Review of BMO InvestorLine: a Canadian online discount broker

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By myfirst50000

The following contain our personal review of BMO InvestorLine, a Canadian discount broker. We had been using the commodity trading broker BMO InvestorLine for several months now and we had been quite disappointed with the quality of BMO InvestorLine services. Here’s our review of BMO InvestorLine as a online broker day trading.

Me as a young trader on the Toronto Stock Exchange Market

We had been investing since 2005. In 2008, just before the massive stocks crash, we decide to open a discount broker account. We first open a broker account with TD Waterhouse securities. We had trade with TD Waterhouse securities since that time. For the past couple of months, we also had been trading with BMO InvestorLine. We open an account with BMO InvestorLine because we wanted to try something new. Little that we know at that time: but TD Waterhouse securities might be the best commodity broker available in Canada. In this presentation, we will elaborate on BMO InvestorLine and we will also make a comparison between BMO InvestorLine and TD Waterhouse securities. This will actually help us to concentrate on several points. We really want to share my view on BMO InvestorLine and explain the reason why we do not like BMO InvestorLine as a commodity trading broker. And this is despite a positive review provided by Rob Carrick in his latest book title Guide to What’s Good, Bad and Downright Awful in Canadian Investments Today. Rob Carrick is a financial writer well-known for his column of the Globe and Mail. In his latest book, Rob Carrick top rate BMO InvestorLine as being the best commodity broker. This was such a surprise for us, but this definitely help us to maintain a distance to what’s Rob Carrick welling to share of what he believes in. Does Rob Carrick has any financial knowledge? We don't think so. After giving it a taught, we believe that Rob Carrick might have received a some kind of bonus from BMO Bank of Montreal for having rated BMO InvestorLine as Canadian top broker. BMO InvestorLine is definitely not a top Canadian discount broker. And we are going to explain here the reasons of the why.

BMO InvestorLine 2 major problems: navigation and oh! awful blue color

Ok, we might not have 20 years of experience in finance like Rob Carrick, but what we know for sure: we dislike BMO InvestorLine platform color. It’s one of those awful blue shade that’s all over the place and it’s really not esthetic. While seeing that awful shade of blue, we just cannot concentrate on our trading. Period! That awful blue shade is also the color of BMO Bank of Montreal. It’s ugly on BMO Bank of Montreal Web site and on the BMO InvestorLine Web site as well… Can you imagine? There’s no way out!

Yes, we are new at trading, but after earning more than 1 500$ in dividend income in 2009, We do not consider ourselves a beginner anymore. We begin our trader life on the easiest going platform ever: TD Waterhouse securities. And we had to say, we were quite disoriented when we begin trading on BMO InvestorLine. And after several months using BMO InvestorLine, we are still lost. The surfing on BMO InvestorLine does not come naturally like on TD Waterhouse securities. We find BMO InvestorLine platform quite awful to use. TD Waterhouse online is hot and extremely convenient, even for beginners.

Hey BMO InvestorLine: I want to trade now: why can’t I?

BMO InvestorLine is quite disappointed. The interface of the platform is absolutely horrible. It’s basically impossible to transfer money in real time in order to purchase stocks. Yes, they have a banking account link to your BMO Bank of Montreal account, but its take 24 to 48 hours, if not 72 hours, for the money to show up in the BMO InvestorLine broker account. With TD Waterhouse securities, everything is link together and you can proceed with money transfers in real time without having to suffer from any penalties.

Alert: BMO InvestorLine sends confirmation of trading through the mail!

Awful! Be aware: each time you trade using BMO InvestorLine, you will receive, via regular mail, a confirmation of trade. The letter contains the account number of the user and also the numbers of stocks sell or purchase. The confirmation letter send by BMO InvestorLine also contain the name of the company trade. This is actually unnecessary and really inconvenient: what if the letter got lost over the mail?

We never experiment anything like this with TD Waterhouse securities. With TD Waterhouse securities, we do not receive monthly statement or anything like it through the mail. Everything is being provided online. It’s a lost safer. There’s nothing to worry about when you deal with TD Waterhouse securities. TD Waterhouse securities has what’s call eServices. Statements and tax forms can be download directly from your broker account online.

Can someone help us? Problems to reach an human being at BMO InvestorLine

BMO InvestorLine seems to have a minimum service policy. As a young trader, we sometimes have question. We like to speak to a representative from time to time. But each time we tried to call customer service of BMO InvestorLine, we ALWAYS face long delay before being able to speak to someone. Why? BMO InvestorLine is not open 24 hours a day like TD Waterhouse securities. BMO InvestorLine is only open from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 8pm Eastern time. Trying to reach a customer representative of BMO InvestorLine around 6pm is mission impossible. With BMO InvestorLine, we had suffered from a lack of customer service support. We wanted to hang up while waiting more than 30 minutes before being able to reach anyone.

Overall: lack of security with BMO InvestorLine Canadian online brokerage

The log-in password for the online access of the account and the trading password is actually the same. For us, this represents a lack of security. With TD Waterhouse securities, you get one password or the online access and one password for the trading. With 2 different passwords, its make it almost impossible for fraud. Well, if not impossible, it makes the protection much better.

Trade commodities online with BMO InvestorLine and pay expansive trade commission

At 29$ per trade commission (if being under 100 000$ in assets), trading with BMO InvestorLine on a regular basis can quickly become expensive. At that commission price, you are way much better with TD Waterhouse securities. TD Waterhouse securities offer one of the cheapest online trading. If you hold a minimum of 50 000$ value in assets, TD Waterhouse will let you trade at 9.99$ if you registered to their eServices. At 9.99$ per trade commission, TD Waterhouse is way much better than BMO InvestorLine. TD Waterhouse offers a cheap online trading solution.

Conclusion: who's the best commodity broker

If you are asking for our honest opinion, choosing BMO InvestorLine as a online commodity broker for online future trading brokerage is definitely out of the question. We personaly consider TD Waterhouse as being the best online trading broker you can ever get. I had been with TD Water house since 2008. After experiencing BMO InvestorLine, we just can’t understand how in the world BMO InvestorLine had been top ranked bank owned online broker in 2009 by the Globe and Mail. Searching for an online broker day trading? Go with TD Waterhouse for online future trading brokerage and get the best commodity broker. Better forget about BMO InvestorLine.

The Dividend Girl: follow my journey to financial freedom

Comments

Craig 2 years ago

The BMO investorline account is slow - crashes frequently. Not at all what you would expect from one of Canada's major banks.

myfirst50000 profile image

myfirst50000 Hub Author 2 years ago

Exactly! I experiment the same thing with BMO InvestorLine. Major deception! Really bad trading experience.

Sonne 20 months ago

I am with you! Very bad experience. Crash down all the time. I hate BMO investor line.

Umpa 19 months ago

I like to therefore buy from a financial advisor the no load mutual funds and bug them each time I want to make a transaction. When they tell me to get an investorline, I point to the fuck ups of the BMO Investorline. I am wondering how did you come up with $50,000? That would have taken the average 33 year old a year and a half to save.

Senya 19 months ago

You guys are out to lunch. I have no issues with BMO Investorline. You don't like the blue colour on the web page? Give me a break. You don't sound like a real investor. You can't even spell properly! You sound like a whiny kid..... You say "BMO Investorline has very expensive trading price" then you end up saying it is the exact same price as your precious TD Waterhouse.....I think you are a glue sniffer

Bruce  18 months ago

BMO investorline is really an inferior platform. Their system is very old, complicated an error prone. I've lost a significant amount of money due to their system alone. The idea is to gain market share from their existing bank clients, which I am, but the convenience isn't worth it. There are better offers with superior, client friendly technology.

bibo 16 months ago

you can set second password for trading different from account password on InvestorLine.

someone 14 months ago

the reason you guys have trouble is because you are new investors. so do not act like your hot shots. you have a lot to learn

a kim 14 months ago

I've been an Investorline user for 12 years and an Active Trader for over a year, currently making over 100 trades a month. My frustration with Investorline is skyrocketing. If you trade penny stocks, run, don't walk from Investorline. This platform can not accurately record half penny prices. Their third-party Streamer, is buggy and amateurish, and can not record half penny stock prices. I have written repeatedly over the past year and, not only have they done nothing about it, they always make it sound like it's the first time they've heard about it.

Saavygal 4 months ago

A lot of your facts are wrong here. It sounds like you were having a bad day and decided to take it out on BMO. Most people would trust Rob Carricks opinion over yours. Review your facts.

Potential TDW defecter 4 months ago

I've been researching a viable alternative to TDW which I've been using.

FIRST, TDW is good, but, now that my number exceeds 60 trades in the past 2 months, I really like the streaming data (levels 1 and 2) that BMO offers active traders. The commissions are the same anyway. The data set is worth over 50$/month. With TDW's lack of streaming quotes, I can no longer feel my arm by noon.

Moreover, SECOND, the direct ETF from BMO-I to an external account seems nice to me as well. But, THIRD, I can't find any indication that BMO-I will cover my account transfer fee. Neither do I know what their web platform looks like. So I was hoping that this review would offer something useful.

Anyone has any experience with Qtrade's platform? They seems pretty pricy in commissions (before I could qualify as an active trader again, given my current asset level).

Potential TDW defector* 4 months ago

Pardon my typos and errors (it's 5:32AM here): *seem; ETF (electronic transfer). Merci!

random guy 8 weeks ago

Most of the things you complain about are because you clearly don't know how to use the service.

For example, you complain that you can't transfer money and then trade immediately. Actually you can. You won't see the transfer show up in your balance screen immediately, but if you have just done a transfer, the funds are available immediately to trade.

Another example...BMO doesn't send email trade confirmations (which you found highly annoying) unless you set it to do that. Having said that, since either paper or email trade confirmations are a legal requirement for tax purposes, you should probably keep them.

For frequent traders and large accounts, Investorline is also $9.99, same as TD.

Regarding the "awful blue colour..." Seriously?

I agree that TD's trading platform is more idiot proof, and their charts are nicer to look at than BMOs. But, far more importantly, I find I get better pricing on my trades with BMO.

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