This Wealthsimple Trade review sizes up the self-directed investing side of Wealthsimple, including how Wealthsimple stock trading works: what it costs, where it beats Questrade and the bank brokerages, and who should pick something else. YieldMaple re-checked Wealthsimple’s pricing page and its Trade account fee schedule on October 7, 2026 (the order-handling disclosure was last checked on September 23, 2026): listed Canadian and US stocks and ETFs cost $0 in commission, and US-listed trades from a Canadian-dollar account carry a 1.5% conversion fee each way. The verdict up front: YieldMaple rates Wealthsimple Trade 4.5 out of 5, an easy recommendation for Canadian-listed investing, with currency as the cost to plan around. If you have already decided and want the screens and buttons instead, the walkthrough of your first Wealthsimple trade covers them.
Wealthsimple Trade review at a glance
| Item | Current figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Commission on listed Canadian and US stocks and ETFs | $0 | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Currency conversion fee (US trades from a CAD account) | 1.5% | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| USD account cost | $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Conversion fee into/out of a USD account (by conversion size) | 1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000 | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Fractional shares | yes — thousands of Canadian and US stocks and ETFs | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Equity and ETF options contract fee | US$0 per contract | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Account minimum (self-directed) | none | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Instant withdrawal fee (from investment accounts) | 2.5% | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Self-directed account types | TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered (cash and margin), and corporate accounts | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| CIPF protection on investment accounts | securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
In one paragraph: stock and ETF trades cost $0, and the account minimum is none. Fractional shares: yes — thousands of Canadian and US stocks and ETFs. The fees you can actually run into are the 1.5% currency conversion fee on US trades from a CAD account, the USD account ($10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation), and the 2.5% instant-withdrawal fee. Options on stocks and ETFs cost US$0 per contract. For the full list across every Wealthsimple product, see the complete Wealthsimple fee breakdown.
Is Wealthsimple Trade good?
Yes, for most Canadians who buy Canadian-listed stocks and ETFs: $0 commissions, fractional shares and nearly every registered account earn it 4.5 out of 5 from YieldMaple.
| Feature | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Canadian-listed stocks and ETFs | Strong (better on this row) | $0 commission, no account minimum, fractional shares |
| US-listed stocks | Weak spot | 1.5% conversion fee each way from a CAD account; USD account $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation |
| Account types | Strong (better on this row) | TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered (cash and margin), and corporate accounts |
| Options | Strong (better on this row) | US$0 per contract on equity and ETF options |
| Tools and order types | Good for most investors | Five order types, a 24-hour weekday market on selected US stocks and ETFs, and charting in Trade Plus; no overseas exchanges |
| Safety | Standard for a Canadian dealer | CIRO member; CIPF protection with securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account |
| Help placing orders | Limited | Broker-assisted phone trades: $45 a trade, available only in extenuating circumstances and waived for Active Traders |
YieldMaple's editorial assessment, based on Wealthsimple's pricing page, Trade fee schedule and order-handling disclosure (September 2026).
The case for it is cost and breadth. Buying a Canadian-listed stock or ETF costs $0 in commission, you can invest by dollar amount in anything that carries the fractional-shares label, and one app holds a TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, non-registered and corporate account. For someone putting a few hundred dollars a month into a CAD-traded index ETF, that combination is hard to beat: no commission, nothing to open the account and no minimum balance to keep.
The case against it is currency. Every US-listed trade from a CAD account pays 1.5% on the way in and again on the way out, on top of a corporate exchange rate that already includes a spread. The USD account removes that fee on trades, but it costs $10 a month on the Core plan and only pays off for larger conversions or frequent US trading. Investors who hold a lot of US-listed stocks, or who want overseas markets, will find the numbers work better elsewhere, as the comparison further down shows.
What are Wealthsimple Trade’s fees?
Stock and ETF trades cost $0 in commission; the fees you can actually pay are currency conversion, the USD account, instant withdrawals, margin interest and a few service charges.
Here are the fees that apply to everyday stock, ETF and options trading, per Wealthsimple’s pricing page and Trade fee schedule (September 2026). The full schedule also lists fees for specialty products and by-request services that most stock and ETF investors never run into.
- Commission: $0 to buy or sell listed Canadian and US stocks and ETFs. Core clients pay the same commissions as Premium and Generation clients.
- Currency conversion: 1.5% on each US-listed buy and each sale from a CAD account, applied to Wealthsimple’s corporate exchange rate, which its fee schedule describes as a live rate that already includes a spread.
- USD account: $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation. Converting CAD into it costs 1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000, depending on the size of each conversion.
- Options: US$0 per contract on equity and ETF options.
- Withdrawals: a standard withdrawal to your bank by bank transfer has no Wealthsimple fee; an instant withdrawal from an investment account costs 2.5%, so it only makes sense when you truly can’t wait.
- Margin interest: on Core, CAD margin interest is 4.95%, calculated daily and charged monthly.
- Service fees: a broker-assisted phone trade fee of $45 a trade, available only in extenuating circumstances and waived for Active Traders, and a journaling fee for moves such as Norbert’s gambit, both listed on the Trade fee schedule.
- Opening an account: $0, with an account minimum of none.
To put the conversion fee in dollars: moving $10,000 into US-listed stocks from a CAD account costs about $150 on the way in, before the exchange-rate spread, and another 1.5% of whatever the shares are worth when you sell. Buying a Canadian-listed ETF costs nothing in commission or conversion. The complete Wealthsimple fee breakdown covers every other product, from managed investing to crypto.
How does Wealthsimple stock trading work?
Wealthsimple stock trading works by share count or by dollar amount: you pick a Canadian or US-listed stock, pay $0 commission, and fractional orders start at $1.
Per Wealthsimple’s active-trading page (checked October 7, 2026), the stock list covers thousands of stocks, ETFs and OTC securities on the TSX, TSX Venture, Cboe Canada, CSE, NYSE, Nasdaq and Cboe, plus a limited number of OTC-listed ADRs. A stock can be bought in one of two ways:
- Whole shares. Enter a number of shares and pick an order type: market, limit, stop-limit, stop-market or bracket. A limit order caps the price you pay, which matters most on thinly traded stocks.
- Fractional shares. Per Wealthsimple’s fractional-shares page, you enter the dollar amount, and Wealthsimple buys full shares and gives you the piece that matches it. Stocks and ETFs that qualify carry a "fractional shares" label on the stock or ETF page in the app, and fractional trades pay the same $0 commission as whole shares.
Two details catch new investors out. A fractional order placed outside trading hours is queued, then filled once the market opens again, so the price can differ from the one you saw when you placed it. And dividends on a fractional position are paid in proportion to the piece you own, and dividend reinvesting can be turned on so they automatically buy more of the same stock.
A worked example: part of a high-priced stock
Wealthsimple’s fractional-shares page uses a sample stock priced in Canadian dollars; the dividend below is hypothetical, and a real stock’s price and dividend will differ:
- The buy. In Wealthsimple’s illustration, $50 buys about 0.053 of a share of a stock priced around $950. The order pays $0 commission and needs no currency conversion, because the stock trades in Canadian dollars.
- The dividend. If that company paid $2 a share, the position would receive about $0.11. With dividend reinvesting turned on, that goes toward more of the same stock.
- The US-listed version. Bought from a CAD account instead, the same purchase pays the 1.5% conversion fee, about $0.75 on the way in, plus the same percentage of whatever the position is worth when you sell.
One limit to plan around: fractional shares can’t be transferred to another brokerage, so a fractional position has to be sold if you ever move the account. The step-by-step guide to buying stocks on Wealthsimple shows each screen of the order ticket.
Can you buy Wealthsimple’s own stock?
No: Wealthsimple is a private company, so there is no Wealthsimple ticker to buy on the TSX, in the app or at any other broker.
Its most recent share sale was a private equity round announced October 27, 2025 at a post-money valuation of $10 billion, and Power Corporation of Canada’s group held 52.3% of Wealthsimple undiluted at June 30, 2026. Power reports that stake among its alternative asset investment platforms, not among its publicly traded companies. Wealthsimple’s IPO Access product, announced May 28, 2026, is a different thing: it lets clients request shares of other companies going public, at the offering price. YieldMaple’s explainer on who owns Wealthsimple and whether it plans an IPO tracks the company’s status.
What does it cost to buy US stocks on Wealthsimple Trade?
Commission is $0, so currency is the cost: 1.5% each way from a CAD account, or a USD account that pays off mainly on large conversions.
According to Wealthsimple’s active-trading FAQ, you can trade stocks and ETFs listed on the TSX, TSX Venture, Cboe Canada, the CSE, the NYSE, Nasdaq and Cboe, plus a limited number of OTC-listed ADRs. The choice that matters is which currency you pay in:
- From a Canadian-dollar account: Wealthsimple converts at its own corporate exchange rate and charges a 1.5% conversion fee on each US buy and each US sale. Because the corporate rate already includes a spread, the fee is not the whole cost of conversion.
- From a USD account: the account costs $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation. Converting CAD into it costs 1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000, depending on the size of each conversion. Moving US dollars you already hold into it is free, per Wealthsimple’s pricing page, and trading US-listed securities inside it carries no conversion fee.
- Skip the conversion entirely: many US-focused ETFs trade in Canadian dollars on the TSX. VFV, for example, tracks the S&P 500 for a 0.08% MER and trades in CAD, so buying it needs no currency conversion at all. See how to buy VFV on Wealthsimple.
A worked example: CAD account vs USD account
Using Wealthsimple’s published fees for a Core client (conversion fees are calculated as a share of the amount converted):
- Small monthly buys from a CAD account. Putting $500 a month into US-listed stocks costs about $90 a year in conversion fees on the way in, and 1.5% again on whatever the shares are worth when you sell.
- The same buys through a Core USD account. Each conversion is under the $10,000 threshold, so it still pays 1.5%, plus the account fee of $120 a year, for about $210 a year. For small monthly buyers, the USD account costs more.
- One large conversion into a Core USD account. Converting $25,000 at once falls in the 0.5% tier, about $125, plus $120 for a year of the account, about $245 in total. Buying the same amount of US stock from a CAD account would cost about $375 on the way in, so the USD account comes out about $130 ahead in year one. The saving grows if you sell and rebuy inside the USD account, because those trades don’t convert at all.
- A Canadian-listed S&P 500 ETF instead. No conversion fee and $0 commission; the fund’s ongoing cost is its MER (0.08% for VFV).
The USD account fee recurs every year, so a one-time saving on a big conversion shrinks over time unless you keep converting in large amounts, trade actively in US dollars, or reach $100,000 in assets, where the USD account is included. Run your own numbers:
Two more tools for larger amounts: Wealthsimple supports Norbert’s gambit (buying a dual-listed security in one currency and selling it in the other to convert near market rates), which the Norbert’s gambit guide for Wealthsimple walks through (a journaling fee applies; check the Trade fee schedule). The Wealthsimple USD account guide looks at the account’s costs in more detail.
US dividends and withholding tax
The US taxes dividends paid to foreign investors at 30% by default, and the Canada–US tax treaty cuts that to 15% for Canadian residents. Retirement plans like the RRSP are exempt from US tax, as long as the plan is operated exclusively to provide pension, retirement or employee benefits, while a TFSA could be subject to foreign withholding tax, per the CRA's TFSA guide. That difference is why US dividend payers are often held in an RRSP rather than a TFSA, and it applies at any broker, not only Wealthsimple. The guide to buying US stocks in Canada covers withholding tax, currency and broker choice in more depth.
What are the pros and cons of Wealthsimple Trade?
The biggest pros are $0 commissions, fractional shares and nearly every account type; the biggest cons are currency costs on US trades and a narrower toolkit than specialist brokers.
The pros and cons box at the top of this review lists each one. Here is the context behind the ones that matter most.
The pros, with the fine print
- Low costs on Canadian-listed securities. $0 commission applies to buys and sales alike, on every plan, and there is no account minimum. For a buy-and-hold investor in CAD-traded ETFs, the only ongoing cost is the funds’ own MERs.
- Fractional shares. Dollar-amount orders work on thousands of Canadian and US stocks and ETFs at the same commission, so a high share price doesn’t block a small deposit. The fine print: fractional positions can’t be transferred to another brokerage, so they have to be sold if you ever move the account.
- A platform that suits beginners and active traders. The app and the web platform handle everything, and Wealthsimple says its real-time streaming quotes are free. For more active traders, the Trade Plus view puts charts with technical indicators (moving averages, RSI, VWAP), your watchlist, holdings and pending orders on one screen; you can buy or sell by clicking a price level on the chart and modify open orders from a side panel.
- Everything in one place. Self-directed trading, chequing, tax filing and managed portfolios sit in the same app, so one login covers a TFSA of ETFs and the account your paycheque lands in.
The cons, with the context
- Currency. The 1.5% conversion fee each way on US-listed trades from a CAD account is the cost most likely to surprise you, and the section above shows how fast it adds up.
- No overseas exchanges. Trading covers Canadian and US exchanges plus a limited number of OTC-listed ADRs. Investors who want individual stocks in Europe or Asia need a broker such as Interactive Brokers.
- Limited phone trading. Per Wealthsimple’s Trade fee schedule (checked October 7, 2026), a broker-assisted phone trade costs $45 a trade, available only in extenuating circumstances and waived for Active Traders. Active Trader status takes 50 or more manual trades in a calendar month, per Wealthsimple’s active-trading page.
- Displayed prices can lag. Wealthsimple’s own disclosure cautions that the price displayed in the app may have changed by the time you place an order, and that it may not reflect the consolidated quote across every marketplace. That is one more reason to use limit orders on anything that trades thinly.
What stocks and accounts does Wealthsimple Trade support?
Wealthsimple Trade covers thousands of Canadian and US stocks and ETFs in a TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered or corporate account, plus options, margin and crypto.
Self-directed accounts at Wealthsimple include TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered (cash and margin), and corporate accounts. Older reviews, including earlier versions of this page, said Wealthsimple had no RESP, LIRA or corporate accounts; that is wrong. The RESP, for example, is available as a self-directed or managed RESP. The Wealthsimple TFSA guide explains how the most popular account works there.
Beyond stocks and ETFs, the Trade side of the app covers:
- Options: US$0 per contract on equity and ETF options, with covered calls, cash-secured puts and multi-leg strategies such as vertical and calendar spreads. The Wealthsimple options trading guide goes deeper.
- Margin: available by application. On Core, CAD margin interest is 4.95%, calculated daily and charged monthly. The Wealthsimple margin account guide compares it with a line of credit.
- Crypto: 170+ coins, with a flat 0.5% trading fee plus a price spread on market orders (the rate without Active Trader status).
- Also on the menu: IPO access, futures, gold and automated investing, per Wealthsimple’s Trade page.
If you’re moving an account in, Wealthsimple accepts transfers of non-registered (individual and joint), TFSA, RRSP, spousal RRSP, FHSA, RRIF, spousal RRIF, LIRA, LIF, pension, RESP, business, and margin accounts. Most take 2–4 weeks, and your old brokerage’s transfer-out fee is reimbursed on transfers of $25,000 or more, up to $150 per account.
Which order types and trading hours does Wealthsimple Trade offer?
Wealthsimple Trade offers five order types (market, limit, stop-limit, stop-market and bracket) and a 24-hour weekday market for selected US-listed stocks and ETFs.
Placing an order takes a few steps: pick the account, search the ticker, enter a number of shares or a dollar amount, choose the order type and confirm. Selling works the same way from the holding itself. This review doesn’t repeat the screens; the step-by-step guide to buying stocks on Wealthsimple walks through each one, including how to pick the Canadian listing of a company that also trades in New York.
What matters for a review is the toolkit. Wealthsimple’s Best Execution and Order Handling Disclosure (June 2026) lists:
- Market order: fills at the best price available. You can’t modify it once it’s placed, though you can cancel it while it’s still unfilled.
- Limit order: sets the most you’ll pay or the least you’ll accept, and may never fill. You can modify it unless it’s partly filled.
- Stop-limit order: becomes a limit order when the stock hits your stop price. Available for stocks, ETFs and options.
- Stop-market order: becomes a market order at your stop price. Available for stocks and ETFs; in a fast market it can fill well away from your stop.
- Bracket order: an order paired with a take-profit order and a stop-loss order; when one executes, the other cancels. Available for stocks and ETFs.
Orders can be day orders (expiring at 4:00 p.m. ET), good-till-cancelled or good-till-date. For a long-term investor, market and limit orders are all you need; the stop and bracket orders matter more to active traders, and even then the list is short next to Interactive Brokers’ 100+ order types, from limit orders to algorithmic orders.
Regular hours for Canadian and US stocks run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET on business days. Wealthsimple’s 24-hour market for US-listed stocks and ETFs runs from Sunday 8:00 p.m. to Friday 8:00 p.m. ET, but only a limited selection of securities is eligible, and you have to mark the order for extended hours when you place it. Spreads are wider overnight, so set a limit price. The guide to Wealthsimple day trading and trading hours goes deeper.
What happens when you sell
- Commission. The same $0 as on the buy.
- Currency. Selling a US-listed stock held in a CAD account converts the proceeds back to Canadian dollars with another 1.5% fee. Sold inside a USD account, the proceeds stay in US dollars with no conversion.
- Settlement. Canadian and US stock trades settle one business day after the trade date (T+1).
- Getting the cash out. A standard bank withdrawal has no Wealthsimple fee; an instant withdrawal from an investment account costs 2.5%.
- Tax. Selling at a profit in a non-registered account creates a taxable capital gain. Sales inside a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA don’t.
Is Wealthsimple Trade safe?
Yes: Wealthsimple’s investment dealer is a CIRO member, and its investment accounts are CIPF-protected, with securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account.
The dealer behind Wealthsimple Trade is Wealthsimple Investments Inc., a registered investment dealer and member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), per its order-handling disclosure. CIPF protects you if the dealer itself fails and client property goes missing; it does not protect against a stock falling. Cash in Wealthsimple Chequing is a different product with a different protection: CDIC coverage up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per CDIC member institution, and up to $1 million, because funds are spread across up to 10 CDIC member institutions (Wealthsimple itself is not a CDIC member).
Two operational facts from Wealthsimple’s order-handling disclosure are worth knowing. First, Wealthsimple is not itself an executing broker: it routes orders to unaffiliated executing brokers, and it and those brokers may receive payments or rebates for routing US stock and options orders, while still owing clients best execution. Second, if you can’t access your account to place an order, Wealthsimple’s investment representatives can take manual market day orders during regular hours. For the full picture, including account security, see whether Wealthsimple is safe.
Wealthsimple Trade vs Questrade, Interactive Brokers and TD
Wealthsimple Trade ties Questrade on stock and ETF commissions, loses to Questrade on holding US dollars and to Interactive Brokers on currency conversion, and beats TD Direct Investing on commission.
| Feature | Wealthsimple | Questrade | Interactive Brokers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock and ETF commission | $0 (better on this row) | $0 to buy and sell Canadian and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs (better on this row) | 1 cent a share on Canadian stocks, with a $1.00 minimum |
| Converting CAD to USD | 1.5% each way from a CAD account | 1.5% on Canadian-to-US-dollar conversions and back, built into the exchange rate Questrade applies | 0.002% of the amount (US$2.00 minimum) (better on this row) |
| Holding US dollars | USD account: $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation | Dual-currency accounts: free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars (better on this row) | Registered accounts hold cash in both CAD and USD |
| Equity options | US$0 per contract (better on this row) | $0 commissions on US equity options contracts; CA$0.99 per contract on Canadian-listed options | US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order |
| Order types and markets | Market, limit, stop-limit, stop-market and bracket; Canadian and US exchanges | Not compared here | 100+ order types, from limit orders to algorithmic orders; 170 markets in 40 countries |
Sources: wealthsimple.com pricing page and Trade fee schedule; questrade.com pricing; interactivebrokers.ca commissions, currency and registered-account pages. Checked September 2026.
Where Wealthsimple Trade wins. Simplicity and small investors. Its fractional shares cover thousands of stocks and ETFs, against Questrade’s hundreds of eligible Canadian and US stocks and ETFs, from $1, commission-free, in any self-directed account. It charges no stock commission, where Interactive Brokers charges 1 cent a share on Canadian stocks, with a $1.00 minimum and TD Direct Investing’s standard stock commission is $9.99 a trade. And its options pricing (US$0 per contract) undercuts IBKR’s US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order on US options.
Where Questrade wins. Holding US dollars. Questrade also charges $0 to buy and sell Canadian and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, and its dual-currency accounts are free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars, so once your money is in US dollars, US trades don’t force a conversion and there is no monthly fee like Wealthsimple’s $10 a month USD account for Core clients. Converting itself costs about the same at both: Questrade’s fee is 1.5% on Canadian-to-US-dollar conversions and back, built into the exchange rate Questrade applies, the same percentage Wealthsimple charges from a CAD account. Its account list is also long, with trust, estate, partnership and Forex & CFD accounts alongside the usual registered plans. On options, Questrade charges $0 commissions on US equity options contracts, but CA$0.99 per contract on Canadian-listed options. The Wealthsimple vs Questrade comparison goes account by account, or see Questrade's current pricing .
Where Interactive Brokers wins. For converting currency, it isn’t close: IBKR charges 0.002% of the amount (US$2.00 minimum), against Wealthsimple’s 1.5%. Its registered accounts hold cash in both CAD and USD, and it offers 100+ order types, from limit orders to algorithmic orders across 170 markets in 40 countries. The trade-off is commission (1 cent a share on Canadian stocks, with a $1.00 minimum), US options at US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order, and a more complex platform. See Wealthsimple vs Interactive Brokers.
Where TD Direct Investing wins. Currency and convenience. TD’s currency conversion spread on transactions under $10,000 is 1.07%, lower than Wealthsimple’s 1.5% fee, and TD Direct Investing runs these accounts in both Canadian and US dollars: cash and margin accounts, RRSPs (except Basic RRSPs), RIFs, RLSPs, LRSPs and TFSAs; RESPs and RDSPs are Canadian-dollar only. TD also accepts trades placed by phone, with a minimum commission of $43, and if you already bank at TD, keeping your investments there is convenient. On cost it trails: TD Direct Investing charges $9.99 per trade (Standard); $7.00 per trade (Active Trader); $0 on select ETFs, so commission applies to every stock trade and to ETFs outside its commission-free list. The Wealthsimple vs TD Direct Investing comparison has the full breakdown.
Who should (and shouldn’t) use Wealthsimple Trade
Pick Wealthsimple Trade if:
- You mostly buy Canadian-listed stocks and ETFs, including CAD-traded ETFs that hold US stocks, so the conversion fee never applies.
- You invest small amounts regularly and want fractional shares with $0 commissions.
- You want TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP and non-registered trading in one app, alongside chequing and tax filing.
- You trade options and want US$0 per contract on equity and ETF contracts.
- You want access to US-listed stocks outside regular hours through the 24-hour market.
Look elsewhere if:
- You regularly convert small amounts of CAD to buy US-listed stocks and plan to sell or rebalance often: at 1.5% each way, Interactive Brokers’ conversion pricing is far cheaper.
- You want to keep US dollars in a TFSA or RRSP without a monthly USD account fee: Questrade’s dual-currency accounts are free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars.
- You need order types beyond the five Wealthsimple offers, or stocks on overseas exchanges.
- You want to place trades by phone as a matter of routine rather than as a backup.
- You want to transfer fractional positions to another broker later; they have to be sold first.
The verdict
YieldMaple rates Wealthsimple Trade 4.5 out of 5. For most Canadians who want to buy stocks and ETFs themselves, it is the easiest place to start: $0 commissions on listed Canadian and US stocks and ETFs, fractional shares, no account minimum, and nearly every registered account, including the RESP. It works best when you stick to Canadian-listed securities, which covers a lot of US exposure through CAD-traded ETFs.
The main thing holding it back is currency. If you buy US-listed stocks from a CAD account, budget 1.5% on the way in and again on the way out, and only pay for a USD account when your conversions are large or your US trading is frequent. For investors who convert often, Interactive Brokers usually costs less on that part of a portfolio, and for anyone who wants to hold US dollars without a monthly fee, Questrade’s dual-currency accounts are free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars.
This page is general education, not financial advice. New clients can check the current Wealthsimple sign-up bonus before opening an account, and our complete Wealthsimple guide covers every other product.