National Bank Direct Brokerage : Online Broker Canada Review: 2024

National Bank Direct Brokerage Account: An Overview

National Bank Direct Brokerage (NBDB) Account is an online brokerage account that has been in the Canadian financial markets for the past 35 years from 1987. It is a part of National Bank of Canada that has been on the Canadian banking industry from the year 1859. Having said that, you are not required to be a bank account holder to open a brokerage account.

In 2021, NBDB took a giant leap by becoming the 1st broker account to offer transactions at $0 commissions and mandates no minimum balance. The account offers both US and Canadian financial instruments and it allows for you to open both US dollar account and Canadian dollar account.

Type of Accounts offered by National Bank Direct Brokerage

Here are different types of accounts being offered:

Registered Accounts

1.Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA)

2. Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)

3. Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)

4. Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF)

5. Spousal RESP & RRIF

6. Locked-in Retirement Account (LIRA)

7. Locked-in Retirement Savings Plan (LRSP)

8. Life Income Fund (LIF)

Non-Registered Accounts

1. Cash account

2. Margin account

3. Short selling

The types of accounts displayed in tabular form:

Who can open an account with National Bank Direct Brokerage Account?

Residents

• Individual accounts

• Joint accounts

Legal Entities

• Corporate account

• Sole proprietor account

• Trust account

• Association account

• Estate account

Type of investment options offered by National Bank Direct Brokerage Account

• Shares

• Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

• Options

• Debentures

• Investment funds

Features of National Bank Direct Brokerage Trading Platform

• You can track your investments and their performances

• Decide if you should sell by looking at the unrealized profits or losses displayed

• Real time information

• News and notifications

• You will have the information to do fundamental analysis and technical analysis of shares

• You can create a watchlist

• Access to Morningstar reports

• You can customise the platform

• You can explore which are the top performing stocks, ETFs and which are least performing

Platforms of National Bank Direct Brokerage Trading Platform

Trading Central

It is a suite that gives access to three tools that are free of cost. With Value Analyzer, you can get information of important companies in a single page and you can colour-code securities to classify. With Technical insight, you get alters and information. With strategy builder, you can utilise models devised by professionals. You can also compare your previous investment strategies or portfolios to indices.

Market-Q

This platform offers four pricing tiers. The price levels depend on the market depth. You can customize the platform’s interface, create watchlists, receive notifications, do fundamental analysis, use technical indicators such as moving averages, Bollinger bands, stochastics etc.

OptionsPlay

In this platform, you can compare three strategies and get detailed information on all three strategies to make an informed decision.

Decision Plus

This offers three tools - MarketVision Plus is a search tool, TradePlus is a software to track shares, MarketGurus. tv helps take decisions. You also get access to webcasts by Michael Carignans from Monday to Friday.

Fees charged by National Bank Direct Brokerage Trading Platform

• The platform charges annual administration fees of $100. However, this can be waived if:

• You have $20,000 or more funds as at 31st May of every year

• You have InvestCube. This is a type of robot investment with default ETF portfolio and automatic rebalancing with an investment management cost of 0.50%.

• You are a young investor

• You are a part of offers for professionals who participates in financial program for teachers, businessmen, healthcare workers, engineers etc.

Interest Rates of Margin Accounts offered by National Bank Direct Brokerage Trading Platform

Contact information of National Bank Direct Brokerage Trading Platform

• Email Id: directbrokerage@nbc.ca

• Phone number: 1-800-363-3511

Pros of National Bank Direct Brokerage Trading Platform

• Commission free trades

• Safe and Trust worthy given its longevity in market and its connection to National bank of Canada.

• National bank of Canada has numerous bank branches in Quebec and these branches also offer brokerage platform services.

• JD Power ranked NDBD 1st for self-directed investor satisfaction.

• National Bank of Canada which is associated with National Bank Direct Brokerage Trading Platform is a member of Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF).

• Wide range of investment platforms

• Wide variety of investment accounts

Cons of National Bank Direct Brokerage Trading Platform

• $100 administration fees

• No mobile app

• No live chats and long waiting period in customer support lines

• No promotional offers

• Inactivity fees

National Bank Direct Brokerage

To conclude, the commission free trading offered by National Bank Direct Brokerage sounds good. But, is it enough to convince you to open an account with a broker?

Based on the features of the account, its pros and cons we believe that the platform is best suited for those who want to trade cost-free, if you are an account holder of National bank of Canada, if you are an active trader, or if you already have a brokerage account with them.