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What's the best free brokerage to do Norbert's gambit in Canada? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works to c/personalfinancecanada@lemmy.ca

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Since to my knowledge, WS trade doesn't allow Norbert's gambit and has a 1.5% forex fee, then does that leave Questrade as my best option to convert $USD to $CAD? I'd only use that account to exchange and then withdraw.

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[–] axby@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

QTrade is another option. They charge $8.75 to buy and sell most ETFs. I used them before and it worked fairly well. But their app and site seem to be a bit buggy. When I bought an ETF with USD, it immediately shows a big loss— it seems to show the price in CAD after converting with a bad exchange rate. But I can confirm that I effectively got market rate minus the two $8.75 fees when I’ve done it in the past.

The whole process takes a while: a few days for the money to make it into the account, then a day or two for the shares to settle, then a few days to journal the shares between the USD and CAD accounts, then another few days to sell and transfer the money. (The first time I did this, I think I also had to wait 10 days). It’s also annoying that you can’t journal the shares from the app. (Normally I try to do this stuff on a PC, but that’s not always an option given it takes many steps spread out over a week or two)

I haven’t tried it with Questrade. What do they charge to sell? And is it any faster than my experience with QTrade?

Edit: I think QTrade charges a recurring fee in addition to the $8.75 trading commissions, but it’s waived if you keep $25k with them