[janarobertson37]

Hi guys, i'm new to the forum and I intend to stick around. It seems like a great community and I hope I can contribute to it eventually, but for today I am in need of some assistance. I have always wanted a career where I was responsible for my achievements and my failures, i'm not delusional. I know i'm not going to get rich over night but I have to start somewhere. I have been learning about stocks for a little bit, just by reading about it, through multiple sources such as investopedia. I have also been learning from multiple learning dvds, I know a lot of people see these as scams from people such as Timothy Sykes, Tim Grittani and Cameron Fous. Like I said i'm not delusional and I take it all with a grain of salt and I think these dvd's serve well as a sort of introduction to this world and this lifestyle.

I don't have much money, I don't have parents to support me. I can barely make ends meet as it is but I want to change that, I have about $700 at my disposal, what i'm interested in doing with the stock market is day trading and momentum trading but i need broker. I was pretty set on OptionsHouse until I realized it isn't available to Canadian residents. It's not only about the commission rates, or flat rate fees. It's also about the technology that comes with the account, the trading software etc.

I was hoping someone could tell me a bit about the brokers available in Canada and which would be best for my needs, I have been taking a look at QTrade, QuestTrade, BMO InvestorLine, potentially even opening up an american account with TD Ameritrade but I am a fish out of water here. I hope this isn't too much to read and I would really appreciate some help.

Cheers.

 

[gibor365]

I have about $700 at my disposal, what i'm interested in doing with the stock market is day trading and momentum trading but i need broker.

with such amount I wouldn't recommend any broker, but some low cost mutual funds (like TD eSeries)... Discount brokerage will most likely charge you some administration fees as with $700 it doesn't have sense. imho, more chances if instead of day/momentum trading you will play roulette in casino

 

[OnlyMyOpinion]

Welcome to CMF.
Oh jana, in your first post you say you can barely make ends meet but have $700, and are interested in day and momentum trading?
My suggestion is to start slowly, save whatever you can on a regular basis, keep it in a savings account until you have enough to warrant opening a TSFA (a few $000). Spend the meantime reading, asking questions here and learning more (dvd's are not necessary) about etfs and reliable stocks.
I sometimes wonder whether a post like yours isn't just 'post bait'?

 

[janarobertson37]

Welcome to CMF.
Oh jana, in your first post you say you can barely make ends meet but have $700, and are interested in day and momentum trading?
My suggestion is to start slowly, save whatever you can on a regular basis, keep it in a savings account until you have enough to warrant opening a TSFA (a few $000). Spend the meantime reading, asking questions here and learning more (dvd's are not necessary) about etfs and reliable stocks.
I sometimes wonder whether a post like yours isn't just 'post bait'?

What would a post count really get me, i'm here for education and knowledge. I get your skepticism but I just wanted some help maybe reddit would have been more appropriate.

 

[OnlyMyOpinion]

jana,
I was meaning that I sometimes wonder if posts get put up on behalf of the site owners just to encourage 'eyeballs' to sell more advertising - not that a bona-fide new OP would benefit from post counts.
I was wondering about your post in this regard because it provides so many 'search items' - names of day traders, names of brokerages, day & momentum trading, etc. And frankly, it seemed a stretch that someone who works hard for their money and has little they can afford to lose would be prepared to jump into the world of day-trading.
As a bona-fide new OP, I apologize, I didn't mean to be insulting.
You have probably read gentlepuppies thread here. They are ecstatic with their early trading success: http://canadianmoneyforum.com/showthread.php/108706-Day-trading-is-so-fun!.
I find that we hear less about results when the markets go against a person for an extended period.
My original advice stands, but to each their own.

 

[mordko]

Let's assume you are genuine, although I'd like to hedge my bets.

Invest in a book before you start speculating on the market. Try The Value of Simple. It's great for Canadian beginners, I made my kids read it. Provides an overview of popular brokerages and explains how to use them.

 

[OnlyMyOpinion]

If a person is willing to put aside the get-rich-quick dvd's, and read some books that provide a broader perspective on saving, investing and their financial health, there a few pdf format books available to download that don't even require a trip to the library:
If You Can (William Bernstein) - https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf
The Wealthy Barber Returns (David Chilton) still appears to be available at Tangerine - https://www.tangerine.ca/en/landing-page/wealthybarberreturns/index.html
The Empowered Investor (Keith matthews) requires an email address - http://get.empoweredinvestor.ca/book-offer/

 

[humble_pie]

If a person is willing to put aside the get-rich-quick dvd's, and read some books that provide a broader perspective on saving, investing and their financial health, there a few pdf format books available to download that don't even require a trip to the library:
If You Can (William Bernstein) - https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf
The Wealthy Barber Returns (David Chilton) still appears to be available at Tangerine - https://www.tangerine.ca/en/landing-page/wealthybarberreturns/index.html
The Empowered Investor (Keith matthews) requires an email address - http://get.empoweredinvestor.ca/book-offer/

onlyMO this is a great little listlet & i believe it should be a startup sticky.

there is an older list of well-known introductory books for new investors that T-Gal & i created several years ago, but those are all hard-copy books that have to be borrowed from libraries. An e-list of similar titles would be an excellent addition to the forum.

for "Eight with Weight," i'd chosen a headline font - extra-fat, sans-serif, bold, italic, lower-case - that wasn't available via the cmf editors, so CC had to post our page as co-owner of the forum, since he had additional editing tools at his disposal. CC also locked the page after posting, which meant that others could post comments but no one except himself could edit the original list of titles.

for investing newcomers, imho it's better to have a short curated list of titles than to overwhelm with a gigantic bibliography. So i'm wondering, onlyMO, if you could volunteer as editor & curator of such a sticky list of recommends? you already have the kernel with your list of three, it would only be a matter of including a couple more titles. Me i think you'd be an excellent editor.

i like the locked sticky approach, so one would have to contact the admins & ask if they could consider such a sticky. If you're willing to take responsibiity for the list but would like someone to pitch the admins, i'd be happy to write to our lords & masters to suggest that a short e-list of good introductory e-books for beginners would be a welcome addition.

.

 

[DavidW]

Hi guys, i'm new to the forum and I intend to stick around. It seems like a great community and I hope I can contribute to it eventually, but for today I am in need of some assistance. I have always wanted a career where I was responsible for my achievements and my failures, i'm not delusional. I know i'm not going to get rich over night but I have to start somewhere. I have been learning about stocks for a little bit, just by reading about it, through multiple sources such as investopedia. I have also been learning from multiple learning dvds, I know a lot of people see these as scams from people such as Timothy Sykes, Tim Grittani and Cameron Fous. Like I said i'm not delusional and I take it all with a grain of salt and I think these dvd's serve well as a sort of introduction to this world and this lifestyle.

I don't have much money, I don't have parents to support me. I can barely make ends meet as it is but I want to change that, I have about $700 at my disposal, what i'm interested in doing with the stock market is day trading and momentum trading but i need broker. I was pretty set on OptionsHouse until I realized it isn't available to Canadian residents. It's not only about the commission rates, or flat rate fees. It's also about the technology that comes with the account, the trading software etc.

I was hoping someone could tell me a bit about the brokers available in Canada and which would be best for my needs, I have been taking a look at QTrade, QuestTrade, BMO InvestorLine, potentially even opening up an american account with TD Ameritrade but I am a fish out of water here. I hope this isn't too much to read and I would really appreciate some help.

Cheers.

Where ever your banking is done, try their brokerage and see what the account fees are like. What you are trying to do is the same as how I started, buying stocks is/was my method of saving money without spending it. I don't recall having to make account fees at that time, I did have a mortgage with the bank though which may have helped me. I was very diligent at continually putting three to $400 into the account each month. I did not have a TFSA to start trading with then, that is probably the best type of trading account for you to start with.

I'll 2nd the sentiments to avoid the day trading. Momentum trading keeping in mind commission outlays and having a focus on building the account equity sounds ok. As you add money to the account try starting positions in different prices/types of stocks and learn what your personal stock volatility tolerance is.