Stash is not available in Canada.
Stash Investing is a financial services platform that allows users to invest in fractional shares of many well-known publicly traded companies.
The main appeal of Stash is the lower barrier to entry into investing and allowing investors to automatically invest small amounts of money over time.
Alternatives to Stash Investing for Canadians
Interactive Brokers
Pros
- Ability to purchase fractional shares.
- Low commissions, especially for high-frequency traders.
Cons
- The platform is not as user-friendly as other options.
- The pricing structure is complex, and understanding commissions may be difficult at first.
Wealthsimple Invest
Pros
- Wealthsimple has a selection of different portfolios that can be chosen based on an investor’s goals and objectives. For new investors, there are no management fees for up to $10,000.
- Wealthsimple offers this as either a registered or a non-registered account, thereby increasing the product’s tax efficiency.
Cons
- Wealthsimple’s portfolios, while great for new investors or for those not wanting to actively manage their investments without compromising on returns, can be vanilla and less active or less discretionary which may not be well-suited for those that want a more hands-on approach.
Moka
Pros
- Built to help users save money as quickly as they can spend it.
- The fees don’t change regardless of the portfolio size.
Cons
- Only has a very basic interface.
- Limited options for investing, not for the advanced investor.
Stash is not available in Canada, but here are some alternatives for Canadians that provide the same or similar services.
Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers is a great broker for Canadians.
The costs of trading are extremely low, and there are several different pricing structures to choose from depending on the type of trader you are.
The fixed pricing structure offers trading for as low as $0.005 per share of US equities, with a minimum of $1 and a maximum of 1% of the trade value.
For the tiered structure, pricing starts at $0.0035 per share for the first 300,000 shares and drops to $0.0005.
As you can see, high-frequency traders are likely to benefit the most from the Interactive Brokers pricing structure.
In addition, Interactive Brokers has some of the lowest (if not the lowest) margin rates in the industry.
Aside from stocks, investors also have access to a wide range of other assets, including ETFs, options, futures, FOPs, warrants, structured products, SSFs, currencies, commodities, indices, fixed income, and mutual funds.
Interactive Brokers offers their Canadian clients a variety of account options.
Both registered and non-registered accounts can be created in just a few simple clicks.
TFSA, RRSP, Spousal RRSP, margin accounts, and various trust accounts are all available through the trading platform.
Interactive Brokers also offers the ability to trade fractional shares, except in RRSP and TFSA accounts.
This feature has been highly requested, as it allows for traders operating with small sums of money in their accounts to buy stock in companies with high individual share prices such as Amazon.
The investment platform offers both a mobile application and a desktop application, both of which have an initial learning curve to them.
However, once users get a grasp of the interface, there are a variety of useful features that can be used to conduct research to make better financial decisions.
Lastly, Interactive Brokers also offers interest up to 4.83% on idle cash balances sitting in your trading account.
Wealthsimple Invest
Wealthsimple is one of the most popular investing platforms amongst investors in Canada.
They provide Canadians with the ability to invest in automated portfolios at a low fee cost structure, making them very attractive against actively managed mutual funds charging significantly higher management fees.
Wealthsimple Invest provides registered and non-registered accounts that can invest in automated portfolios at a low fee cost structure, making it very attractive vs actively managed mutual funds charging significantly higher management fees.
Wealthsimple does a good job of having educational resources available on the platform and other value-added services are available as part of the core offering.
Moka
Moka (previously Mylo) allows users to roundup each purchase they make to the nearest dollar and invest the loose change by purchasing fractional shares of stocks, ETFs, and more.
Their aim is to make investing accessible to everyday Canadians so that everyone can begin building wealth during their regular consumption and purchases.
Will Stash Investing be coming to Canada?
Stash is currently only available in the United States and has not come announced any plans to expand into Canada.
What is Stash Investing?
Stash is a company with a personal finance platform aimed at opening investments to those who would normally not have access in addition to making investing less intimidating for beginning.
Stash offers three subscription plans for people who want to get started with building their wealth: Stash Beginner at $1 per month, Stash Growth at $3 per month, and Stash+ at $9 per month.
Stash offers a debit card that can not only gives you 5% “stock-back” in fractional shares if used at select businesses, it also offers the roundup feature which rounds any purchase up to the nearest dollar and places the change in a separate account.
Once the account reaches over $5, it’s transferred to the user’s main account as available funds to invest, making it an easy way to accumulate funds through normal spending.
Stash’s mission is to reduce the barrier to entry to investing for the everyday American and help build good financial habits.
Stash is also a registered investment advisor with the and offers unlimited financial education so that new investors can learn on their own time and make smart financial decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Stash available to Canadians?
- Can you make money using the Stash investing app?
