# How Does Buying US Securities Work with Questrade?



## alexei (Jul 2, 2012)

I sent an email to Questrade about this on Thursday and haven't received a reply so I've decided to ask here.

I have a CAD and USD TFSA with Questrade. On Wednesday, I had money in money CAD TFSA and I bought a US security for say $2000. I'm pretty sure my USD TFSA was showing (2000) after the transaction. After this, I immediately used the exchange funds feature on the Questrade website and transferred 2000 from CAD into USD TFSA.

Now, next day my CAD TFSA was displayed as (2000) and USD TFSA as 2000.

Not sure where I read it but I thought that money would be withdrawn from the account that matches the currency of the security on the day of the settlement.

Can anybody advise me please on how buying US securities works for TFSA accounts?


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

You will need to follow up and yell at them a bit to fix it. Their system allows for mistakes like that to happen.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

Sometimes it takes a little time for the transactions to settle.


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## Young&Ambitious (Aug 11, 2010)

Do you have your currency set to "Trade Currency"? 

There is info here "To learn more, in myQuestrade, go to My accounts, select Account management and click Currency settlement."


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## alexei (Jul 2, 2012)

Yes, I just checked and my currency is set to Trade Currency.

Current settlement: 
Trade Currency

Here is what Questrade says on the website:

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Important settlement details:
If you have insufficient U.S. or Canadian funds in your registered account to cover the trade, a currency spread will be applied only to the portion of the funds converted.

If you have sufficient USD funds in your registered account to cover the trade, there will be no currency conversion. Because Questrade does not permit trading on margin in registered accounts, you must convert sufficient Canadian funds to complete the trade. You will be charged currency conversion only for the amount of Canadian funds you convert. For example, if you have CAD $1000 and USD $1000 in your RSP account and you put in a buy order for $1500 in a USD security, you will incur currency conversion for the portion of the trade not covered by your existing USD.
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These statements is contradictory: "you must convert sufficient Canadian funds to complete the trade" and "a currency spread will be applied only to the portion of the funds converted." When I bought the US security, was the 2000 CAD immediately converted to USD? I'm not clear then why I was able to exchange funds from CAD and USD after the trade.


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## alexei (Jul 2, 2012)

For instance, if I have my currency set to CAD, have 2000 in the USD account, and buy US stock for 2000, will my CAD account be charged for the stock or shares will be bough with USD and then simply deposited into the CAD account?


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

I only have CAD in my questrade account and it still lets me buy US stocks, it just uses margin for it. Although any capital gains are deposited in the accoutn as USD. Seems a lot simpler than worrying about exchanging between CAD/USD.


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## londoncalling (Sep 17, 2011)

I also have my account in CAD with Questrade. It is simple and easy. For the amount you are spending Alexei does not seem worth the hassle, and stress, with such a low margin rate for such a short period of time.


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