With the end of the first week in September, there was certainly lots of news around the globe and in the markets to keep investors on the edge of their seats. Within the discount broker space, there were some noteworthy deal extensions that showed up late into week one of September. From the investor side of the fence, metrics on trading activity continue to look encouraging for retail participation and investors debate the offerings from some popular discount brokerages. Finally, there are a couple of updates/reminders for discount brokerage related events taking place over the weekend.
Deal Extensions
This past week, BMO InvestorLine decided to extend their Air Miles promotion deadline through to the end of September. While either an extension or a new deal was anticipated, it was interesting to see the deadline for the deal get pushed back for just 3 more weeks. By comparison, Scotia iTrade decided to extend their 100 commission-free trade offer until November 25th. To find out more about the latest updates and other discount brokerage deals for the month, click here.
Trading Activity Continues to Rise
With a new month comes the data on trading volumes supplied by Interactive Brokers for their previous month. In the latest results, trading volumes and customer accounts were both up on a yearly and monthly basis. Their recent earnings report also cited improved trading activity among clients which continues to confirm investors are coming back to stock markets.
Discussions about Discount Broker Fees
Chatter on the forums this week featured some interesting threads about discount brokerages. When it comes to discount brokerages, one of the popular points with investors is fees. This discussion on the RedFlagDeals forum was an interesting look at comparing TD Direct Investing with Questrade and shows that price and perceived value are not the same thing.
In a second forum, the Financial WebRing, this post contained some interesting perspectives about opening an account with BMO InvestorLine and about getting a better deal when opening an account.
Updates
Questrade announced will be releasing a minor software update to their IQ edge platform this weekend. For more details on the update click here.
Reminder
Options Education Day takes place in Montreal this weekend. Several discount brokerages are sponsors of the event and should be there to answer questions about trading options on their platforms. For more information about the event, click here.