Personal Finance

ATTN Questrade users, am I getting scammed??

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  • Apr 21st, 2010 3:29 pm
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Deal Addict
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Dec 19, 2005
1702 posts
351 upvotes
Toronto

ATTN Questrade users, am I getting scammed??

Hi, I was just wondering if some traders could give me some advice and let me know if I'm getting scammed. First off I am a newbie trader, just started in February. I want to try to keep it short but will apologize if it's long.

Anyways, I track all of my trades on Excel: profits, losses, etc. To date I have made $180.XX (after commissions and all). BUT It seems like Questrade is constantly taking money out from my account everyday. Everyday when I check my balance, even when there is no activity, my account balance gets lower and lower. Mind you, this is a CASH account, there is NO MARGIN.

Example, 3 days ago I had in my account $400 CDN. I made no trades until yesterday I noticed my account had dropped to $393 CDN, why?? (My currency settlement is also in CDN so I don't understand why I would have lost $6). I bought some stocks which cost me a total of $388.XX total incl. commissions. My account balance showed I had $4.XX left over. Today, I check my account and all of a sudden my balance is $-1.89, yup a negative, why??

My account is not a margin account, I obviously had enough money in my account to successfully purchase the stocks for $388.

Long story short, I noticed way before that I was consistantly losing money for no reason but thought it was because I had USD in my account and was losing because of the USD was lower than the CDN... but still, I don't understand why they were converting my USD to CDN everyday when I specifically asked to keep my funds in USD.

I plan on calling Questrade on Monday and I'm not sure what to ask because to date, I have lost the $180 in my account that I should have. I track all of my profits and losses, and I'm above.
43 replies
Member
Jan 31, 2007
319 posts
39 upvotes
Montréal, QC
Are you sure that you don't have a margin account? I thought that unless you had an RRSP or TFSA account, the only other option was a margin account with Questrade.

I've never experienced the situation that you're talking about. Though I see that you only mention that you had USD funds. Did you actually have CAD funds in your account when you did your CAD trade? Or did you request to convert your USD to CAD? Questrade will not convert the funds for you unless you request it.
Deal Addict
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Feb 17, 2005
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Markham
I think you are misreading the system balances.

What currency did you actually hold? Questrade reports the balance in both CAD and USD. So if you held USD, the value of the cash balance will change each day with the fluctuations.

What are your statement options? They charge for printed confirmations and statements
Sr. Member
Mar 3, 2010
588 posts
42 upvotes
I had similar situation with Tradefreedom where I would make trades and profit from them and tomorrow they showed loss. I realized that since it was my RRSP account there were exchanging CAD> USD and vice versa for every trade and I was losing about 2.5% for every trade which very well offset gains. I lost hundreds before realizing what is going on. Because of that I stopped trading US stocks.

On other hand I am also suspecting similar thing as EscaBoi. I have a friend who is active trader and has account with TDW. He claims exactly same thing as EscaBoi. Simply math buy > sell > add commissions doesn't add up. He finds less money in account. He called many times and complained and they connected him with trader on duty and conclusion was that "they calculate transactions in different way and he can't reveal math behind that"
Fact that they are playing with customer's freaking money didn't impress the guy to reveal "his secret math".

Even only idea that brokerage is bluntly stealing money from members sounds ridiculous. However I would not completely dismiss it. Brokerages rake millions on trade fees, spread and countless other fees that is visible or not. I wouldn't be surprised that greed makes them do more in department of simple calculations .

Maybe everybody here should calculate few transactions with their brokerages and verify that math matches.
Deal Addict
Aug 21, 2009
1330 posts
74 upvotes
Transient
Some common surprises

In Questrade if you buy USD stocks when you have no USD, it goes on margin rather than exchange CAD (as a newb you might even buy the USD version of a CAD stock by accident)

There's also a $5 fee per day when you trade USD

ECN fees based on price/quantity/type of trade. Usually pennies for me

$3 Statement fee per trade unless you turn them off in Pension

Have you logged in Pension? It is your first stop to verify these kinds of things

Report back I hope Questrade isn't just taking money
Deal Addict
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Dec 19, 2005
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Toronto
nickctn wrote: Are you sure that you don't have a margin account? I thought that unless you had an RRSP or TFSA account, the only other option was a margin account with Questrade.

I've never experienced the situation that you're talking about. Though I see that you only mention that you had USD funds. Did you actually have CAD funds in your account when you did your CAD trade? Or did you request to convert your USD to CAD? Questrade will not convert the funds for you unless you request it.
I definitely do not have a margin account. To explain, I actually did open an RRSP margin account with Questrade, but soon closed that account since the daily balance was not calculating in real time and I did not want to manually calculate my cash balance after making a trade.

Anyways, Questrade does have cash accounts, and I opened another account with them as a TFSA. As I mentioned, my funds are in CDN but I have been mainly purchasing US stocks, but even still the last few days the CDN dollar was above the US or just .99.

However, now that you guys mentioned the paper confirmations I think that may be it, but I just can't believe they would charge $5-$6 to send me a piece of paper to confirm my trades. Thanks guys I will look into it
Sr. Member
Mar 3, 2010
588 posts
42 upvotes
high_octane wrote: Some common surprises

In Questrade if you buy USD stocks when you have no USD, it goes on margin rather than exchange CAD (as a newb you might even buy the USD version of a CAD stock by accident)
What this practically means? Questrade borrows you money, there never exchange it from CAD to USD? What if buy GE and keep it for 1 year??
There's also a $5 fee per day when you trade USD
What a hell is that for?
$3 Statement fee per trade unless you turn off...
Another, what a hell for is this?
Report back I hope Questrade isn't just taking money
it sure looks like that!
Newbie
Feb 21, 2009
12 posts
London, Ontario
high_octane wrote: Some common surprises
There's also a $5 fee per day when you trade USD
To clarify this only applies to registered accounts.
Deal Addict
Aug 21, 2009
1330 posts
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EscaBoi wrote: Anyways, Questrade does have cash accounts, and I opened another account with them as a TFSA. As I mentioned, my funds are in CDN but I have been mainly purchasing US stocks, but even still the last few days the CDN dollar was above the US or just .99.

However, now that you guys mentioned the paper confirmations I think that may be it, but I just can't believe they would charge $5-$6 to send me a piece of paper to confirm my trades. Thanks guys I will look into it
Have you logged into Pension

If you bought USD stocks without manually converting to USD in "my funds", then it is on margin

When you exchange, even if the CAD is above USD, you still pay a spread. You should log into my funds it shows how much USD you received from exchanges

Yes these are annoying but at least Questrade charges less spread and gives you the option to not exchange USD-CAD with every single trade paying a disgusting spread
Deal Addict
Aug 21, 2009
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ZackP wrote: What a hell is that for?


Another, what a hell for is this?


it sure looks like that!
Well you could go pay $30/trade and wat $100/year instead? Plus more exchange fees and who knows what else :razz:
Deal Addict
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Apr 29, 2002
3855 posts
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Mississauga
It's probably a mix of confirmations, mail in statements, US margin, and $5 US trading fees (if reg).

Go login to Penson, Click Accounts > Cash History and it'll tell you the fees you're being charged (ex trading fees) which is on the Trades page.
Deal Addict
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Dec 19, 2005
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Toronto
Ok so I finally logged onto my Pension account and here is what I see.

Fees: $122.32
Commission: $158.80

Commissions I understand, but what fees??

I notice on my Pension account there's a column for "Fees/Other Comm" charges which seem to vary between $5-$7 for smaller trades and as much as $20-$35 for my bigger trades. I think this may be the US exchange difference from the time I bought the stock to the time I sold the stock as there is also a credit for a portion of those "Fees/Other Comm". I added the total of the $5 US Stock fee and all other fees and it does not add up to $122, only $50.XX. So I would like to know where they got the other $70 from??

I think you guys are right about the $5 US Stock fee as I've also just noticed this now. HOWEVER, does this apply to all US stocks purchased?? Is there anyway to avoid the $5 fee? Cause it sort of seems misleading to say $4.95 per trade and then another $5 for US trades... Not to mention other fees as well.

My currency settlement was previously in USD/Trade Currency and it seems like they are charging me that $5 everytime even though I want my funds to stay in USD. Recently I just changed my Trade Currency back to CDN... but is there a way to leave it in USD without getting charged, because we are losing heavily when the USD begins to push down the dollar again.

Finally, I checked my MyQuestrade account and my setting is set to eStatement, BUT they have been sending me paper statements from the very beginning. I'm looking in the Pension account and I don't see a setting to take off paper confirmations.

Thanks for all the help so far guys. What would be my best option to avoid all these fees, I mainly trade in the US stock market. Should I leave my currency settlement in CDN or change it back to USD?
Deal Addict
Aug 21, 2009
1330 posts
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Yes the $4.95 is misleading but you still pay less than $30 if you are aware of the other fees

I generally pay $4.95 + $5 + $.20 to.60 in ECN fees. The $5 is only once per day when you trade USD. From what I understand you pay less ECN fees by using Limit orders, which is what I always do anyways

I had to deselect the paper confirmations within Pension but I can't find it today. Used to be under Tools I thought. I seem to still get paper confirmations myself... but I don't see any charges for them


I convert CAD-USD manually myself in "my funds". Do you do this or deposit USD?

I leave mine to settle in currency of the trade. I have $0 in fees in my TFSA where I trade in CAD. It says I have almost $1000 in fees in my RRSP where I trade in USD.

I'm confused about this as well. However I seem to have cash balance I expected after paying the commissions explained above
Deal Addict
Aug 21, 2009
1330 posts
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I know the place you're looking is under "Customer Info" right?

It seemed bogus to me, so I went to "trade activity" which lists every single trade I've made and the commissions ($4.95 plus ECN)

I added them up and it came to EXACTLY half of what it says under "customer info"

It's a sketchy site for sure. Only thing I can think of is the site is designed for reps to see how much you're worth in commissions when you see all your holdings? Why else would it show exactly double what I've spend in commissions?
Deal Addict
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Dec 19, 2005
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high_octane wrote: I know the place you're looking is under "Customer Info" right?

It seemed bogus to me, so I went to "trade activity" which lists every single trade I've made and the commissions ($4.95 plus ECN)

I added them up and it came to EXACTLY half of what it says under "customer info"

It's a sketchy site for sure. Only thing I can think of is the site is designed for reps to see how much you're worth in commissions when you see all your holdings? Why else would it show exactly double what I've spend in commissions?
Yup, I looked under Account Information > Customer Info and it showed me how much I've paid in commissions and fees.

I then went to Account Information > Trade Activity and added all my fees, and it did not accumulate to what it shows in the Customer Info and neither did the amount for commissions, it also doesn't add up correctly. So honestly, I don't know. I'm going to just call tomorrow and perhaps ask for some advice from them on how to minimize my fees.
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Feb 17, 2005
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Markham
Deselect paper confirmations, I believe they are .50 cents each and the monthly statements are $3. For a deep discount broker, you have to expect them to charge for certain things.

As well currency settlement option has to be selected via myquestrade. If you buy US stocks and you don't have USD, it will be via Margin even if you have a positive CAD balance. Reasoning behind it is that Questrade can't assume that you wanted to debit your CAD balance @ the current exchange rates.

Just read up on the fees section, it's laid bare and the rep will point it out to you. Once you are familiar you'll be able to figure out how much it truly costs.
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Dec 19, 2005
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evoviii wrote: As well currency settlement option has to be selected via myquestrade. If you buy US stocks and you don't have USD, it will be via Margin even if you have a positive CAD balance. Reasoning behind it is that Questrade can't assume that you wanted to debit your CAD balance @ the current exchange rates.
I understand the currency settlement is to be selected in MyQuestrade, but what would you recommend if I'm primarily trading US stocks? Should I have all my funds settle in USD?

The reason why I just changed my currency settlement back to CDN is because when I previously had my funds in USD, Questrade would adjust my USD funds according to the CDN fund, which makes absolutely no sense to me if I want to trade in USD Funds.

So for example, I have $450 USD today. Tomorrow the CDN dollar drops to 0.98 and all of a sudden Questrade drops my USD balance to $441.XX but why?? I specifically noted that I want my funds to stay in USD, so why are they adjusting it according to the CDN dollar when I want to trade in USD? It just makes no sense to me as to why they would fluctuate my USD funds.

I left my USD funds in my account for about 2 weeks and noticed on a daily basis Questrade would be dropping my USD balance less and less each day. I tried reading up on the fees in their section but don't fully understand how they charge the fees. Anyways, I will be calling them tomorrow to try and clarify some things.

Sorry I forgot to clarify, currently my trade currency is back to CDN so my account doesn't fluctuate.
Sr. Member
Mar 3, 2010
588 posts
42 upvotes
It would be nice if you write a results of tomorrow's talks to Questrade here so we all learn. I just opened 2 TFSA accounts for my kids and want to open 2 more for me and my wife.
Surely, last thing I need is some ambiguous accounting where I will never know how much money I actually have, or worse, be overcharged for invented fees and what not. I have intention to trade or accumulate US stocks.
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Aug 21, 2009
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Yes report back what Questrade says

My Questrade accts only show CAD buying power so I would expect the balance to fluctuate with the exchange when I hold USD etc

I find it confusing myself but I just track what I think my balance should be and so far Questrade is only off by a few dollars

Before I knew better I paid a few $'s in statement fees
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Dec 19, 2005
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The only reason why I'm getting pissed is because I've lost $180 in the last month that I know I should have had. Minus some of the $5 US stocks purchases which I didn't know about, I should still have about $130-$120. Other than that, my funds would have fluctuated a bit because I was holding USD stocks for a couple of weeks.

My only problem with trying to prove that I've lost this money is that Questrade doesn't have a tracker for opening daily balances. They have my history so they can surely see what I've profitted and what i've lost and they should be able to see that I should definitely have some profits... but because of the fluctuations in my USD fund they could just BS and say "oh because you were holding USD we have no control over how much you lost due to conversions".

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