The Globe and Mail

When stock markets crashed during the 2008 credit crisis, causing panic across North America, Questrade CEO Edward Kholodenko had reason to remain calm.

Experience had taught him that an opportunity to build his business was waiting.

After all, when he began developing the Canadian online trader in 1999, the tech bubble burst a year later, followed by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States and ensuing market devastation.

And still Questrade grew.

In fact, each year since Questrade began operating in 2001, the customer base has doubled, and in the past year, it has tripled to become "multiple tens of thousands" of Canadian investors, Mr. Kholodenko said. Today, it is the largest independent online trading service in Canada.

The secret has been to offer something the banks can't or won't when it comes to technology, service, pricing and innovation, he said.

"We did survive those lean times, and we adapted our business mandate to online investors," he said. "We plan to stay at the forefront of innovation, and shake up the underpinning of the big banks."

Though the first trades came through in June, 2001, Mr. Kholodenko began building Questrade in 1999, after eight years of operating a textiles business in Eastern Europe. During that time, he became fascinated with the world of online trading, using direct electronic access to trading to augment his profits - all the while watching the story unfold on American television.

"I would watch CNBC quite often while I was there. The markets were going through a run that sparked an interest," said Mr. Kholodenko, who holds a bachelor's degree in geography from the University of Western Ontario.

He moved back to Canada when his wife was expecting their first child. As his family was beginning, so too was a new business plan: With his experience in business and trading, he gathered a handful of people to start up an online trading platform.

His plans worked on all counts: Today Questrade employs 200 and is by some accounts the fastest growing online brokerage in Canada; Mr. Kholodenko's wife is expecting their fifth child.

Dean Percy is now director and chief financial officer, and founding partner Gary Miskin is director of business development. One of the latest areas where the executive team has seen an opportunity to innovate is with the government's new tax-free savings account. Questrade applied its trading tools and services to allow users to trade through these accounts and make profits within it tax-free.

Opportunities have also arisen in foreign exchange. Questrade now has a patent pending for its process by which Canadian investors can move in and out of U.S. stocks without taking a currency hit each time. Traditionally, there has been a foreign exchange fee when an investor buys a U.S. stock through an online brokerage, of about 1.5 per cent each time they buy and sell.

Another idea Questrade offers investors is the ability to buy and sell physical gold from the Royal Canadian Mint in their RRSP accounts. The firm also is very active in social media, including YouTube and Twitter, as well as maintaining an extensive page on Facebook that has launched applications such as an investment quiz and a user-generated list of top buys and sells.