Tag: CG Direct

CG Direct

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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

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – May 17th 2013

We are back with the Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup! Here’s the latest news from Canadian discount brokerages this past week:

JitneyTrade and Credential Direct have stepped into the investor education game offering learning webinars to their clients. A look at JitneyTrade’s Twitter feed gave us the low-down on a series of webinars about market analysis and breakout patterns they have been offering over the last week.

Credential Direct has also launched into providing educational webinars with their first one being on technical analysis. The description of the event sounded familiar, and so a quick check of the Recognia website showed that it is, in fact, a Recognia focused educational seminar.

CredentialDirectWebinar_TechnicalAnalysis

As they launch into providing these webinars, it appears that both JitneyTrade and Credential Direct still have a bit of work to do in order to make this information easier to find. In JitneyTrade’s case, this information was only available on their Twitter feed and is not listed as a dedicated section on their website.  For Credential Direct, they do have a big advertisement for the seminar on their homepage, but they haven’t posted the webinar in their education section.  Whether or not they continue to offer webinars in the future remains to be seen however, in the meantime you can check up on educational event information on our calendar.

In other JitneyTrade news, the discount brokerage has launched support for a new platform called RealTick Express. According to their website, the RealTick Express was “conceived for the active trader … who maintains 75-200 trades per month”.  For more information, visit the RealTick website.

Several major financial institutions (including discount brokerage JitneyTrade) were spotted as sponsors to the first ever  FinTech Conference 2013 which took place yesterday in Montréal. According to the website’s description of the event, the event is “intended to promote financial application development to attendees from the finance, information technology and risk management sectors, both domestically and abroad. The conference also seeks to help discover new talents, create networking opportunities, raise interest in the combined fields of finance and information technology, as well as contribute to the visibility of Montréal’s financial technology expertise.”  For an overview of the Twitter analytics of the FinTech conference, click here.

Finally, BMO InvestorLine has come out with a study that reports 81% of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 see themselves investing online in the next five years with the percentage of online investors tripling in the next decade. This seems to be great news for online discount brokerages in Canada. It remains to be seen how they will capitalize on this opportunity and which discount brokerage will score the most points with new and experienced investors alike.

That’s all for now! If you come across any juicy discount brokerage news, contact us via email, Twitter or Facebook.

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Special Series: Review of Globe and Mail’s Discount Brokerage Rankings – Part I

Introduction

As part of our continued look at Canadian discount brokerage rankings, we review the longest running comparison and ranking of Canadian discount brokerages: The Globe and Mail’s annual ranking of online brokers, which had its start back in 1999. In part one of this series, we go through how we conducted the review, who the rankings are aimed at, the discount brokerages covered in the rankings and how the rankings are structured.

Our Methods

The scope of this review covers the 11 Globe and Mail discount brokerage rankings published from 2002 to 2012.  Even though the rankings started in 1999, we felt the window we used to be sufficient to explore the recent history of discount brokerages within Canada, and more importantly to illustrate the nature of how the rankings have changed over time.  The data was retrieved by searching for each years’ results via Google, The Globe and Mail website as well as from several websites that contained archived copies of articles. In addition to researching online, we also had the chance to speak to Rob Carrick of The Globe and Mail directly about his experiences in putting together the reviews.

Once gathered, the data was compiled into tables for sorting and analysis. Initially we thought it would be possible to compare scores and how they changed from year to year, however given that the ranking criteria changed so frequently, such a comparison would offer limited value.  Instead, we have included a figure (see next page) that details the criteria for each year and how the criteria have changed over time.  Although it is also of limited reliability, we nonetheless took the historical average rank of each discount brokerage currently referenced in the 2012 rankings which can be seen in the table to be included in part two of this series.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – Dec 16th 2012

As 2012 draws to a close, it looks like the discount brokerage industry is going into autopilot.  This past week saw the expiry of a couple of promotions. First, Scotia iTrade’s 100 days of unlimited trading offer expired this week.  This leaves Questrade as the only discount brokerage currently offering unlimited trades.   Speaking of Questrade, their “Ring the bell with Questrade” promotion also ended this week. The winner of this contest will be announced this upcoming week on December 20th.

Jitneytrade announced this past week that they’re “going green” by offering paperless statements and  trade confirmations.  If you choose to continue to use paper statements and confirmations, however, be prepared to shell out some major green – paper statements will cost $20 and trade confirmations $1 each starting February 28th 2013.  For more information – click here.

Best Discount Brokerage Tweet of the Week

Thinking about investing in “penny stocks?”  A lot of investors are lured into the low prices and potentially huge gains – but often overlook the bigger risks.  This week’s tweet by National Bank Direct Brokerage’s parent @nationalbank was a good overview of some reasons to think twice before turning to penny stocks.  Read the tweet here.

Event Horizon

This week (December 18th), Morningstar’s Director of Economic Analysis, Bob Johnson, will be presenting a forecast for the economy and investing in 2013.  For more details, click here.

The People Have Spoken

A really interesting discussion was sparked by a Red Flag Deals forum member asking about why retiring baby boomers or ‘young guns’ appear to not be investing?  Check out what dozens of folks had to say about this here.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – Nov 30th 2012

On the heels of the results from the annual Globe and Mail Canadian Discount Brokerage rankings, the 2012 Morningstar Canadian Investment Awards were handed out on November 28th and included a “Best Discount Brokerage” category.  While not nearly as well known as the J.D. Power and Associates award for Investor Satisfaction, the Morningstar Awards offer discount brokerages the chance to submit themselves (for a fee) for consideration by a panel of judges for the title of “Best Discount Broker.”  This year, Qtrade took top spot and maintained their three year reign as the title holder of this award.   Certainly it’s a bright spot for them after recently having been displaced from the top of the Globe and Mail rankings by Virtual Brokers. To learn more about the Morningstar methodology for “Best Discount Broker” click here. BMO Investorline’s  “Advice Direct” also earned recognition for “Best Use of Technology” (another category for which entrants had to submit a fee to be considered).  Unfortunately, neither the list of candidates nor the scores were published so we are not sure how many discount brokerages participated in this year’s submission.

Another big piece of news for self-directed investors came in the form of an increased contribution limit to tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs).  Most Canadian discount brokerages offer TFSAs so for those who choose to invest via their TFSAs, the news is definitely welcomed.  Starting in January 2013 Canadians will be allowed to contribute a maximum of $5500 dollars (instead of the previous limit of $5000 per year).  To learn more about which discount brokerages offer TFSAs, click here.

If you want to learn more about TFSAs themselves, check our special “The Mighty TFSA.”

Event Horizon

As we turn the corner into December, an interesting opportunity for individuals to sit and discuss some investing related topics is being held at the TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage centre in downtown Vancouver.  The event, entitled “stock chatter” will take place on December 5th from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM.

Best Discount Brokerage Tweet of the Week

This past week saw the finale of Financial Literacy Month but also it was the conclusion of the now infamous “Mo-vember”.  @Jitneytrade deserves a tip of the hat for getting their team on board and actively participating in this great event.  Check out their tweet here which has the link to their movember ‘stache pics.

The People Have Spoken

Questrade is one of the most active discount brokerages when it comes to offering discounts and promotions.  Recently they’ve offered individuals either an iPad mini if they transfer in $100K or a chance to win one of 10 ipad minis for a smaller deposit.   The retail value of an ipad mini is $329.  In our discount broker deals section, we’ve seen deal “value” far higher for smaller deposit sizes, and so it piqued our curiosity – what do others think of this Questrade promotion? Is an iPad mini enough value to deposit $100,000?  Sure enough, the Questrade promotion caught the attention of some folks on the following Red Flag Deals forum.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – Oct. 26th 2012

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup

This week provided an interesting lesson in activity fees handed out to one RBC Direct Investing client, covered via Global News here.  If you’ve got an account open that you’ve forgotten about, you may want to look closely at what you’re being charged by keeping the account open (you can check out our fee comparison page here).  We looked at the latest news story evolving in markets, complicated orders, and the bigger issue of ‘fairness’ to all players the market.  An interesting twist to this comes from the exchange traded fund (ETF) industry and how major stock exchanges, such as the NASDAQ, are considering allowing a particular order type specifically for ETFs.  This latest turn might be an effort to restore waning investor confidence in stock markets and investing.

Lastly, just before press, there was a great piece published by Rob Carrick in the Globe and Mail (Three smart ways to find an online broker) in which SparxTrading.com gets mentioned.  Also included in this article are a couple of other sites to do some of your research on.

Best Canadian Discount Brokerage Tweet of the Week:

The best discount brokerage tweet for this week comes from @Jitneytrade for passing along a colorful article by author Michael Sincere explaining what options are.  You can read the tweet here.

Event Horizon

As mentioned in our last edition of the roundup, this Saturday October 27th (tomorrow) TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage will be putting on its Direct Investing Expo in Vancouver. There will be a number of speakers including Bob Gorman, Chief Portfolio Strategist for TD Waterhouse.  For more details click here.

Also, around the corner are a couple of other investment seminars, including an Evening with Michael Campbell featuring Tyler Bollhorn, taking place in Calgary (October 29th) and Vancouver (October 30th). Tyler will be talking about his new book, The Mindless Investor as well as giving signed copies of the book to attendees. The Small-Cap Conference (November 6th) in Vancouver just announced their speaker list and for those folks who pre-register via SparxTrading.com, they get a great bonus gift! For registration details, click here.

The People Have Spoken

The comments section on the Michael Sincere article mentioned in the Jitneytrade tweet also got some readers to chime in on whether or not options are easy as the article might suggest. Check out all the comments here.

Canadian Discount Brokerage Jobs

On the hiring front, there are a couple of more positions that Canadian discount brokerages are trying to fill. Sometimes the hiring pools can be indicative of things to come, as we see from the job positions popping up this week.

Qtrade recently announced that they’re looking to hire a Content Strategist and writer.  Qtrade has been  a bit quieter in the social media arena, but it looks like they’re prepping to step into it along with these other discount brokerages.

Questrade is looking for some extra hands in the form of New Accounts Specialists to help for the upcoming RSP rush (yup it’s around the corner).  If you’ve ever been curious to know what it’s like to work as a service agent for Questrade or what it is that they are tasked to do for you as a client, check out the posting we found here.

RBC Direct Investing is also looking to add an Assistant Manager to their Investor Centre staff in downtown.  Interestingly, according to the posting, “main objectives of this position and all activities conducted within the Investor Centres are to drive new client acquisition, consolidate assets from existing clients, and to increase the profitability of each client.”

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Penson Financial Services Canada Closing Down

For most Canadian investors and traders who place their trades online, the details of what happens after they press ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ on their stock trades is largely a trivial matter.  Should one start to think about it, however, the process of matching up millions of orders, confirming trades and documenting what went to whom and where can get fairly complicated very quickly.  Penson Financial Services Canada, a company that specialized in tackling that complexity by tracking those orders for a number of Canadian discount brokerages (such as Questrade and Virtual Brokers), has decided to wind down its Canadian operations. The decision appears to primarily impact the back office operations of Questrade, Virtual Brokers and Disnat.

According to the release on their website, Penson Financial Services Canada has estimated that the wind-down will take approximately six months commencing October 1st, 2012.  During this transition phase, client accounts will be referred along to new “carrying brokers” or “custodians”, with many of those clients being handed off to Fidelity Clearing Canada ULC in a deal struck between the two organizations. It was on the heels of this announcement by Penson Financial Services Canada that both Questrade and Virtual Brokers announced their intentions to form their own in-house clearing arms (you can read the official news releases for Questrade here and for Virtual Brokers here). Although not formally announced, it appears Disnat too will be moving clearing and settlement operations in-house.

For Questrade and Virtual Brokers, both these companies felt that the move to clear trades in-house was a natural progression in their evolution as businesses, with the timing of Penson’s closing provided a natural window for them to make the transition.  Most of the major Canadian bank-owned discount brokerages already do the clearing and settlement activities in-house, with only a handful of Canadian discount brokerages, such as Jitneytrade and HSBC Investdirect outsourcing this back office activity to third parties.

For the clients of Questrade and Virtual Brokers, the respective brokerages have promised the transition to be seamless. In the case of Virtual Brokers, for example, their systems have been running in parallel with Penson’s for three years, so there has been ample time to ensure when the time to go it alone came, they would be ready.  In addition to technical requirements, rigorous audits, planning and monitoring protocols have also been developed to support this transition.  Ultimately, depending on how efficient the back office functions are, the savings from not having a third-party clear and settle trades, maintain records and prepare and distribute client statements and trade confirmations, could result in more competitive pricing than is already being offered. Like all things of this complexity though, it will be easier said than done.

While the impact of the closure of Penson Financial Services Canada on retail investors will likely (and hopefully) go unnoticed, one of the most interesting aspects of this turn of events is that it points out that even the ‘middleman’ can get squeezed out, a lesson full-service discount brokerages have learned all too well.

 

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – Oct. 5th 2012

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup:

As we roll into October, the Canadian discount brokerage industry continues to show signs of competitive evolution.   First, the huge news released earlier this week that Questrade will transition into clearing its own trades via an in-house clearing division (currently pending regulatory approval).  By replacing their current clearing agent (Penson Financial Services Canada), Questrade believes they will be able to offer more timely settlement and record-keeping services to its clients – something that they had struggled with earlier this year around tax season.  While potentially helping to smooth things out on one side of their business, another reason why this move could prove to be important competitively for Questrade is that they will no longer be paying a clearing agent to deal with clearing and settlement. So what could they do with those extra dollars per trade they’ve been paying to their clearing agent? Depending on how much it costs Questrade to clear and settle their own trades (staff, technology, compliance etc), they might be in a position to lower their already low commission fees (i.e. pass along the savings instead of charging inactivity fees). This is a model that has proven to work well for Interactive Brokers. Alternatively, they might redeploy the extra cash into strengthening other aspects of their business as the competition amongst Canadian discount brokerages continues to heat up. Either way, this should be an interesting turn of events to watch unfold.

The second big piece of Canadian discount brokerage news is from Jitneytrade. In addition to announcing a move into their new offices (coincidentally Jitneytrade and Penson Financial Services Canada are located in the same building), Jitneytrade also announced their move into currency exchange .  The new foreign-exchange component is a service  aimed at institutional clients, and is another bold move for Jitneytrade into the institutional arena.

Best Canadian Discount Brokerage Tweet of the Week:

This week’s favourite tweet comes from @Scotia_iTrade:What’s the #KISS Principle? Watch The Market Guys and avoid some of the most common investing/trading mistakes [vid], http://ow.ly/8h4dt  – great video!

Event Horizon:

The Small Cap Conference is rolling into Calgary next week (October 9th)  and should offer investors interested in some small cap companies the chance to mingle with management, get some market analysis and maybe win a cool door prize.  For more details click here.

The People Have Spoken:

When it comes to taking a shot or passing up the stock market, the Great One Wayne Gretzky would rather pass.  This prudent strategy seems to have served him well in real life however it is an interesting position for brand ambassador to TD Waterhouse to play.  In any case, there were quite a few interesting responses to Wayne Gretzky’s personal finance tips from his interview earlier in the week.

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – October 2012

For the month of October, most of the discount brokerages who are offering deals and promotions are fighting hard to win the business of Canadian retail investors. We’ve made a few changes to the deals section so that information is a little bit easier to find.  We’ve put the discount brokerage promotions that include commission credits, free trades and any other promos in one table.  In a separate table (below) we’ve also listed the Canadian discount brokerages that are offering deals or promos on transfer fees.

First, the big news – Scotia iTrade is offering 100 days of commission free trading (no caps) with a deposit of $50,000 for new account holders and 100 days of FlightDesk™ for free. As far as throwing down the deal gauntlet, Scotia iTrade has certainly sent a message to other Canadian discount brokerages that is going to be hard to beat. Of course if you don’t have $50,000 burning a hole in your pocket or if 100 days of commission-free unlimited trades isn’t your thing, Scotia iTrade is still offering their 100 free trades + 60 days of free FlightDesk™.

*Update (Oct.10/12)* Disnat has also launched a deal this month celebrating their 30th anniversary.  For a deposit of  $50,000, Disnat is offering $300 in commission credits which are good for up to 6 months.  This offer is open to new clients and existing clients.

For more modest deposit sizes, Virtual Brokers has extended (again) its 150 free trades offer with a deposit of $25,000, and Questrade has two 100 free trade offers to choose from with a qualifying balance of $10,000.  National Bank Direct Brokerage is still running its “commission holiday” and refer-a-friend promos.  A much, much more modest promotion is being offered by Credential Direct for clients of North Shore Credit Union – 5 free trades and a credit ($125)for transfer-out fees. If you have $150,000 or more to open an account with, BMO Investorline is still running its 150/150 promotion where you get cash and trade credits, as well as their Refer-a-Friend promotion.

For the active traders, we are still running the exclusive Sparx Trading deal with Jitneytrade which gives you discounted commission pricing and discounts on the Realtick trading platform. For more info on the Jitneytrade promotion you can click here

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promos

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Commission/Cash Offer Type Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Details Link Deadline
Jitney Trade A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with 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 (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
Credential Direct If you are a client of North Shore Credit Union, you can qualify for 5 free trades as well as a $125 transfer fee credit to cover transfer fees from another discount brokerage ($10,000 minimum transfer in value). To qualify, you must enter NSCU-05Trades on your application. $10,000 5 free trades must use trades by Feb. 28/2013 North Shore Credit Union Promo December 31, 2012
Get up to 100 free trades when you fund an account with a minimum of $10,000. You must open this account by October 30, 2012 and fund it with $10 000 within 30 days of account activation to qualify. You must enter promo code “100FREEQ”. There are quite a few other details, including a minimum balance requirement, so be sure to check the details link. $10,000 100 free trades ($495 value @ cheapest commission rate) 60 days 100 Free Trades October 30, 2012
As part of the Questrade Advantage program, deposit $10,000 into a new account by October 30th, 2012 and you can get 100 free trades. Enter the promo code “100ADVL” in the application online. Note that the advantage program requires you to sign up for a data package (currently $89.95/month) the fees for which vary according to trading activity. See details link for terms and conditions on pricing. $10,000 100 free trades ($495 value @ cheapest commission rate) 60 days Questrade Advantage Promo October 30, 2012
TD Waterhouse Open an account with $25,000 or more and receive 10 free trades. This offer is only valid at the downtown Vancouver TD Waterhouse Investor Centre. 10 trades must be completed within 6 months of account opening; reimbursement based on $9.99 commission rate. $25,000 10 free trades 6 months scanned photo of flyer none
Scotia iTrade Open and fund a new Scotia iTRADE account with at least $25,000 before December 31, 2012 and the commissions associated with your first 100 trades placed within 60 days of the date the account is activated and funded. Also, the new FlightDesk platform is being offered for free for 60 days. See details link for further terms and conditions. $25,000 100 free trades ($999 value @ $9.99 commission rate) 60 days Scotia iTrade 100 free trades + FlightDesk December 31, 2012
Open a new account with $25,000 before December 31, 2012 and receive 150 trades free. (Applies to the first 150 trades placed within 60 days of account opening at a maximum of $6.49 per trade with a total maximum value of $973) $25,000 150 free trades ($973 value @ $6.49 commission rate) 60 days New Account Promo December 31, 2012
Open and fund a new account with National Bank Direct Brokerage with $25 000 or more, and you can receive up to $750 in commission reimbursements. To qualify you must use the promo code “REGISTERED2012” in the general information section of the application form. Reimbursements will be paid in either January or April 2013 depending on date account is opened. See the terms & conditions link for more information. $25,000 $750 commission credit 90 days Commission Holiday Promo October 31, 2012
If you are an existing National Bank Direct Brokerage client and you refer someone to join, you each get $100. To qualify, the referred account must transfer at least $25,000 from another financial institution. If at least $25,000 is transferred, up to $135 of the transfer fee is covered. Use the promo code “FRIEND” when opening the account $25,000 $100 (friend) $100 (referrer bonus) n/a Refer a Friend October 31, 2012
Open an account with either: A) $25,000 or more and receive a $100 cash credit and 25 free equity trades. or B) $50,000 or more to receive $200 cash back and 50 free equity trades. A) $25,000 B) $50,000+ A) $100 cash credit + 25 free equity trades ($823.75 (min)total value @ standard equity rate $28.95) B) $200 Cash credit +50 free equity trades ($697.50 total value @ active trader rate $9.95) 60 days Cash back offer December 31, 2012
BMO InvestorLine Existing BMO Investorline clients who refer a ‘friend’ who then opens an account, (and the “friend” too) can qualify for a cash bonus, depending on the deposit amount. For deposits of between $50,000 and $249,999, the referral bonus is $200 and the “friend” receives $50; for deposits of over $250,000 the referral bonus is $300 the “friend” receives $100. To qualify for the deal, the referral reference code needs to be included in the application – see the details link for terms and conditions. $50,000 $50 cash (friend) $200 cash (referrer bonus) 60 days (see details) Refer a Friend Promo December 31, 2012
Scotia iTrade Open one or more new Scotia iTrade account(s) by November 16, 2012 with at least $50,000 in cash or net equity and receive 100 days of commission free trades. Also, you get to try FlightDesk free for100 days. To qualify you must enter promo code ” F’12 OFFER” when submitting new account application. See details link for more information. $50,000 unlimited free trades 100 days 100 Days Commission-Free November 16, 2012
Disnat Disnat is celebrating its 30th anniversary by 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 Disnat30. See details link for more info. $50,000 $300 commission credit 6 months Disnat 30th Anniversary Promo December 31, 2012
BMO InvestorLine Open a new account with $150,000 or more (or for existing clients make a deposit of $150,000 or more) and get $150 cash back and 150 free trades. Use the promo code BONUS when opening a new account (or when making a new deposit of $150,000 or more). See the details link for qualifying account types and conditions. $150,000 $150 cash 150 free trades ($1492.50 value 60 days 150/150 Promotion October 31, 2012

Transfer Fee Deals

Below are the discount brokerages that are offering deals that cover transfer out fees from other discount brokerages.

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
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 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
Virtual Brokers will cover transfer fees from your transferring institution to a maximum of $150 per account. This offer is only applicable to accounts opened with at least $25,000 in equity before December 31, 2012. $150 $25,000 Transfer Fee Promo December 31, 2012
Qtrade Investor Qtrade Investor will reimburse your transfer fee up to $125 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. $125 $25,000 Transfer Fee Promo none
Disnat Disnat is celebrating its 30th anniversary by 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 Disnat30. See details link for more info. $150 $50,000 Disnat 30th Anniversary Promo December 31, 2012
Credential Direct If you are a client of North Shore Credit Union, you can qualify for a $125 transfer fee credit to cover transfer fees from another discount brokerage ($10,000 minimum transfer in value). To qualify, you must enter NSCU-05Trades on your application. $125 $10,000 North Shore Credit Union Promo December 31, 2012
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – Sept. 28/12

Discount Brokerage Weekly roundup:

This week, we learned of a couple of major developments in the Canadian discount brokerage marketplace that  are likely to reshape the competitive landscape.  First, the major news that optionsXpress Canada is putting a hold on opening new Canadian accounts.  We found out from optionsXpress that out that for now this is a temporary measure while Schwab, the parent company of optionsXpress Canada, evaluates its overall business units.  While one discount brokerage was pausing, another one was readying to launch a long awaited product  back into the marketplace.  TD Waterhouse discount brokerage is readying itself for the relaunch of thinkorswim Canada. The ultrapopular stock and options trading platform has been on hold for some time now, but according to thinkorswim Canada reps, they will potentially be accepting new clients again starting in October 2012.

Canadian Discount Brokerage Tweet of the week:

This week saw a lot of great tweets put forward by several discount brokerages.  The winner this week (by a slim margin) goes to @questrade for the article on investing in ETFs [Do you trade mutual funds or ETFs? Give this a read:http://bit.ly/NAv7y5#TheExchange …]

Honorable mention goes to @jitneytrade for finding a  great article on the evolving capacity of global exchanges (http://bit.ly/OuyCI1)

Event Horizon:

Options Education Day is taking place in Toronto this Saturday (event details can be found here).  If the food there was as good as it was at the Vancouver session, the Toronto folks will be well rewarded for going to school on a Saturday.

The people have spoken:

The recent launch and migration of Questrade clients over to the IQ platform has been met with mixed reviews.  Change isn’t always an easy thing for clients to navigate – and this thread in the Red Flag Deals personal finance forum shows the “support” and “resistance” to the switchover.