, since they’ve denied me the experience.

Too bad! They wanted to be the Costco of the online brokerage world, but they’re really a corner store offering great prices on items that are out-of-stock.

I, too, am waiting for IB to offer registered accounts… why don’t they seize this enormous opportunity?

Ditto TD and thinkorswim… they’ve owned it for a couple of years now, but it’s still not Canadian-friendly. Pretty pathetic for a “Canadian” bank, but I guess they’re happy hosing Canadian customers with their regular TDW service.

Does anyone knows which brokerage firms provide capital gains report for transactions? I am currently with Questrade but only get a summary of transactions. This means I have to calculate capital gains/losses every tax season. I have heard some of the big banks offer complete capital gains reporting, is it only for high net worth clients?

I have the same questions as Karen O. above.
I have an account with Qtrade.
My wife is RBC Direct.

I was previously with questrade but left after seven different technical errors on their system cancelled my trades. Questrade is actually rated the lowest in the country in terms of customer satisfaction but people are attracted by their low prices

Great reference site. Thank you for taking the time to keep the info current.
F YI , in Feb 2014 , Morningstar web site ran an article on fees . One of the items mentioned was the ability to have some brokerages reduce or eliminate their additional currency exchange in house fees when you buy U.S. Stocks with Canadian dollars.. The process , to have them apply, was referred to as WASHING, in the article .
You call the brokerage firm the same time you are making the trade ( yourself online ) and ask them to offset your Can $ to U.S. Dollar with another U.S. Dollar to Can $ trade . Seems this way you’ll only get charged the exchange rate.
Can you clarify this process ?
Thanks

Hello, I’m new to trading and learning as much as I can. Can anyone suggest if any on these online brokers are good, VB and Optionshouse. Which one would you recommend with low fees, etc. I only have $1k to play with for now. I read the comments about VB, which maybe outdated. Just wondering if VB is still bad when it comes to customer service, support, etc.

Well i hope u have a better experience with Questrade Raj,because i would advise you to go for it..goodluck

I wonder which one of these selftrading brokage plaform offers a good trailing stop by % instead of a fix price? Trailing stop by pourcentage is the best tool by far in the kind of market we have right now.
I’m with RBC direct and its not good . They only have stop loss at a fix price and you have to renew it every 30-40 days . They told me that its the Canadian law that made the stop loss temporary. Can’t keep it for a long time.
So if the market crash and you haven’t reconfirm the stop lost on every single stock you own, say Bye! Bye! to your savings .

It seems most reviews of Online Brokerages focus on cots items, fees per trade, account admin fees, etc.
I’m more interested in “value adders” such as reports, particularly consolidated performance reports versus portfolio statements; and research and guidance information such as recommendations for asset mix; geographic, FI vs Equity; Mutual Funds vs ETFs, etc.
Anyone found a good source of research and comparatives on factors such as these?

Not sure how old this article is but I would like to respond to Stephen above regarding “wash trade”. TDW had a messy way of doing it for registered accounts. If you buy a US$ stock/option first time, of course you will be hit with conversion fees. But if you call them ONCE, they would set up the wash trade so on sale of US$ stock/option, a US$ money market fund will be purchased automatically. If you do another US$ trade, this US$ money market fund will be automatically sold to cover the purchase. You can also buy the US$ money market fund first and then start trading in US$.
As of December, 2014, TD has split the C$ & US$ portions of registered accounts (about time!!), so the above method is no longer applicable but some other brokerages may be using it.
Of the other brokerages, RBC has separate C$ & US$ registered accounts for at least 2 years (if not longer).
Things happen very slowly at big banks in Canada. For example, TD website and features are from 90s. Their phone/tablet apps are clunky. They need to wake up and take the step to get into 21st century!

Hi everyone. I am international student in Canada and would like to know is there any Canadian Discount Brokerage that doesn’t require citizenship in order to open an account.
I did some research and it is going to be hard to find one so my next question is since I have an account with CIBC bank and I have already invested in some mutual funds through them how good or bad idea would be for me to stay with only mutual funds since I do not dispose with huge amount of money.
Also there is solution for me to go with CIBC Investors Discount Brokerage but regarding to the post above they have higher fees and I am not sure should I even open account with them. I am planning to invest around $4000.
I am beginner who would like to start trading with ETF since I have read some articles about it and I would appreciate any help.
Thank you.

Hello
I think we should start talking about Suretrader as well. They probably have the best borrows to short along with IB for active trader that trades smallcaps on NASDAQ and AMEX. Unlike other broker that clear their own stuff, they clear through ETC.

Stay as far away from VB as possible. These guys are the worst! I wanted to buy a specific MF and I contacted them about it before signing up. They said it was available. After I signed up, their trade desk tells me “Sorry, it’s actually not available”. Then I try to close my accounts and they don’t let me take back all my money. They keep a “minimum balance” in there. When I call and complain, they say they’ll “resolve it”. A month later, I still don’t get the remainder back and when I check my VB account, I see the money’s been charged as “Inactivity Fee”. I try calling them and can’t even get through to their horrible customer service.
Worst experience … ever!

Nov 26/15 As a beginner trader searching for a desktop trading platform to use I have been testing out a few out before committing. Currently at this moment I am trying out TD’s Thinkorswim aka US Trading Platform and IB (Interactive Brokers). Before that I tried Questrade. My comments so far are if you like simplicity and execution speed then go with IB. If you like ‘alot’ more complicated of a screen setup than choose Thinkorswim. It can be overwhelming and does take a bit of a learning curve to master. Questrade falls somewhere within the two. Questrade’s Web version I found is pretty good for those that just want to to do occasional trading. I will be looking in to doing a Suretrader demo next. Supposedly with Suretrader one can open up a trading account with as little as $500 and fund it with a credit/debit card. I certainly hope people will use their discretion on that idea. Two more on my list are Speedtrader and Centerpoint Securities. The latter being touted the best for shorting borrows of any platform out there but the highest to begin trading with. A minimum account of $50K US is required. Of course with all of these platforms depending on the number of trades you will be doing affects the price of commissions. The more trades one performs the less commission price one pays. If anyone has used or is using any of these platforms please feel free to provide your comments.

The article says IB only provides non-registered accounts. I don’t believe that’s accurate. They do allow RSPs and TFSA.

I’ve never invested before and i need a company with no minimum account balance. Which one is the best for that?
Also if, for example there is an emergency and i need money, can i sell the stocks and get my money back soon if needed? Are there penalties for this?

I don’t want to sound cheap but all these places from what I can make out require $5000 and up just to open an account. I am new to this and it has taken me a few years to get to a point where I feel OK with investing. But I do not have $5000 to start. I would be willing to start with $1000 but do not see any brokers willing to take on such a small investment. I know what stock I want to buy, can anyone help me find a good online broker who will help me out??? Thanks

Hi,

Could you recommend me the Broker Company that accepts Russian Residents?
I am looking for the online access to Nasdaq and NYSE.

Thanks in advance.

Baldev is correct Interactive Brokers (IB) do offer both RRSP and TFSA

https://www.interactivebrokers.ca/en/index.php?f=rsp_tfsa_information&p=tfsa