A Review and Comparison of Real Time Stock Prices at CIBC Investor’s Edge and BMO InvestorLine

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You can see “real time” stock trading quotes using either a CIBC Investor’s Edge or a BMO InvestorLine account. I was curious to see if they both quoted the same price at the same time, and whether there were any obvious advantages or disadvantages to either system.

To Check a Real Time Stock Price at BMO InvestorLine

  1. Sign in to your BMO InvestorLine account.
  2. From the Trading tab, click on Equities & Options
  3. In the Symbol field, type the symbol for the investment you are interested in.
    For example, I typed: TD
  4. Press the Enter key.
    (By default the quote will be given for the stock on the Canadian market.)
  5. The Quote is the default display, but if necessary click on the Quote tab to see it.
  6. To update the quote, click on the Refresh Quote link under the quote.

If you choose a highly active stock like TD, it can be quite fun to click Refresh and watch the price jump significantly. (Ok, maybe just for me.)

To Check a Real Time Stock Price at CIBC Investor’s Edge

  1. Sign in to your CIBC Investor’s Edge account.
  2. On the left side of the screen, click on the Trading link.
  3. In the Symbol field, type in the symbol for the investment.
    For example, I typed: TD
  4. Click the radio button to select the market.
    For example, I clicked to select Canadian.
  5. Press the Enter key, or
    click on the Get Real Time Quote button.
  6. To update the quote, click on the Get Real Time Quote button.

Comparing the Pros and Cons of the InvestorLine Quote vs the Investor’s Edge Quote

First, and this was reassuring, both seem to be quoting simultaneously. Even for an active stock like TD, I never saw any discrepancy between the two quotes. Result: Tie.

The procedure to get the quote is slightly more complicated for Investor’s Edge. CIBC requires you to select which market (Canadian or US) you want the quote for, instead of having one of the two set as a default. That takes one more step than InvestorLine. Result: Point to BMO.

Both quotes give the time the quote was valid when they refresh a quote. BMO InvestorLine quotes this as an hour and a minute. For example Last Trade: 11:51. CIBC Investor’s Edge quotes this as an hour, a minute, and a second. For example As of Feb. 4, 2013 11:52:43 AM ET. This extra detail, while not changing the accuracy of the quote, is sometimes useful. If the quote changes 3 times in one minute, it’s easier to see that happening when the seconds are reported. Result: Point to CIBC.

Both CIBC and BMO quotes show the Change, Bid, Ask, Bid Lots, Ask Lots, and Volume on this real time quote window. (For those new to the game, the Bid is what people are offering to pay to buy the stock and the Ask is the price for which people are offering to sell the stock.) Result: Tie.

BMO InvestorLine reports the daily High and Low in the window where they report the Real Time Quote. CIBC Investor’s Edge does not. Knowing the daily high and low at a glance can help you see how volatile trading has been that day for that stock. For example, today Blackberry Ltd was at a Real Time Quote of 14.21 with a high today of $14.44 and a low today of $13.48. The Change is $1.29 up. But by knowing the High was already $14.44 today, you can see if you bought now you would not be buying at today’s peak. Nor would you be selling at today’s peak. How this would help you is up to you, but it’s interesting info to have at a glance. Result: Point to BMO.

On the CIBC Investor’s Edge real time quote window, your account cash balance is shown. On the BMO InvestorLine real time quote window, there is a tab for Account Balance. If you click on it, you can see your cash balance. However, this closes the view of the Real Time Quote. It’s nice to be able to mentally calculate how many shares you have the cash to buy at the current real time price. Investor’s Edge makes that easier by having your cash and the price shown at the same time. Result: Point to CIBC.

I can see where I may want to perform a similar review that details how easy it is to place an equity order. For now, though, this concludes a review of the items directly displayed on or related to the Real Time Quote window.

Verdict: Which Provides a Better Real Time Quote, BMO InvestorLine or CIBC Investor’s Edge?

This one is a bit tricky to call. It’s a tiny bit faster to get a BMO quote and it provides the daily high and low at a glance. The CIBC quote, though, has the time of the quote down to the second and shows your account balance.

Personally I have a slight preference for the BMO InvestorLine Real Time Quote, but either one is useful and acceptable.

Further Reading

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Do you prefer Investor’s Edge real time quotes to InvestorLine’s? Does your brokerage offer a different quote that is noticeably better or worse than these? Please share your experiences with a comment.