Basically, you'll pay a lot less
in fees per trade and in annual «account maintenance fees» and other charges than you would with a traditional brokerage.
Not exact matches
Among the wave of financial technology companies attempting to challenge the hegemony of Canada's Big Five banks are «robo - advisers,» such as Wealthsimple and WealthBar, whose platforms help clients create and maintain portfolios of mostly passive investments, such as exchange -
traded funds, for
fees in the neighbourhood of 1 % of assets
per year.
Instead of paying several percent off the top
per trade, you could instead pay a low set
fee — today as low as $ 3.95
in some cases.
OptionsHouse also has the cheapest
fee per trade and options contract
fee among the 15 brokerages we included
in this study.
Low base -
trade fee (also called
fee per trade): When you buy option contracts, you are charged the base
trade fee in addition to the contract
fee.
Investing
in exchange
traded funds with
fees often a quarter of one
per cent would save them $ 23,250 a year.
While it is proportionally much smaller than the
fee per trade, investors looking to buy option contracts
in bulk should pay attention to contract
fee costs.
Any Transaction that Involves Dealer Facilitated Financing,
Trade -
Ins or Bank
Fees Are Subject to Additional Cost of up to $ 2,150.00
per Transaction.
While the base
trading fee is a dollar higher than our 3rd place winner, Merrill Edge, we've bumped Fidelity up based on our hypothetical trader, who's interested
in 10 options contracts (since on a
per contract basis, they're much more cost - efficient).
OptionsHouse also has the cheapest
fee per trade and options contract
fee among the 15 brokerages we included
in this study.
Low base -
trade fee (also called
fee per trade): When you buy option contracts, you are charged the base
trade fee in addition to the contract
fee.
They have the lowest
fee structure
in the industry and a low cost
per contract for options
trading.
With a low
fee structure, featuring a $ 4.95 commission
per trade (plus $.50
per contract), free virtual
trading and a gold - standard reputation, OptionsHouse has become one of the most popular online
trading houses
in the industry.
As an example, pretend you invest an initial $ 5,000, followed by monthly additions of $ 500,
in both a mutual fund (charging a 1.6 % management
fee but no
trading costs) and an ETF (with a.4 % management
fee and $ 15
per - transaction
trading costs to your discount brokerage).
In addition to a flat trading fee ($ 5 to $ 29), you may be charged a commission based on the number of shares purchased (typically $ 0.01 to $ 0.03 per share), but this fee usually only kicks in for orders of 1,000 shares or mor
In addition to a flat
trading fee ($ 5 to $ 29), you may be charged a commission based on the number of shares purchased (typically $ 0.01 to $ 0.03
per share), but this
fee usually only kicks
in for orders of 1,000 shares or mor
in for orders of 1,000 shares or more.
They're presented
in order from the lowest
per trade fees and onwards, but the decision about which is the best fit for you depends on your own preferences.
Our priorities
in recommending a list of the best brokerages for first - time investors focus on minimizing costs with some combination of no opening minimum requirement, low or no commission or
fee per trade, and low or no service or standard
fees, e.g. annual
fees, inactivity
fees.
For example, for the investment commission
fee,
in the customer service, it says, if you have $ 100,000 or more
in total
in household, you will automatically qualify for a flat commission rate of $ 9.95
per trade.
However, while TradeKing's
fee per trade is very low, TradeKing will assess an inactivity
fee of $ 50 if an account has not made any
trades in 12 months AND if the account value falls below $ 2,500.
There are inactivity
fees ($ 20 / month) however the threshold to avoid them is fairly low — coming
in at one
trade per month
in any account, registered or non-registered.
In addition to the $ 1.50
per contract
per side commission, futures customers will be assessed certain
fees including applicable futures exchange and National Futures Association (NFA)
fees, as well as floor brokerage charges for execution of non-electronically
traded futures and futures options contracts.
As
per a Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) ruling made
in 2010, this is the only way you legally can be charged
fees.
Before the recent cut
in trading fees by TD Waterhouse, I was hesitant to pay $ 58 ($ 29 to sell EFA and $ 29 to buy VEA) to save $ 24
per year (0.20 % of 150 shares of EFA at $ 79) and planned on switching sometime
in the future when I am adding new money or rebalancing.
The consequence of using the application - based
trading platforms (rather than the web - based ones) is that the application based
trading platforms are associated with monthly platform
fees starting at $ 150 USD (for Edge Trader Pro) and going as high as $ 1344 USD
per month (for IRESS and factoring
in the 20 % markup charged by Virtual Brokers for this platform).
Also, clients who have RSP accounts and less than $ 25,000
in aggregate across all iTrade accounts and who place less than 12 commission generating
trades per year are subject to annual
fee of $ 100.
Among the wave of financial technology companies attempting to challenge the hegemony of Canada's Big Five banks are «robo - advisers,» such as Wealthsimple and WealthBar, whose platforms help clients create and maintain portfolios of mostly passive investments, such as exchange -
traded funds, for
fees in the neighbourhood of 1 % of assets
per year.
This means you'll no longer have your adviser to bounce ideas off of, but you could bring your
fees down to $ 4.99
per trade and be paying under $ 100 a year
in fees.
Clients who deposit at least $ 100
per month
in their RBC Direct Investing account as part of a pre-authorized contribution plan, those who make at least 3 commission - generating
trades per quarter, those who have a group RRSP with RBC Direct Investing, those who qualify for the RBC Direct Investing Royal Circle program as well as those who are current student banking package holders (or have been
in the past 5 years) and clients who have an RBC VIP banking package can all have their quarterly inactivity
fee waived.
Some
fees — like broker - assisted market orders being an extra $ 25
per trade — are irritating, but for the large part E-
Trade is very fair
in terms of pricing.
Clients of TradeStation can choose among a flat - rate commission ($ 9.99
per trade), a sliding scale that cuts the commission rate the more they
trade, or a
fee of just 1 cent
per share as long as they
trade in lots of 500 shares or more.
And if you don't do at least $ 10
per month
in trading, you're subject to a $ 10
per month maintenance
fee (this is waived on accounts greater than $ 100,000.)
At $ 6.95 flat
per trade, CIBC Investor's Edge commission rates now rival, if not beat, certain rates offered by these «lower commission» providers, especially when ECN
fees are factored
in.
The monthly
fee set forth below is waived for customers who meet at least one of the following minimums: 1) maintain an average monthly balance of $ 5,000 or more
in their account by the end of their second statement cycle; 2) set up and maintain a direct deposit of $ 200 or more
per month (a combination of direct deposits totaling $ 200 does not satisfy this requirement); 3) maintain a combined average monthly balance of $ 50,000 or more
in linked E *
TRADE Securities, E *
TRADE Bank, and employee stock plan accounts (including vested
in - the - money options, stock option plan shares, ESPP shares, and released restricted stock); or 4) execute at least 30 stock or options
trades during a calendar quarter
in their E *
TRADE Securities accounts.
Of particular interest is the average commission (including
fees)
per equity
trade, which came
in at $ 2.46.
The monthly
fee is also waived for customers who: set up and maintain a direct deposit of $ 200 or more
per month (a combination of direct deposits totaling $ 200 does not satisfy this requirement); or who maintain a combined balance of $ 50,000 or more
in linked E *
TRADE Securities, E *
TRADE Bank, and employee stock plan accounts (including vested
in - the - money options, stock option plan shares, ESPP shares, and released restricted stock); or who execute at least 30 stock or options
trades during a calendar quarter
in their E *
TRADE Securities account.
The monthly
fee is also waived for customers who: 1) set up and maintain a direct deposit of $ 200 or more
per month (a combination of direct deposits totaling $ 200 does not satisfy this requirement); 2) maintain a combined average monthly balance of $ 50,000 or more
in linked E *
TRADE Securities, E *
TRADE Bank, and employee stock plan accounts (including vested
in - the - money options, stock option plan shares, ESPP shares, and released restricted stock); or 3) execute at least 30 stock or options
trades during a calendar quarter
in their E *
TRADE Securities accounts.
In contrast to the usual professional portfolio manager, who may charge 1
per cent up front plus transactions
fees and perhaps a layer of mutual funds
fees up to the average level of 2.6
per cent for stock mutual funds, robo advisors may just offer very low
fee exchange
traded funds and a very low robo charge.
Typically, index funds and Exchange
Traded Funds (ETFs) will have the lowest
fees but you can find lower -
fee mutual funds as well with some providers but keep
in mind that minimum investments required are fairly large: $ 50,000
per account for Mawer, $ 25,000
per account at Leith Wheeler, and $ 10,000
per fund at Steadyhand (except for larger accounts).
For the Sleepy Mini Portfolio, which has 60 %
in foreign stocks, assuming foreign exchange
fees cost 1 % and are amortized over 5 years and
trading commissions cost $ 120
per year, x works out to $ 143,000.
With regards to pricing and rates, I'd classify them as middle of the pack among online brokers with commissions
in the $ 1.25 to $ 1.50 range
per options contract; with
fees at the lower end, the more actively you
trade.
An account holder at Tradestation can only make up to 50 free
trades since Tradestation's
fee per trade is double that of TradeKing's,
in addition to the smaller dollar value of the commission rebates.
If you elect to buy a fund not designated as a OneSource fund, the transaction
fee will be $ 76
per trade (
per buy, $ 0 to sell), the second highest
in the industry.
In addition to the
per contract
per side commission, futures customers will be assessed certain
fees, including applicable futures exchange and NFA
fees, as well as floor brokerage charges for execution of non-electronically
traded futures and futures options contracts.
were to buy ETFs (assuming a 0.10 % annual
fee), you would incur about $ 1.88
in ETF
fees and a painful $ 240 (assuming a $ 10
per trade fee)
in transaction
fees, and that is if you only bought one type of ETF at a time.
In order to avoid this
fee, you must make at least one commission - charged
trade per year and maintain an account balance of at least $ 2500.
Charles Schwab charges $ 8.95
per trade, but you can get around that by investing
in the no -
fee index funds and ETF offerings available.
By making a $ 25 investment
in a typical stock through a broker who charges $ 10 commission
per trade, you pay $ 10, which amounts to a 40 %
fee.
• If you're only paying ticket charges when buying no - load mutual funds, then choose «Flat
Fee Per Trade»
in cell B23.
It's a really interesting idea because instead of spending $ 210 to buy shares
in 30 companies (at $ 7
per trade with an online brokerage company like Scottrade) you can invest the same money into the same basket of companies for one
trade fee of $ 9.95.
It was convenient, transaction
fees were high when I started
in 2013 (30 $) but are now
in the norm (9,95 $
per trade).