Summary

Questrade might be best to consider for more budget-conscious investors who like a convenient digital experience, and who take a more passive to moderately active approach when it comes to self-directed investing online.

More Details

Questrade is a great option for self-directed investors in Canada interested in trading Canadian and US stocks and ETFs. Like all Canadian online brokerages, however, Questrade has its pros and cons. One of the big pros is their commission-free buying of ETFs, which enables investors to purchase this popular investment product for no commission. Another great feature at Questrade is that there are no inactivity fees, which means there is no pressure to have to make trades or maintain a large minimum balance. Some of the cons with Questrade that investors cite include being charged for ECN fees, rates for margin trading, technical stability for day trading and more support for complex options trading.

Questrade excels at the digital experience for online investors because they offer the option to open trading accounts online, mobile apps, and a wide range of account types, digital platforms, and products for trading. They are a budget-friendly and convenient option for self-directed investors with simple investing needs and are popular with investors who believe they’d be best off passively investing as well as those who want to try out active investing.

Summary

Questrade offers many apps (with an active trading app coming), which means more selection. Their standard mobile app supports advanced trading and order types, while their QuestMobile app is for simple check-ins and order types.

More Details

Questrade’s mobile app selection is larger than most Canadian online brokerages, which is both a pro and a con because it can be confusing to know which app to use for which purpose.

They offer two main mobile trading apps: the Questrade mobile app, and their latest mobile app offering, QuestMobile. The latter is a major revamp of their mobile app trading experience. Both of Questrade’s mobile apps are available on Android in the Google Play Store and in the Apple App Store.

The easiest way to think about which Questrade app to use for investing and trading needs is that the standard Questrade mobile app is for more advanced trading and order types, whereas the QuestMobile app is more geared towards checking in on how things are going and simple order types.

Questrade is constantly doing mobile app reviews to ensure their technology keeps up with investor needs, and they are currently working on an active trading mobile app as well. Although, the launch date of their newest mobile app isn’t clear yet.

Source

Summary

Questrade historically offers competitive trading fees, but recent price competition has put it under a microscope, along with other Canadian online brokerages. Questrade does an effective job of transparently communicating their trading fees on their website.

More Details

Questrade’s fees have historically been among the most competitive at Canadian online brokerages; however, recent price competition has sparked a debate about what online brokerages should charge investors.

The fees at Questrade generally fall into two categories: Trading fees and other fees. Within the category of other fees, Questrade charges administrative fees and transaction fees, so it’s important to know which of these costs could apply to you if you open a trading account with Questrade.

The most common trading fees at Questrade apply to stocks, ETFs, and options. In the case of stock trading fees at Questrade, the pricing is $0.01 per share with a minimum charge of $4.95 and maximum of $9.95. There is an important caveat that Questrade also passes through other fees, such as ECN fees and ATS fees; however, these extra fees are avoidable depending on the order types you use.

Options trading fees (buying and selling options) at Questrade are $9.95 per trade plus $1 per contract. The exercise/assignment fees for options at Questrade are $24.95.

Another important trading fee to know about is Questrade’s currency exchange fee, which is typically 175 basis points. The good news is that Questrade offers US dollar accounts, so you can trade (buy and sell) securities in US dollars directly from that account without incurring currency exchange fees.

Questrade does a great job of explaining all of their fees and pricing, so looking up that information isn’t too difficult. There are no “hidden” fees and the fine print on fees is there but minimal and usually applies to some fairly rare circumstances.

Source

Summary

Questrade’s trading accounts come in registered account types, including popular accounts such as TFSA, RRSP, and RESP, and non-registered account types, such as individual margin accounts, all of which are offered in US dollar options.

More Details

Questrade offers a variety of registered account types and non-registered account types that most Canadian self-directed investors would find appealing to consider. Choosing the right account type and learning about account types in general is (in our opinion) one of the most important things to do first because different account types come with different conditions, costs, and possible tax consequences.

An explanation of the various account types, available on Questrade’s website, is straight-forward. Like other Canadian online stock brokers, Questrade’s trading accounts can be grouped into registered accounts and non-registered accounts. The challenging part, however, is that Questrade does offer quite a few different account types, so for now, we’ll stick to reviewing the most popular Questrade account types.

In terms of popular registered accounts, Questrade offers the Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), and Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF). To learn more about the registered account types at Questrade for self-directed investing, head to their website here.

The most popular non-registered account types at Questrade are individual margin accounts, which enable you to borrow money to trade using margin (and have to pay interest if you do borrow, of course!). A common type of investment account offered at other online brokerages is a cash account, however, Questrade does not offer cash accounts per se. If you don’t use margin, then the margin account effectively behaves like a cash account, which means that self-directed investors have to be mindful of how they enter in their trading orders so as to not accidentally incur borrowing costs.

A very important and competitive feature that Questrade offers for its account types is US dollar denominated accounts. Questrade US dollar accounts are popular because they enable self-directed investors to hold and trade securities in US dollars directly without incurring forced currency charges. Registered accounts at Questrade, such as TFSAs, RRSPs, and RESPs, are offered in US dollar options, as are non-registered margin accounts.

Knowing more about account types makes it easier to understand what kinds of investment options and opportunities you can take advantage of, so it is worth it to learn about them. The good news is that Questrade makes it easy to access and learn about account types, as well as the associated fees for different account types.

Source

To switch from Questrade, please refer to the guide for the brokerage you are looking to transfer from. SparxTrading takes pride in providing up to date information, please see the brokerage review you are looking to transfer to for assistance on how to transfer to that brokerage.