Qtrade Direct Investing vs Topstep

A stock trade costs CAD 0 and the account fee is CAD 0, so dealing and holding carry no commission between them. For a buy and hold investor the fee is not what drives the outcome, market prices are. The account is therefore straightforward to cost before any money goes in.

An options contract costs CAD 0, and options sit inside the stocks, etfs and options list, so the contract price is the figure to check. Share dealing is separate and runs at CAD 0, while the account fee is CAD 0. Nothing further is listed for a direct investing account.

The evaluation fee is $49, and the same figure is listed as the minimum deposit, so that is the outlay before any trading. For context, the median challenge price across the brands here is €56.56. A failed attempt means paying the fee again to try, so treat it as a cost of repeated attempts rather than a single ticket.

Once funded, you keep 90% of the profit, and payouts go out Every 2 weeks. The split is a percentage of profit rather than a flat fee, so a thin month does not eat into it. The cadence matters as much as the percentage for cash flow, since a good month reaches your account sooner with a frequent schedule.