Questrade review

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

A licence is the first thing a fake broker cannot produce, so it is the first thing to check.

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.

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

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

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

Costs matter less than whether you can withdraw, but an offer that looks impossible usually is.

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.

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

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.

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