Wealthsimple options trading: fees, cash-secured puts in a TFSA, and how to start

Wealthsimple options trading covers more than most people expect: calls and puts, covered calls, cash-secured puts and 12 multi-leg strategies on thousands of US stocks and ETFs, for US$0 per contract. What decides your real cost is the account you trade in and the currency it holds. This guide shows what each account type allows, what one trade actually costs next to nine other Canadian brokers, and when Wealthsimple is the wrong place for your options. YieldMaple checked Wealthsimple’s options page, pricing page and trade fee schedule on September 24, 2026.

Wealthsimple options trading at a glance

Wealthsimple options trading: key facts (September 2026)

Feature	Wealthsimple
Commission and contract fee (equity and ETF options)	US$0 per contract (better on this row)
Currency conversion from a CAD account	1.5% on each buy and sell
USD account	$10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation
What you can trade	Options on thousands of US stocks and ETFs (NYSE and Nasdaq); no Canadian-listed options
Strategies in a TFSA or RRSP	Long calls, long puts, covered calls and secured (cash-secured) puts
Strategies in a margin account	All of the above, plus 12 multi-leg strategies such as spreads, straddles, strangles and iron condors
Charged separately	Index options (SPX, VIX, XSP, RUT, NDX, DJX), early exercise and do-not-exercise instructions
Trading hours	Regular market hours, Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, with limited extended access
Where you trade	Mobile app and web, with real-time quotes in the options chain

Sources: Wealthsimple options page, pricing page and Trade account fee schedule, checked September 24, 2026. Trading hours from Wealthsimple's futures and extended-hours pages.

The headline price is real: Wealthsimple charges US$0 per contract on equity and ETF options, with no commission, on every plan. The cost that remains is currency. Wealthsimple’s options are all on US-listed stocks and ETFs, so trading them from a Canadian-dollar account triggers a 1.5% conversion fee on each buy and each sell; a USD account removes that fee and costs $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation. In a TFSA or RRSP you can buy calls and puts, write covered calls and sell secured puts. The other 12 strategies on Wealthsimple’s list need a margin account. Index options, early exercise and do-not-exercise instructions carry their own fees. Wealthsimple’s futures page lists options hours as regular market hours, Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, with only limited extended access, and you trade on the Wealthsimple app or the web, where the options chain streams real-time quotes.

Can you trade options on Wealthsimple?

Yes: Wealthsimple offers options on thousands of US stocks and ETFs listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq, and you can trade them in its mobile app or on the web.

Options aren’t switched on by default. Wealthsimple’s options page asks you to opt in to advanced trading, and its FAQ points to a guide on enabling options in your investing account, so set this up on the account you plan to use before you look for a trade.

If you’re new to options, the mechanics fit in a paragraph:

• A call gives the buyer the right, not the obligation, to buy a stock at a set price (the strike) on or before a set date (the expiry). You buy one when you expect the price to rise.
• A put gives the buyer the right to sell at the strike. You buy one when you expect the price to fall, or to protect shares you own.
• The premium is the price of the option. It’s quoted per share, and one equity option contract covers 100 shares, so the total is 100 times the quote.
• Buyers can lose at most the premium they paid. Sellers collect the premium upfront but take on the obligation to buy or sell the shares if the option is exercised against them.

Wealthsimple’s platform streams real-time quotes in the options chain and supports rolling a position to a new date or strike and editing orders. Its options page says pre-built strategy templates with profit, loss and break-even charts are coming soon, so for now you choose each leg’s strike and expiry yourself.

How much does Wealthsimple charge for options?

Wealthsimple charges US$0 per contract and no commission on equity and ETF options, on Core, Premium and Generation alike, according to its trade fee schedule (September 2026).

Wealthsimple says it stopped charging fees on equity options in October 2025, and bills itself as Canada’s first platform to do so. Questrade now also advertises $0 commissions on US equity options contracts. Most other Canadian brokers still charge per contract: Interactive Brokers charges US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order, and TD Direct Investing charges $9.99 plus $1.25 per contract ($7.00 plus $1.25 per contract with 150+ trades a quarter).

Are Wealthsimple’s zero-dollar options really free?

Free of commissions and contract fees, yes. Free of all costs, no. Four things still cost money, all listed on Wealthsimple’s own pages:

1. Currency conversion. Wealthsimple’s pricing page says the conversion fee is charged each time you trade US-listed stocks, ETFs or options without a USD account. The fee is 1.5%, and the fee schedule says it’s applied on top of Wealthsimple’s corporate exchange rate, which already includes a spread.
2. Index options. Contracts on SPX, SPXW, VIX, XSP, RUT, RUTW, NDX and DJX each carry a per-contract fee on the trade fee schedule.
3. Early exercise. Exercising an option before expiry is charged a flat fee.
4. Do-not-exercise instructions. Asking Wealthsimple not to exercise an in-the-money option at expiry is charged the same kind of flat fee. Automatic exercise and assignment aren’t charged.

What does one options trade actually cost at Wealthsimple vs other brokers?

On a 5-contract round trip, Wealthsimple costs nothing from a USD account but about US$34 in conversion from a CAD account, which is more than TD Direct Investing’s full commission on the same trade.

The example: you buy 5 call contracts on a US stock at a premium of US$2.00 a share, paying US$1,000, and later sell them at US$2.50 a share for US$1,250. Here is what the round trip (one buy order and one sell order) costs in fees:

Fees are from each broker’s pricing page (September 2026), in the currency each broker bills, at standard pricing for clients with fewer than 150 trades a quarter. Every row except the Wealthsimple CAD-account row assumes you already hold US dollars, so none of those rows includes a currency conversion cost. Assignment isn’t included: Qtrade, for example, adds a flat $30 when you’re assigned.

Two things stand out. From a USD account, Wealthsimple and Questrade are the cheapest of the ten brokers in this comparison for US options. From a CAD account, Wealthsimple’s conversion fee alone costs more per contract than Interactive Brokers’ commission (US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order) whenever the option is priced above about US$0.43 a share, once an order is big enough to clear IBKR’s minimum. The guide to Canadian options brokerages goes beyond this one trade, covering which broker suits which kind of trader, how options are taxed and how approval works.

Is a Wealthsimple USD account worth it for options?

For anyone trading options more than a few times a year, usually yes. On Core, the USD account’s $10 a month equals the 1.5% conversion fee on about $670 of option premium bought and sold each month. The single round trip above converts US$2,250, so its conversion cost alone is more than three months of the account fee. Premium and Generation clients ($100,000 or more in assets) get USD accounts at no charge, so trading US options in US dollars costs them nothing extra.

You still have to get US dollars into the account once. Wealthsimple prices each conversion into a USD account by its size (1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000), so one larger conversion beats many small ones. For bigger amounts, Norbert’s Gambit on Wealthsimple avoids most of the conversion cost, and the Wealthsimple USD account guide covers how the account works.

Which options strategies does Wealthsimple support?

Wealthsimple lists 16 options strategies, from long calls to iron condors; 4 of them work in a TFSA or RRSP, and all 16 work in a margin account.

Wealthsimple options strategies by account type (September 2026)

Feature	TFSA, RRSP and other registered accounts	Margin account
Long calls and long puts	Yes (better on this row)	Yes
Covered calls	Yes (better on this row)	Yes
Secured (cash-secured) puts	Yes (better on this row)	Yes
Vertical spreads (call and put, debit and credit)	No	Yes (better on this row)
Calendar and diagonal spreads	No	Yes (better on this row)
Long straddles and strangles	No	Yes (better on this row)
Short iron butterflies and iron condors	No	Yes (better on this row)
Long butterflies and condors	No	Yes (better on this row)
Uncovered (naked) calls or puts	No	Not on Wealthsimple's strategy list

Source: Wealthsimple options page (strategy list and FAQ), checked September 24, 2026. The FAQ names margin and registered accounts for options; it doesn't list the regular non-registered cash account.

Long calls, long puts, covered calls and secured puts are the four strategies Wealthsimple allows in registered accounts such as a TFSA or RRSP. Every multi-leg strategy on its list needs a margin account: call and put debit and credit spreads, calendar and diagonal spreads, long straddles and strangles, short iron butterflies and iron condors, and long butterflies and condors. Uncovered (naked) calls and puts don’t appear on Wealthsimple’s strategy list at all, so traders who sell naked premium need a different broker.

Wealthsimple’s options FAQ names only margin accounts and registered accounts for options, so if you want options in a taxable account, plan on a margin account. It needs a separate application; the Wealthsimple margin account vs line of credit guide covers the approval, rates and margin-call risk.

Can you sell cash-secured puts in a Wealthsimple TFSA?

Yes: Wealthsimple allows secured (cash-secured) puts in a TFSA or RRSP, as long as the account holds enough cash to buy 100 shares per contract at the strike price.

The strategy works like this: you sell a put and collect the premium upfront. If the stock stays above the strike until expiry, the put expires worthless and you keep the premium. If it falls below, you’re likely to be assigned and must buy 100 shares per contract at the strike, with the premium lowering your effective cost. Because covered calls are also allowed in a TFSA, you can sell puts, get assigned, then write covered calls on the shares, all inside the account.

Three TFSA-specific catches deserve attention before you start:

1. Currency. In a CAD TFSA, the premium you collect is converted at 1.5%, and so is the purchase if you’re assigned. One contract assigned at a US$50 strike means buying US$5,000 of stock, which adds about US$75 in conversion fees. A USD account ($10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation) removes that fee; check in the app that one is available on the account type you trade in.
2. The CRA’s business test. Wealthsimple’s own options tax guide warns that the CRA can treat frequent, active options trading inside a registered account as a business, even in a TFSA. If that happens, the profits can become taxable, which defeats the point of the shelter.
3. Losses and dividends. A loss inside a TFSA can’t be claimed against gains elsewhere, and the CRA’s TFSA guide says investment losses aren’t treated as withdrawals, so the contribution room a losing trade used up doesn’t come back. If you end up holding US shares after an assignment, their dividends could be subject to foreign withholding tax, per the CRA's TFSA guide.

An RRSP follows the same four-strategy rule. For an FHSA, Wealthsimple’s options page describes registered accounts as TFSA, RRSP “and more” without listing each one, so check the options setting on the account itself; the Wealthsimple FHSA guide covers what else the account can hold, and the Wealthsimple TFSA guide covers contribution room.

Can you trade options on Canadian stocks with Wealthsimple?

No: Wealthsimple’s options cover US stocks and ETFs only, and its margin page states that options strategies are only available for US assets.

That rules Wealthsimple out if you want to write covered calls on Canadian bank shares or trade options on TSX-listed ETFs. Canadian brokers whose pricing pages list Canadian options include:

• Questrade: CA$0.99 per contract on Canadian-listed options, alongside $0 commissions on US equity options contracts.
• BMO InvestorLine: $0.90 per contract on Canadian and US exchanges.

You can keep Wealthsimple for everyday investing and open a second account elsewhere for Canadian options. The Wealthsimple vs Questrade comparison sets out the account-by-account differences if you’re weighing a full move.

How do you start trading options on Wealthsimple?

Pick the right account, enable options on it, decide which currency you’ll trade in, then choose a contract from the options chain and review the order before you submit.

1. Choose the account. Use a TFSA or RRSP for long calls, long puts, covered calls and secured puts. Apply for a margin account if you want spreads, straddles, strangles or iron condors.
2. Enable options on that account. Opt in to options trading for the account you chose in the Wealthsimple app before you place your first order.
3. Decide which currency you trade in. From a CAD account, every option buy and sell is converted at 1.5%. A USD account avoids that fee on each trade.
4. Pick a contract from the options chain. Open the US stock or ETF, go to its options chain, and choose a call or put, the expiry date and the strike price. Remember that each contract covers 100 shares.
5. Place and review the order. Choose buy or sell, the number of contracts and your price, then check the total premium, the cash or shares the trade ties up, and your worst case before you submit.
6. Manage the position before expiry. Close it, roll it to a later date or strike, or let it expire. In-the-money options are generally exercised automatically at expiry, so keep enough cash or shares in the account.

What catches new Wealthsimple options traders out?

Most surprises come from currency conversion, assignment and expiry, not from the contract fee.

• The conversion fee on every CAD-account trade. It applies to each buy and each sell, so short-term trading in a CAD account compounds it quickly.
• Early assignment before dividends. Wealthsimple’s assignment guide says call buyers often exercise in-the-money calls just before an ex-dividend date, so a covered call can be assigned early and you lose both the shares and the dividend. Closing or rolling before the ex-dividend date avoids it.
• Tight settlement. Options and the shares from an assignment settle one business day after the trade (T+1), so an assignment on a Friday settles on Monday. Have the cash or shares ready.
• Automatic exercise at expiry. An in-the-money long option is generally exercised automatically. If you can’t afford 100 shares per contract, the position may be closed for you before the bell, per Wealthsimple’s guide. Stopping an exercise with a do-not-exercise instruction costs a flat fee.
• Little or no extended-hours trading. Wealthsimple’s futures page gives options only limited extended access beyond 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, and its extended-hours guide lists US-listed options among the securities that can’t be bought and sold outside regular hours, so don’t count on reacting to an after-close earnings announcement before the next session.
• Tax records. Wealthsimple’s options tax guide warns that the cost on T5008 slips often leaves out premiums from expired options and the commissions you paid, so keep your own adjusted cost base records for any taxable account.

Who should (and shouldn’t) trade options on Wealthsimple?

Wealthsimple suits US-focused investors running simple strategies from a USD account, or trading only occasionally; traders who need Canadian contracts or professional tools do better elsewhere.

Pick Wealthsimple if:

• You buy calls and puts, write covered calls or sell secured puts on US stocks and ETFs.
• You want those strategies inside a TFSA or RRSP you already hold at Wealthsimple.
• You’ll trade from a USD account, or you’re a Premium or Generation client and get it at no charge.

Pick Questrade if:

• You want options on Canadian stocks and ETFs (CA$0.99 per contract) as well as US ones.
• You want to hold US dollars in registered accounts at no extra cost: Questrade’s dual-currency accounts are free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars.

Pick Interactive Brokers if:

• You trade options in size or across markets and need 100+ order types, from limit orders to algorithmic orders.
• A small per-contract commission (US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order) matters less to you than depth of tools and access to 170 markets in 40 countries. The Wealthsimple vs Interactive Brokers comparison covers the rest of the trade-off.

Pick Moomoo Canada if:

• You want a data-heavy trading screen with US Level 2 quotes showing up to 60 bids and asks, and you don’t mind paying US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order. See the Wealthsimple vs Moomoo comparison.

Skip options entirely if you can’t explain what happens to your position at expiry, or you’d be trading money you need within a few years. Buying options loses the whole premium when they expire worthless, and selling them can cost far more than you collect.

The verdict

For the strategies most Canadians actually use (buying calls and puts, writing covered calls and selling cash-secured puts on US stocks), Wealthsimple is among the cheapest places in Canada to trade options, with US$0 per contract and those four strategies allowed in a TFSA or RRSP. The condition is currency: from a CAD account, the 1.5% conversion fee on each trade can cost more than a paid broker’s commission, so regular traders should fund a USD account. Wealthsimple is the wrong fit if you need uncovered options, which aren’t on its strategy list. For Canadian-listed options, look at Questrade; for professional-grade order types, look at Interactive Brokers.

This guide is general education, not financial advice. Options can lose value quickly, and selling them can create losses larger than the premium you collect.

For the rest of Wealthsimple’s pricing and products, see our complete Wealthsimple guide and the full breakdown of Wealthsimple Trade fees.

Read next

• Wealthsimple margin account vs portfolio line of credit
• Wealthsimple USD account: cost and when it pays
• Norbert’s Gambit on Wealthsimple, step by step
• Wealthsimple day trading: hours, settlement and limits
• Wealthsimple vs Interactive Brokers