wipca201 

As I think about it more, it is making perfect sense to keep the fund with IB in Canada. It probably is a good idea to bite the bullet for data cost considering the risk and cost. The US brokers does not care much about customer services or customer authorization. It happens to me twice - first with Mirus and now with NinjaBrokerage. Mirus never directly advised me about their problem upfront and they frozen my account and transferred my data feed to Continuum and then the whole account to Ninjabrokerage. All was kind of done after the fact. Now NinjaBrokerage closed my account without telling me beforehand. I am very much fed up with US brokerage. I have totally lost more trust with these US brokerage. I was stupid to be fooled twice. Not any more.

@wipca201, thanks for pointing this out. I just found out from my statement as well that my account was closed. No communication of any sort. It would've been nice to know this in advance as I would simply have transferred those funds to another account rather than getting the cheque and having to go through that whole process. Pretty disappointed with the whole Mirus/Continuum/Ninja debacle as well. Although I have a lot of time and money invested in Ninja for me it's now time to start looking at other alternatives, I've had enough. Who knows, this may lead me to a more robust and stable platform and people who actually care about all their customers.

wamo 

Any updates on Canadian brokers?

We have been receiving an influx of Canadian clients inquiring about the platforms we can offer them.

Here is a list of platforms we can offer to Canadian clients as well as links to sign up for demos

CQG Trader or CQG Q Trader: https://www.cannontrading.com/software/cqg-qtrader

Sierra Charts: https://www.cannontrading.com/software/transact-at

Multi Charts: https://www.cannontrading.com/software/multicharts

Market DeltaCloud: https://app.marketdelta.com/signup

eSignal: https://www.cannontrading.com/software/esignal
FireTip: https://www.cannontrading.com/software/firetip-futures-options--online-trading

We can help with Canadian customers. All except for BC.

Thank you,
Matt Z
Optimus Futures

There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. past performance is not indicative of future results.

mattz 

We can help with Canadian customers. All except for BC. Thank you, Matt Z Optimus Futures There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. past performance is not indicative of future results.

Hey Matt, I've seen you on the forum answering a number of questions and thought maybe you could help with this one.

I am in BC and so need to use IB Canada. A more financially professional individual might have gotten the answer I need a lot earlier than I have but my focus has been on actually trying to learn to trade...which at this point, over several years has gone from losing a good chunk of money to breaking even...and I am hoping might turn the last corner to profit.

Anyway, when I look at my "cash holdings" with IB it shows about 100k in deposits in CAD...listed as "total cash".
Then, I imagine due to losses over the years, it shows negative 6ok USD. And every month I am dinged a growing 'interest' that is now up to $400/mo.
I have tried their support people but no good info from them. They have an option to "convert all to CAD"...not sure if this is a solution or if it will stop me from being able to trade US Futures which I trade.

Any thoughts/help would be appreciated.
Craig

Try GFF Brokerage and ask for Vinny Nizian. I live in Manitoba and they’ve been great to deal with.

Blue Eagle 

Hey Matt, I've seen you on the forum answering a number of questions and thought maybe you could help with this one. I am in BC and so need to use IB Canada. A more financially professional individual might have gotten the answer I need a lot earlier than I have but my focus has been on actually trying to learn to trade...which at this point, over several years has gone from losing a good chunk of money to breaking even...and I am hoping might turn the last corner to profit. Anyway, when I look at my "cash holdings" with IB it shows about 100k in deposits in CAD...listed as "total cash". Then, I imagine due to losses over the years, it shows negative 6ok USD. And every month I am dinged a growing 'interest' that is now up to $400/mo. I have tried their support people but no good info from them. They have an option to "convert all to CAD"...not sure if this is a solution or if it will stop me from being able to trade US Futures which I trade. Any thoughts/help would be appreciated. Craig

Hi Craig,

First, the old post you quoted is no longer valid. We now take BC.

As for your question, You are holding two balances now, and one is negative. The interest charges occur on a negative balance. Therefore, ask your broker to convert the negative balance to USD. Remember that if your losses are in USD and the CAD depreciates, your USD losses will "eat" further into the CAD initial deposit.
If you have a customer service rep with the current broker, they can also discuss that with you.

I wish you the best of luck.
Happy and Healthy 2024.

Matt Z
Optimus Futures

There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blue Eagle 

Hey Matt, I've seen you on the forum answering a number of questions and thought maybe you could help with this one. I am in BC and so need to use IB Canada. A more financially professional individual might have gotten the answer I need a lot earlier than I have but my focus has been on actually trying to learn to trade...which at this point, over several years has gone from losing a good chunk of money to breaking even...and I am hoping might turn the last corner to profit. Anyway, when I look at my "cash holdings" with IB it shows about 100k in deposits in CAD...listed as "total cash". Then, I imagine due to losses over the years, it shows negative 6ok USD. And every month I am dinged a growing 'interest' that is now up to $400/mo. I have tried their support people but no good info from them. They have an option to "convert all to CAD"...not sure if this is a solution or if it will stop me from being able to trade US Futures which I trade. Any thoughts/help would be appreciated. Craig

You can use the Norbert Gambit to exchange your money.
Find an interlisted stock like BMO. Buy on the TSE and sell on NYSE. That will put US cash into your account.

deaddog 

You can use the Norbert Gambit to exchange your money. Find an interlisted stock like BMO. Buy on the TSE and sell on NYSE. That will put US cash into your account.

First, thanks to Matt for that info above.

And Mr Deaddog...the knowledge in your reply highlights a clearly weak link in my endeavour into the 'business' of trading. Never mind not knowing about the Norbert Gambit, I am seriously embarrassed that I only now am finding out that putting CAD into my account and trading US products resulted in a constantly growing negative balance that I have been paying increasingly growing interest on FOR YEARS!!!
I would quickly look at the fees being payed but was far more consumed with just learning to trade profitably and assumed they were normal broker fees. Last year I did notice that they were quite large and contacted a rep but they couldn't explain what was going on and I got busy with life and carried on.

Then this week I got my year end report and saw that I had payed almost $400/mo in interest fees on this negative balance last year. Finally dug in with the right info on my end and got my answer...which is now fixed.

While I am embarrassed at my cluelessness (and a little pissed that it never came up when opening the account and talking to reps) I am posting this here in case anyone else is as clueless and doesn't know that the CAD funds need to be transferred into USD to trade US products.

Thanks again guys,
Craig