Exchange Overview

Though there has been quite bit of restructuring in the Canadian exchanges over the past few years, the end result is that there are essentially two major equities exchanges on which equities are traded: the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and the TSX Venture Exchange. Options are treaded at the Montreal Exchange.

The TSX Venture is composed mostly of smaller companies (many involved in natural resources) that typically trade for less than a dollar (also called penny stocks). The TSX tends to be composed of larger, more established companies that trade at higher dollar per share values.

How to get Canadian quotes in the Trade Center

Canadian symbols are entered essentially the same as US symbols, but a period followed by CA “.CA” is added to the end of the Canadian ticker symbol. No change is required for stocks traded either on the TSX or the TSX Venture exchanges.

For example, the symbol for Toronto Dominion Bank is “TD” on the Toronto Exchange. To get a streaming quote in the Trade Center, the symbol would be “TD.CA”. Nortel, “NT” on the Toronto exchange, is entered as NT.CA.

For different classes of shares (such as “A” or “B” classes) the format is: (base symbol) + (/) + (class) + (.CA). For example, Bombardier class B shares are “BBD.B” on the Toronto exchange, and would be “BBD/B.CA” in the Trade Center.

Finding symbols

The simplest and most reliable way to find the ticker symbol for Canadian stocks is to go directly to the Toronto Stock Exchange’s website www.tsx.com. And look for the Equity Search link.

Canadian Indices:
S&P TSX Composite index:            TSEA.CA
TSX Venture Composite index:       JX.CA

How to get Canadian charts in the Trade Center

Since the Trade Center uses many different data sources in gathering information, the symbols are different for charts and quotes. Unlike the quotes, the charts require you to know which exchange the stock is traded on (either the TSX or the TSX Venture). Also, you must use the Historical Chart link (NOT the Java Chart link) to get Canadian charts.

The format is similar to the streaming quotes, but the “.CA” is replaced by the exchange code for the stock (either “TO” or “V” for the TSX or the TSX Venture exchange respectively).

For example, the chart for Nortel (on the TSX) is NT.TO while symbol for quotes is NT.CA. The chart for High Point Resources (on the Venture exchange) is HPR.V and the quote symbol is HPR.CA

If you right-click on a quote symbol and select Graph>Historical Chart you can then input the correct symbol format and select “Update Chart” to get the graph.

Finding fundamental research on stocks

Canadian stocks do not report the same information that U.S. companies are required to report, and it is not reported to the U.S. regulatory agencies, so the fundamental information is not available as a right-click menu item from the Trade Center.

However, much of the similar information can be found both at www.globeinvestor.com or at the TSX (www.tsx.com) where you can find both the reported financial results as well as whatever analyst information is available.

There are several hundred Canada-based stocks that are also listed on the U.S. exchanges. These listings are subject to all the US reporting requirements and so therefore, the fundamental information is available in the right-click menu of the Trade Center.

List of resources

www.tsx.com
Toronto Exchange. Largest exchange with larger stocks.

www.tsx.com
TSX Venture Exchange. Smaller, lower-priced companies.

www.m-x.ca
Montreal Exchange. Options are traded exclusively here.

www.sedar.com
SEDAR (Corporate Filings)

www.globeinvestor.com
Great resource for research, news and fundamental information.

Broker Information

http://www.globeinvestor.com/series/brokersurvey2003/
Globe Investor’s annual review of brokers for 2003.

http://www.ndir.com/SI/brokers.shtml
Stingy Investor’s review of online discount brokers.

http://www.gomez.com/main.aspx?m=5&s=2&tc=85
Gomez Advisor’s review of Canadian Brokerages