Wealthsimple Invest is for beginners and is fully automated, whereas Wealthsimple trade is for experts to buy and sell shares manually. Let's see which option to choose within the Wealthsimple platform.
Wealthsimple has been a complete package in offering financial services and wealth management to Canadian investors since 2014. It offers distinct products that cover both investment crackerjacks and tyros.
The experts are open to using self-directed trading tools and beginners can seek the help of automated investing products. The five main products of Wealthsimple are as follows:
“Invest” was the pilot product floated out by Wealthsimple in the year 2014. This product is completely automated and works through a Robo-advisor. As soon as you open an account with this platform, you will be required to fill up a questionnaire to figure out your objectives, investment timeframe, and risk appetite.
In addition to the risk tolerance, you have the option to invest in three different cores:
Based on your responses, you will be categorized as a conservative, balanced, or growth investor. After the assessment, your funds will be invested in a pre-determined blend of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that is in line with your risk profile. The platform offers automatic rebalancing of funds based on market trends.
“Trade” is just like any other investment platform and involves manual buying and selling of shares and ETFs, based on your market research. The platform was launched in the year 2019.
Both platforms are unique in their own way and serve different types of investors. If you are a rookie, it is best you opt for Wealthsimple Invest and get access to professional portfolio management at a low cost. The fund managers opt for strategies that are tried and true. You can have the peace of mind that your money is being handled by those who are accomplished in the field of investing.
On the contrary, if you are an expert yourself and if you have the time to research and track the markets, you can be onboard with** Wealthsimple Trade** and enjoy commission-free trading in a user-friendly interface.
At present, the potential to open a brokerage account in Canada, while being a non-resident is complicated and has numerous terms and conditions. This varies from broker to broker. To become savvy in this topic, continue reading.
Yes, now you can trade options through the Wealthsimple platform. Options trading is only available on the latest version of the Wealthsimple mobile app in your DIY accounts. You'll be able to buy or sell options in any of your self-directed trading accounts through the Wealthsimple mobile app. The best part is, there is no minimum account balance required.
Currently, Etrade is not available in Canada as the broker operates solely in the U.S. Therefore Canadian citizens cannot open an account with ETrade. The broker used to operate in Canada but stopped its operations after 2008. There are many other low-cost brokers available in Canada such as Questrade that you can consider while opening an account.
There are various online brokerage platforms in Canada. We believe that Questrade, Scotia iTrade and CIBC investor's edge are the best alternatives to Wealthsimple.
No minimum amount is required to open a brokerage account in Canada. However, if the balance is less than $20,000, you will be charged $100 annually as an account fee.
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Webull is a U.S based stock broker which is also available for Canadian users. Canadian citizens can open an account with Webull.
Based on our analysis Wealthsimple is a good alternative to Questrade for its cost effectiveness and Qtrade is a good alternative for Questrade for its customer services and research tools.