Questrade Canada Review - Is It a Good Broker in 2024?
Questrade will likely remain one of the most popular online brokers in Canada in 2023. It’s a trustworthy financial entity regulated by the IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada) and the CIPF (Canadian Investor Protection Fund). Their coverage by a top-tier regulator and long track record — founded in 1999 — are the main reasons why this is considered a reliable and trustworthy broker. And in 2019, they even applied for a banking license that would allow them to further expand their financial services portfolio.
Questrade Canada - General Information
Questrade offers plenty of advanced research and analytics tools such as relevant financial news aggregation, chart patterntools, and fundamental data tools. They’re also frequently lauded for their customer service department, which promptly responds to user queries through all available channels of communication.
However, international clients outside of Canada and the United States often report difficulties with the account opening process, as it’s not fully digital yet and thus quite slow. Also, the only natively supported currencies are CAD and USD.
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💰 Account currency:
USD, CAD
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🚀 Minimum deposit:
from 1 CAD
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⚖️ Leverage:
up to 1:20 for retail trade, CFDs, and Forex
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💱 Spread:
from 0.8 pips
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🔧 Instruments:
Currency pairs (110), CFD on shares (18 exchanges), CFD on indices (16), ETF (1800), Income guaranteed certificates, stocks, options, and bonds on TSX, NASDAQ, NYSE, and other exchanges
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💹 Margin Call / Stop Out:
100%
Questrade Canada Pros and Cons
👍 Pros
• Excellent customer service
• Practical research tools
• Low ETF and stock trading fees
👎 Cons
• High withdrawal commissions for international clients
• Limited number of base currencies
• Tedious opening process for international accounts
Questrade Canada Review
This broker is a part of the wider Questrade Group — a steadily rising brokerage group that was founded in Canada in 1999. Their two main service areas are independent investing that’s managed by Questrade Inc. and portfolio investments that are done through Questrade Wealth Management Inc.
However, the latter portfolio services are solely reserved for Canadian citizens — and highly useful for accruing retirement savings or future education funds. Generally, it’s important to note that this broker is highly focused on Canadian residents — and though international clients can register accounts, they don’t have many of the options local residents have.
Speaking of which, Questrade offers a wide range of different investment accounts:
Forex trading accounts
CFD trading accounts
Corporate accounts
RESP accounts for parents funding their children’s education
Margin accounts for leveraged trading
RRSP savings accounts
TFSA tax-free accounts
The company’s tech support specialists provide ample support and more details on each of these accounts. Their online chat operators tend to respond quickly, and there’s actually support for French and Chinese.
If you’re from Canada, you won’t have high withdrawal fees — and their customer service and research tools are well worth a try.
Questrade Canada - Fees
In short, Questrade offers low fees for forex, funds, ETFs, and stock trading. On the other hand, their margin rates for holding positions overnight are higher than at some competitors.
Canadian Stocks and ETFs
For stock trading, there’s a $0.01 fee per each share in a single trade — though the maximum fee is $9.95 and the minimum is $4.95. On the other hand, ETF trades come with commissions only when selling — if you’re buying, the fees are identical to those for stock trading. Also, if you tend to trade stocks on margins, bear in mind that margin rates on Questrade are higher than average.
US Stocks and ETFs
Questrade makes no distinction between US and Canadian stocks and ETFs — however, all other countries are considered “international” and trading in their equities comes with higher processing fees.
Options
Questrade has average options fees — they’re $9.95 per option, with an additional $1 fee for every individual contract.
Forex
On average, Questrade does offer low Forex fees. If you want a clearer view of what you can expect when trading in the major currency pairs on Questrade, we’ve compiled a benchmark price chart based on $20,000 positions with 30:1 leverage held for a single week.
| Currency pair | Questrade benchmark fee |
|---|---|
EURGBP |
$9.7 |
EURCHF |
$9.4 |
AUDUSD |
$7.5 |
GBPUSD |
$6.5 |
EURUSD |
$8.2 |
CFDs
The CFD trading fees you’ll pay on Questrade are pretty average. If you want to see a more practical example of what fees you can expect, we’ve compiled a table below.
| Market | Fee | Minimum fee |
|---|---|---|
USA |
$0.01 per CFD share |
$9.95/p> |
Canada |
CAD 0.01 for each share |
$9.95 |
Other world markets |
0.10% of overall trade value |
Equivalent of £11.95 |
As you can see, Questrade has two parallel CFD fee structures — one for the US and Canadian markets, and another for the rest of the world.
Questrade Canada - Trading Assets
Questrade is an extremely versatile trading platform that allows you to trade in almost every type of asset out there — barring cryptos and futures. Bear in mind that the full product portfolio is only available to Canadian and US markets. That being said, you can use the platform to trade:
Bonds
CFDs
Options
Funds
Forex
ETF
Stocks
And you can do so in the following markets:
NYSE ARCA
NEO
TSX
CNSX
TSXV
NYSE
NYSE AM (AMEX)
NASDAQ
Is Questrade Canada Regulated? Is This Сompany Safe?
To put it simply, yes — Questrade Canada is quite safe. They’re a CIPF member and they’re under the jurisdiction of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada — IIROC.
If you’re wondering what this means for their users in practice — should bankruptcy happen, every Questrade account has up to $10 million in insurance because of their private insurance policy, as well as an additional $1 million under CIPF insurance.
Also, any unauthorized transactions made through your Questrade account can be 100% reimbursed. IIROC and similar regulatory bodies are self-regulatory organizations that supervise investment dealers in Canada, overseeing trading activity in the national marketplace to protect investors. And the Canadian Investor Protection Fund is there to provide insurance to investor assets if a CIPF member goes bankrupt.
How to avoid Forex trading scams?Questrade Canada - Best for Canadian and US Traders
This broker offers competitive and fair fees for a wide range of services — but only if you’re a Canadian or US citizen and you intend to trade in the countries’ local markets. International traders could find better conditions elsewhere, though.
Summary. Is Questrade Canada a Good Broker?
All things considered, Questrade is definitely one of the best online brokers in Canada. They provide low ETF and stock trading fees, outstanding customer services, and advanced research tools for deep data analytics.
They do have some shortcomings — international traders face substantially higher withdrawal fees, as well as currency conversion commissions if they don’t have accounts with CAD or USD. Also, the account opening process for them is harder and less smooth.
However, Canadian and US-based traders can find a lot of value in this platform.
Top 10 Questrade Reviews
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Comment
Questrade is an unreliable broker! Fraud for traders! I ran into problems with withdrawing funds, I wanted to withdraw profits and it all started. Questrade has very bad conditions, your positions can be closed at any time.
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Comment
Fraudsters! It is impossible to get them to understand why profitable trades end up making losses! This is a kitchen, money is not withdrawn to the market, and if you have earned, they have lost this amount. They are all on a scam. Same. They can close the opening of a position at any time, while the reason is not called. They constantly have technical problems. Don't even think about contacting them!
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Comment
I wasn't thrilled that Questrade offered a custom terminal. However, I had to put up with it, because Metatrader is not here. In principle, the IQ Edge platform turned out to be not as bad as I expected. It has all the basic tools for conducting high-quality technical analysis, and it is also convenient to use. The interface is not overloaded with unnecessary windows, widgets and buttons - everything is to the point. The minimum spread for EURUSD is about 1 pip, but the average value is closer to 2 pip. The choice of currencies is huge. You can trade with financial leverage, but the maximum level is 1:20. I deposited money on the balance from the card. Came within a few hours, but had to pay a commission of 5%. I think the bank held it.
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Comment
After starting work with Questrade, I realized that Canadians can play more than hockey. The trading platform is developed at the highest level, MetaTrader 4 is not suitable for it! There are no slippages, gaps, or other crap that interferes with making a profit. Questrade has a complete set of necessary tools and is easy to use. In addition to currencies, you can make transactions with CFDs and precious metals. The broker also offers stock market trading and separate terminals are available for this. But I am interested only in Forex trading.
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Comment
I advise those who cannot decide on the choice of a broker to go to questrade.com. It provides open access to information about trading conditions, commission fees, financial instruments, and account types offered by the broker. To save time, each section has a list of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). So that there is no doubt about the decency of Questrade, you can familiarize yourself with the official documents, which are available in PDF format. I have been a client of the company for several years, and there have been no complaints during my cooperation.
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Comment
I have been working with Questrade for the second year because the broker offers low spreads. The main reason is a trading terminal with the same interface as the web version on the desktop and mobile applications. Its platform works on all operating systems and opens in any browser. When installed on a desktop PC, it takes up only 8 GB of memory. At the same time, a wide range of charting tools and technical indicators is available. In many respects, Questrade is not inferior to the popular MetaTrader 4, and in ease of functionality, it significantly surpasses MetaTrader 4. I believe that a convenient and functional terminal is half of the success in trading. That is why I advise you to try trading with Questrade.
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Comment
Questrade honestly fulfills its obligations to provide services, which can be found on the site without registering an account. Thanks to the well-thought-out structure of the official resource, you can quickly find the necessary information about commission fees, trading conditions, methods of opening an account, etc. I do not consider myself a newcomer to Forex, but I always watch the recordings of webinars from leading analysts and traders of Questrade. The webinars are presented on the Questrade website. I also get a lot of useful information from blogs and articles.
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Comment
I advise you to choose Questrade, as it offers flexible trading conditions for working in Forex. Traders with modest capital can open a margin account and use leveraged funds in the form of trading leverage. Clients who prefer long-term trading can choose currency pairs with a low swap size when rolling over to the next day. Questrade conditions are also suitable for scalpers since the broker offers a small spread. There are no fees for opening, maintaining, and using the software.
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Comment
It should be borne in mind that Questrade is suitable for traders who already have experience of independent work in Forex or those who are ready to simultaneously study other resources since the company's website offers webinars and articles only for experienced market participants. The broker does not provide financial instruments to crypto traders, but I strongly recommend the rest to opt for Questrade. It is a reliable partner that has been providing services in the financial market for over 20 years. Opening an account is free, the spread is noticeably less than that of its competitors. I bet 4 out of 5, as the support service only operates during business hours EST.
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Comment
Positive impressions of Questrade begin to form even at the moment of opening a demo account. You just need to enter an email address, which will receive a letter with a password and a link to the installation file of the author's trading platform, and in five minutes you can start virtual trading! It is not much more difficult to open a real account with Questrade. In addition, after replenishing a deposit for 1,000 CAD or more, another $50 is automatically added in the form of a bonus from the company. A trifle, but nice. I am interested in Forex, but the company also offers services in the stock market.
FAQs
Are questrade fees high?
Compared to most other Canadian online brokers, their fees are average to low depending on what trading instrument you’re looking at.
Does questrade have a monthly fee?
No, there are no annual, weekly, or monthly subscriptions for your Questrade account.
Is there a minimum balance for Questrade?
Yes, the minimum first deposit is $1,000 — and you need to maintain that minimal balance at all times for your account to remain active.
Does questrade charge an inactivity fee?
No, there are no inactivity fees on Questrade.
Team that worked on the article
Andrey Mastykin is an experienced author, editor, and content strategist who has been with Traders Union since 2020. As an editor, he is meticulous about fact-checking and ensuring the accuracy of all information published on the Traders Union platform. Andrey focuses on educating readers about the potential rewards and risks involved in trading financial markets.
He firmly believes that passive investing is a more suitable strategy for most individuals. Andrey's conservative approach and focus on risk management resonate with many readers, making him a trusted source of financial information.
Olga Shendetskaya has been a part of the Traders Union team as an author, editor and proofreader since 2017. Since 2020, Shendetskaya has been the assistant chief editor of the website of Traders Union, an international association of traders. She has over 10 years of experience of working with economic and financial texts. In the period of 2017-2020, Olga has worked as a journalist and editor of laftNews news agency, economic and financial news sections. At the moment, Olga is a part of the team of top industry experts involved in creation of educational articles in finance and investment, overseeing their writing and publication on the Traders Union website.
Mirjan Hipolito is a journalist and news editor at Traders Union. She is an expert crypto writer with five years of experience in the financial markets. Her specialties are daily market news, price predictions, and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).