Posted on Leave a comment

3 D’s to make you a better self-directed investor

While many self-directed investors understand that managing their own money can involve a great deal of responsibility and work, many do not realize the important skills they need to commit to mastering in order to succeed.  Certain investors want to “dabble” or learn to trade with what they often characterize as “fun money” however losing money or hurting your portfolio’s performance is no laughing matter.

Regardless of whether you are a novice or an expert, everyone who manages a portfolio faces the same challenge of maximizing the returns on their capital while effectively managing risk.  While the finer points are certainly different between multibillion dollar fund managers and everyday self-directed investors, there are three core characteristics that all successful investors share.

3 Ds for Self-Directed Investors

Diligence

Great investors and traders are always willing learners. While one of the key differences between experienced and novice investors is the length of time it takes to do sound research and analysis, all successful investors still have to do their homework.

Investing and trading involves doing a lot of research and so becoming both fast and accurate in making assessments will make doing that homework much more manageable. Getting to that point, however, takes time.

The process of scanning through possible opportunities, monitoring your portfolio’s performance and paying attention to the markets are just some of the tasks successful investors are willing to make part of their routine because ultimately the payoff justifies the investment.

Posted on Leave a comment

Questrade vs Virtual Brokers – A Comprehensive Pricing Comparison of Their Lowest Commission Plans – Part 3

In the third part of our series comparing Questrade’s $0.95 trade commission plan to Virtual Brokers’ $0.99 trade commission plan we focus on how order types can impact the total cost associated with either trading commission plan.  If you missed the beginning our series, you can read Part 1 here or Part 2 here.  If you’d like to read the full report, you can access it here.

No Shoe-In

Self-directed investors have been bombarded with commercials comparing buying stocks to online shoe shopping or a thrill-filled ride.  Without knowing about order types and routing, however, investors placing orders for stocks online can themselves sporting pair of uncomfortable fees – ECN & exchange fees to be exact.

One of the important distinctions between Questrade’s and Virtual Brokers’ lowest commission cost plans is whether or not electronic communications network (ECN) and/or exchange fees are added to the cost of a transaction.  Indeed this is true of many Canadian discount brokerage commission plans currently on the market.  Virtual Brokers’ $0.99/$9.99 commission plan commission doesn’t pass along any ECN or exchange fees whereas Questrade’s $0.95/$6.95 plan does.

What this means for investors using Questrade’s plan is that they have to be aware of what order types they’re using (e.g. limit vs market order) to ensure they do not incur added fees.  It should be noted that Questrade does offer clients the option of having certain US market orders routed across different networks without having ECN or exchange fees.

Convenience vs Price

ECN and exchange fees can be thought of as a kind of ‘convenience’ fee.  If a buyer wishes to get an order of stock at the current market price they must have that order filled by someone on the spot. This kind of order, known as a market order, allows the buyer to place getting the order filled immediately as a priority over execution price.  Conversely, a limit order is when an investor sets the price that he or she wants to either buy or sell a stock at. If there is a buyer or seller that is willing to accept the price, the transaction happens and if not, the order goes unfilled.  Thus, limit orders prioritize execution price over order fulfillment.

Stock exchanges and ECN’s like limit orders because they provide visible and ‘stable’ price levels that the marketplace can use to place their bids/asks around. Limit orders, therefore, improve “liquidity” as they create an identifiable pool of either buyers or sellers. To incentivize liquidity, stock exchanges and ECNs usually pass along cash credits to whoever places these types of orders.  When market orders are placed, they remove liquidity by reducing the identifiable pool of buyers or sellers and so exchanges and ECNs pass along a small charge to those who place these types of orders. From a tactical perspective, however, limit orders are the equivalent of ‘tipping your hand’ and as a result can be exploited by other market participants (such as market makers) looking to uncover areas of strong support or resistance.

Most Canadian discount brokerages, unfortunately, do not pass these credits given to them by exchanges or ECNs when their clients place limit orders however they will readily pass along the ECN and exchange fees. Thus, plans in which ECN fees are included (i.e. ‘flat pricing’) might be more on a commission basis for certain types of orders but actually end up being cheaper for others.

Posted on 1 Comment

Event Review – World MoneyShow Vancouver – April 2013

World MoneyShow VancouverThis year’s Vancouver World MoneyShow turned out to be a little different than most others. The exhibiting space felt a bit smaller than usual, the lineups took a bit longer and the schedule a bit less punctual.  As it turned out, this year’s MoneyShow would be the one in which this franchise would announce its Canadian retirement.

The big announcement the MoneyShow franchise would be exiting the Canadian market came as a surprise to many. With one more stop to go in Toronto this upcoming October, the MoneyShow organizers said they have enjoyed their time in Canada and will turn over their Canadian show back to the predecessor of the MoneyShow in Canada – the Financial Forum.  Charles Githler, Chairman and Co-Founder of the MoneyShow will be taking the reins for the Financial Forums next year and when we spoke to him at the show, he hinted that something bigger and brighter would be coming next year.

A small (26) and eclectic mix of companies, organizations and services exhibited this year ranging from multibillion dollar energy giant Royal Dutch Shell to consultants offering grant funding tips.  By far the most popular booth was the ‘crack the safe’ promotion held by MoneyShow which offered attendees the chance to punch in a code on a safe for a chance to win the $50,000 it contained.   There was also the usual assortment of promotional items and conference swag. Aside from some interesting pens and rubber ducks, nothing really stood out this year as being very cool conference loot.

Surprisingly, there were three discount brokerages in attendance and one notable absence. TD Direct Investing, National Bank Direct Brokerage and Interactive Brokers all attended the conference this year, however a regular at these conferences, Disnat, did not.  The discount brokerage’s booths varied in their ‘bells and whistles’ and giveaway items. TD Direct Investing’s booth was located in the prime real-estate – right at the entrance to the conference. They had their platforms on display as well as an army of staff to handle questions.  In contrast, Interactive Brokers took a no-frills approach with a lone rep, some brochures and a laptop. National Bank Direct Brokerage was offering their standard ‘hand sanitizer’ (a practical piece of conference gear after all that hand-shaking) as well as a special deal on trading commissions for new account sign ups (the details of which we’ll be posting in our deals section here).

One of the brighter spots of the conference was the assortment of interesting speakers discussing everything from market cycles and seasonality to exploration opportunities to personal finance and everything in between.

Bruce Sellery, personal finance author and owner of Moolala, gave an energetic and thought-provoking series of tips to help Canadians better approach their own financial management.  Other interesting speakers, such as Peter Hodson (of Canadian MoneySaver and 5i Research) gave investors some interesting food for thought about the mutual fund industry as well as important signs to look for when assessing investing opportunities. Most notable among those tips: “pull the weeds and water the flowers” when it comes to managing your portfolio’s winners and losers.  Marin Katsua of Casey Research also shared his dour forecast of the next few months in the mining and exploration space as well as his fascinating case for the energy market potential in Europe.

Overall, participants, speakers and exhibitors seemed to characterize Vancouver’s MoneyShow as a bit slower and smaller than usual. The MoneyShow’s formula of speakers, exhibitors and giveaways nonetheless provided something unique to attendees. Hopefully the Toronto show can be a chance for the Financial Forums to provide Canadian self-directed investors with a glimpse of greater things to come.

Posted on Leave a comment

National Bank Direct Brokerage to offer commission-free ETFs

Commission-Free ETFs: Peer Pressure?

Letting self-directed investors trade exchange traded funds (ETFs) commission-free appears to be all the rage amongst Canadian discount brokerages these days.

National Bank Direct Brokerage has now become the latest Canadian discount brokerage to offer free trading of Canadian ETFs (click here to read their press release) joining the likes of Questrade, Qtrade, Scotia iTrade and Virtual Brokers in offering some kind of free ETF trading.  Specifically, National Bank Direct Brokerage is offering three months of commission-free trading of Canadian ETFs for new and existing clients.

Commission-free ETF trading offers, while great for self-directed investors, require individuals to really understand the terms and conditions that come attached to these types of offers.

The Fine Print

While they’ve done a good job of keeping the terms and conditions easy to read (there are only 17 conditions), there are a couple of important conditions attached to this ETF offer by National Bank Direct Brokerage that self-directed investors need to pay attention to.

First, the promotion applies only to Canadian ETFs (unlike other discount brokerages which do not restrict the ETFs to Canadian only).  What exactly is a “Canadian” ETF? According to National Bank Direct Brokerage, the “Canadian” refers to any ETF that comes from a Canadian provider (e.g. Barclays, BMO, First Asset, Horizons, Invesco Powershares, iShares Canada, RBC and Vanguard Canada).

Second, the ETFs must be held for at least one trading day otherwise regular trading fees apply. This means that at an ETF could be purchased before closing on one trading day and then traded the following trading day without a fee. Thus, hold period is measured in trading days.

Third, trades must be at least $5000 in value in order to qualify for the commission rebate.

Lastly, according to the terms and conditions, clients must pay for the commissions on any ETF transaction at the time of purchase and they will then be reimbursed “six months after the promotion ends” (FYI: the promotion ends on July 31, 2013).  The terms go on to clarify the actual refund date by stating that trades placed between April 15th and June 14th will be reimbursed on October 18th whereas trades placed between June 15th and July 31st 2013 will be refunded on December 20th.   For a list of their commission rates, check our profile of National Bank Direct Brokerage here.

On the plus side, the offer allows for unlimited commission-free ETF trading (buys and sells) for three months after signing up for this account. For occasional investors or those who rebalance, this may not be a tempting offer, however for swing traders or those who have hold times for trades that are days or weeks (rather than hours or months), this offering could be attractive, especially since there are no caps to the numbers of trades that could be made.

While the timeframe to get reimbursed is lengthy, it is in line with many ‘cash back’ offerings currently available at other discount brokerages.  Some tips for self-directed investors considering this offer are to make sure they keep good records of their trading activity and to have a conversation with an accountant or tax advisor to ensure proper tracking of the commission costs and rebates.

Read More

Posted on Leave a comment

Questrade vs Virtual Brokers – A Comprehensive Pricing Comparison of Their Lowest Commission Plans – Part 2

In the second installment of our special series comparing Questrade’s and Virtual Brokers’ lowest stock trading commission plans, we take a look at what our study results showed us about the impact of market data to the overall cost of trading.  If you missed the first part, you can check it out here or if you’d like to read the full report you can access it here.

The Cost of Data

Of the different categories of cost to consider when looking at either Questrade’s or Virtual Brokers’ lowest trading commission plans, market data costs should be one that self-directed investors pay careful attention to.

Stock market data packages come in various levels of detail providing investors with a window into the action between buyers and sellers as they “debate” over what a stock or asset is worth.   Depending on the trading style, real-time streaming data may or may not be useful.  For example, longer term investors or swing traders may find streaming real-time quotes not to make a difference as to how they make their trading decisions and instead could use end of day data or snap quotes. On the other hand, for highly active traders, real-time streaming data is essentially a must-have in order to accurately place orders based on current market prices and to closely monitor trades.  Given the need for market data by active traders, discount brokerages use data packages as a way to generate revenue and incentivize the highly valuable active trading clients into certain types of trading packages.

While market data packages for Questrade and Virtual Brokers are not exactly identical in composition each discount brokerage does offer essentially the same market data access. In our pricing analysis we were able to create comparable sets of data packages between Questrade and Virtual Brokers in order to measure how market data costs impact the overall cost of trading.  We tested slightly tweaked versions of the “Package 2” from Virtual Brokers and Questrade’s Advanced Canadian plan (see table).   To ensure the data package for Virtual Brokers was equipped with streaming quotes, we added in the $35 per month fee for VB WebStreamer (their streaming data add on). Snap quotes on the VB Webtrader are standard (and free), however for our tests we assumed that the user would want/need streaming data.

As the table above shows, Virtual Brokers’ data plan in our model works out to be slightly more expensive on a monthly basis than does Questrade’s data plan.  For self-directed investors, these data packages demonstrate that in order to qualify for the lowest commission plan, they have to be willing to spend at least $1300 at Questrade and $1400 at Virtual Brokers annually on data (in the case of our model).  Even for modest portfolio sizes (e.g. <$25, 000) these are pretty hefty hurdles to overcome.

Rebate or Re”bait”

While both Questrade and Virtual Brokers offer rebates on data, these rebates require investors to trade certain minimum amounts per month to qualify.  For Questrade, there are two tiers of rebate, one for individuals who trade between 10 and 99 times per month, and another for those who trade 100+ times.  By comparison, Virtual Brokers offers its data rebate only after clients have made 150+ trades in the prior quarter (or 50+ times per month on average for 3 months).

Arguably, the amount of trading that has to be done in order to get a meaningful reduction in data is substantial at both discount brokerages. In Questrade’s case, trading up to 99 times in a month gets the same amount of rebate as trading 10 times per month – a rebate of $19.95.  In order to qualify for the best rebate, $89.95 per month, at least 100 trades or more have to be made in a month.  Similarly, in order to qualify for Virtual Brokers’ best commission rebate, clients have to make 150 trades or more in a quarter before they are eligible for a $60.75 per month rebate.  If an individual is trading at the activity levels that qualify them for rebates, they can expect to be spending thousands of dollars per year on equity commissions.

The Bottom Line

The take home lesson for self-directed investors considering these plans is that they should be mindful of the impact that data costs can have on the total cost of trading.  Even though low starting balances can be used to access these products, smaller portfolios have to work much, much harder to overcome the high cost burden the data fees introduce.  Perhaps the most important point for those considering these plans is that the advertised commission rates mask the actual cost of a trade substantially because of the high data cost.  In a future article we will outline the actual cost of a trade using these data plans to show the big difference that exists between actual costs and the advertised low commission rates.   Ultimately, whether or not these low commission plans are the most economical choices will depend heavily on portfolio size and trading activity.

Our next piece in the series covers the impact that order types can have on the cost of these two plans.

Correction Notice: April 22, 2013

This post has been revised to reflect the following corrections:

Table 1 has been revised to include MX level 2, ATS Level 1 and ARCA level 1 data. It was previously reported that Questrade’s data plan was $116.85 and Virtual Brokers’ data plan was $95.75.  Questrade’s streaming index quotes was reported at $6.95 per month but has been amended to $0 and thus the total for Questrade’s monthly plan as stated in the table is $109.90.  Virtual Brokers’ data package required the above mentioned add ons (plus a $1 for Dow Jones Index data) requiring an upward adjustment of $21.40.

Posted on Leave a comment

Questrade vs Virtual Brokers – A Comprehensive Pricing Comparison of Their Lowest Commission Plans

Canadian Discount Brokerages Cut Commissions

Canadian discount brokerages are in the midst of a price war.  The newer entrants to the Canadian discount brokerage market, such as Questrade and Virtual Brokers, have driven prices for equity trade commissions to below the $1 per trade mark.  With Questrade’s recently announced $0.95 commission per trade offering, they now rival Virtual Brokers’ $0.99 commission rate launched at the end of 2011.

While the sub $1 equity commission pricing sounds alluring, especially in a landscape where standard commission rates at large bank-owned discount brokerages can still exceed $29 per trade, there are important details that consumers need to be vigilant about to truly understand whether the low advertised prices are a good deal or simply just clever marketing.

To determine which plan was actually a better deal, we undertook a comprehensive study of Questrade’s and Virtual Brokers’  lowest equity commission pricing packages, looking at both the fixed and variable costs of trading each plan.

In the first of a special series of posts based on this research, we provide analysis of the lowest cost pricing between Questrade and Virtual Brokers, and offer some of the important lessons and tips from our research.

For those interested in reading the full report, it is available for purchase here.

Commission Price vs Total Cost of Ownership

While advertising and marketing efforts are being deployed full force to let consumers know about the sub $1 equity trades at Questrade and Virtual Brokers, there is a strange silence when it comes to talking about total cost of each trading plan.

Providing such low cost trading certainly appeals to one of the biggest decision factors consumers use when choosing a discount brokerage: price.  But commission price, the feature most widely advertised, is only a small part of the cost story consumers need to consider when looking at Questrade’s Advantage plan or Virtual Brokers “The 99” plan.

One of the biggest lessons our research into both these offers showed us was that consumers need to be aware of the difference between equity trade commissions and total cost of trading.  Fees such as data subscription costs, streaming data fees, Electronic Communication Network (ECN) or exchange fees as well as commission fees factor into the total cost.  In our model we did not include the cost of SEC fees, taxes or margin interest. With so many different types of costs to consider, a good strategy to make sense of them is to compare each plan in terms of their fixed or variable costs.

A major fixed cost to consider when comparing either plan is the monthly data charge.  Variable costs, such as commission fees are common to both Questrade and Virtual Brokers, however other variable costs such as ECN or exchange fees apply only in certain cases to Questrade.  An interesting feature of both of these plans is that they offer rebates based on trading activity levels.  In the case of Questrade, they offer rebates in different tiers of activity, with the lowest ($19.95) being offered to those who trade between 10 and 99 trades per month, and the highest ($89.95) offered to those who trade 100 times or more in a month.  Virtual Brokers, by comparison offers a $60.75 rebate for clients who trade 150 or more times in a quarter (or 50 times per month for three months on average).

In our analysis, we looked at the main fixed and variable costs as well as rebates to figure out, on a total cost of ownership basis, which plan actually came out ahead.  While there was no clear ‘winner’ that in and of itself was a very interesting finding because it shows that despite having lower equity commissions, Questrade’s Advantage plan was not cheaper than Virtual Brokers’ “The 99” plan under several tested scenarios.

In our next part, we cover some of the findings from the cost of data and its impact on both plans.

Posted on Leave a comment

Social Media and Investing – LinkedIn

Introduction

As part of our special series on social media and investing, we take a look at the professional social network, LinkedIn.

What is LinkedIn

LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) was launched in 2003 and is a social networking website for professionals.  As of January 2013 the site boasts more than 200 million users in more than 200 countries and territories.

LinkedIn is an excellent tool for fostering business relationships and allows you to find jobs, people and business opportunities. The network allows you to build a profile, upload your resume, keep a list of people you are connected to (called “connections”) and follow companies for updates.

LinkedIn also allows you to join groups. The majority of the largest groups on LinkedIn are employment related with career and professional issues being the range of topics discussed. There are also academic and corporate alumni groups, small-business groups, and area of expertise-related groups such as groups that focus on social media, or print production.

It is in the “groups” section of LinkedIn that our experiment begins.

The Experiment

We started this experiment in the search field of LinkedIn and changed the filter from “people” to “groups”. We then started using investing related keywords to see what we could find.

LinkedIn’s search function returns results in all of the filters that have results for the keyword including “groups”, “companies” and “people”.  We limited our search to just groups because we are looking for investing information and education.

We conducted several searches. They were:

  • Stock trading
  • Invest
  • Investing
  • Trading
  • Stock market
  • Forex
  • ETF

Don’t feel limited by the keywords we chose above. Treat the search function on LinkedIn the same way you would use Google.

LinkedIn_Results_Picture

 

The shortlist of search results below are just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of groups on LinkedIn related to trading, stock markets and investments and hundreds of conversations that are taking place at any given time that you can participate in.

Here are some of the groups we discovered:

We decided to examine one of the groups in more detail and so analyzed the Commodity Trading Network. This group was established on March 24, 2008 and at time of this writing had 30,029 members. It is self-described as “a group for professionals in the Commodities Trading markets: Business Areas: Oil & Gas, Power Trading, Energy Trading, Metals Trading, Emissions, Coal Trading, Freight Trading, Risk Management, ETRM.

To maintain a pool of relevant industry professionals, requests to join will only be accepted from LinkedIn members who possess a genuine interest and/or background in Commodity markets.”

My request to join took 3 days to process before I was approved.  Upon entering the group for the first time as a member, I quickly realized that the discussions were not only about commodity stock trading. In fact the discussions in the group can be organized into three general categories:

  • Commodities investing and trading
  • Buying and selling of the commodities themselves
  • Job opportunities and listings

Screen Shot 2013-03-25 at 5.01.30 PM Screen Shot 2013-03-25 at 5.05.40 PM Screen Shot 2013-03-25 at 5.08.05 PM

Discussions include opinions, links to outside sources such as company web pages, as well as news articles. Members also have the ability to comment or “like” other member’s postings.

One cool thing that LinkedIn allows users to do is find statistics about a group. For example these are the stats for Commodities Trading Network.

Screen Shot 2013-03-25 at 5.27.25 PM Screen Shot 2013-03-25 at 5.27.30 PM

There are some things you should keep in mind as you explore trading and investing related groups on LinkedIn.

First, many groups require that you join before you can see their discussions and some groups require the group administrator (often the person who started the group) to approve your membership before participating. As was the case in our experiment, approval can take some time or, for whatever reason, it may not come at all.

The second, and most important thing to keep in mind, is that like all discussions around investing and trading, the discussions taking place on LinkedIn are just opinions and they should be consumed with caution. Be careful of promotional postings on LinkedIn related to investing in a certain stock or commodity and take everything you hear with a grain of salt.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for making professional connections and exploring topics around professional and career related issues. Surprisingly, it is also a great resource for participating in conversations around trading and investing. Be careful whose opinions you take into consideration and contribute your insights and opinions back into the community to make it stronger.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com


Posted on Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – April 2013

ArchivedDealsApril’s discount brokerage deals and promotions heralds the return of unlimited trading by an unlikely character in the deals section – HSBC InvestDirect. This deal is in ‘celebration’ of HSBC’s recent award by Dalbar Inc for best customer service at a Canadian discount broker, an award that RBC Direct Investing had won for several years.

On top of unlimited trading, we also have the big 100 trade offers by Questrade and Scotia iTrade, and a Spring cash-back offer from BMO InvestorLine that is sure to get people talking.

Credential Direct also makes an appearance this month with their transfer fee promo. The refer-a-friend offers are still being offered by Questrade, National Bank Direct Brokerage and Scotia iTrade.

Falling off our deals list at the start of this month are TD Direct Investing and Qtrade whose transfer fee deals expired at the end of March.

 

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promos

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Commission/Cash Offer Type Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Details Link Deadline
Jitney Trade A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with Jitney and receive access to their preferred pricing package and a massive 45% discount on the Real Tick trading platform. n/a Discounted Commission Rates none For more details click here none
Open a new A) non-registered account or B) registered account with HSBC InvestDirect between April 1st and April 30th and receive either A)30 days or B)45 days of commission-free trading. no minimum deposit Commission Credit (amount of credit depends on trading activity) A) 30 days (non-registered accounts) B) 45 days (registered accounts) Free Trading Offer For additional information, there is also an FAQ Link April 30, 2013
Open a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) and receive $50 commission credit . Use promo code: kdkfnbbc $1,000 $50 commission credit none none none
Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $100 and they receive $50. To receive this deal you must be an existing client with an equity account and refer a person that does not reside with you and who has not previously opened a Questrade account. $1,000 $50 commission credit (friend) $100 commission credit (referrer bonus) 60 days Refer a friend none
Open a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) and receive 100 commission-free stock trades. $10,000 100 free trades (max total value: $995.00 at $9.95 commission rate) 60 days Refer a friend April 30, 2013
Scotia iTrade If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTrade account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link. A)$10,000 B)$50,000+ A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$199.80) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $999) 60 days Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade May 31, 2013
Scotia iTrade Open and fund a new Scotia iTRADE account with at least $25,000 before June 30, 2013 and the commissions associated with your first 100 trades placed within 60 days of the date the account is activated and funded. Also, the new FlightDesk platform is being offered for free for 60 days. Use promo code WAC13-EN. See details link for further terms and conditions. $25,000 100 free trades ($999 value @ $9.99 commission rate) 60 days Scotia iTrade 100 free trades + FlightDesk June 30, 2013
If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a National Bank Direct Brokerage account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of $100 each. The promotion code “FRIEND” must be used on the account application form. Read the details link for full terms and conditions. Note the maximum referral bonus per client is $1000. $25,000 $100 referral bonus (referrer) $100 referee (your “friend”) Payout occurs after 6 months Share $200 with a Friend Promotion October 31, 2013
Disnat Disnat is celebrating its 30th anniversary by offering new & existing clients $300 in commission credits which can be used for up to 6 months. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1 800 268-8471 and mention promo code Disnat30. See details link for more info. $50,000 $300 commission credit 6 months Disnat 30th Anniversary Promo May 1, 2013
BMO InvestorLine Open a new account or upgrade an existing account with either A) $100,000 or B)$250,000 to receive $250 cash(for those who deposit $100K) or $600 (for those who deposit $250K). Use Promo Code: BONUS600 NOTE: There are lots of details/important conditions attached to this promotion. Be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully. A) $100,000 B) $250,000 A) $250 Cash Back B) $600 Cash Back Payout occurs after 6 months Spring 2013 Cash Back Promotion June 3, 2013
BMO InvestorLine Open a new account or upgrade an existing account with $500,000 to receive $1500 cash back. Use Promo Code: Select1500. NOTE: There are lots of details/important conditions attached to this promotion. Be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully. This wasn’t an advertised deal, however the terms and conditions are from BMO InvestorLine’s website. $500,000 $1500 Cash Back Payout occurs after 6 months Select1500 Promotion June 3, 2013

Transfer Fee Deals

Below are the discount brokerages deals that cover transfer out fees from other discount brokerages.

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Transfer your discount brokerage account to Credential Direct and they’ll pay up to $200 of the transfer fees. If after 90 days you’re not satisfied they will waive the $125 transfer out fee too. $200 $10,000 Switch Me Promo June 30, 2013
Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150. $150 $25,000 Transfer Fee Promo none
Transfer $25,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees $135 $25,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Disnat Disnat is celebrating its 30th anniversary by offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1 800 268-8471 and mention promo code Disnat30. See details link for more info. $150 $50,000 Disnat 30th Anniversary Promo May 1, 2013