$50k balance in your portfolio and transaction costs should be $9.95 anywhere....

Virtual Broker only charge $6.49. Not sure about their service and trading system yet, but I have talked to the new account opening guy and he seems pretty good.

I have been with Questrade for 2 years and they are definitely giving me a lot of reasons to switch to another broker. I told the Qtrade customer service guy over the phone, the kind of trades I make is 99.9% of the time more than 1,000 shares, so regardless of your commission structure, it is $9.95 per trade for me. But the guy keep on insisting that they have lowest commission in Canada and all the other crap they are taught. And the guy would not budge anything on the margin interest rate, even though I know for a fact that is something that can be negotiated.

Just almost fucking had it with them, just waiting to unwind the rest of my positions (not complaining because of the bull market =D) before I switch because I know it can take anywhere between 4 - 6 weeks. I've calculated I can save more than $1,650/yr in commission just by switching from QT to VB.

jesus fuck, how much are you trading?!

either you have tits loads of money, or you're intra-day trading?

In the beginning, like any noob, I over traded and made shit load of money for QT. Now I settled down to about 35 - 40 trades a month. I would not consider myself a day trader because I don't watch the tick by tick action. To me that's not how you make the big dough and I can do other things in my life that is much more productive.

sounds good... feel free to share your plays

my current big winnings plays/ potential big quick hold shots = cpix on news of FDA approval of increased potential for its drug, bank of ireland, 40% gains this week... have to reassess that one... bry - gonna see on this one when results come out in the new year, could be some big growth from this company in teh coming year?? prb (i think) is a uranium play... could pop at anytime... could dive

also - as far as making QT a shit loads of money... i figure, if i'm making money, i'll happily make them money, but you're right, if you cna get same service for big savings - they'd be mad not to give some level of service to meet the value offered elsehere

I also make around 20-35 trades a month and usually buy 1,000+ shares... so what, they charge you premium for 1000+ shares ontop of the $10? Let me know!!

no, the point is if you're always trading 1000+ shares, you pay $9.95, when another site offers capped rates at $6.xx, you're paying 50% too much

QT is advantageous at 600 shares and less acquired, as you'll pay $4.95- $6.00 on these

4444...seems like you're really into pharma stocks...i guess you like the volatility? Are there any clues for which companies are most likely to get approval?


With RBC Direct I placed a limit order to buy TU at $43.30 USD..and this is what happened
10 Dec 2010 T.A - TELUS CORPORATION NON-VOTING SHARES DA CVT EXCHANGE RATE 1.02490
Buy 300.00 43.3 -13,323.65 CAD 15 Dec 2010

its all research... i have a large portion of my portfolio in large cap companies, which are 'safe', i have a number of international large caps that pay good dividends (yes you'll be suceptable to currency/international risks, but still - for example Telefonica)... some mid caps which are well positioned to grow better than most in their industry whilst world economic growth continues

so that leaves the last 10%, my risk portfolio - here, i like to have some junior mines (which i'd love to get help from here, as i'm not in that space - i'm in the big mining space, and i can tell you, BUY BUY BUY any and all of Teck, Barrcik gold, and goldcorp on weakness - these companies are all very well positioned for the future), and now i've gotten into pharm.

i just follow the FDA's calender of decisions, look at the company, look into the drug, and make an assessment as to what i think could happen on the upside, compare that to the downside, make an analysis, and go from there... we're only talking $2-5K on these ones, so even if i lose it all, not the end of the day by any means... but definitely some big upside, potential for earning 20-100% in a day or 2.... equally, good chace to lose 10-50+ % in a day, hence why its such a small part of my portfolio

lots of good advice here.

I use RBC now, I was with etrade prior to the purchase by scotia and it was easier to consolidate everything to RBC.

I stick strictly to mining companies but trade differently than you guys. I buy a few bigger name mining companies which will comprise of $50k then margin them for smaller mining companies.

waddy, I've been trading biotech/pharma for 3 years, made a boatload this year... mostly small-cap and mid cap low float companies which are undervalued.... if you want some tips shoot me a PM... biotech is a tough and risky market, I lost 12k the first year I started but if you know how to play the volatlility and news, you can make $$$$$$$$$

edit; might want to keep your eyes on CYTK monday morning, and CAPS / INHX / CORT in the coming weeks, trial data to be released on all of them by end of the month

what's your approach on the smaller miners... big ones are pretty easy, but relatively low return (compared to the potential upside on juniors) - resources?

for the 50k you need to find stable companies over the $10 range so you can margin them - I look for companies worth 10b or so as they have the potential to grow into the next goldcorp ie. Ivanhoe Mines.

For the junior miners, I stick to companies with a rock solid management team with prior history of success NOT taking into account their current area of operations. I don't care where they operate or what they hope to find, I put my money in them because of the people that run it. This is why in my previous posts you'll see I hold Minera Andes (The management team prior to Rob McEwen was decent but Rob took it to the next level) and Nortec Ventures (The guys that run it now ran Frontier Pacific Mining which Eldorado bought via hostile takeover). Look at Andean, Eldorado tried to buy them and they ended up in the hands of Goldcorp because the senior management team were familiar with each other.

One thing I stay out of is capital pool companies/seed stock. My reasoning is this: if the guy trying to raise the money had a prior history of success, you would not be given the opportunity to invest in the new pool as he would have a established client base to cull from. They're asking you to put money in so they have the necessary funds to go after a high prospect X mineral deposit (please tell me how you expect to win the rights to a high prospect X mineral deposit in a bull market for metals).

Another surefire way for success is to look at the spinoffs after a company has been bought ie. Parex Resources. The major will buy the company for the most advanced project and spinout the prospects into another shell giving it back to old management. These are guaranteed to make money over the long run.

I don't trade often either. I'll have the tickers flashing on my terminal all day but my spec/margin portfolio consists of companies that all have the ability to be bought it - JV with a major mining companies, X% holding by major mining company or management team that has previously through M&As.

So far this year I've hit home runs with Terrane and Potash One.

I have been trading for about 2 years now, i have traded pretty much everything from penny stocks in the US to Potash corp in Canada...I use to like Natural gas but now it seems to be controlled by too many external forces/companies/governments etc. What i like now are venture companies focusing on resourse exploration. Most of my money is in SXL right now, bought in at around $0.13 and it has great potential..i would recommend anyone with some risk tolerance to check this one out. Another pick that seems very popular is SFF, not holding anything for this company, but it seems like a good stock. If i can recommend anything to people is to be patient!! I use to be that guy who day trades, but its stressful, takes up too much time and doesn't improve your portfolio that much more. Find a good stock or a few and just invest and sit tight, of course if bad news is on the horizon, choose wisely, otherwise, dont worry that a stock is trading horizontally....

Kinda confused here...you mentioned Questrade and Qtrade...you know both are different brokers right?

Anyways, I've been using QTrade for awhile and chose it cause it was ranked #1 according to GlobeAndMail and based on what people have said on forums. They seem value customers and so have very good customer service. For example, E-Mails are answered within a few mintutes to an hour at most and phone calls get directly to a live person. Only downside is their comission which is quite high, trades for me costs $19.11 a trade...but I use it for mostly long term holdings. For day trading I'm thinking of switching to something cheaper. Possibly Questrade but like others I've heard horror stories about them.

what's your take on CYTK this morning - good news from their trials, but down 20+%

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hmm i may get into biotech myself when I get more investment capital and grow bigger balls haha. All my stocks are in mining right now and they seem to be doing all right. The only downside with biotech is the volatility and being a noob trader, I don't think I have the necessary skills and knowledge to make money in such a market lol. And wow losing 12k i think i would cry haha

Just shows you how fucked up biotechs are, CYTK down 20% on good news. If 2.25 holds tomorrow, I'm going to average down... WAY oversold and an over reaction on some good news, we'll see...pretty high risk!

so any prospects, guys? :D
jkjk

Roulston gave GMV a brief mention in his newsletter. The stop popped 30% to close at .65 cents.

More room to move up IMO; however, this mention will without a doubt give it the recognition it deserves. I can see it move up again in the coming days.

Look at RIV. Although not the all star management on board, the land holdings in similar regions and substantial differences in market capitalization would be the reasons alone to give GMV a look. & Insider ownership.

what mining companies do you look at? Giants like Kinross and TCK.b or small caps? I want to know some more about take overs and the possibilities of buy outs for future companies cause I have a few that have the potential for huge gains in TSX venture.

cowncake

penny stocks is were its at

^

That's right. A great way to build my fortune, or just another way to lose what little I have.

You have any on your watch lists? Maybe we could elaborate on our picks.


Is anybody watching Uranium One?