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Do all brokers accept Canadians?


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Do all brokers accept Canadians?

 
 gfmatt 
Edmonton, Alberta
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: IB
Trading: nq
Posts: 55 since Jan 2012
Thanks Given: 29
Thanks Received: 60

Fritz: How difficult is it to set up a NV LLC?

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Fritzk's Avatar
 Fritzk 
North America
 
Experience: None
Platform: NT
Trading: Futures
Posts: 1,376 since Jan 2013
Thanks Given: 3,457
Thanks Received: 5,064


gfmatt View Post
Fritz: How difficult is it to set up a NV LLC?

super easy ... all done online. I originally needed it for another business I set up.
I chose a package with office, mail forwarding, and a phone number in Vegas. (picked Vegas cause it's so cheap to fly there)
I use incparadise.com and have been with them for 4 years.
They have been nothing short of excellent for me. Even helped me to setup a bank account.
Hope that helps.

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 drago1 
windsor, Ontario
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Ninja,
Broker: DTN iqfeed
Trading: Es, 6E
Posts: 134 since Oct 2009
Thanks Given: 40
Thanks Received: 124


If you are Canadian you are safest with a Canadian based broker. I think Interactive Brokers is the only one left.

I had my account with MF Global in 2008. I was getting nervous about US institutions and lack of protection for Canadians. I decided to move my account to the Canadian division of MF GLobal. I had to pay higher commisions and provide my own data. ( I know i paid for my own somehow ) . Short story MF Global went bankrupt. As far as I know all the account holders of MF global lost all their money. That was 2011. My account in Canada was insured under Canadian Securites Insurance or whatever it is called. ( about $1,000,000 per account ). I got all my money back after two months of it being held in bankruptcy trust. That is best trade i ever made. Otherwise as Canadian account holder in the US i would have lost ALL my money in that bankruptcy.

My choices in Canada after the bankruptcy were PFG ( Perigrin Financial ) and Interactive Brokers. I decided to just sit and put in the bank as i did not trust anything at the time. PFG went bust in the US soon after. A ponzi scheme and again account holders all got burned. Canadian based account of PFG were insured.

I also had an account at Refco and moved it in time. I wish i could see the markets this well. But regardless keep your account in Canada and stay in business by keeping your money safe. Good luck to you.

 
 
kroeran's Avatar
 kroeran 
Ottawa
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: IB, NinjaT/Kinetic
Trading: ES
Posts: 14 since Aug 2014
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 1

I as an Ontario resident/citizen am currently doing 100 share (even sometimes 10 share) discretionary stock ETF (S&P500 based) trading (scalping/day trading) with Virtual Brokers (Toronto), using Ninja tools, following the philosophy of trading micro-small rather than paper for learning. A bad day is down $20, which is cheaper than golf.

$1 commission each way works great for learning, and its within an RRSP account as a bonus. The fills seem ok, and especially so with limit entry and exits.

Notwithstanding Mike pointing to swing trading as the way to go, as I read more, I am starting to get the impression that the serious guys are scalping ES on DOMs, and I am feeling pressure to invest at least some time in "staring at a DOM" of my ETF or even a live ES DOM, but I seem to find limitations at every turn.

Signed up for Kinetick depth, which did nothing for my Dynamic DOM for equities, they then told me to sign up for OpenView, but this still will not populate a Ninja DOM depth, it rather is viewed through the level II window, which is frustrating after studying DOMs and expecting that format. I presume ES depth will populate a Ninja Dynamic DOM? I am nervous about committing to Jigsaw, especially given the Canadian Ninja Broker limitation.

To trade ES, I thought about Interactive Brokers (Canada), but am not yet comfortable with breaking out my limited liquid funds which entirely (legally) hide from CRA within my RRSP, and they are asking for 25k (post tax unsheltered minimum) to open an account. [this turns out to only apply to stock day traders...futures traders can fund with 10K]. Can I be a Jigsaw guy through NinjaTrader/Interactive Brokers (Canada) fully supported going forward for Ninja 8?

I was very excited at the prospect of opening a Ninja Brokerage account to start experimenting with ES trading, especially given the $1k funding minimum, but after going through the entire app, including submitting photo ID and a special form for Canadians, they tell me Canadians cannot have accounts!!

Pondering three general options looking forward:

1) stick with my current ETF strategy and try to make that work. Wondering if a S&P500 ETF DOM is worth anything anyway, as the ETF has to follow the ES/SP500 regardless. (I did look at my ETF depth, which turns out to be meaningless as predicted)

2) maybe think about going back to TradeStation which I left to reduce my learning period overhead, and rather start trading ES through them, as they still take Ontarians (confirmed Dec '14). My thinking is that Tradestation would also be less risky as far as capital risk, being a platform as well as a brokerage, not to mention the new account segregation enforcement.

3) maybe migrate to Sierra Charts which is DOM strong (though backtesting weak), and sign up with the best Sierra capable broker that will take Canadians/Ontario. Who would that be now? Optimus and Stage 4 do not at the time of this writing.

Any advice would be appreciated. All of the above is stated as hypothesis, not assertion, so please correct me if I have the wrong impression.

 
 Japhro 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Sierra
Broker: AMP/Rithmic
Trading: NQ, ES, YM, UB
Posts: 213 since Aug 2013
Thanks Given: 33
Thanks Received: 195


kroeran View Post
I as an Ontario resident/citizen am currently doing 100 share (even sometimes 10 share) discretionary stock ETF (S&P500 based) trading (scalping/day trading) with Virtual Brokers (Toronto), using Ninja tools, following the philosophy of trading micro-small rather than paper for learning. A bad day is down $20, which is cheaper than golf.

$1 commission each way works great for learning, and its within an RRSP account as a bonus. The fills seem ok, and especially so with limit entry and exits.

Notwithstanding Mike pointing to swing trading as the way to go, as I read more, I am starting to get the impression that the serious guys are scalping ES on DOMs, and I am feeling pressure to invest at least some time in "staring at a DOM" of my ETF or even a live ES DOM, but I seem to find limitations at every turn.

Signed up for Kinetick depth, which did nothing for my Dynamic DOM for equities, they then told me to sign up for OpenView, but this still will not populate a Ninja DOM depth, it rather is viewed through the level II window, which is frustrating after studying DOMs and expecting that format. I presume ES depth will populate a Ninja Dynamic DOM? I am nervous about committing to Jigsaw, especially given the Canadian Ninja Broker limitation.

To trade ES, I thought about Interactive Brokers (Canada), but am not yet comfortable with breaking out my limited liquid funds which entirely (legally) hide from CRA within my RRSP, and they are asking for 25k (post tax unsheltered minimum) to open an account. [this turns out to only apply to stock day traders...futures traders can fund with 10K]. Can I be a Jigsaw guy through NinjaTrader/Interactive Brokers (Canada) fully supported going forward for Ninja 8?

I was very excited at the prospect of opening a Ninja Brokerage account to start experimenting with ES trading, especially given the $1k funding minimum, but after going through the entire app, including submitting photo ID and a special form for Canadians, they tell me Canadians cannot have accounts!!

Pondering three general options looking forward:

1) stick with my current ETF strategy and try to make that work. Wondering if a S&P500 ETF DOM is worth anything anyway, as the ETF has to follow the ES/SP500 regardless. (I did look at my ETF depth, which turns out to be meaningless as predicted)

2) maybe think about going back to TradeStation which I left to reduce my learning period overhead, and rather start trading ES through them, as they still take Ontarians (confirmed Dec '14). My thinking is that Tradestation would also be less risky as far as capital risk, being a platform as well as a brokerage, not to mention the new account segregation enforcement.

3) maybe migrate to Sierra Charts which is DOM strong (though backtesting weak), and sign up with the best Sierra capable broker that will take Canadians/Ontario. Who would that be now? Optimus and Stage 4 do not at the time of this writing.

Any advice would be appreciated. All of the above is stated as hypothesis, not assertion, so please correct me if I have the wrong impression.

I am in Toronto and I have accounts with IB, Dorman and an acct with Amp that I don't use, mostly to show solidarity with Big MIke, but I never had an issue with AMP personally.

Dorman is a very good broker, and a clearing broker, and the money is held with BMO Harris so a solid bank there. Anytime you trade with an American Broker you dont get the benefits of full account protection as you would under provincial securities laws. I keep maybe 60k USD in my American accounts for day trading, this gives me plenty of margin but will not ruin me should something horrible happen. Thats the level of compromise I can live with, though not ideal

 
 
Fritzk's Avatar
 Fritzk 
North America
 
Experience: None
Platform: NT
Trading: Futures
Posts: 1,376 since Jan 2013
Thanks Given: 3,457
Thanks Received: 5,064


Japhro View Post
I am in Toronto and I have accounts with IB, Dorman and an acct with Amp that I don't use, mostly to show solidarity with Big MIke, but I never had an issue with AMP personally.

Dorman is a very good broker, and a clearing broker, and the money is held with BMO Harris so a solid bank there. Anytime you trade with an American Broker you dont get the benefits of full account protection as you would under provincial securities laws. I keep maybe 60k USD in my American accounts for day trading, this gives me plenty of margin but will not ruin me should something horrible happen. Thats the level of compromise I can live with, though not ideal

When I was with Dorman, they would take Canadians from Ont only. Almost a year ago now.

Head up and keep your stick on the ice!
 
 Japhro 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Sierra
Broker: AMP/Rithmic
Trading: NQ, ES, YM, UB
Posts: 213 since Aug 2013
Thanks Given: 33
Thanks Received: 195


Fritzk View Post
When I was with Dorman, they would take Canadians from Ont only. Almost a year ago now.

Yes I think this is still the case

 
 
kroeran's Avatar
 kroeran 
Ottawa
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: IB, NinjaT/Kinetic
Trading: ES
Posts: 14 since Aug 2014
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 1

I read somewhere that Dorman recently started shutting down existing Canadian accounts. NinjaTrader as well as Stage 5 use Dorman, and this is the response I got when trying to sign up with Ninja...(received a similar message from Stage 5, specifically related to Dorman as clearing house)

=================
R***,

Thank you for your interest in NinjaTrader Brokerage. Dorman’s Compliance Department has declined the opening of your account as the firm is restricted from conducting business with Canadian residents. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your interests.

Regards,

New Accounts

NinjaTrader Brokerage
===================

 
 Japhro 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Sierra
Broker: AMP/Rithmic
Trading: NQ, ES, YM, UB
Posts: 213 since Aug 2013
Thanks Given: 33
Thanks Received: 195


kroeran View Post
I read somewhere that Dorman recently started shutting down existing Canadian accounts. NinjaTrader as well as Stage 5 use Dorman, and this is the response I got when trying to sign up with Ninja...(received a similar message from Stage 5, specifically related to Dorman as clearing house)

=================
R***,

Thank you for your interest in NinjaTrader Brokerage. Dorman’s Compliance Department has declined the opening of your account as the firm is restricted from conducting business with Canadian residents. We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your interests.

Regards,

New Accounts

NinjaTrader Brokerage
===================

Interesting development. I am still with Dorman and I live in Ontario, no notices from them about any forthcoming changes. Perhaps I am grandfathered?

Thanked by:
 
 
kroeran's Avatar
 kroeran 
Ottawa
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: IB, NinjaT/Kinetic
Trading: ES
Posts: 14 since Aug 2014
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 1


Just wondering....for non sheltered activity

Can a person trade full time and file profits as capital gains?

How does the paperwork for CRA work? Does the broker provide a summary or something?


 



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