Since I recently shared a Scotia iTrade review, I thought I would do a TD Direct Investing review. We have our Family RESP with TD Direct Investing’s Webbroker. TD Directing Investing is not a new kid on the block, TD Direct Investing has been available as a self directed investing platform since 1984, that’s over 30 years ago.
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TD DIrect Investing Review
Here’s a review of TD Direct Investing with a focus on TD’s Webbroker. In a nutshell, I am a big fan and am amazed with all the graphic capabilities you can get with TD’s webbroker.
If I used TD as my main brokerage, I would probably not need to use Wealthica to check my investment portfolio performance and dividend income easily. My brokerage is Questrade and their graphing capabilities are not the greatest.
What is TD Direct Investing?
TD Direct Investing is an online brokerage trading platform that is part of the TD Waterhouse umbrella.
TD Direct Investing has three platforms that you can choose from:
Webbroker
Webbroker is TD’s most popular platform. This is the one we use for our RESP.
Here are some of the features of Webbroker:
- Market and analyst research (daily, weekly, and special reports)
- Morningstar access
- TD Economics
- Equity and Mutual Fund screeners (rice, dividend yield or return on investment)
- Charts with automated gain/loss reporting, time and money-weighted returns
- Investment videos (learn at your own pace) with Master Classes
They revamped it in recent years and it is sleek, the interface is very nice to look at and navigate. Also it is chock full of tools and information that you need.
Like it is so full of information and tools, my mouth just drops looking at all the reports you can get! I could spend hours a day looking at the reports and data, but unfortunately I don’t have the time right now.
Advanced Dashboard
This platform is geared towards active traders and has real time market data, research, and customizable charting. TD’s Advanced Dashboard also gives you access to financial statements, earnings estimates, and ratio analysis.
TD App
The TD App allows you to trade on the go. With the TD app, you will be able to access real time market news, quotes, fundamentals, and charts, and do a lot of basic things you would on the desktop.
Interestingly, the TD app is available in four different languages, English, French, and Traditional or Simplified Chinese.
Is TD Webbroker worth all the hype?
Rob Carrick released a 2021 Globe and Mail Online Brokerage Ranking and TD Direct investing scored an A-, which is the second best ranking out of all the online brokerages available in Canada (QTrade got an A and it holds the top spot).
TD Direct investing Accounts Available
There are a number of TD Direct Investing Accounts that you can open, and here they are.
- Self Directed LIRA
- Life Income Fund (LIF)
- Self Directed RDSP
- Self Directed RESP
- Self Directed Retirement Income Fund (RIF)
- Self Directed RRSP
- Self Directed TFSA
- Margin Account
- Cash Account
Basically there are no restrictions in accounts you can open with TD Direct Investing.
TD DIrect Investing Dashboard and Platform
The best feature of TD Direct Investing’s Webbroker is the dashboard and platform. It is so easy to use and easy on the eyes.
Here’s what it looks like after you log into your TD Webbroker. Isn’t it beautiful?
TD Direct Investing Fees
The commissions are similar to other big bank brokerages. It’s cheaper than it was before, remember the $29.95/trade days? 😉
For buying and selling commissions for Canadian and US stocks with TD Direct Investing, the commission is $9.99/ trade.
If you are an active trader (150+ trades per quarter) the commissions is reduced to $7.00/trade.
Mutual funds and fixed income products like bonds, GICs, and money market products do not have additional commissions when you buy or sell these products.
TD DIrect Investing Contact
Like with all other online brokerages these days, the customer service has been lacking. There have been people holding on the phone for hours to speak to a customer service agent with online brokerages.
The customer service hours for TD Direct Investing are form 7am to 6pm EST
Customer service representatives are able to speak English, Cantonese, French, and Mandarin.
However, for TD Direct Investing, you might be able to get faster service if you call through the app on your phone. This way your information (and possibly portfolio size?) will be seen by TD and they can be reached more quickly.
- Just click into your TD Canada app
- Then click on the three horizontal bars to the left of your screen
- Scroll down to “Contact Us”
- Click on “Call us”
- You’ll see the number for TD Direct Investing 1-877-883-8125
TD DIrect Investing Pros
There are many positives with TD Direct Investing.
According to Moneysense, TD Direct Investing is a Leader in Market Data. Moneysense has ranked TD Direct Investing the #1 Online Brokerage for Market Data.
Here are some examples of the Markets Reports you can get.
The platform and interface are excellent. The charting is excellent, you can check your performance since inception, you can check it YTD, or do 1 year, 3 year, or 5 year returns. You can also compare your returns to benchmark indexes of your choosing.
It even breaks down your asset allocation for you and shares it in a nice clean graph.
TD Webbroker also has a nice chart showing your expected dividend returns/ projected income/ or forward annual yield by month.
The high quality investing education videos are also great if you have time to learn about Stop Limit and Trailing Stops, or topics such as ‘what are ETFs’.
When you look at stock quotes, they are full of information too.
This is an example of looking up TD bank’s own stock quote on TD Webbroker 🙂
You can also create a watchlist (and even up to 10 watchlists) on TD Webbroker.
Finally, TD Direct Investing has a feature called TD Goals where you can sign up to set up your investment and money goals and figure our actionable ways to achieve them, and best of all track your progress.
TD Direct Investing Cons
There aren’t many negatives for the TD Direct Investing Webbroker. The only major one I can see is the cost and higher fees ($9.99 per trade or $7.00 per trade if you are an active trader).
The other downside (though I think shared with many other online brokerages these days) is the long wait times to speak to a customer service representative– think hours.
Other than that, the platform that you have access to, the research tools, and amazing charts are excellent. Like, what more could you want as an investor?
Genymoney.ca’s Verdict
What’s my TD Direct Investing review? Well, I’ve always thought that TD Direct Investing was the ‘Cadillac’ of the online brokerages available and it still is. The user experience when you log into TD Webbroker is second to none.
Personally I think it is better to use than Scotiabank’s iTrade. I’ve used BMO Investorline before too but that was a while ago so I can’t compare TD Direct Investing with that.
I think that TD’s Webbroker is better than Questrade in terms of dashboard and interface but the free ETFs with Questrade are worth sticking to a lower calibre online brokerage for me, haha. This is because I use the dollar cost averaging approach to investing ETFs.
TD Direct Investing Alternatives
If you’re not keen on paying $9.99 a trade, there are alternatives such as discount brokerages like Questrade.
As mentioned, I use Questrade as my main brokerage. For a discount brokerage like Questrade, you can have free ETF purchases and cheaper trading, like $4.95 per trade. However, with Questrade they charge you $9.99 per trade for mutual fund purchases. So if you intend to buy mutual funds regularly and even money market funds, then it would be better to stick to TD Direct Investing to avoid getting gouged by Questrade’s fees.
There’s also Wealthsimple too which has $0 in trading commissions but I personally think that opens up a can of worms (for myself at least) because it would decrease the barrier of more clearly thinking about what I am buying and putting in my investment portfolio.
If you are in the market for a new online brokerage, I would recommend that you check out the Globe and Mail list for the best online brokerages in Canada.
If you are looking for a promotional bonus for signing up with an online brokerage, check out this list.
Related Posts:
Do you use TD Direct Investing?
What is your TD Direct Investing review?
GYM is a 30 something millennial interested in achieving financial freedom through disciplined saving, dividend and ETF investing, and living a minimalist lifestyle. Before you go, check out my recommendations page of financial tools I use to save and invest money. Don’t forget to subscribe for blog updates, a free dividend yield spreadsheet, and the free Young Money Bootcamp eCourse.