UPDATE: Due to popular demand, below is thecharged by each of the brokerages to convert your CAD->foreign currency.

In addition to trading fees, keep an eye on annual maintenance fees if you are below the minimum balance, and especially foreign exchange fees. Most discount brokers will hide the fee in the exchanged amount. Some investors also like the simplicity of a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP), and while it shouldn't be a primary comparison point, we'll including that in the feature table below as well (last update January 4, 2019):

I think it’s also worth mentioning that Canada has some of the highest investment fees in the world. This 2017 global study compared the investment fees and expenses in 25 different countries around the world. So, where did Canada fall on the scale? At the bottom. We paid the highest investment fees out of all the other developed countries on this list. When you read or hear stats like that, it’s really no wonder that more and more Canadians are becoming interested in taking the proverbial bull by the horns and getting into trading themselves rather than paying others to do it for them. After all, the end goal is to make money, not flush it away on unnecessary expenses.

BMO InvestorLine has a flat trading fee of $9.95 for everything. Perhaps the biggest difference though, in terms of fees and where you can save, is the annual fee. Questrade has a minimum initial funding requirement of $1,000, which is very reasonable, and charges $0 annual fees. BMO on the other hand allows you start a registered account for free, but charges a $100 annual fee on every non-registered account under $15,000. At the end of the day, being comfortable with your chosen online broker is important. But, if you are really looking to cut down on those fees, then it’s probably worth your time to try someone new and try Questrade.

Comparing Questrade Fees to BMO InvestorLine Fees Questrade is my overall winner for the best Canadian online discount brokerage for 2020, but, again, I do recognize that some people are hesitant about these new-comers in the financial sphere and prefer more tried and tested names. However, before you make up your mind that you want to stick with one of Canada’s biggest financial institutions rather than trying someone newer, let’s take a second to pit the two against each other. For trading fees, Questrade ranges from $4.95-9.95 with the added bonus of offering users to buy ETF for free.

Questrade and Wealthsimple Trade come out on top when it comes to comparing annual fees. However, do keep in mind that Questrade does have a minimum requirement of $1000.

Qtrade Investor: No official annual fee; however, you will be charged $100/year if your combined accounts go under $25,000

As you can see, our top pick, Questrade is one of the only online brokerage that regularly charges ECN fees. While these fees are annoying, when you consider that Questrade also has much lower trade fees than some of the other options, those pesky little ECN fees don’t seem so bad. When you actually do the math on investing $1,000 or $5,000 at a time, you're looking at under a loonie in ECN fees.

Qtrade Investor: $0; Qtrade tries to avoid having you pay any ECN fees. However, they do indicate that if you have repeated high volume trades on the active side of the Canadian market you may be charged. In this case, they will try to contact you first to notify you of any ECN charges.

ECN Fees Another fee that you will want to keep in mind are ECN fees. So, what exactly is an ECN fee? ECN stands for Electronic Communication Network and these fees are essentially service charges that you will pay on your trades, although they can sometimes be avoided. Here’s what you can expect to pay in ECN fees with each respective online broker.

Wealthsimple is the winner here when it comes to fees to trade ETFs; however, keep in mind that their ETF selection is also quite limited right now.

Fees to Trade ETFs: When it comes to ETFs we need to remember that even though a few of the online brokerages mentioned in this article offer free ETFs to buy, you do need to pay a fee to sell. Here’s a breakdown of ETF fees among our selected discount brokerages.

Everyone is looking for low investing fees in Canada, and there’s no doubt that online discount brokerages offer the best rates relative to mutual funds and even robo advisors. But, just how much better off are you with a discount broker? Let’s take a look.

The Best Discount Brokerage for ETFs in Canada

Before I share my thoughts on the best discount brokerage for ETFs in Canada, let’s dig a little into ETFs, what they are, and how they work. ETF stands for Exchange Traded Fund and an ETF is a collection of stocks or bonds that can be purchased at one price. ETFs can be both actively or passively managed, however, they are most commonly used for passive investing as most are not managed by humans (whereas mutual funds are) and are programmed by an algorithm. Due to the fact that they can be passively managed and require much less monitoring and work than mutual funds, ETFs are one of the most popular investment options among Canadians.

For a detailed look at the fees and services involved with picking your own ETFs vs going with an all-in-one ETF vs robo advisors vs mutual funds, check out our Best Canadian All-in-One ETFs article. So, what’s the best discount brokerage for ETFs in Canada? Well, I’d have to go with Questrade. As you’ll remember from above, Questrade allows you to buy ETFs for free, though you will pay a fee to sell them. Now, you might be remembering that Qtrade also allows you to buy for free; however, Qtrade only offers a selection of ETFs free to purchase, not all. The rest come at a fee which, in my books, put Questrade at the top. Of course, you could argue that Wealthsimple Trade allows investors to both buy AND sell their ETFs for free, whereas Questrade only lets you buy for free. Again though, Wealthsimple Trade falls short when it comes to selection and the overall platform.

Wealthsimple Trade only offers 3 types of accounts (basic RRSP, TFSA, and non-registered accounts) versus Questrade who offers, well, pretty much any account option you could want. I will say though, while I choose Questrade over Wealthsimple for DIY brokerage, I do prefer Wealthsimple’ robo advisor. You can read more on my comparison between these two in this Wealthsimple Vs Questrade article. For these reasons, I’d say that Questrade takes the top spot for the best discount brokerage for ETFs in Canada.

The Best Discount Brokerage Mobile App in Canada

Since discount brokerages are online, it’s important to have a portal that is easy to use, read, and understand. Most (but not all) discount brokerages can be accessed online from your laptop or desktop as well as from an app on your phone. What you prefer to use is a personal choice, but apps help keep everything close and handy. After all, does anyone ever leave home without their phone anymore? So, what’s the best Canadian online brokerage app? Again, based on my experience, I say Questrade because it really lets you stay on top of everything all on one platform. This wasn’t always the case, but with Questrade’s latest updates, they are on par with anything the big banks have going. To start with, I like the look of the app. It’s pretty clean-cut and clear to read and understand. It lets me trade in real time and manage all my Questrade accounts.

The Questrade app also has some great features. These include:

Symbol Lookup: which allows you to look up the symbol you are interested in. From this feature, you can access news and history to help you make a more informed decision.

Alerts: You can customize your alert settings to get instant alerts on the items you put on your watchlist.

Charting: Take a look at a range of charts that show patterns and volatility to help you better build your trading strategy. There are also some handy research tools available on the app as well. These include built-in research from industry leaders including Morningstar and Recognia. You can also get access to real time data and, as mentioned above, create your own personalized watchlists. Right now, the Questrade app can be used on iOS devices (iOS 8 or higher) or Android devices (Android 5.0 or higher).

The Best Canadian Discount Brokerage for Customer Service

Quality customer service is essential for every business, and while each of the options in the Canada discount brokerage review has a customer service option, when it comes to the best discount brokerage for customer service it’s pretty neck in neck right now between Qtrade and Questrade. Everything you read about Qtrade mentions their customer service. First of all, they make it really easy to get a hold of their customer support team. You can reach them by phone or email, or even have them call you with the call-back option.

They also have a walk-in office located in Vancouver, BC. Sure, that doesn't help everyone but the fact that they actually do have an in-person office that you can visit makes them pretty unique in the world of online financial businesses. However, there have been a few recent changes to the Qtrade customer service within the past 2-3 years.

They used to have an online chat option which customers loved but that disappeared in recent years. There have also been recent comments in online threads about exceptionally long wait times recently which customers who have been around for a while are finding incredibly frustrating. Questrade, on the other hand, has really upped their game in the past couple of years. There is a toll-free number you can use to give them a call and, unlike Qtrade, Questrade does have an online chat option to help you get the answers you need right away.

There has been plenty of positive feedback for both of these online brokers and their customer service. Additionally, both options seem to have a number of loyal users which also speaks to customer care. Qtrade has definitely been the long-time leader for this category, however, their recent decline in services has left room for Questrade to push forward and, perhaps, even ahead.

How to Use an Online Broker for Beginners

Interested in trying your hand at online brokerages? Here’s how to get started.

First of all, you’ll need to figure out your purpose for trading and how aggressive or active you want to be. Do you want to be trading daily? Or are you more interested in the couch potato style of approach? There’s no right or wrong answer, online brokerages work equally well for both strategies. You just need to know what you want to do and have a plan in place that you will keep up with.

Once you are confident in your knowledge of the stock market and know what type of approach you want to take in your investing, you need to choose your online brokerage platform. I’ve shared what I consider to be the best options in this Canada discount brokerage review, but the final choice is up to you. For those who want to practice before getting started with real money, Questrade has a free practice trading account that you can demo for up to 90 days.

Not only is perfect for trying your hand at trading to see if you enjoy it, but it also allows you to test-drive the Questrade platform and see if it is a good fit for your needs as well. Once you’ve chosen your preferred online broker, filled out the required paperwork, and transferred the funds you’ll follow these steps to start buying:

Log in to your chosen platform

Figure out which stocks you want to buy. You can use the ticker symbols to look them up.

Decide how many shares/units you wish to buy. Note, before you purchase, you’ll need to do a bit of math here; cost of share/unit x amount you want to buy.

You will then need to enter the details of the trade. This includes the order type you want to use as well as the duration; how long you want the order to be active for.

The discount brokerage will then confirm with you that you want to purchase “x” units or shares of an ETF or stock, at a price of “x” dollars, for a total cost to you of “x”.

Click “buy”

And that’s it! Congratulations, you just bought your first stock.

Using USD In Your Discount Brokerage TFSA and RRSP

For folks who have large portfolios and really want to cut fees to the bone, using a specific discount brokerage to hold USD-priced investments can be a real differentiator.

The main advantage to holding USD-denominated stocks in your in RRSP, TFSA, or non-registered accounts is that you aren’t charged with a Foreign Exchange (aka Forex, FX) Fee. Basically, if you’re just using a vanilla RRSP account, and you wire your Canadian Dollars over for your monthly or quarterly investment in USD stocks, then you are paying somewhere between 1.5% and 2% in foreign exchange fees. That’s a pretty substantial amount! If you’re an active trader that is automatically converting currency often, it’s going to drastically eat away at your returns.

Now, as with all things investing, it’s worth pointing out that this is “cherry on top” stuff and NOT something that you should allow to hold you back from getting started. If you simply want to purchase an excellent all in one ETF each month - that holds USA stocks (and many others) and is conveniently available in Canadian Dollars - then you should do that and not worry about any of this forex stuff.

If on the other hand you really want to pay attention to dividend withholding taxes (thoroughly explained in our RRSP/TFSA Withdrawal article) and have your USA-indexes separated from the rest of your ETF portfolio, then having a USD-based account in order to purchase USA-based ETFs such as VTI makes sense.

Similarly, if you plan on purchasing US-based dividend stocks, it makes sense to take your Canadian money and convert it to USD by using Norbert’s Gambit, and then keeping it in USD as you buy and sell. Obviously if you’re fortunate enough to earn USD, then you can simply transfer it to your USD trading account without converting it back and forth to CAD.

While RBC and Questrade were the first two discount brokerages to offer USD-based registered accounts, it’s now fairly standard across the country, with most of the major discount brokerages offering the option in some form or fashion. Both of these first-movers now offer USD TFSAs and RRSPs for no extra cost. Other online brokers have now begun to offer these unique accounts as well, but some do charge you for the privilege. The notable exception to this generalization is Wealthsimple Trade - which currently does not offer USD RRSPs or USD TFSAs.

The bottom line for the vast majority of investors in Canada is that they simply do not need to worry about USD RRSPs or USD TFSAs. Simply getting exposure to American companies through Canadian Dollar index funds that are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange is an excellent option. This is especially true if your portfolio is less than $500,000. For the few active traders of US stocks or folks that really want to shave those few points of withholding tax off of their USA-ETFs, then make sure to check that you’re not getting charged for a feature that RBC and Questrade offer for free.

Comparison Summary of Canada’s Best Online Brokers

If you know DIY investing is for you (and that's a big if) and you are looking to minimize your trading fees, as well as your annual fees, while wanting to remain your money to be kept safe by a reputable, Canadian, financial establishment, then in our opinion it boils down to the 4 best stock brokers in Canada for 2020. Our absolute #1 choice for the majority of Canadians is Questrade but using either of the 4 makes sense (depending on the usage).