Qtrade Direct Investing Review 2023

Qtrade Direct Investing charges low fees for stocks, ETFs, bonds and mutual funds, but options fees and margin rates are high, and there is also an inactivity fee.

We ranked Qtrade Direct Investing's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

To get things rolling, let's go over some lingo related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees, and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates, and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

Below you will find the most relevant fees of Qtrade Direct Investing for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing commissions are the most important fees.

We also compared Qtrade Direct Investing's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Questrade and RBC Direct Investing. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Qtrade Direct Investing alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Qtrade Direct Investing, let's start with the trading fees.

Qtrade Direct Investing trading fees

Qtrade Direct Investing offers low stock, ETF, bond and mutual fund fees, but options fees are high. You can get a discount on stock and options fees if you trade more and/or have a higher account balance.

The fee structure is transparent and easy to understand.

Stock fees and ETF fees

Qtrade Direct Investing has generally low stock and ETF commissions, close to what its immediate competitors charge. It also offers more than 100 ETFs that you can trade commission-free.

If you prefer stock trading on margin, you should check Qtrade Direct Investing's margin rates.

Trading on margin basically means that you borrow money from your broker, and can purchase more shares or other assets than you could with just the available cash in your account. You have to pay interest on this borrowed money – the interest rate is called the margin rate. It can account for a significant portion of your trading costs.

Qtrade Direct Investing margin rates are high.

Qtrade Direct Investing charges a base rate and markup for trading on margin. At the time of our review, the base rate was 2.45% for loans in CAD and 3.25% for loans in USD. The markup depends on your debit balance, the currency of your debit balance, your quarterly trade volume, and your account balance.

Fund fees

Qtrade Direct Investing charges no commission on mutual fund transactions.

Bond fees

Qtrade Direct Investing has generally low bond fees. Among its nearest competitors, Questrade offers free bond trading, but bond fees at RBC Direct Investing, though similar, are not as transparent as at Qtrade Direct Investing.

Qtrade Direct Investing offers primarily Canadian government, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds. It charges CAD 1 per CAD 1,000 of face value, with a minimum of CAD 24.99 and a maximum of CAD 250.

Options fees

Qtrade Direct Investing options fees are high.

It charges a flat fee of $8.75 plus a variable fee of $1.25 per contract. The flat fee drops to $6.95 if you make more than 150 trades per quarter (any trades, not just options) or have an account balance of at least $500,000.

Non-trading fees

Qtrade Direct Investing has mixed non-trading fees. Deposits and withdrawals are free of charge, but there's an account fee that functions similarly to an inactivity fee. Qtrade Direct Investing will charge this CAD 25 quarterly account fee unless you satisfy one of the following criteria:

• you have more than $25,000 account balance
• you made at least two stock or options trades in the last quarter
• you made at least eight stock or options trades in the last 12 months
• you have automatic monthly deposits of at least $100
• your age is between 18 and 30 years and you add at least $50 to your account each month

As these conditions are not difficult to meet, in practice the inactivity fee is waived for most customers. 

There are several additional fees that might apply to you; here are a few examples:

• CAD 100 is charged if you close your account within the first year after your account is opened.
• Transferring out assets (rather than cash) costs $150.
• If you set USD as the base currency for registered accounts (LIF, RIF), there is a $15 quarterly fee (waived for Investor Plus program members). 

Qtrade Direct Investing has an easy and fully digital account opening process, with no minimum deposit and plenty of account types.

Can you open an account?

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What is the minimum deposit at Qtrade Direct Investing?

There is no minimum deposit at Qtrade Direct Investing.

Account types

You can choose among different account types based on ownership:

• Individual account: owned by an individual
• Joint account: owned by two or more individuals
• Non-personal accounts (corporate, organization, trust): owned by a legal entity

Within individual accounts, Qtrade Direct Investing offers several account types:

*When you trade with money borrowed from the broker 

How to open your account

Qtrade Direct Investing's account opening process is fully digital and the entire process takes 2-3 business days. Qtrade Direct Investing also has instant account opening for certain clients who meet the necessary parameters. Our account was verified within 3 business days. You must have a valid Canadian Social Insurance Number (SIN) to be able to open an account at Qtrade Direct Investing.

To open an account, you must complete the following steps:

1. Add your email address and set a password
2. Select your account type and account base currency
3. Add personal information, like date of birth or residency
4. Answer a few questions relating to your financial knowledge
5. Choose your funding options (funding is not mandatory)
6. Sign and submit. Wait for an email response whether you've been approved or whether you must supply more information

Qtrade Direct Investing offers user-friendly and free deposit and withdrawal. Unfortunately, your options for both are quite limited, as you can only use bank transfer.

Account base currencies

Like its closest competitors, Qtrade Direct Investing offers 2 base currencies, namely USD and CAD.

Base currencies at Qtrade Direct Investing vs similar brokers

Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you don't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. These usually offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Compare digital banks

Deposit fees and options

Qtrade Direct Investing charges no deposit fees. You have the following options to deposit funds:

• Electronic transfer from a bank account
• Using the "bill payee" function through online banking

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card would be instant.

You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

Qtrade Direct Investing withdrawal fees and options

Qtrade Direct Investing doesn't charge a withdrawal fee. You can use the same withdrawal options as for deposit.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Qtrade Direct Investing? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took 2 business days.

How do you withdraw money from Qtrade Direct Investing? You can withdraw money from Qtrade Direct Investing by following these steps:

1. Log into your account
2. Move your cursor over 'My Accounts' to open the drop-down menu
3. Click 'Transfer Funds'
4. Choose your method of transfer
5. Choose the account to withdraw from, then set the amount and currency
6. Choose which account to transfer to
7. Initiate withdrawal

Qtrade Direct Investing has rebranded its web trading platform, which has solid search, alert and order functions and portfolio reports. A safer, two-step login is now also available.

Qtrade Direct Investing offers an in-house developed web trading platform that is available in both English and French.

Look and feel

The Qtrade Direct Investing web trading platform is OK. It's easy to use and has undergone a full rebranding to look more modern. Nevertheless, we found some bugs during testing. For example, the order panel didn't always work, and at one point we couldn't check the account summary.

It's not possible to customize the platform.

Login and security

Qtrade Direct Investing offers multi-factor authentication, which is enabled once the account is approved and opened. An access code is sent by text to a clients mobile device upon attempted login. There is a 'trust this device' option to not require multi-factor authentication for 30 days.

Search functions

The platform's search functions are good. Search results appear as you type, giving relevant answers to your query.

Placing orders

Qtrade Direct Investing offers an impressive number of order types:

• Market 
• Limit 
• Stop limit 
• Stop market 
• Trailing stop market
• Trailing stop limit

If you are not familiar with the basic order types, read this overview.

There is also one order time limit you can use, Good 'til Time.

Alerts and notifications

You can set price and news alerts through the web trading platform.

However, you can only set email notifications; we missed push notifications for mobile. Also, the process is a bit inconvenient as you have to use the asset's ticker when searching for an asset to set up alerts for. It would be much easier if you could search using the asset's name, just like on the main search panel.

Portfolio and fee reports

Qtrade Direct Investing offers clear fee and portfolio reports. You can find your reports under 'My Accounts' > 'Service center' > 'View eDocuments'.

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Qtrade Direct Investing's mobile app is very similar to the web platform in design and functions. However, there are no price alerts and we experienced glitches during testing.

Similarly to the web trading platform, Qtrade Direct Investing has an in-house developed mobile trading platform. It is available on both iOS and Android. We tested the iOS version.

Most of the functionalities are the same as on the web trading platform. The mobile app offers the same order types and has the same search functions.

The app's design is very basic, and we ran into a few glitches and crashes when tested it. Unlike on the web trading platform, you can't set alerts on the mobile trading app.

Login and security

Qtrade Direct Investing offers multi-factor authentication, which is enabled once the account is approved and opened. An access code is sent by text to the client's mobile device upon attempted login. There is a 'trust this device' option to not require multi-factor authentication for 30 days. However, it must be enabled through the desktop site, it cannot be setup through the app.

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Qtrade Direct Investing does not have a desktop trading platform.

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Qtrade Direct Investing covers only the Canadian and US markets. You can trade basic asset classes like stocks, ETFs or mutual funds, but forex, futures, CFDs and cryptos are not available.

Qtrade Direct Investing has a great mutual fund offer, while its stock, ETF and bond selections largely match those of its Canadian competitors.

Stock and ETF

Qtrade Direct Investing gives access to North American stock exchanges only. This puts the company at a disadvantage compared with more globally-focused brokers operating in Canada, but Qtrade Direct Investing could still be a perfect fit for clients who focus exclusively on the Canadian and US markets.

You can trade on the following stock exchanges: NYSE, NASDAQ, S&P 500, TSX, TSXV, CSE and the Aequitas NEO Exchange.

Fund

Qtrade Direct Investing offers a sizable selection of mutual funds.

Bond

Qtrade Direct Investing offers bonds in various categories, such as municipal bonds, corporate bonds and provincial bonds.

The number of bonds is average, but it is an ideal selection if you're into Canadian fixed income securities.

Options

Qtrade Direct Investing gives access to all CAD & US listed exchange traded options including weekly, monthy, quarterly and LEAPS (long-term).

GICs

Guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) are financial products providing guaranteed returns when you agree to lend money to a financial institution for a fixed period.

Qtrade Direct Investing offers analyst recommendations, fundamental data and screeners, but its charting and other analytic tools are very basic, and the design of the research section is outdated.

You can find Qtrade Direct Investing's research tools on the web trading platform under the 'Investment Tools' and 'Research' sections. Similarly to the rest of the web trading platform, the research tools have an outdated design. They are available in both English and French.

Trading ideas

Qtrade Direct Investing offers trading ideas via Morningstar, a third-party research tool provider. You can find them under 'Analyst Recommendations' in the 'Research' section. In these notes, you can read whether you should buy, hold or sell a specific asset. What we missed was information about the analysts providing these recommendations.

Fundamental data

Qtrade Direct Investing offers plenty of fundamental data. From financial statements to performance or price history, you'll find a lot of information.

Charting

Qtrade Direct Investing has basic charting tools. You can use only a few technical indicators and chart editor tools. If you're into technical analysis, you can use Trading Central which is a a third-party research provider. There are trading ideas based purely on technical analysis and cover FX pairs.

News feed

Qtrade Direct Investing's news feed is of average quality. It is clear and easily digestible but lacks visual elements like charts or pictures. It is provided by third parties such as Barrons.com, InvestorsObserver, etc.

Other research tools you may enjoy

You can use screeners for stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. From price data to basic company information, you can use a wide range of filters.

There is also a value analyzer. Based on an asset's fundamentals, it offers a value analysis and rate-of-return estimation.

A technical research tool is also provided, whereby an algorithm recognizes patterns and support/resistance levels using chart data.

Compare research pros and cons

Qtrade Direct Investing provides excellent telephone and email support, but they're not available 24/7, and there is no live chat.

You can contact Qtrade Direct Investing via:

• Phone
• Email
• Secure site messaging

Telephone support was of average speed. We got accurate and helpful answers, but we had to wait more than 5 minutes on average until someone was connected.

Qtrade Direct Investing's email support works well. Through email, we received relevant answers within 1 day.

Among negatives, we missed live chat and 24/7 availability. You must wait for business hours in North America to contact Qtrade Direct Investing's support team.

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Qtrade Direct Investing offers many traditional education tools such as tutorials, strategic videos and a platform experience account. However, some of these are hard to find or not updated on a regular basis.

At Qtrade Direct Investing you can learn in the following ways:

• Platform experience account
• Platform tutorial videos
• General educational videos
• Quality educational articles

Qtrade Direct Investing offers platform experience account, which is a practice account but does not offer practice trading with practice funds.

We liked that some educational articles or videos are provided by prominent third parties like Morningstar or the Financial Times, but it would be nice to have some original content too.

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Qtrade Direct Investing is regulated by the top-tier IIROC, offers strong investor protection and has a solid corporate background. On the negative side, it is not listed on a stock exchange.

Is Qtrade Direct Investing regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF).

Is Qtrade Direct Investing safe?

To be certain if a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• and what the background of the broker is.

How you are protected

This is important for you because the investor protection amount and the regulator may differ from entity to entity. With Qtrade Direct Investing, this is not an issue because all customers are serviced by Credential Qtrade Direct Investing Securities Inc.

Credential Qtrade Direct Investing Securities Inc. is a member of the CIPF. Therefore, Qtrade Direct Investing clients are eligible for the CAD 1 million coverage offered by the CIPF.

It is also worth noting that Qtrade Direct Investing does not provide negative balance protection.

Background

Qtrade Direct Investing was established in 2000 in Canada. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

Qtrade Direct Investing is a subsidiary of Aviso Wealth Inc, which offers many types of financial services from online brokerage to insurance.

It's also a great plus that Aviso Wealth Inc. is backed by the Desjardins Group, which is one of the biggest financial groups in the world.

Enjoying top-tier regulation, offering a high investor protection amount and having a solid parent company are all great signs for Qtrade Direct Investing's safety.

Find your safe broker

Qtrade Direct Investing offers competitive stock, ETF, bond and mutual fund fees. The account opening process is easy and fully digital. Qtrade Direct Investing's education resources are outstanding, with many relevant and useful tools.

Qtrade Direct Investing does, however, have its downsides. The biggest one is its product portfolio, which covers only the US and Canadian markets. Other areas for improvement include missing credit/debit card and e-wallet integration for money transfers, and some bugs in its user interfaces.

Since Qtrade Direct Investing has great trading fees, easy account opening and top-quality educational tools, feel free to give it a try today.

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We recommend Qtrade Direct Investing for investors, including beginners, who focus on the Canadian and US markets.

Below you can find links to all aspects of Qtrade Direct Investing in this comprehensive collection.

Lower fees, lower costs?

We detailed this in our Qtrade Direct Investing fees article.

What about the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the Qtrade Direct Investing minimum deposit is updated regularly.

How to start your Qtrade Direct Investing account?

Look no further than our evaluation of the Qtrade Direct Investing account opening.

How's their trading app?

Here's our expert view after checking the Qtrade Direct Investing trading app.

Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?

All you need to know about the Qtrade Direct Investing customer service.

Legit or scam?

Is Qtrade Direct Investing legit features all the key aspects you need to look at to see if a broker is safe and legit.

Free or premium? Or both?

A glance at actual costs and whether Qtrade Direct Investing is really free.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is Qtrade Direct Investing good for beginners.

Should you buy your silver bullets on Qtrade Direct Investing?

Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on Qtrade Direct Investing guide

I want to trade options, are they available at Qtrade Direct Investing?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on Qtrade Direct Investing?

What is the minimum account balance at Qtrade Direct Investing?

Check out the current account balance requirements at Qtrade Direct Investing in our What is the minimum account balance at Qtrade Direct Investing article.

Looking for commission and fees data for Qtrade Direct Investing?

We collected them in Qtrade Direct Investing commission and fees

How do you withdraw money from Qtrade Direct Investing?

We tested it and collected the options and costs in How to withdraw money on Qtrade Direct Investing.