Canadian discount brokerages are hitting February at full speed. With a slew of deals, events and the roll out of new features it doesn’t appear like very much will be slowing down the activity at Canada’s brokerages.
In this week’s roundup we cover the ramping up of the new feature launch at one of Canada’s oldest discount brokerages, a highlight reel of deals and promotions to kick off the month, a tour through the educational events taking place in February and finally a new twist on an old favourite in the forums.
On a Roll
Late last year Desjardins Online Brokerage quietly unveiled their conditional order feature. This past week, they were not so quiet any more as the front page of their website announced the presence of this feature and the official roll out to both the Classic and Disnat Direct clients.
According to their website, the conditional order settings available via Desjardins Online Brokerage include:
- A trade execution triggers one or more orders
- A trade execution triggers one or more cancellations;
- An event triggers one or more orders.
Included on the landing page explaining the conditional order types are also three video tutorials (also viewable on YouTube) that provide additional detail on how these order types work and can be used on the Disnat trading platform.
In both the year in review/look ahead article and the video interview with Desjardins Online Brokerage, 2015 was flagged as a year in which a number of new features and upgrades are coming.
Be sure to check out SparxTrading.com next week as we have an exclusive first look at another one of Desjardins’ major new projects for 2015.
New Month New Deals
One of the biggest stories from January was just how many promotional offers were being put forth from Canadian discount brokerages. The competition for consumers has certainly paid off as there are now 21 open offers on our deals page as well as additional special offers and contests not listed.
Just how do the offers stack up? This month the deals picture is somewhat unchanged to last month. The count of offers at each brokerage shows Questrade as the most active in terms of promotional offers with at least seven followed by BMO InvestorLine with four and Scotia iTrade with two. All other brokerages had one offer.
Of all the Canadian discount brokerages Questrade is aggressively pursuing clients as seen in their promotional activity, advertising and outreach efforts in most of the Canadian investor forums, Twitter (and reddit). With ultra-low pricing on their side as well, the other Canadian brokerages are going to have to become much more nimble in order to keep pace.
It’s worth mentioning that Qtrade Investor does have a contest running but was not included in this list because it does not meet the standard criteria for commission rebate/credit or reward.
Also, thanks to a user comment from Kris, we’ve updated the transfer fee promos section to include an offer from CIBC Investor’s Edge that wasn’t posted on their website but was confirmed by their client service reps.
Event Horizon
This upcoming week features a number of free investor education events, with a particular focus on options trading. Click on a link below to find out more information.
Feb. 10 (Tues) NBDB – Introduction to Call Options – [Fr]
Feb. 10 (Tues) Scotia iTRADE – Transitioning to an ETF Portfolio with Horizons ETFs
Feb. 10 (Tues) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Investing in Options
Feb. 11 (Wed) Scotia iTRADE – Options Trading and Volatility with Montreal Exchange
Feb. 11 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Advanced Options
Feb. 11 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Option Strategies for your RSP and TFSA Accounts
Feb. 11 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Building Wealth Through Registered Accounts
Feb. 11 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Technical Analysis – Candlestick Charting
Feb. 11 (Wed) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Options Trading Mistakes to Avoid
Feb. 12 (Thurs) NBDB – Learn About Investment Basics – [Fr]
From the Forums
This week’s from the forums section, we’re going to try something a little different. We’ve collected some interesting threads from the past week that are related to discount brokerages. The threads have been summarized in our corresponding community sections. Click on the links below to view them.
- What it’s like to get started at Interactive Brokers
- Comparing brokerages: CIBC Investor’s Edge vs Questrade
- Tip: In kind transfers at Questrade
That’s a wrap for this weekend. No matter if you have a snow shovel or umbrella to fight the elements, stay out of trouble and see you next week. Of course if you somehow don’t manage to stay out of trouble, here’s a guy who knows some guys.
