I have accounts with Questrade Canada, TD Waterhouse Canada and Interactive Brokers (IB) Canada. Normally, I would recommend Interactive Brokers Australia with which you can access the world's major markets. Problem is though, that with IB the commission rate for TSX stocks is 1 cent per share. For 10,000 shares of a penny stock, the commission would be $100 for 50,000 shares of a penny stock, the commission would be $500 and when you sell, the same commissions. IB is great for non large scale TSX stock purchases. IB has very low commissions for the worldwide exchanges in general. The significant advantage with IB is that the forced currency exchange rate is only .02% off of the listed currency exchange rate. For major CDN brokerages, the forced currency exchange rate commission is 1.4% one way, both ways it's double. The minimum to open a IB account is $10,000 US.
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/main.php
I really like Questrade Canada where the max. commission rate is $9.95 no matter how many shares you buy or sell. I have some friends in Singapore that have opened a Questrade Canada account but I do not know, if they have some residency status in Canada. The minimum to open a Questrade account is $2,000 CDN. Also, Questrade has Forex as well. You may want to hedge out your currency risk CAD/AUD with a Forex position. You can contact Questrade at:
The advantage of having a Canadian account for the TSX is better executions for the TSX listed stocks (except for IB which I have found has excellent executions around the world).
The TSX has a senior exchange called the TSX and a junior exchange called the TSX Venture. The small cap stocks are on the TSX Venture. When buying a stock on the TSX Venture, use limit orders only (I always use limit orders).
For the performance of the TSX and TSX Venture, go to www.bigcharts.com and type in ca:isptx and ca:ispvx.
