RE:RNX/TFSA Question I'm using a TFSA. I have 3k shares (of RNX) and bought three times. CRA doens't have a clear rule like the USA does as to what a day trader is. Some people said 100 trades a year is too much, but if you're a diligent saver and buy 4 ETFs every payday, well thats about 100 each year, but I doubt any jduge would call that day trading. In the last year I've made something like 75 trades in the TFSA.
If you're flipping large volumes of stock for a few percentage points at a time, have Level 2 data, spend your entire day watching the markets, you have prior experience/training in the securities industry (this is a big one), and you fund your TFSA using pre-tax or business income, then you'll set off flags for the CRA. I heard a guy turned something like $20k of ACB into a couple hundred thousand, being lucky isn't "carrying on the operation of a business" and a google news search doesn't show much precedent of judges agreeing. Only noticable story I saw was a professional trader trying to use the TFSA to avoid taxes, not it's intended purpose.
As my name suggests, I'm smalltime. I also only jump on here/questrade for a few minutes at lunch. It's a case by case basis but If you average down or up that's not a sign of daytrading, especially if you're going long like I am (I have no plans to sell RNX for a while), an accountant friend said a quick trade isn't a flag by CRA if you take a loss and sell to bail on it to move the cash to something else.
CRA doesn't care when you lose, they care when you win. The type of stock doesn't matter as long as it's traded on one of 26(?) allowed exchanges last I checked.