The Globe and Mail Canadian Discount Brokerage Rankings – A Backgrounder
As the longest running ranking of Canadian discount brokerages, The Globe and Mail rankings offer an interesting panorama of the industry and the do-it-yourself investors that they cater to. Over the years, the profile of these rankings has increased substantially to the point that today these rankings are widely anticipated by both investors as well as by discount brokerages. The recognition associated with being labeled “the best discount brokerage” is important for the marketing strategies of the high achieving companies as well as for Canadian investors who use the ratings as part of their product research and comparison.
As with previous reviews of surveys and rankings, it is important to put The Globe and Mail rankings into context to understand what they do and do not measure, so that Canadian investors can make better informed decisions based on the results these rankings generate.
How the Discount Brokerage Rankings are Made
These rankings are performed by Rob Carrick, a personal finance columnist with The Globe and Mail, and cover a range of items that may be of interest to “mainstream investors”. The process begins with a survey that is sent to all the Canadian discount brokerages profiled. According to Carrick, the combination of reader surveys, conversations, feedback and interactions he has had with many Canadian investors have helped to paint a portrait of features and services that he believes reflects the components most relevant to average do-it-yourself investors. These features and components then make their way into the survey that goes to the discount brokerages, with the survey having anywhere between 50 to 100 questions.
The next step involves actually going through the brokerages websites and services himself, often via demo accounts. By going through each discount brokerage, he is able to get a sense of the customer experience but also compare what the discount brokerages report on their answers to the survey questions. According to Carrick, it is not uncommon for some discount brokerages to embellish their offerings and features in the survey, so sifting out the marketing from the actual features can be tricky. All told, the process takes about two to three months to complete, and can involve a substantial amount of information to process.