Three Stock Brokerages I use and Why Posted by shawn | at 5:11 PM

I have accounts with all three stock brokerages (Interactive Brokers, ThinkorSwim and Questrade) I highly recommend all three and feel free to contact me for a referral credit.  I recommend having multiple brokerage accounts because some will have shares to short while others wouldn't.

Interactive Brokers Canada:

• Ridiculously crazy low trading commissions(1$/100 Shares however anything under 1 dollar they use a different pricing structure) Not recommended for trading pennystocks
• Minimum to open an account is 10k but you can also open one with 5k using my workaround
• Direct Access platform which means the orders get executed in fraction of a second
• Platform is awesome. I use Booktrader for scalping.
• If you are looking to short, more likely Interactive Brokers will have the shares to short than others
• Low Margin Rates
• Super low exchange rates (1 basis point = 0.0001 (0.01%) with a min. commission of $2.50USD)
• Min commissions are $10USD/mo. If you don’t trade at least this amount per month, they will take the difference from your account.
• EFT deposits are FREE, along with the first monthly withdrawal. Fees apply after first withdrawal(Deposits take 5 days to get approved (through EFT)
• Offer only non-registered accounts, that means no RRSP, TFSA, 401k etc.
• Follows the SEC Pattern day trader rule ( 25k min to required to make more than 4 day trades in 5 business days)

ThinkorSwim (TOS) Canada:

• Fair trading commisions( $0.015/share ($5 min) or$9.95 / trade (5000 shares max), however if you trade frequently you can negotiate a better deal. Currently I pay 7$ flat for unlimited shares for all exchanges(OTCBB, Pinksheets) including pre-market and after-hours trading. Highly recommend for trading pennystocks.
• Platform is one of the best I have ever used
• Minimum to open account $2500 USD
• Cannot hold Canadian currency within a Think or Swim Account.
• Only offer margin accounts not registered accounts ( i.e. RRSP, TFSA)
• They do not follow the SEC Pattern day trader rule ( 25k min to required to make more than 4 day trades in 5 business days)

Questrade:

• $4.95 -9.95 per trade ( add 5$ on top if you are trading US Stocks in a registered account i.e. RRSP, TFSA etc.)
• Basic free platform is terrible but if you are cheap you will work around it.
• Direct Access platform which means the orders get executed in fraction of a second
• Minimum to open account is $1000
• EFT Deposits/Transfers are FREE!
• Offer margin and registered accounts ( RRSP, TFSA etc. )
• You need to remember three passwords - MyQuestrade (for adding, withdrawing, exchanging funds, requesting help etc.), WebTrader (the trading platform) and Penson Financial (for accessing account history etc.)
• They do not follow the SEC Pattern day trader rule ( 25k min to required to make more than 4 day trades in 5 business days)