Questrade Review: Questrade is an online brokerage that provides products for self-investing and trading.
Awards
- Questrade received an award for the #1 Investor Satisfaction 2020 under the J.D. Power’s Self Directed Investor Satisfaction Study.
- Questrade received the Seal of Service Excellence 2019 by DALBAR.
● Bonus – 5 commission-free trades
● MetaTrader 4 – No
● Min. Trade – 0.01 lots
● Regulated By – IIROC
● Mobile Apps – Yes
● Auto Trading – No
● MetaTrader 5 – No
● cTrader – No
● ECN Account – No
● DMA Account – No
● Demo Account – Yes
● Min. Deposit – $1,000
● Pay Methods – Visa
● Social Trading – No
● Copy Trading – No
● Trade Signals – Yes
● Islamic Account – No
CFD
You can trade CFDs in financial markets online.
- FTSE Spread – N/A
- GBPUSD Spread – 2
- Oil Spread – 0.05
- Stocks Spread – 1 cent per share
- Leverage – 1:3.33
Forex
Trade with FX pairs that have spreads starting from 0.8 pips.
● GBPUSD Spread – 2
● EURUSD Spread – 1.9
● EURGBP Spread – 2.1
● Assets – 110+
Questrade Company Details
In 1999, Questrade Inc. was an established online brokerage controlled by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organisation (IIROC) in Canada. The financial group used to offer investment in Canadian and North American Stocks and ETFs but now provides access to options, FX, and CFDs.
It has been around for 21 years in the Canadian market and has accumulated assets worth $15 billion. It has managed to get featured in many online publications, which also includes the likes of Yahoo Finance. Questrade makes sure that clients’ needs are looked after by providing different types of accounts, ranging between short-term and retirement-friendly.
Trading Platforms: Questrade Web Platform
The Questrade Trading platform has been created for all kinds of levels and is the most favorite Questrade clients’ choice. There is no downloading required; you have to sign up for either live or a demo account to receive your login information.
The comprehensive platform for trading offers a practical design accompanied by intuitive features that include historical data, watchlists that can be customized, and charting tools. Users are provided three chart types (Candlestick, Mountain, or Bar) and ten time-frames for viewing data. There are also 30 ready-to-use technical indicators, which include the likes of Bollinger Bands and Moving Averages.
Questrade IQ Edge
For traders who are more professional and active, Questrade IQ Edge is the better, more efficient option. One can open more than just some platform windows simultaneously with the smart interface and use market filters to track movements quickly. Advanced order types for trading are also available, including bracket, conditional, and multi-leg options.
This platform for trading is desktop-based and requires a download for users of Windows or Mac.
Questrade Global
The Questrade Global is a web-based platform, i.e., ideal for anyone who wants to use international FX and CFD markets to trade. The inbuilt smart features include the likes of custom indicators and tools for charting, economic releases, and watchlists that can be personalized. Clients can, at once, open four chart windows in time ranges that can be customized and access nine types of charts and a lot of technical indicators and tools for drawing.
After setting up an account, access to the trading platform is fast and simple if done directly via your internet browser.
Markets
Questrade is essentially known to offer various investment choices that can suit various types of risk levels and goals that include stocks, indices such as the S&P 500, ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), options, and more than 110 FX pairs. Other asset classes include precious metals like gold, CFDs, bonds, futures, warrants, and GICs ($5000 minimum).
This review was in general content with the great breadth of financial markets online.
Fees: Self-Directed Investing Pricing
The pricing system developed for self-directed investing relies on whether you are a novice or an active trader. All accounts come with the Basic package for pricing, which is $0.01/share with at least $4.95 and $9.95 per stock. ETFs are free to buy, but selling is supposed to include commissions.
The Enhanced pricing package is said to cost USD 19.95/CAD per month and is known to come with enhanced Level 1 live streaming data and a full rebate in case you spend over $48.95 in commissions for trading.
You can even use Active Trader pricing that can be done by making purchases of one of the Advanced data packages at USD 89.95/CAD per month. Extra perks such as Level 1 & Level 2 live streaming data, partial & full rebates, and other data add-ons are included.
After unlocking the Active Trader pricing, you can either benefit from fixed or variable commission plans. CFD pricing is derived from spreads when it comes to commodities and indices. Stocks are priced considering both commission and minimum payment.
Several other fees need to be kept in mind. Rollover fees defined for expiring & non-expiring CFDs, ATS&ECN exchange fees on USA and Canadian securities, including other admin fees, are kept added to them. A quarterly inactivity fee equal to $24.95 applies to accounts with less than $1,000, is also there.
Questwealth Portfolio Pricing
In case you end up opting for a Questwealth Portfolio, 0.25% commission on the defined balances ranging from $1,000 to $99,999 that reduces to 0.20% with balances over $100,000, is there. Other fees may include management expense ratios (MER) on ETFs, currency exchange fees, and administrative fees.
The costs might seem to appear complicated, but the broker is known to be fully lucid and even clarifies that no hidden fees are there. Note, borrow rates, and GIC for short selling can also get to be found on the official site of Questrade.
About Leverage
Leverage-products remain available along with the margin accounts associated with Questrade& are capped at 1:3.33.
Margin trade requirements defined as the maintenance excess for various options, such as stocks & precious metals can get to be found in the pricing section of the site & interest rates. Note that Questrade has four approval levels for options trading based on minimum balances before placing a trade; this ranges from no minimum for Level 1 to 25,000 CAD for level 4.
Mobile Apps
The Questrade Trading platform is available as a mobile app and offers the same comprehensive functionality as its web-based version. Users can also access watchlists, inbuilt research, and real-time market data as they are on the go, and they can easily customize charts and manage accounts.
The application is available for both iOS as well as Android smartphones, tablet devices, etc. Tough some negative customer reviews online tell us that certain improvements might be needed regarding technical faults, client service issues, etc.
Payment Methods
Funding a Questrade account can be easily done within the trading platform parameters by using certain methods that include the likes online bank payments, wire transfers, money orders, and cheques. Electronic methods are unpaid, but any other methods will include transfer and withdrawal fees. CAD and USD wire transfers, for example, cost $20 and $30, respectively. International wire transfers cost $40 each.
Processing times usually last 1 – 2 business days for most methods, but the duration for fund receipts may differ as per the chosen bank or payment processor.
Demo Account
Questrade is said to offer practice accounts for all its platforms of trading. Demo accounts let you check out the platform features, capabilities, and trading skills in a risk-free simulator environment.
The standard Questrade Trading web platform and the IQ Edge desktop platform provide you with 500,000 USD or CAD virtual cash for 90 days for practicing. Demo users accessing the Questrade Global trading platform will be receiving 100,000 CAD in the form of virtual funds for a month.
Questrade Bonuses
Questrade is at present said to offer two promo codes as of 2021; the first of the two is for 5 zero commission trades applicable upon account opening. You will get required to open an account with a 1000 CAD minimum to qualify. Other promotion needs funding of a minimum of $25,000 within a time frame of 30 days of account opening, and clients will then receive a full month of free trades accompanied by level 2 market data.
Questrade offers rebates on transfer fees as you switch your current, preexisting account to Questrade as well. The rebate is $150 per account at most, and the number of accounts you can bring over is unlimited. You can check the official of Questrade for any news regarding competitions of Trading.