Nice.

Finally, TD getting it's act together, joining BMO and other online brokerages with USD $$ RRSP and TFSA.

 

Oh my! What excitement. Sure took them long enough.

 

Is this a dream? <pinches himself>
After all those years of promises, they've finally done it.

This is great news.

 

.....

This is great news.

It will be if you can instantly journal from CAD to US - if we lose the ability to online NG money from CAD:US:CAD then it will not be good news

 

Stay tuned for more details as we approach our launch date!"

I'd bet that this date will be postponed in any case , too late for me, in CIBC enjoying FX BoC spot rates

 

I just spoke with a TDW rep this afternoon and he confirmed the expected date to be in November of this year. However, he was not about to place a guarantee on the launch but he felt that since he hasn't heard of any delay statements from head office that the US$ accounts will likely be a go come November. They called me today to try and peddle their TDW financial planning services - "do you know that we offer special services for customers like you, etc.". Sure, why not attach a MER of 2-3% to my portfolio to help pay your salaries and bonuses! Not going to happen. They probably weren't too happy to see me recently transferring a good chucnk of change to some of their competitors.

 

Sell the news.

 

^ sounds like a plan, I think I'll try driving to work in reverse tomorrow as well. Maybe that will reset my Chakras.

 

Synergy Robinhood in the US recently announced zero commission & zero minimum balance trading accounts. This type of action by Robinhood & TD regarding US accounts would most likely be @ tops. In the future if bans are placed on trading options & futures, CNBC goes under then look to buy the market.

 

Could someone please explain why this is good? What have people being doing before? I don't have enough investing experience to know the answer.

Thanks!

 

Now they are charging ridiculously high FX rate if you trade US securities or receiving dividends in US$

 

It will be good because your USD can stay in USD and not be converted to CAD at stupid Forex rates. That said, TD's workaround on this was pretty functional and it won't be good news, as livewell points out, if they somehow manage to screw up the ability to do Norbert's gambit to easily convert CAD to USD and vice versa. Hoping this won't be the case, as their major competitors have managed to make the process seemless (long, long ago!!).

 

I share uptoolate's concern and I now wonder how this change will affect the currency exchange (i.e., Norbert's Gambit).

 

The new phone books here....the new phone books here....

 

I waited years for this but I am not prepared to celebrate just yet. As others have mentioned, there is a definite risk they will screw up the ability to do an instant gambit.

 

Anyone emailed them yet about Gambit or we don't want to spoil the party?

 

that will be the reason for the next delay:biggrin:

 

1. Hopefully the gambit will work just like it does currently with our RRSP/TFSA accounts.
i.e. TD will let us sell the stock immediately on the US market.

2. But, I'm worried that the gambit will work just like TD's non-registered account.
i.e. We'll need to wait three business days (T+3) for the stock trade to settle on the Canadian-dollar side of the account, before asking TD to "journal" the shares to the US-dollar side.

 

wait three business days (T+3) for the stock trade to settle

I thought it was possible to journal and sell in one move, as a broker-assisted transaction with a higher fee, without waiting for the original buy to settle.

 

This is good news. I'm with TDDI and have been wishing for $US registered accounts.

For those that already have $US trading in RRSP, can anyone tell me if there are any restrictions on making contributions in $US? I have a good deal of $US already on hand, and I would like to use some of it for my RRSP contribution this year. I'd kind-of assumed I would be buying something and contributing it in-kind, but just sticking the money in there would be convenient.

 

another monkey wrench: it's remotely possible that the TD will not permit any instant currency gambit trading in the new dual-currency RRSP/TFSA accounts, either online or via phone call to licensed rep.

why not? this issue will have to do with how their new mainframe has been built plus how they view their responsibilities as trustees for registered accounts. Questrade appears to have the same delicate concerns.

in an agent-handled gambit trade in cash or margin accounts at the big green right now, the sell side of a gambit trade does *not* result from an instant journal of the stock. The just-bought stock stays in the account where it has been bought until settlement occurs, 3 days afterwards.

what does happen is that the licensed rep who executes the gambit sell side overrides the system blockage for the sell order, then sends a wire to TD's credit department advising them that the peculiar-looking sell he has just carried out - which looks like a blockable naked short - is actually OK because the client has just bought the stock in the opposite currency account.

this wire makes credit happy for the time being. Once settlement occurs 3 days later, the actual journaling takes place. However, there is a position that is akin to a naked short position, which obtains for the entire 3 days of the wait period. It is not exactly a naked short position, but it is an extremely close kin.

the reason Questrade won't do this in registered accounts is that, as trustees, they don't want to be responsible for a 3-day naked short position.

i am wondering if the big green might have the same concern?

 

Thanks guys, gals and especially HP for the massively informative threads on TD's USD RRSP issues and gambits over the past few years. I have learned a tonne.

 

I just saw the notification of this when I logged in today. I was pretty much set on reviewing my account in the new year to see how much not having the US$ separated out in registered accounts was costing me. I do have the worries about the lack of gambit (or at least more complicated gambit) but that is probably more than compensated for by having the US$ dividends (and DRIPs) not getting dinged by hidden forex fees every quarter...

 

You did a great job with the article HP...I talked to CC about that over dinner one night, he was thankful of your contributions to the article.

I wonder if Big Green with have USD $$ for LIRAs at some point? The announcement didn't specify, and I'm thinking that's a "no" for now.

 

I talked to CC about that over dinner one night

actually it was nothing, i knew CC was preparing the article so i threw together some scribbles in case he might want to use them in some manner. I expected him to paraphrase, pick & choose, rewrite the scribbles. I was astonished when they appeared word-for-word.

but you can see how CC's contributions enhanced the scribbles & really turned the piece into an article that hung together solidly.

 

I see him every now and again, he's one smart guy

And yes, the article was solid and is referenced by many!

 

I spoke with a TD rep this morning and they confirmed that the autowash feature will no longer be possible once the USD RRSP comes into effect. I hope they figure out a way to make it possible without too many headaches. I don't want to wait a couple of years for them to come up with a solution.

 

Autowash isn't necessary in the USD account. You can simply hold USD cash.

 

Yup, should still work!

 

You're exposed to stock market risk during the journaling process though. Using DLR works, although the cost of the bid-ask spread is higher (about 20 basis points, as opposed to 1-2 on interlisted stocks). Still, that's a lot better than 200 basis points when using your broker to convert currency.

 

Looks like they're starting to make changes to the system. They've now named the TFSA and SDRSP accounts "Cdn" TFSA and "Cdn" SDRSP.

 

does anyone know if this means they will split them into 2 accounts, to make it more expensive to transfer?

 

i'd bet very good money that they won't (make it more expensive to transfer)

 

why? isn't it to their advantage to say this is now 2 accounts, and charge transfer fee twice?

 

here is a subtle point to add (from what i can gather the TD representatives have not yet been alerted to this.)

the big green says not to worry, securities will be lodged in whichever account is appropriate, whether CAD or USD. But we do not know what system they will use to determine which currency account is "appropriate."

will it be settlement currency? if so, there could be many mistakes.

will it be currency of dividend payment, if any? again, possibility of many mistakes.

over at bmo, they have an interesting system for correcting these arrangements. BMO has received an avalanche of ex-TD registered accounts ever since it debuted its dual-currency RRSP in 2011. When monocurrency accounts are transferred from monocurrency RRSP brokers such as TD, all securities arrive at BMO via the CDS system. All securities are flagged as CAD, of course, even all of the arriving american stocks such as AAPL or MRK.

the BMO agents have all been trained to work with clients on this issue. At the first establishment of each new transferred account, the new client is invited to manually inspect his portfolio so as to decide whether each security should be held on CAD side or USD side. The licensed reps help with these inspections as best they can.

imho, TD should train their agents to provide the same service. This includes training agents to explain to clients about the "oddball" securities, for example the 20 big canadian companies (potash, thomson reuters plus 18 others) that pay their dividends only in US dollars.

imho there is no way any broker can automatically "know" in which currency account a security should be held. Only the investor himself can decide that.