Author: user

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 25, 2015

It’s Christmas Day, and with markets closed there wasn’t a whole lot to do other than enjoy being with loved ones, giving and getting gifts, and for some eager beavers, getting a jump on the upcoming slew of deals and promotions for bigger and better trading monitors. Oh and then there was that beauty pageant thing.

As laughably painful as it was to sit through the ending of the Miss Universe contest, it brought to mind the challenges with crowning a winner in a contest when what’s being measured isn’t entirely clear. For Canadian discount brokerages, even though there may be no tiaras, there’s still the challenge of being crowned number one.

In keeping with the giving spirit, we decided to put together something special for the loyal readers of the end-of-year roundup. While ‘stats’ may not be high up on anybody’s wish list, for DIY investors looking to compare online brokerages, it turns out that stats may be one gift that keeps on giving. For traders, that’s the sign of a great ROI.

Of course in keeping with the roundup tradition, we’ve also got some festive discount brokerage tweets and a musical mashup to send us off into 2016.

Window Dressing

2015 was a big year for many Canadian discount brokerages. With almost all of Canada’s brokerages now offering historically low commission prices for equity trades, the challenge for each discount brokerage has shifted to becoming ‘more valuable’ than their competitors.

Value, like beauty, however is in the eye of the beholder.

It was fitting, therefore, that in 2015 many Canadian discount brokerages opted to start with makeovers to make themselves look brighter and shinier than their former selves and more importantly than other brokerages.

This past year, there were no fewer than six brokerages that either overhauled or significantly changed their website, in the hopes of capturing the attention of a more demanding online user. The more intriguing story, however, is not so much about the cosmetics of the brokerages, but on the consensus (or lack thereof) when it comes to the judges of the competition. Specifically, the three major online brokerage rankings that are available to Canadian DIY investors.

As we’ve discussed on a number of occasions, there are several rankings that typically crown a “best online brokerage” in Canada every year. The three most active and influential voices are the Globe and Mail, JD Power & Associates and Surviscor.

What is important to note is that each of these sources have a different semi-quantitative approach to establish what makes one brokerage better than another. As such, their voices are the ones that many Canadian DIY investors turn to when considering which brokerages to entrust with their investing and trading accounts.

Given their different approaches, however, there are times where these voices agree and times where they don’t. Fortunately for DIY investors, we’ve pulled together the full set of rankings and ratings to show just where they agreed for 2015, where they didn’t and why it matters for choosing an online brokerage in 2016.

Setting the Table

Instead of relying on just one discount brokerage comparison or ranking, below is a table that combines and compares three of the most popular Canadian brokerage rankings for 2015.

In order to make sense of the three comparisons, there are a couple of important things to take note of.

First, we took both the average ranking each brokerage received and also calculated the standard deviation. The reason for calculating both is because averages alone only tell only half the story. For example, a brokerage could score 1st on one ranking but 10th on another. Looking only at the average (which would be 5th) wouldn’t necessarily communicate how far apart the opinions/rankings were. Calculating the standard deviation helps to show the degree of consensus or agreement between the different rankings. The degree to which the “experts” agree or disagree is something that is not easy for DIY investors to track down and put into context which is why we have included this here.

To help make sense of the rankings, the averages and the standard deviations, we’ve also grouped the information into three categories of ‘agreement’: ratings where agreement is high, ratings where agreement is low and ratings where there is some agreement.

In each of the average and standard deviations, we’ve put in a heat map of the scores with colour showing the scale from best (green) to worst (red).

Without further ado, here is what the rankings look like.

Table 1: Combined 2015 Canadian Discount Brokerage Rankings

Places where the rankings agree

One of the most interesting observations of the data is the standard deviation column. What this shows is that there are clearly places where these three different rankings agree (lower standard deviations mean high consensus) and places where they disagree substantially.

Starting first with where they agree the most, it is clear that HSBC InvestDirect is a brokerage that all the rankings felt did not measure up. HSBC InvestDirect came in last, on average, in each of the rankings. Following suit, CIBC Investor’s Edge also seemed to rank consistently lower on each of the major rankings – this despite having one of the lowest commission offerings of brokerages big or small. This is interesting given how much DIY historically have considered pricing and how the rankings may not be factoring this in as heavily going forward.

In terms of who consistently rated the highest, there are clear standouts albeit with somewhat less consensus.

Both Questrade and TD Direct Investing were consistently referenced as strong choices in all three rankings. Thus, even though BMO InvestorLine performed the best amongst all of the 2015 brokerage ratings in terms of average ranking, there is more disagreement about them than the solid 2nd or 3rd place offering that Questrade or TD Direct Investing seem to offer.

In fact, here is an example where the comparison of brokerage rankings using the standard deviations becomes particularly interesting.

Both Qtrade Investor and TD Direct Investing had the same ‘average’ ranking when all the ratings were combined, however they each have very different degrees of agreement between rankings. Qtrade Investor had a rating as high as 2 (out of 12) with the Globe and Mail and as low as 8 (out of 10) with the JD Power Investor Satisfaction ranking. Conversely, TD Direct Investing’s ratings ranged between 3 (out of 10) and 6 (out of 12).

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that TD Direct Investing is necessarily “better” than Qtrade Investor, per se, but it does mean that DIY investors likely have to do more homework to find out more about Qtrade Investor than TD Direct Investing.

Another interesting area where the brokerage rankings agreed for 2015 was with RBC Direct Investing. There was a very high level of agreement that RBC Direct Investing provided an “average” experience when it came to DIY investing.

Places where the rankings disagree

As shown in red in the table, two firms that had the highest level of disagreement between rankings were National Bank Direct Brokerage and Virtual Brokers.

In the case of National Bank Direct Brokerage, they performed the best in terms of “investor satisfaction” on the JD Power survey (1st out of 10) but fared poorly according to both Surviscor and the Globe and Mail ratings. This extreme disagreement is interesting because it highlights the importance of knowing what each ranking is measuring and how they go about trying to measure it. It also makes the average ranking score a less reliable way to find out how NBDB stacks up to the rest of the field.

Looking at Virtual Brokers, there is an equally strong level of uncertainty in the rankings pool as to whether they are “the best” as claimed by the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick or near the bottom of the pack as ranked by Surviscor. With only two rankings to rely on, however, there is clearly room for confusion and uncertainty on the part of shoppers looking to choose this brokerage.

As was the case above, this disagreement with NBDB and Virtual Brokers means that more homework is required when considering either as an online brokerage. For DIY investors, it is therefore critical to know what about an online brokerage experience matters or is most important as this will determine whether or not a ranking, positive or negative, is actually relevant.

Qtrade Investor and Scotia iTRADE were also firms that had a high level of disagreement when looking at the combined set of discount brokerage rankings for 2015. In this respect, Qtrade Investor edged out Scotia iTrade, receiving both a stronger average ranking and stronger consensus.

Places where the rankings somewhat agree

In terms of this year’s rankings, this next group falls into the ‘grey area’ when it comes to agreement despite having very different average ranking scores.

Even though BMO InvestorLine had the best overall average score across the three major ratings, the relatively low Globe and Mail review pulled the consensus factor down. To clarify, the Globe and Mail ranking was more of a ‘neutral’ rating however numerically this introduced some uncertainty into the mix.

On the other hand, Desjardins Online Brokerage’s ‘average’ rating in investor satisfaction offset the lower scores from Surviscor and the Globe and Mail.

Finally, for Credential Direct, there were only rankings in the Surviscor and Globe and Mail ratings so investors would again need to probably do more homework to find out what other investors may think.

What does it all Mean?

As comparison shopping for products and services, including online brokerages, becomes more the norm, it’s now possible to use data to better inform those decisions and narrow down the field of choices.

What this series of analyses show, however, is that taking even the average of what the experts are saying doesn’t exactly tell the whole story. Consumers should take the title of “the best online brokerage” with a grain of salt as there is likely another source that disagrees with the claim.

According to the combined average rankings and consensus analysis, multiple rankings saw BMO InvestorLine, Questrade and TD Direct Investing as consistently strong choices in 2015 while HSBC InvestDirect and CIBC Investor’s Edge consistently scored low. Falling consistently in the middle of the pack was RBC Direct Investing.

For the rest of the Canadian discount brokerages, there is less clarity when it comes to rankings which means that more research is required or that these brokerages may need to offer more innovative or value-added incentives to get DIY investors to pay attention.

Ultimately, the good news for most DIY investors is that it is harder to make a poor choice than a good one when choosing an online brokerage. Ratings and pricing aside, it is now up to Canadian brokerages to offer better

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on the final roundup of 2015. From everyone here at SparxTrading.com, have a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Here’s musical recap to take you back through 2015 and to get your groove on heading into 2016.

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 18, 2015

Source: Giphy

With the Canadian dollar and oil prices looking like they’ve been on the wrong end of an imperial destroyer, what was in demand this week was cool technology, light-sabers and a chance to escape to something better. The takeaway lesson that markets always teach traders is that demand is a powerful force when awakened and oversupply a powerful enemy.

Kicking off the roundup this week, we’ll take a look at one Canadian online brokerage that may not have amazing special effects and symphony orchestras, however unveiled their latest attempt to move their website into future at light speed. From there we’ll take a quick look at another discount brokerage who launched a last-minute gift idea for DIY investors. Next we’ll quickly check out the latest banter from investors on Twitter, peruse through the investor education event (singular) and close out with some interesting feedback from investors in the forums.

Because it’s 2015.

With only a few more days left in 2015, one of Canada’s largest bank-owned online brokerages has managed to join the six or so other Canadian discount brokerages who’ve launched new front facing websites this year. It couldn’t have come soon enough.

Just over two weeks ago the Globe and Mail’s online brokerage rankings characterized RBC Direct Investing’s previous website as “O-L-D school.” This past week, however, the old rolled out and the new rolled in.

With the focus of the online brokerage rankings in 2015 shifting heavily towards website experience and the growing pressure from their bank-owned peers updating and upgrading their own websites, RBC Direct Investing clearly had upgrading their website on their radar. That said, given their latest review in the Globe and Mail brokerage rankings and the score in Surviscor’s rankings, it was interesting that the roll out of the new RBC Direct Investing website did not merit more of a response.

Despite the radio silence about the new website, there are several enhancements and design choices that are worth pointing out.

The first, and perhaps most obvious, is that the new website layout is contemporary. What that means is like many of the other websites released by other brokerages this year, RBC Direct Investing’s new site has rearranged information and layouts so things don’t seem as overwhelming as they did previously. In other words, less is more. Sections are more readily divided, text is clearer and it’s easier to focus on the content that’s relevant to a reader.

In line with a more modern layout, another interesting feature is that site is not just responsive, but looks to have been built by taking a ‘mobile first’ approach. The traditional top navigation menu has been removed altogether in favour of a ‘mobile’ style menu in the top left. The items in the menu also mirror the vertical order of the sections of the homepage which is a clear design choice to accommodate users swiping a tablet or smartphone screen rather than scrolling on a mouse.

A rethinking of the organization also means that users have a series of simpler choices to make. This arrangement was not unlike TD Direct Investing’s previous approach as well as BMO InvestorLine’s current strategy of “Tell us who you are and we’ll show you how we can meet your needs”.

Digging a little deeper, however, there is another element to the new RBC Direct Investing website that seems to reflect something unique: a deliberate focus on including women in the imagery. Specifically, the new website places women at the focal point of the featured images and does so on key pages throughout the website (see collage below).

Source: Screenshot RBC Direct Investing website

While it is not unique to see financial institutions, especially the largest Canadian financial services brands, reflect a more diverse and inclusive picture of their clients, RBC Direct Investing’s new site has made some interesting design choices. For example, by placing women in the featured images of both the “beginner investor” and the “experienced investor” pages, the website highlights an important rethinking of what an “investor” looks like. BMO InvestorLine and TD Direct Investing have also done this with their latest redesigns, however RBC Direct Investing’s website stands out as it deliberately places women at the focal point across all three categories that users are choosing from on the homepage i.e. beginner investors, experienced investors and those planning for retirement.

As many of the comments from this past year’s Globe and Mail online brokerage ranking pointed out, user interaction with a new website is highly subjective. That said, how users engage with an online brokerage is going to matter more now to DIY investors than it ever has in the past.

For brokerages, striking the right balance of being “familiar enough” to inspire confidence and “bold enough” to stand out from their peers is rarely easy or cheap. Moreover, online investors of all stripes are savvy enough to detect the difference between a user experience has been thoroughly thought through and one that seems formulaic. The details matter.

Even though much hasn’t been said yet online about the RBC Direct Investing website, the design choices of the site itself will hopefully create a new conversation about what investors can expect from Canadian online brokerages heading into 2016.

Deals Update

With only a few shopping days left till Christmas, it looks like there are still some last minute deals to be had. This past week, National Bank Direct Brokerage stepped back into the deals and promotions race with their latest commission-free trading offer. Specifically individuals opening a qualifying account with at least $20,000 can receive up to $500 in commission credits and those depositing at least $100,000 can receive up to $1,000 in commission credits. See our deals & promotions section for additional details.

Deals activity has been in a holding pattern for most of this month however the new offer by NBDB brings the total number of offers up to 17. It should be interesting heading into the New Year as there are 8 offers set to expire at the end of December. Further, once the holidays are over, the big push to RRSP season will begin so brokerages big and small are sure to kick their promotional activity into high gear. The online brokerages currently putting offers forward are undoubtedly hoping to capture the interest of the keener investors who are doing their homework early.

Event Horizon

Ho-ho-hooray, the holidays are almost here, and there’s one more discount brokerage-sponsored investor education event to squeeze in before Jolly Old Santa makes his appearance. This upcoming session may be of interest to those who are new to investing, and interested in learning about options.

December 22

TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Investing in Options

Tweets of the Week

You’re a mean one, Mr. Glitch

With the latest roll outs from Questrade and TD Direct Investing, there are inevitably some bumps and bruises that DIY investors (and the brokerages) encounter. This past week, the Twitterverse was more quiet however Questrade and TD Direct Investing seemed catch a little bit of extra shade from frustrated users.

From the Forums

No Such Thing as a Free Launch

Star Wars wasn’t the only major release this month. Two popular Canadian online brokerages also launched their own updates and upgrades to their respective web platforms. Here are a couple of great threads that capture the reactions of users to the changes made by TD Direct Investing and Questrade:

Reactions to TD Direct Investing website from the Financial Wisdom Forum here.

Reactions to Questrade’s latest platform upgrade from RedFlagDeals’ forum here.

Battle of the Brokerages

While there may be no light-sabers in this battle, the ongoing debate between value players Virtual Brokers and Questrade was worth a revisit in this post on reddit’s Personal Finance Canada thread.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup. Finding a way to adequately punctuate the roundup on such an historic event as the opening of another Star Wars reboot was tough. Especially with winter coming, it was a Stark reminder of Snow in the long range forecast. Enjoy the weekend or ‘geek’end!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 11, 2015

“We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world’s most profitable company, it pays over $7billion a year in taxes–and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.” – Banksy source: Twitter

Like it or not, the one great lesson that markets continuously teaches its students is that prices reflect some vision of the future and not the present. Of course what makes markets so exciting is the fact that there are so many companies thinking up new ideas and products to bring that future into reality.

For the heads of Canadian discount brokerages, the future of DIY investing is always on their minds. The speed at which they’re able to respond to it or even shape it, however, is what has started to separate those who are known as ‘innovative’ from those deemed to be stagnant.

In this week’s edition of the roundup, we take an in-depth look at one brokerage who has figured out that it will take more than just technology to be able to be a leader in the DIY investor world of tomorrow. Next, we’ll look at the reaction to last week’s Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings from across social media and also take a look at what investors were reacting to this past week on Twitter. Finally, we’ll preview the upcoming investor education events for the week ahead and round out with chatter from the investor forums.

Using the Force

While it may not be quite as big as the release of the new Star Wars movie, the battle for intergalactic supremacy in the discount brokerage world is poised to heat up yet again this weekend. Rolling out this weekend are two major platform updates from Questrade that are sure to bring cheer from DIY investors and rattle the nerves of bank-owned and independent brokerages alike.

Rolling out this weekend will be a highly anticipated set of upgrade to the suite of Questrade trading platforms. Their active trader platform, IQ Edge will see some long sought-after features finally go live and a new web-based trading platform join their bench.

Starting first with the update to IQ Edge, the upcoming refresh will be the third major upgrade to the platform this year taking the release number to 4.2. The major feature to be added is the ability to use conditional orders when placing trades – a feature that many active traders rely on to plan their entry and/or exit points. In fact, Questrade is not the first brokerage in 2015 to roll this feature out nor are they alone in being able to offer this as part of a trading platform. Recall that earlier this year Desjardins Online Brokerage also launched conditional trading into their trading platforms and brokerage platforms, such as the Active Trader and US trading (aka ThinkOrSwim) platforms at TD Direct Investing and Interactive Brokers’ Trader WorkStation have had conditional orders for quite some time.

With each release of Questrade’s IQ Edge, it is clear that they are moving closer to having a trading platform that is as good as if not better than many of the third party platforms currently being offered by other brokerages. And, while there appears to still be features and functionality that users are looking to have built in, Questrade is clearly listening and executing on getting trader-friendly features integrated on a regular basis. This is certainly one area in which they have outshone their larger bank-owned brokerage competitors who seem to be much slower at releasing upgrades to trading platforms.

For less active traders, Questrade is also releasing a browser based platform that is slated to replace (eventually) IQ Essential.

One of the key features being trumpeted for the new online platform is the watchlist. While a watchlist is not a technological marvel, the small changes, such as adding sparklines for a visualization of price trending, is a nice and modern touch. Enabling snap quote refresh of the watchlist is also a much more convenient way to source quotes from the watchlist that aren’t part of a real-time update feed.

Another feature being highlighted is the ability to trade seamlessly across devices. The reality of 2015 and now 2016 is that individual investors would like access to information about their investments as well as the ability to buy or sell them, across any device.

Of course, while all this innovation is exciting, it also creates a challenge for DIY investors and clients. Questrade now has more platforms, they offer more services, and a wider variety of packages than they ever have before. And, while more is usually better, for most consumers, it’s also a challenge to understand exactly what Questrade has to offer.

With all of these choices and changes, as well as the many areas of investing and wealth management that Questrade is now in, their product offering is no longer so simple to understand. Even though Questrade has maintained a very human voice, and has anchored its presence on social media, the reality is that Questrade is now doing more things than it ever has done before.

This tweet, taken from this week for example, shows that there are still folks out there who remember (and think) that Questrade is the no-fee broker when they shed this status several years ago.

For DIY investors, the lesson is that they can expect Canadian brokerages to have to innovate much more quickly in order to compete effectively with one another. While in theory this competition will drive better pricing and products, it will also create a whole new learning curve to stay on top of the changes within their own brokerages.

Without great support and communication to accompany these changes, the intended ‘improvements’ may backfire into user frustration. Fortunately for brokerages such as Questrade and Desjardins Online Brokerage, their individual releases of new features (such as the conditional orders) have been well supported with videos and content describing how these work.

Ironically, it seems that in order to truly succeed at innovation going forward, tech savvy won’t be the magic ingredient. Rather, a very human quality, emotional intelligence, will be needed to help customers navigate the brave new world of online investing.

Tweets of the Week

In addition to the regular overview of the Canadian discount brokerage voices on Twitter, we’ve also collected the reactions to the most recent discount brokerage rankings from the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick from Twitter and Facebook.

Here are some of the reactions to the 2015 Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings from across social media:

Here are some comments from Facebook:

Event Horizon

Counting down to the holidays, it’s a festive week ahead for discount brokerage-sponsored investor education events. Here are some upcoming sessions that may be of interest to those who are new to investing, curious about trading strategies, and options enthusiasts. ETFs, technical analysis, and registered accounts round out this week’s selection.

December 15

Scotia iTRADE – Introduction to ETF Strategies with Pro Market Advisors

TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Investing in Options

December 16

TD Direct Investing – Building Wealth Through Registered Accounts

Scotia iTRADE – Placing Your First 10 Trades with Sarah Potter

December 17

Scotia iTRADE – Head & Shoulder Patterns with AJ Monte

December 18

Scotia iTRADE – Active, Passive or Both Strategies with Purpose Investments

 

From the Forums

Limiting Factors

This past week, the Liberals made good on the pledge to lower the TFSA contribution amounts from $10,000 back down to $5,500. In this post from the RedFlagDeals.com investing forum, the discussion from DIY investors highlights some of the initial reactions and perspectives from the price-savvy crowd.

Smorgasbord

In this post from Reddit’s Personal Finance Canada section, a user is looking for a few answers related to moving funds from Sunlife to Questrade as well as other financial planning questions for a newly started position. Worth a read for those curious about employer contributions.

Into the Close

This week has seen so many different versions of the future, from dystopian to fantastic. Heading into the weekend, here’s a glimpse into the distant future as well as a post that signals a chance to finally dream about a better future.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 4th 2015

Source: Vine

One of the great things about watching professionals in action is just how easy they make things look. If you’re Aaron Rodgers, airing out a game-winning pass with no time left on the clock just seems like a day’s work. While Canada’s discount brokerages don’t have quite the dramatic finishes that the NFL seems to produce, this past week brokerages have had their fair share of unexpected comebacks and champions that make winning look effortless.

This edition of the roundup is chalked full of commentary and perspective on one of the biggest weeks of the year. Kicking off the roundup is the review of this month’s deals and promotions and the signals that brokerages are moving more aggressively into 2016 than ever before. Next we dive into discount brokerage rankings season by looking at the two big names in Canadian brokerage rankings that published their results this week. Finally we take a look at the news and chatter across the discount brokerage space on social media and in the forums. Saddle up, this is going to be a fun ride.

Deals in Play

At the outset of December it looks as if at least two brokerages, HSBC InvestDirect and Questrade, are interested in spreading some holiday cheer in the form of new deals and promotions.

Starting first with Questrade. Late last month they relaunched their popular Apple Watch promotion – which is actually a $500 gift card to the Apple store. While the addition of yet another promotion brings the number of promotions to at least 8, the launch was interesting for two other reasons.

First, with the expiry date of this promotion well into March of 2016, this seems like one of the premiere offers Questrade will be putting forward heading into the coveted “RRSP season”. The timing of this offer just before the Christmas holiday buying season means that it might just be enough to tip someone into considering Questrade as an online brokerage. Further, the value of $500 at the Apple store for a $100,000 deposit makes it a competitive offering at this deposit level.

A second reason this offer is interesting is because Questrade continues to offer more incentives and promotions than any (or almost all) other online brokerages. Going into December, Questrade alone accounted for just about half of all of the promotions being offered. Alongside the offer for the Apple Watch, Questrade is also offering up an iPad Mini promo as well as other commission-free trading promos. For other Canadian discount brokerages, the fact that Questrade has continued to offer the number and diversity of offers should demonstrate that DIY investors are clearly interested in brokerages who are prepared to give in order to receive.

The second online brokerage to get into the giving spirit this month is HSBC InvestDirect. From December through to March 2016, HSBC InvestDirect is offering up 30 commission-free North American equity trades for individuals signing up for a new account. While this is not the first time HSBC InvestDirect has put forward a commission-free trading offer, it is interesting to note that they too have set their expiry date on this promotion well into March and have launched this offer a month before the end of the year signaling that perhaps HSBC InvestDirect is preparing to compete a little harder for new clients than they have in the recent past.

Like most other competitive marketplaces, these moves by Questrade and HSBC InvestDirect will not go unnoticed. The fact that both of these offers stretch well into 2016 are a signal to other brokerages that it is going to be a very competitive RRSP season and that the sooner they can bring interesting offers to market, the better.

BMO InvestorLine Goes for the Three-peat

This past week financial industry ranking firm Surviscor released their updated set of Canadian online brokerage rankings crowning BMO InvestorLine as their choice for top online brokerage yet again. These past few weeks have been good to BMO InvestorLine as they also took the prize for top online brokerage from the Morningstar awards, which are also very similar in structure to rankings/analysis underpinning the Surviscor ratings.

Below is a video from BNN of Surviscor President Glenn LaCoste giving his thoughts on the latest rankings and trends in Canadian discount brokerages.

In terms of scoring, Surviscor’s rating system included some new elements that weren’t present in years past, namely a ‘Service Level Assessment’ as well as a ‘Mobile Accessibility’ consideration.

One of the interesting components about the Surviscor analysis is that it takes into account over 4000 criteria when coming up with the final score. Of course, since those criteria are proprietary it is difficult to know exactly the weights that lead to the scoring.Even so, a look at the distribution of this year’s scores also shows just how tightly clustered most of the brokerages are according to Surviscor’s analysis.

The graph below (a histogram for the stats nerds) shows that most firms in the ranking have a score between 65% and 74%. What stands out when looking at this chart is just how poorly HSBC InvestDirect performed on this analysis compared to the rest of the firms profiled.

Distribution of scores from Surviscor 2015 online brokerage rankings.

At the other end of the spectrum, BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTRADE scored above most of the other brokerages but relatively close to one another. This is particularly interesting given the fact that standard commission pricing at both firms is very different.

In terms of BMO InvestorLine, standard commission pricing is in line with many other bank-owned brokerages at just under $10. Conversely, Scotia iTRADE’s standard commission pricing is still closer to $25. Thus, commission pricing is only part of what factors into making a firm rank well in these ratings and, according to these rankings, the overall experience between BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTRADE may be too close for most to notice.

In fact, the scoring shows that according to these rankings, for about 50% of the brokerages, the experience is bound to be “pretty close” to another brokerage.

For DIY investors the take home message to keep in mind when considering the rankings is that these scores represent a snapshot in time. The industry is constantly evolving and so new features or improvements may show up in between ranking cycles which then in turn change the order in which these firms would be ranked. The fact that many discount brokerages are clustered around the same scores show that most firms do a reasonably decent and probably similar job in terms of the criteria measured by the Surviscor rankings, so it seems that personal preference will have a greater role to play for most DIY investors.

That said, these numbers also show that most brokerages are locked in a very tight race with one another. The big challenge in front of the brokerages for 2016 is just how they’re going to start separating themselves from one another.

2015 Globe and Mail Online Brokerage Rankings Released

Of course what would online brokerage rankings season be without the most widely anticipated and longest running ranking of Canadian brokerages?

Earlier today the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick published his annual review of twelve of Canada’s most popular online discount brokerages and there were certainly some surprises contained in this year’s rankings.

Starting first with the actual scores. In the 2015 rankings, there was a clear theme that the top three Canadian online brokerages according to Rob Carrick just happened to be non-bank owned brokerages.

Virtual Brokers has once again reclaimed its title as best online brokerage after having lost it last year to Qtrade Investor (who incidentally came in 2nd place this year). Following in third place was Questrade, a firm that has continuously been moving up the rankings for the past few years.

The battle between Qtrade Investor and Virtual Brokers may now be turning into somewhat of a rivalry as both of these firms continue to score well in the Globe’s brokerage rankings only narrowly edging one another out each year for the past 4 years. And, even though Questrade may have placed third, according to Rob Carrick’s comments on this brokerage, they may very well take top spot should they continue at their current pace.

For the bank-owned brokerages, the only bright spot appeared to be TD Direct Investing. With a revamped website and the implementation of long awaited features (such as the US Dollar RRSP account), TD Direct Investing scored the best among Canada’s bank-owned online brokerages with a grade of a B+.

The rest of the pack of bank-owned brokerages, however, seemed to draw less glowing praise, to put it mildly.

Interestingly, for the businesses with the biggest profits (i.e. the Canadian banks), the ability to create exceptional experiences (at least in the view of the rankings) fell far short of what they could do. One of the reasons often cited by industry insiders, is that the online brokerage arms of many banks just don’t get the resources and respect as some of the other banking units. Ironically, for many bank-owned brokerages, the marketing that their parent bank spends to create expectations for consumers tends to backfire when the bells and whistles and attention to product experience don’t make it to the wealth management arm of their business.

Perhaps the clearest case to be made in these results is that the smaller, independent brokerages are able to be more innovative than their bank-owned counterparts. Some might even argue that in order to compete effectively, the smaller players have to innovate to stay relevant.

Innovation, however, is not without its downsides either. With so much of today’s DIY investing experience tied to being online, being first to market or creating a new platform or website is one thing – having it work under normal and even stressful conditions, however, is something completely different. As we’ve seen time and time again this past year, releases of new software platforms, app updates and websites has not been smooth for any brokerage. For smaller brokerages in particular having technology go down (or misbehave) can create a cascading series of frustrations as they neither have the customer service resources nor the communication channels that larger brokers have to mitigate these kinds of scenarios.

In the case of this year’s Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings, however, there seemed to be an especially large component of the analysis, scoring and commentary devoted to the look and feel of brokerage websites. The argument for doing so, according to Carrick, is that commission pricing is no longer the biggest component to differentiating brokerages. Instead, client experience and more specifically, website experience is.

Another interesting observation about this year’s rankings was that they were not as lengthy or detailed as they have been in years passed (including compared to last year’s). While it is purely speculative, a great deal of the shine on DIY investing has been eclipsed by robo-advisors and a significant focus of the personal finance conversation has been about Canadian real estate. Add to that a fairly abysmal year for Canadian equities and it’s clearly been a tough time for DIY investing to get any positive headlines.

Clearly, many of Canada’s discount brokerages have their work cut out for them in 2016. With rankings season now over, the writing is on the wall for the Canadian discount brokerage industry: step up or step back.

The non-bank owned brokerages are going to have to continue to innovate in order to fend off their larger competitors. Large bank-owned brokerages clearly have to work both smarter and harder at becoming seen as leading edge technology firms – something that is tough and expensive to do given their size. Perhaps the clearest message of all, however, is that discount brokerages that are on ‘auto-pilot’ are probably at the biggest risk of making themselves appear obsolete. While it may be tough to rank first in multiple rankings, occupying the basement of multiple rankings is a sign that DIY investors will almost certainly use to stay away.

Event Horizon

Bundle up and hunker down, it’s a busy week ahead for discount brokerage-sponsored investor education events. Here are some upcoming sessions that may be of interest to yield hounds, those who are new to investing, curious about trading strategies, and options enthusiasts. Tax efficient investing, technical analysis, and registered accounts round out this upcoming week’s selection.

December 7

Scotia iTRADE – Dividends, Balanced Portfolios and the Quest for Yields with Larry Berman

December 8

TD Direct Investing – Alternatives to Mutual Funds: Learn What Else Is Out There

TD Direct Investing – Options as an Income Strategy

December 9

TD Direct Investing – The Evolution of Indexing

TD Direct Investing – Technical Analysis – Advanced Indicators

TD Direct Investing – Tax Efficient Investing

December 10

Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Discover the Benefits of the TFSA

Scotia iTRADE – Trading The Double Top with AJ Monte

From the Forums

In this edition of the forums sweep we found an update to this post from the RedFlagDeals investing section that highlights what will be a disappointing change for many Norbert’s Gambit fans at one of Canada’s largest brokerages.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup. Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, there still might be a chance to save big. Speaking of big saves, here’s a treat for the Leafs fans and their new goalie Sparks (yep, we already like him) getting into the saving spirit. Have an awesome weekend!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – December 2015

*Update Dec 19th* With 2015 quickly drawing to a close, it looks like Canadian discount brokerages have already put forward their best deals and promotions to take investors into 2016. As the year winds down, DIY investors and traders are looking at places to spend their money rather than grow it, and as such, markets as a whole tend to wane. Still, there are 15 deals on the table and who knows, if DIY investors have been a good bunch perhaps there may be a surprise or two left under the tree before the month is through.

Once again, the month is off to a slow start with no new offers officially launching at the beginning of December. There were two noteworthy promotions that resurfaced through November that reiterated which brokerages are continuing to actively pursue bringing on clients, regardless of the time of year.

As has been the case for most of 2015, Questrade continues to offer more promotions than any one of the other discount brokerages. This month, Questrade has a whopping 8 of this month’s 15 16 open offers. The next nearest brokerages are BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTrade which each have two offers each and are the only two major bank-owned brokerages with advertised promotions. Other brokerages with offers this month include Desjardins Online Brokerage, Jitneytrade and Virtual Brokers.

We’ll be sure to check in on the brokerages regularly throughout December to see if there are hints of any other deal miracles. In the meantime, if there are any other offers that we might have missed, please let us know.

Extended Offers

There was one online brokerage that took the opportunity to revive one of their longstanding refer-a-friend offers. After a brief absence from the November deals section, BMO InvestorLine updated the terms and conditions of their refer-a-friend program which now states that the promotion runs from November through to January 3rd 2016. As seen in the following tweet, the deadline date was the source of some confusion until the update occurred.

The extension of this program is not a long one so it looks like whatever changes were being contemplated to the refer-a-friend program may show up at the beginning of 2016.

Expired Offers

Heading into December, there were a pair of promotional offers from bank-owned brokerages that expired.

The first was a free trade promo from TD Direct Investing. Although TD has typically not been as active with promotions as some other bank-owned brokerages, they have run promotions during the fall period for two consecutive years now suggesting that they have preferred spots during the year to run promotions. Spring is another of the key seasons, especially for discount brokerages, so stay tuned for what could transpire in early 2016.

The other promotional offer that expired was a commission-free trade offer from National Bank Direct Brokerage.

New Offers

*Update Dec. 19th* For some DIY investors looking for a good deal, Christmas came early in the form of an offer from National Bank Direct Brokerage. Earlier this week NBDB launched a commission-credit promotion that offers up to either $500 or $1,000 in commission rebates for individuals opening a new account with at least $20,000 or $100,000 respectively. The credits are applicable to trades made within 90 days of signing up. See table below for more information.

*Update Dec. 3rd* It looks like at least one Canadian discount brokerage is getting into the holiday spirit. HSBC InvestDirect has launched a commission-free trading offer for individuals who open a new account with them. The offer is for 30 commission-free North American equity trades (i.e. it does not include options trades) which are good for use for up to 60 days. Unlike many of the offers currently on the market, this one does not appear to require a minimum deposit. See table below for additional details. Thanks to Tim for sharing that with us!

While there were technically no new offers that arrived at the outset of December, shortly before the beginning of this new month Questrade once again launched their Apple Watch themed promotion. Specifically, individuals who open a new Questrade account with at least $100,000 may be eligible to receive a gift card from Apple worth $500.00 CAD. While the promotion is certainly suggesting that individuals could receive an Apple Watch, in reality, qualifying individuals can use the $500 gift card towards any other Apple product. Interestingly, the expiry date for this promo has been set to fall right in the middle of the infamous “RRSP” season which means this is likely to be one of the more valuable offerings Questrade puts forward going into the New Year.

Discount Brokerage Deals

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion 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 Jitneytrade and receive access to their preferred pricing package. n/a Discounted Commission Rates none For more details click here none
Open a new qualifying account with HSBC InvestDirect and you could be eligible to receive up to 30 commission-free North American equity trades. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. n/a 30 commission-free trades. 60 days Winter free trade promotion March 15, 2016
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 $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements. A) $1,000 – $9,999 B) $10,000 – $24,999 C) $25,000 – $49,999 D) $50,000 -$99,999 E) $100,000+ $25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days) Refer a friend terms and conditions; Code Number: 476104302388759 none
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 5 commission-free trades 60 days 5 commission-free trade offer December 31, 2016
Open and fund a new online trading account with Questrade with at least A)$1,000 or B)$10,000 and you could be eligible to receive either A)10 or B) 100 commission-free trades. Use promo code 100LOWCOM2015 when applying to be eligible for this offer. Be sure to read the full terms and conditions for this promotion. A)$1,000 B)$10,000 A) 10 commission-free trades B) 100 commission-free trades 60 days Commission-free Trade Promotion December 31, 2015
Open a new online trading account (registered, margin or FX and CFD) with Questrade and deposit at least $5,000 in order to be eligible to qualify for a $50 Amazon.ca gift certificate. Clients must also place at least one commission-generating trade within 60 days. Use promo code AMAZON50 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $5,000 $50 Amazon.ca gift certificate The Amazon.ca gift certificate will be awarded in CAD and emailed to the client within 30 business days of the account reaching the minimum funding requirement of $5,000 and execution of one commissionable trade in the eligible account. Amazon.ca Gift Certificate Promotion December 31, 2015
Open and fund a new account at Virtual Brokers with at least $5,000 and you could be eligible to receive up to 25 commission-free stock or ETF trades good for use for up to one year. Use promo code “TRADEFREE2015” when signing up to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions carefully. $5,000 25 commission-free trades 365 days 25 commission-free trades December 31, 2015
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:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50) 60 days Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade December 31, 2015
Scotia iTrade Open and fund a new Scotia iTRADE account with at least A) $15,000 – $49,999; B) $50,000 -$99,999; C)$100,000 – $249,999; or D)$250,000+ and you may be eligible to receive a corresponding cash back or commission rebate. For commission-free trades use code: FTN-F15 or for cash rebates use code: NC-F15. Be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully for rebate and cash back eligibility. Contact Scotia iTrade for full details on this offer. A) $15,000 – $49,999 B) $50,000 -$99,999 C) $100,000 – $249,999 D) $250,000+ A) 75 commission-free trades OR $75 cash back B) 125 commission-free trades OR $125 cash back C) 250 commission free trades OR $250 cash back D) 500 commission-free trades OR $500 cash back 120 days for commission-free trades; Cash for the cash back offer will be deposited directly by September 30, 2016. 500 free trade or $500 cash back promo December 31, 2015
Open and fund a new National Bank Direct Brokerage account with at least A) $20,000 or B) $100,00 and you may be eligible to receive up to either A) $500 or B) $1,000 in commission credits. Use promo code CashBack2016 when registering for an account to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for additional details. A) $20,000 – $99,999 B) $100,000+ A) $500 in commission credit B) $1,000 in commission credit 90 days Cash back promo March 31, 2016
Open a new online trading account (registered, margin or TFSA) with Questrade and deposit at least $25,000 in order to be eligible to qualify for free advanced data and 30 days of unlimited commission-free trades. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $25,000 30 days unlimited commission-free trades and free advanced data 30 days 30 days unlimited commission-free trades and free advanced data December 31, 2015
Disnat Disnat is offering new & existing clients $500 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 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code Disnat500. See details link for more info. $50,000 $500 commission credit 6 months Disnat $500 Commission Credit Promo December 31, 2015
BMO InvestorLine If you refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with a)$50,000 – $249,999 or b)$250,000+ the referrer and the referee will both receive cash. The new account must be opened with the referral code specific to the referrer. A) $50,000 – $249,999 B) $250,000+ A) You(referrer): $200; Your Friend(referee): $50 B) You(referrer): $300; Your Friend: $100 Payout occurs after 60 days (subject to conditions). BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend January 3, 2016
Open or fund an account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $100,000 and you may be eligible to receive an iPad Mini 2. Use promo code IPADMINI15Q4 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $100,000 iPad Mini 2 60 days IPad Mini 2 Promotion December 31, 2015
Open or fund an eligible account with at least $100,000 and make at least one commission generating trade and you may be eligible to receive a $500 gift card for the Apple Store. Use promo code APPLEWATCH when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $100,000 $500 Apple Store gift card Gift card will be sent within 30 days of client meeting eligibility requirements. Apple Watch Promo March 31, 2016
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine, and fund it with at least $100,000 in net new assets and you may be eligible to receive either A)$200 cash back plus 20 commission-free equity trades. Use promo code FALL2015 when signing up to be eligible. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer. $100,000 $200 + 20 commission-free equity trades Cash award will be paid the week of January 16, 2017. Trades are good for 1 year from signing up for promotional offer. Fall 2015 Promotion January 3, 2016

Expired Offers
Last Updated: December 19, 2015 11:50 PT

Transfer Fee Deals

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Scotia iTrade Transfer $15,000 or more to Scotia iTrade from another Canadian brokerage, and iTrade may pay up to $150 in transfer fees. $150 $15,000 500 Free Trade or $500 Cash Back Offer December 31, 2015
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees $135 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $25,000 or more from another brokerage and Credential Direct will cover up to $150 in transfer fees. Use promo code SWITCHME when signing up to qualify for the transfer promotion. $150 $25,000 Credential Direct Transfer Fee Rebate none
Qtrade Investor will reimburse your transfer fee up to $150 when transferring a balance of $10,000 or more. For reimbursement, please mail or fax a copy of your statement from the transferring institution that shows the transfer charge to Qtrade Investor at 604.484.2627 and indicate your Qtrade Investor account number. $150 $25,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
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 into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made. $135 $25,000 confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more info (1-800-567-3343) 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 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 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code Disnat500. See details link for more info. $150 $50,000 Disnat $500 Commission Credit Promo December 31, 2015
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 27, 2015

This past week, many DIY investors have been turning their attention to ways to spend their money rather than to grow it. Although online traders have typically avoided coming to blows with each other over discounted vegetable steamers, online trading is most definitely a fierce battle to get a deal that can be monetized by selling to someone further down the line. Undoubtedly there have been and will forever be expletives hurled at screens of all sizes when orders or trades don’t go as planned. Luckily those screens don’t talk (at least not for the moment).

For Canada’s discount brokerages, this past week they’ve done their best to score some time in the news cycle for much more positive reasons. In this edition of the roundup we take a look at one bank-owned brokerage’s three-peat in the winner’s circle for an online brokerage award. Next we take a look at what a survey from Canada’s largest online brokerage has to say about the future of DIY investing in Canada. We then focus on the latest tweets of the week and gather some interesting investor commentary from the forums.

BMO InvestorLine Crowned Best Online Brokerage by Morningstar

As one of Canada’s most visible bank-owned brokerages, BMO InvestorLine continues to find the awards spotlight. For the third consecutive year, this Canadian discount brokerage was recognized by the Morningstar Canada awards as being Canada’s best discount brokerage.

The ceremony took place on November 25th in Toronto and was an evening that recognized many within the Canadian financial services sector. For DIY investors, the best discount brokerage selection was performed by a committee of members

Morningstar’s Best Online Brokerage award is a submission based award which requires brokerages interested in participating to pay a $1,000 submission fee. According to their selection criteria, the Morningstar award for best online brokerage jurors are particularly interested in knowing the following from participating brokerages:

  1. In what areas have you differentiated your business from that of your peers?
  2. Emphasis should be placed on developments and upgrades introduced within the past 1-2 years.
  3. Your submission should discuss any particular segments of the market targeted by your firm and how these are being reached.

Additionally, the three major categories that the panel of jurors considered were:

  • Online Presence
  • Customer Service
  • Costs

Of note, the Morningstar awards for best online brokerage are structured around several of the criteria used in the Surviscor discount brokerage rankings. Surviscor also helps to provide research and contributes to the MoneySense brokerage rankings. These also happen to be the rankings in which BMO InvestorLine has finished at or near the top of, and so it seems that BMO InvestorLine has maintained their strong showing throughout the year.

For BMO InvestorLine, the third consecutive victory also falls at the third anniversary mark of their advice-direct platform – something that hasn’t garnered nearly the same recognition or attention as their DIY investing arm has.

As we head into the end of the year, there is still one more major brokerage ranking (the Globe and Mail 2015 discount brokerage ranking) to go.

For DIY investors, it will be interesting to compare the results from the Globe’s rankings as they represent a very different approach than the Surviscor/MoneySense/Morningstar rankings. Historically, BMO InvestorLine has also performed well in those rankings however unlike the Morningstar awards, there is no submission fee to be evaluated. With free admission, the field is bound to be more crowded and therefore tougher to outshine.

DIY Investing Gathers Momentum

In spite of all the talk of competition between brokerages, it seems that a recent study commissioned by TD Direct Investing suggests the pool of Canadian DIY investors will continue to expand.

Results of recent survey of 1750 Canadian DIY investors this past September provided a number of compelling insights, many of which are summarized in the infographic below.

Aside from the finding that that the number of investors who are managing at least part of their investments could double within the next 10 years, it was what investors reported was still lacking on the part of the online brokerage providers that might touch off a wave of features in the near future.

One of those items DIY investors reported was that websites are ‘too complex’ to navigate. This is particularly timely given the number of new website releases that have taken place this year, with a handful more in the pipeline. TD Direct Investing also recently revamped their website with a decidedly simpler front end.

Another item that stood out was that only 7% of users polled preferred to use their smartphone for DIY investing. While stats were not provided for tablet users, this number is expected to grow now that the technology, internet connections and user interfaces/apps have matured. There are still features, such as charting and research, which are going to be challenging to do efficiently on a small screen, however the mobile trading experience today is drastically different than it was even just 2 years ago. That said, a quick look at the discount brokerage tweets for the past several weeks would show that that there is a divergence between theory and reality when it comes to mobile trading sites and apps.

For Canadian DIY investors, there is clearly an interest in taking a more hands on approach to managing their financial futures. With the upcoming fee disclosure changes coming to the advisor world and a tough year for Canadian equities, there might be additional momentum towards considering the benefits of DIY investing as investors take a closer look at what their fees are earning them. And, although several brokerages have already undertaken major redesigns of their website in anticipation of the new ways investors are hoping to interact with their products, the biggest challenge confronting brokerages will be to provide experiences to investors that truly meet their diverse needs.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

This week’s tweets feature a mixture of highs and lows. For DIY investors, the word of the week was ‘frozen’ (trading apps that is) and unlike Elsa and Anna, they did not let it go. Mentioned this week are BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge, Questrade, Scotia iTrade, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Trading out of the money

As any investor knows, it takes money to make money. Of course, nobody specified exactly whose money it has to take in order to make that next return. In this post from RedFlagDeals’ investing forum, it was interesting to note one DIY investor’s experience trying to trade an RBC Direct Investing account without funds in the source account.

Staying in-formed

Paperwork (and lots of it) is usually synonymous with DIY investing. Of course for anyone trading with US securities this only becomes even more of a challenge. In this post, one user with multiple brokerage accounts at several big brokerages has the onerous task of keeping the regulatory powers that be apprised of their financial and citizenship status.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup. Best of luck hunting great deals as cyber Monday promises another day of marketing madness and some great bargains. Of course, one savvy retail experiment shows that even if you promise nothing, people are still willing to pay.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 20, 2015

November is quickly drawing to a close. For many that means its Grey Cup season, and for those south of the border, Thanksgiving and yes, deals galore for Black Friday. While all three may be full contact endeavours, they all seem somewhat tame compared to the upcoming jockeying for title of best Canadian discount brokerage which is soon to be released by the Globe and Mail.

In this week’s roundup we take a look Canadian brokerages pulling out all the stops heading into the release of the brokerage rankings. Starting first with the latest promotion being offered by one brokerage who seems to have a reason to smile come November. Next, we take a deep dive into the latest round of website upgrades by two very different Canadian brokerages and look at what insights judging a book by its cover can actually provide. As usual we’ll take a look at the discount brokerage tweets of the week and cap-off the roundup with a look at the upcoming investor education events and interesting chatter from DIY investors in the forums.

Globe Trotting

November has typically been a good month for Qtrade Investor. For the better part of the past 8 years, Rob Carrick’s rankings of Canadian online brokerages has featured Qtrade Investor as the top or among the top of the Canadian online brokerage providers.

This November, Qtrade Investor seems to be giving new clients a chance to smile, courtesy of the Globe and Mail, as the two have teamed up for a promotion. Launched earlier this month, Qtrade Investor is offering new clients 6 months of free access to Globe Investor (valued at $23.99 per month or $143.94 for the duration of the promotional period).

There are, naturally, a few terms and conditions. Of note is that this offer is available to the first 350 individuals who sign up for a new Qtrade Investor account or until the deadline of November 30th. For full details on this offer, check out their terms and conditions here.

Needless to say, with the next round of discount brokerage rankings expected out shortly, there might be a few more readers of the Globe and Mail seeing familiar names near the top.

Out with the old

As we’ve mentioned several times already this year, 2015 is definitely the year of the website upgrade for Canadian discount brokerages. With November being an award heavy month (most notably the Globe and Mail’s discount brokerage rankings) it seems no coincidence that there was a bit of a sprint on the part of two brokerages to also launch their newest websites before the month was over.

Both Virtual Brokers and TD Direct Investing launched upgrades to their websites, and, even though they are two very different brokerages, they are competing fiercely for clients and to be seen as relevant to the DIY investors of today and tomorrow.

While the changes associated with each new website could fill an article unto themselves, the visual choices each firm has elected to go with provide an interesting angle on the battle to look (and therefore to be judged as being) relevant.

Form follows function

Interestingly, the lesson from the slew of design changes in 2015 has shown that while cosmetic changes are needed, functionality and authenticity are components that clients use to judge the value of a particular brand. Things still have to work otherwise DIY investors will go elsewhere and complain very publicly on their way out– any reading of the weekly roundup of discount brokerage Twitter feeds has made that abundantly clear (especially this week).

Now that commission pricing has become less of a distinguishing factor for most brokerages, DIY investors are naturally going to be left which asking more about other features brokerages have to offer. Of course, with so many brokerages having such similar offerings, ultimately the decisions about which brokerage is best are likely to be swayed by emotion rather than bells and whistles. The question when it comes to these sites and brokerages as brands is who you would feel comfortable having a conversation with; who can you relate to? who would you trust?

In that light, it is entirely understandable that brokerages who want to relate their clients would start to sound and look like their clients. That shift is clearly seen in the images on financial websites. Gone is the stock imagery of people in offices with desks filled with scattered paper and calculators. Replacing them are the button down collars, plaid shirts and the new stock imagery of more everyday looking people in their homes or in a coffee shop on their smart devices.

Net worth vs. a picture’s worth

Looking at the imagery of TD Direct Investing’s website, for example, while they do rely on the familiar images of people with their technology, they have the image of the young woman with the tattoo and the baby that seems to be uncharacteristic for a “big bank”. In fact there is an interesting and diverse mix of people on the TD Direct Investing website page that subtly seems contemporary. There are no big animations, sliders or moving parts. Just clear and simple messaging.

In contrast, is the new Virtual Brokers website. It’s bold, it’s animated and the new site is responsive meaning that it should play nicely with devices from desktops to tablets to smartphones. There’s a lot going on and while it’s definitely a more contemporary website, the usability of the menu and navigation have taken a hit.

What really stands out as different on the new Virtual Brokers site, however, is the imagery on the homepage compared to that of TD Direct Investing. VB’s homepage imagery seem somewhat less reflective of the new ‘normal’ and thus less authentic. To add to their challenges, there still a number of bugs in the new website which will require ironing out (such as the language of the site changing as one navigates via the sitemap).

Fortunately for VB, these are easily remedied and the inner pages of the website look and feel new, improved and much more like the contemporary design VB was intending to put forward. That said, leaving those small but significant details unattended for too long erodes the trust and confidence they need to compete in the financial services space.

Robots are better at being human

Ironically, it is the robo-advisor websites who have put on a more authentic, creative and even human presentation. Wealthsimple’s website, for example, has pictures of people living everyday life and stories of young people coming of age while trying to figure out their financial future. Unlike many of the brokerage websites, the robo-advisors have stuck with the “less is more” philosophy which is in line with having a product that is supposed to be simpler than DIY investing. It’s undoubtedly authentic.

In the end, Canadian online brokerages of all sizes are recognizing that the people reading and interacting with their websites and platforms are also consuming digital information in much more interesting ways. It’s only a matter of time before the brokerage website change cycle has to increase to keep pace with contemporary designs that consumers use as the benchmark of what it means to be innovative. What the online brokerages may not be realizing as quickly as their robo-advisor competitors are is that DIY investors are people first and investors second and the best way to appeal to people is by being authentic and interesting.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

While ‘Spectre’ is still in theatres and making the James Bond franchise money weekend after weekend, the very real specter of technological glitches are wreaking havoc on online brokerages. This week’s tweets show that the writing’s on the digital wall for brokerages who can’t keep ahead of new technology.

Event Horizon

It’s an exciting week ahead for discount brokerage-sponsored investor education events. Here are some upcoming sessions that may be of interest to options enthusiasts. An estate planning primer rounds out this week’s selection.

November 24

TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Investing in Options

November 25

TD Direct Investing – Estate Planning

Scotia iTRADE – Trading Options Actively with Sarah Potter

From the Forums

Makeover Madness

In this post from RedFlagDeals’ investing forum, users react to the rollout of the new Virtual Brokers website. While mostly positive and in favour of the update, there’s still work that seems like it needs to be done.

Time flies when you’re having funds

For active traders and even occasional investors, having timely information about market pricing of particular equities or options is essential to make wise trading decisions. In this post also from RedFlagDeals, a user asks which brokerages offer real-time quotes to clients as a standard feature.

Into the Close

That’s it for this week’s roundup. While most people are dreading the frost this weekend, here’s one company that is quite happy they found this chunk of ice.  Congrats to those who were fortunate enough to share in the diamond windfall!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 16, 2015

It’s rally time. Midway through October, baseball, bats and Blue Jays are top of mind in this post-Thanksgiving trading week. While there’s lots more than baseball that the personal finance enthusiasts are talking about this week, we’ll pitch the idea of a baseball themed roundup, tossed bats and all.

In this edition of the roundup, we’ll recap the field of dreams approach that several discount brokerages are hoping will give them an edge in the race to be crowned best online brokerage. Next we provide a virtual highlight reel of personal finance and investing education conversations happening this weekend and throughout the month. Also on deck will be our discount brokerage tweets of the week, upcoming investor education events and batting cleanup will be the forum chatter from the Canadian investor forums.

‘if you build it they will come’

This past week Interactive Brokers provided an update via their latest ‘Communique’ that revealed just how much interest there has been with their ‘investor marketplace’ initiative as well as revealing more details about their practice trading platforms.

Earlier this year, Interactive Brokers launched an interesting initiative to bring together a community of providers of investing related products and services under the umbrella of their investor ‘marketplace’.

Since the launch in June, they have attracted:

  • 386 investment service providers
  • 155 research providers
  • 308 technology providers
  • 89 administrative service providers and
  • 15 business development providers

This initiative was a bold one to undertake but so far it looks to be paying off and interest appears to be growing.

The strategy to offer up value added services without actually taking on the overhead of hiring staff means that Interactive Brokers has found an interesting way to compete against the armies of staff that larger (and typically bank-owned) brokerages offer but at a fraction of the cost.

It’s not quite a grand slam, but it does give Interactive Brokers a chance to score big points with lots of their key stakeholders.

Interactive Brokers isn’t the only brokerage looking to build new features to attract interest from investors. Questrade, TD Direct Investing and Desjardins Online Brokerage are all working on new platforms to be rolled out in the near future and another popular brokerage (who shall remain unnamed) is gearing up to launch a new website in the upcoming weeks.

Clearly there is a big push to improving the product or platform experience in 2015 and brokerages that can’t keep up will, very visibly, be distanced from those firms that can.

Avoiding the Doubletalk

Talking about finance is not something most people typically choose to do with their weekend. Not so for many of Canada’s most popular personal finance writers and enthusiasts.

This weekend, the Canadian Personal Finance Conference is taking place in Toronto and it promises to bring together dozens of voices from across the personal finance landscape to talk about all kinds of acronyms from RRSPs, TFSAs, DRIPs, PiPs and more. To find out what’s getting the personal finance community buzzing, follow along at the hashtag #CPFC15 or better yet, reach out on Twitter as they will have a live feed at the conference.

Tom Drake of the Canadian Finance Blog also put together a great compilation of personal finance tips from some of the experts in attendance. Keynote speakers at the event include popular names such as David Chilton, Dan Bortolotti, Rob Carrick and Ellen Roseman.

Also interesting is the demonstration of some of the newer frontiers of personal finance from robo-advisors to peer-to-peer lending. Questrade will also be on hand for a demo as part of the fintech portion of the conference. Follow along here on Twitter: #CPFC15

Getting more people to open up and engage in discussions about investing is also on the minds of many of the Canadian financial regulatory agencies. As part of their efforts to increase awareness of important topics for investors, they’ve been offering up all kinds of great resources and content relevant to DIY investors for Investor Education Month.

As many regular readers know, we regularly feature the investor education events offered up by Canadian discount brokerages as well as some of their educational partners. Check out the upcoming events for October below or on our investor education calendar of events.

To follow the conversation on investor education, check out the hashtag: #IEM2015

Event Horizon

It’s an interesting week ahead for discount brokerage-sponsored investor education events. Here are some upcoming sessions that may be of interest to those who are new to investing, female investors, options enthusiasts, and those interested in technical analysis. Fixed income and ETFs round out this week’s selection.

October 19

Scotia iTRADE – Simple Options Strategies for Part Time Trading with Sarah Potter

October 20

Scotia iTRADE – Trading Commodity ETFs with Pro Market Advisors

TD Direct Investing – Chart Smart – Reading Candlestick Charts – [Fr]

October 21

TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Fixed Income

Scotia iTRADE – Smart Indexing-Benefiting from Min. Volatility & Fund. Index ETFs with iShares

October 22

TD Direct Investing – Do-It-Yourself Investing for Women

NBDB – Tools and Technical Analysis with Michel Carignan – [Fr]

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

With a shortened trading week and lots of better things to watch on TV, it looks like Canadian DIY investors were busy tweeting about and watching other things. Nonetheless there were a handful of interesting exchanges with the brokerages mentioned this week. Stepping up to the plate were Questrade, Scotia iTrade, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

 

From the Forums

 

Striking Out Costs

TD’s E-Series funds are a popular choice among self-directed investors looking to invest in low cost index funds. In this post from Reddit’s personal finance Canada section, a user discusses BMO Series D Funds as a possible alternative. For added insight, another thread discusses the differences between BMO InvestorLine and TD Direct Investing as a brokerage here.

ETFs Continue to Rally

The increased availability of commission free ETFs at discount brokerages has piqued the interest of DIY investors. In this thread from the Canadian Money Forum, a user is looking for places to find information about these ETFs.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on the short week that was. Of course, there’s really nothing better than showing this off again – so here is the highlight reel of that epic home run. Have a great weekend and #GoJaysGo!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 9, 2015

Source: Giphy

This was a big week for rivalries. Whether it was Vancouver versus Calgary or Montreal versus Toronto, there was an electric kick off to the 2015/16 hockey season. It was a fitting backdrop as fierce rivals from across the Canadian discount brokerage landscape also stepped up their game with new features, promotions and movement taking place into the turn of their fiscal year.

In this pre-Thanksgiving edition of the roundup, we cover discount brokerages dishing out plenty of gravy with deals and promotions. Next we move onto one very big brokerage who has their sights set on a little blue bird this Thanksgiving. Of course, what would Thanksgiving be without a little tension across the table? We look the latest moves in investor education that are making a couple of brokerages cast some steely stares across the gravy boat. Finally we round out with a healthy portion of discount brokerage tweets, investor education and the latest chatter from DIY investor forums. Make sure to save room for desert!

Tiers of Joy

This past week, the biggest Canadian discount brokerage decided to wade into the deals pool. Of course any move by a brokerage as big as TD Direct Investing is bound to make more than a few waves with investors and competitor brokerages alike.

Unlike most of the other brokerages on the list of regulars, TD Direct Investing is not a frequent presence on the deals/promotions page. So, when they jump in, there’s probably a good reason behind doing so.

TD Direct Investing’s latest promotional offer is a commission-free trading deal which consists of three tiers of assets and provides three tiers of commission-free trades. Investors depositing at least $25,000, $50,000 or $100,000+ in assets can qualify for 50, 100 or 200 commission-free trades respectively.

The multi-tiered deal seems to be the trend amongst the bank-owned brokerages with BMO InvestorLine, National Bank Direct Brokerage and Scotia iTrade each with promotional offers that are tiered to deposit sizes.

The fact that TD Direct Investing has put an offer out that is both short in duration and timed to this point in the calendar year highlights that it is prime time for brokerages to be generating incentives for DIY investors.

To that end, Virtual Brokers also launched (or revived) their 25 free trade offer this past week although this time with a much lower threshold to qualify ($5,000 vs the previous $15,000). This now puts the deal count for Virtual Brokers at a modest 2, however their deposit thresholds are squarely aimed at younger or newer investors – long the stronghold of their nearest rival Questrade.

With the addition of the TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers offers, the deal count now stands at 17 and the deals and promotions section is looking more stuffed than a Thanksgiving turkey. For DIY investors, this is great news, as these promotional offers are adding gravy on top of falling commission prices.

TD Direct Investing #JoinsTwitter

Even though turkeys are on the minds of a lot Canadians, a much smaller, more blueish bird was on the mind of Canada’s largest discount brokerage. This past week TD Direct Investing pushed go on their own Twitter account and wasted no time throwing it down with promos, news and going after potential clients.

The saga of TD Direct Investing on social media is a fascinating story in and of itself (that’s a story for another time). Suffice to say, other Canadian discount brokerages are now at real risk of developing a few more wrinkles now that TD Direct Investing has their own Twitter account.

For most individuals, getting going on Twitter is a relatively straight forward affair, however for a bank and brand that is as big and visible as TD, the resources that are required to be present on social media are mind-boggling. Not only is there the usual marketing and advertising, there’s also the customer service, legal compliance and the generally-not-looking-awkward-trying-to-be-cool-on-social-media to worry about.

The “history” of TD stepping into social media, while brief, shows that they leverage their biggest resource – their people – in a hurry.

When the TD Twitter account went live, it was simultaneously shocking and awe-inspiring to see how fast the team army of client service reps dedicated to Twitter were deployed. As a reality check, it is now possible for #millenials to actually get a job at a bank that requires them to be on Twitter all day.

When TD Direct Investing gave its team members individual Twitter accounts and asked them to start tweeting not too long ago, there were close to a dozen individuals out and about in the world tweeting about things inside and outside of the world of finance.

Now, as TD Direct Investing launches their new Twitter handle, @TD_DirectInvest, they are battle-hardened, social savvy and are wasting no time going after their competitors.

The following tweet basically sums up and foreshadows what other brokerages such as Scotia iTrade and Questrade are in for:

Source: Twitter

 

As the battle for attention and relevance spreads to smaller screens and more fragmented channels, TD Direct Investing has joined the fray on Twitter. Although they have a modest following out of the gate (71 at the time of writing) they are very quickly going to get on the radar of a lot of social media investors organically, by advertising and, unfortunately for other brokerages, by going directly after DIY investors.

Moves in Investor Education

It’s fitting that in a week of big rivalries that one of the biggest rivalries in the discount brokerage landscape space flare up. Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct are battling it out in Western Canada and it looks like that fight is about to spill over into the world of investor education.

On the heels of the launch of their new front-facing website, Qtrade Investor not only underwent a drastic cosmetic change, but they also took the bold move of committing more fully to investor education. In their case, it wasn’t the traditional webinar/seminar route but rather through written ‘guides’.

Not content with Qtrade’s content, it looks like Credential Direct is countering by offering up a webinar of its own. Specifically, Credential Direct is holding a webinar from Fidelity Investments entitled “Economic and Market Trends”. While this is by no means the first time Credential Direct has held a webinar and even a webinar from a non-platform/ETF provider, the timing and optics suggest that Credential Direct is keenly aware that they are going to have to get more creative, or at the very least, more active with investor education.

Further east, however, is news that the winds of change in investor education at TD Direct Investing (and probably for everyone else) are now blowing in from the south. What are all these airy allusions referring to?

Spotted this past week was an announcement on TD Direct Investing’s shiny new Twitter account that Tasty Trade will be holding an investor seminar in conjunction with TD Direct Investing in downtown Toronto near the end of October.

Source: Twitter

 

The primary reason that is this a big deal for investors and investor education providers is because Tastytrade offers up content for DIY investors and has a very big following in the US. To quote the Wall St. Journal on who Tastytrade’s founder is:

Tastytrade is the brainchild of Tom Sosnoff, who founded Thinkorswim Group, an online options-brokerage that was sold for some $750 million in 2009 to TD Ameritrade

For Tastytrade to move north and specifically to be teamed up with TD Direct Investing demonstrates that when it comes to investor education, TD will continue to lean on its resources south of the border (such as Investools and ThinkOrSwim) to offer something many other Canadian brokerages simply cannot.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

As was already described above, this past week on Twitter marked a milestone in the discount brokerage social media space. With TD Direct Investing now stepping onto the ice and immediately dropping the gloves with Scotia iTrade, it looks like the brokerage battles are only going to get fiercer. Mentioned this week were Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTrade, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

Event Horizon

Fall is in full swing, and it’s a busy week ahead for discount brokerage-sponsored investor education events. Here are some upcoming sessions that may be of interest to those who are new to investing, female investors, options enthusiasts, and those interested in technical analysis. Risk management strategies, ETFs, and a margin account primer round out this week’s selection.

October 13

NBDB – Introduction to Technical Analysis: Trends – [Fr]

Scotia iTRADE- Covered Call ETFs with Horizons ETFs

October 14

TD Direct Investing – Understanding Margin & Short Selling

TD Direct Investing – Understanding Margin & Short Selling

TD Direct Investing – Chart Smart – Bollinger Bands

October 15

NBDB – Introduction to Technical Analysis : Supports and Resistances – [Fr]

TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Technical Analysis

TD Direct Investing – Do-It-Yourself Investing for Women

Scotia iTRADE – Risk Management Strategies for Traders with AJ Monte

From the Forums

A platform for change

In this post from the RedFlagDeals investing thread, hints and whispers of a new TD Direct Investing trading platform WebBroker are circulating. We’ve heard about this being ‘in the works’ so it will be interesting to see what the reaction will be like when it goes live. Worth a read for some early sentiment on the proposed upgrade.

Is free worth it?

There’s no denying that commission-free ETFs get the attention of the ‘couch potato’ investing crowd. In this post from the reddit Personal Finance Canada subreddit, it is interesting to see how Scotia iTrade’s commission-free offering stacks up.

Into the Close

That does it for this Thanksgiving Weekend edition of the roundup. Have a safe and enjoyable long weekend and don’t forget to carve out some time for fun! Remember, Canadian markets are closed on Monday.

Source: Giphy

 

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 2, 2015

source: giphy

One of the great lessons that the stock market teaches investors again and again is that perception is reality. Within the Canadian discount brokerage marketplace, this lesson is equally true, as almost all online brokerages wrestle with just how exactly they can get DIY investors to listen to what they are saying.

In this week’s roundup we take a look at how one discount brokerage is trying win investor attention by launching a newer, more exciting website. Being a new month we’ll also take a look at the deals and promotions Canadian brokerages are using to get noticed. Of course, nothing gets people’s attention quite like a trading platform outage during trading hours as one major online brokerage found out the hard way in our discount brokerage tweets of the week. Finally we’ll take a look at the upcoming investor education events and close out with the chatter from the Canadian investing forums. But first, let me take a selfie.

In With New

Over the past two years, the Canadian discount brokerage industry has tried to use commission price to get the attention of investors, and to a large degree it has worked.

Almost all the major bank-owned online brokerages (except for Scotia iTrade) and all of the independent online brokerages have standard commissions under $10 per trade and almost every time a brokerage has initiated a price drop, there has been a splash.

Could prices fall further? Sure but investors seem content for the time being to stick to the about-$10-per-trade mark – at least most do and most discount brokerages are in no rush to drop their prices.

As most of Canada’s online brokerages are coming to realize, after price drops, there has to be something else. And this year, that something else appears to have been “changing the website”. As we mentioned in last week’s roundup, Qtrade Investor officially unveiled their new website this week, capping off for them, what has been a marathon of planning and design. And, even though they weren’t first out of the gate to change their old website or pricing, it seems like their new website was worth the wait. For returning visitors to the Qtrade Investor website, the difference will feel a bit like night and day.

Screenshots of old Qtrade Investor homepage vs new Qtrade Investor homepage.

Like several other Canadian discount brokerages who have sought to refresh their look and feel over the past year, Qtrade Investor opted for a much more contemporary layout and design scheme.

Among the many thoughtful changes, ease of navigation was a clear priority. Elements such as the menus and sub-menus have evolved to make going from section to section seem easier. There are also fewer menu options and far less text to have to scan through on the screen to find the ‘right’ information. To boot, their ‘About’ section is dynamic and engaging showcase of who they are and why anyone who’s thinking about them should care.

Aside from the striking new look to the website, and improved navigation, one of the biggest changes has been to the education section of the website. Qtrade Investor has taken a much more active approach to supplying website visitors with educational content about investing – a strategy that many other brokerages are exploring to varying degrees.

On Qtrade Investor’s new site, there is now a growing list of standard educational content for beginner investors in the form of featured articles or a series of guides on topics such as margin trading, TFSA’s and stock trading ideas. They have also embraced video tutorials on investing concepts as part of the investor education mix.

For more experienced investors, there is access to syndicated content from the Financial Times. With information overload being the new reality for many users of the internet, what defines an effective website from a user’s perspective has changed. While Qtrade will not be the last online brokerage to change their website this year, there are those who have yet to do so that now have to deal with one more brokerage that DIY investors will be shifting their attention to.

Deals Update

The deals and promotions section was far less volatile than the markets were as we rolled into October. With 15 active offers on the table, there’s lots of selection for individuals looking to get a little something for opening an online trading account.

Discount brokerages appear to be in somewhat of a holding pattern with the end of October being an important milestone date in the calendars of many of them as the fiscal year end. We think there are still some big offers waiting in the wings, especially as it becomes clearer as to which brokerages are actively trying to win new clients over.

October is also an important month in the deals calendar with six of the offers set to expire at the end of this month. Clearly this month is of strategic importance so it will be interesting to see which brokerage(s) push a little harder into their corporate year end.

#DIYInvesting Tweets of the Week

There must have been something in that blood moon that tilted the trading world on its axis. Perhaps that’s what client reps at TD Direct Investing wished they could have blamed an outage of their trading platform on this past Wednesday as investors took to Twitter to vent their frustration as they sat idle during market hours. Of course, while TD Direct Investing and Scotia iTrade were having some customer woes, Questrade was the broker who offered up their shoulder to trade on.

Event Horizon

On deck this October are quite a few investor education events and opportunities. The World Moneyshow rolls into Toronto on October 30-31st . There will be a few discount brokerages exhibiting at this year’s show including Desjardins Online Brokerage, Interactive Brokers and National Bank Direct Brokerage. Also spotted on the exhibitor list is roboadvisory firm, Wealthsimple.

Options Education Day Toronto also takes place this weekend (October 3rd) in downtown Toronto. The cost for this session is $45 and features speakers from the Options Industry Council and representatives from the Montreal Exchange. As an interesting aside, there are six Canadian discount brokerages sponsoring this event.

From the Forums

WebBroken Down

In this forum post from the RedFlagDeals investing section, users of TD Direct Investing’s WebBroker platform cover the storm that arose when the platform went down during market hours.

Friends with Regulatory Requirements

This was an interesting post for those interested in the curious consequences of cohabitating with individuals working in the securities industry. Regulatory requirements are something all brokerages take seriously and as one reddit user found out, they even sometimes apply to one’s significant other.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on yet another eventful week in the markets and with the brokerages. For all the Jays fans celebrating a very exciting season, #MerryClinchmas! See you next week!