The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that National Bank Direct Brokerage has eliminated commissions for on-line trades of 100 shares or more of ETFs on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The Globe's Rob Carrick writes that the move is an incremental cost reduction, and both Questrade and Virtual Brokers allow clients to buy exchange-traded funds at no cost; however, they charge a sell commission. Qtrade Investor and Scotia iTrade offer zero-commission ETF trading, but only on a limited choice of funds. For investors with accounts large enough to make it feasible to buy 100 or more shares, NBDB has eliminated the trading costs associated with ETFs traded on the TSX. Depending on which broker you use, a stock or ETF trade can cost a minimum $5 to $10. One exception is Scotia iTrade, where people with less than $50,000 in total assets at Bank of Nova Scotia pay a minimum $24.99. Choose some cheap ETFs as a NBDB client and your all-in costs for running a portfolio could be as low as 0.12 per cent. The most widely held ETFs listed on the TSX are these days priced between $20 and $30 per share, which means NBDB's new pricing will work only for people able to invest $2,000 to $3,000 a trade.