Like all of the Big 5 Banks, TD offers convenient online investing tools that regular people (not just professional traders) can use to manage their own investments. The TD Direct Investing Platform has high per trade fees, but does offer some pretty interesting educational materials and opportunities to help new and advanced investors.
They also offer a comprehensive suite of free tools and research, which is of significant value to anyone actively working to optimize their investments. Unfortunately, in addition to the high per transaction fees, there are also inactivity fees, so you’re likely to pay something, no matter what you do.
TD Direct Investing features
Let's look at what the TD Direct Investing Platform has to offer.
Why You Want It
Access free resources and tools + Variety of trading platforms.
Special Features
- Video series to learn about investing
- Daily live, interactive Master Class workshops
- Free investment research and tools
Provinces
ALL
Features
Types Of Accounts
- TFSA
- RRSP
- RESP
- RRIF
- LIRA
- LIF
- RDSP
- Cash account
- Margin account
- FHSA
Types Of Investments
- Stocks
- Mutual Funds
- ETFs
- Options
- Fixed Income
- GICs
- Cryptocurrency ETFs
Minimum Investment
$0
Email Support
Live Chat Support
Phone Support
Minimum Stock Fee
$9.99
Maximum Stock Fee
N/A
Minimum ETF Fee
$9.99
Maximum ETF Fee
See Issuer for Details
Active Trader Stock Fee Per Trade
$7
Cover Transfer Fees?
Minimum Deposit To Cover Transfer Fee
See Issuer for Details
Maximum Covered Transfer Fee
$150
Withdrawal Fees?
Account Maintence Fees
$25
Inactivity Fee Amount
See Issuer for Details
Promotion Description
N/A
Promotion Max Value
N/A
Promotion Requirements For Max Value
N/A
Promotion End Dates
See Issuer for Details
Terms
* Conditions apply. Please visit https://www.td.com/ca/en/investing/direct-investing for complete information.
TD Direct Investing rating: 3.7 stars
We’ve given TD Direct Investing 3.7 stars for a few reasons.
First off, the fees. With a base fee of $9.99 per transaction, and inactivity fees on a quarterly basis, you’re going to end up paying something, eventually. On the other hand, they do offer a wide variety of tools, research, educational materials, and online workshops, all of which are great for people who are just learning about investing and wealth management. You may also qualify to have your transfer fees reimbursed up to $150, which is a little, but nice thing.
Rating methodology
To calculate our Genius Ratings, we compare the features of the account or product in question with other similar products in Canada. We give each feature a score out of 5 based on that comparison. Once we’ve rated all the features, we run them through our proprietary algorithm to produce a final rating out of 5.
Learn more about our rating methodology.
The pros of TD Direct Investing
So, what does TD Direct Investing do right with this service?
Pros
No minimum investment needed to open an account
You can open an account and get started without having to transfer in any particular amount of money. This is great for folks who just want to get their feet wet and try playing with some of the tools before really diving in.
Some transfer fees may be reimbursed
You’ll be able to get up to a $150 reimbursement for transfer fees, but only if you transfer at least $25,000 in assets into your account from another financial institution*.
Active trader discount
If you make more than 150 trades per quarter, you can receive a discount on your trading fees, lowering them from $9.99 per trade to $7.00 per trade. This is still higher than many other investing brokerages, but worth noting if you’re interested in sticking with TD Direct Investing.
Variety of trading and investing platforms
With TD Direct Investing you’re given access to a number of different trading platforms, including WebBroker (the standard for managing your trades), the TD app for mobile devices, their Advanced Dashboard, and TD Active Trader for active U.S. options traders.
Wide array of free tools and market research
People who are just learning how to trade and need support can access TD Direct Investing support lines, Monday through Friday from 7 am to 6 pm ET. They also make available a variety of market research, charting tools, a personalized home page, automated alerts, and performance reporting. On top of this, TD Direct Investing also offers live online “master class” workshops, including a free seminar about getting started every Friday afternoon.
The cons of TD Direct Investing
So, what’s the catch?
Cons
High fees per trade can add up fast
At almost $10 per transaction, whether buying or selling, those fees are going to add up fast. If you’re planning to be relatively active with your trades, there are other brokerages that charge significantly lower base fees. These fees only apply on Canadian and U.S. stocks and options.
$25 per quarter inactivity fees
And if you’re too inactive, you’ll get dinged again, this time with a $25 inactivity fee that’s charged on a quarterly basis. That’s $100 a year for just…leaving your money invested with TD. How does that make any sense? However, this fee can be waived with an account balance of at least $15,000.
No practice accounts
If you’re just learning, having to actually put any money at risk is incredibly intimidating. It would be much better to be able to set up a practice account so you can learn the tools and sort out how everything works before having to pony up any cash.
No way to automate certain account activities
Some more modern online brokerages allow you to automate things like tax-loss harvesting and portfolio rebalancing. Not so with TD Direct Investing. If you want to do anything like that, you’ll have to sort out and manage it all yourself.
TD Direct Investing alternatives
How does TD Direct Investing measure up compared to some competitors?
 |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account | TD Direct Investing | Scotia iTRADE | Qtrade | CIBC Investor's Edge |
| Genius Rating | ||||
| Why You Want It | Access free resources and tools + Variety of trading platforms. | Get a free practice account + commission free ETFs. |  $80 GeniusCash + Ditch the fees, and trade unlimited Stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds and more for $0 | Lowest commission rate from a Big 5 Bank online broker + Free trading under 25. |
| Types Of Accounts |
|
|
|
|
| Types Of Investments |
|
|
|
|
| Minimum Investment | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Email Support | | | | |
| Live Chat Support | | | | |
Show More | ||||
| Open an account See more TD products Compare | Open an account See more Scotiabank products Compare | I Want This Deal See more Qtrade products Compare | Open an account See more CIBC products Compare |
TD Direct Investing FAQ
Some FAQs about TD Direct Investing.
Does TD cover any transfer fees?
New clients may qualify to have up to $150 of their transfer fees reimbursed if you transfer $25,000 or more from another financial institution. This transfer fee reimbursement is available up to 4 times per client.
What’s the TD Direct Investing base fee per trade?
TD Direct Investing’s base fee for equity and ETF trades is $9.99 per transaction. This is lowered to $7.00 per transaction if you’re an active trader. There are no fees for mutual funds or fixed income products.
Are there any free tools or research available with TD Direct Investing accounts?
There are. TD Direct Investing comes with an array of free tools and market research to help you stay on top of your investments.
Why are user reviews for TD Direct Investing as low as they are?
There have been several users who've given TD Direct Investing a 1-star rating, and it seems that poor customer service is the biggest reason for their dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, it's difficult for us to track and measure customer service and we're unable to incorporate this into our rating methodology.
Editorial Disclaimer: The content here reflects the author's opinion alone, and is not endorsed or sponsored by a bank, credit card issuer, rewards program or other entity. For complete and updated product information please visit the product issuer's website.
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