Discount Brokerage News – Page 44

Posted on August 30, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Broker Weekly Roundup – August 30 2013

If Yoda were watching the discount broker activity this past week, he’d probably say: ‘a slow news week this was not’. Going into the long weekend there’s quite a bit of activity to report from Canadian discount brokers.

In this week’s discount broker roundup we look at the big news coming out of a major player in the Canadian discount brokerage industry, an extension of a commission-free ETF trading offer, whether social media matters to investors and an upcoming educational event of interest to options traders.

Interactive Brokers Canada Gets a Bit More Canadian, Eh?

In what feels like one of those big, end of season plot twists, the discount broker landscape in Canada underwent another seismic shift this past week when Interactive Brokers Canada announced to its customers via email that starting in mid-September, they are going to transition their clearing operations from the US to Canada. Several Canadian investor forums were alight with speculation as to what this move means and whether Interactive Brokers Canada is paving the way to offer registered accounts, something that would definitely rattle more than few nerves with their competitors. This post (thanks to ‘Mark77’ for posting the message) has an interesting glimpse of what the Interactive Brokers Canada move might mean.

For now though, shifting their back office operations to Canada instead of through their US affiliate means, most importantly, that the pattern day trading rule will be removed and that margin requirements can, in theory, be eased. This is definitely great news for active traders (especially those with less than $25,000 in their trading accounts).

For other interesting perspectives on the Interactive Brokers Canada announcement, here are links to forum posts discussing it:

Canadian Money Forum

Interactive Brokers Canada (IB Canada)

Financial Webring

Pattern Daytrader Rule gone from Interactive Brokers Canada

RedFlagDeals:

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Posted on August 23, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Online Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 23 2013

As September draws nearer, Canadian discount brokers are polishing up their websites and marketing campaigns to get ready for the increased activity in the stock markets that tends to happen at the end of the year. This past week, there have been some notable updates in the homepages and advertising campaigns of a couple of Canadian discount brokers. In addition to the discount broker activity picking up, forum activity has also continued to increase and I highlight a post about regulations investors should know about when considering non-Canadian dividend paying stocks.

Getting Freshened Up

As summer winds down, self-directed investors begin to pay more attention to the stock markets as well as to online discount brokers. Ahead of this pickup in interest, several discount brokers have freshened up their homepages, key sections on their website and their marketing campaigns. The trend of upgrading was started a few weeks ago when National Bank Direct Brokerage’s website added a number of elements to its new homepage. This past week changes were spotted at RBC Direct Investing, Disnat and Qtrade.

Online Investing: Everybody’s Doing It

Following up on their campaigns comparing online investing to shoe shopping and vacation planning, RBC Direct Investing has launched another in the series of focusing on how “easy” online investing is (see screenshot below). In the latest iteration, the angle appears to be that everybody seems to be online these days so why not invest online while you’re there – that is, of course, if you can tear yourself away from Facebook and Twitter long enough to spend time researching.

Taking a Friendlier Approach

Qtrade’s discount brokerage homepage also got a bit of a touch up recently with the stern looking investor fellow being switched out in favour of a much friendlier set of images of people having fun (see screenshot below) and the best online broker awards that Qtrade Investor has received. With the Globe and Mail online brokerage awards around the corner, Qtrade’s previous accolades in this area are highlighted front and center and are likely to be a topic of conversation again when the reviews come out later this fall.

The Colour of Money

Disnat’s long running $300 commission credit offer got a bit of a paint job recently. The new ad (see screenshot below) has a multi-coloured ‘gift card’ feel to it and almost makes the term ‘commission’ seem a little more fun than it should – almost.

Investor Forum Chatter

Slowly but surely investors are coming back to the investing forums with lots of interesting questions, experiences and ideas to share. This week there were several conversations that dealt with dividends from US stocks/ETFs the confusion that arises from withholding taxes.

Although it doesn’t go into all of the rules/regulations behind receiving dividends from foreign sources, the following thread started by ‘SandsofTime’ on the RedFlagDeals’ forum asks about a W8-BEN form at Questrade and it highlights some important points for investors to keep in mind when considering non-Canadian dividend paying stocks. Another older article by the Globe and Mail here provides additional information on the subject.

That’s it for this week’s discount broker round up. Have a great weekend!

Posted on August 16, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 16, 2013

As we officially cross through the halfway mark of August, interest in the markets is picking up on the forums and the discount brokerages are busy planning their September promotions.

In this week’s roundup, I recap the most recent addition to the mobile trading platform reviews; I look at a couple of brokerages gearing up for back to school; I look at which brokerage has made it easier to access registered accounts and finally I round off with some interesting conversation threads spotted on some investment forums.

Qtrade’s Mobile Website Review

This past week, the review of Qtrade’s mobile trading platform was released. Along with a video walk-through of the mobile trading website in action, there is also a review of some of the key features of the website for mobile traders to keep in mind. Interestingly, there was a neat article by Chuck Jaffe of MarketWatch that highlights some of the perils of having access to your trading account on your mobile phone.

Back to School Savings

With back to school on the minds of many parents, several discount brokerages are hoping that some of the savings from all of those back to school sales gets redirected into RESPs.

Throughout the week, Questrade has been trumpeting their latest promo to chip in $50 in free trades when opening a new RESP on TV as well as on Twitter. They weren’t alone, however, with National Bank Direct Brokerage also participating in the RESP reminders earlier in the week.

Access Granted

Scotia iTrade sent out a notice to clients letting them know that it is now possible to withdraw funds from a registered account electronically instead of having to go through a client representative. Accessing the money is a bit of a double-edged sword because while it is more convenient to transfer the money, clients need to be cautious with the transfer of funds and remember the restrictions and/or fees that come with moving money out of certain registered accounts.

On the investing forums

This past week the forum activity appears to have picked up with questions about strategies, new ETFs from Vanguard and options trading. Interestingly there was also a post last week asking about where to find out information about Canada’s best discount brokerage but if you’re reading this article then you already know where to look 😉 Amongst all of the conversations a couple of interesting threads jumped out.

The first was an interesting question was posed on the financial webring forum earlier this month about starting to invest with an advisor. The conversation has turned into a great snapshot of the transition from advisor to do-it-yourself investor for many of the respondents

Another interesting post mentioned the customer service experience when dealing with Questrade over the phone. As unexciting as it may sound, there are many forum posts that have mentioned the challenges individuals have encountered when dealing with their discount brokerage on the phone, with Questrade customer service catching its fair share of heat (see the topic name of the thread for example).

It was interesting to note that someone had a positive experience and then posted something positive about it demonstrating that sometimes doing things well gets noticed. For those interested in learning more about the client service experience at discount brokerages, earlier this summer I did a special piece on Dalbar Inc, a company that specifically measures & works with discount brokerages to improve client experiences via telephone.

That’s it for this week in the discount brokerage space. Hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy what’s left of the summer!

Posted on August 9, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 9, 2013

This week’s discount brokerage roundup will be short and sweet as we continue to cruise through August. In this roundup, a major US discount brokerage comes under fire for how it handled client orders, the mobile trading landscape gets a little clearer for some investors and a little bumpier for others and lastly the marketing machinery looks to be heating up ahead of September with discount brokerages getting creative.

Going with the flow?

One the major discount brokerages in the US, E*trade Financial, caught a bit of flak from investors as it quietly announced that it was under investigation from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for how E*Trade has been routing customer orders. For some good context and explanation, check out this article form Businessweek.

Mobile Trading Reviews Get Rolling

This past week saw the launch of the profiles on mobile trading platforms offered by Canadian discount brokerages. The two discount brokerages covered this week were Disnat (with the Disnat Classic platform) and National Bank Direct Brokerage. Click the following link to follow the series on mobile trading at discount brokerages.

Coincidentally, RBC’s latest mobile app was launched earlier this week however it looks as though some Blackberry users have had a few hiccups in working with the new app. Reactions across Twitter were mixed but it looks like iPhone users are pleased with the new version.

“Ad”ing some creativity

The discount brokerage marketing machinery looks like its revving itself up. This cheeky advertisement from Interactive Brokers recently launched and is a bit of a departure from their cartoony ads from years past:

In addition to commercials, several Canadian discount brokerages are pitching in as sponsors for Options Education Days presented by the Montreal Exchange. Spotted on the list of event sponsors in Montreal & Toronto are:

CIBC Investor’s Edge
Disnat
Interactive Brokers
National Bank Direct Brokerage
TD Direct Investing
Virtual Brokers

To learn more about their options pricing plans, check out the options pricing comparison section.

That’s it for this week, hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend!

Posted on August 2, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 2, 2013

As we officially launch into August, there is a lot of “behind the scenes” action that discount brokerages are up to in order to get ready for their busy season in the fall.

This week’s roundup features some updates on current discount brokerage deals, a couple of interesting upgrades to discount brokerage websites that were spotted and reports showing that investor participation in US markets continues to increase and a transaction between the owners of two major online brokerages.

Deal me in, again.

Being the beginning of the month, we have updated the discount brokerage deals section for August. A couple of noteworthy deal extensions were spotted including an extension of the “Refer-a-Friend” offer by Scotia iTrade until the end of August as well as the extension of the commission-free ETF trading offer by National Bank Direct Brokerage (which we cover in depth here) until the end of October.

It’s time to put on makeup; it’s time to dress up right

Two of the major bank-owned online brokerages rolled out some cosmetic improvements to their websites recently in the hopes of making their content more accessible to investors.

The first upgrade was spotted at National Bank Direct Brokerage on their homepage and in their educational sections. The new layout includes a video by their President, Nancy Paquet, as well as improved events listings and an improved link into their education centre. There will be an in-depth look at the improved education centre in a follow-up posting, however the new layout of the investor education center section contains much of their existing material but in a much cleaner and user friendly presentation.

Upgrades to the investor education sections at TD Direct Investing were also recently rolled out. The in-depth feature on this improvement (available here) showcases the improved way in which investors can now find out about and connect to investor education seminars via TD Direct Investing’s website.

With both TD Direct Investing and National Bank Direct Brokerage stepping up their investor education sections, other brokerages that currently provide substantial investor education seminars or content will likely be looking to see how they improve on their offering to try and maneuver around these developments.

Investors Trickling Back In

While it’s difficult to know exactly what retail investor is like given the recent market performance in the US, the data on trading volumes from Interactive Brokers continues to signal improved participation, at least state side. The July figures for trading volumes at Interactive Brokers paint a mixture with trading volume increasing 13% year over year but actually declining 12% compared to June. Margin-loan balances and customer equity showed increases on both a yearly and on a monthly basis.

Posted on July 26, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 26, 2013

It’s hard to believe but July is almost coming to an end. As it rounds out though, there seemed to be a spike in the interest by self-directed investors in asking about discount brokerages. With US stock indices such as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones continuing to push all-time highs, it seems like Canadian investors are taking notice. In this week’s roundup we cover a couple of the news stories on discount brokerages getting dinged for regulatory infractions and take a tour of the discount brokerage conversations in the forums.

Brokerages Behaving Badly

The list of discount brokerages getting dinged for violating market rules continues to grow. This past week the terms of the settlement between the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and two different discount brokerages were published and continued to show that breaking the rules isn’t cheap. Since May of this year, over $400,000 in fines (including costs) have been handed out against a number of brokerages including Scotia Capital Inc, parent of Scotia iTrade ($160,000), Questrade ($80,000), Interactive Brokers ($60,000), and JitneyTrade ($100,000).

As part of Jitneytrade’s settlement agreement, they admitted that between February 2011 and February 2012 they:

“failed to implement an appropriate trade supervision system reasonably well designed to prevent and detect violations of UMIR requirements for the size and nature of its Direct Market Access Clients’ business, contrary to UMIR 7.1 and Policy 7.1”

Jitneytrade was fined $90,000 for the infraction and also paid $10,000 in costs to IIROC.

IIROC also published the settlement agreement between itself and Interactive Brokers. As part of that agreement, Interactive Brokers was penalized $50,000 (plus $10,000 to IIROC for costs) for violations of UMIR 7.1 and Policy 7.1 between November 2007 and April 2008.

Opening Remarks

The forums were buzzing this past week with questions about discount brokerage services and comparisons. In particular, two postings on account openings in different forums caught my eye. The two different brokerages in those postings were TD Direct Investing and Interactive Brokers. Interestingly, Interactive Brokers came up in a couple of different threads indicating it was on the minds of more than a couple of different forum users.

In the Canadian Money Forum, the user “2tire2work” posed the question of whether or not he/she should open a TD Direct Investing (TD Waterhouse) account.

Several of the forum users provided insight on where the original poster (OP) could find additional resources to get started and how to tell apart some of the jargon regarding types of fees and commissions. The explanation of management expense ratios (MERs) was well done and an important concept for those with a buy and hold approach to understand. To read the full posting click here.

While Interactive Brokers came up in a couple of different forum discussions this past week, one of the best discussions on using Interactive Brokers came from the RedFlagDeals investing forum. Specifically, the user ‘Error916’ asked the forum users for their thoughts on using Interactive Brokers and what some alternatives would be for discount brokerages offering registered accounts (because Interactive Brokers Canada doesn’t currently support registered accounts).

In particular, a couple of users pointed out the restrictions on Canadian margin amounts as well as the account funding requirements for those considered to be ‘pattern day traders’, considerations that those looking to Interactive Brokers should be aware of. To read the full thread, click here.

That’s it for this week’s roundup. If you would like to check out the other forum links discussing discount brokerages from this past week you can click the links below. Have a great weekend!

Canadian Money Forum: Short Seller Friendly Broker

Financial Webring Forum: Interactive Brokers Thread

RedFlagDeals Investing Forum: Online Brokerages that Allow Norbert’s Gambit

Posted on July 19, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 19, 2013

With the summertime weather in full effect from coast to coast, it’s no wonder things have quieted down on the forums, markets and with discount brokers. Not everyone is away on vacation though as we’ll see in this week’s roundup. We’ll look into the discount brokerage earnings that were released this past week, some new research products launched being launched for investors, and what looks like a new project under development at a popular discount broker.

Interactive Brokers Gets Rich

Its earnings season again and this past week Interactive Brokers (IBKR) released their quarterly results for Q2. In the earnings report, one of the interesting stats was the increase of almost 28% in revenues from commissions and fees. The increased revenues in this area are another positive sign that trading activity is improving in the marketplace.

TD Waterhouse Gets Technical

TD Waterhouse released its first “Technical Take” newsletter this past week. The newsletter is prepared by Ryan Lewenza, a Senior US Equities Strategist and his team at TD Waterhouse Portfolio Advice and Investment Research. Ryan Lewenza was one of the featured speakers at the TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage Investing Expo last year (click here for the review) where he presented on technical analysis. The new newsletter (see below) covers a number of sectors, indices and a few interesting featured companies. Pages 13-16 provide an interesting birds-eye view of the different sectors of the S&P 500 along with thoughts on where each sector sits within short and long term trends.

The Technical Take – July 15, 2013(2) by dpbasic

Questrade Gets Curious

One of the larger forums in the US for investors , Elite Forums, is where Questrade reached out for feedback on development. In what looked to be a mix of genuine interest for feedback and also the chance to do some late night marketing, a rep from Questrade asked forum users for their feedback on options trading as well as the research and trading features they would like to see.

The answer by user ‘heiasafari’ (below) was particularly well explained and as with other comments that followed, the fact is that Interactive Brokers and ThinkOrSwim are going to be extremely tough platforms to compete against in terms of features. To read the whole thread, click here.

That’s it for this week’s roundup – have a great weekend and stay cool!

Posted on July 12, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 12, 2013

In this week’s discount broker roundup, we highlight an article launch, how hard it is for discount brokers to be really, really popular and the beginning of what looks to be a busy promotional battle between discount brokerages for self-directed investors’ new business.

More commission-free ETF info

Earlier this week, part 3 of the series on commission-free ETFs was released. In it, there were some key highlights about the commission-free ETF trading offers at Scotia iTrade and Qtrade as well as some interesting stats on the dominant provider of commission-free ETFs for the various discount brokerages. To read part 3 click here.

Don’t hate me because I’m bountiful

For many discount brokerages, keeping up with compliance is simply a cost of doing business. Failure to keep up, however, usually ends up costing more. So it seems that Interactive Brokers has been growing a little too quickly that they let the paperwork on a few of their clients slip. The US arm of Interactive Brokers got a hard lesson in keeping up with their regulatory requirements from the National Futures Association.

While the $300K fine was a small amount for a multibillion dollar company to absorb, the bigger lesson apparently is that no publicity is bad publicity. In the official response from Interactive Brokers, a company lawyer didn’t pass up the chance to sell the features and pricing that Interactive Brokers. The press release also contained a handily placed plug of their 2013 best online broker award win. Well-played Interactive Brokers.

Discount Brokers Making Attractive Offers

While July is usually when barbeque grills are heating up, funnily enough discount brokerage promotions have also managed to flare up all of a sudden. On the heels of the TD Direct Investing 50 trade offer expiry, Questrade, Scotia iTrade and Disnat all launched additional offers to new or existing clients.

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The biggest launch of discount brokerage deals came from Questrade where they announced they’re giving away iPad minis, commission-free trades, and…wait for it… magnets. It seems like the marketing team from Questrade has launched the promotions war with some big guns. Their 3 months of commission-free trading is certainly going to get the attention of their peers, however the innuendo-filled magnets may not be as ‘attractive’ as they think.

As part of Scotia iTrade’s roll out of their iPad app, they are offering clients one free trade (equity or options) for downloading and using the app. As was mused about earlier in the week in one of our tweets, with all of these touch screen devices now being used for trading, will the incidences of ‘fat-finger’ trades be on the rise?

Instead of playing the free commission game, Disnat is going with the ‘free information and research’ route. Disnat is offering 6 months free access to Michael Campbell’s Money Talks online resources for existing Disnat clients. At the end of the 6 months, subscriptions will cost $9.79 plus any extra charges for other site content (such as certain videos).

Posted on July 5, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 5, 2013

Even though we roll into July on a short trading week, the discount brokerage space managed to toss along several newsworthy items. In this week’s roundup, we look at the US discount brokerages pointing to signs of improved investor enthusiasm, some fine tuning of ETF offers at Canadian discount brokerages, and some extra summertime heat in the form of spirited debates on the forums.

Trading Improving at US Discount Brokerages

Interactive Brokers’ latest trading data came on the same week that discount brokerages Schwab, E*Trade, and TD Ameritrade hit new 52-week highs. Trading data from Interactive Brokers showed an increase of 27% over trading volumes at this point last year and an increase of Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) of 4% over May. The recent patch of market volatility likely gave a bit of a boost to trading numbers, however looking at the 12% y/y growth in customer accounts it seems that more data points to investors, at least in the US stepping back into the markets.

Refresh on Commission-Free ETFs

As part of an upcoming piece looking at commission-free ETF trading at Canadian discount brokerages, we took a deep dive into the actual offerings from Qtrade, Scotia iTrade and Virtual Brokers. While looking at the 100 ETF long list on the Virtual Brokers website, a number of discrepancies were spotted included four ETFs listed that were no longer trading and one ETF that had been duplicated. A few emails back and forth and Virtual Brokers refreshed their list making the following changes.

Gone from the list are:

DENT
HAG
HIF
XRO
XID (the duplicated one)

They’ve been replaced by:

First Asset Canadian Convertible Bond ETF (CXF)
Horizons Alphapro Balanced ETF (HAA)
First Asset DEX Government Bond Barbell Index ETF (GXF)
First Asset DEX Corporate Bond Barbell Index ETF (KXF)
SPDR Barclays Short Term Treasury ETF (SST)

More Heat Coming Towards Questrade

One of the most interesting and popular threads to follow on RedFlagDeals is the “Stay Away From Questrade.” Be warned, however, this is not a place for the faint of heart. There is lots of CAPS LOCK screaming and it is generally the place where many come to vent their frustrations about their experience with Questrade or simply stir the pot about trading with a low-cost brokerage. Again, it’s not for the faint of heart, but one particular post this past week about a user’s experience with shorting a stock serves as an interesting reminder to those who short stocks generally.

The lesson: a discount brokerage can recall a stock at any point for any reason. How a discount broker goes about doing this is variable – some brokerages ask nicely, others less nicely. To wade into the thorny forest that is this thread click here.

Cooler Heads Tackle a Potential DRIP-off

For those curious about Dividend Re-Investment Plans (DRIPs), there was a great exchange (pun intended) in the Canadian Money Forum that highlighted exactly how detailed converting dividends from a US stock can get. At issue: the time of day at which foreign exchange rates get used to calculate conversions of foreign currency dividends. While it may be for the real dividend enthusiast, it is still an informative example of a) a more structured forum conversation that the forum mentioned above and b) how much homework DIY investors really do to find an answer. To read more click here.

That’s it for this week’s roundup. On the horizon for next week will be part 3 of the series on commission-free ETF trading as well as a review of a neat research tool for junior mining stocks.

Posted on June 28, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – June 28, 2013

It has been predictably quiet in the discount brokerage space this past week with many self-directed investors out enjoying summertime activities. Still, there are some updates on several discount brokerage promotions that are noteworthy as we head into July. Also, there are a couple of advertising/marketing stories that might be of interest for those keeping a closer eye on the industry.

Easy Come, Easy Go

The end of June is here and with it several discount brokerages are retiring some promotions. First, the Disnat SCATE promotion will end as of June 30^th. Also slated to expire at the end of June will be the 100 free trades offer from Scotia iTrade. For details on the discount brokerage deals, check out our deals page here.

Not all the deals and promotions originally supposed to expire at the end of June will come to an end though. It seems that Scotia iTrade and Questrade have had a change of heart about a couple of their respective promotions. Scotia iTrade’s “Refer-a-Friend” offer has been extended to July 31^st 2013 and Questrade also has extended its Advantage offer out to the end of August 2013.

Baby Not on Board

Even though it is not a Canadian discount brokerage, the news that the agency famous for bringing us the E*Trade baby is moving along signals a change in the times. Discount brokerages in the US spend hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising per year and it appears that E*Trade is making a move to lower these advertising costs. To read more about the story, click here.

Winning the Customer Service Game

Advertising also seems like it is on the mind of HSBC InvestDirect after their recent win of the Dalbar Direct Brokerage Service Award. We got what looks like a sneak peek at a promotional video that highlights what it took for the HSBC InvestDirect team to win this year.

Discount Brokerage Fees Still Matter

Last Friday’s article in the Globe and Mail ‘A primer on low-commission’ trading by Rob Carrick provided a quick overview of many discount brokerages’ fees. Both Virtual Brokers and Questrade stand out as low-fee choices however as we pointed out in the special series comparing these two discount brokerages to each other, the low-commission price may mask other fees, such as data or platform fees, that are required in order to fully take advantage of the low commission rates. An individual (named “Uss”) in the comments section of the article also made an interesting observation that Interactive Brokers wasn’t part of this low-commission rate primer although their rates are just as competitive at the lowest end of equity and option commission pricing currently available. Interactive Brokers has typically not been included in the annual online broker ratings that Rob Carrick publishes because they do not offer registered accounts and it would be safe to assume that is why they were not included in this primer either.

As a reminder for next week, Canadian stock exchanges will be closed on Monday July 1^st for Canada Day and U.S Markets will close early (1PM) on July 3^rd and will be closed all day July 4^th.

Hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Canada Day and long weekend!