Are you an investor or trader? Would you like to start making millions once your trade or investment is successful? Do you have the stock trading skills for this?
If no, then there are several best online trading platforms offered by different companies that cater solely towards helping the traders in their various search of trade that helps them gain massive profits.
Public.com: Best Free Stock App for Theme-Based Investing
- Available via desktop, Apple iOS and Android App on Google Play
- Best For: New investors with limited capital
- Sign up here
Public.com is another commission-free investing app that targets Millennials and Gen-Zers who have attuned their senses to social media. These age groups want to align their investing with their social preferences as well as keep good company to socialize and learn from others.
The stock investing app boasts an increasingly-common feature geared toward younger investors who may not have enough money to buy some higher cost shares at one time: fractional investing.
This product feature plays on the company’s mission of making the stock market an inclusive, educational investment opportunity which can be fun. They accomplish the latter point by allowing people to invest alongside friends and other well-regarded investors.
Much like social media platforms who provide the standard blue check mark logo to verify public figures, Public.com provides visibility into trade activity and other insights these verified investors wish to provide to the Public.com community.
What Makes Public.com Different?
Public.com does not monetize its trading activity through receiving payment for order flow (PFOF) unlike other free stock trading apps found on this list.
In light of the GameStop market mania in early 2021, Public.com announced a change in its revenue model, breaking with how many free stock apps generate income.
They no longer generate revenue from PFOF and has introduced a tipping feature in the app, acting as a de facto (optional) commission.
The company believes they have a responsibility to lead the industry in a different direction and no longer receive compensation for routing orders to market makers for trade execution.
With the Robinhood blow up, we saw how this created a conflict of interest between brokerage and customer.
By doing this, Public.com will better align their financial incentives with the best interests of their customers.
For those interested in starting to trade on Public.com, the online brokerage platform offers a free $10 signup bonus if you make an initial deposit. Further, you can share your special link with others and gift them free stocks (fractional shares) as well.
If this sounds like an interesting micro-investing app, open an account and make an initial deposit to see if the app meets your social and investing needs.
Read more in our Public.com investing app review.Public.com | Commission-Free Themed Investing
- Public.com offers zero-commission trading on thousands of stocks and ETFs, available as fractional shares
- Uses a social feed where members can share why they believe in certain companies (or don’t) and can post comments on others’ trades
- Can invest in curated lists of stocks and ETFs for people to aggregate investments by interest area or values
Moneta Markets
Moneta Markets was founded in 2009 and is regulated by ASIC and FCA. With Moneta Markets, users can trade forex as well as indices, commodities and share CFDs with just a $50 minimum deposit.
There are three trading accounts available, depending on whether you want to pay a commission and get tighter spreads or have the trading costs built into the spread. This means that True ECN accounts have a commission cost of $6 per lot, but spreads that start at 0 pips on Forex, while STP and Prime accounts have the fees built into the spread.
With Moneta Markets, traders can choose to use MetaTrader 4 and 5, as well as the proprietary WebTrader and AppTrader platforms (available for web and mobile use respectively).
MT4/5 are well known great platforms for traders with outstanding research, tools and algorithmic trading available.
The proprietary platform has a simple user interface. While that is great for beginners, there is not as much depth in the platform for those who are more advanced.
Trading tools are not integrated, and both the mobile and web app could do with some updating to be as reliable and usable as other proprietary platforms offered by similar brokers.
There is a demo account available, which allows traders to practice their strategies and work out how best to use all the functions of the platform.
The research on the platform is almost entirely third-party – other than the Moneta TV YouTube channel which has daily market briefings.
However, if you are using the MetaTrader suite there is a lot of research and analytics available through Trader Central, so the lack of in-house research on the Moneta Markets platform might not be too much of a problem.
There is an extensive Masters Course, which is a series of more than 100 videos that are suitable for beginners through to advanced traders, covering many topics and in different categories and they can be viewed and used completely independently.
The customer service on Moneta Markets is available 24/5, through email, phone and live chat.
TradeStation
Industry-Leading Trading Technology and Tools; Sophisticated Charts and Indicators
Founded in 1982 as Omega Research, Inc, TradeStation has a long history of providing quality services to the active trading community. The company is best known for its top-notch technology that gives the trader the upper hand in various financial markets. Here are the key stats:
- Minimum Deposit: There is no minimum deposit to take part in the company’s platform. However, if you plan on trading margins, your initial deposit will have to be at least $2,000. Failure to maintain these account minimums will result in an inability to trade on the platform.
- Tools: The company’s claim to fame is its intuitive trading technology. The platform comes with some of the best tools traders could ask for, including customizable charts, all the indicators you will ever need, and much more.
- Assets Available to Trade: The company offers trading in stocks, options, futures, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, initial public offerings (IPOs), and mutual funds.
- Cost: The platform offers zero trading commissions, regardless of which financial product you trade. When it comes to other assets like options and futures contracts, TradeStation’s fees are some of the lowest in the industry. Margin fees are reasonable, especially for traders with large account balances, with interest rates ranging from 3.5% to 9.5%. If you’re trading with a small account balance, the margin fees are relatively expensive, but the larger your balance gets, the more reasonable they become.
- Customer Support: You don’t become one of the best in the business without providing quality customer support. The company’s support staff is available from 8am to 5pm Eastern time, Monday through Friday. The staff is well-trained and ready to answer any questions you may have.
- Simulated Trading: The platform comes with a demo account, allowing you to test your strategies without risking your first dollar. The simulator is the same as the real-life trading platform, offering all the intuitive tools you would expect to need during live trading and making it one of the best trading simulators available.
- Margin Trading: The platform offers access to margin accounts as long as you maintain a minimum balance of $2,000 in your trading account. As mentioned above, margin fees aren’t very appealing with smaller account balances, but as your balance rises, they become more and more competitive.
- Available Order Types: Through the platform, you’ll have access to all the basic types of orders including market, stop market, limit, and stop limit orders.
All told, TradeStation has earned its position as one of the best brokers for day traders. Not only does the company offer an intuitive trading platform, it offers an ecosystem of trading technology, real-time data, and access to several financial markets, all with market-leading low fees.
Admiral Markets
Admiral Markets, rebranding to ‘Admirals’, describes itself as a ‘full-spectrum financial hub’.
In practice, Admirals is a broker that offers several forex and CFD trading instruments in most currencies.
Founded in 2001, Admiral Markets is regulated by JSC, FCA, EFSA and CySEC, and offers traders access to both MetaTrader 4 and 5, with the opportunity to have several active accounts with different base currencies to take advantage of price instability.
There are several account types available, depending on the platform that you want to use.
On MT4, you can choose a standard account known as Trade.MT4. The minimum deposit for this account is 100 USD/EUR/GBP or equivalent, and you can trade 37 currency pairs as well as metal, energy, future, stock and bond CFDs.
In this account, the trading fees come from the spread, apart from with single share or ETF CFDs, which have a standard commission of 0.02 USD.
The Zero.MT4 account offers tighter spreads, with more currency pairs (45) but fewer CFD options.
The commission on forex and metal CFDs is 1.8 to 3 USD per lot, cash indices are 0.5 to 3 USD per lot, and energy CFDs are 1 USD per lot.
If you prefer the upgraded MT5, you can also have an Invest.MT5 account, alongside the Trade.MT5 and Zero.MT5. MetaTrader 5 accounts have access to more trading instruments in both Trade and Zero, but the Invest.MT5 is designed purely for buying stocks and ETFs, with more than 4,350 stocks and 200 ETFs available and a minimum deposit of 1 EUR/USD/GBP.
Deposits are free using bank transfer, card, PayPal or Klarna, but there is a 0.9% fee (or $1 minimum) for deposits made using e-wallets like Neteller or Skrill. You can have one free withdrawal a month as a bank transfer, but two if you use PayPal or e-wallets.
Admirals is available as a trading app on mobile as well as web and desktop, and the user interface and real-time trading that is available across platforms offer a seamless user experience.
The research and analytics are extensive, with technical and fundamental analysis alongside trading news, market sentiment and a market heat map. Access to MetaTrader Trading Central and a weekly trading podcast is also provided.
In terms of education, there are articles and tutorials, eBooks, trading videos, webinars and seminars as well as a FAQ and a handy glossary.
Admirals takes learning seriously with two separate courses aimed at beginner traders. The Zero to Hero course consists of 20 video lessons, a Q&A and a live session as well as a well-crafted trading strategy. Forex 101 is a three-stage course to take beginners through to experts using a structure that includes a video lesson with detailed notes and a quiz to check knowledge.
Forex & CFDs are complex products, not suitable for everyone and come with the high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Conclusion
There are many brokers in Canada. Some of them are leaders but some of them are not. The purpose of this article is to make a top list of the best Stock trading platforms in Canada. To rank these stock market trading platforms I used a special algorithm I got from NASA.