I have an Ameritrade account, but Canadian stocks are not available. How do I trade stocks listed on TSX?
Question:
Answer:
They are available at Ameritrade but you have to call in and request them by phone. The commission is also greater. Anyway that is what Ameritrade told me when I asked the question.
If you are referring to S&P TSX 60 index fund, which I assume you are, you can also purchase it on the pink sheets under the symbol IUTSF. You can enter that directly as a buy order at Ameritrade.
What a burn.
To prevent having to pay higher commissions for live phone orders for TSX stocks, here are a couple of suggestions:
1) Huge number of Canadian stocks are interlisted, trading both in Toronto and on US exchanges such as the NYSE, the Naz, the Amex. In significant number of cases the US trading volume is far higher than it is in Toronto, so that more liquid market would be better for you anyhow, and you could place low-commission online orders. Example: Talisman Energy, TLM in both Toronto and NY.
2) Interactive Brokers trade in most global markets and they probably can carry out online orders for the TSX.
An afterthought: you'll also be hedging your currencies, whether your trades are carried out in USD on, say, the Nasdaq or in CAD directly on the TSX. So you'll want to keep an eye on the currency exchange rate. If the US greenbacks falls further it can be helpful to have some assets based on the Canadian loonie. On the other hand if USD appreciates dramatically against CAD (I wouldn't hold my breath) your Canadian stocks will suffer, at least on paper.
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