Best rate /way to transfer usd to Questrade??

Are you transferring USD funds to your USD Questrade account or are you looking to convert CAD to USD? For Questrade, you can read up on Norbert's Gambit. If you are not using Questrade yet, you might consider IB for easier/cheaper conversions for CAD/USD currencies.

Converting cad to usd.
What's IB?

wantboost1 wrote: ↑What's the best rate to do this thru bank or just to get Questrade to convert it??

Neither. Both are too expensive. Deposit your CAD to Questrade, then do Norbert's gambit (this description seems to be good).

IB = Interactive Brokers. They have the cheapest currency conversions, but it's not practical to open an account there just for that purpose.

Edit: assuming you convert at least 1K. For smaller amounts, something like Transferwise could be a few dollars cheaper.

So in 1000 I ll save about 15$ approx
I couldn't find questrade rate or do they just go by market rate

IF I don't do norberts gambit. Should I send the funds over in usd or cad ?? Or doesn't make a difference

Also in questrade when u goto open an account it doesn't ask if it's usd or cad currency ??

I bought 30 shares of apple at $133.35 which cost $4,005USD. Questrade took $5,228 CDN.

I calculated it — if you buy and sell 1 USD stock you’ll need to see a 5% lift to make money.

This is a long hold as I build position, but you can have your settings keep USD as USD after you sell, to make sure you don’t need to keep converting back and forth.

I use Norbert's Gambit. Questrade has an article about it here: https://questrade-support.secure.force. ... g-Shares//

I usually use around $5000 CAD to do my transfers. The higher the amount, the more you save in conversion fees. Takes about 5-6 business days (2 days for trade to settle, and a couple of days more for the journaling). Note you can send them an email after you bought the CAD shares for them to then journal it to US shares. I use DLR.TO but you can also use others such as RY.TO, though the former is more stable.

You can also send USD from your TD account as long as the name matches on both accounts, and the Questrade account has currency set to "Currency of transaction". https://questrade-support.secure.force. ... accounts//

wantboost1 wrote: ↑ Looking to transfer usd to Questrade. What's the best rate to do this thru bank or just to get Questrade to convert it??
I have a USD account with TD if that matters...

Since you already have a usd account with TD, the best way is to avoid any conversion and instead request Questrade to do a pre-authorized deposit (from TD to your usd account at Questrade) )for the amount to want.
If not already done, you have to setup pre-authorized deposit. See screen shot below. Click on ADD NEW BANK ACCOUNT and provide the required information. I have it set it up from Tangerine USD to Questrade USD (margin and TFSA) and transfers usually take 48h.

komodor wrote: ↑ Since you already have a usd account with TD, the best way is to avoid any conversion and instead request Questrade to do a pre-authorized deposit (from TD to your usd account at Questrade) )for the amount to want.
If not already done, you have to setup pre-authorized deposit. See screen shot below. Click on ADD NEW BANK ACCOUNT and provide the required information. I have it set it up from Tangerine USD to Questrade USD (margin and TFSA) and transfers usually take 48h.

Thankyou. Why isn't everyone doing this is instead of doing the norbit gambit

wantboost1 wrote: ↑ Thankyou. Why isn't everyone doing this is instead of doing the norbit gambit

Depends on how you got the USD in your TD Account in the first place.

In my situation I don't get paid in USD so where am I going to get USD from? If I go to the bank and ask them to convert my CAD to USD there is going to be a spread/fee that is charged to me. The idea behind Norbert's Gambit is to minimize the amount you "lose" through the conversion. For instance, I can convert let's say $6410 CAD today (500 shares of DLR.TO @ today's price - USD to CAD rate $1.267) and only incur roughly $8.55 CAD in fees using Norberts Gambit - excluding the $8.55 this would result in roughly $5060 USD.

Ask your bank how much you'd get in this scenario.

komodor wrote: ↑ Since you already have a usd account with TD, the best way is to avoid any conversion and instead request Questrade to do a pre-authorized deposit (from TD to your usd account at Questrade) )for the amount to want.
If not already done, you have to setup pre-authorized deposit. See screen shot below. Click on ADD NEW BANK ACCOUNT and provide the required information. I have it set it up from Tangerine USD to Questrade USD (margin and TFSA) and transfers usually take 48h.

Does it allow other way, i.e. Questrade USD to Tangerine USD?

wantboost1 wrote: ↑ Why isn't everyone doing this is instead of doing the norbit gambit

But you said:

wantboost1 wrote: ↑ Converting cad to usd.

If you already have USD, then by all means just use Questrade pre-authorized deposit from a Canadian USD bank account.

If you have CAD, banks would charge you about 2.5% on the conversion to USD, and Questrade probably similar (not disclosed - shady). Transferwise and knightsbridgefx.com are cheaper options, around 0.5% maybe. Norbert's Gambit is still cheaper.

georvu wrote: ↑ Does it allow other way, i.e. Questrade USD to Tangerine USD?

of course, that's how I withdraw USD when I need them­.

Can u do this with Wealthsimple also

wantboost1 wrote: ↑ Can u do this with Wealthsimple also

No. With WealthSimple, your only option for investing in US securities is to deposit $CAD and let WealthSimple use its conversion rate when your buy US securities. This is the way Wealthsimple makes money and so you can imagine the spread is huge.