Questrade review

Spread from

0.8 pips

EUR/USD spread

1.9 pips target

GBP/USD spread

Approx. 2.0 pips target

Commission

$0 on spot FX

All-in cost, EUR/USD

1.9 pips target

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight rollover/financing may be charged or credited

Deposit fee

Generally none

Withdrawal fee

Method-dependent

Currency conversion

1.5% on standard CAD/USD securities-account conversions

Cost is where brokers in the same regulatory bracket actually differ.

Spreads from 0.8 pips suggest an all-in account, where the broker's fee is built into the price rather than charged separately. There is usually no commission on top, which makes the cost easier to predict.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

Questrade lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Markets

Forex, Stock CFDs, Index CFDs, Commodity CFDs, Precious Metals, Stocks, ETFs, Options, Bonds, GICs, Mutual Funds

Currency pairs

110+

Total instruments

1,000+ across FX/CFDs and substantially more including exchange-traded securities

Crypto CFDs

No

Maximum leverage

1:50

Execution model

Non-market maker / agency-style execution

Execution speed

Under 100ms

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit and platform-specific conditional orders

Servers

North American/global institutional infrastructure

Leverage is capped at 1:50, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

Questrade covers forex, stock cfds, index cfds, commodity cfds, precious metals, stocks, etfs, options, bonds, gics, mutual funds. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: interac, visa debit, online banking bill payment, pre-authorized deposit, bank transfer/wire and account transfer. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Platforms

Questrade Global

Own platform

Yes

Mobile app

Proprietary

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

No MetaTrader EA support

Copy trading

No

Indicators

Advanced built-in technical indicators and drawing/annotation tools

Third-party tools

Saxo Bank trading/liquidity infrastructure

API access

Yes, Questrade API for supported investment functionality

Questrade offers Questrade Global. A proprietary platform can be excellent, but it means your setup does not transfer if you later change broker.

Regulated by

Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO)

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

CIRO Dealer Member Register, Questrade, Inc.

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Canadian regulated financial institutions/custodial arrangements

Negative balance protection

No

Compensation scheme

Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF), generally up to CAD $1 million per eligible account category

Audited by

Independent external auditors

Not available to

Primarily available to Canadian residents; FX & CFD accounts subject to Canadian eligibility requirements

Across a hundred brokers, the licence is what separates the field fastest.

Questrade holds a tier-one authorisation from CIRO. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

CIRO oversees Canadian investment dealers, and few international brokers hold the licence.

Client money is held separately from the firm's own money, at Canadian regulated financial institutions/custodial arrangements. That separation is what makes your balance recoverable if the company fails, rather than part of the pool its creditors divide up.

There is no negative balance protection. In a fast market a position can gap straight through your stop, and without this the resulting debt is legally yours - you can lose more than you deposited.

Covered by Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF), generally up to CAD $1 million per eligible account category, which pays eligible clients up to its limit if the firm fails owing client money.

Minimum deposit

$0

Account types

Individual Forex & CFDs, Cash, Margin, TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, RRIF, Corporate, Partnership, Trust, Managed

Account currencies

CAD, USD

Islamic account

No

Demo account

Yes, 30-day FX & CFD practice account

Professional account

Yes, institutional/corporate configurations

Minimum trade size

1,000 currency units / 0.01 standard lot

Time to open

Typically completed online within minutes; verification may take additional time

Questrade runs 12 account types. More choice is not automatically better: the tightest headline spread almost always sits on the account that also charges a commission, so the comparison that matters is the two added together.

Base currencies: CAD, USD. Holding the account in the currency you fund it with avoids a conversion charge on every deposit and withdrawal - a cost that never shows up in a spread comparison.

The smallest position is 1,000 currency units / 0.01 standard lot. For anyone starting carefully this matters more than the minimum deposit, because it sets the least you can put at risk on a single trade.

A demo account is available. Worth using for the platform rather than the results: fills are simulated, so it tells you how the software behaves but very little about execution.

Deposit methods

Interac, Visa Debit, online banking bill payment, pre-authorized deposit, bank transfer/wire and account transfer

Withdrawal methods

Electronic funds transfer, wire transfer and account transfer

Deposit time

Instant for eligible Visa Debit; bill payment 1-2 business days; FX/CFD PAD generally 5-10 business days

Withdrawal time

Typically 1-5 business days depending on method

Minimum withdrawal

$1

Local payment methods

Interac; Canadian online bill payment and Canadian EFT

Withdrawals are stated at Typically 1-5 business days depending on method, against Instant for eligible Visa Debit; bill payment 1-2 business days; FX/CFD PAD generally 5-10 business days for deposits. A gap between the two is normal and not in itself a warning sign - identity checks are a legal obligation, not obstruction. What is worth noticing is a withdrawal that keeps meeting new conditions after those checks are done.

Withdrawal routes: electronic funds transfer, wire transfer and account transfer. Money is usually returned by the route it arrived on, so the deposit method you pick is in effect the withdrawal method you are picking too.

The minimum withdrawal is $1 - relevant if you intend to fund the account lightly, since it sets the smallest amount you can take out at a time.

Support hours

Extended weekday hours; online Help Centre available 24/7

Contact channels

Live chat, phone, email/contact form, in-person support

Languages

English, French

Telephone

1-888-783-7866

Email

N/A

Live chat response

Typically within a few minutes

Education

Extensive: Questrade Learning, investing courses, FX/CFD guides, platform tutorials, options education and educational articles

Research

Market research, news, technical charting, economic releases, alerts and investment research tools

Support runs Extended weekday hours; online Help Centre available 24/7. Round-the-clock cover matters more than it sounds: a position held over a weekend or through an unexpected halt is exactly when you need somebody to answer.

Reachable by live chat, phone, email/contact form, in-person support. A published telephone number is the one channel that is hard to fake and hard to ignore, so whether there is one says more than the number of channels does.

Languages: English, French. Being able to raise a complaint in your own language is worth more than it appears, because complaints are where precision matters most.

Education: extensive: questrade learning, investing courses, fx/cfd guides, platform tutorials, options education and educational articles. Treat broker-published material as an introduction rather than as advice - it is produced by a firm whose revenue rises when you trade more.

Legal entity

Questrade, Inc.

Company number

Canadian corporation

Headquarters

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Founded

1999

Publicly listed

No

Parent company

Questrade Financial Group Inc.

Employees

2,000+ group-wide

Also trades as

Questrade

Questrade has been trading for around 27 years, through at least one full market cycle. Longevity guarantees nothing on its own, but a firm that came through 2008 and 2015 has been tested in a way a recent entrant has not.

The contracting entity is Questrade, Inc.. This is the company you would actually have a relationship with, and it is worth checking that it is the same one named on the licence you are relying on: large brokers commonly operate several, and they are not equally protected.

Part of Questrade Financial Group Inc.. A parent adds resources, but the protections that apply to you are the ones attached to the entity that holds your account, not to the group.