Brokers ... a discussion focused on Canadians only... and how we get ripped off. ;)

[Deltatrader9]

HI everyone:

Wow...long journey for me. Circling back to trading after a long, tortured foray into real estate. Long story.

Looking forward to funding an account and getting going!

So, it looks like when it comes to brokerages in Canada, from a low cost perspective, IB wins by a country mile. I used to have a TD Ameritrade US TOS account, but I am transitioning over to IB.

Seems like IB is the only broker in Canada that doesn't have a ticket charge. Even TOS does; a per contract fee + ticket fee. Ridiculous.

Why do we Canadians take it? Ticket charges are just bogus profit centers for brokerages. US clients don't have to put with it. 

Reason...the US has at least 10x the traders, and at least 2x to 3x competition for brokerages. Our conservative major banks are a non-starter (they are basically clueless about options trading), so we Canadians have to choose between TOS, Questrade, IB. 

Any other sane choices for Canadians besides IB?

Hopefully TastyTrade will get here soon. 

Man, I hate the paternalistic, 18th century regulatory environment of my home country sometimes!! 😡  grrrr   

So excited to be back! 

Happy Trading Everyone!
Smitty