I have about $1000 that I want to invest, but ive never bought stocks before. Im looking for a broker with lower/no fees, so im curious what you use or suggest? Is there any advantage to using the same broker that I do banking with (BMO)? Their fees are higher than what I can get elsewhere, so from what I can tell, they dont seem to be ideal.
What broker do you use?
- Thread starter bl00math
- Start date
Look to Canadian Money Forum for wider opinions.
Many there talk about wealth simple.
I would suggest start with index ETF's and wait until you have much larger holdings before considering buying individual stocks.
I have gobs of investment funds and I stayed with my bank, and don't mind $10 commissions, as it makes me think a bit before executing a trade
Many there talk about wealth simple.
I would suggest start with index ETF's and wait until you have much larger holdings before considering buying individual stocks.
I have gobs of investment funds and I stayed with my bank, and don't mind $10 commissions, as it makes me think a bit before executing a trade
Thanks, I haven't heard of CMF before, so I'll check them out.
Admittedly, I don't really know what the difference is between stocks, index ETFs and other investment options are, and its a bit confusing trying to sort out the pricing for each kind, and what exactly im buying.
Admittedly, I don't really know what the difference is between stocks, index ETFs and other investment options are, and its a bit confusing trying to sort out the pricing for each kind, and what exactly im buying.
I use an App called Modern Advisor. 0.20% fees.
I made sure to get Vangaurd Funds. 75% return this year. My buddy signed up, and based on answers to his survey questions, he got different funds than me and is sitting at a 5% return. He had to call them for the switch.
I made sure to get Vangaurd Funds. 75% return this year. My buddy signed up, and based on answers to his survey questions, he got different funds than me and is sitting at a 5% return. He had to call them for the switch.
Stocks are individual company's... so Apple, or GM
EFT's are funds that have a bunch of companies.
You can also get products like a market fund... 2 examples are a S&P 500 fund... or a TSX fund. Over the long term these markets always go up.
They are good starting points until you get a little more familiar with picking stocks, or particular funds.
Tony Robin's book "Unshakable" was a fairly quick and easy read. It's kind of a sales pitch for a company he used to be involved in at times, but does teach some fundamentals, and warns of some things to avoid.
I downloaded it from google play books. Its widely available
I wish the little fish had something like Webull here. They include hours from 4:00 AM - 9:30 AM EST and after-hours trading is 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST.
My TD broker is from 4pm to 7pm and 8am to 9:30am. Plus the only orders available are limit sells and buys during this time.
AFAIK wealthsimple is even worse the TD.
I am not sure if we have in Canada anything like Webull but I would switch in a heartbeat if we had good after hours trading access with like a trailing stop loss or market stop losses and buys.
Webull also gives users ability to buy crypto.
The big fish and whales most likely have access to these trading features that us regular folk don’t and we are pretty much at their mercy and just hoping not too volatile movement and we move many steps after they move.
Does anyone know how to get better after hours access and trading for stocks here in Canada?
My TD broker is from 4pm to 7pm and 8am to 9:30am. Plus the only orders available are limit sells and buys during this time.
AFAIK wealthsimple is even worse the TD.
I am not sure if we have in Canada anything like Webull but I would switch in a heartbeat if we had good after hours trading access with like a trailing stop loss or market stop losses and buys.
Webull also gives users ability to buy crypto.
The big fish and whales most likely have access to these trading features that us regular folk don’t and we are pretty much at their mercy and just hoping not too volatile movement and we move many steps after they move.
Does anyone know how to get better after hours access and trading for stocks here in Canada?
Questrade is perfect.
Believe it or not Afterhours/premarket trading can be a bad thing. the liquidity is horrible and the moves are huge and often "fake"
like a stock may gap up big in premarket say 10% on low volume and by the time mkt opens it is down to flat. Fake moves on low volume.
The price of a stock during market hours is more "real" its backed up by high volume and alot of shares changing hands at those prices.
you will not beat machines and algorithms in buying good news before they do. what happens is they buy first and dump on you.
Questrade has all you need. Any more features, you will be able to trade more and most likely lose more money the more you trade. those are facts.
Believe it or not Afterhours/premarket trading can be a bad thing. the liquidity is horrible and the moves are huge and often "fake"
like a stock may gap up big in premarket say 10% on low volume and by the time mkt opens it is down to flat. Fake moves on low volume.
The price of a stock during market hours is more "real" its backed up by high volume and alot of shares changing hands at those prices.
you will not beat machines and algorithms in buying good news before they do. what happens is they buy first and dump on you.
Questrade has all you need. Any more features, you will be able to trade more and most likely lose more money the more you trade. those are facts.
Actually not true with ETFs. You are not investing in companies.
You are buying creation units. They are appropriate for high-risk frequent traders that know the complexities and risks of ETFs.
“If individual investors can't resist the temptation to jump into the fray and trade themselves silly, then they will just be making Wall Street richer, as well as justifying John Bogle's famous claim that ‘An ETF is like handing an arsonist a match.’" Source: Investmentnews
"The price of an ETF is based on the arbitrage opportunity between the ETF price and the price of the underlying securities. When things get squirrelly, authorized participants will allow the price of the ETF to drift to a point where they think they can still make money. They will then step in to be that buyer of last resort only when they are sure that the basket of securities they’ll receive doing a redemption can be unloaded for a profit.”
You have to calculate a “bid fair value” and an “a fair value” for every one of the underlying holdings, then compare that with the bid and ask of the ETF. In fact, that’s exactly what market makers do while they’re trying to figure out when to leap in and arbitrage out any price discrepancies.
In the US "flash crashes" many ETFs traded at $0.01 bid (to sell) because the participating dealers did not make bids. In the first crash, the SEC allowed the reversal of many of these ETF $0.01 sells but shows the risks - especially if you use stop-loss orders when there are no bids.
"The 2015 flash crash wasn’t unprecedented: In 2010, another flash crash dropped some ETF prices as much as 60% in a span of just 20 minutes, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. For a few horrific seconds, shares of the iShares Russell 1000 Growth Index ETF (IWF) traded for a penny. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) sold for 13 cents.
"What happened? In short, market makers walked away at the worst possible time.
"Can it happen again— Yes.
"ETF pricing depends on the ability of large investors to arbitrage the difference between the value of an ETF’s underlying shares and its market price. When the two prices diverge too far, institutional investors can buy or sell creation units – blocks of stock in proportion to an ETF’s holdings – and profit from the price difference between the two." - InvestmentNews
In many places, you’ll just take the last spread the day—at the close—and average that out of some number of days. The problem is that closing spreads are just plain dumb. Most investors should never be trading at the close at 4 pm due to the mechanics of getting end-of-day quotes in the last 15 minutes. See below
Free brokerage accounts are not "free." For example, Robinhood makes millions on free accounts with spreads and on dealer order flow payments. Revenue was $420m in the first quarter of 2021 but still had a $1.4b loss. In 2020 it had a profit of $7 million on "free" accounts.
This is the market mess you get into at market close auctions on the NYSE, I believe it is similar for the TSX and other major exchanges.
MOC= Market on close orders
LOC = Limit on close orders
CO= Closing offset orders
3:50 pm
Cutoff time for MOC/LOC order entry. Systemic publication of MOC/LOC Regulatory Imbalance is released. Thereafter only offsetting MOC/LOC and CO orders are allowed.
3:50 pm - 3:59:55 pm
Informational Imbalance publication is disseminated every 1 second. Includes the Paired-off quantity, Order Imbalance, Closing Only Interest Price, and Indicative Clearing Price.
3:55 pm d-Quotes and pegged e-quotes to be included in the indicative Clearing Price dissemination.
3:50 pm - 3:58 pm Only MOC/LOC orders that are documented errors may be canceled.
3:58 pm No cancels after this point, except as provided by Rule 123C(8)(a)(ii).
Many options in Vangaurd Funds so which funds did you get that gave 75% return in a year as none of their listed funds gave that kind of return as listed https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/list#/mutual-funds/asset-class/month-end-returns
I think wealthsimple just announced fractional shares on some stocks which is a huge improvement although limited to some stocks but still good progress IMO Now give us full after hours access and I will be one of the first to switch.
I do not see that it makes much difference where you trade. The commissions are pretty much the same. ( $9.95 /trade ) I use Scotia I Trades because they gave me a $800 bonus to switch. Can anyone tell me any advantages other brokers can offer?
Fractional shares are a huge advantage for the little guys and gets more retail investors in.
Having ability to trade at 5am is also a huge advantage that I don’t believe any of them do for the regular retail investors.
I think Webull and Robinhood allow this in the states along with crypto trading in one place.
