Robin Chahal

A few months back I did an analysis of the different online stock brokers available to Canadians and it’s been getting a fair number of hits so I thought I’d do an update. Notably, TD Ameritrade has made some dramatic changes to their fee and commission structures.  The fee structures for most brokers are different for 6 different kinds of customers:

• Customers investing less than $50,000 who make less than 30 trades per month
• Customers investing less than $50,000 who make more than 30 trades per month
• Customers investing more than $50,000 but less than $100,000 who make less than 30 trades per month
• Customers investing more than $50,000 but less than $100,000 who make more than 30 trades per month
• Customers investing more than $100,000 who make less than 30 trades per month
• Customers investing more than $100,000 who make more than 30 trades per month
• Customers investing more than $1 million who make more than 150 trades per quarter

I also did a comparison of account fees.

Here are the comparisons valid as of January 27th, 2011.

The conclusion at the end of this analysis is Questrade beats all the other brokers hands down. Interactive Brokers has comparable commissions, but they can’t handle RSP or TFSA accounts.

Comparison of Account Fees

Customers investing less than $50,000 who make less than 30 trades per month

Customers investing less than $50,000 who make more than 30 trades per month

Customers investing more than $50,000 but less than $100,000 who make less than 30 trades per month

Customers investing more than $50,000 but less than $100,000 who make more than 30 trades per month

Customers investing more than $100,000 who make less than 30 trades per month

Customers investing more than $100,000 who make more than 30 trades per month

Customers who make more than 150 trades per quarter or are investing more than $1 million

Full Disclosure:
I noticed that Questrade has an affiliate program and I signed up for it right away.