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Posted on February 27, 2015 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 27, 2015

Even though it’s still technically winter, it feels like a ‘white dress vs blue dress’ moment. Sure the calendar says it’s the end of February but there’s a major difference between what winter looks like in Vancouver vs Toronto. Regardless of which version of winter DIY investors are riding out, there’s something that everyone can agree on: the competition between Canadian discount brokerages has been undeniably fierce.

In this edition of the roundup, we take a look at deals and promotions poised to expire in and around the RSP contribution deadline; news about one online brokerage getting approval for clearing activities; an assortment of news that DIY investors are going to want to put on their radars and we’ll cap off the roundup with a look across the investor forums.

Sprint to the Finish

If the expiry dates on deals are any indicator of important times in the calendar year, then the run up to the RSP contribution deadline (March 2nd) is by far the most important time for Canadian discount brokerages.

As February closes out, there are at least nine deals/promotions set to expire between February 26th and March 2nd. Here’s the list of offers heading out (or already out):

HSBC InvestDirect – Winter Offer
RBC Direct Investing – Trade Free for 1 Year Offer
BMO InvestorLine – Tablet Promo
Questrade – MultiLeg Offer
Questrade – Unlimited Trading Offer
Questrade – RSP Promotion
Questrade – Prepaid Visa Offer
Virtual Brokers – RRSP Free Trade Promotion
CIBC Investor’s Edge – Free Trade + Cash Back Promotion

There are also a couple of contests linked to the RSP season (e.g. from Qtrade Investor) that are set to expire March 2nd.

Clearly Questrade has been the most active of any discount brokerage in terms of offering up deals and promotions. As a result, it seems that others have largely followed suit. The timing of these offers is definitely meant to take advantage of the fact that so many individuals will be thinking about and contributing to RRSPs just ahead of the deadline.

For Canada’s discount brokerages, February 2015 saw the record for highest number of advertised promotions since we’ve been measuring these. We observed at least 24 listed offers (26 if offers not listed on SparxTrading.com are counted). Unadvertised offers as well as ‘negotiated’ deals have been reported by individuals on investor forums too, signaling that even more bonuses and incentives are out there.

There has been a fierce battle between providers in the lead up to the RSP deadline however the deals/promotions are likely to pull back once the dust settles. Click here to view all the deals/promos.

Getting Clearance

Earlier this week, Virtual Brokers announced that their parent company, BBS Securities Inc, was approved for membership with the Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation (CDCC). And, while this doesn’t necessarily impact the experience of most of the DIY clients, this does enable Virtual Brokers to better monetize the process of clearing options transactions.

According to their corporate brochure, the “CDCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Montréal Exchange (MX), acts as the central clearing counterparty for exchange-traded derivative products in Canada.”

As a clearinghouse they coordinate the transaction process and associated settlement tasks. In addition, the CDCC acts as a central counterparty for trades on the Canadian derivatives (e.g. options, futures) markets. A clear explanation of the CDCC can be found on their FAQ page here.

Other Canadian discount brokerages that are members of the CDCC include Interactive Brokers Canada, Questrade, Credential Securities as well as many of the parent brands of the bank-owned brokerages. The full clearing members list is available here.

Given the risks associated with trading derivatives, there is the need for strong controls to be in place. For most DIY investors that decide to trade in options, in particular Canadian options, many of these risks are controlled at various point through the trading process to the point where they go largely unnoticed. An interesting overview on the CDCC prepared by Standard & Poors (although it’s a bit dated) can be found here.

Interesting Developments

For those who follow the Canadian markets closely, newer entrants (such as Aequitas) and smaller players (such as the Canadian Securities Exchange) are definitely making headlines. In terms of the CSE, their recent successes at growing the number of companies listed on their exchange reflects their desire to become a serious contender to a much bigger incumbent. In another bold move, the CSE has announced the launch of an index, the CSE Composite Index, that now tracks securities listed on that exchange.

There are many interesting features to this index, which is being managed by a German firm Solactive AG, the primary one being the composition of the index. The CSE Composite Index, which is made up of 64 listings, has the following sector weightings as of January 30, 2015:

Technology: 47.27%
Diversified Industries: 25.66%
Mining: 16.17%
Life Sciences: 7.28%
Cleantech: 1.85%
Oil & Gas: 1.77%

Like most other indices, the criteria for inclusion can determine what kinds of companies end up comprising the index. For more detailed information on the new CSE Composite Index, check the information page here.

Changing the Channel

In another big announcement for the financial information landscape in Canada, financial news giant Bloomberg announced that they, in partnership with specialty channel operator Channel Zero, will be launching a Canadian financial news television channel. Currently BNN (owned by Bell Globe Media) holds an exclusive position in the business television space.

The move by Bloomberg will likely force BNN, which already produces a relatively high quality product, to step up their game. The Bloomberg brand is very well known and carries not only the weight of its reputation for business news journalism but also the sheer scale of resources to get information on markets locally and internationally.

For DIY investors it will be interesting to see how well the Canadian edition of Bloomberg fairs. There will still be significant business content from the parent Bloomberg channel simulcast so a large amount of US-based news will be streamed through. After all, not every import from the US is guaranteed to succeed (Target anyone?) in Canada – it will take a solid understanding of the viewership in Canada and something genuinely enticing to win the loyalty of BNN viewers. Either way, it should be an exciting launch.

From the Forums

#OnlineInvestingProblems

In this post from Canadian Money Forum, one user has a particular gripe with the onboarding process with Scotia iTrade. In today’s world of online applications, it seems that doing things the ‘old fashioned’ route of paper forms was the source of grief. The responses from other members, however, provided some sober insight on how other brokers fare.

Just TFSA No

With registered accounts on everyone’s mind, TFSAs are a natural talking point. One forum user, however, was curious to know which brokerage would be able to help out with an OTC (Over the Counter) stock for a TFSA. The responses, however, cleared the air on an important point that only approved exchanges (which does not include the OTC/pink sheets) are eligible for TFSAs. Click here to read more.

Nimoy Tribute

A wagon train to the stars was how Gene Roddenberry promoted and ultimately sold his vision for Star Trek, as a television series, to a group of NBC network executives in the early 1960s.

As readers may know, Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed the iconic character Spock, has passed away. He was 83. The staff at SparxTrading.com is passionate about Star Trek and its vision of a better tomorrow. The roundup wishes to celebrate a life well lived and pay tribute to Mr. Nimoy.

For a nice retrospective, you may be interested in visiting the Star Trek website; NASA also paid tribute to Mr. Nimoy and thanked him for inspiring generations of engineers, scientists and explorers. Finally, here is a simple, yet eloquent video with a wonderful message and we hope the words resonate with you, as they have with us. Live long and prosper.

Posted on February 20, 2015 by user

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 20, 2015

It’s not often that a haircut makes the news. For a change, however, it isn’t the haircut that Greece’s debt holders are going to take – this one comes from North Korea’s Kim Jung Un. So, what does a head of hair from a head of state have to do with Canadian discount brokerages (you might be asking)? This past week they’ve both been taking Twitter by storm.

In this week’s roundup we’ve pulled together an interesting assortment of news and observations from Canadian online brokerages. First, we take an in-depth look at the latest promotional offer to be launched in an already crowded deal space. Next, we piece together something interesting that’s been happening on Twitter and provide an example of how this social media channel is one DIY investors will want to tune into. On the home stretch we’ll take a look at the official launch of one online brokerage’s new website, cruise through the upcoming investor education events and close out with a look at some interesting developments in the investor forums.

Credential Direct Deals Themselves In

After standing on the sidelines of the discount brokerage deals and promotions melee, Credential Direct has stepped in swinging with their latest offering. Along with Credential Direct, Questrade also added a pair of promotions, bringing the total number of advertised Canadian discount brokerage deals to 26.

While Questrade’s newest offers means that they retain the title of offering the most promotions of any discount brokerage, seeing Credential Direct step into the deals and promotions space is going to ruffle a few feathers with their competitors.

Credential Direct’s latest promotion, launched earlier this past week, offers new or existing clients either a cash-back or commission credit amount that varies with the size of the portfolio deposit. While the cash back and commission credit amounts are in line with offers from CIBC Investor’s Edge and Questrade, what sets this offer apart is the deadline to use the trades (only trades used by September 30 are eligible for rebate) and the tiers of deposit.

Previous to the launch of Credential Direct’s latest promotion, only Scotia iTrade had an advertised deal for deposits of $500,000 or more. With this new deal, however, Credential Direct has now joined the relatively few brokerages that are pitching promotions aimed specifically for clients depositing more than $100,000. And, it is in this category that the Credential Direct offer stands out. Credential Direct is offering unlimited commission-free trading (until the end of September) for clients who deposit $500,000 or more whereas a similar deposit from Scotia iTrade would land 500 commission-free trades.

It warrants mentioning, however, that Questrade also has an unlimited commission-free trading offer with a minimum deposit of $50,000. The dramatic difference in deposit amounts for commission-free trading offers means that both Questrade and Credential Direct are going to likely get compared on how well they each cater to the active trader – the most likely kind of client to take advantage of the commission-free trades. For the brokerages not advertising something ‘special’ to clients bringing in bigger deposits (i.e. >$250,000), they will likely have to come up with something noteworthy just to be seen as ‘keeping up’.

#LookAtMeNow

Although discount brokerages being on Twitter is not something new, there is definitely something interesting happening on the social media network.

This month, Credential Direct looks to have officially stepped into the social media space by launching their own Twitter account and TD Direct Investing, one of the largest Canadian bank-owned brokerages, has stepped up their efforts on Twitter.

Most Canadian discount brokerages (and probably many Canadian investors) are still skeptical of Twitter’s utility. Online brokerages currently on Twitter include Interactive Brokers (although this account is not Interactive Brokers Canada exclusively), Jitneytrade, Questrade, Scotia iTrade and Virtual Brokers. Of that group, it’s fairly clear that Questrade and Scotia iTrade have been the most active for the better part of the past two years. All that may change, however, now that Credential Direct and TD Direct Investing are stepping in.

In particular, while Credential Direct has just one account, TD Direct Investing appears to be deploying multiple individuals in the service of broadcasting their message. From a user’s perspective, this might make it cumbersome to follow several different TD Direct Investing related Twitter accounts (we’ve made a list which can be subscribed to here) however from the other brokerage’s perspective, this is definitely a cause for worry.
Tweets from https://twitter.com/SparxTrading/lists/td-direct-investing-can

The big question for self-directed investors, however, is ‘so what?’ Does Twitter even matter? The answer is increasingly ‘yes’. In 2015, Twitter has now become the news, with as many news agencies reporting about what’s happening on Twitter as there are Twitter users tweeting about the news.

Twitter has become one of the ‘go to’ resources for breaking news, a place to vent, and a way to connect. In a previous piece on discount brokerages on social media, we highlighted that Twitter is a valuable resource to find out about breaking news, outages, deals or new developments even before any of these hit the mainstream media.

For online brokerages, Twitter also is a place where clients come to voice their concerns or, more rarely, sing the praises of great client experience. DIY investors curious about what it is like to deal with client service at a particular brokerage can simply scan the Twitter feed of any of the brokerages (caution: some of the more colourful comments are definitely NSFW) and review the conversations between client and provider.

The latest moves by TD Direct Investing and Credential Direct signal that Twitter is about to become a new arms race. In this battle, victory goes to the most interesting, not necessarily to the biggest player. Questrade was able to pull this off in the lead up to their launch of the wealth management unit. Going forward however, the new entrants and the existing players will have to step up their collective game 140 characters at a time if they want to earn the interest and attention of DIY investors.

TD Direct Investing now Offers Online Trading with the CSE

As a segue from talking about the value of Twitter, this past week showed the value in finding out some valuable information via the social media channel. This week there were a number of interesting tweets from the TD Direct Investing team about WebBroker (their online trading platform) being able to trade CSE-listed securities. The reason these tweets are interesting is because there have been no official announcements/news releases from either the Canadian Securities Exchange or from TD Direct Investing on this demonstrating, at least on this occasion, that Twitter can move faster than PR departments sometimes can. A quick check of the TD helps community forum also confirmed the new development – although even internally there seemed to be some disconnect between features being enabled and front-line staff finding out about it.

With TD now connected to the CSE, the vast majority of Canadian discount brokerages are patched in and DIY investors can trade CSE listed securities directly from their online trading platforms (instead of having to phone in).

Desjardins Online Brokerage’s New Website Launched

As we had reported last week, Desjardins Online Brokerage had scheduled the roll out of their new website before the end of February. Their new website officially went live on February 18th and, as was mentioned in our preview of the site, it is a major upgrade from their prior site and raises the bar design-wise on most of the other online brokerage sites in Canada.

Event Horizon

Here are this week’s learning opportunities, enjoy!

Feb. 21 (Sat) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Fundamental Analysis

Feb. 23 (Mon) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Discover the Benefits of the TFSA

Feb. 23 (Mon) TD Direct Investing – Market Outlook – Winter 2015

Feb. 25 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Understanding Margin & Short Selling

Feb. 25 (Wed) Scotia iTRADE – Options Fundamentals with Montreal Exchange

Feb. 26 (Thurs) TD Direct Investing – Understanding Margin & Short Selling

From the Forums

This past week there was a very interesting development in the investor forums. One of the more popularly discussed brokerages, Virtual Brokers, joined RedFlagDeals and actually responded to a client complaint. While Questrade has been dutifully covering all kinds of forum/social media ground, this marks a rare occasion that Virtual Brokers has decided to engage with clients on this particular forum. The topic – whether fractional shares after a reverse split would be issued – is a very interesting discussion in and of itself and is worth a read to see how it played out.

That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup. While the snow packs may be keeping many folks indoors (not so for the lucky West Coasters), there’s a silver lining that at least the Oscars will be on. Ironically, of course, a lot of interesting reaction and perspective will be able to be seen on Twitter. #GoFigure #HaveAGreatWeekend

Posted on February 13, 2015 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 13, 2015

If Friday the 13th was supposed to be an unlucky day, somebody forgot to tell stock markets. Heading into Valentine’s Day weekend bullish investors saw fifty shades of green as they pushed markets to a record high close, yet again. Fittingly, Canadian discount brokerages were also out looking for love from DIY investors offering up just about everything but flowers and chocolate.

In this week’s roundup there’s no shortage of excitement to report on. We start by highlighting the bombshell news from a bank-owned brokerage determined to return to the spotlight. Next we’ll take an exclusive look at one brokerage’s game changing webpage makeover and what that means for other brokerages. Technology is the next treat served up by an independent brokerage and finally we take a look at the award bling one brokerage is now sporting on their homepage. As always, we’ve also got a tour through the upcoming educational events and the buzz around the investor forums.

CIBC Investor’s Edge Sends Commission Fees on Spring Break

This past week, CIBC Investor’s Edge has, yet again, launched a pricing feature so big that it can’t be ignored.

Specifically they announced that between February 12th and March 31st 2015 they are offering commission-free trading on almost 2000 ETFs to all clients. For perspective, the other Canadian discount brokerages that offer completely commission-free ETF trading clock in at 150 (Virtual Brokers), 60 (Qtrade) and 50 (Scotia iTrade). CIBC’s offer, albeit a limited time one, definitely stands head and shoulders above the other commission-free offers and highlights how creative brokerages are prepared to get now that overall commission prices have fallen.

For CIBC Investor’s Edge the timing of this move is borderline surgical. It is a great incentive for individuals looking to open an online trading account to consider CIBC and is a bonus to anyone who has an account with ETFs to re-balance at little to no cost. Because the offer extends well beyond the March 2nd RSP contribution deadline, the benefit of commission-free ETFs is still practical.

To boot, there are only a handful of important restrictions and exceptions. First, the minimum transaction amount is $100.00. Second, many of the popular leveraged ETFs are not eligible for this promotion (sorry double and triple bull/bear fans). Finally, there’s also a minimum holding period of at least one business day.

We’ll be tracking the reaction from this offer as it is bound to make waves with the other bank-owned brokerages and the commission-free ETF crowd. The only solace for competitor discount brokerages is that this is a limited time offer – for now.

Desjardins Online Brokerage Set to Launch New Website

This past week SparxTrading.com got an exclusive first look at Desjardins Online Brokerage’s soon-to-be-launched new website. While a new website at a Canadian brokerage is noteworthy, many if not most of Canada’s discount brokerage websites are starting to look and feel dated. Such is the reality of the digital age.

The challenge for many online brokerages is to appear both innovative and stable all at once. After all, too much change too often and clients can’t keep up. Too little change and a brand goes from being viewed as a laggard to criticized for not keeping up with the times. With the website being the crucial touch point for both existing and prospective clients, what it looks like and how it functions matter.

What makes Desjardins’ release particularly strategic is that in design and function it has done something bold and distinctive. Their new website positions Desjardins Online Brokerage as particularly astute at considering user experience. Crucially, individual investors of today will look at online experiences as extensions and markers of client experience.

Previews of the homepage are available in our sneak peek and more images are available at their website here.

Questrade Launches API

Earlier in the week Questrade’s blog announced the release of an API for individuals to develop apps that interface with Questrade’s IQ trading platform. For the highly technical DIY investor or app developer, this new level of accessing Questrade and its trading engine mean that there are going to be some creative customizations to the platform in the not-too-distant future.

This is a particularly bold step from this online brokerage as they join only a handful of brokerages (Interactive Brokers being another) that enable external applications to interface with their trading platform and/or market data feed. In the most compelling form, this paves the way for programmatic/algorithmic trading via their platform.

Victory Lap

Just about a month after they were announced as one of the best online brokerages for client service (by Dalbar Canada), HSBC InvestDirect was spotted this past week flashing their awards. Fellow award winner RBC Direct Investing has, curiously, not yet posted something similar.

Screenshot of HSBC InvestDirect website with their Direct Brokerage Service Awards.

Event Horizon Feb. 13, 2015

Feb. 17 (Tues) Scotia iTRADE – Options for Long(er) Term Stock Positions

Feb. 17 (Tues) NBDB – Introduction to Put Options – [Fr]

Feb. 17 (Tues) NBDB – Enhancing Yields and Cash Flow in Your Stock Portfolio

Feb. 18 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Technical Analysis

Feb. 18 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Options as an Income Strategy

Feb. 18 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Advanced Indicators

Feb. 18 (Wed) Scotia iTRADE – Investing in Rising Interest Rate Environment with iShares

Feb. 19 (Thurs) TD Direct Investing – Building Wealth Through Registered Accounts

Feb. 19 (Thurs) Scotia iTRADE – Head and Shoulder Patterns with AJ Monte

Feb. 20 (Fri) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Technical Analysis

From the Forums

CIBC Investor’s Edge Commission-free ETFs Winning with Investors

New Account RSP bonuses

Are Level 2 Quotes Worth It?

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup. Have a great weekend in spite of what movies you may or may not have to watch.

Posted on February 11, 2015 by user — 2 Comments

Exclusive: Sneak Peek at Desjardins Online Brokerage’s New Website

Exclusive first look at the new homepage for Desjardins Online Brokerage’s new website

The big story for Canadian online brokerages in 2014 was undoubtedly lower commission pricing. For 2015, however, it appears that Desjardins Online Brokerage has clearly cast user experience and design into the spotlight as they prepare for the launch of their newly redesigned website.

SparxTrading.com was fortunate enough to get an exclusive first look at Desjardins Online Brokerage’s new website and, by all accounts, their new website raises the bar for their discount brokerage peers to step up in both function and form.

One Step at a Time

The new Desjardins Online Brokerage website is another iteration in a coordinated series of improvements to their online user experience.

Last year, for example, they released a newly designed investor education calendar that appeared to presage this new look and feel. Further, in our profile of Desjardins Online Brokerage, Vice President and General Manager Laurent Blanchard revealed an upcoming refresh to the website was in the works.

As a firm that prefers to discuss features that they are confident they will deliver on, the suggestions of a new website have been few but present for those paying attention. According to internal sources, the Desjardins team are both proud and excited for the upcoming milestone launch of the new site which is scheduled to go live by the end of February 2015.

Walking the Online Walk

The irony of succeeding as an online brokerage is that you not only have to be able to succeed on the transactional side (i.e. provide the service of online brokerage), but also demonstrate that you understand and can respond to the constant evolution of being online. As the storefront of their online presence, the look, feel and performance of a website will definitely factor into what visitors think of the brand and whether or not ‘they get it’.

While many of Canada’s online brokerage websites don’t get it ‘wrong’ per se, so few have embraced what the US online brokerages already have in terms of simplified design and function for a multi-screen world.

The drastic design difference between Desjardins Online Brokerage’s new website and anything at other Canadian discount brokerages, however, may spur competitors to pay attention to the importance of what a site looks and feels like in today’s world. If, for some reason, it does not, there’s all kinds of data to suggest consumers will choose to use a better designed product (just ask Apple).

New Features

In form and function, Desjardins Online Brokerage’s new website has several important upgrades over their current site.

First, finding information is much easier. The design elements on the new website help make information easier to spot and easier to retrieve. Using the blocked design (e.g. putting things in squares) makes viewing the website on a tablet or mobile device easier and substantially more efficient to navigate.

The top and bottom menus are clear, intuitive and well-spaced out. There is a manageable number of choices (five) with the most important for most DIY investors (finding out about fees and getting in touch with client service) easily accessed from the top menu.

Another defining feature is accessibility to investor education. Desjardins Online Brokerage is one of a few Canadian brokerages that has invested heavily in investor education and their homepage layout clearly reflects that. The new website clearly positions educational events and investor education video content prominently on the bottom of the page. This means that clients and non-clients alike can view this information easily and quickly.

Finally, it’s just interesting to look at. The prominent video background of a fictional investor named ‘Nicolas’ is definitely eye-catching however there is also a very slick market data and stock quote interface that invites users to look up a symbol via Desjardins’ website. Mixed in with the thoughtful visual elements, there is also a good balance between static and dynamic content as well as sections that can slide open or closed.

As is often the case with good design, the devil is in the details. Paying attention to design reflects a well-thought out, user-focused experience however against limited time and finite resources there’s inevitably things still to do. In the case of Desjardins’ website, one of those key pieces will be enabling online account opening. While they’ve acknowledged it’s on their list of features to implement, in the interim, the new website will offer some improvements to the current form-based process.

The Bottom Line

For a Canadian financial services firm, especially one tied to online investing, to capture the look and feeling of being ‘current’ is noteworthy. More importantly, however, the new Desjardins Online Brokerage website has shone a light on the importance of translating website user experience into what people think about the brokerage. The new website reflects the broader trend with current websites generally: that paying attention to users matters. With the noise of commission pricing now fading, creating a great end-to-end experience is a message other Canadian brokerages will start to receive loud and clear.

Posted on February 6, 2015 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 6, 2015

Canadian discount brokerages are hitting February at full speed. With a slew of deals, events and the roll out of new features it doesn’t appear like very much will be slowing down the activity at Canada’s brokerages.

In this week’s roundup we cover the ramping up of the new feature launch at one of Canada’s oldest discount brokerages, a highlight reel of deals and promotions to kick off the month, a tour through the educational events taking place in February and finally a new twist on an old favourite in the forums.

On a Roll

Late last year Desjardins Online Brokerage quietly unveiled their conditional order feature. This past week, they were not so quiet any more as the front page of their website announced the presence of this feature and the official roll out to both the Classic and Disnat Direct clients.

According to their website, the conditional order settings available via Desjardins Online Brokerage include:

A trade execution triggers one or more orders
A trade execution triggers one or more cancellations;
An event triggers one or more orders.

Included on the landing page explaining the conditional order types are also three video tutorials (also viewable on YouTube) that provide additional detail on how these order types work and can be used on the Disnat trading platform.

In both the year in review/look ahead article and the video interview with Desjardins Online Brokerage, 2015 was flagged as a year in which a number of new features and upgrades are coming.

Be sure to check out SparxTrading.com next week as we have an exclusive first look at another one of Desjardins’ major new projects for 2015.

New Month New Deals

One of the biggest stories from January was just how many promotional offers were being put forth from Canadian discount brokerages. The competition for consumers has certainly paid off as there are now 21 open offers on our deals page as well as additional special offers and contests not listed.

Just how do the offers stack up? This month the deals picture is somewhat unchanged to last month. The count of offers at each brokerage shows Questrade as the most active in terms of promotional offers with at least seven followed by BMO InvestorLine with four and Scotia iTrade with two. All other brokerages had one offer.

Of all the Canadian discount brokerages Questrade is aggressively pursuing clients as seen in their promotional activity, advertising and outreach efforts in most of the Canadian investor forums, Twitter (and reddit). With ultra-low pricing on their side as well, the other Canadian brokerages are going to have to become much more nimble in order to keep pace.

It’s worth mentioning that Qtrade Investor does have a contest running but was not included in this list because it does not meet the standard criteria for commission rebate/credit or reward.

Also, thanks to a user comment from Kris, we’ve updated the transfer fee promos section to include an offer from CIBC Investor’s Edge that wasn’t posted on their website but was confirmed by their client service reps.

Event Horizon

This upcoming week features a number of free investor education events, with a particular focus on options trading. Click on a link below to find out more information.

Feb. 10 (Tues) NBDB – Introduction to Call Options – [Fr]

Feb. 10 (Tues) Scotia iTRADE – Transitioning to an ETF Portfolio with Horizons ETFs

Feb. 10 (Tues) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Investing in Options

Feb. 11 (Wed) Scotia iTRADE – Options Trading and Volatility with Montreal Exchange

Feb. 11 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Advanced Options

Feb. 11 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Option Strategies for your RSP and TFSA Accounts

Feb. 11 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Building Wealth Through Registered Accounts

Feb. 11 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Technical Analysis – Candlestick Charting

Feb. 11 (Wed) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Options Trading Mistakes to Avoid

Feb. 12 (Thurs) NBDB – Learn About Investment Basics – [Fr]

From the Forums

This week’s from the forums section, we’re going to try something a little different. We’ve collected some interesting threads from the past week that are related to discount brokerages. The threads have been summarized in our corresponding community sections. Click on the links below to view them.

That’s a wrap for this weekend. No matter if you have a snow shovel or umbrella to fight the elements, stay out of trouble and see you next week. Of course if you somehow don’t manage to stay out of trouble, here’s a guy who knows some guys.

Posted on February 1, 2015January 30, 2021 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals and Promotions – February 2015

*Update Feb. 16/2015* It’s fitting that on Superbowl weekend that we launch into one of the most competitive discount brokerage promotions months on record. After all, for football teams and fans alike this is the biggest weekend of the season.

For brokerages heading into RSP season the sentiment is somewhat similar. How can we be so sure? With 21 24 open offers (22 26 if you include some of the contests and selectively advertised deals), more than half are timed to end on or just ahead of the RSP contribution deadline of March 2nd.

The deals frenzy has managed to pull most Canadian online brokerages off the sidelines and into the fray. Brokerages such as HSBC InvestDirect, RBC Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers who have historically been far less active in the deals space each have open offers. Other big names such as TD Direct Investing and Qtrade also jumped in through January. There have also been reports of ‘“selectively advertised’ offers from brokerages such as BMO InvestorLine which, because they are generally intended for a select few, are not included in the table below.

Brokerages not offering some kind of promotion are now in the minority – however it’s still early into February and there may be more surprises to come.

Expired Deals

There were three offers that officially expired in January.

Questrade’s 25 commission-free trades for a year promotion
BMO InvestorLine $250 cash back promotion + 50 commission-free trade
Scotia iTrade’s 100 free trades + FlightDesk promotion

Extensions

One minor extension was spotted on the Scotia iTrade refer-a-friend promotion which saw the expiry date shift from mid-March to the end of the month.

Revisions

Another interesting change was also spotted on the Virtual Brokers offer. It appears that Virtual Brokers has had a change of heart with regards to how long commission-free trades will be eligible. Specifically they’ve elected to roll back the date from the end of September back to the end of April. While having an offer shorten or expire early is not unprecedented, it is rare, and it drives home the importance of understanding that offers can change without notice. While the initial offer to use trades until the end of September made it very competitive, the choice to roll back the dates makes the offer more comparable to others out there.

New Deals

At the time of publication (Feb. 1) there were no new deals that were launched at the outset of February.

As always if there’s anything that we’ve missed please pass this information along and we’ll try to include it in our listings. If we can’t place it in the table (e.g. if it’s selectively advertised) you can also submit it to the deals thread in our community section.

*Update Feb. 4/15* The transfer fee coverage for CIBC Investor’s Edge has been updated. Although not posted on their website, we have confirmed with client reps that the there is a transfer fee coverage of $135 + tax for deposits of at least $25,000 from another brokerage/institution. This is (and has been) a standing offer and is now included in the transfer fee table going forward.

*Update Feb. 16/15* A trio of new offers are launching at the mid-point in February.

The first offer is from Credential Direct – a brokerage that hasn’t historically offered many promotions/deals. Nonetheless, the latest promotion from Credential Direct is a choice between either cash back or commission-free trades. The offer is made up of three tiers based on deposit size. For the first deposit tier ($25,000-$99,999) qualified applicants can receive either 100 commission free trades or $100 cash back. The next deposit tier ($100,000 – $499,999) offers 200 commission-free trades or $200 cash back. Finally, for deposits of $500,000 or more Credential Direct is offering either unlimited trades or $500 cash back. Included alongside this promotion is a transfer fee coverage deal whereby Credential Direct will cover up to $150 in transfer out fees from another broker for individuals depositing/transferring at least $25,000. There are a couple of important points to be aware of including charges for ECN, SEC and/or marketplace fees. See table below for further details.

The second offer to hit our radar mid-month was from Questrade. Their latest offer is a combination of commission-free trades along with a subscription offer to Motley Fool Canada. For deposits of at least $10,000 qualified applicants will receive 100 commission-free trades along with a three month subscription to Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada newsletter service. For those interested in learning more about what that service entails, here is a link to the Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada FAQ page. See the table below for additional details.

The third offer, also from Questrade, is a Chinese New Year themed promotion that has a cash-back component as well as a draw for a gold coin. The minimum deposit for this promotion is $5,000 and applies to individuals opening margin accounts or Forex/CFD accounts only. Registered accounts were not mentioned as being eligible for this promotion. See table below for additional details.

Discount Brokerage Deals

Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer	Details Link	Deadline
A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with Jitney and receive access to their preferred pricing package and a massive 45% discount on the Real Tick trading platform.	n/a	Discounted Commission Rates	none	For more details click here	none
Open a new account with HSBC InvestDirect and you could be eligible to receive up to 50 commission-free equity/ETF trades for 88 calendar days. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for full details.	n/a	50 commission-free trades	88 days (payout for rebate is within 90 days of end of free trade period)	HSBC InvestDirect 2015 Winter Offer	March 2, 2015
For individuals between 18 and 35 who open a new qualifying account with BMO Investorline, they may be eligible to receive 35 commission-free trades, an eBook on investing and potentially waived account minimum fees. Use promo code “New” when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer.	n/a	35 commission-free trades	90 days	Youth Promotion	March 31, 2015
Open a new qualifying account with RBC Direct Investing and you may be eligible to receive up to 20 commission-free trades. A promotion code is required for this offer; click on the the link for the promotional page to generate a code. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for full details on this offer.	n/a	20 commission-free trades	1 year	Terms & Conditions & RBC Direct Investing Trade Free for 1 Year Promotion Page	March 2, 2015
Download the BMO InvestorLine iPad app and you could qualify for up to 5 commission-free trades. This offer is open to new and existing clients and can be combined with other offers. Clients must have a qualifying account in order to be eligible. Read full terms and conditions for details.	n/a	5 commission-free trades ($50 max value)	30 days	Tablet Trades Promotion	February 26, 2015
Open a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) and receive $50 commission credit . Use promo code: kdkfnbbc	$1,000	$50 commission credit	none	none	none
Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $100 and they receive $50. To receive this deal you must be an existing client with an equity account and refer a person that does not reside with you and who has not previously opened a Questrade account.	$1,000	$50 commission credit (friend) $100 commission credit (referrer bonus)	60 days	Refer a friend	none
Open and fund a qualifying account (TFSA, Cash/Margin or RRSP) at Questrade with at least A) $1,000 or B) $10,000 and you may be eligible to receive A) 10 or B) 100 commission-free trades. Use promo code 100FREEML15W when registering. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for this offer.	A) $1,000 B) $10,000	A) 10 commission-free trades B) 100 commission-free trades	60 days	Multi-leg Offer	February 27, 2015
Open a new TFSA, margin or registered account with Questrade and deposit at least A) $1,000 B) $25,000 or C) $50,000 to receive either A) 30 days B) 60 days or C) 90 days of unlimited commission-free stock & options trades. Use promo code UNLIMITEDW15 when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more information.	A) $1,000 B) $25,000 C) $50,000	Unlimited commission-free trades during associated period.	A) 30 days B) 60 days C) 90 days	Questrade Unlimited Trading Offer	March 2, 2015
Open a new TFSA, margin or registered account with Questrade and deposit at least A) $1,000 B) $25,000 or C) $50,000 to receive either A) 30 days B) 60 days or C) 90 days of unlimited commission-free stock & options trades. Use promo code UNLIMITEDRSP when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more information.	A) $1,000 B) $25,000 C) $50,000	Unlimited commission-free trades during associated period.	A) 30 days B) 60 days C) 90 days	Questrade RRSP Promotion	March 2, 2015
Open a new account (TFSA, Margin, RRSP or FX/CFD) and place at least one trade within 60 days of opening and you may be eligible to receive a $50 prepaid Visa card from Questrade. Use promo code VISA50. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details on this offer	$5,000	$50 Visa gift card	Cards will be mailed within 40 business days of reaching account funding requirement.	$50 Prepaid Visa Card Offer	February 27, 2015
Open a new margin, or FX/CFD account with a deposit of at least $5,000 and place at least one commission-generating trade and you may be eligible to receive a cash back offer of $88.88 and an entry into a draw for a gold coin. Use promo code CHINESESNY2015. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details on this offer	$5,000	$88.88 cash back	Cash rebate takes place up to 30 days after meeting eligibility	Chinese New Year Promotion	March 6, 2015
Open and fund a new account with at least A) $5,000 or B)$10,000 in net new equity and you may be eligible to receive A) 50 or B) 100 commission-free trades. Use promo code “RRSP15” when signing up for an account to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions of the offer for full details.	A)$5,000 – $9,999 B)$10,000+	A) 50 commission-free trades B) 100 commission-free trades (max commission per trade $6.49)	Trades must be used by April 30, 2015 (commissions to be rebated by October 2015)	RRSP Free Trade Promotion	February 27, 2015
Open a new TFSA, margin or registered account with Questrade and deposit at least $10,000 dollars to be eligible to receive 100 commission-free trades and a three month subscription to Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada newsletter. Use promo code 100FREEMFSUBwhen signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more information.	$10,000	100 commission-free trades	60 days	Motley Fool Subscription Promotion	April 30, 2015
If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTrade account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link.	A)$10,000 B)$50,000+	A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50)	60 days	Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade	March 31, 2015
Open and fund a new Scotia iTRADE account with at least A) $15,000 – $49,999, B)$50,000 – $99,999, C)$100,000 – $249,000, D) $250,000 – $499,999, E) $500,000 – $999,999, or F) $1,000,000+ and you may be eligible to receive a corresponding cash-back or commission rebate. For commission-free trades use code: WTT15 or for cash rebates use code: DL5RP. Be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully for rebate and cash back eligibility. This offer also includes a free ‘swing trading’ course with Larry Berman and 90 days free of FlightDesk.	A)$15,000 – $49,999 B)$50,000 – $99,999 C)$100,000 – $249,000 D)$250,000 – $499,999 E)$500,000 – $999,999 F)$1,000,000+	A) 50 commission-free trades OR $50 cash B) 100 commission-free trades OR $100 cash C) 250 commission-free trades OR $250 D) 350 commission-free trades OR $350 E) 500 commission-free trades OR $500 F) 1000 commission-free trades OR $1000	180 days for commission-free trades Cash back to be deposited by November 30, 2015.	1000 Free Trade Offer	March 31, 2015
Open a new account and fund it with at least (A) $20,000 or (B)$100,000 and NBDB may provide up to (A) $500 or (B) $1,000 in commission rebates for qualifying accounts. Use promo code “CashBack2015” when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and refund dates.	A)$20,000 – $99,999 B)$100,000+	A)$500 commission rebate B)$1,000 commission rebate	90 days (rebate of commissions depends on sign up date and is outlined on terms/conditions)	Cash Back Offer	March 31, 2015
Open a new account with Credential Direct and fund it with at least A) $25,000 B)$100,000 or C)$500,00+ to receive either A) 100 commission-free trades or $100 cash back; B) 200 commission-free trades or $200 cash back or C) unlimited commission- free trades or $500 cash back. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details.	A)$25,000 – $99,999 B)$100,000 – $499,999 C)$500,000+	A) 100 commission-free trade or $100 cash back B) 200 commission-free trades or $200 cash back C) Unlimited commission-free trade or $500 cash back	Trades must be used by September 30, 2015 and will be reimbursed on October 15 2015. Cash back deposited October 15, 2015.	Credential Direct Spring Promotion	April 15, 2015
Open a new account with TD Direct Investing with at least A) $25,000 B) $50,000 or C) $100,000 and you may be eligible to receive rebates on up to A) 50 B) 100 or C) 200 equity and/or options trades. Be sure to read full terms and conditions	A) $25,000 – $49,999 B) $50,000 – $99,999 C) $100,000+	A) 50 commission-free trades B) 100 commission-free trades C) 200 commission-free trades	60 days (commission rebates to be issued on Aug. 15/2015)	TD Direct Investing Free Trade Promotion	March 27, 2015
Open a new account or fund an existing account at CIBC Investor’s Edge with at least A)$25,000-$49,999 B)$50,000 – $99,999 or C)$100,000+ and you may be eligible to receive A)$100 cash back and 25 free trades; B)$200 cash back and 50 trades or C)$300 cash back and 100 free trades. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for full details on this offer.	A) $25,000 – $49,999 B) $50,000 – $99,999 C) $100,00+	A) $100 cash back + 25 commission-free trades B) $200 cash back + 50 commission-free trades C) $300 cash back + 100 commission-free trades	Cash back payout occurs within 30 days of account funding; Time limit to use commission free trades is 60 days	Investors Edge Cash Back and Free Equity Trades Offer	February 28, 2015
Disnat is offering new & existing clients $300 in commission credits which can be used for up to 6 months. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1 800 268-8471 and mention promo code Disnat300. See details link for more info.	$50,000	$300 commission credit	6 months	Disnat $300 Commission Credit Promo	March 31, 2015
If you refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with a)$50,000 – $249,999 or b)$250,000+ the referrer and the referee will both receive cash. The new account must be opened with the referral code specific to the referrer.	A) $50,000 – $249,000 B) $250,000+	A) You(referrer): $200; Your Friend(referee): $50 B) You(referrer): $300; Your Friend: $100	Payout occurs after 60 days (subject to conditions).	Contact InvestorLine for full terms and conditions.	October 30, 2015
Open and fund a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with at least $100,000 in net new assets and you may be eligible to receive $300 cash back. Use the promo code RSP2015 when signing up for the account. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for eligibility and further details.	$100,000	$300 cash back	Payout occurs after 6 months	RSP 2015 Promotion	March 31, 2015
Open a new TFSA, margin or registered account with Questrade and deposit at least $100,000 to be eligible to receive an iPad mini. Use promo code IPADMINI15Q2 when signing up. Read the terms and conditions for more information about eligibility.	$100,000	iPad Mini 2 (16gb wi-fi only) [retail value ~$370 including taxes]	iPad Mini will be sent within 60 days of account being funded and 1 commission-generating trade being placed.	iPad Mini Offer	March 13, 2015

Transfer Fee Deals

Brief Description	Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount	Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility	Details Link	Deadline
Transfer $15,000 or more to Scotia iTrade from another Canadian brokerage, and iTrade may pay up to $150 in transfer fees.	$150	$15,000	1000 Free Trade Offer	March 31, 2015
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees	$135	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate Details	none
Qtrade Investor will reimburse your transfer fee up to $150 when transferring a balance of $25,000 or more. For reimbursement, please mail or fax a copy of your statement from the transferring institution that shows the transfer charge to Qtrade Investor at 604.484.2627 and indicate your Qtrade Investor account number.	$150	$25,000	Transfer Fee Promo	none
Transfer $25,000 or more from another brokerage and Credential Direct will cover up to $150 in transfer fees. Use promo code SWITCHME when signing up to qualify for the transfer promotion.	$150	$25,000	Credential Direct Spring Promotion	April 15, 2015
Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150.	$150	$25,000	Transfer Fee Promo	none
Transfer $25,000 or more in equity to Virtual Brokers and they’ll cover the transfer-out fees up to $150.	$150	$25,000	Transfer Fee Rebate Terms & Conditions	March 31, 2015
Transfer $25,000 or more into a new TD Direct Investing account and they will cover up to $150 of transfer fees.	$150	$25,000	TD Direct Investing Free Trade Promotion	March 27, 2015
Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made.	$135	$25,000	confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more info (1-800-567-3343)	none
Transfer $25,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees	$135	$25,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
Disnat is offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1 800 268-8471 and mention promo code Disnat300. See details link for more info.	$150	$50,000	Disnat $300 Commission Credit Promo	March 31, 2015

Posted on January 30, 2015 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 30 2015

It looks like football players aren’t the only ones trying to score big this weekend. Burgers, fries and Candadian discount brokerages are also in the mix. With the frenzy of offers rounding out January, we’re heading into February with over 22 deals and promotions for anyone looking to open up an online trading account. That’s plenty to chew on.

In this week’s roundup we take a look at the issues that got people talking this week – that’s about brokerages not burgers. First we take a look at two different measurements of client service and try to make sense of why they’ve obtained two completely different results. Following that, we’ll take a look at one independent brokerage’s bold voyage into a place they haven’t really been before: online investor education. Finally, with deals & promotions clearly on the minds of investors, we’ve collected an assortment of forum posts for specific online brokerage deals.

Defining Customer Service

As much as online trading doesn’t require directly dealing with a brokerage’s staff, there are a handful of times when it is unavoidable or even required. In spite of technological advances around them, many brokerages don’t have a live chat or don’t rely on that function when it comes to sensitive account information and/or trading instructions.

In last week’s roundup we mentioned that financial service analysis firm, Dalbar, announced the results of their annual evaluation of telephone client service at Canada’s online brokerages. In it both HSBC InvestDirect and RBC Direct Investing earned the “Winner’s Circle” designation for meeting the standard for high quality telephone client service (for our in depth look at the latest results, click here).

This past week another financial service firm, Surviscor, announced their results of an email based evaluation. According to Surviscor’s evaluation, Credential Direct earned a “platinum” designation with a response time of under two hours and Qtrade and Scotia iTrade were awarded “gold” (which reflects an email response time of between two and four hours).

While fast email response may be of interest, what was far more interesting was that both the Dalbar rankings and Surviscor rankings yielded completely different results when it comes to ‘customer service’. In Dalbar’s evaluation, RBC Direct Investing and HSBC Invest Direct scored the highest of the evaluated brokerages. Conversely in the Surviscor rankings, HSBC Invest Direct placed 9th whereas RBC Direct Investing tied for last place.

For DIY investors, this is undoubtedly a confusing situation. Factor in the headlines and spin doctoring and you have an especially tough time figuring out what these results really reflect.

Take the following examples from recent news releases:

“Qtrade Investor takes gold for customer service” (from the news release here)
“Credential Direct Named Top Brokerage Firm for Customer Service in Canada” (news release here)
“HSBC InvestDirect and RBC Direct Investing both emerged as premier providers in customer service in 2014” (from the news release here)

Then there are the numbers themselves. Although Dalbar only reported the average and the range between highest and lowest (which was 13 percentage points) scores on client service, when compared with the range between Surviscor’s highest and lowest scores (a difference of 83 percentage points) the disparity is hard to ignore.

From the outside, it is puzzling how firms capable of implementing highly sophisticated trading platforms and rank highly on client service on telephones can’t seem to figure out prompt email or vice versa.

The lesson when looking at any of the rankings of online brokerages continues to be that consumers need to be vigilant when it comes to understanding exactly what is being measured and how those measurements are being made. Clearly, in this case, ‘customer service’ isn’t a standard unit of measure the way ‘commission pricing’ may be. Unfortunately, headlines and press releases (and evidently source materials) can yield conflicting definitions of quality customer service.

Event Review

This past week Virtual Brokers held an educational webinar aimed at beginner investors. The session, presented by personal finance author Gail Bebee, was the first in a two-part series and featured an overview of the basics of investing. Given that it was just under an hour long, this presentation did not go into extensive detail on any one topic but instead looked at several topics relevant to investing generally.

Included in the discussion was a breakdown of the different asset classes individuals can invest in; a quick comparison of mutual funds versus ETFs and how to start planning to invest. Bebee spent a bit of time discussing ETFs in particular and highlighted the benefits and potential risks/costs. This webinar was recorded and may be made available for viewing in the near future on VB’s website.

Part two of this presentation will look take a deeper look at how to build a portfolio. For more information on when this session is planned, check our investor education events section.

This upcoming week will feature a number of investor education events. We’ll be updating the events calendar shortly so check back soon for details on February’s selection of investor education opportunities.

From the Forums

The record volume of deals & promotions from Canadian brokerages did not go unnoticed by investors on the popular deals forum RedFlagDeals.com. Below is a list of links related to discussions of deals at each respective discount brokerage:

BMO InvestorLine: This deal mentioned by one forum user is actually a special targeted offer. Nonetheless the bonus is for an extra $100 on top of the advertised $300 cash back RSP promotion.
Questrade: With so many offers on the go from Questrade, users may have a tough time deciding between free trades, cash back or even an iPad mini. Click here to read what forum users had to say.
RBC Direct Investing: With a year to use 20 free trades, RBC DI has got some forum users talking. While not their best offer to date, it is one of the few with such a long expiry date. Click here to read the discussion.
TD Direct Investing: This thread discusses the current 200 free trade offer by TDDI.

That does it for this week’s roundup. Heading into the weekend here are a couple of miracle stories to keep you entertained. For those who don’t believe in zombies or that cats don’t have 9 lives, here’s a cat that will make you rethink that.

And finally for the football fans and video gamers. For those that didn’t think they’d see Marshawn Lynch play nice with media ahead of the Super Bowl, it seems like maybe you’re in for a bit of a shock on this fun video.

Go Seahawks!

Posted on January 30, 2015 by user

Review: Dalbar Direct Brokerage Service Evaluation 2014

For Canadian discount brokerages, the idea of providing great client service is a moving target. Not too long ago service used to refer to the ‘offline’ world and meant having a face-to-face interaction at a branch. That gave way to the telephone, and the telephone to email, and email to web chat and web chat to social media.

The result of this communication evolution is that online brokerages are forced to cater to a wide spectrum of touch points that consumers can now access in order to manage their online investments. While consumers benefit from being able to (theoretically) stay connected to their brokerage howsoever they please, the reality is that client service at any brokerage on any channel is only going to be as good as the brokerage’s investment on it.

DIY investors shopping around for online brokerages based on client service should take note of this. If client service, and specifically telephone service, is of interest, then Dalbar Canada’s recently released direct brokerage evaluation of telephone client service interactions is worth looking into. And, while many brokerages are finding their way through the myriad of new technology touch points, telephones, it seems, still matter to online investors.

Who You Gonna Call?

Where and how telephone-based client service fits into today’s highly screen-driven age is a bit confusing. On the one hand while some issues can be resolved via online only methods there are times when getting someone on the phone is necessary.

From highly specific account inquiries to routine trading strategies, such as ‘journaling’ or exercising options, there are still many roads that require DIY investors to turn to telephone agents to address their needs. Of course, when a website goes down or a trading outage occurs, the only way to get an answer is to turn to the phone. Those interactions, as it turns out, impact how a client experiences doing business with that provider and what they ultimately tell others about those experiences.

Dalbar Canada, a financial service analysis firm, understands the value and impact quality service has on direct brokerage client relationships and has been measuring the quality of telephone interactions for many years now.

Given that brokerages use the results of Dalbar’s evaluations in their advertising, it is important for DIY investors to understand some context behind the results.

Widening the Circle

According to Dalbar, “quality” of client interaction at a direct brokerage is broken into four key components:

product and procedural knowledge
professionalism
ease of doing business and
the ability to deepen relationships with clients

These categories reflect strategic points around which a firm can either strengthen or weaken the relationship with their clients. While what a telephone agent knows is certainly crucial, how they communicate that information goes a long way in providing a positive experience. Whether the agent takes a ‘big picture’ view of clients question or simply responds literally to the question asked also influences whether a client leaves the call feeling frustrated or satisfied. What Dalbar measures when they analyze the interaction between provider and client is therefore a clear snapshot of the ‘human’ element of the brokerage experience.

It should be mentioned that one of the parameters these awards either don’t measure or report is the availability (i.e. hours to reach an agent) nor the duration. So, while it may be nice to get a nice person, there is still something to be said about getting a person when you need one, even outside of market hours.

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Posted on January 23, 2015 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 23, 2015

If you’re feeling as deflated as Patriot’s football this week, hopefully the fact that markets ended the week on a bit of a positive note is enough to cheer Friday. And, if recent market movements haven’t got you puzzled enough, at least Miss Universe Canada’s costume has got pundits and social media focusing on something other than the plunging price of oil. Like the beauty pageant contenders, Canadian brokerages are definitely dressing up their offers to score big points with DIY investors.

In this week’s roundup we continue to track January’s storm of deals & promotions, shine a spotlight on the first discount brokerage award of 2015, highlight a newcomer into the investor education space, walk through the investor education events coming up and close out with some timely conversations from the investor forums.

Deals-ja-vu

The race towards the March 2 RSP contribution deadline continues to draw Canadian discount brokerages into an already overcrowded deals game. This past week a typically quiet deal provider, HSBC InvestDirect, jumped into the promotions pool by offering up a commission-free trading offer. While the offer has been officially listed as live since the beginning of the year, it appeared only recently on their website. The timing of the launch was perhaps intended to coincide with the launch of Dalbar Canada’s Direct Brokerage Service Award (see below).

Another promotion also hit the deals wire this past week, this time from BMO InvestorLine. Their previous ‘smile promotion’ campaign ended on January 18^th and was promptly replaced by an RSP focused offer of $300 cash back. Check our deals & promotions page for more details on the current open offers from Canadian brokerages.

That’s we in the Spotlight

Dalbar Canada’s 2014 assessment of the service quality at Canadian brokerages was announced this week as part of their Direct Brokerage Service Award. The two online brokerages that received top honours were HSBC InvestDirect and RBC Direct Investing. Dalbar has made a transition away from naming exclusive winners of the award, instead using the “Winner’s Circle” approach in which multiple brokerages can get recognition for their performance on Dalbar’s assessment.

Interestingly the announcement of the award was made on Wednesday and we’ve yet to see mention on either of the two ‘award’ winners’ website. A further point of interest is that both winners this year were also winners last year. Although both RBC Direct Investing and HSBC InvestDirect have claimed top honours in years past, it is unclear how having to share the accolade will shape their messaging around winning the award this year. For more information on the Dalbar Direct Brokerage Service Award, check out our feature piece here.

Virtual Brokers Stepping into Education

Keeping up with the Jones’ is no easy feat, especially when those Jones’ are other Canadian online brokerages. As mentioned in our special year-in-review series, one of the big focal points for 2015 mentioned by Canadian brokerages was investor education. Currently six online brokerages are actively providing (or have partnerships in place to provide) investor education. This past week, however, we learned that Virtual Brokers will be joining in the provision of investor education.

As Virtual Brokers works to keep pace with the value-add features provided by other banks and brokerages, one of the areas they’ve lagged has been in investor education. In an interesting move, Virtual Brokers has teamed up with personal finance author Gail Bebee to hold a two-part webinar on investing and portfolio management.

Event Horizon

A light week of educational activities is in the offering.

Jan. 24 (Sat) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Investing

Jan. 26 (Mon) TD Direct Investing – Market Outlook – Winter 2015

Jan. 27 (Tues) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Fundamental Analysis

Jan. 28 (Wed) Virtual Brokers – Investing Basics

From the Forums

It’s a Hard Knock Life

Asking lots of questions and doing due diligence before taking on DIY investing is key – as is frequently checking in on your account. This post from the Reddit Personal Finance Canada subreddit highlights one individuals unfortunate ‘surprise’ at having a margin balance.

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup. Regardless of how far under ice or water certain folks may be (am I right Vancouver?) here’s a neat and strange tale of what can be found even in the most remote of places. Have fun and stay sharp for next week!

Posted on January 16, 2015 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 16, 2015

For traders who had grown ‘complacent’ over the lack of market volatility in 2014, the adage of ‘be careful what you wish for’ seems a bit prescient. Whether it was the unexpected move on the Swiss Franc, squashed rumours of a Blackberry buyout, Bombardier grounding their Learjet program or the continued fallout from tanking oil prices, volatility is back with a vengeance.

Canadian discount brokerages, on the other hand, are dealing with a different kind of volatility. In their case, it’s trying to figure out how to win at the RSP game. In this week’s roundup we take a look at the ever growing list of deals/promotions streaming in from Canadian brokerages, earnings highlights from US online brokerages, a preview of the upcoming investor education events and finally the topics that got DIY investors chatting.

Cash Register

Like Shakira’s hips, data doesn’t lie (see chart). We are heading squarely into the storm of TFSA and RRSP season and brokerages big and small are pulling out all the stops to try and woo self-directed investors into picking an online trading account. As a result, January’s deals and promotions have been piling up faster than an Ottawa snow bank.

This past week another three offers were added into the discount brokerage deals & promotions mix, taking the current total to 21 offers. Questrade added yet another to their promotional pool and Virtual Brokers has finally stepped into the promotions space as has Qtrade. All three of these offers are directly targeted to getting the attention of investors looking for a registered account. While the seasonality of the deals certainly factors in, we also think that from this point forward, the competitive landscape for registered accounts has changed. Among the many reasons why things are different, the biggest threat to the non bank-owned brokerages is that Interactive Brokers Canada has started to offer both RSP and TFSA registered accounts. Stay atop all of the deals action by checking our deals and promotions section through January and February. We think there still may be some additional offers yet to launch that could cause quite the stir.

One App to Manage Them All

With mobile technology becoming a mainstay of everyday life (apparently ‘millennials’ check their mobile phones an average of 43 times per day), online brokerages are increasingly turning their attention to ensuring their platforms work on the go. BMO InvestorLine is one of the latest bank-owned online brokerages to be pushing their integrated banking and mobile trading app, releasing this announcement this past week. Not too long ago, however, brokerages such as Qtrade and Scotia iTrade also made improvements to their tablet trading experience. Even though BMO InvestorLine had officially rolled out the app in 2014, in the heated battle to highlight something other than commission pricing, look for more brokerages to showcase the features they think set them apart from their peers.

All About the Benjamins

One of the largest online brokerages in the US, Charles Schwab, reported their quarterly earnings today. They are an interesting model to look at as they moved their business away from being primarily a discount brokerage and more towards providing ‘full service’ and advice. This model is not unlike the approach taken by Questrade, which, if Schwab is any indicator, may help add value to the company during periods of low interest rates and somewhat muted trading activity. Schwab took in $1.5 billion in earnings for the quarter ending December 31 which is up 9% over the previous quarter. The key metric of Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) was up 17% compared to the previous quarter and the average revenue per trade came in at $12.04. Another big name in the discount brokerage space, Interactive Brokers, releases their earnings next week so it should be interesting to see if the volatility late in the year translated into increased trading commission activity.

Event Horizon

A quartet of educational events are on tap for you next week, enjoy. Jan. 20 (Tues) Scotia iTRADE – Introduction to Puts with Pro Market Advisors Jan. 20 (Tues) NBDB – Managing Risk While Investing in Stock Jan. 21 (Wed) Scotia iTRADE – Fixed Income Strategies Using ETFs with iShares Jan. 22 (Thur) Scotia iTRADE – Trading The Gap with AJ Monte

From the Forums

Fee the burn

At the start of a new year, the focus on dropping a few pounds is on the mind of many. While getting active can have health benefits, in the online trading account world, inactivity gets dinged with a fee. Perhaps online brokerages are on to something. Check out this post from RedFlagDeals’ investing forum for one individual’s query on when exactly RBC Direct Investing’s kicks in

Getting Registered

With RRSPs and TFSAs still a hot button issue for this and next month, we’re still tracking the storm that is the launch of Interactive Brokers’ registered accounts. Here is yet another post from a RedFlagDeals.com investing thread on the launch of IB registered accounts and what that might mean cost wise for folks with multiple accounts.

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup. For those lucky enough to be taking in the Vancouver ‘winter’ hope to see you at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference this weekend! And for those who aren’t, here’s a multimillion dollar version of the ‘fireplace log’ to give you warm thoughts (and to take your mind off some portfolio explosions that may have happened) courtesy of Elon Musk and co.