 What's going on traders? Alex here and it's finally time that we talk about brokers. 2020 has been a crazy year in the stock market. We had the small cap buy your tech stock after we had the EV sector and now we have the crypto stocks that are breaking out to new all-time high. When it comes to brokers in 2020, we definitely had some changes and definitely not changes made to help Canadian traders out there. So in this video, I'll cover all the important changes and also talk about who's left to day trade in Canada. As usual, if you have any question about the tools that I'm using to day trade everything will be linked in the description. It's also the best way to support the channel because these links are affiliate links so that means I receive a small commission if you purchase a product. So let's not waste any more time and let's jump right in. So the first broker we're going to be talking about is Tinker Swim Canada. So TOS has been used by a lot of traders for many, many years because they have a really good charting platform. I don't really like their day trading platform because I don't feel it's very intuitive but in terms of charting, I think it's really one of the best out there. Before to use Tinker Swim, you only needed $5,000 but this year after getting bought up by Charles Schwab, they have bought up the minimum to $25,000. So this change definitely affected a lot of Canadian traders out there and the reason why they did that after reading a few articles is they had a lot of platform issues so that come with speed and execution. So by taking out a lot of small accounts, they are able to keep their big accounts and make sure they profitable when it comes to their platform and also their reputation. So it's understandable on their end to do this but it really sucks when you're Canadian and you really get kicked out of your broker because they changed the minimum requirement from $5,000 to $25,000. So it's not like they changed it to $5,000 to $10,000. It's a very significant change for Tinker Swim and I think a lot of people got kicked out and won't be using them for quite a while. Another broker that did have some changes is Trade Zero. So Trade Zero used to be one of the only brokers they trade with 6 to 1 leverage and also have the ability to have some hard to borrow stock. Their platform was always an issue to me because I think it has a lot of glitches and whenever you're day trading, if your platform has a lot of issue, it's very hard because day trading is already hard and whenever you're having also platform issue, it makes it that much harder. So recently I saw on their website that they did have some changes when it comes to policy and also acceptance of customers. They're not accepting customers when they're coming from Ontario anymore. So if ever you're from BC or Alberta or something like that, you're still going to be fine. But if ever you're in Ontario, you're not going to be able to day trade with them. I've seen similar moves in the past and normally what end up happening is the broker leaving completely. They start to leave one province or one state and then they end up getting kicked out of the other one and so on and so forth. And at a point, they just don't have a reason to do business in this country. So they just leave it completely. But if ever you have any kind of money out there, you shouldn't be worried because you're going to get a notice. So you have to withdraw your fund and stuff like that. But it still sucks because it was one of the only one to day trade on the short side. If ever you were located in Canada. Now let's talk about IBKR. So I've been using them for a while. I've been really, really happy with them. My previous experience has been very good. I know this year they had a few changes when it came to margin because of the volatility increase. So they definitely lowered the margin. So if ever you're using a very small account, it might affect you. But for the most part, everything stayed the same. There was a couple glitches when it came to overload in market data and volume. That was the summer when the pandemic was at its peak. And that might have affected a few traders, but overall it's been very, very good. I've been using it with that trader. So I'm not using their TWS for day trading. So I'm using IBKR with that trader. And I think it's a very reliable day trading platform. Now let's talk about the last broker for today. And this one is Questrade. So I'm not a fan of Questrade for day trading. I wouldn't have any issue with them when it comes to swing trading because I think it makes sense to have them for swing trading. But for day trading, I wouldn't recommend them because their platform is still as glitchy as I'm aware of. And also they put up their market data costs. So they're actually more expensive to use now with the same technology. But I don't see the benefit of using them to day trade because you have better options out there. But if you're going to be a swing trader, the commission aspect might not be that important to use. So you can still keep on using them. When it came to other policy, everything stayed the same with them. So all of these brokers were the one remaining to day trade in Canada. So as usual, if you enjoyed this video, like and subscribe. If you have any question about the tools that I'm using to day trade, everything will be linked in the description. So thanks for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one.