Buying GICs and Bonds

The world of finance is evolving rapidly, and Questrade is committed to staying ahead of the curve with our innovative online trading platforms.

Now, for the first time, you can purchase fixed income investments such as bonds and Guaranteed Investment Certificates(GICs) with just a few clicks using the Questrade Trading platform.

Fixed income trading, at its core, involves investing in debt instruments that pay a fixed interest rate over a specific time period. This can potentially be a great way to diversify your portfolio, mitigate risk, and generate income depending on your specific investing needs.

Ready to buy a GIC online? GICs are shown first by default when you open the fixed income trading platform.

You can switch between viewing shorter expirations from 30-270 days (under a year) to longer expirations from 1-5 years at the top of the table.

Prefer to view the latest GICs and bonds in PDF or XLSX (excel/sheets) format? Click the bond bulletin buttons at the top right of the page.

The bonds table allows you to filter by All or by bond types, such Municipal or Corporate bonds.

You can also click the drop-down filter to search by Issuer or CUSIP.

Tap any of the column headers to sort by ascending or descending so you can find the exact bond you’re looking for.

This window will show you the details of your order, and allows you to select which account you would like to purchase the Bond or GIC with.

Bond orders are sent to the trade desk after you send your request and, to finalize your order, you will need to confirm the details over the phone. The team will call you within 30 minutes to process your request.

At the bottom of the window, you’ll also need to enter your Purchase amount.

The order minimum for bonds and GICs at Questrade is $5,000, however certain products may have higher minimums.

GICs can be bought for any amount above $5,000.

Bonds can be purchased in increments of $1,000 above the minimum, up until the maximum purchase amount shown in the Inventory field.

This is the total daily inventory for that specific bond available at Questrade. Larger orders may not be guaranteed to fill if competing orders are present. The trade desk will call you with more details to finalize the purchase of your selected bond.

These requests will be organized by GICs and bonds to make it easier for you to find your request.

After you send your buy order, your request(s) will be shown as Received. Once the trade desk has confirmed your order details with you and the purchase has been finalized, your order will show as Completed.

Once an order is completed, the investment(s) will appear in your account the following trading day.

If your order doesn’t meet the criteria for a specific bond or GIC, or if you do not confirm the buy order for a bond with the trade desk verbally, your order may be Rejected.