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I have been using Wealthsimple Trade for around 2 years now and I absolutely love the app. If you are new to stock trading on Wealthsimple Trade, you might have more than a few questions.

Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about Wealthsimple Trade.

How much does Wealthsimple charge per trade?

A grand total of $0. Wealthsimple Trade is the first and only commission free trading platform in Canada.

How to trade options on Wealthsimple Trade?

As of now (Dec 2021), Wealthsimple Trade does not allow options trading. Must be in the works and when it drops, it should be awesome. You can buy stocks, etfs and even do fractional investing but not options & warrants.

How to withdraw money from Wealthsimple Trade?

Short story short, in a few clicks.

Step 1: Press the ‘Move’ button at the bottom

Step 2: Select ‘Withdraw Funds’

Step 3: It will ask ‘Which account do you want to withdraw from?’. Select the Account type and press continue.

Step 4: Enter the amount that you would like to withdraw

Step 5: Select the account to which the withdrawal has to be sent.

Step 6: Verify and submit withdrawal

You will receive the funds in your account in 2 to 3 business days.

How do you receive dividends on Wealthsimple Trade?

You will automatically receive dividends from eligible stocks that you own. You do not need to do anything. If you want to find your dividends inside the mobile app, follow the steps below.

a)Login to the Wealthsimple Trade App

b) Press ‘More’ and select ‘Activity’
c) Press ‘Filter’ and select ‘Dividends’ under Activity type. The default selection would be ‘All’. Press ‘Done’
d) You will see all your received dividends

Where do dividends go on Wealthsimple Trade? Is it reinvested?

Currently Wealthsimple Trade does not have a dividend reinvestment program. Your dividends go straight to your cash available to trade.

How long does deposits on Wealthsimple Trade take?

If you are a premium user, you pay $3 per month for the plan. It comes with Instant Deposits up to $5000

Does Wealthsimple Trade have a Desktop App?

Although Wealthsimple Trade launched initially as a Mobile only app, it also has a desktop app right now.

How safe is Wealthsimple Trade?

Short answer. Really Safe. When you buy a stock or an etf using Wealthsimple Trade, it is under your name. The underlying security is owned by you. Wealthsimple Trade plays the middle man here.

Still on the fence? Wealthsimple Trade is a division of Canadian Shareowner Investments Inc which is a member of IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada).

All the members of IIROC are part of Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). In case a member of CIPF becomes bankrupt or insolvent, your investment funds are protected up to $1000000.

So, unless you have invested more than a million dollars on Wealthsimple Trade, you need not worry. They are the leaders in the Canada and as of 2021, they manage over C$15B in assets.

Who owns Wealthsimple Trade?

Wealthsimple was founded by Michael Katchen in 2014. Wealthsimple is primarily owned by Power Corporation indirectly at 77.4% through their investments into the company.

Wealthsimple recently raised $610M at a valuation of $4B in May 2021.

How to refer my friends to Wealthsimple Trade?

Press the ‘Gift’ icon on the top right corner.

Press ‘Invite friends’ and choose any of the apps on your phone to text your friends with a referral URL.

When your friends sign up using your link, they will get two free stocks to trade.

Does Wealthsimple Trade allow fractional trading?

Yes. You can buy fractional shares of more than 240 companies on Wealthsimple Trade. You can read all about it here.

wealthsimple wealthsimple trade

Let’s say you wanted to invest $100 into Apple every month. Apple currently trades at $178 a share. In a world without fractional trading, you might have to wait two months to get 1 share of Apple by paying whatever is the current price on the day of purchase.

Enter Fractional Trading. Want to invest $100 into Apple today? No sweat. Pay $100 and get whatever fraction of a share of Apple you can get for $100 today.

It is more like paying for a slice of pizza than the whole pizza itself.

Is Fractional Trading available in Canada?

Up until fall of 2021, Canada didn’t have an app that allowed investors like you and me to do fractional trading. Everything changed once Wealthsimple Trade introduced Fractional Trading.

With Wealthsimple Trade app, you can buy fraction of a share for as low as $1.

Do you want to invest in Tesla? Start with just $1 or $10 or $100 depending on your budgets.

Are you impressed by the massive Amazon Empire? Own a piece of the magnus opus stock trading at $3400 USD for as low as $1

Wealthsimple Trade makes it easier for retail investors like you and me to invest in big companies like Tesla, Google, Microsoft, Amazon etc.

How many companies on Wealthsimple Trade offer Fractional Trading?

As of Dec 2021, there are 249 stocks that are available on Fractional Trading, Pretty impressive. It is now way easier to diversify your portfolio depending on your interests and convictions.

This list will grow bigger and bigger in the days to come.

What’s more? There are many ETFs like Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF, ARK Investment Management LLC Innovation ETF, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF that offer fractional trading on Wealthsimple Trade too.

So, if you are more of an ETF person, you are covered too. You can invest as low as $1 into any of the stocks and ETFs listed under Fractional Trading on Wealthsimple Trade.

How to buy Fractional Shares on Wealthsimple Trade?

Step 1: Sign in to your Wealthsimple Trade App

Step 2: Press ‘Discover’ at the bottom

Step 3: Press “View All” to check all the stocks that are available under Fractional Trading. You will be taken to this view.

Step 4: Let’s say you would like to buy $50 worth of Apple shares. Click ‘Apple’

Check the small fractional pie symbol right next to Apple Inc. That signifies that this stock can be fractionally traded.

So, any stock with this symbol next to it can be fractionally traded. Let’s get back to business.

Step 5: Enter $50 and press submit.

You will be able to see the estimated quantity of shares that you can get for $50. As the screen says, your $50 would get 0.29 shares of Apple Inc.

Press ‘Continue’ and ‘Confirm Order’ on the next screen and you are now a proud owner of a fraction of an Apple share.

Five Advantages of Fractional Trading

Dollar Cost Averaging

Let’s say you set aside $250 for investing on your biweekly paycheck and you want to invest in Tesla, you would have to wait for more than 2 months to accumulate $1000 to buy 1 share of Tesla. This is assuming that Tesla’s shares trade at $1000 a piece.

What if it goes to $1500? (Thanks to a tweet by you-know-who)

With fractional trading, you can buy $250 worth of Tesla stock every 2 weeks as per your plan. If the price of the stock goes up or down, your costs are averaged due to dollar cost averaging.

2. Same Ownership Benefits

Even though you own a fraction of a share, you have the same ownership rights as someone who has a whole share (like 1 or 2 or 100 shares). You can sell at your convenience. And if the stock pays dividends, you will get your dividend too.

The $ value of the dividend will be proportional to the fraction of the stock that you own. Stock split / Reverse split – everything will be applied proportionately. That’s the beauty of fractional trading.

3. Time in the Market

Seasoned investors will always vouch for time in the market vs timing the market. You can never accurately time the market. Consider yourself lucky if you were able to time the market once or twice.

Fractional trading allows you to accumulate a sizeable portfolio of great stocks over time irrespective of how much they trade for.

4. Diversification

This is one of biggest advantages. You have heard it before. “Never put all your eggs in one basket”. Fractional trading allows you to invest in market leaders in every sector.

Electronics – Apple

Electric Vehicles – Tesla

Software – Microsoft

Social Networking – Facebook

E-Commerce – Amazon

Entertainment – Netflix

If you would like to invest $100 every month into each of these companies, it is possible.

If not for fractional trading, you will have to set aside thousands of dollars in order to be able to own 1 full share of some of these companies. I am not saying that’s hard.

It’s definitely possible and we will get there but until then, fractional trading is a great way to start.

5. Democratizing the Stock Market

Ever since the origin of stock trading apps that made investing paperless to start and required just a few clicks to buy and sell stocks, millions of millennials started their investing journey.

Fractional trading made it even easier for the newest class of retail investors to get their share of their pie in the stock market.

Disadvantages of Fractional Trading

Transaction Fees

When it comes to Wealthsimple Trade, all trades are free. So, no matter how many trades you make per month, it is free.

Of course, there is an exchange fee when CAD is converted to USD, but that might change when they launch Plus plans in January 2022. It comes with USD accounts so exchange CAD to USD once and you can buy US stocks with your US account.

So technically if you are in Canada, Wealthsimple Trade is your only option for fractional trading and since there is no transaction fees, this disadvantage doesn’t apply. Currently Questrade does not offer fractional trading.

Are you new to stock investing? Here’s why Wealthsimple Trade is the perfect app to get started. Hope this article on buying fractional shares on Wealthsimple Trade was useful. Drop your questions in the comments and see you there.