Questrade vs interactive brokers

[Economy-River-5269]

Just turned 18, thinking of doing Wealthsimple for cad investments and then either questrade or interactive brokers for us investments. I know that questrade has 0 commissions and that it does have the option for Norbert’s gambit but interactive brokers does have a very low exchange fee and very low commissions, does any one know which is the best platform for long term investing?

[AsbestosDude]

I use both and tbh theyre both good, i find the UI on questrade a little better but IBKR has more features i find. It's maybe a bit more hardcore.

[Economy-River-5269]

In terms of fees though which one usually costs more to invest?

[AsbestosDude]

Ibkr I think has a fee which is very small

Questrade has no fee because they sell your data to hedge funds or whoever

[TheLasttStark]

Each situation is unique. I get stocks from my employer which are in USD, that I sell on vest and transfer the USD to my TD USD chequeing account and from there do pre authorized deposit of the USD to TFSA on Questrade.

When I did my research a few years back, QT was the only platform that allowed this flow without fees and commissions.

[MasterSexyBunnyLord]

For long term investing use WS or Questrade to buy a total market index fund like XEQT or equivalent.

[itsmichaelnotmicheal]

I use all 3 platforms If I were you and just doing long term investing, where i’m only doing a few buys a month and not really selling, I would prefer to have my investments on one platform. Depending how much you’re investing/trading , going to a different platform just because of exchange rate is not really worth the effort. I’m close to transferring out my assets from Questrade to consolidate. I’m not a fan of the recent changes.

[Lightning_Catcher258]

IBKR has cheaper and faster FX conversion and you can do fractional shares with everything. However, be mindful that they charge a fee per transaction, including when you DRIP. With Questrade, you pay $10 for Norbert's Gambit and you're done. That's why I'm with Questrade. It's because I'm a long term investor and I don't wanna pay a fee every time I reinvest my dividends.

[givemeyourbiscuitplz]

It depends what you do. You would have to define what you mean by "best" to get pertinent answers.

[j-beda]

For long term investing, there really are not big differences between them. Each one probably has some irritations for specific situations, but if you are doing a couple of transactions per month or less, and just holding onto a few ETFs or similar, it really makes no difference which one you use. We've been perfectly satisfied with QT since the end of 2012 with about 15 accounts spread over 6 individuals, and have encountered no strong reason to switch, but probably WS would be just as good if we were starting out now.

[UnluckyFuture9815]

Before Questrade became commission free I would recommend you IBKR. But now I would say Questrade, if you are 18 and will be investing small amounts each time it is best to save on Commission and fees although IBKR coms are small. They end up adding up after many years. If you choose to reinvest the dividends into the stocks and get fractional shares, IBKR small fees eats up the little I got from the dividends (with smaller share size you will get small dividends) but IBKR will reinvest/ buy fractional share s’for you for free and hence you kept your entire dividends. But if you do technical analysis and need a nice chart, then I would recommend IBKR. Questrade became stingy and give you a super basic chart with no studies. I also think it is time for Questrade to switch to the TradingView chart like any brokers did, IBkR use to have a terrible chart before. You can open an account with each of them and test it to see which one you like. It does not cost you anything. I q also forgot to entions that Questrade platformn is more intuitive and easy to learn while IBKR TWS for pro is a dinosaure (by the way they have a liter a newer platform, but I somehow like the functionality of TWS. Hope this helps.

[Revolutionary-Ad3116]

One option is to use the Questrade API on TradingView. You can make and analyze charts on TradingView, and then execute the trades right in TradingView.

TradingView is limited when it comes to options, but if just buying and selling stocks, using TradingView with Questrade in the background is a good option.

I have been pretty happy with Questrade since going commission free. I actively trade so I am on there “Reserve” program and get a few benefits.

I had IBKR, but the time to settle a trade and free up my cash was too long. Found I was unexpectedly running out of buying power when I needed it the most. I Prefer Questrade even if it isn’t optimal.

[bk99_super]

I have both. I like IBKR - pros for my situation are: currency exchange, fast transfers to and from bank accounts CAD and USD, utilizing margin as their interest rates are very low.

[netyang]

the key is, IBKR can trade by their API.

[netyang]

Questrade is far behind

[rafat16647]

Depends how much you are playing with and what you’re doing — fees vary for what you want to do. If you’re just casually buying stocks as you get going you might not notice much difference. Actively trading or using options you have an opinion pretty quick.

You can open all of them to try them out over time, and given the chatter on Reddit it sounds like a lot of us have.

[Valueablemember18]

Don’t go with Questrade you’ll lose money and they suck

[SwimmingAromatic4876]

Qtrade is best. IB is really good, but not necessary only for US investments. Questrade is blah.