A good discount brokerage

The online discount brokerage has been quite popular which took market share away from the big banks.  I guessed TD Direct Investing was TD’s response to this threat. The web user interface is satisfying but I don’t really need it that good. Most investors are not active traders. They are just doing passive investing. The key is to keep the trade volume to the minimum since timing the market is a mission impossible for most retail investors. Therefore, the priority is low fee and internet security. As long as the user interface is OK, I am fine. Questrade is the choice for me so far. I have used it for almost 5 years, so far so good.

I need another similar discount brokerage with low fee. Just did a search and found this article by Moneysense.ca. TD direct investing and Questrade were listed as the first and the second on its review. Lucky me. I have been using the best already. 😊

I am looking into Qtrade. I am a bit disappointed that only a limited number of ETF is free to buy and sell. The ETF I want are not free. It would be $8.75 per trade. That is close to TD Direct Investing’s $9.99. I have to dropped Qtrade.

What about Wealthsimple? It is commission free to trade stocks and ETF. I just found that it doesn’t allow to transfer a LIRA – Lockedin Retirement Account to a self-direct account. It must be transferred to a managed account which means fees. Hell no! All I want is self-directing. I don’t believe whatever managed service you provide.  Rarely beat the market anyway. I have to be charged no matter the performance. No way I am paying for that.

I found National Bank Direct Brokerage. It seems to meet all my criteria. I can open a LIRA. If I transferred $20K from another bank, it will reimburse up to $150 of the transfer fee. $0 commission to trade all Canadian and US ETFs. The only drawback I found for me is $100 admin fee for all accounts combined under one person. However, if the total assets are more than $20K, the fee can be exempted. I recalled this similar pricing for TD direct investing too. Those big banks.  

Hope we can all find the investing accounts that suit our needs. With internet, information is just right at our fingertips. Feel a bit empowered now. Good luck searching!