Questrade: Online Broker Canada Review: 2024

Founded in 1999, Questrade is a fastest growing Canada based broker. The leading canadian broker always remained an early adopter whether it was offering $4.95 commissions, the free North American ETFs, dual-currency registered accounts, or trailer free rebates.

Every year, over 100,000 Canadians open their accounts with Questrade and Questrade currently has an AUM of $15 billion.

Regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organisation of Canada (IIROC) and Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF), Questrade went beyond with an additional $10 million in private insurance (for self-directed as well as managed accounts) and 100% reimbursement for unauthorized transactions.

Questrade always had an edge in terms of fees and commissions. One of the reasons is that they have low overhead costs as they have no branches.

Questrade Features

• Questrade provides trading in stocks, bonds, ETFs, options, Mutual Funds, CFDs and forex.

• It also offers international equities, guaranteed investment certificates (GICs), precious metal purchases, and initial public offerings (IPOs).

• Questrade does not charge any fees for tax-free savings accounts (TFSA) and registered retirement savings plans (RRSP).

• Simple and user-friendly layouts for both the website as well as mobile apps. Also when you move from website to mobile or mobile to website, there is no major transition.

• Questrade offers low trading fees relative to other brokers in Canada. The fees for stocks is as low as $4.95.

• Safety and security is taken with utmost care with 2-factor authentication and biometric/ face unlock and alerts for suspicious activity.

What does Questrade offer?

Questrade offers a variety of asset classes to choose from, though some assets like CFDs and forex require a separate platform:

Stocks: Stocks are the classic investing product with which investors can earn dividend income. With high historical performance and low commissions, they become an attractive choice for diversification.

ETFs: ETF owns and manages an underlying basket of assets (bonds, derivatives, equities, commodities, etc.) and divides the ownership into individual shares. With Questrade charging $0 commission, it becomes a great choice.

Options: Options have a great potential to make profit on stock holdings. Traders can also speculate and generate more income using the leverage offered by brokerage.

FX: Foreign Exchange create a great opportunity to generate income with the rising and falling of global currencies. With low spreads, it is a great choice.

IPOs: You can also invest in the shares floated in the market for the first time. They are generally considered a safe option of investment as the listing price surpasses issue price in maximum cases.

CFDs: You can also trade Contracts for differences on international indices, stocks, commodities, and more.

Mutual Funds: Mutual Funds are a great way of investing when you do not want to do research on your own. Therefore, you pass on this work of researching and investing to a MF company managed by professionals. Questrade offers thousands of funds to diversify.

Bonds: You can minimize the volatility of the market with bonds and Questrade offers various kinds of bonds.

GICs: Guaranteed investment certificates are preferred by conservative investors with predetermined terms and interest rates.

International Equities: Traders are also offered the choice to invest in non-US stocks and boost their returns.

Precious metals: Metals are always a great choice to diversify your portfolio. Even we observed in COVID times, when the stocks and indices were falling day by day, gold prices were making record highs.

Commission and Fees

Questrade charges no fees for opening and closing an account and there is no annual fee for RRSP and TFSA accounts. There is an inactivity fee of $24.95 per quarter if your balance is below $1000.

It has 2 pricing structures: Self-Directed Investing Pricing and Active Traders Pricing. Let’s look at both of them:

Questrade Platform and Trading tools

Questrade offers 2 trading platforms: IQ Web, which is web based, and IQ Edge, which is desktop based. Active traders prefer IQ Edge for more offerings as compared to IQ Web which is basically for casual traders.

Popular tools are advanced charting with 31 indicators and 5 drawing tools, quotes, watchlists, easy customization like in order entry defaults and choosing columns for reporting.

With IQ Edge you will have more advanced order types, more charting tools, hotkey functions and other customizations.

Overall, both the platforms are intuitive and you can navigate easily.

Research

There are 2 primary research tools - Market Intelligence and Intraday Trader.

Market Intelligence provides you with research from all leading and credible third parties like Morningstar. Fundamental analysis for ETFs and equities traded in Canada and U.S., high quality individual security reports, mutual funds researches, are all very useful.

However, Intraday Trader generates trade ideas for you by using automated technical analysis algorithms and presents good opportunities.

Key highlights

• Questrade is leading low cost online discount brokerage offering lowest trading fees.

• Safe as it is regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organisation of Canada (IIROC) and Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF).

• Questrade for trading offers stocks, bonds, ETFs, options, Mutual Funds, CFDs, forex, international equities, GICs, precious metal, and IPOs.

• There is no annual account fee and buying ETFs are free from commissions.

• Both its platforms IQ Web and IQ Edge, are intuitive and you can navigate easily.

• Market Intelligence Research tool really provides thorough and useful research.

• Inactivity fee is high i.e. $24.95 per quarter if your balance is below $1000.

Who can use it?

If you are a Canadian citizen as well as resident who want to avoid high fees and want flexibility on investments, Questrade is best fit for you.

The Bottom Line

With lower fees compared to most of the other Canadian brokers as well as banks, Questrade is a good choice if you are a Canadian citizen as well as resident.

It offers great research tools, user-friendly and easy to navigate platforms, rebates on subscriptions, commission free ETFs. These all will lower down your costs in the long term and are very much beneficial if you are an active trader.