Canadian Discount Brokerages (best brokerages at the top)

The assessment is based on a variety of different factors: Cost, research, customer service and website layout were used as the criteria for determining the best brokerages. 

Note: There are minimum balances for most brokerages and the service charges if your account is below that balance tend to be $25 per quarter.  It is recommended to not open an account with the discount brokerages if your assets in the account do not meet the minimum balance as the punitive $25 per quarter service charge can add up. In most cases the minimum balance is $10,000.

Note most of the brokerages have $9.99 trades but it depends on the amount that you have in your account. In most cases it tends to be a minimum of $50,000 in assets. 

A review of the following brokerages was done in which four factors were considered. 

- research (35%), cost (35%), usability (15%) and customer service (15%) were considered. 

- Here are the results:

Scotia McLeod iTrade - Bank of Nova Scotia   - the Scotia iTrade Investing provides you with access to good research from Scotiabank's research  department for Canadian stocks. They provide third party research for Canadian and US stocks: Value Engine, Research Team, Thomsen Reuters, First Call and Sabrient. Their customer service is poor based on responses to questions.  Scotia Bank research analysts provide analyst reports on Canadian Stocks. They also provide some nice daily reports for stocks that they recommend for various portfolios such as Canadian Income, Equity and US Portfolios. The layout of the website is a little confusing and not as good as TD Waterhouse's. There is a service charge of $25 when your investment account is below $10,000 so it is recommended to not open an account at this brokerage if your balance is under $10,000.  The cost for trades is $24.99 if the assets in the account are less than $50,000. If the assets in the account are greater than $50,000 then the cost for equity trades is $9.99.

CIBC - Investors Edge - this is the discount brokerage for CIBC. The research is good and is from CIBC world markets for Canadian stocks. The Canadian and US stocks are also covered by Standard and Poors. Note: There is a service charge of $25 per quarter if your account is below $10,000 for investment accounts. If your registered account RRSP, RRIF, LIRA, LIF is over $25,000 then there is no administration fee. There is no administration fee for RESP accounts greater than $15,000.  The cost for equity trades is $28.95 if the account balance is under $50,000. If the assets in the account exceed $50,000 then the cost of equity trades is $9.95. 

TD Waterhouse - this is the discount brokerage that is owned by TD Bank. The layout is nice in that you can see your account and your holdings with one click. The research is average and like many of the other brokerages, provides the Standard and Poor's assessment of the stock.  There is an interesting report that TDWaterhouse provides regarding insider trading but it seems limited to a select number of Canadian and US stocks. The charges for equity trades are $29 for investment balances below $50,000 in total household assets. There is a minimum balance charge of $25 per quarter if your investment account is below $10,000. 

 
BMO - Investorline  - this is the discount brokerage by BMO. The research is provided by Morningstar, Ford and  Standard and Poors. The is a is a consensus analysts rating and price targets for the companies. There is a minimum balace charge of $25 every quarter when your balance is below $10,000 for investment accounts. The trading cost is $29.99 for trades when your balance is below $50,000 in your investment account. The cost for equity trades is $9.99 if your account balance exceeds $50,000. They have made major improvements to their service by providing more research to investors. Their customer service is good. Questions were answered promptly and clearly. 

RBC Direct Investing - The discount brokerage for the Royal Bank (RBC). RBC Direct investing provides only one source of research from Morningstar. The layout for the stocks and mutual funds could be better but they have put the name of the company in beside the symbols. For example for the mutual funds it displays the mutual fund number instead of what it actually is. The customer service response was prompt and concise.  There is a minimum balance charge of $25 per quarter if your investment account is below $15,000. The cost per stock trade up to 1000 shares is $28.95. For more than 1000 shares if the stock price is between $0.00 to $2.00 it is 1.5% of the trade. If the stock price is greater than $2.01 then the price of the trade is $0.03 per share. The minimum cost for an online stock trade is $28.95.  If the account holder has more than $50,000 in assets then the price for online stock trades is $9.95.

Results of Review

 For example Research will be out of 35, Cost will be out of 35, Usability will be out of 15 and Customer Service will be out of 15, with the total score out of 100.

The following brokerages did not wish to be included in the survey as they did not respond to a request to evaluate their service.

Credential Direct

Disnat - the discount brokerage offering from the Desjardins Financial Group.

HSBC - Invest Direct - HSBC Invest Direct. The discount brokerage for the bank HSBC. 

Interactive Brokers  

National Bank Direct Brokerage - National Bank Direct brokerage

Qtrade - the discount brokerage for Qtrade Financial Group. They use Morningstar for their research. 

Questrade