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ibreken

11/04/10 9:38 PM

#3 RE: anejames #2

I used to use Questrade (up until less than a year ago) and don't recall ever getting level 2 for OTC us stocks, but I was just using the basic trader whatever that was called. As far as I know Questrade is still the only one I've used that actually even shows a bid/ask for OTC stocks. The thing I didn't like about Questrade is, yes they have $9.95 trades, but they often stick you with extra exchange fees if you 'remove liquidity from the market'. IE buying at the ask you are doing this and they would stick you with charges above the flat fee (sometimes as much as 4 times as much. I finally closed my account.

I currently use TD Waterhouse...$9.99 flat fees (nothing additional no matter how you buy or sell). You do need to maintain at least $100,000 in your account to qualify but I believe they are lowering the threshold to $50,000. If you aren't planning on keeping at least that in your account I'd stay away....the fees if you don't are insanely high...$29 per 1000 shares and over 1000 shares 1.5% of the trade value....big money trades can cost hundreds of dollars based on $29 for every 1000 shares or 1.5%. I don't think they even show a bid / ask for pinks so if you trade them it's probably not a good option.

TD Waterhouse webtrader offers no market depth which is a pain in the ass. I have an old iTrade (ETrade) account and iTrade does offer depth for Canadian stocks 5 orders deep. I haven't had a dime in the account for years but for some reason they have never closed it and I continue to use it for market depth (I don't know about you but I don't think I could make a trade without seeing at least 5 orders deep). Again though, for OTC stocks the basic trader I don't think even shows a bid / ask. Probably for the best as it keeps you away from that junk whether you want to or not ;-)