CIBC Investor’s Edge Review

CIBC Ratings at a Glance

CIBC Investor’s Edge caters to self-directed investors and active traders who want to take advantage of the broker’s low commissions. Students also benefit with CIBC’s special student-friendly commission rates and fee-free RESPs. Other Canadian-registered savings and locked-in account plans you can open with Investor’s Edge include:

• Registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) 
• Tax-free savings account (TFSA)
• Registered retirement income fund (RRIF)
• Locked-in retirement account (LIRA)
• Locked-in retirement savings plan (LRSP)  
• Locked-in retirement income fund (LRIF)
• Prescribed retirement income fund (PRIF)  

Since Investor’s Edge is part of CIBC bank, you can integrate your other financial accounts with your brokerage account seamlessly with a CIBC Smart Account. 

CIBC Investor’s Edge does not offer forex trading so you may want to open an account with a broker with oversight from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) that regulates Canadian forex brokers if you want to trade currencies. Other assets like commodities and foreign stocks will be better off with an international broker like Interactive Brokers that accepts Canadian-based traders.   

The CIBC Investor’s Edge trading platform gives you access to U.S. and Canadian equities, stock options, ETFs and mutual funds from a desktop, web trading and mobile device. The mobile option is available for Android and iOS and allows you monitor your investments 24/7 from your cell phone and offers charting capabilities.   

Screenshot of CIBC Investor’s Edge Mobile Wealth app. Source: CIBC Investor’s Edge.

You can personalize screeners to filter investment products according to your own criteria such as industry, sector, percentage price change and market cap. 

Screenshot of CIBC Investor’s Edge stock screener page. Source: CIBC Investor’s Edge.  

You can also research viable investments and investment objectives using Trading Central’s technical insight tool. This tool can be used to review technical events that support your strategy, backtest and execute trades — all from a single CIBC Investor’s Edge page. 

Screenshot of CIBC Investor’s Edge Trading Central technical insight trading tool. Source: CIBC Investor’s Edge. 

You’ll also find a Morning News Call from Thomson Reuters delivered daily directly to your inbox that covers a wide range of market news. You can also access a free Daily Market Report by Recognia, a world leader in market technical analysis.

CIBC has an extensive research department that includes expert research from the bank’s Capital Markets, Asset Management and Private Wealth units. 

CIBC also offers an elaborate Knowledge Bank that features extensive research resources like videos, articles and webinar replays and some great 3rd-party resources from  Morningstar Equity and ETF Research. 

Investor’s Edge commissions and fees are highly competitive. The broker’s online trading fees are shown in the table below.

RESP and TFSA accounts are commission free. RRSP, RRIF, LIRA and LIF accounts incur an annual fee of C$100 if the market balance in your account drops below C$25,000. An annual fee of C$100 is assessed if the market balance in the account falls below C$10,000 for non-registered cash and margin accounts.

Your broker must conduct a “know-your-client” assessment of your financial status, risk tolerance, time horizon for investments and financial goals. You have to do this before you open a brokerage account with CIBC Investor’s Edge.

You’ll also get coverage from the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). CIBC Investor’s Edge is a CIPF member firm, which means your account would be covered with the following impressive protection from the broker’s insolvency:

• C$1,000,000 for all general accounts combined
• C$1,000,000 for all registered retirement accounts combined
• C$1,000,000 for all RESPs combined

The CIPF does not cover losses due to a change in the market price of securities you own or that occur as a result of unfavorable market conditions. 

CIBC Investor’s Edge provides customers with phone support from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST. You can enter your CIBC Investor’s Edge user ID and password over the phone to verify your identity. 

Online chat is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. Email and postal mail support is also available. You can get support in English and French and CIBC Investor’s Edge offers a toll-free number for Asian language services through their Asian trading desk where you can get support in Mandarin and Cantonese. 

You can trade Canadian and U.S. equities and stock options, ETFs, mutual funds and bonds and invest in guaranteed investment certificates (GICs), which protect your principal and are available in a range of maturity dates for long- and short term investments. 

• Fixed-income offerings include corporate bonds, strip bonds and asset-backed securities with different terms and risk ratings. 
• You can also purchase mutual funds managed by professional fund managers that invest in a variety of companies, asset types, industry sectors, geographic areas or national currencies. 
• You can also invest in the D-Series or Class D mutual funds in a CIBC Investor’s Edge account. These mutual funds generally have lower annual fees and are available across different asset classes from several fund families. 
• You can also trade precious metal e-certificates on gold and silver. Gold and silver e-certificates are eligible for your TFSA, RRIF, RRSP and RESP registered accounts. 

Forex trading is not available through a CIBC Investor’s Edge account. You could open an account with an online broker like FOREX.com or some other reputable IIROC regulated forex broker. 

CIBC Investor’s Edge trading platforms have an intuitive interface and can be learned quickly by beginners and would be second nature for an experienced trader to navigate. The broker’s in-house and 3rd-party research offerings can be easily accessed by self-directed traders and investors to make more informed trades. 

CIBC Investor’s Edge provides Canadian investors and traders market access with low commissions, an intuitive and easy-to-navigate trading platform with a mobile option and a wide variety of asset classes to invest in. 

The broker is also part of CIBC Bank and lets you link other financial accounts to your brokerage or registered savings plan accounts. This could be a big advantage if you want to manage all of your accounts at one financial institution. 

CIBC Investor’s Edge’s trading platform is quite sophisticated and includes charting capabilities for technical analysis. The broker’s in-house and 3rd-party research resources are also excellent. An annual fee is assessed if your account falls below a certain level but the advantages of using this high-quality broker outweigh the disadvantages.  

Want to read more about Canadian brokerages? See our articles on Best Canadian Brokerages.

Frequently Asked Questions