I have TD Waterhouse for the INK reports and IPOs, I have foreign services for foreign stuff, and Credential Direct at $9.95 for lower priced stuff. I fully intend to get to ETrade "soon" (soon). It's hard to find time to do all the paperwork. I have had lots of brokerage accounts - perhaps 15 or 20 brands, and many more accounts.

I closely compared Questrade, CIBC, TDWaterhouse, ETrade and Credential (as well as anyone else I could find), and they all have their pros and cons.

Once I added it all up, ETrade came out on top, but just barely. They hold $50k of your assets hostage for low commissions (9.99), but they do "householding" and instant setup and all that. TDW holds $100k of your stuff hostage if you want 9.95 trades. However, you can trade US$ stuff in your RRSP without ever converting out of US$ - nobody else can do that. CIBC makes you buy a package of $400 worth of trades for every subaccount, but they are cheap, and all trades on one side of a stock per day are considered one trade. Questrade kills you on penny stocks - you pay the extra liquidity fees and such, so buying 10,000 shares at $0.50 costs $80 in commission - a killer. They acknowledge that trading penny stocks is a bad idea with them. But their forex is fantastic. Interactive Brokers has ridiculously low margin rates. Credential is good but you have to keep trading to keep your status - but Level 2 (10 deep) is free, which is very good. Good people too, and you know they are the credit union people, so good karma. Best of all, if you make a cash transfer, you can trade on it instantly - unbeatable. The US and oveseas brokerages can give you access to products that you just can't get here. I also have others to handle strange debt and derivative instruments.

So, as you might expect, there is no clear-cut winner. I am liking Credential a lot, but it's not fast - a bit like a boat race where you're piloting a barge. Only TDW and ETrade are super-fast. I have never had a true execution problem with any brokerage - any problems I've had have been a computer glitch or my own stupidity. Your mileage may vary.