Which Broker Do you Use?

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Which Discount Brokerages Do You Use select all that apply

Poll ended at 28 Feb 2017 21:05

BMO InvestorLine
18
17%
CIBC Investor's Edge
7
7%
Interactive Brokers
9
8%
National Bank Direct Brokerage
0
No votes
Qtrade Investor
1
1%
Questrade
5
5%
RBC Direct Investing
15
14%
Scotia Itrade
10
9%
TD Direct Investing
42
39%
Virtual Brokers
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 107

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newguy
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by newguy »

Dunno how I missed IB either :oops: +1

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deaddog
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by deaddog »

newguy wrote:Dunno how I missed IB either :oops: +1

newguy
Me too :oops:
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by BRIAN5000 »

newguy wrote:Dunno how I missed IB either :oops: +1

newguy
ok ok I give, I snuck it in there when you guys weren't looking :D :roll:
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optionable68
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by optionable68 »

IB for my taxable account, which is exclusively derivative based investing

RSP in an employer sponsored account

Planning to move my TSFA to TDW DI next month
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by milton »

Moved to BMOIL from Questrade and TDDI to take advantage of their cash back offer. BMOIL good for Norbert's gambits (automatic processing) and buying GICs (can be done online). Downside is that they still mail out tax slips (though that might change this year). Miss the low commissions at Questrade and the stock reports and interface of TDDI though these are still available as I have power of attorney over my parents' accounts at TDDI.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by pmj »

I help a friend who uses BMOIL (I'm with TDDI).
BMOIL:
Has no phone service after 8 pm EST. That's a pain in Ottawa - gotta be worse for those further west.
Transaction history and cash balances after a buy or sell omit the commission until a couple days later. Already made one mistake consequent on this.
If you hold MFs, or HISAs, the transaction history includes those weird 1/1000 units like RBCDI.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by AltaRed »

i've always seen thousandths of units on mutual funds with every brokerage I've ever been in, usually on its own transaction line.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by pmj »

Maybe TDII is the exception? I started with TDW in 2001, with MFs transferred from Royal Trust and TD bank, and there were never any 1/1000ths.

Here's an interesting glitch at Questrade - online MF holdings and transactions are both shown to 2 DP. Printed statements show 2 DP for holdings, but rounded to whole numbers for transactions :roll:. That's a double problem, cos MF holdings are usually 3 DP....
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by AltaRed »

Then TD is not doing it right. Check TD quantities against the annual statements issued by the MF company itself. Always contains thousandths.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by pmj »

AltaRed wrote:Then TD is not doing it right. Check TD quantities against the annual statements issued by the MF company itself. Always contains thousandths.
TDII shows MF holdings & transactions to 3 DP, online & printed. What it doesn't do is split out the 1/1000ths as separate transactions, with additional balancing transactions each time the # of 1/1000ths exceeds 1000.
It's Questrade that doesn't show 3DP - and is thus wrong against the MF co records. It also doesn't do the 1/1000ths stuff.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by AltaRed »

Okay, I misunderstood your prior post. As long as the thousandths are shown, it matters not to me whether on same line or separate transaction. Mind you, it has been many years since I've last seen MF distributions in any brokerage account so I may also be dated.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by IdOp »

Actually, RBCDI no longer splits out the 1,000-ths of units for MFs. Probably been a few years since they fixed that. Regarding number of decimal places, some FundCo's work to 4 decimals with the units (1/10,000), so for those the 3-decimal brokers can still show small errors in the holdings. (When you sell out, of course, the FundCo will send the right amount of money.)
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by fundamental »

Looks like BMO InvestorLine is now offering $1000 cashback for transfers of $250k+

I can't recall any better true cashback offers in recent memory (IMHO, "free" trades are not compelling)

Anybody taking the BMO bait?
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by johnsmith1 »

very interesting cash bonus! per account?

how's bmo investorline interface?
fundamental wrote: 05 Apr 2017 15:16 Looks like BMO InvestorLine is now offering $1000 cashback for transfers of $250k+

I can't recall any better true cashback offers in recent memory (IMHO, "free" trades are not compelling)

Anybody taking the BMO bait?
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by deaddog »

johnsmith1 wrote: 05 Apr 2017 15:29

how's bmo investorline interface?

As good as I have found.
I like the BMO Market Pro charting.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by AltaRed »

I've had a BMO IL account for about 4 years now (as a result of a prior bribe) to go along with my long standing Scotia iTrade (formerly E*Trade) account.

BMO IL interface seems satisfactory enough to me. It is intuitive enough though the home page can be quite cluttered if you stick with the default (and don't customize a bit). Their research and analysis seems to be on par with Scotia and their Level 2 real time trading platform (Market Pro) seems to be on par with Scotia's Flight Desk as well. They also have real time NG and true USD RRSP accounts.

If one goes to BMO IL and don't otherwise bank with BMO, be sure to sign up (during the appliication process) to their MyLink Chequing Account that is directly linked to the investment account. It allows one to do all the same things a chequing account allows one to do, and especially to move money out via Bill Payment.

If one is so inclined, one can have direct online transfers (in Banking) to/from their Harris US banking arm.

Potential downsides from my perspective:
1. They don't yet provide tax slips by online PDF though they tell me they hope to have that in place for the 2017 tax season.
2. Their monthly statements are among the latest to come out, circa the 7th-10th day of the following month, versus the 3rd-5th day from Scotia iTrade.
3. They don't have a fully integrated BMO Banking and BMO IL single login page (to my knowledge).
4. They don't have IPO/Secondary offerings page like most others do (Nesbitt Burns might be restricting them from doing that)
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by johnsmith1 »

is there any amount limit for checking account bill payment?
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by AltaRed »

No idea. Have never seen that question asked before.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by Mordko »

Yes, I believe so. At one point I attempted to move a decent amount from HSBC Premier to Questrade as "bill payment" and discovered that there was a $25K limit if you do it via computer banking. If you call afterwards, the limit went up to $125K making it a daily bill payment limit of $150K per person.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by johnsmith1 »

I just consolidated all the accounts to one bank last year. Getting old.
I don't read market researches, not using advanced dashboard, too complex for me and i don't think mac has a good handle of it.

I used to have a registered account with questrade, and I didn't even know they didn't offer real time quotes, so when I was busy buying bank stocks earlier last year, I noticed all the fills were below my limit orders like 50 cents, 1 dollar. That's a good surprise!

1000 cash bonus is still very interesting, but you can only get one bonus, not per account.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by johnsmith1 »

why don't you stick with hsbc? premier account holder pays only 6.95 per trade?
Mordko wrote: 05 Apr 2017 17:53 Yes, I believe so. At one point I attempted to move a decent amount from HSBC Premier to Questrade as "bill payment" and discovered that there was a $25K limit if you do it via computer banking. If you call afterwards, the limit went up to $125K making it a daily bill payment limit of $150K per person.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by optionable68 »

johnsmith1 wrote: 05 Apr 2017 15:29 very interesting cash bonus! per account?
fundamental wrote: 05 Apr 2017 15:16 Looks like BMO InvestorLine is now offering $1000 cashback for transfers of $250k+

I can't recall any better true cashback offers in recent memory (IMHO, "free" trades are not compelling)

Anybody taking the BMO bait?
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by AltaRed »

That BMO IL offer (cash) is as good as I've seen in quite a long time from anyone....
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by optionable68 »

AltaRed wrote: 05 Apr 2017 19:47 That BMO IL offer (cash) is as good as I've seen in quite a long time from anyone....
Agree. I am planning to move my RRSP there shortly.
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Re: Which Broker Do you Use?

Post by Shakespeare »

Just filled in the transfer for my RRSP. :mrgreen:
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