Echan

Hey all,

This is my first post, although I've been reading for a little while now.

I've recently been doing a bit of research about investing. I've quickly realized that many people around my age (20) know surprisingly little about the subject, asking friends for information has been futile at best.

I currently use TDWaterhouse because my chequing account is with TDCanadatrust anyway and have about 5k invested in shares there. I currently have another 45k in my savings account I'd like to invest. My plan is to hold my positions for a long time, not try to turn it around for a quick buck.

After reading a little bit about Etrade, they seem to offer a much better deal than TDWaterhouse for me, but I've been having trouble finding information on why I might want to stay with TD if all the fees for Etrade seem lower. If I phone up TD and ask them why I should stay with them instead of switching, do I have any ability to talk them down to lower fees? If so, what should I say or try to get out of them?

Recently I've been looking into Index Funds, but after playing around with TDs online webbroker for half an hour, I still have absolutely no idea what to do if I want to invest in, for example, the S&P/TSX 60 index. TDs interface has made it very confusing for me. Do I just buy it like a regular stock? Is my brokerage supposed to have a mutual fund that matches the index? If so, I can't seem to find the fees associated with it. This is what I see when I do a search.

Symbol Exchange Description
XIU CA - Canadian ISHARES CDN S&P/TSX 60 INDEX ISHS S&P/TSX 60
.TXCI CA - Canadian S&P/TSX 60 CAPPED INDEX INDEX
;SXO CA - Canadian S&P/TSX 60 INDEX INDEX
;TSPTSE CA - Canadian S&P/TSX 60 INDEX INDEX

When I search for the following symbols, .TXCI, ;SXO, ;TSPTSE I get an error, does that mean what I'm looking for are the XIU ISHARES? I'm not really sure what the differences between them are.

I have no idea how to end this post since I'm new and I'm not used to seeing forums that are so devoid of simple one liners and horrible punctuation. Thanks in advance.

eribrav

First: Do you get good customer service from TD, and are you otherwise happy with them? If you are you might consider staying with them. Since you're not going to be trading frequently, a few extra dollars fee per trade is probably irrelevent. I'm a former ETrade customer, and I certainly won't be going back given the poor service I got.

Second: Do some more research on ETF's (Exchange Traded Funds). XIU is an ETF. It tracks the TSX 60 index. You buy and sell it like a stock, paying the usual commisions. I'm in the States, so symbols may be a little different but I got a quote for it on Yahoo! under XIU.TO . ETF's are much more user friendly than mutual funds as far as ability to trade them goes. I buy and sell them frequently.

iccky

Index funds and ETFs are the two options you want to consider, but there are some important differences. With ETFs, you can move in and out as often as you like, and can invest as little or as much as you want. The downside is that you pay normal brokers fees to buy as sell these shares. If you're planning on adding a small amount of money each month, these can eat up a lot of your gains. A no-load index fund, on the other hand, won't charge you to invest, but will have a minimum balance and will be slower to move in and out of.

I have only a small amount to invest, so I stick with ETFs.

Also, if you're going just on price I beilve Scottrade is the cheapest, at least in the States. I use them, and have no compliants, but I'm not an investor who does a lot of complicated trades so I really can't say much.

Echan

Thanks for the advice, it sounds like I will want Index funds as I'd like to be able to put a couple hundred bucks into it every month.

AXP_Crow23

Agreed...ETFs are awesome