Commissions on some trades are higher than they would be at internet discounters. Why?
We are very conscious of commissions and other costs, but weight these costs against the service and execution we require. We look at the entire package rather than at the brokerage commission in isolation. This is particularly important for a firm such as ours that buys many foreign stocks, including those in emerging markets, and foreign bonds. My experience is that many of the discounters have terrible executions on foreign stocks, including Canadian ones, even though the stated commission may be low. We have examined many discount brokerages and even used them in the past, but without success. The spreads are wide, the executions awful, and with very high currency exchange rates, as well as the inability to trade in certain markets or buy certain securities all together. Usually, buying the identical stock in the same amount at both a discounter and at one of our select brokerages would result in paying a higher total cost at the discounter, even though the stated commission was lo
