Best Trading Platforms in Canada

Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers Canada, part of the global Interactive Brokers group (IBKR), is an online brokerage that provides access to a wide variety of markets around the world with low fees and commissions. In fact, it’s the largest online brokerage in the United States! You can trade stocks, options, indices, forex, mutual funds, and even invest in hedge funds with Interactive Brokers, along with a range of registered accounts being available in Canada, such as RRSPs and TFSAs.

Interactive Brokers supports accounts in 23 different currencies. You can easily exchange currencies with a fee as low as 0.20 bps (minimum of $2 per order), which allows you to trade stocks and other products from 27 countries around the world. The currencies supported by Interactive Brokers are:

• CAD
• USD
• GBP
• EUR
• AUD
• JPY
• CHF
• CNH
• CZK
• DKK
• HKD
• HUF
• ILS
• KRW
• MXN
• NZD
• NOK
• PLN
• RUB
• SGD
• ZAR
• SEK
• TRY

Stocks from certain stock exchanges can be traded from these 27 countries:

• Canada
• United States
• Mexico
• Austria
• Lithuania
• Switzerland
• Belgium
• Netherlands
• United Kingdom
• Estonia
• Norway
• Israel
• France
• Poland
• Australia
• Germany
• Portugal
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• Russian Federation
• India
• Italy
• Spain
• Japan
• Lavia
• Sweden
• Singapore

While Interactive Brokers (IB) isn't a commission-free broker, you can trade Canadian stocks for as little as $0.008 per share with a minimum commission of $1 per order. U.S. stocks have a commission of $0.0035 per share, with a minimum of $0.35 commission per order, up to 1% of the total trade value. Volume discounts can reduce your commission to as low as $0.0005 per share! That's a fraction of the commission that the big banks charge in Canada for stock trades, which can be a minimum of $9.95 per trade.

IB's options commissions are also very low, ranging from $0.25 to $1.25 per options contract. and low options exercise and assignment fees. For stock options, IB's exercise and assignment fee is $0.000145 per stock sold, up to $7.27 per trade, plus 0.0008% of the proceeds. That’s a slight increase from the $0.00013 per stock fee and the $6.49 per trade maximum in 2022.

For example, being assigned or exercising one options contract of 100 shares at a price of $10 per share would cost $0.0145 and a $0.008 fee on the proceeds. In comparison, Questrade charges a flat options exercise/assignment fee of $24.95!

IB is a great option for pro traders due to the wide variety of markets available. In addition to stocks and options, you can trade futures, futures options, forex, bonds, and funds. On top of all this, IB has some of the lowest margin rates in the industry. This means that you can borrow money to invest and trade at low interest rates. There’s also no minimum account balance or inactivity fees for individuals.

Other features that IB offers include a dividend reinvestment program (DRIP), earning interest on your cash margin balance, and earning interest for lending out your shares to short sellers. This stock yield enhancement program gives you 50% of the loan interest income that IB earns from lending out shares for margin accounts, and it can enhance your investment returns with no additional effort on your part.

Questrade

Questrade is a popular Canadian discount brokerage that positions itself as an alternative to the major bank brokerages. One feature that Questrade offers is the ability to purchase ETFs with no commission. This is a great way for investors looking to buy commission-free ETFs regularly, such as investing a portion of their paycheck, or those who want to automatically invest frequently.

Questrade's most popular trading accounts include, individual margin accounts, TFSAs, and RRSPs. Other account types offered by Questrade include:

• RESP
• Spousal RRSP
• LIRA
• Locked-in RRSP
• RIF
• LIF
• Family RESP
• Joint Margin
• Forex & CFDs
• Entity Accounts
  • Coporate
  • Investment Club
  • Partnership
  • Sole Proprietorship
• Trust Accounts
  • Individual Informal Trust
  • Joint Informal Trust
  • Formal Trust

Another feature that Questrade offers, besides its large selection of paid market data packages, is the ability to get unlimited snap quotes. This is free real-time data for certain Canadian and American markets, including TSX, NYSE, and NASDAQ level 1 data, that is available with just one click.

While this means that real-time data isn’t automatically updated for free (you will need to upgrade to a data package or add-on to avoid having to manually click an update button), it does mean that you get real-time bid and ask info. That’s something that not all brokerages offer. For example, Interactive Broker’s snapshot data costs $0.01 per data request for NYSE and NASDAQ and $0.03 per data request for all other markets, with $1.00 of data quotes being free every month.

Questrade charges a currency exchange fee of 175 basis points (1.45%) for converting between U.S. and Canadian Dollars. However, you only need to convert Canadian Dollars to USD once in order to trade U.S. stocks. That's because Questrade allows you to hold U.S. Dollars.

One drawback of Questrade is their very high margin interest rates. This is the rate that you pay to borrow money in order to buy stocks and other products using margin.

Questrade's margin rates are based on the prime rate. For non-registered CAD accounts, the margin rate is Prime + 4.25%. For non-registered USD accounts, the margin rate is Prime + 4.50%. Registered accounts CAD accounts have a rate as high as Prime + 8.10%!

You can earn interest on your cash balance, however, this is paid at Prime - 8.50% for CAD accounts. This means that the prime rate will need to be at least 8.50% before you'll earn any interest on your cash balance with Questrade. That’s an unfortunate change from 2022, when it was paid at Prime - 5.50%. If Questrade had kept the same margin rate, then investors would have been paid for their cash balance in 2023 when prime rates were above 5.50%.

Wealthsimple Trade

Wealthsimple Trade was revolutionary in bringing commission-free stock trades to Canada, a concept similar to Robinhood in the United States. There’s no minimum balance requirement, which means that you can start trading with as little as $1. You can only trade Canadian and U.S. stocks with Wealthsimple. While stock trades are commission-free, Wealthsimple charges a 1.5% fee for converting CAD to USD, and vice-versa. This means that buying and selling U.S. stocks will come with a 3% round trip fee.

To avoid this, you can pay a monthly subscription to enable the ability to open an U.S. Dollar account for $10 per month, or qualify for a Premium or Generation account with enough assets in your account. This replaces the Wealthsimple Plus plan in 2022.

With the U.S. Dollar account, you’ll only be charged the 1.5% conversion fee once to convert CAD to USD, and once to convert USD back to CAD. Once you have a balance in USD, you can use it to purchase USD-denominated stocks commission-free.

Wealthsimple Trade now supports options trading in 2023, something that it didn’t have in 2022. Options trading costs $2 per contract, which can be reduced to as low as $0.75 per contract with a Premium or Generation account.

However, Wealthsimple does not offer margin accounts. This means that you cannot short stocks with Wealthsimple Trade. However, you can open registered accounts such as TFSAs, RRSPs, LIRAs, and RESPs with Wealthsimple.

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QTrade

While QTrade commissions are higher than Interactive Brokers and Questrade, they are discounted compared to the big banks. Stock trading commission is a flat $8.75, while options cost $8.75 plus $1.25 per contract. Qtrade only offers Canadian and U.S. stocks and ETFs. This includes the TSX, NYSE, and NASDAQ.

There are 100 ETFs that can be traded commission-free, and this includes many iShares, Vanguard, Horizons, and Desjardins ETFs. In order to qualify for commission-free ETF trades, you'll need to hold the eligible ETF for at least one business day.

If you're between the ages of 18 and 30, you can qualify for Qtrade's young investor pricing if you set up an automatic pre-authorized deposit of at least $50 per month to Qtrade. This gives you access to $7.75 commissions, a discount from the regular $8.75 commissions, plus no account minimums and admin fees.

For those looking to short stocks or to trade on margin, Qtrade's margin rate is Prime + 1.55% for CAD and Prime + 1.25% for USD. This makes Qtrade's margin rates lower than Questrade. Negative balances for cash and registered accounts come with heavy interest penalties. Margin rates for these accounts are a flat 21%.

RBC Direct Investing

RBC Direct Investing is an online investing service offered by Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). Easy transfers to and from RBC bank accounts make this a convenient way for RBC clients to invest in a wide range of Canadian and U.S. securities, including stocks, bonds, GICs, mutual funds and ETFs. RBC does not offer other foreign stocks listed in other countries outside of Canada and the U.S. RBC Direct Investing covers up to $200 in transfer fees if you transfer $15,000 or more to RBC.

While commissions are higher than discount brokerages, you may be eligible for discounted commissions if you make 150 or more trades per quarter. This will reduce your commission to $6.95 per trade. RBC Direct Investing also offers free Level 2 quotes for stocks and ETFs listed on the TSX. If you're an active trader, you may also be eligible to receive free Level 2 quotes for the Canadian Securities Exchange and NASDAQ stocks and ETFs.

RBC charges a very high commission for options assignments and exercises, with it being $35 plus $1.75 per contract, with a minimum commission of $43. That's significantly higher than Questrade's $24.95 fee and Interactive Broker's $0.000145 fee per stock sold.

RBC's foreign currency conversion spread starts from 210 basis points (1.60%) and can go down to 0.10% for transactions over $2 million. A spread of 1.60% makes RBC's currency conversion fee similar to Wealthsimple, but higher than Interactive Brokers’ spread of just 0.2 basis points.

For those with less than $15,000 in your account, you will be charged a quarterly maintenance fee of $25. This can be waived if you set up a pre-authorized contribution of at least $300 per quarter.

TD Direct Investing

TD has two self-directed investment options: TD Direct Investing and TD Easy Trade. While limited to just stocks and TD ETFs, TD Easy Trade offers commission-free stock trading on your first 50 stock trades each year, with no quarterly maintenance fees. However, you won't have access to other trading products.

If you’re a more advanced trader, then TD Direct Investing gives you access to options, bonds, mutual funds, and access to initial public offerings (IPOs). For both Direct Investing and Easy Trade, TD only offers Canadian and U.S. stocks.

TD charges a quarterly maintenance fee of $25 if you don't deposit at least $100 every month. You can fund your TD investing account by making an online bill payment, transfering money online from a TD bank account, transferring money from another bank account with Interac e-Transfer, or by depositing at a branch.

TD charges a flat $9.99 commission on all Canadian and U.S. stock trades. This is reduced to $7 for active traders that make more than 150 trades in a quarter. For options, the commission is $9.99 plus $1.25 per contract. You can trade some investment types commission-free, such as mutual funds and IPOs. Automatic dividend reinvestments through TD's DRIP are also commission-free. Automatic option assignments and exercises are charged $15, while manual option exercises come with a commission of $43.

Scotiabank Direct Investing

Scotia iTRADE is Scotiabank’s online brokerage. They offer equities, ETFs, mutual funds, options, GICs, bonds, and IPOs. Scotia iTRADE’s commissions are similar to other bank brokerages, with their stock commission being $9.99 per trade and options at $9.99 plus $1.25 per contract. You’ll also get free access to level 2 quotes for TSX securities. For equities, Scotia iTRADE only offers stocks listed in Canada or the U.S.

Scotia iTRADE offers a list of over 100 ETFs that can be bought and sold commission-free if you hold them for at least one business day. This includes index ETFs such as the iShares Core S&P 500 Index ETF (XSP) and the iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF. It also includes sector ETFs, dividend ETFs, fixed income ETFs, and commodity ETFs. This allows you to buy and sell a wide variety of ETFs without having to worry about paying commissions on the trades.

Young traders, which are those under the age of 26, can qualify for a waiver of the account administration fee. Registered accounts incur a quarterly fee of $30. For all other accounts, a quarterly fee of $25 is charged.

The Scotiabank StartRight program, which is a special program for newcomers to Canada, offers 10 commission-free trades when they open a new Scotia iTRADE account with at least $1,000.

CIBC Investor's Edge

CIBC Investor's Edge offers the lowest commissions out of the major banks, with the exception of National Bank’s commission-free trading. Stock and ETF trades with CIBC Investor's Edge only cost $6.95 per trade, a discount to the usual $9.95 at other banks, while option trades cost $6.95 plus $1.25 per contract. Just like the other banks, only Canadian and U.S. equities and options are offered. You will need to use another brokerage to access foreign markets.

CIBC charges an annual account fee of $100 if your account balance is $10,000 or less. For certain registered accounts (RRSPs, RRIFs, LIRAs, and LIFs), the annual account fee of $100 is charged if your account balance is $25,000 or less. No annual fee is charged for TFSAs or RESPs no matter your balance.

If you're between the ages of 18 and 24, and you have a CIBC Smart Account with CIBC Smart Start, you can get free stock and ETF trades, no annual fee, and no minimum balance requirement. Plus, the CIBC Smart Account is a bank account that offers free unlimited Interac e-Transfers and debit transactions, with free SPC+ membership. Options trading for young investors still come with a commission of $6.95 plus $1.25 per contract.

If you're a student 25 years of age or older, you can get discounted stock and ETF trades of $5.95, all with no annual fees and no minimum balance requirement.

CIBC offers one of the lowest fees for assignments and exercises of option positions, with the fee for auto assignments being just $6.95 plus $1.25 per contract. Manual exercise requests will be charged at $6.95 per request.

BMO InvestorLine

BMO offers three online platforms: BMO InvestorLine Self-Directed, InvestorLine adviceDirect, and BMO SmartFolio. The difference between self-directed and adviceDirect is that you can get personalized advice with adviceDirect, but it requires a minimum account balance of $10,000. InvestorLine adviceDirect also charges an annual percentage fee of 0.75% rather than a per-trade commission. BMO SmartFolio gives you access to only ETFs with a minimum account balance requirement of $1,000.

BMO InvestorLine Self-Directed allows you to invest in stocks, bonds, options, ETFs, GICs, and mutual funds. You'll also have access to IPOs. Only Canadian and U.S. stock exchanges are supported, with a commission of $9.95 per stock and ETF trade. Options trades cost $9.95 plus $1.25 per contract. You also have access to 80 commission-free ETFs. When converting foreign currency, BMO InvestorLine charges a spread that can be as high as 1.80%. That’s an increase from the 1.75% fee in 2022. Currency conversions over $25,000 USD will have a lower fee, from 1.13% to as low as 0.55% or less.

While BMO has no minimum balance requirement, they do charge a $25 quarterly fee for non-registered accounts if your balance is less than $15,000. You can also avoid paying this $25 quarterly account fee by making at least two trades in six months. The account fee for registered accounts (RRSP, LIRA, LRSP, RIF, LRIF, RLSP, LIF, and RLIFs) is $100 per year if the account balance is less than $25,000. For RESPs, the annual fee is $50.

BMO's 5 Star Program gives discounted pricing for active traders or for those with large account balances. You can qualify for the first 5 Star membership level by making between 15 to 74 trades in a quarter, or if you invest at least $250,000. 5 Star membership gives you the ability to receive free real time quotes with BMO Market Pro, dedicated support lines, and a professional investing platform. 5 Star clients also get discounted margin interest rates.

National Bank Direct Brokerage

National Bank is the only major bank to offer completely commission-free stock and ETF trades through their online stock brokerage. National Bank Direct Brokerage lets you trade Canadian and U.S. stocks and ETFs with no commission. Options come with a commission of just $1.25 per contract. Assignment and automatic exercise of options come with a flat commission of $28.95.

There’s no minimum account balance requirement, however, an annual administration fee of $100 is charged if your account balance is less than $20,000. You can also avoid this annual fee by having an InvestCube account or if you are a young trader (defined as being 30 years or younger).

The annual administration fee is also waived for newcomers to Canada (for three years), and for professionals and students. This includes professionals and students in the following fields:

• Engineering
• Business
• Legal
• Accounting
• Healthcare
• Health Sciences
• Nursing
• Teaching

National Bank's InvestCube is similar to a robo-advisor that automatically rebalances your portfolio into various ETFs. InvestCube requires a $10,000 minimum balance, and charges an annual rebalancing fee of 0.3% to 0.5%. In return, trades are commission free.

If you make more than 10 trades per month, you get access to free Level 1 quotes. You can get free Level 2 quotes if you make more than 40 trades per month.

National Bank Direct Brokerage's interest rates for margin accounts depends on your debit balance. Having a debit balance of $100,000 or more gives you access to much lower interest rates.

AvaTrade

AvaTrade is a forex broker that is regulated in Canada by the IIROC. You can trade forex and CFDs (contract for difference), which means that you can trade stocks and indices with high leverage. The margin requirement for some forex pairs, such as USD/CAD, is as low as 1.5%. This means that you can get 66:1 leverage. Stocks have a minimum margin requirement of 30% (3.33:1), while gold has a margin requirement of 4.5% (22:1). You can also trade indices, bonds, and FX options.

One feature that Canadian forex brokers offer that bank brokerages do not is the ability to make credit card deposits and withdrawals. Using a credit card to deposit gives you instant access to your funds to trade with, compared to having to wait days with a bank transfer, online bill payment, or wire transfer. However, some credit cards may charge a cash advance fee for such deposits.

In Canada, AvaTrade requires a minimum deposit of $300 CAD to open an account. AvaTrade still charges for your use of margin. This is charged daily overnight, and depends on the security. For example, U.S. stocks have an overnight interest rate of 0.0308% for buy positions and 0.0025% for sell positions. This equals to a 11.24% annual margin rate charged for buy positions, which may be higher than margin rates offered by traditional brokerages.

FOREX.com

FOREX.com, part of StoneX Group, a Fortune 500 company, is a forex broker regulated by the IIROC in Canada. FOREX.com offers 3,000 stocks, 1,000 stock CFDs, 80 forex currency pairs, and a wide variety of indices and commodities.

Just like other forex brokers, FOREX.com offers 3.33:1 leverage for Canadian and U.S. equities with a minimum margin requirement of 30%. For indices, the margin requirement can be as low as 10% for Wall Street and 10% for the S&P 500 index. CFD stock trades are commission-free.

You can fund your account with a credit card, debit card, or by wire transfer. There are no deposit fees, however, some credit cards may charge a cash advance fee. Withdrawals can be made back to the same credit card or debit card, or as a wire transfer to your bank account.

CMC Markets

CMC Markets, regulated by the IIROC, is a CFD and forex broker that offers over 5,000 Canadian and U.S. stock CFDs, treasuries, commodities, and indices. You can also trade over 9,400 global shares from 23 countries, along with 1,000 ETFs.

Stock trades cost $0.02 per share, with a minimum commission of $10. That’s up from the $0.01 per share and minimum of $8 that CMC Markets used to charge in 2022. For a limited time, CMC Markets is offering commission-free trading for all Canadian and U.S. stock CFDs available on their platform. This promotion has been ongoing since 2022 through to 2023. Margin requirements for stock trades start from 15% in Canada and 30% in the U.S.

Since CMC Markets is a member of the Canadian Investment Protection Fund (CIPF), your deposit is protected up to $1,000,000. You can fund your account through online bill payment, electronic funds transfer (EFT), wire transfer, or by mailing a personal cheque. CMC Markets do not allow credit card or debit card deposits.

Oanda

Oanda, well known for their currency conversion services, also offer forex and CFD trading for retail customers in Canada. While this doesn't include stocks, it does include indices, commodities, metals, and bonds.

One unique feature is that Oanda allows PayPal deposits via e-cheque. Other deposit methods include debit cards and bank wire transfer. Withdrawals can also be made back to your PayPal account, debit card, or bank account via wire transfer.

You need to be 18 years of age to open an account with Oanda. There is no minimum account balance requirement.

Oanda charges a currency conversion fee of 0.5% if you make a trade for an instrument that is different from your account currency.

Oanda charges lower financing costs when compared to margin interest rates at some Canadian brokerages. For example, as of August 2023, the annual long rate for the S&P 500 was 7.80%. While that's higher than brokers like Interactive Brokers, it does give you access to leverage not offered by other brokers.

FXCM

Operating through the IIROC-regulated Friedberg Direct, FXCM offers forex, indices, and commodity trading on margin. FXCM requires a minimum deposit of $50. You can deposit using a credit card, debit card, or with a bank wire transfer. Withdrawals can also be made back to your credit or debit card, up to the amount initially deposited. Any excess amounts will need to be withdrawn via wire transfer.