I've been using the Questrade forex simulator and I'm wondering how it compares to real forex trading before setting up an account. The strategy I'm using is mainly based off of MACD and stochastics and so far I'm getting good trades very often. I've made a 4% return off the past day. I know that I'm using a somewhat solid strategy but can it really be this easy? Is the simulator realistic?

Has anyone ever done analysis on using Questrade's Forex unit (QuestradeFX) to exchange USD -> CAD instead of using Norbert's Gambit?
http://www.questrade.com/pricing/FX-CFDS/pricing The spread for USDCAD is 2 pips, which to me appears to be better than Norbert's Gambit because the liquidity on DLR.U -> DLR.TO is sometimes not that good. Also, it takes time to journal etc. Furthermore, the $10 commission ($5 for buy&sell) might be extra.
Am I missing something?

I'm only interested in USD.CAD

So I just found out recently that when I purchased US stocks with CAD on Questrade. They hid the forex fee through the conversion rate. This whole time when I was reviewing my trades I thought the exchange between CAD / USD was pretty much on par since it mentioned $0.00 commission. So after buying about $17k of stocks, it seems that I lost about $450 USD from conversion :( which is a lot for a 22 year old student who doesn't earn much.
Is there a way I can avoid the extra conversion costs? I don't have a US chequing account so could I bring USD to a bank and then send the money to questrade with US cash that I exchanged somewhere else at a lower cost.
Another option is swap my portfolio to Interactive Broker now that my portfolio is >$10k? But I'd need to wire the money over to then.

Any suggestions or inputs between the two? I'm Canadian so I don't have access to the fancy American ones. :')

I know I have to convert my funds to USD before purchasing stock through my margin account, but does it make a difference with my TFSA?
Barring the use of Norberts gambit, does it make sense to convert CAD to USA before buying us stock (through TFSA) or should I just buy with CAD funds and let Questrade auto convert? Thanks

They have taken over 2 weeks to open a new account, crazy times fair enough. Yesterday everything was approved but my account was still not able to trade. Today I get an email asking me to confirm my information AGAIN and asking for the address of my employer. Are you Fing serious? These guys delay my account even more just to collect more data from me that is completely unnecessary. I have $1000 just sitting there doing nothing because you want more marketing data to sell. That's a great way to lose a customer.
A+
Great job guys.
Go with a major bank, pay the fees and get professional service. This company is mickey mouse.

What is a good trading platform that can also be used in Canada? I currently use wealthsimple but im realizing they dont have very many stocks available to trade and its also delayed by fifteen minutes. I would like to get more serious in to day trading/quick trades.
any suggestion or advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

I'm looking to get a little more tuned into investing. For the past several years I've been doing the Canadian Couch Potato strategy of e-series index funds with TD in both my RRSP and TFSA. Each of those accounts has about $30k in it, and I also have a LIRA with about $20k that is invested the same way. I recently moved my TFSA to Tangerine and put it in a savings account (partly to take advantage of a high-interest offer they had, but mostly because I'm planning on purchasing a detached home in the very near future and wanted to keep that money in cash). I already used $25k of my RRSP a few years ago for part of the downpayment on my current home, so the $30k I have in there now is really only going to be used for retirement. I also plan on making larger contributions to the RRSP going forward once I buy my next home (I've been skimping on my annual contributions recently to save for my next downpayment). Basically, that RRSP is going to get bigger (well...hopefully) and I will probably not be withdrawing that money for 30+ years until I retire, so I have a high tolerance for risk with that account. The TFSA is going to be emptied for the new house, but I'll probably build it back up slowly with low-moderate risk e-series index fund or ETF.
Lately I've been thinking of taking the RRSP out of TD and moving it to Questrade to dabble in ETFs and stocks. I know stocks aren't very highly recommended here, so maybe I'm just being naive. I was thinking of doing something like keeping half the RRSP (~$15k) in a high growth ETF like XGRO, and then the other half (~$15k) in US stocks that I can play around with...mostly for fun, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a couple friends who did pretty well with Tesla and other similar stocks recently and their enthusiasm about it is a bit infectious. As I contribute to the RRSP, I'll probably aim to keep that mix of half going to the ETF and half to stocks. I plan to keep all the stocks within my RRSP to avoid the withholding tax on US dividends, and also use Norbert's Gambit to avoid the forex fee on that initial conversion of $15k CAD to USD.
Additional context: I'm 31, married (dual income), make about $120k myself (I'm only investing my own money), no debt apart from mortgage, no kids (but could happen in the next couple years).
Am I crazy to do this? Should I just stick to index funds and / or ETFs? Maybe I'm being overzealous with the amount I want to potentially gamble away with stocks?

What do you guys think of having questrade portfolio? I'm new to the world of trading, I've done forex before and done well buy I wanted to start buying stocks so I signed up with questrade. Do you fellas have any experience with using their managed portfolios, good or bad please? Thanks

UPDATE: Told WS what happened and they're going reimburse the forex fees. Thought that was a great gesture!
Just wanted to share my experience with Questrade.
Decided to move my Canadian stocks from my TFSA to WS trade. Started a transfer through WS which said could take up to 5 weeks. Wanted to transfer my USD to my bank account to avoid WS forex fees. Requested a fund transfer to my bank and was assured by two agents that the funds would arrive in 3 business days.
But of course they transferred the USD cash to WS, after I specifically stated for them not too. Funny thing I was I was going to reopen the TFSA and transfer the cash back in anyways. I currently have the rest of my portfolio with QT.
I’ve had so many issues with this broker it’s ridiculous. From trying to deny me free trade promo credits to their ineptitude in handling my transfer in requests. Their front end platform is great but they are destitute when it comes to service and support.
In the meantime I’ll be looking elsewhere to take my investments. The aggravation, time and effort spent dealing with them has been frustrating beyond comprehension. Seems to be all too common as others on this forum have had similar experiences...

im doing my initial research on forex before i put money in but i was wondering what broker i should use in canada there is no good answer out there. im currently with questrade for stocks and could do it with them but ive heard some bad stuff about their commission and what not

Sorry if this is a stupid question as I'm still relatively new to investing. I'm using Wealthsimple for my TSX/Canadian stocks, and am in the process of joining Questrade for my U.S/International stocks. I have a question though regarding signing up - It asks to choose "Margin", "TFSA", "RSP", or "Forex". Do you have any recommendation on which one to choose? For Wealthsimple, I have a Personal and TFSA already. I already have an RSP at another bank, and 2 TFSAs. So not sure if there's a risk with signing up for another one? Also is 'Margin' similar to WS's "Personal" account?

The Daily Autist

03/31/20

TLDR Of The News To Inform Your Moves
Dumb bulls and gay bears, welcome. Robinhood falsely gave me a PDT warning so I can’t buy or sell anything until it’s fixed. Until 04/03 I’m effectively just a spectator as I can’t close any position I open. My QQQ and SPY options will expire worthless when the market closes due to not being able to close after opening positions to sell later in the day yesterday. So get ready for a bitter one. (I know RH is shit, but everywhere else requires minimum balances or an arbitrary pass/fail determination so it is what it is)

WSB Summary

Y’all can look forward to this being on the news in a day or two, or even longer if he ends up going to court over it. If ever you want to get back at a shitty email, the best thing to do is post it to Reddit rather than reply bitterly.
My broker (Questrade) wants me to sign an NDA saying I won't talk shit about them after offering me $1200 USD as compensation for losing $50000 from outages : wallstreetbets
A meme sums up the end of last week and Monday better than any article.
All it takes is a printer to save the day : wallstreetbets
This gentleman will insert a beer in his ass if there’s a -10% day “anytime soon.” So roughly two weeks. What a total retard and I salute him.
I will butt chug a Corona if we see another -10% day anytime soon : wallstreetbets

Corona Dump

Nothing says “If you help with the pandemic you will be punished,” quite like going viral because of a difficult moment then having your house blow away.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/us/arkansas-tornado-destroys-doctors-home-trnd/index.htmlAMZN fired the worker who spoke out about their policies. I would say puts on AMZN but since bad news = good news last the last week amazon should break 2k again very soon.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/amazon-fires-staten-island-coronavirus-strike-leader-chris-smalls.html
Sections of GE that is still open and making other random medical and electrical shit are striking to divert their energy to ventilators. Kudos to them fr. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-general-electric-workers-ventilators-work-stoppage-labor-massachusetts-a9436881.html
It’s almost like having healthcare be a for-profit industry means people will try to profit off medical treatments. I hate this “now I'm woke but in 3 months I won’t be,” garbage people are doing for clicks.
https://www.propublica.org/article/taxpayers-paid-millions-to-design-a-low-cost-ventilator-for-a-pandemic-instead-the-company-is-selling-versions-of-it-overseas-
Killing our medical workers due to negligence and worry for the market. I recommend reading this when the market closes as it’s a little long and not related to the market other than warning things will continue to get worse rather than better for the near future stability wise.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927811?nlid=134774_3901&src=wnl_newsalrt_200330_MSCPEDIT&uac=24257DJ&impID=2329672&faf=1

Business/Finance

Now that Canada passed the extra stimulus for its citizens Air Canada laid off its employees. This is how it was supposed to work for the US. Still, a sign that if not artificially kept afloat by the government these airlines are fucked.
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/2/144720/Air-Canada-lays-off-16,500-staff-due-to-virus
Turns out the two most rapidly growing and advancing countries will continue to grow and advance while the rest of the world falls backward. 200 IQ play by China
https://m.economictimes.com/news/economy/indicators/world-economy-will-go-into-recession-with-likely-exception-of-india-china-united-nations/articleshow/74905696.cms
China is reopening manufacturing. They have enough people to let the virus do it’s thing and not care. They don’t have audited medical numbers. This is bad for short term puts.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-pmi-factory-official/china-factory-activity-unexpectedly-expands-but-economy-unable-to-shake-off-virus-shock-idUSKBN21I05S
USD continues to be king. What a time to be alive.
https://www.reuters.com/article/global-forex/forex-dollar-gains-yuan-steady-after-china-pmi-in-cautious-trade-idUSL4N2BO1NJ
Futures continue their bullish trend with another 1% gain overnight. Until there’s another manic day of 6%+ it’s looking the bulls are still in control in a stable manner.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/stock-futures-trade-cautiously-higher-after-mondays-rally
Premarket 261-263 all morning. What is this boring stable shit? 261.93 at time of posting (06:50 EST)

NostraLosses Prediction:

Keep buying short term calls until there’s a significant signal otherwise. All the DD in the world gets wiped out by a heavy enough BRRRRRRRt. I got some far OTM calls to hedge my put bets Friday EOD and Monday and if it weren’t for the false PDT warning I would have almost made back the losses to be back to even. So try not to go full retard on the puts, and if you can afford it, don’t use Robinhood.

Post your thoughts, questions, complaints, compliments, and plays in the comments.

^{Edited for formatting errors due to importing from Grammarly.}

Hello,
Just in the process of migrating from Questrade and had a few questions.
1) Is there a way to prevent TWS freezing multiple times short of buying a new computer? I've increased my memory allocation to 2200 to no avail. Its especially bad when I want to see all strikes
2) QT had refresh every second. Is there a reason why IB only does a minimum of 5 seconds?
3) Is there a reason why the portfolio tab on the monitor keeps showing a USD.CAD transaction? I did forex once but I dont care to look at the data continuously
https://preview.redd.it/y0vzxhcvmpt41.png?width=1203&format=png&auto=webp&s=d7bda85df9a32f6cfcfa6674c65e9e90c7eea202
4) Tutorial recommendations to keep an organized screen and TWS in general? I mostly trade options. Its clunky to say the least. Would you recommend something like medvedtrader to a noobie?
5) Have people had a problem with IB not showing all the strikes for a particular date? I checked a LEAP option and there was a discrepancy between yahoo finance/QT and IB and had to spend several minutes trying to communicate this fact to their help desk before they acknowledged that the back office had to update it...The trading day ended without me being able to purchase the option.

I have almost finished reading Millionaire Teacher, and am ready to invest. Will keep funds in for at least 10-15 years. I need to figure out my risk tolerance. I'm approaching age 40, thinking of keeping 35% bonds. At this point, I need to have my account on a brokerage ready ASAP as I learnt that it could take a few days to set up. For now, I am looking to purchase ETFs regularly. I'm looking at putting $100 per month. Hopefully cash flow will be disciplined enough to continue without breaks.
Currently, I have the following:

• TFSA at Meridian CU
• RRSP at Scotiabank
• RRSP at Tangerine
• Regular Savings at TD Bank (Got this only to view my mortgage account online)

​
Please help me understand the following:

1. How much cheaper is Norbert's Gambit than using a ForEx company to do a conversion from CAD to USD? I've never done either. I have done USD to CAD before, which basically takes 2-3 business days for the draft from the ForEx company to clear.
2. I am considering either Questrade, TD Direct Investing or Scotia iTrade. Based on the reviews Questrade seems to be the best option. Which one would you recommended for a beginner like me? (Would be great feedback if you have used Questrade and TD/iTrade.)
3. I mostly bank with Scotia. My investments will be 50K+ to start. Should I be considering iTrade over the other two for convenience? Or will the fees not make sense in my case?
4. Is Norbert's Gambit possible to do with Scotiabank?
5. Say I select Questrade, what is the most efficient (time/cost) process to move forward? Is the below correct?
   1. Transfer TFSA from Meridian to TD.
   2. Do Norbert's Gambit to convert to USD
   3. Transfer USD TFSA to Questrade.
   4. Transfer RRSP to TD
   5. Do Norbert's Gambit to covert to USD
   6. Transfer USD RRSP to Questrade.
6. What steps above will incur least fees? I understand Questrade covers upto $150 transfer fee? But if I transfer my registered accounts to TD for Norbert's Gambit first, those fees won't be covered?
7. Lastly, I'm not very knowledgable on RESPs. I understand gov't matches some part of the contribution? We have two kids, ages 10 and 8. No RESP yet. Can investments be made in RESPs? Any tips on this would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Hi,
I will be moving from Australia to Canada. I have a fair amount of stocks across Australia, US, Hongkong etc. I need help choosing a broker as I wish to transfer these stocks to a Canadian Broker.
Below are my 3 requirements and would really appreciate your help :)

1. BIGGEST ISSUE is finding a broker who trades across different international exchanges like Australian, Chinese, European etc. The one I use here does. Most brokers I found online in Canada trade only Canadian and US stocks like Questrade. I only buy stocks, no options etc.
2. ANOTHER ISSUE is a broker with low forex fees. I could not find this information on the websites of most brokers.
3. Bein able to hold different currency accounts, so if I sell a US stock I don't want it to be automatically converted to CAD and pay a forex fee as I may want to use those to buy USD stocks later.

Things that are nice to have but not necessary are:

1. A bank brokerage - seems safe when you are new to a country
2. Low brokerage cost- as I only make very few transactions.
3. Being able to place limit orders

Thank you very much for reading my post and for your suggestions.

Hey guys, I know you cannot trade daily in a TFSA. What type of account should I be using? I see robinhood has a 'cash' account but i dont see one on questrade. Only registered accounts, margin, and forex. What is everyone using? I dont want to trade over and over again all day but im looking to do 3-4 trades per week or every other week.

Trading 212 has decided to stop servicing Canadians by March 20. Unfortunately, it had an amazing UI and included everything from stocks to forex. Are there any Canadians here who can recommend a similar experience? Questrade seems to be very popular for stocks and there are many for forex.

I just want to share my personal experience change brokerage from RBC&TD to interactive broker since late 2019. I found interactive broker much better than TD/RBC for my US equity investment. I invest predominantly in US stocks, including Canadian companies dual listed in NYSE/NASDAQ.
Some of the big Pros:

1. Very low commission compared to RBC/TD. 1USD for fixed pricing, 0.35 for tired pricing.
2. Participation in pre-market and after-market. This help me to fill my aggressive limit order.
3. USD/CAD forex is 2USD, even cheaper than Nombert Gambit.
4. Fractional shares allow me to invest in Google/Amazon/Tesla in a more reasonable pace.(buy 500 dollars for four times vs buy 2000 at one time)

Some Cons:

1. They have several platforms which is very confusing. TWS is most powerful but look ugly on Mac. Client portal is nice looking but function-lacking. I actually found IBKR IOS to be powerful but also nice looking, so end up mostly use IBKR IOS.
2. Be careful using EFT deposit. There is a 60 business day holding period if withdrawal to a different bank.
3. One might need to spend some time research on their fee structure, deposit/withdrawal procedure.

I have ignored IB for years due to it being an American brokerage and do not have physical locations. Finally tried it and now think it is the best for US equity investment in Canada. Hopefully if we move more investment to online brokerage such as Questrade/IB/Wealthsimple, eventually will shake the big 5 and force them to lower their ridiculous commission.(It is still nice to have one of the big 5 for some portfolio.)

Is there a desktop app to trade forex? I've used IQ edge to trade ETFs for a few years but because I buy and hold I haven't kept up with Questrade's products, and now I'm pretty confused.
I see it as Questrade mobile + browser + desktop. Can you trade every asset on any of these three, or is FX only tradeable form the browser thingy? If so, is a desktop version coming up? Not really a fan of the cramped Apple-esque appearance of the browser FX trader.

Hi All,
Over the past few months of trading options I have accumulated a good chunk of earnings in USD. Me being Canadian when I go to transfer those funds to my bank account am worried I am going to get hit with fees.
Should I put the USD into a forex account and do a currency swap with it? Send it to my bank normally? Or use an exchange broker who trades forex (they have pretty good rates)?
Appreciate all info!
EDIT (additional info):

• I use Questrade
• I bank with Tangerine
• Have used Knightsbridge FX to convert CAD/USD prior at a better rate