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questrade - can someone comment =)

May 22, 2008
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2
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so, if some people read my last thread. i was looking into trading for myself. i found a simulator on questrade so i started playing around with fake money (obviously). i just picked up a book about trading stocks. for the record, for those, i do have a financial background but never got into stocks so i had some money to play around with it. i understand that i should probably have about 15 different stocks in my portfolio and im playing with blue chip companies. the companies i've selected so far which is about 6 companies are in the DOW. i would say with those 6 companies, i bought give or take about an avg of 100 shares for those 6 companies which totaled about 10K. roughly how many shares would u feel is a minimum to buy within a company?

to illustrate my questions...in order to get my 15 different stocks i obviously wouldnt buy like 1 share from the 15 different company because the transaction fees alone would kill that. so anyone have an idea what is a good amount to start with by buying from each company?

once again..im clearly a noob. and im obviously not gonna take someone's advice completely and just go out and buy these stocks right away. just trying to get perspective...i'm still gonna do other research b4 i actually do anything with real money. just hoping for some thoughts. thx =)
 

OddSox

Active member
May 3, 2006
3,150
2
36
Ottawa
How many shares you buy is totally up to you - just figure out the math.

If you buy $100 worth of a company through Questrade the fee is basically $5.00 (1 cent/share, $4.95 min, $9.95 max) so it would have to increase at least 10% before you cover your transaction costs and make any profit ($5.00 to buy and $5.00 to sell).

If you were to buy $1000 worth the transaction costs would be more like 1%...

And so on...
 

21pro

Crotch Sniffer
Oct 22, 2003
7,830
1
0
Caledon East
i had a questrade account for about a year. never liked them and slowly transferred all of my holdings out of them and moved to Qtrade.

however, I'm not a trader and don't need their trading platform software.
 

canaille

New member
Dec 30, 2009
159
0
0
If you trade US stocks in a registered account, then Questrade has the best foreign exchange rate in the world: NIL. They basically set-up USD and CAD accounts for you to buy and sell USD and CAD between the accounts. With the other brokers, you transact foreign exchange with the house. Tradefreedom is the worst for foreign exchange, charging easily 3% of your capital for each transaction. You cannot possibly make money at those spreads.
 

theycallmebruce

Active member
Nov 17, 2002
1,107
1
38
I would recommend that you buy ETFs instead of individual stocks. An exchange traded fund would give you more diversification and you would save a ton on commission fees. Check out iShares or Claymore.
 

hunter001

Almost Done.
Jul 10, 2006
8,636
0
0
How often do you plan to trade? Is execution time important?
 

oil&gas

Well-known member
Apr 16, 2002
12,224
1,621
113
Ghawar
How often do you plan to trade? Is execution time important?
I am not a day trader but I could occasionally execute tens of stock
transaction orders in one day. I don't see the execution time to be
an important consideration in the choice of brokerage.

To me it is only the time lag between the submission of
the stock order and when it reaches the market that matters.
Under normal market condition and absent any internet traffic
bottleneck this time lag should be negligible and, I presume,
does not significantly vary with different online brokerages.
Of course the time elapsed until your stock order is filled depends
on the price you pick and the trading volume which is beyond your
control.
 

Dragon.i

New member
Jan 10, 2010
41
0
0
so, if some people read my last thread. i was looking into trading for myself. i found a simulator on questrade so i started playing around with fake money (obviously). i just picked up a book about trading stocks. for the record, for those, i do have a financial background but never got into stocks so i had some money to play around with it. i understand that i should probably have about 15 different stocks in my portfolio and im playing with blue chip companies. the companies i've selected so far which is about 6 companies are in the DOW. i would say with those 6 companies, i bought give or take about an avg of 100 shares for those 6 companies which totaled about 10K. roughly how many shares would u feel is a minimum to buy within a company?

to illustrate my questions...in order to get my 15 different stocks i obviously wouldnt buy like 1 share from the 15 different company because the transaction fees alone would kill that. so anyone have an idea what is a good amount to start with by buying from each company?

once again..im clearly a noob. and im obviously not gonna take someone's advice completely and just go out and buy these stocks right away. just trying to get perspective...i'm still gonna do other research b4 i actually do anything with real money. just hoping for some thoughts. thx =)
It seems to me you want to diversity your portfolio with that 10k and futhermore, it's the DOW that you want to mimic.
Well, if that's the case, you should buy a fund that acts as a proxy for the DOW and managed by a passive fund manager (That 10K will not buy you much stocks of different companies).

That said, you have to have an object in your investment strategy.
YOu have to consider these criterias:
1) Growth - higher returns and thus with new companies (e.g. new industry with new/recent immature companies, like google 5-7 yrs ago)
2) Income - fixed income (i.e. bonds)
3) Liquidity - this is how quick you can convert equity to cash, but since this is your "play money" is not an issue
4) Safety - inherent risk in any investment

Ok, I've stated the most basic 101 investment considerations. So the best option (I think) is to invest in a carefully considered fund for a newbie such as you.

(note: funds will charge a charge called MER - management expense ratio, which can reduce your return down to a measly savings rate amount, unless your pre-MER return is very high).

Good luck!
 
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