Qtrade Review – Innovative Portfolio Analysis…

Qtrade is a leading discount brokerage competing with the big Canadian banks. It ranks among Canada’s best online brokers.

The platform offers a robust collection of investment products and accounts including stocks, MFs, options, ETFs, bonds, IPOs, and GICs, across TSX, CSE, TSXV, NYSE, NASDAQ, etc. It provides valuable insights like real-time quotes, stock screening tools, watchlists, market news, and portfolio analytics.

Qtrade is well-positioned to address the investors’ demand for more innovative products to meet their short- and long-term investment goals. It’s very simple to open an account on Qtrade for online trading.

All you need is your Social Insurance Number, a Government ID, and details of your income, assets, and net worth. You just need to create a profile, add money from your bank account and submit the application online. 

Qtrade is popular with investors given its:

• Low trading commissions
• User-friendly platforms
• Excellent customer service
• Wide range of account types
• Powerful insights and tools
• A wide selection of investment options

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Qtrade Summary

Here is a summary to get you started, but there is a lot more information below if you want to get into the details.

Choosing a discount broker is a personal choice and the discount broker should satisfy your requirements. 

Qtrade FAQ

Can I have the fees waived with Qtrade?

No indications that any of the transaction fees can be waived. You can have your trading fee lowered to $6.95 if you are an active trader or you hold more than half a million but that’s still more than Questrade if fees are important to you

You can avoid the maintenance fee by having a minimum of $25,000, otherwise you have a fee of $25 per quarter.

Another innovative approach by Qtrade is to offer young investors a better price of $7.75 per trade with no account minimum.

How do I deposit money into my Qtrade?

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is the simplest way to transfer money into your Qtrade account from your banking account.

Alternatively, from your bank account or credit union, you can add money in the same way you would pay a bill.

How can I contact Qtrade customer support?

By email or phone. The details are clearly outlined on their site.

Trading Costs

The firm claims to charge the lowest commission in the industry. It charges just $8.75 for stock trades, no ECN fees, and provides 100 commission-free ETFs. 

It also has an Investor Plus program where it charges $6.95 for equity trades if the client makes 150 trades per quarter or maintains more than $500,000 in assets. Qtrade also offers a special program for young investors aged between 18-30 years at a $7.75 flat rate commission with no account minimum balance and no quarterly fee.

It also charges a 1% fee (minimum $45) on the sale or switch of all mutual funds held for less than 90 days. There are no trading commissions on buying and selling any of 100 free ETFs from a pre-made list of selected ETFs.

Qtrade provides statements and confirmations, electronic funds transfer, DRIPs, LIF, RIF, and LRIF scheduled payments, and customer support free of cost. They also offer a trial program free for 30 days, in case you want to give it a try first. However, the trial account provides view-only functionality and does not allow trading.

Accounts

Qtrade provides personal, corporate, and business accounts to its clients.

The registered accounts include RRSP, TFSA, RESP, RRIF, while non-registered accounts include cash and margin accounts. Cash, margin, TFSA, and RRSP are the most popular accounts on Qtrade.

Usability

Qtrade offers a simple dashboard and a user-friendly interface helping its clients to quickly review their accounts and track their progress.

Transactions

Similar to other discount brokers, the Qtrade platform gives an option of trading in Canadian or U.S. dollars and there is no minimum deposit to begin trading in a Qtrade Investor account.

Clients can place market, limit, or stop-loss orders with a minimum transaction fee of $8.95.

The transaction fee of $8.95 beats all of the bank discount brokers except for CIBC Investor’s Edge but it’s still behind Questrade and Wealthsimple.

Performance Monitoring

Qtrade offers detailed portfolio views to monitor and compare your performance.

By far the most innovative graphical representation of a portfolio analysis. The snowflake visual is a great way to see the strength and weaknesses of a portfolio.

Additionally, the portfolio simulator is another innovation not seen anywhere else and could help many investors assess the impact of their choices ahead of making them.

Mobile Capabilities

Qtrade’s online and mobile (both Android and iOS versions) trading platforms are easy to use.

Remember that you don’t have the same screen size on a phone and the interface will be limited compared with a desktop monitor. On mobile, you do very specific actions and should know what you want to do.

Investment Research

Qtrade provides insightful pricing analytics for testing new investment ideas using valuable tools including value analyzer and technical insights.

From what I can see, their approach is different from the others in that it’s not providing the usual research from Morningstar and other data providers but it’s rather giving you new tools.

It does provide potential clients with a trial account to give the platform a test drive if you want more details.

Customer Service

Aside from their FAQ, you have to reach them by email or the usual phone Monday to Friday.

Discount Brokers Available

While the easiest path to selecting a discount broker is to use the one affiliated with your bank, there are options available with different feature set and cost that may best fit your needs. Be sure to review all of your options.