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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – March 22, 2021

Spring has officially arrived. And while the arrival of the new season didn’t fall on a quadruple witching day, in the online brokerage world it nonetheless lived up to its reputation of bringing change, volatility, and the promise of sunnier days ahead.

In this edition of the Roundup, we look at the latest trading commission price drop from a bank-owned online brokerage and the potential consequences it will have for DIY investors and fellow online brokerage competitors. Next, we jump into some interesting deal activity that’s taken place this month, including the launch of a new offer that might trigger even more promotions to start sprouting this spring. As always, we’ve got chatter from DIY investors courtesy of Twitter and the investor forums.

National Bank Direct Brokerage: Commission Price Drop

The days of the $9.95 standard commission pricing for trades at Canadian online brokerages are numbered. How much lower they go from here and how quickly these changes take effect will depend on who among the larger or more popular players decides to act. A recent commission pricing drop by National Bank Direct Brokerage, however, is likely to add significant cause for other Canadian online brokerages, big and small, to revisit their own commission pricing structures.  

This month, we noted that the standard equity commission pricing at National Bank Direct Brokerage (NBDB) dropped about 30%, from $9.95 down to $6.95 for all clients. Previously, NBDB charged $9.95 per trade to all clients, but for those clients who were also a client of National Bank – the parent brand to NBDB – a discounted price of $6.95 was available. That restriction is no longer in place, and the $6.95 price is available to all.

Why NBDB chose to lower their commission rate to the $6.95 level and why they decided to do so now are a good indication of how the industry as a whole has approached lowering their commission prices, even in the face of a growing competitive presence in Canada of zero-commission trading and increasing expectations (thanks to Robinhood and other US online brokerages) that trading online should be commission-free. Online brokerages in Canada, for the most part, are taking a measured and stepwise approach to lowering commission pricing, taking cues from competitors as a way to estimate the prices for commission rates that can be supported.

One important driver for National Bank Direct Brokerage is likely competition from its longtime local competitor, Desjardins Online Brokerage.

The drop in standard pricing brings National Bank Direct Brokerage in line with Desjardins Online Brokerage, which lowered the standard commission pricing for the “everyday investor” product, Disnat Classic, to $6.95 in early 2020. While there are still pricing gaps between these two Quebec-focused online brokerages at the very active trader pricing segment, the interesting consequence to National Bank Direct Brokerage enabling all clients to have access to the $6.95 pricing is that National Bank is pursuing an expansion strategy across Canada, implying that NBDB would now also set their sights on other markets outside of Quebec.

The takeaway for the online investing space in Canada is that a much more robust bank-owned online brokerage offering is now available to Canadian DIY investors. Unlike the lower-cost non-bank-owned online brokerages, National Bank Direct Brokerage brings with it many of the features and the convenience of a big five bank-owned online broker. This means that someone looking for the lower cost pricing typically available at an independent online broker but the convenience and perceived security of a larger institution will now have a serious look at NBDB as an online broker. And, once they start looking, there will be some interesting things for investors of all activity levels to find.

For young investors, for example, National Bank Direct Brokerage offers 10 commission-free trades per year and an even lower commission pricing of $4.95 per trade, simply for being 30 years old or younger. No other Canadian bank-owned online brokerage (yet) has this double feature set. Also, the threshold of 30 years old is higher than at several competitors, where the definition of “young” typically ends at age 25 or 26.

Very active traders at National Bank Direct Brokerage also have access to deeply competitive pricing, at $0.95 per trade, and an advanced trading platform, Market-Q. While Desjardins Online Brokerage’s active trader brand, Disnat Direct, does have cheaper pricing, at $0.75 per trade, the reality is that at the sub-dollar-per-trade range, the other factors of banking convenience might come into play.

Lowering commission pricing is something that Canadian online brokerages have seen as inevitable. That said, how quickly the commission pricing drops has shown itself to be highly dependent on who is the one setting the pace.

Despite the existence of a zero-commission provider, for example, there haven’t been any other Canadian online brokerages that have felt compelled to drop their standard commission prices to that level. Instead, we have observed that certain products, such as ETFs, have become the entry point into zero-commission trading, with firms such as Qtrade Investor, Questrade, Scotia iTRADE, and most recently with TD Direct Investing’s Goal Assist. In the category of commission-free ETFs, National Bank Direct Brokerage has also been somewhat of a leader among the bank-owned segment of online brokerages. In 2017, they launched completely commission-free ETF trading – both buying and selling, albeit with minimum purchase requirements.

For NBDB to capitalize on this latest pricing shift, the challenge, it seems, will be to overcome the marketing and advertising hurdle created by the likes of Interactive Brokers, Questrade, TD Direct Investing, and Wealthsimple Trade in markets outside of Quebec. Another online brokerage that has significant market awareness with large markets across Canada is Qtrade Investor, courtesy of their multiple wins and strong finishes in the online brokerage rankings of influential financial research sources. Each of these brokerages commands significant awareness, and, as a result, NBDB has their work cut out for them to start becoming part of the mainstream conversation of online brokerages.

That said, with 14 Canadian online brokerages for National Bank Direct Brokerage to compete against, their pricing immediately makes them worthy of a top-five or -six consideration. When competing against bank-owned online brokerages, however, they could potentially move into the top three.

Undoubtedly, TD Direct Investing would be high on the list of bank-owned competitors, followed, potentially, by BMO InvestorLine in terms of active marketing and advertising. Clearly, by lowering their standard commission rates to $6.95 per trade, National Bank Direct Brokerage has just earned themselves a major advantage relative to their peers. The online broker with the biggest risk of being displaced is CIBC Investor’s Edge, which, up until now, had retained the position of offering the lowest standard commission among the big bank-owned online brokerages.

When we first reported the pricing drop by CIBC Investor’s Edge to $6.95 per trade in 2014, the impact among DIY investors was immediate. Our data showed that DIY investors soon came to see CIBC Investor’s Edge as a value-based option for trade execution. Even so, the pricing structure reflected some of the limitations for active trader experience at Investor’s Edge.

In this case, National Bank Direct Brokerage has pricing for the “passive investor” but also has platforms and pricing for very active investors and young investors. This makes them unique among the “banking” peer group.

Given the propensity of Canadian online brokerages to make smaller moves – especially among the bank-owned online brokerages – we expect that standard commissions might not be the starting point to match the new pricing at National Bank Direct Brokerage. Other places that online brokerages might be able to target to retain clients would be in their definition of “young” investors, which NBDB defines as 30 and under, or with commission-free ETF trading.

National Bank Direct Brokerage’s latest commission pricing move has made them an option that many DIY investors will be hard-pressed to ignore going forward. As a result, it may not be too much longer before the bank-owned online brokerages cannot ignore them either, and yet another wave of commission pricing drops ensues.

So long as the commission-pricing at NBDB stays quiet, the online brokerage industry in Canada won’t have to move quickly. That said, in a day and age of Reddit threads and social media reach, all it might take is one post for that to change.

Deals & Promotions Updates

March is synonymous with spring and with the changes that accompany a new season. While the beginning of the month saw a significant reduction in the number of Canadian online brokerage offers from larger players, we predicted that it would likely not be too much longer before new offers sprouted up again. And, it turns out, we didn’t have to wait that long after all.

This month, we’ve already seen BMO InvestorLine replace an outgoing deal with a new cash-back promotion, and, excitingly, this past week we noted that National Bank Direct Brokerage also launched a new 100-commission-free-transactions offer. More on that in just a moment.

Starting with the BMO InvestorLine cash-back promotion, the new promotion, like its predecessor, is a tiered cash-back offer. The starting deposit tier for the latest offer is higher, however, starting at $25,000, compared to the previous $15,000. Cash-back amounts have also been scaled back significantly at most deposit tiers. Starting tier deposits qualify for a $50 cash-back (compared to $150 the last time), and the highest deposit tier, $1 million and over, still qualifies for a bonus of $2,000.

For National Bank Direct Brokerage, this has been a big month, with newer pricing (see above) and the revival of a 100-commission-free-transactions offer. The new offer provides 100 commission-free trades, which are good for use for up to one year after the account is opened. This new promotion runs until the end of June and is open to new and existing clients so long as the account type is new.  Interestingly, the offer applies to trades of stocks and options (and ETFs), which are sometimes not available during certain commission-free trade promotions.

The (re)launch of a commission-free trade offer from National Bank Direct Brokerage, along with their new pricing offer, might prompt other online brokerages to consider coming to market with an offer this spring as well. Interest in investing and trading remains elevated among DIY investors. However, if the thesis that the catalyst for the surge of interest was individuals working from home or putting stimulus money into investing products, then the reopening of the economy (and sports and travel) could lead to decreased interest or availability of individuals to continue actively trading.

Most Canadian online brokerages elect to take a “wait and see” approach to emerging trends rather than risking taking the position as a leader in innovation. With that in mind, deals and promotions offer a proven method to continuously stay on the radar of investors – especially those who might be lured to leave because of dissatisfaction with pricing or service.

What deals and promotions cannot do is solve for technology or service gaps (even though we have seen compensation in the form of trading commissions help smooth out some service shortcomings). So, it is likely – perhaps even sound business strategy – for those online brokerages who are confident in their ability to deliver strong service and technology to lean into promotional offers at a time when other firms are struggling or lagging. As such, a promotional offer could be seen as a sign of confidence and strength in the service delivery model, and an absence of one – at least in the near term – might have DIY investors asking why certain brokerages are choosing to stay out of the spotlight.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

My Definition Is This

In this post, an investor who is unsure and nervous about how the Canada Revenue Agency defines day trading asks if it’s okay to sell stocks from a TFSA after owning the stocks for just a few days. The CRA doesn’t provide a clear definition, so Redditors weigh in with their opinions.

New Tuber in Town

A new investor asks in this Reddit post if the Canadian Couch Potato method of investing is still relevant in 2021. An in-depth discussion ensues, touching on ETFs, meme stocks, and more.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another week. While markets and investing are the focal point of the Roundup, there’s also a human side to this, and this past week was a dark chapter for the AAPI community. Sadly – and, frankly, unacceptably – the level of hate crimes against women and Asians in particular has increased during the pandemic. It is up to all of us to speak up against racist behaviour wherever possible.  Here are some steps from Stop AAPI Hate that anyone can take to assist a person experiencing a racist attack or hate crime:

  • Take action: Approach the targeted person, introduce yourself, and offer support.
  • Actively listen: Ask before taking any actions, and respect the other person’s wishes. Monitor the situation if needed.
  • Ignore the attacker: Using your discretion, attempt to calm the situation by using your voice, body language, or distractions.
  • Accompany: If the situation escalates, invite the targeted person to join you in leaving the area.
  • Offer emotional support: Help the other person by asking how they’re feeling, and assist them in figuring out what they want to do next.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – March 15, 2021

One look at the past week in March and daylight savings isn’t the only reason to be losing sleep. From the excitement of Bitcoin’s highs to the now-constant (like Pi Day) news of platform outages to Beyoncé’s smashing of a Grammy record, March has been full of surprises. Interestingly, it seems like Canadian online brokerages also picked up on this theme heading into the Ides of March.

In this edition of the Weekly Roundup, we review some of the newest features to sprout up at Canadian online brokerages and analyze the shifting landscape of financial services in Canada. From there, we dive into some strange and interesting signals surrounding the “new” retail investor and look at how they are impacting online investing. As always, we’ve got some interesting and…colourful…commentary from DIY investors in the forums and from Twitter.

Out to Launch: New Features Sprouting Up in March

March is synonymous with spring and, therefore, also with new and exciting things.

This year, there’s already much to look forward to. However, when it comes to the Canadian wealth management landscape, there are some interesting developments sprouting.

BMO InvestorLine Launches adviceDirect Premium

Starting first with BMO InvestorLine. This past week, BMO InvestorLine formally announced the launch of a new premium tier of their adviceDirect service offering. The new feature, adviceDirect Premium, is geared toward clients with $500,000 or more in investable assets and offers a range of new functionality, most notably enhanced planning and research resources.

Now over eight years old, adviceDirect has often occupied a niche role in the world of online investing. As a hybrid between the world of DIY investing and digital advice, it has evolved a number of times to find its identity as the “middle child” of the wealth management suite offered by BMO.

The timescale of the product is especially relevant given the context of what the product offers and the current state of online investing. AdviceDirect is unique in that online investors can contact a licensed investment representative to review their portfolio and to get additional insight on possible investment decisions. Although the investment rep does not necessarily have to put orders through, the key value driver is that a DIY investor can get an informed opinion about their particular investment picture and goals.

Prior to the mad rush into the markets instigated by COVID-19, the need for orientation to the markets was somewhat measured. Passive investing was all the rage, and the numbers of DIY investors who were new to trading or who wanted to get into investing were increasing at a manageable pace.

Fast forward to today, however, and the wealth management industry – in particular the online investing space – is filled with chatter centred around the lack of experience of investors entering the market. This past week, for example, a pair of articles essentially found that the kinds of questions new investors were seeking answers to reflected a significant lack of knowledge about the world of investing online. Of particular note was the following stat: “A Deutsche Bank survey found that almost half of U.S. retail investors were completely new to the markets in the past year. They are young, mostly under 34.”

While the Canadian online brokerage market is different, the overall trend of newer investors coming to online investing is likely similar. The takeaway: There are lots of new investors in the market who don’t quite know what they have gotten themselves into.

It is interesting, then, that adviceDirect has chosen to launch a premium product at this point. On the one hand, a premium tier is consistent with an overall trend for BMO InvestorLine to seek out clients with larger deposit amounts or investable assets. At a macro level, however, the timing couldn’t be better to bring on clients who would likely benefit from having a “voice of reason” available for consultation before making some big investing decisions. Investor forums now routinely have stories of DIY investors who bet big and lost considerable amounts of money by taking risky trades. Those risks far outstrip the management fees charged by the adviceDirect platform.

The online investing world has typically been a place where either you’re a DIY investor or you’re not. BMO InvestorLine’s latest enhancement to its long-standing hybrid model offering might have finally found itself ready for a world where “DIY” doesn’t imply an all-or-nothing proposition. The challenge, however, is whether or not adviceDirect can ramp up its marketing and appeal to DIY investors faster than other online brokerages or roboadvisors can.

Questrade Launches Mortgages

This past week, the line between online brokerages and banks got a little blurrier as two wealth management firms continued their push into banks’ traditional territory of mortgages and money transfers.

Starting first with mortgages. Questrade, which acquired Community Trust Co. in 2019, has been quietly building up to a formal launch into the world of offering mortgages. That day, it seems, has arrived, and last week, Questrade clients received the formal announcement that QuestMortgage has officially gone live.

For the moment, QuestMortgage is open to Questrade customers only. Given the current frenzy over real estate in Canada, however, it is likely that the timing of launching to all Canadians is on the minds of the folks at Questrade. The QuestMortgage prime rate is 2.45% at the time of publication, and a five-year fixed-rate closed mortgage ranges between 2.04% to 2.24%.

While these rates are higher than at other firms, the reality is that there will likely be a curious set of existing clients who either know and/or like Questrade and would be willing to see what a mortgage through QuestMortgage might be like. That said, one of the challenges of the bank-owned online brokerage approach is that service in one category of product tends to impact the decisions and perceptions in another.

This past week, for example, Questrade’s platform suffered an outage during trading hours, and, as a predictable result, lots of clients were understandably angry – including to the point of wanting to leave. If there are hiccups and issues during this rollout with Questrade clients, it could alienate existing clients, giving them cause for concern with the brand as a whole.

Wealthsimple Relaunches Cash Solution

Another big development in the world of money for Canadians came from Wealthsimple.

Typically, we would be referencing Wealthsimple in the context of online trading or even online investing through their roboadvisor service. However, this past week, Wealthsimple published an article in their Wealthsimple Magazine and sent out an email campaign highlighting their Cash app, in an effort (it seems) to ramp up the awareness of this new(ish) product.

What’s so special about Wealthsimple Cash? To start, it promised to enable instant money transfers between parties. And, going way back to the announcement of the cash feature in 2020, there are some other key features such as bill payments, ATM cash withdrawals, and a highly sought-after physical card.

As with the comment about Questrade venturing into mortgages, however, the rollout and client experience with one part of the brand will invariably influence the perception of the brand as a whole. There are now several apps in the Wealthsimple ecosystem, each representing a possible relationship with a consumer. As a result, a negative experience in one of these areas has the potential to cause someone to leave the whole set of products.

In the case of the Wealthsimple Cash app, there is already skepticism and negative sentiment brewing – in part relating to the delay in the rollout of the promised features that the Cash app was launched with. While Wealthsimple had hoped to be transformative with the technology and user experience (and, to be fair, the proposed user flow in terms of sending cash seems straightforward), ultimately it comes down to reliability and execution, which is where the current reviews and reactions from Wealthsimple clients stem from.

Despite the slow rollout of the most sought-after features, Wealthsimple is clearly going after the business domain of the traditional big banks in Canada. The convenience factor that emerges when individuals are able to manage multiple parts of their financial lives in one easy-to-use platform is a very powerful force. Equally powerful in Canada, however, is inertia. Individuals who are content to stay where they are because of a perceived amount of effort to change are not yet hearing the kind of enthusiasm about the Wealthsimple Cash feature that would induce them to switch. Though the banks might be safe for now, it’s clear(er) that the winds of change are starting to blow.

Neighbourhood Watch

If there’s one thing that living through 2020 has taught us, it’s that these are really unusual times. Just when traditional wisdom implies that things ought to zig, we see them zag. Nowhere has this been more true than in the world of DIY investing. What has started to emerge from a series of discussions about the world of online investing appears to be a sense of impending doom – almost as if there’s an iceberg in the water and the “new” stock market is the Titanic.

To be fair, there are perennial pessimists when it comes to the stock market. Since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008/9, naysayers have been waiting and calling for a massive correction in the markets. The same could be said for the sentiment post-March 2020. Looking at historical data on crashes and bear markets, however, paints a less dire picture than the market doomsday prophecies would imply.

That said, there appears to be an undercurrent of pessimistic conversation surrounding DIY investors who are new to markets and trading that is unlike anything witnessed in recent memory, such as in a pair of articles from this past week (here and here).

Some of the key takeaways paint a picture of the “new retail investor” who relies on social media for orientation to the markets and for trading ideas. Anecdotally, this would appear to be the case with communities on Reddit, such as Personal Finance Canada, growing to an exceptional size and rivalling traditional media sources for information on topics related to personal finance (including investing). At the time of publication, the Personal Finance Canada community on Reddit has grown to almost 480,000 members.

Data cited in a MartketWatch article (sourced from Magnify Money) is also consistent with this observation. It found that almost 60% of Gen Z and millennial investors (aged 40 and younger) were a member of an investment community such as Reddit. Also, just over 40% of respondents to the Magnify Money survey reported turning to YouTube for investing information.

This past week, there was also yet another hearing held in the United States, this time by the Senate Banking Committee, that put the commission-free trading model of Robinhood under the microscope and, with it, the activities of very active traders or investors.

Other insights from data being shared during the heightened scrutiny of Robinhood show that the majority of the high-volume trading is coming from a very small number of trading accounts. Approximately 2% of clients would be considered day traders, according to one report, which is shockingly small. A similar scope of influence was recently reported by Wealthsimple Trade about its client base, which revealed 14% of clients traded GameStop stock, with 81% of those who did purchasing seven shares or less.

What these different data points suggest is that there’s a very different type of trading behaviour taking place in the current markets. Specifically, with so many new investors joining the markets, with more time and access to some discretionary capital, and with new technologies and lower barriers to trading, the ability for investors to “pile” into a trade – and to do so quickly – the mindset of younger investors is decidedly different and is material to market behaviour.

For online brokerages, while COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions persist, being visible on the channels that online investors are turning to makes sense. It is likely why, in Canada, aggressive advertising by Wealthsimple Trade shows up on YouTube, and Questrade commercials air during sporting events. What remains to be seen is how trading activity changes if and when working from home becomes less common for those younger investors. That said, the data shows that while there might be more excitement and engagement in markets overall, the ultra-active segment of investors might be vulnerable to retreating quickly if market conditions shift or macro conditions – like having to go back into the office – surface.

At the heart of much of what we’ve learned over 2020 and now 2021 is the growing power of the financial community of users on social media platforms. For online brokerages to remain relevant and go beyond commoditized providers of online trading services, job one still remains being able to connect people to the markets. However, not far behind is to figure out how to tap into the power of online communities of DIY investors.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

School Daze

In this post, an investor with two young children who wants to start saving for their education debates the relative merits of setting up two RESPs, a family RESP, or a high-interest savings account. A lively discussion ensues, with Redditors talking about everything from government grants and TFSAs to couch potato investing and what happens if the children decide not to pursue higher education.

No Time Like the Present

A 32-year-old with a spouse and a child is worried about having no savings for emergencies, retirement, or the child’s education and asks in this post how to start investing in the stock market. Redditors offer a wealth of suggestions – and reassure the nervous investor that age 32 is still relatively young to be embarking on the path to financial security.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another highly eventful week. With so many wheels in motion, the recovery trade and talk of stimulus in the US has put a spring in the step of the economy. It seems fitting that in a week following the Grammys, we’ll be watching some chart-toppers in the stock markets. While the choreography won’t compare, the drama is almost sure to be newsworthy.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – March 8, 2021

March is here in full force. Even though the RSP contribution deadline for 2020 is now behind us, there is no shortage of activity taking place this month on the digital front. From Fraud Prevention Month to International Women’s Day to rising oil prices to NFTs to a bombshell interview from Oprah, there is a lot to tune in to. And one more thing: There’s still a global pandemic.

This edition of the Weekly Roundup leans into the convoluted but interconnected web of signals to pull out two fascinating stories on the online brokerage space in Canada. The first story looks at the deals and promotions for March but dives deep to provide context on the current state of deals activity against a new competitive landscape. And, speaking of competition, Canadian online brokerages that might not be concerned about a new entrant showing up any time soon may want to rethink that position as we profile the long and winding journey of one US online brokerage that is poised to make a move north of the wall. Of course, what would a Roundup be without comments and perspectives from DIY investors? Be sure to check out some thought-provoking conversations taking place in the forums and on Twitter.

Online Brokerage Deals & Promotions Update

It’s official. The 2020 RRSP season is officially over, and while the huge rush to ensure that money moves to the appropriate place by the contribution deadline has ended, the data analysis on the campaigns deployed by Canadian online brokerages is now in full swing.

Normally, the start of a new month is accompanied by a deals update that follows a standard format of recapping the latest deals and promotions offered by Canadian online brokerages, as well as discussing what deals are new and which ones have expired.

Contextually, however, 2021 is still very much an anomalous year when it comes to DIY investing and especially online brokerage promotions.

One of the most important insights to emerge over the past year at Canadian online brokerages is that there can actually be too much of a good thing. Normally, promotions and deals are used by online brokers to incentivize DIY investors – new and experienced alike – to consider choosing a particular brokerage.

Last year, however, we saw numerous online brokerages, especially around March and April, pull back or withdraw their offers altogether. It was the first time we had witnessed that happening in at least five to six years. The reason: Demand for online accounts was simply too high, and Canadian online brokerages were overwhelmed and opportunistic. If people were willing to pay (and also to wait), a promo probably wasn’t required to get them to sign up.

The dry spell in deals started to clear toward the tail end of 2020. At that point, we started to see a more normal course of activity, with multiple large Canadian online brokerages offering up cash-back promotions as part of their lead-up to RSP season. And then January 2021 happened.

Recall that it was just over a month ago that yet another surge of online investors poured into the world of DIY investing and trading, this time fueled by trading communities like Wall Street Bets and social media channels feeding a frenzy of momentum trading.

Data we reported on in the previous Weekly Roundup about Interactive Brokers, for example, showed that January 2021 resulted in a 221% month over month increase in new accounts and an almost 700% increase over the same period last year. The latest metrics released by Interactive Brokers from February revealed that almost 76,000 new accounts were opened during the month. While significantly lower (-35%) compared to January in terms of net new accounts opened, when compared to the same point last year, the number of accounts opened in February is over 400% higher.

In the Canadian marketplace, data from financial services research firm Investor Economics also shows that over 2 million online brokerage accounts were opened in 2020, up from just shy of 850,000 in 2019. It is thus not hard to triangulate that, for the beginning of 2021, and in particular RSP season, Canadian online brokerages have had another exceptional year in terms of volume of interest.

This backdrop is important when looking at the current slate of deals and promotions offered by Canadian online brokerages, especially with a view toward whether or not more promotional offers can be expected to show up in the near- to intermediate-term. Having deals from large providers such as TD Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, CIBC Investor’s Edge, and Qtrade Investor expire at the same time is enough to cast some doubts on what happens for the next few months.

The short answer is that it does seem like Canadian online brokerages are willing to deploy promotional offers between now and the kickoff to next RRSP season, which generally happens at the beginning of November. For anyone keeping score, that is about six months away. Here’s why we think that’s the case.

First, there’s the inevitable restart of the economy through the summer. While folks have been working from home, it has probably been a lot easier and less noticeable to nosey coworkers to have a trading window open or be trading online or watching stocks on your phone. When offices start reopening and individuals begin going to the office again – as will happen – the mechanics of being able to trade from work are going to become harder. That bodes well for deals and promotions since a more “normal” cadence of activity is likely to require online brokers to work harder to get individuals to pay attention to investing while those individuals go back to juggling life as usual.

Another reason we’re bullish on deals and promotions heading into the stretch between now and the start of November is that there is increased competition for incumbent Canadian online brokerages – especially from Wealthsimple Trade but also from potential new entrants looking to make a splash in the Canadian market (see next story below).

For anyone who’s spent any time on YouTube, Wealthsimple Trade’s barrage of advertising should be a clue that they’re heavily investing in spending big money to get attention. Wealthsimple Trade’s commission structure alone should garner them attention, but it was still fascinating to see them start to launch promotional offers at the tail end of 2020 as well as some even bigger promotions linked to referral offers mid-February 2021.

Larger or more well-known Canadian online brokerages may have a buffer against this advertising and promotional onslaught, but outside of three to four online brokerages in Canada, the rest of the field has to reevaluate a lot about how, when, and where they show up to Canadian DIY investors.

One viable option for online brokerages to compete is through offering deals and promotions on an ongoing basis, with different offers available at different points in the year. Another option is better marketing around offers that are already available – with a case in point being Scotia iTRADE. They have a promotion for commission-free trades that is bundled with a premium banking package offered by their parent brand, Scotiabank. Despite having traction with value-hungry consumers, this offer is relatively under-advertised to the general public.

On the good news front for DIY investors, there are still online brokerages offering deals and incentives for investors looking to get into the markets or who are interested in a new service provider.

Promotional offers from RBC Direct Investing – a major bank-owned online brokerage – are still available through the end of March, and BMO InvestorLine also launched a new cash-back offer to replace their RSP campaign. In the case of BMO InvestorLine, the minimum deposit amount on their new cash-back offer was raised to $25,000 and expires on June 1st, 2021.

Also, as stated earlier, it is bullish that a firm that currently has zero-commission trading is offering promotions on top of their ultra-competitive pricing. And considering Wealthsimple Trade’s aggressive marketing, it is unlikely that their competitors can afford to stay quiet for much longer.

Whether it is because of elevated trading activity, the dynamic nature of the restart of return to work, or the new competitive landscape for online brokerages in Canada, we believe that more Canadian online brokerages than normal will turn to promotional offers as a fast, effective way to stay relevant to DIY investors.

What the data from 2020 and early 2021 have shown is that large pools of DIY investors can quickly rush to market to get on board with a trading opportunity. Online brokerages looking to get ahead of the next big push, as well as to get in front of the big return-to-work shift, will likely be considering deals and promotions as a tactical way to be visible throughout these next few months. The takeaway: Investors who haven’t already joined the market can anticipate some interesting offers without having to wait until the fall to take advantage of them.

A Taste of Something Different: Signals Point to 2021 Arrival of Tastyworks in Canada

It started out, at least for me, in the Las Vegas airport on a journey back to Canada in 2014. I stared up at the TV in the departure lounge and saw a strange cherry logo alongside messages about online trading. It all seemed very Vegas, but the name tastytrade was something I made a mental note to remember.

Little did I know at the time that the combination of curious name and logo would potentially become one of the bigger stories in the Canadian online brokerage space in 2021.

What Is Tastytrade?

Back in 2014 and 2015, it was difficult to answer exactly what this firm was all about. After doing a little bit of research on tastytrade, it became clear that this brand was something different in the online investing space.

Launched in 2011, it was all about providing content on investing, with a heavy focus on options trading, mixed in with some fun and insightful segments. One thing it wasn’t short on was opinion and debate. But, they were American, and being in Canada meant that aside from an alternative to programming on CNBC or BNN, the talking heads on tastytrade probably wouldn’t have a direct influence on life here in Canada. At best, it seemed like a fun channel to tune in to for trading banter.

The next time tastytrade came back on my radar was October 2015. Back then, my hair, like the Weekly Roundup, was shorter, and the big news of the day was that TD Direct Investing had just “officially” joined Twitter. And, for good measure, one of TD Direct Investing’s early tweets: tastytrade would be coming to Canada for the first time on October 26th as a guest of TD Direct Investing.

I was fortunate enough to attend that first session at the CBC studios in downtown Toronto. In the before times, when travel and live events were a thing, investor education was also something Canadian online brokerages invested in far more heavily than they do today. Calendars on online brokerage websites were crammed with investor education events – which, at the time, is what this seemed like it would be.

Little did anyone know at the time how big of a deal it would be that the largest online brokerage in Canada was bringing a new financial brand north of the wall.

The session itself lasted the better part of a day. While spending a good portion of a day at an investor education event geared toward options was something I had done before (a couple of times), it was clear from the get-go this event was different.

First, it was impressive that instead of an education session, it felt more like a rock concert. There was fancy sushi (no boring sandwiches here), and the auditorium was filled with a community of fans who came to see and hear the founder of tastytrade, Tom Sosnoff, do his thing live. The energy in the room was unique. It could have been, in part, because attendees were actually part of the live broadcast of the tastytrade show. They could see that the personalities they tuned in to for options trading and market chatter were the same in person as they were behind the screen: funny, chill, and very smart.

While the actual segments of the shows were interesting, the most interesting thing to observe and experience was what happened during breaks.

Sosnoff was approached and literally encircled by a flock of adoring fans peppering him with questions about trades and options. He was able to engage an audience with a topic that most people – even back then – found opaque and mysterious. Again, this was Canada and it was 2015. No big rush to Robinhood, no GameStonks, no Reddit army. Whatever the following and fan base here, it was likely significantly higher in the US.

For TD Direct Investing, at the time, it was a big score to have tastytrade come to Canada. This event was a huge deal for their active options trading audience and, as it turns out, for their associates who ran the thinkorswim platform. Fun fact: Sosnoff created thinkorswim and sold it to TD Ameritrade in 2009 for US$750 million.

The next few years for tastytrade were spent continuing to grow and engage with their audience across the globe and launching their own online brokerage, tastyworks, in 2017. In the US online brokerage market at or about that same time, Robinhood was starting to make more waves among online investors. Not too long after the launch of tastyworks did we start to see comments left by DIY investors on SparxTrading.com that the best pricing for options trading was being provided by tastyworks. 

In a very short period of time, the tastytrade and tastyworks brands established themselves as a powerful force for active traders and investors who want to get the full experience of trading online, offering a unique community and great trading tools and user experience.

In a Weekly Roundup from February 2019, we spotted tastyworks’ rise in the US online brokerage rankings, where they appeared to be gaining ground on traditional online brokerage names in the space. Again, this was just two years after the tastyworks launch. The following interview from the Moneyshow in Toronto was also telling of the footprint tastytrade had developed in Canada by that time.

It wasn’t until 2020, however, that chatter around tastyworks coming to Canada started to pick up steam. To be clear, prior to 2020 the tastyworks team mentioned publicly that they intended to come to Canada. Unfortunately, regulatory and technology hurdles made coming here much slower.

Despite several suggestions in the past that didn’t quite work out, things seem different this time. The series of signals that the arrival of tastyworks in Canada is imminent seems to be growing. If we rewind back to January 2020, a tweet from the current Co-CEO and President of tastyworks, Kristi Ross, about the online brokerage coming to Canada was the first strong indicator big things were coming:

Then, in June, another interesting update, again from Twitter:

Then, in September, on Twitter:

We were primed to see a new online brokerage set up shop in the Canadian market before the end of the year, but it did not end up happening. As it turns out, though, the tastyworks folks were also busy with some big news of their own.

Tastyworks announced at the beginning of 2021 that they were being acquired for $1 billion by IG Group Holdings.

After about a decade, Tom Sosnoff had done it again, turning an idea about trading options and building a community of users into a multimillion-dollar payout. According to the press release, the management of the tastyworks brand was to continue on, but it did raise some questions about whether or not a move to Canada was still in the cards. That question, however, was put to rest in a video in early February:

Although the video clearly signals tastyworks’ own acknowledgement of yet another delay, this article from The Globe and Mail about tastyworks coming to Canada was published last week, lending more weight to the idea of tastytrade’s Canadian launch actually happening this year. One of the biggest questions will be “What is tastyworks?” and, in all likelihood, this article is but one of many to come that will seek to answer that question as the tastyworks and tastytrade advertising machinery ramps up.

The journey to Canada for tastyworks has been a long and winding road.

Since their first hints in 2018 of coming to Canada, the online brokerage landscapes in both Canada and the US have changed significantly, with the biggest change being the shift in commission pricing. As we’ve seen over the early part of 2021, however, just because a platform offers a great user experience and low pricing does not guarantee customer delight. There has to be something deeper.

For online investors, especially active ones, community is huge, and Sosnoff is well aware of this. Tastytrade is a financial content powerhouse, boasting an audience in Canada of 10,000 daily viewers and a global audience of about 900,000. These aren’t just passive viewers, however. Scan comments and forums relating to options trading and pricing conversations and tastytrade comes up a lot – and with a lot of (generally) positive emotion. It has a loyal fan base and a vibrant community.

For Canadian online brokerages, the move north by tastyworks will be an inflection point for the standard of online investor experience. Tastytrade content is engaging, entertaining, and educational. There are 20 shows that take place on the network. There is fresh content every day, and you can watch the founder and other members of his team trade throughout the day. They don’t just talk about this stuff, they actually do it. Add to that the price for trading stocks and options that tastyworks will bring, and the picture forming is that most Canadian online brokerages are staring at a potential game-changer coming soon.

The irony of the tastytrade and tastyworks journey coming to this point in 2021 is not lost on me.

When, seven years after the fact, an online brokerage can get you to remember the first time you ever saw their name (let alone on a return trip from Vegas), that says something about the power of the brand. The fact that TD Direct Investing set in motion the chain of events that led to tastyworks coming to Canada, and that I have been able to watch it unfold, is amazing.

Also pretty cool is seeing that having a penchant for disruption, a passion for giving online investors great experiences, and keeping your hair long can end up working out after all.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Hitting Rock Bottom

In this post, a 40-something investor with a wife and children asks for advice on how to rebuild after a financial catastrophe – that he brought upon his family through a series of bad bets on leveraged ETFs. Hundreds of Redditors offer words of encouragement and advice on everything from investing in simple ETFs to being grateful for family during tough times.

Risky Business?

A new investor with a lot of money to invest for 20+ years asks in this post how risky an ETF is and wants to know if a HISA or GIC would be a better choice. Redditors have strong opinions on the matter.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another edition of the Roundup. As alluded to in the opening, there’s a lot happening this month, and the Oprah interview is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re still tuning up the new features on the SparxTrading.com website and are looking forward to upcoming enhancements. While we might not get Oprah as a guest contributor (just yet), we are looking forward to including more interviews with interesting folks in the near future. In the meantime, we want to wish our readers tuning in today (Monday) a happy International Women’s Day and a profitable week ahead!

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – March 2021

*Updated March 23* It seems that time flies when you’re hurtling towards the RRSP contribution deadline. At least, that’s the sentiment among many-an-online brokerage as the start of March heralds a new month as well as the end of the busiest stretch in the year for most online brokerages. 

And, speaking of busy, the end of RRSP season also means that many online brokerage deals and promotions have expired or will be expiring soon. Specifically, offers from most of Canada’s largest bank-owned online brokerages are set to expire in the first week of March, drastically reducing the number of cash back offers for DIY investors hoping to open an online trading account.

Interestingly, the news isn’t all bad. Wealthsimple Trade actually launched a new promotion at the tail end of February that is part referral bonus, part contest, and offers clients who refer in new customers a shot at winning one of six prizes of $10,000. The timing and nature of this offer, are like most things Wealthsimple Trade, a challenge to other incumbents in the space. 

“Normally” promotions filter out at this point with only a select number of online brokerages launching new offers which generally extend through the spring. Wealthsimple Trade’s new offer, described below, is relatively short in duration, large in terms of prize money and lands exactly at the point in the calendar where activity is busiest. 

Also new to kick off March, the deals and promotions experience at SparxTrading.com. Readers can still get a quick overview of the latest deals and promotions offered by Canadian online brokerages in this post, but we’ve now added interactive tools to search for and filter deals information based on different parameters like the kind of offer, or account type or even the minimum required deposit. 

The good news for DIY investors is that despite the big pull back in offers from some of the bank-owned online brokerages, smaller brokerages might use this opportunity to launch some new offers without having to fight for a crowded field. There is a higher-than-historically-normal amount of interest in trading and investing which means there are still online investors interested in opening up new accounts. While it is not at the excessive levels seen last March, it is actually a bullish signal for online brokerages to continue to compete by providing some kind of incentive offer. 

We’ll continue to monitor the turnover in the deals space and if you have any offers or promotions that would be of interest to other online investors, let us know so we can highlight them here. 

Expired Deals

At the time of publication there are no deals that have expired however here are the list of deals scheduled to expire on the first day of March:

March 1:

  • Qtrade Investor Cash Back 
  • Scotia iTRADE Cash Back
  • TD Direct Investing Cash Back

Extended Deals

No extended deals to report at this time. 

New Deals

*Updated March 23: National Bank Direct Brokerage (NBDB) has just (re)launched a commission-free trade offer. They are offering up to 100 commission-free trades, which are good for one year, to individuals who sign up for a new account. This promotion is open to new and existing clients and expires at the end of June. See the deals and promotions section for more details.*

Wealthsimple Trade has launched a new contest combined with their referral program that offers existing clients who refer in new clients the opportunity to enter a draw for one of six prizes of $10,000. 

This new promotion, which runs until March 15th, enables existing clients to refer in a new client and if that new client trades at least $100, then the referrer gets $25 plus one entry into the contest and the referee gets $10. Draws for winners will take place on March 2nd, 9th and 16th and in order to enter or receive the prize, an individual must hold or open a Wealthsimple Trade account. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more information. 

Looking for the deals & promotions data? Head over to the new online brokerage deals index to browse through active promotions.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – March 1, 2021

Even though February is the shortest month of the year, it seems with all of the activity that it flew by even faster than normal. Of course, now that March is here, the theme of the month is going to turn toward spring, and that means some big changes.

In this edition of the Roundup, we roll out the long-awaited new website format for SparxTrading.com and, with it, lean into a whole new experience for DIY investors and industry enthusiasts looking for information on the online brokerage space. Also, this edition of the Roundup features a series of quick highlights of important news stories that we didn’t get a chance to feature throughout the month. As always, we close out with DIY investor comments from Twitter and the investor forums.  

SparxTrading 2.0 Goes Live

If you’re a regular reader of SparxTrading.com, you might have noticed something different. Like, very different.

Yes, the SparxTrading.com website is now in live beta, and while there are still lots of changes coming, we thought what better way to celebrate the end of RSP season than with the launch of a new website for DIY investors to be able to navigate the world of online investing with.

A lot has changed about the world of DIY investing since the launch of the original SparxTrading.com website (which happened in 2011). Events in the stock market in early 2021, as well as much of the activity after March of 2020, have put the conversation about trading online back into the spotlight.

While we didn’t know that there would be a massive catalyst for getting individuals interested in DIY investing, one thing hasn’t changed about that world: it’s still more confusing than it needs to be. With more than a dozen firms in Canada offering online brokerage services and solutions, figuring out what’s new, relevant, or helpful at any of these firms takes a lot of research, and oftentimes the information is presented in unique – and sometimes unintuitive – ways. So, to help sift through the maze of different providers, features, and pricing, we built SparxTrading.com.

The new website stays true to the original mission of speeding up the research process, but it has been updated for the world in 2021 and beyond. To start, one of the major considerations of the new website has been to streamline the number of menu options and focus on what many DIY investors rely on SparxTrading to help solve.

The new core sections of the website focus on Canadian online brokerage deals, reviews, comparisons, and news.

Unlike the world that SparxTrading.com first launched in, there isn’t nearly the kind of effort being put into investor education these days, nor is there a lack of reliable resources on getting oriented or started with trading online. As such, these sections have been removed from the site.

There are now several large, reputable, accessible organizations across Canada that provide unbiased and reliable advice on investing for beginners (such as GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca and InvestRight.org) as well as a number of communities online that help shepherd investors through the myriad of issues that come up in the normal course of tackling DIY wealth management.

Another notable change is moving away from relying on tables for most of the comparisons and instead utilizing a more dynamic interface that computes what users are most interested in.

In the deals section, for example, there are calculators and filters that enable users to specify which online brokerages are most relevant to them as well as which account types and deal types they are most interested in.

The online brokerage deals calculator walks users through a series of short questions to help identify the kinds of promotions that are most relevant to what they’re interested in. This saves time analyzing information that may not be of interest for those users who are more informed about what they want to do more research on.

We also revamped the design and navigation through the online brokerage review section. The new online brokerage reviews feature the quick info section that highlights to users some of the most essential details, like the standard trade commission pricing, as well as other features that are popular with DIY investors, like commission-free ETFs.

Also on the online brokerage review page is a revamped breakdown section that covers the account types offered by an online brokerage, their fees and requirements, their trading commissions, and their most recent and historical rankings. This data is helpful to DIY investors doing their research, and because it is standardized from one brokerage to the next, it makes it much easier to comparison shop.

Speaking of comparisons, this feature has been totally revised on the new SparxTrading.com website to enable users on mobile phones as well as on full screens to do complex research. The online brokerage comparison tool allows users to compare up to three online brokerages side by side. The primary filter that is used is the account type, since many online investors go shopping for a new online brokerage because they are looking for specific access points to invest online.

With so much information available to be compared, the results are compartmentalized for quicker research. Users can dive into information on account types, commission rates, options trading, deals and promotions, and mobile app ratings in as much or as little detail as they need to.

Finally, the deep-dive content that we know our readers enjoy has now been bundled under the “news” section of the website. Included in this category are blog articles and regular features like the Weekly Roundup, plus other articles on the Canadian online brokerage space. New to this section is the ability to filter posts according to the online brokerage that is mentioned in the article, as well as the ability to filter posts about deals and promotions and to filter for Weekly Roundups.

There are lots of new features and moving parts, so as we push forward from this beta launch, we’ll be working through the inevitable gaps and hiccups that accompany an ambitious overhaul. Users can also expect to see new artwork and a refreshed look and feel to the SparxTrading.com experience.

It will be interesting to hear feedback from you, the reader, and from users of the site. We’re excited to be actively working to deploy more new features to the website, to truly transform the experience that online investors will have when shopping for and learning about Canadian online brokerages.  

Let us know your feedback here!

Recap of Interesting Stories

There’s so much happening in and around the world of online investing that we don’t always get the chance to dive into every story that crosses our radar.

Questrade Moonwalks Journal Fee

Having covered the online brokerage industry in Canada for many years, we’re always interested to see history repeat itself. In this case, Questrade recently found themselves facing a bit of déjà vu when they announced they would be introducing a journaling fee – something that would impact the individuals typically looking to save money on currency conversions.

The outcry on investor forums, in particular on Reddit, was enough to get Questrade’s attention and prompt them to reverse course on deploying a journaling fee (at this time).

This isn’t the first time Questrade’s decision to launch a new fee has been met with discontent in online investor forums. In 2012, we reported that Questrade was intending to launch inactivity fees after building much of their brand identity around being the low-cost online brokerage (that also did not charge inactivity fees). The ensuing firestorm from online investors caused Questrade to first delay then modify the deployment of inactivity fees. Interestingly, it was just last year that they once again waived inactivity fees.

If there’s one thing 2021 has shown the investing industry, it’s that users on Reddit (and on social media more broadly) can have a significant influence on the decisions of the service providers in the online brokerage space.

It’s tough to imagine a scenario in which customers would be happy (or wouldn’t be unhappy) with a raise in rates or fees, but in addition to the hiking of the fee, there was also significant confusion and ire at charging users for pursuing an online channel instead of using the phone, especially given the current climate of wait times.

Interactive Brokers’ Accelerating Growth

It’s funny how time flies when you’re in the middle of breaking trading volume and account sign-up records. At least that’s what we think is the sentiment over at Interactive Brokers. This story has been simmering since the beginning of February, when Interactive Brokers released their trading figures for the prior month (January).

While it might have been overshadowed by the almost-end-of-the-financial-world, some exceptional performance metrics released by Interactive Brokers indicate how strong the surge in investor interest has been in the new year.

To put a finer point on it, Interactive Brokers saw a 221% increase in net new accounts on a month-over-month basis and an almost 700% increase year over year. In January 2021, Interactive Brokers reported opening 116,000 net new accounts compared to 14,700 in January 2020.

This surge in interest also was reflected in trading activity. Daily average revenue trades (DARTs) were up 43% month over month and 220% year over year. The convergence of a white-hot market for cryptocurrencies as well as volatility in the stock market likely contributed to the sharp increase in individuals opening up Interactive Brokers accounts.

With February’s stats on deck for release, it will be interesting to see how the stampede of interest into markets fared against the trading restrictions imposed by Interactive Brokers and others.

Wealthsimple Trade Launches Referral Contest

If there’s one thing that Wealthsimple Trade is not lacking, it’s creativity. In the final stretch of February, they launched their latest promotion: a contest to win $10,000. This new contest, which has six prizes of $10,000 up for grabs, links entries to the number of referrals individuals generate. As with several other online brokerages, Wealthsimple Trade also makes use of a referral program. In the case of Wealthsimple Trade’s referral program, the referring individual gets $25 and the referee gets $10.    

For most online brokerage referral programs, there isn’t much incentive beyond a modest cash bonus. As a result, the programs largely depend on a combination of an individual knowing about the program, having a positive experience with the brand, and seeking out the referral bonus. In the case of the new Wealthsimple Trade promo, $10,000 for a giveaway makes for a great incentive and headline. There has been a significant uptake in their referral program, with requests to use a promo code becoming more and more popular as evangelists and zealous users push the Wealthsimple Trade promotion, boosting the reach of the online brokerage.

Given the short time frame of the contest (it runs through March 15th) and the fact this is limited to a referral program, it will be interesting to see if the cost of the program ultimately ends up generating the kind of new client that Wealthsimple is looking for. If nothing else, the contest is a unique way to have the Wealthsimple Trade name become more familiar among the stakeholders who they’re targeting the most.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

A Helping Hand

In this post, a family member asks how to start an investing account for a relative with a disability. Fellow investors respond with helpful suggestions such as looking into Registered Disability Savings Plans (RDSPs), which offer matching grant money from the government.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on a very busy month. With the RSP deadline just a few hours away (at the time of publishing), there’s also going to be a significant amount of turnover predicted in the deals and promotions section this upcoming week. March is also the beginning of Fraud Prevention Month and is host to both St. Patrick’s Day and the first day of spring. At SparxTrading.com, we will also be very busy polishing up the new website and working on new features. However busy February was, March is already shaping up to have its fair share of big stories. Here’s hoping the week, and the month, ahead keep you green.

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Mark to Market: The “Limit Buy” Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of Mark to Market, the comic where we break down complicated market concepts into easy to understand comics. 

In part 1 of this chapter, Mark Tradewell, a fictional DIY investor, decided to invest some of his funds in his Tax Free Savings Account into shares of the ABC company. When he got to the market, however, he encountered three different kinds of price information: a bid price, an ask price, and a last price. Now that Mark has figured out what those prices mean, he’s ready to invest. But how?

Follow the adventures of Mark Tradewell and friends, as they wander through the complex maze of stock market terms, products and ideas, in search of understanding, confidence and mastery of personal finance. Each chapter takes a new concept or term and unpacks it in a series of parts, starting with the Limit Buy, a fundamental part of any DIY investor’s toolkit. Be sure to watch this space for part 3.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 22, 2021

Even though this past week was technically a short one in both Canada and the US, Friday couldn’t come fast enough for several online brokerages (and one Texas senator).

In this edition of the Roundup, we take a detailed look into what is sure to be yet another chapter in the history-making story of GameStop (and other meme stocks) and the impact on the superstar US online brokerage, Robinhood. Though we normally have two big stories to report on, this is a gargantuan story that is worth giving the whole spotlight to. We’ll check back in on some additional developments around the Canadian online brokerage market in our next edition. To maintain some semblance of tradition, we’ll also include highlights of activity on Twitter and chatter from DIY investor forums.

Errors of Commission and Errors of Omission: Robinhood Grilled Over GameStop

After a very big storm, you can expect a very big cleanup. And, after the very big storm that hit the online investing space in the US, there’s a lot to be cleaned up, especially in Sherwood Forest, aka Menlo Park, aka Robinhood headquarters.

The conversation about what exactly happened with GameStop, shorting, hedge funds, Robinhood, and payment for order flow continued this past week. Curious eyes were treated to a virtual gathering of members of the US House Financial Services Committee as they sought an audience with characters from the recent trading saga, to hear testimony and air some grievances about the events that unfolded for retail investors at the end of January.

Though this was not a formal trial, it did put a lot of actions “on the record” that would otherwise be able to be swept under the financial rug. On that note, it was a win for transparency relating to these events to at least have several of the key players involved answer for their part in “what happened.”

For Canadian DIY investors and online brokerages, it might be easy to dismiss this event as American political theatre rather than a consequential event; however, points that were raised in this inquiry could have serious implications for online investing in Canada.

Suffice it to say, there’s a lot to unpack from the five-hour-plus back-and-forth session. But to (ironically) paraphrase a Robinhood catchphrase, to keep things “digestible” for readers, we’ll narrow this story down to the most important points from the GameStop hearing.

Key Point #1: Who Was There and Who Was Not

By now, there are a couple of emerging celebrities in the GameStop stock story, and many of them were present at this hearing.

Top billing, of course, goes to Keith Gill, aka “Roaring Kitty,” who is a person of interest in this story given his role in being the “face” of the “squeezer” Reddit army who, through the power of online communities, were able to narrate their interest and point of view on why going long on GameStop was an awesome opportunity to make money.

Of greater interest to the world of DIY investing and online brokerages is the CEO of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, who is now the face and name associated with the zero-commission online brokerage and who sits at the heart of so much controversy.

Also called to testify were Reddit Co-Founder Steve Huffman, Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin, and “squeezee”/Melvin Capital Management Founder and CIO Gabriel Plotkin.

Of the many fascinating developments around “hauling in” individuals to testify before a congressional committee, it is noteworthy that senior executives from other online brokerages were omitted. These companies benefitted from the trading activities taking place during the GameStop run-up (many of them also make money via payment for order flow) and also implemented restrictions of various degrees for retail investors to be able to buy or trade meme stocks such as GameStop in late January. But, for better or for worse, Robinhood was in the hot seat on this one.

Certainly, important players were brought before the House Committee on Financial Services to elaborate on “what happened,” but placing Robinhood alone under the “online brokerage” microscope put the focus on their business practices and not on those of the industry they are part of, a move that misses a lot of valuable context.

That said, there is no denying that Robinhood has a significant retail investor client base, and many of those investors have smaller balances and are not as sophisticated or as experienced as the investors at some rival online brokerages.

In looking at the “big picture” of this particular hearing (and apparently there will be more hearings to come), one of the central figures in this fiasco was Robinhood. The business practices that are synonymous with Robinhood, which happen to be very important in their ascension, were also very much under scrutiny. Practices or features like payment for order flow, “gamification” techniques, zero-commission trading, and “democratizing” financial markets all came under fire – surprisingly – by the panel of committee members.

As troubling and perplexing as the testimony was, it seems like the biggest danger did not get any airtime. The most frightening portrait of events and systemic vulnerabilities that could impact many more stakeholders than just Robinhood customers came from the Founder of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, who was not one of those providing testimony but who did appear in a TV interview to provide some food for thought. We’ll dive into that in just a moment.  

Key Point #2: Ducking Details Makes You Look Either Incapable or Guilty

Just to put it out there, getting grilled by a congressional panel about major mishaps in business practices isn’t going to be high on many people’s bucket lists (except for maybe a certain pharma-bro).

The unenviable position that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev found himself in seemed, upon final analysis, to be a crisis of his own making and potentially the result of not doing the requisite preparation. Either way, it wasn’t Tenev’s finest (four) hour(s).  

The first interesting takeaway is that Tenev always seemed to be in “commercial” mode – taking as many opportunities as he could to try to bring the focus of his answers to the mission of Robinhood. It often sounded more like a commercial for Robinhood than like he was directly addressing the questions he was being asked. His opening remarks are perhaps the clearest example of that.

Why that matters, however, is that during the course of the inquiry, there were some very (important) direct questions that didn’t seem to have been properly addressed. Too much time was spent – perhaps on purpose – talking about mission or esoteric elements instead of directly addressing the questions. This left many of the responses from Tenev sounding hollow or superficial. Here are some examples.

In an exchange with Rep. Cindy Axne from Iowa, the topic of user experience and design of the Robinhood platform garnered some informed scrutiny. With a background in digital design, Rep. Axne asked why design elements on Robinhood’s platform were intentionally built to look like or simulate a casino.

This is at the heart of “gamification,” which is a big part of what observers of Robinhood characterize as one of their most appealing features. Arguably, Tenev would be well versed in what has clearly been a huge differentiator for their platform since inception. For a firm to have worked so long and so hard at making the experience of investing seem “fun” – it raises the question of why there wasn’t a better response as to whether or not it is appropriate for an online investing platform to embellish user behaviour with elements to celebrate actions.

Tenev, who acknowledged using behavioural research as part of the standard course of business for designing refinements, stated flatly that Robinhood is against supporting “gamification.” Nevertheless, his statement that “we want to give people what they want in a responsible, accessible way” rings hollow against the features cited by Rep. Axne.

It seemed unclear that the majority of users, who Tenev cited as longer-term investors, would want the kind of features intended to generate the “excitement” that active traders crave.

Another important interaction (and arguably the most damning) took place between Tenev and Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. The basic crux of Dean’s line of inquiry tore a page from the classic “what did they know and when did they know it?” playbook.

Not surprisingly, it was the simplest yet most elegant way to piece together what happened when Tenev was first notified that Robinhood effectively got margin called and the subsequent decision to restrict trading in select securities.  

The full exchange is worth watching on C-SPAN, but as the clip below shows, when asked directly what mistakes were made by Robinhood – something that Tenev stated on several occasions that took place – he was at a loss to specify what those mistakes were.

Rep. Dean asked, “You admitted to making mistakes. Specifically, what mistakes did you make?” The silence leading into the response was deafening.

Further, another series of damaging “non-answers” came in the specifics of recounting what customers were told and when they were told it.

There was a concerning absence of awareness about exactly when and what communications were relayed to Robinhood clients in the days leading up to the restrictions as well as on the day of those trading restrictions being imposed. Tenev cited a blog post and social media posts being made but could not recount specifics on timelines for those or other client communications. Also, the shifting narrative on why stocks were being restricted from trading also made it seem like Tenev did not have a clear answer for users, which further adds to the uncertainty surrounding these events.

Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t also point out the interaction with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. It came well into the session, and while it seemed like most of the time was spent getting to a lead-up, the journey to the punchline read like a laundry list of Robinhood’s missteps. As for the punchline itself, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez pointed out the obvious conclusion that commission-free trading does not equate to free trading: There is clearly a cost to Robinhood users, which comes in the form of poorer execution.

Ever since that testimony, Robinhood and Tenev have been on a full-court press of PR moves. Since late January, the Robinhood blog has been busier than it has been in many months. The latest post appearing on the blog features a video of Tenev tackling some of the questions and sentiment coming at him/Robinhood. He is, interestingly, also more active on Twitter.

Key Point #3: We Didn’t Hear How Bad Things Really Were

While there are still more hearings ahead, the most troubling statement came from someone not at the hearing but who is also deeply familiar with market function.

Founder, and now retired CEO, of Interactive Brokers Thomas Peterffy appeared on CNBC to provide his take on the GameStop fiasco. And, true to form, he did not mince his words.

Peterffy stated that “we have come dangerously close to the collapse of the entire system” and that the general public, the US Congress, and financial regulators are unaware of just how bad things could have become.

To make his point crystal clear, he walked through the math on the outstanding shares of GME and how it would have been (almost) impossible, and likely catastrophic, for many counterparties to attempt to purchase GME stocks – which they would have been required to do by law – had GME stocks continued to climb in price. For further clarity, had options buyers collectively exercised their call options, they would have had to receive 270 million shares, but there are only 50 million shares outstanding.

In this nightmare scenario, clearinghouses would likely have collapsed or defaulted. Brokerages would then have been the counterparties responsible, and they too could have collapsed. It would have been nearly impossible to untangle the ensuing mess.

If it sounds alarmist, consider for a moment what would have happened if Robinhood did have the capital on hand to meet the 10x margin requirement handed to it by the clearing firm.

What would likely have happened then?

It stands to reason that GameStop would, or at least could, have continued higher. What is not yet clear is the price that GameStop could have risen to before the financial system would have headed into an uncontrolled meltdown.

Would circuit breakers kick in? Could they even prevent the swell of interest that could have come at Robinhood if the online brokerage did have the requisite capital to manage the surge in settlement requirements?

In that light, it seems to be clear that it was a direct result of Robinhood’s failure to be properly capitalized for this scenario that probably helped save the financial markets from significant ruin. A happy accident in not being prepared ended up saving the day.

Peterffy positioned the current scenario and regulatory environment as needing repair to resolve this particular oversight. He called specifically for better tracking and reporting of short selling and changing the margin requirements.

Whether this is a “bug” in the system, which the new reality of social media enables users to exploit when trading, or this is a case of financial elites changing the rules of the game after being caught offside, it’s clear the rules of trading online have changed and are still too opaque to be considered “fair” for all.

Why Is This Relevant to Canadian Online Investing?

While it is still unclear what the repercussions will be in the US, the testimony shared thus far and the series of events experienced at the end of January can provide a few clues as to what Canadian online brokerages and DIY investors will be paying closer attention to going forward.

The first item that we’ve discussed a few times before comes back to user experience, and specifically how investor behaviour intersects with design features.

Robinhood’s mission was to “democratize finance” by making the experience of investing as accessible as possible. As their CEO pointed out to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, they are also a private business with a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of their corporation, which means they have to consider how to maximize revenues and, by extension, profits. At what point do those interests conflict?

User experience features that Robinhood is now facing increased scrutiny and legal action over relate to the idea of “gamification” – the kind of user interaction moments that might misrepresent important financial decisions for something like gameplay. Being encouraged to tap an app up to 1,000 times and getting confetti when placing a trade don’t sound like the kind of enhancements that make trading accessible. They do sound like things that make trading fun.

This hearing and testimony will almost undoubtedly be a topic of conversation among senior executives at Canadian online brokerages who know they have to make their platforms more appealing to a shifting demographic but who now will have to seriously reconsider putting in certain features (like confetti) and even talking about investing in a way that might communicate that investing can be too enjoyable.

With financial literacy about online investing being nowhere near where it ought to be for the general public, the conversation about investing responsibly is one that will need to balance being engaging while at the same time not crossing a line that makes it resemble a video game lacking real-world consequences.

Another important consequence for Canadian online investors, in particular, is where and how they communicate about investing in specific securities.

One of the key factors in the GME stock surge was the rapid and widespread dissemination of information – true or not – on social media and forums. These are areas that we at Sparx are continuously monitoring. Some recent statements by Canadian securities regulators suggest that they will be watching the chatter on securities and, most importantly, observing whether or not individuals who are talking up or down a particular security have disclosed whether or not they have a position in said security.

Finally, one other area Canadian online brokerages might want to pay closer attention to based on the activity taking place in the US relates to communications to clients. Rep. Dean from Pennsylvania had a simple but powerful test to subject Robinhood to that is equally relevant to Canadian online brokerages: What did they know and when did they know it?

The crushing phone wait times, the ongoing system interruptions, and even the errors in data reporting that arise are all systemically risky situations that are neither new nor immaterial to investors. Although they do not impact a specific set of stocks, these actions ultimately impede the ability of self-directed investors to fairly and efficiently trade the markets. And, if held to account, Canadian online brokerages will have to be able to answer those two simple questions when it comes to explaining why they have yet to fully resolve these issues.

There is already data showing even greater investor interest in trading markets this year than there was during March and April of 2020, which suggests even further stress on the systems of Canadian online brokerages that are already struggling.

The GameStop story is unique in that it focused on one specific stock, but it is already clear that huge retail investor surges can happen again. Whether it is for blockchain or cannabis or any stock whatsoever, any online brokerage that cannot meet the sudden spike in demand or, worse, cannot fulfill the basic requirement to provide efficient access to trade the stock market should be prepared to face scrutiny in two places: financial regulators and the court of public investor opinion.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

The FOMO Is Real

In this post and this post, investors ask about the wisdom of buying cryptocurrency. Their fellow Redditors express very strong opinions about whether buying crypto is smart, or just harmless fun, or the equivalent of wasting money at a casino.

(Im)Balancing Act

A Redditor with $40,000 in a TFSA invested it all in a healthcare company. That lucky decision paid off – to the tune of about $343,000. Now they don’t know how to invest this much larger amount. In this post, Redditors weigh in with their advice (and to express their envy).

Into the Close

Don’t be fooled by fewer days on the calendar. There was a lot of news for such a short week and much that we didn’t get to highlight. The events surrounding the GameStop saga are as fascinating as they are frightening. So, as a little bit of levity, here are puppies. Have a great week!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 16, 2021

It’s fitting that after so much discussion about “shorts” in the news, we also now have a short(er) trading week upon us. With one fewer trading day, it also means the deadline for RRSP contributions is ticking closer, adding to the pressure that is evidently already building at Canadian online brokerages this month.

In this edition of the Weekly Roundup, we take yet another look at the customer service angle at Canadian online brokerages, this time zeroing in on another recent set of rankings that measure digital interactions. From there, we dive into some exciting new features being launched by Canadian brokerages that will help take some of the guesswork out of investing before and during retirement. As always, we’ll serve up a generous helping of investor commentary from Twitter and the investor forums.

Canadian Online Brokerages Struggle at Delivering Service Online

The drumbeat for better customers service among DIY investors in Canada is getting louder by the day.

Increased coverage among high-profile financial writers in Canada, as well as a number of studies by financial research firms, validates what we have been seeing for many months on social media: Most Canadian online brokerages are falling short on providing timely customer service experiences.

While data has been emerging this year that puts the issues faced by online brokerages in the spotlight, it is somewhat confusing for online investors since different studies measure different aspects of the “service” experience.

Both the actual wait times experienced by Canadian DIY investors and the unpredictability of what users can expect when reaching out as either a customer or an interested consumer have potentially far-reaching consequences to the industry as a whole. And, as the data shows, if these issues are not addressed, the recent online brokerage challenges taking place in the US could spill over to providers here in Canada.

The Story in Numbers

At the end of January, a couple of important Canadian online brokerage rankings were published. We covered The Globe and Mail’s online brokerage rankings in detail earlier this month, with a significant amount of time spent diving into the wait times that were measured at Canadian online brokerages in January (2021).

Online BrokerageWait Times (min)
BMO InvestorLine87
CIBC Investor’s Edge101
Desjardins Online Brokerage170
HSBC InvestDirect125
Interactive Brokers66
National Bank Direct Brokerage69
Qtrade Investor28
Questrade128
RBC Direct Investing90
Scotia iTrade179
TD Direct Investing58
Virtual Brokers7

For a quick refresh, the table above contains the average wait time data reported as part of the online brokerage rankings among the 12 firms that were reviewed. Interestingly, in a post by DALBAR on LinkedIn, additional information about the wait times was provided that illustrates the range of wait times at each firm. Readers of the Weekly Roundup post in which these numbers were thoroughly examined can appreciate why average values, on their own, might not convey the full picture. The study data cited by The Globe and Mail rankings reported the average wait times, but the graphic below adds additional context around those average values.

Aside from the 25x difference between the average of the lowest wait times (Virtual Brokers) compared to the highest average wait times (Scotia iTrade), one of the most striking trends to jump out is variation in wait times that occurred as online brokerages took longer to respond. At the far right of the chart shown above, five firms in particular stand out with highly variable wait time ranges:

Of these firms, it was most evident that Questrade had the highest range of wait times, which stretched from about 50 minutes to just under 300 minutes, with an average of 128 minutes. By comparison, HSBC InvestDirect had an average of 125 minutes but a much narrower range of wait times, stretching from just over 60 minutes to about 210 minutes. When ranges this wide are part of the service experience, it is essentially a gamble for DIY investors as to exactly how long they are going to have to wait before connecting with a service agent.

Another striking feature of the data on the chart is where Qtrade Investor landed in terms of wait times. Their “worst” wait time (of about 50 minutes) was approximately the best wait time that any firm behind them could achieve.

These data points are also important because of how they compare against another set of online brokerage rankings that focused specifically on service levels. Financial services research firm Surviscor also released online brokerage service rankings at the end of January and concluded that there were clear and persistent shortcomings in the response times of most Canadian online brokerages.

Unlike the DALBAR study, which took a snapshot of one week’s worth of telephone data in January 2021, Surviscor conducted 163 service inquiries per online brokerage between January and December of 2020 on contact forms, emails, and social media channels.

FirmResponse Time (hours)
Questrade2.90
Qtrade Investor4.02
Canaccord Genuity Direct11.15
National Bank Direct Brokerage29.38
RBC Direct Investing39.17
TD Direct Investing39.27
Interactive Brokers52.28
Laurentian Bank Discount Brokerage62.30
BMO InvestorLine76.10
HSBC InvestDirect77.55
Desjardins Online Brokerage89.75
Virtual Brokers91.68
Scotia iTrade94.20
CIBC Investor’s Edge104.17

The average industry response time in 2020 ended up being 55 hours, which was actually an improvement over 2019, in which response times across the industry averaged out to 62 hours. One of the most compelling points observed in the Surviscor analysis of service response times, however, was that service has been trending in the wrong direction for many years now, and although COVID-19 can certainly be considered a contributing factor, the data shows that even before the pandemic, meeting customer response times online was a challenge.

Change the Channel or Channel the Change

When comparing the data from the Surviscor and DALBAR studies, it’s clear that the kind of service experience a consumer can encounter with a Canadian online brokerage depends on the channel used, which is a big problem on a number of levels.

First, and perhaps most ironic, is that when it comes to online capabilities for service touchpoints at Canadian online brokerages, in spite of the hairpulling wait times, it is still faster (in most cases) to wait on the phone than it is to send electronic correspondence.

In fact, when comparing the magnitude of the difference between the phone and online channels, the range went from 1x (Questrade) to 786x (Virtual Brokers). Excluding the outliers, the average factor difference was 39x between phone and online interactions. One clear standout in both the digital and telephone categories was Qtrade Investor, which had the shortest wait time on the phone and the second-fastest response time online.

To Surviscor’s point, the digital interactions may have been deprioritized compared to phone channels because customers would be more likely to use the phone channels; however, as far as making a first impression count, most Canadian online brokerages would not get a flattering response.

A second important consideration is that for the financial services industry as a whole, trust is an integral part of consumer confidence.

Granted, DIY investors are flocking to the markets in droves because of perceived generational opportunities to build wealth, but when those same investors are hitting roadblocks to getting issues addressed or questions answered, confidence takes a hit. If you add issues of platform stability to that, then individual investors lose faith that financial services firms are up to the task of safely and reliably providing the opportunities for wealth creation that much of the marketing suggests is possible.

With just a few weeks to go until the RSP contribution deadline for 2020, this is prime time for DIY investors looking to online brokerages for RSP options. It is against this backdrop that the wait times experienced by Canadian investors stand out as something that could ultimately become a much more important component to online brokerage selection than has been the case in the past. Deeper than that, however, the notion of lag time is anathema in the age of online investing.

The recent Robinhood debacle that resulted in trading in certain securities being restricted has been blamed on wait times for trade settlement – a stunning vulnerability in the year 2021. For DIY investors in Canada, the clear and present risk to consider is an online brokerage’s capacity to meet a respectable service delivery standard, especially during times of market volatility or heightened interest (which is arguably when those systems are needed the most).

For Robinhood, not only did they suffer a blow in the court of public opinion, but they are also going to have to answer tough questions from lawmakers and face the wrath of an increasing number of lawsuits. Other than the growing chorus of complaints from Canadian consumers and financial media, there isn’t anyone holding online brokerages accountable for their service standards.

Ironically (again), the longer Canadian online brokerages take to address these service gaps, the more likely it is that the industry will find themselves taking centre stage in a mass media story or, worse, the focal point of a Reddit wave. Make no mistake, the clock on this story is most certainly ticking.

New Features From Online Brokerages Chip Away at Guesswork

After talking at length about where Canadian online brokerages are struggling, it’s a nice change of pace to shift the focus to areas in which they’re looking to innovate and deliver additional value to clients as well as to DIY investors more broadly.

Readers of SparxTrading.com know that we regularly engage with Canadian online brokerages on a number of new features and developments (case in point: our Look Back / Look Ahead series). Two interesting features that were brought to our attention from Canadian online brokerages are worth highlighting to readers.

BMO InvestorLine Launches a Checkup for Portfolios

With a tsunami of new investors joining the stock market, one of the biggest challenges many of them face is understanding how to answer a very basic question: “Am I on the right track?”

Fortunately for DIY investors, BMO InvestorLine recently announced a new online tool that helps investors analyze their current portfolios against a set of investor profiles, to see whether or not their portfolios are in line with their desired investment objectives.

The adviceDirect Portfolio Health Check tool is interesting for a number of reasons, but chief among them is that it is freely available to the general public to use, and it is both simple and fast to complete.

Individuals can enter details about their financial picture (no personally identifiable information is captured) and assess it on four key parameters: asset allocation, diversification, security ratings, and risk. In about three steps, users can quickly see where they measure up to their “personality” type and also see what they may want to consider changing in order to bring their portfolio in line with their respective investing personality type.

In terms of who might be interested, this tool appears to be built around investors (rather than traders) who are interested in taking a portfolio approach to building wealth. This means that the tool is likely to have mass appeal, and it serves as a great starting point to the conversation about whether or not the composition of a portfolio is on target.

From a business development standpoint, this is also an interesting and savvy move by BMO InvestorLine to be part of the conversation about wealth management. Analogous to mortgage calculators helping potential homeowners understand some of the mechanics around house purchases and borrowing, the adviceDirect Portfolio Health Check tool is a timely resource for anyone wanting to get a digital “second opinion” on how their investments stack up. This is entirely in line with their adviceDirect offering, which enables investors to consult with a licensed investment professional about recommendations but leaves the actual work up to the investors themselves to implement.

In a crowded landscape of online brokerages that would normally be focusing on commission pricing, this public-facing tool will enable BMO InvestorLine to be visible to the right kinds of investors at the right moment and, because it is free, for the right price.  

Looking in the RRIF-View Mirror

Against the backdrop of service enhancements at Canadian online brokerages, one important feature launched at the end of 2020 will help clients of RBC Direct Investing who are thinking about income when retiring.

Starting in December 2020, RBC Direct Investing enabled clients with Registered Retirement Income Fund accounts (such as RRIFs, LIFs, LRIFs, RLIFs, PRIFs) to be able to view payment details online, without needing to call or wait for a letter. In light of the wait times on the phone channel, this is a timely development.

To help navigate the most important details of a RRIF, the “RRIF View” provides a snapshot of a client’s plan, with information on the required minimum annual withdrawal amount and scheduled payment dates.

While this is a small development, it is an interesting example of a feature that is important to users who have this kind of account – it got a quick highlight as part of the Navigators series that publishes updates at RBC Direct Investing.

At this time of year, there is a lot of discussion about contributing to RRSPs, but there isn’t nearly as much information available on the next steps of funding retirement, in particular the variety of options available to individuals with an RRSP.

Fortunately, RBC Direct Investing also has a fairly good guide explaining RRIFs, which is helpful for individuals needing to navigate this new account type. With this new feature, RBC Direct Investing might also have the opportunity to spark a conversation about online brokerage platforms and the ease with which RRIF account holders can stay on top of key information.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Timing the Market

A potential investor asks in this post whether they should wait until after the stock market crash – or at least massive correction – that many experts predict is imminent, in order to buy stocks at rock-bottom prices. Fellow Redditors share their strong opinions about the value of time in the market versus trying to time the market.

Up, Up & Away

From boredom to FOMO to a record bull market, there are many reasons that retail investing is surging in Canada right now. In this post, hundreds of Redditors discuss meme stocks, cryptocurrency, market bubbles, crashes, index funds, interest rates, and a whole lot more.

Into the Close

With the combination of Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and Family Day, there have been many reasons to celebrate this past week, and Friday being that much closer certainly adds one more item to the list. There’s a lot of gripping drama playing out in the US this week, with the GameStonks trade under the microscope. With snow and cold showing up just about everywhere, including Texas, this is going to be a weird one. Hang in there.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 8, 2021

February is now well underway. In case you might have missed it, a forty-something quarterback managed to nab yet another Super Bowl win, and for the moment, it appears that the forty-something-plus crowd on Wall Street managed to squeeze out a win over the younger investors – at least for now. History is in the making all around.

In this edition of the Roundup, we dive into the deals and promotions activities that Canadian online brokerages are up to. From there we analyze the fallout from the meme stocks push and contemplate what it should make Canadian online brokerages think about as we head out of this historic turn of events. As always, there’s thoughtful commentary from the investor forums and a selection of interesting tweets.

Forecast for Deals & Promotions: Mostly Sunny for February

The month before the official start of spring is a good news/bad news moment. Yes, better weather is around the corner, but no, it’s not here yet.

Fortunately for DIY investors, the forecast heading into the deadline for RSP contributions is filled with some bright patches, most notably that the Canadian online brokerage deals section is brimming with activity. If there is a dark cloud lingering over deals activity this year, it’s that several online brokerages have opted to stay on the sidelines rather than post an offer during RSP season for DIY investors.

In more “normal” times, not having a deal during RSP season would be unlikely. With the sustained interest by DIY investors in opening new accounts – especially given the recent run in “meme stocks” – many online brokerages are struggling to keep up with the level of demand and, thus, pacing themselves when it comes to bringing on new customers. It appears that there can be too much of a good thing after all.

For online investors looking to open an online brokerage account, February is the last month to be able to take advantage of the selection of offers. Most of the promotions in the cash-back or commission-free trade categories end at the beginning of March.

The current offers in the most enticing category for investors show that competition between the big five bank-owned online brokerages is fierce, with all of these discount brokerages putting forward competitive cash-back offers. Joining the bank-owned online brokerages in this category are Qtrade Investor and Questrade.

Curiously, mid-tier and newer online brokerages do not currently have a cash-back or commission-free trading offer, a signal that these providers might either be more strained by the substantial interest in investors coming to market or be pursuing a different strategy to attract new clients.

While deals and promotions are an effective strategy to attract DIY investors, another interesting way in which Canadian online brokers attempt to connect with new clients is via advertising – specifically on the world’s biggest search engine, Google.

As part of our proprietary research, we’ve reviewed recent search engine marketing tactics of Canadian online brokerages and found some fascinating results. One of the important findings is that there are fierce battles taking place between a small number of online brokerages on Google.

For example, it appears that Wealthsimple Trade is spending advertising directly on names such as Interactive Brokers, Qtrade Investor, Questrade, and TD Direct Investing. Alternatively, Interactive Brokers is advertising directly on Questrade, Wealthsimple Trade, and Virtual Brokers. It is especially interesting considering Wealthsimple Trade and Interactive Brokers couldn’t be more different in terms of user experience and intent.

Interactive Brokers is built, intentionally, for active traders. In contrast, when Wealthsimple Trade launched, it was built deliberately to support some trading, but active trading – and day trading in particular – was explicitly viewed as undesirable and something they stated they could intervene on if the trading activity would be deemed “inappropriate.”  

It is therefore interesting to line up the sentiment expressed in the messaging of Wealthsimple Trade’s help page on day trading with their advertising targeting investors interested in Interactive Brokers and Questrade.

With just three weeks to go until the RRSP deadline, Canadian online brokerages are likely to ramp up their efforts to win over investors, and the most likely place this will happen is with heightened “promotion” via online advertising – and yes, even during the Super Bowl.

In the February edition of the deals and promotions section, the big five Canadian bank-owned online brokerages are well represented, along with Questrade and Qtrade Investor. Of the online brokerages not on the current list of promotions, however, it appears that two popular names, Interactive Brokers and Wealthsimple Trade, are instead fiercely battling it out with one another on Google search advertising and likely other channels, such as Facebooks, as well.

That two very different brands are battling it out directly with each other is telling of the competitive dynamics in the current online brokerage market in Canada. It does raise the question, however, of when that competition will materialize into something more value-added to a client than a convenient link on Google.

GameStop(ped) Out

Oh, what a difference a fortnight makes in the stock market of 2021.

Just over two weeks ago, Elon Musk wasn’t just talking about launching rockets into space, he was also weighing in on the meteoric rise of “GameStonks.” Same with Mark Cuban, AOC, and so many more people who normally give commenting on the stock market a pass. What has been happening in the stock markets over these past few weeks, however, has been almost impossible to ignore.

The sheer weight of the interest in the “meme stock” phenom was fuelled by a combination of FOMO and a strange quirk of market physics. Since the surge in the stock price of GameStop (ticker symbol GME) and subsequent restrictions on trading it by online brokerages, there have been countless commentaries on exactly what happened and what underpinned the stunning move up and back down in the price.

To be totally transparent, this section is going to add one more commentary to the pile; however, we’re going to sidestep most of what has already been said about short squeezes, Reddit threads, and a cabal of powerful financiers and instead focus on some very important elements that look at the consequences and lessons learned for online brokerages as a result of this recent anomaly.

One of the first things worth stating, especially from our perch here in Canada, is that so much of this story is driven by what happened in the US stock markets. For Canadian DIY investors and Canadian online brokerages, however, the opportunity to make fast money was still just as tempting. What ultimately ended up getting in the way for Canadian investors were the numerous friction points, such as commissions for trades, lack of fractional trading, or time required to fund a new account, to name just a few. Which, all told, probably saved some heartache for some investors.

Nevertheless, in the cast of stock market characters surrounding the great short squeeze of 2021, perhaps the most interesting question that stands out is why, of all the online brokerages in the US that restricted trading in GameStop (and other stocks), did Robinhood find itself cast as the villain?

Data gathered from a variety of sources indicate that other online brokerages in the US restricted buying in GME shares, including Interactive Brokers, Webull, and E-Trade. TD Ameritrade (and Schwab) raised margin requirements. Even so, media mentions and social media conversations (and memes) have overwhelmingly been dominated by Robinhood and the fact that they instituted a temporary restriction on purchasing certain stocks.

One possible reason why Robinhood has been singled out is that it became somewhat of a rising star across 2020, attracting more accounts in the early portion of the year than most of its competitors combined. And, although most of its US online brokerage competitors offer zero-commission trading now as well, Robinhood is often associated with making trading more accessible – or, in their words, “democratizing” finance. For years, Robinhood has positioned itself as “anti-Wall Street” and cultivated the narrative of Robinhood as the champion of the small investor in a way that incumbent online brokerages did not. Scandal definitely makes for good TV, and in a world where entertainment options are limited, seeing a rising star have a fall from grace sounds like the plot of another enticing movie about stock markets.

When the carefully curated identity of Robinhood is juxtaposed against the expectations of retail investors that Robinhood is an online brokerage “for the people,” it is understandable that when those same people were not allowed to trade what they wanted to trade when they wanted to trade it, they believed that something was afoul. After all, retail investors believe – and are led by a number of sources to believe – that markets are free from interference by outside forces or entities.

And, while the broader market of investors was willing to give Robinhood a pass on payment for order flow in order to get commission-free trades, the optics of relationships between Robinhood and the very institutions that meme stock proponents sought to profit from (e.g. Melvin Capital and Citadel) cast Robinhood as pro-establishment, essentially violating their brand promise.

Perhaps the greatest insight into this situation can be illustrated in the descriptions of “what happened” by the current head of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, and the founder and former CEO of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy.

In the immediate aftermath of the decision to restrict trading in GME, it didn’t help matters that the CEO of Robinhood could not articulate clearly why certain shares were frozen. That lack of clear explanation in the heat of a volatile market meant that retail investors were forced to jump to their own conclusions.

By contrast, it is worth noting a Bloomberg interview with Peterffy in which he clearly alludes to something that goes beyond a freeze on the trading of volatile stocks. Specifically, Peterffy positions as “illegal” the fact that individuals were piling into a name (like GME) to perpetuate and accelerate a short squeeze.

Putting the continuity of the business first and catering to clearing and settlement requirements are prudent activities, and it seems reasonable for people to assert that Robinhood and Interactive Brokers, as companies, would need to stay in business.

That said, younger investors or investors who sought to drive systemic change via “sticking it to the shorts” found themselves on the wrong end of a lock on buying, and the short squeeze that was taking shape ended up fizzling out.

Robinhood has made no secret of their intentional pursuit of younger investors. What seems to be clear, however, is that these “younger investors” have a very different view of wealth creation and investing (trading) than “boomers” do.

And herein lies the issue for all online brokerages. Currently, there are different audience segments that have very different views on financial services and the roles that online brokerages ought to play when it comes to facilitating participation in the stock market.

Aside from mobile app or website design, another important attribute of younger investors is where they go to learn about investing (Reddit or forums). Also, they seek out highly volatile (high risk, high reward) stocks, for a mix of excitement and wealth creation. When combined with the gamification of user experience and a reduction in commissions, the result is a powder keg that, given the right environment, will explode.

Younger investors also bring with them the beliefs and capacity to call out “injustice” or perceived hypocrisy on very public channels. While older investors did use forums to learn from and engage with one another, and occasionally to voice their discontent, it was rare to find social justice narratives or “greater good” themes driving investor choices. The recent events have shown that social media channels, including Twitter and Reddit, move exponentially faster than anything before and include sections like “tl;dr” to cut through the “boring analysis.”

Unlike their US counterparts, Canadian online brokerages did not suffer as significant a backlash from DIY investors, in part because they did not explicitly prevent buying or trading in the meme stock frenzy. That said, Canadian online brokers were not unscathed either.

Platform outages or delays in executing trades from a number of brokerages – along with popular online broker Wealthsimple Trade taking the unusual step of specifically labelling certain stocks very risky, such as GameStop and BlackBerry – did set off a smaller firestorm here in Canada. In particular, investors were upset that an online brokerage would take the position to designate any stock as “too risky” to trade, especially if it met listings requirements on a supported stock exchange.

It is still too soon to say how things will ultimately pan out for online brokerages as a whole. There are, however, some immediate lessons for the online brokerage industry to take heed of.

Regardless of being either an established name in finance or the latest fintech, financial services at their core are predicated on trust and confidence. Among the “older” generation of retail investors, that trust was established in the form of size and stature. Bigger equalled better. Among the “newer” cohort of investors, it could be argued that faster is better.

What is common to all investors, however, is that reliability matters when choosing an online brokerage, if for no other reason than to know what to expect. Nobody likes uncertainty, especially Canadian DIY investors. The events over the past few weeks have made it clear that newer online brokerages will have a much harder time making up for the fact that they don’t have anything to offer other than the promise of a brighter future. At least the established online brokerage brands have either the reputation of their parent brand or their history in the space to point to as a signal that they are stable.

Another really important takeaway from the events of the past few weeks is that the conversation that takes place online, in particular in forums and on Twitter, cannot be and should not be dismissed. Whether it is regulators or other entities who do this monitoring, the fact that retail investors could take a coordinated action on trading specific stocks is remarkable.

The consequences to the industry were made clear: Ignore the crowd at your peril.

We live in a world where individuals such as Elon Musk can become incredibly influential, and based on their whims and caprices on Twitter or Reddit, there can be massive investor behaviour shifts. The events of the past few weeks highlight that, going forward, the online investing industry will have a massive PR problem.

Even here in Canada, where much of the negative press around the events of the past two weeks focuses on platforms and connectivity, online brokerages are going to have to do better because of the circumstances in the US. More advertising is not going to do it, nor will telephone meetings. The bottom line is that investors now look to Robinhood with a suspicion it has never had to meaningfully contend with before. That’s something for Canadian online brokerages to think about as they race to design new interfaces and experiences to connect with investors.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

What Goes Up?

In this post, an investor wonders if the recent mania in the stock market perhaps signals the end of an epic bull market, which leads to a lengthy discussion that touches on corrections, crashes, business cycles, and much more.

Preaching to the Converted

The devil is usually in the details, and for DIY investors looking to avoid getting dinged with trading commissions, this post about “the catch” when it comes to using commission-free online brokerage Wealthsimple Trade offers up an important lesson.

Into the Close

With yet another Super Bowl win to add to his record, there’s no denying that Tom Brady has been defying physics in the NFL. Credit where credit is due, though (and no, not a margin call pun), there’s definitely something to be said for putting in the effort and seeing the results. As the shine comes off the short squeeze trade, it will be interesting to see how traders fare without wanting to put in the work. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and so too is Lunar New Year, so the good news is that this month is filled with even more reasons to celebrate.

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Look Back Look Ahead: Questrade Q&A

What can beginner investors expect from your firm?
Helping Canadians become confident investors is what we do every day. And it’s important not only to serve their needs today but also to teach them more about the markets as things happen.

When COVID-19 hit, we sent out resources to help customers make sense of the markets. This investing series was focused on how markets historically rebound after pullbacks, to help arm our customers with knowledge to navigate through the uncertainty. We regularly communicated with customers throughout the pandemic, giving updates on our operations and the market, so they can feel confident that we are here for them and they are not alone.

We have also partnered with Passiv, a portfolio-rebalancing tool, to make it even easier for customers to manage their investments. Anyone with a Questrade account receives a free subscription to Passiv Elite, their highest-tier plan.

All customers have access to real-time quotes and fast trade executions.

And, of course, new investors can enjoy all this knowing that they can reach out to our award-winning customer service if they ever have any questions.

What can active investors expect from your firm?
Unlike at many other brokers, all Questrade customers can access all of our platforms absolutely free, whether you’re trading on a web-based browser, on a mobile app or using IQ Edge, our advanced desktop platform. 

Every year we’re adding more and more features focused on more-active investors, and 2020 was no exception.

This year we completely upgraded the market data on the platform by partnering with Benzinga, to give investors an abundance of news and analyst commentary on the stocks they’re following.

Along with Benzinga, we added an entirely new events calendar, so investors can easily look up key dates that may affect their securities. Earnings releases, dividend dates and analyst upgrades can all be easily searched on the event calendar.

As always, all Questrade accounts are dual-currency accounts, so you can hold Canadian and US cash in your account (some competitors don’t give their customers this ability). With Questrade, you won’t get charged unnecessary currency-conversion fees when doing US trades.

2021 will continue to bring exciting new features for IQ Edge, with upcoming releases that will make it even more powerful.

What online investing trends do you expect to matter to DIY investors?
We anticipate an increase in desire for knowledge, greater engagement with educational content for investors of all levels, increased participation in investing-related social media and, ultimately, a more informed, educated and successful DIY investor. 

What does user experience mean at your firm?
User experience at Questrade is about making investing easy for customers. At any given time, a user should be able to feel confident that they can access, read and understand all their portfolio information, that they can easily make trades using their platform of choice and that they know where to turn if they need help at any time. 

What sets your firm apart from your peers?
At Questrade, we care about Canadians becoming financially successful and secure. As an independently owned online brokerage in Canada, we’re in the unique position of being accountable to our customers, not to shareholders. Our success is measured by our customers’ success, and we are always doing everything in our power to ensure that our investors have access to the knowledge, tools and resources they need to reach their investment goals. This means that every decision is made with Canadians’ best interests in mind.

And others have recognized this effort, as our list of awards grows:

  • #1 rank in investor satisfaction among self-directed brokerages by J.D. Power, as well as #1 for commission and fees and #1 for account information (for J.D. Power 2020 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards)
  • Canada’s fastest-growing online broker
  • 8X winner of Canada’s Best Managed Companies
  • $18 billion in assets under administration
  • Over 100,000 new accounts opened annually
  • Award-winning #1 ranked customer service

This customer-first approach is a major driver of innovation at Questrade. We’re constantly searching for new ways to make investing easier for our customers, be it through the elimination of fees, the support of educational resources or one of the exciting programs and initiatives that we have planned for 2021. 

And, as always, all with the low fees that Canadians have come to expect from us:

  • Trade stocks from 1¢/share (min. $4.95 to max. $9.95)
  • Buy ETFs commission-free
  • No annual account fees
  • No account opening or closing fees
  • All accounts are dual-currency accounts
  • Free to transfer in an account from another financial institution

This Q&A was featured in the Look Back / Look Ahead magazine.