Trading will get a little bit cheaper. TD Waterhouse now allows customers to get $9.99 trades with $50,000 in assets – down from $100,000 as of November 4th.

Competition has been heating up in Canada’s discount brokers. About a year ago, they began rewarding active traders and large account holders with lower trading fees.

If you don’t have a large account or do frequent trades, shop around for the lowest normal rate. Here is a list of the trading prices for Canadian brokers:

eTrade – $19.99
TD Waterhouse – $29
RBC Direct Investing – $28.95
BMO InvestorLine – $25
CIBC Investor’s Edge – 25.00
ScotiaMcleod Direct Investing – $28.95
eTrade – $19.99
Questrade – 1¢ per share, minimum $4.95 / maximum $9.95 – this stands out as being better than the active trader/frequent trader fees of many of the other brokers.

Account holders with large asset values can benefit from dramatically lower trading fees. E-Trade is the winner here with the lowest asset value needed to get lower fees as well as having the lowest fee. Call your broker to make sure they have a list of all your account holdings (including spousal accounts) to make sure you can qualify for the cheaper trades. Here is a list of the brokers and their asset levels required to get lower trading fees:

eTrade – assest of over $50,000 get $6.99 trades (normal is $19.99)
TD Waterhouse – assest of over $100,000 get $9.99 trades (normal is $29)
RBC Direct Investing – assest of over $100,000 get $9.95 trades (normal is $28.95)
BMO InvestorLine – assest of over $250,000 get $9.95 trades (normal is $25)

The other way to get lower trading fees is to be an “active trader”. These reward people that make frequest trades with lower fees. There’s a few different ways that the brokerages have provided this:

CIBC Investor’s Edge sells 50 trades for $395. That’s $7.90/trade but you must use them in a year. (Normal price is $25.00)
ScotiaMcleod Direct Investing has $14.95/trade if you make 30-89 trades per quarter. 90+ trades get $8.95/trade. (Normal price is $28.95)
eTrade has $9.99/trade for 30+ quarterly trades. $6.99 for 150+ trades.
TD Waterhouse has $9.99/trade for 30-149 trades a quarter and $7.00 for 150+