Buying and Selling commisions

[snoop101]

Ok so I just sold my first stock today. I wasent to happy because I go threw RBC action direct. They charged me 28.98 to buy the stock and then 28.98 to sell it. Thats just about 60 bucks to buy and sell a stock. Is this normal? Obviously I have to change to a better broker.

[kaput]

.

[snoop101]

From what I saw it usually is around 30 trades a quarter. Hmm I think I need to go with someone like Etrade where normal trades are only $20.. I save $20 everytime I buy and sell pretty much.

[benyl]

with etrade, you have to wire the money to and from them.

With RBC, you can pay and deposit directly into your checking account.

You have to decide if convenience if worth more than $40.

[snoop101]

Well I would just wire the money once to get it there and then buy and sell as I please. Im not looking to take the money out anytime soon.

Do you use Action Direct?

If they are charging me $28.98 for buying and selling does that mean that 30 trades in 3 months means buying and selling. So another words If I were to buy 15 stocks and sell all of those in the next 3 months, that would be 30 trades? or is the $9.99 trades after 3 months only for buying. I would think if there takin your money for buying and selling that would be trades no matter what.

[snoop101]

Sorry also with Etrade could I not just get them to withdrawl money from my RBC account as long as i give them my chequeing info?

[Mangina]

Ameritrade!!!

[snoop101]

Unless I am reading the wrong thing here, but ameritrade is US and in canada Ameritrade is Td waterhouse. TD waterhouse is still $29 a trade.

[Schwa]

15 round trips (buys and sells) would count as 30 transactions, which would thus qualify you as an active trader and then it would be 9.95 a trade.

[snoop101]

Have you guys heard of Questrade?

[Celica TVS3]

Check out http://www.interactivebrokers.ca/

The drawback is you have to pay a montly data fee (optional).

[Mangina]

oops

[Nitron88]

action direct is about the same cost as waterhouse. its per norm. Its best to play them longterm otherwise the buying and selling can be quite costly each time.

[snoop101]

Ya I have switched everything over to Questrade.

[Paul]

I'm going to assume by your rant that this wicked "trade" you made didn't make you enough money to cover your comissions? You should always factor that in when you're making a trade. Watch out for those $9.99 trade offers, if you don't make a minimum number of trades in a month they ding you with service fee's.

I had a slide show that compared all of the online brokerages from the major banks (RBC/BMO/TD/CIBC/SCOTIA) to each other and Action Direct was the clear winner in most categories. I don't use action direct (or any other discount brokerage for that matter) so I'm being unbiased here.

Do your own DD and make sure you read the fine print when signing up for an online brokerage that promisses you the smallest comissions.

Good Luck.

[snoop101]

So just an update on questrade. I transfered everything over and it went awesome. So far so good. One thing I must point out it that the have an online chat with there support. I used it once to update something on my account. the girl did it in like 2 min messaged me back and I was on my way. I love the idea of a chat support and was very happy with it.