Tag: Desjardins Online Brokerage

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – October 2018

Now that October is here, there are some unbe-leaf-able deals for DIY investors. Corny puns aside, the fall crop of Canadian discount brokerage deals is packed with a great selection of cash back and commission-free trading offers. With the entry of a popular bank-owned brokerage into the deals race, other online brokerages are certain to take notice.

To kick things off for the new month, the official start to the month came with a couple of important deal extensions from BMO InvestorLine, SmartFolio and Desjardins Online Brokerage. Also on the welcome manifest, a cash back promotion from CIBC Investor’s Edge exclusively for SparxTrading.com readers.

Overall, transfer offers and commission-free trade promotions are still the most popular choice for online brokerages. With two very noteworthy names now offering cash back promos, DIY investors looking for a deal will have a couple of strong options to consider from the 20+ deals listed. As with all things related to trading, be sure to look over the fine print and terms of the offers being consider.

Expired Deals

With summer officially in the books, HSBC InvestDirect also packed up and put away their summer commission-free trade promo. Unfortunately for HSBC InvestDirect, this promotion was seriously overshadowed by the announcement from Wealthsimple Trade that commission-free trading was going to launch in Canada. In fact, most commission-free offers are going to have a harder time stacking up against the full commission-free experience being promoted by WealthSimple trade.

Extended Deals

BMO InvestorLine’s cash back promotion has been extended out for yet another month. This past September marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of InvestorLine so we’re glad to see that their cash back promotion also got a chance to enjoy the party just a little bit longer. The new expiry date for BMO InvestorLine’s cash back promotion is October 31st.

Also extended from BMO is the SmartFolio 0.5% cash back promotional offer. Like the BMO InvestorLine extension, the new expiry date for SmartFolio’s promotion is October 31st.

Desjardins Online Brokerage kept its long-running commission credit offer going for one more month. The new deadline for this popular promotion is now October 31st, 2018.

New deals

CIBC Investor’s Edge stepped onto the deals and promotions field in a big way at the end of September by launching an exclusive cash back promotion for SparxTrading.com readers. This offer, which comes with a custom Sparx Trading promo code, is the first major bank-owned online brokerage promotion to carry on well into the new year – a sign that CIBC Investor’s Edge is quite confident in the competitiveness of this cash back offer.

Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Details Link Deadline
Jitney Trade A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with Jitneytrade and receive access to their preferred pricing package. n/a Discounted Commission Rates none For more details click here none
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive $88 in commission credits (up to 17 commission-free trades). Use promo code SPARX88 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 $88 commission credit 60 days Access this offer by clicking here: $88 commission-credit offer . For full terms and conditions, click here. none
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 5 commission-free trades 60 days 5 commission-free trade offer December 31, 2018
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering new clients 1% of assets transferred into the new account in the form of commission credits (to a maximum value of $1,000). Minimum qualifying deposit is $10,000. To qualify, individuals will have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer or email: [email protected]. See details link for more info. $10,000 1% of assets transferred in the form of commission-credits (max credits: $1,000) 6 months Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo October 31, 2018
Open and fund a new qualifying account with CIBC Investor’s Edge with a deposit of at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000 or C) $100,00+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back bonus of A) $100; B) $200 or C) $400. This offer is open to both new and existing clients. Use offer code SPARX18 when opening the account to obtain this offer. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for complete details. A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 A) $100 B) $200 C) $400 Cash back will be deposited on the week of March 24, 2019 for transfers received by December 31, 2018; transfers received after December 31, 2018 but before May 1, 2019 will receive cash back on the week of July 1, 2019. CIBC Investor’s Edge Cash Back Promo March 24, 2019
Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $25,000 commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data. 1 month Active Trader Program December 31, 2018
BMO InvestorLine Open a new account or fund an existing account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $100,000; C) $300,000 or D) $500,000+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $75; B) $200; C) $500 or D) $1000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $50,000 B) $100,000 C) $300,000 D) $500,000+ A) $75 B) $200 C) $500 D) $1000 Cash back will be deposited the week of April 15, 2019. BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign October 31, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Oct. 1, 2018 22:00 PT

Referral Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Incentive Structure Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit Details Link Deadline
Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements. A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+ $25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days) Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759 none
If you (an existing Qtrade Investor client) refer a new client to Qtrade Investor and they open an account with at least $1,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $25 cash. See terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 $25 cash back (for both referrer and referee) Cash deposited at the end of the month in which referee’s account funded Refer A Friend to Qtrade Investor none
Scotia iTrade If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTRADE account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link. A) $10,000 B) $50,000+ A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50) 60 days Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade tbd
BMO InvestorLine If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $5,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details. $5,000 You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50 Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period (subject to conditions). BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend January 2, 2019

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Oct. 1, 2018 22:15 PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered. 152.55 $15,000 Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information. none
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees. $135 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150. $150 $25,000 Transfer Fee Promo none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463). none
Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made. $135 $25,000 Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343). none
Disnat Disnat is offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info. $150 $50,000 Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo October 31, 2018
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account, by transferring in at least $200,000+ in net new assets and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Use promo code SPARXCASH when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer. $200 $200,000 BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign September 3, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Oct. 5, 2018 17:15 PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage, in conjunction with MoneyTalks, is offering 3 months of the “Inside Edge” investor information service to Desjardins Online Brokerage clients. Use promo code DESJ2016 during checkout to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for more information. n/a MoneyTalks Inside Edge Discount none
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering $50 in commission credits for new Disnat Classic clients depositing at least $1,000. See terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 Broker@ge 18-30 Promotion none
Scotia iTrade Scotiabank StartRight customers can receive 10 commission-free trades when investing $1,000 or more in a new Scotia iTrade account. Trades are good for use for up to 1 year from the date the account is funded. Use promo code SRPE15 when applying (in English) or SRPF15 when applying in French. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 StartRight Free Trade offer none

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Oct. 1, 2018 22:15 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open and fund a new or existing SmartFolio account with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $1000. Use promo code PROMO1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion. $1,000 0.5% cash back to a maximum of $1000. PROMO1000 October 31, 2018 SmartFolio Cash Back Promo
Discounted Management Open a new account with BMO SmartFolio and receive one year of management of up to $15,000 free. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 1 year no management fees STSF April 30, 2019 SmartFolio New Account Promotion
Cash Back – Referral BMO SmartFolio clients will receive $50 cash back for every friend or family member who opens and funds a new SmartFolio account. Friends and family referred to SmartFolio will receive $50 cash back for opening and funding an account, plus automatic enrollment into SmartFolio’s mass offer in market at the time. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 $50 cash back (referrer) $50 cash back (referee) Unique link generated from SmartFolio required. None SmartFolio Website
Transfer Fee Coverage Transfer at least $25,000 into Virtual Wealth when opening a new account and you may be eligible to have up to $150 in transfer fees covered by Virtual Wealth. $25,000 up to $150 in transfer fees covered None None Contact customer service directly for more information.
Last Updated: Oct. 1, 2018 22:15 PT
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – September 14, 2018

There’s no doubt that when big weather events happen, people pay attention. With announcements of feature releases and new offers at Canadian and US online brokerages happening at a greater frequency and intensity, it appears as if a significant storm of activity is brewing into the tail end of 2018.

In this edition of the roundup we take a look at some very big moves being telegraphed by one of Canada’s largest online brokerages and what that means for all the players on the online brokerage field heading into 2019. Next, we review the latest Canadian online brokerage rankings from a popular rating agency and unpack a surprising turn of events in the industry this past year. As always, we’ll close out the roundup with a healthy dose of tweets and forum posts from Canadian DIY investors.

Let’s get digital: TD Direct Investing continues to invest in digitization of wealth management

This past week, one of Canada’s largest online brokerages, TD Direct Investing, announced that they are planning to launch some bold digital initiatives in 2019.  In doing so, TD’s online brokerage arm has doled out a healthy dose of market moving news that is bound to get the attention of DIY investors and competitors across the online trading spectrum. In a space where most of the moves are incremental, TD Direct Investing’s latest announcement feels more like a step change in the industry rather than just another small step forward.

In a week peppered with interesting stories and developments about discount brokerages, there are a number of reasons why TD Direct Investing’s announcement, which was published on September 12th, was exceptionally interesting and relevant to the online brokerage space in Canada.

The first and undeniably the most important was what the news release said.

The content of the release laid out a vision for the digital wealth management experience that TD Direct Investing clients can expect to see unfold in 2019. Included in that digital experience is the mention of digital wealth planning tools in the early part of the year as well as TD’s own robo-advisor platform that will also include TD’s own ETFs which is set to launch in the latter portion of next year.

While we don’t want to gloss over the enormity of what it means to the online brokerage space in Canada to have robo-advice hit this kind of scale, there are so many angles to this move that for this roundup, we’ll focus on some of the important details that are also worth mentioning.  As this story continues to unfold, we’ll be exploring more of what the details of the services will include, especially what a “complete, end-to-end digital investing experience” refers to.

Aside from the release of new features, another very important angle to the news release this week is that TD Direct Investing is announcing what their intentions are for some very ambitious projects. The story here is that like most other online brokerages, TD Direct Investing has historically played their cards very close to their vest. That they would not only announce multiple technology features but also put even a general timeline on those features going live signals their confidence in those programs hitting the launch windows and it signals that TD might be taking a different approach on sharing what’s in the TDDI workshop.

As technology companies are well aware of, a little bit of prelaunch buzz is what gets people curious and excited to see what actually rolls out. Historically, however, services or features in development at Canada’s discount brokerages tended not to get much of a spotlight, let alone a news release and a coordinated social media publication. So, it is clear that something has shifted with regards to ‘sharing’ information relating to development of new features.

On that note, it was particularly interesting to see a senior executive at BMO Wealth Management ‘like’ a post made by the President of TD Direct Investing (Paul Clark) about the launch of these new services on LinkedIn.

Perhaps this move by TD Direct Investing is signaling a shift in identity from being a “financial services” firm towards more of a technology firm, thus fitting more naturally into a ‘fintech’ way of operating.

A third important implication of this news release is the fact that the technology stack TD Direct Investing is choosing to integrate into their own technology stack appears to be future-proofing to some degree.

The technology provider TD Direct Investing announced they’d be working with, Hydrogen Technology Corporation, a platform that enables APIs to be developed as well as blockchain connectivity/support and uses AI/machine learning to garner insights on client behaviour. That very potent combination of technologies means TD Direct Investing can learn more about their clients’ financial services needs and, with the breadth of services under the TD umbrella, find a way to connect the right product to the right people at the right time – at least that appears to be the plan.

For clients, it means a feature-rich platform with analytics and a user experience suited for younger investors who are particular about the look, feel and function of technology platforms.

Of course, then there’s the option in the future to readily connect to blockchain-powered financial instruments, something that might come to market sooner than anyone can really predict. As such, TD Direct Investing appears to have an edge in equipping themselves with a technology layer geared towards ensuring they can connect to the technologies of tomorrow with the WebBroker interface.

Aside from the abovementioned key points, there are still numerous implications and interesting angles to this announcement.

Without question, TD Direct Investing’s latest move is a big deal and will command the attention of the rest of the Canadian online brokerage market. And, it seems like TD Direct Investing’s competitors will have their work cut out for them.

According to an article published in the Globe and Mail this week, TD has invested $125 million into its WebBroker trading platform in preparation for new trading features and capabilities. By comparison, the acquisition of the entirety of BBS Securities (including subsidiary Virtual Brokers) last year by CI Financial (coincidentally another client of Hydrogen Technology Corp) cost about $38 million. Simply put, smaller online brokerages or those without deep technology budgets or talented tech teams are up against a formidable competitor in TD Direct Investing.

Prudently, TD Direct Investing has mentioned that these changes will take place in phases and, since approximate timetables have been given, there is enough slack and wiggle room to accommodate the surprise delays that inevitably accompany any technology project. Even so, there is little doubt that this move by TD Direct Investing, regardless of what the final products looks or functions like, will have competitors scrambling to mobilize and DIY investors (clients especially) eager to take TD Direct Investing’s new digital platforms for a test drive.

BMO InvestorLine Ranked #1 by J.D. Power for 2018

With 2018 heading into its final stretch, the annual discount brokerage “rankings season” starts to kick things up a notch. This past week, J.D. Power released the results of their latest rankings of Canadian discount brokers (based on investor satisfaction) with BMO InvestorLine coming out on top of the field in terms of investor satisfaction.

While the Investor Satisfaction study provides a snapshot in the current year of how the field of online brokerages compare to one another, we’ve been tracking results from this survey data since 2013 and as such, this year’s results present a very interesting picture both in terms of 2018 as well as how 2018 compares to previous years.

Included in this year’s rankings are 8 of Canada’s most popular online brokerages:

Curiously, neither Qtrade Investor nor HSBC InvestDirect made it into the published rankings for this year, something that has not happened since 2014. Also not present were Virtual Brokers or Interactive Brokers, neither of whom have made it into the published results.

The big story for the 2018 online brokerage rankings from J.D. Power is the relative underperformance of Canada’s online brokerages compared to previous years. In fact, this year’s average score of 723 is the lowest since we’ve measured, beating out 2013’s score of 724 and clearly snaps an uptrend that was in place since 2015.

To unpack why that might be the case, there are also some additional observations worth noting.

First, two firms that have consistently battled for podium finishes over the past five years, National Bank Direct Brokerage and Desjardins Online Brokerage, finished uncharacteristically lower than “usual”.  Granted, Desjardins Online did tie for second place this year, however, when looking at both of these firms’ average scores since 2013, Desjardins Online Brokerage and National Bank Direct Brokerage are virtually tied at 752 and 753 points respectively. Most years one or both of these firms have handily beat their competitors and their average scores far outpace just about everyone else except BMO InvestorLine, whose 6-year average score ranks third overall at 746.

Data sourced from J.D. Power Website

Digging a little deeper into the numbers, the standard deviation of those scores, a measure of how variable those scores have been over that time period, reveals that BMO InvestorLine is actually one of the most consistent firms in terms of investor satisfaction scores with a standard deviation of 13 points. TD Direct Investing, who was ranked second last in 2018, was also tied with BMO InvestorLine in terms of volatility of investor satisfaction scores over that same timeframe. The firm with the highest variation in satisfaction scores over the same period was Qtrade Investor (28 points) because of their strong uptick in 2017 followed by Desjardins Online Brokerage (24 points).

As such, even though BMO InvestorLine’s investor satisfaction scores decreased compared to last year, they were, on a relative basis, higher than their peers in 2018. Finishing behind BMO InvestorLine this year were CIBC Investor’s Edge and Desjardins Online Brokerage. And, at the other end of the list, Scotia iTRADE finished last in terms of investor satisfaction with a score of 717.

Another interesting trend with regards to the performance of online brokerages in terms of investor satisfaction is that the range between the highest and lowest scores continues to narrow. In 2013 and 2014, for example, the range between the top and bottom scores was 64 points however in 2018 that range has compressed to just 22 points.

As was referenced in the roundup a couple of weeks ago for the Kiplinger rankings of US online brokerages, for Canadian online brokerages it appears that on the whole, the differences between online brokerages is diminishing – in this case when it comes to investors being satisfied with the full set of attributes measured.

For Canada’s online brokerages, the message is pretty clear: there needs to be strong differentiators in place to prevent them from becoming viewed as a ‘commoditized’ service. In other words, there needs to be greater emphasis on what makes being a client of one online brokerage feel more ‘special’ (read: valuable) than another.

To BMO InvestorLine’s credit, their consistency has paid off. With relatively strong investor satisfaction scores in the past, in a year when the competition stumbled, and investor satisfaction waned, their current mix of services still holds currency with their clients. At least for 2018, slow and steady has won the race.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Function Over Form

With so many online brokerages out there these days, it can be tricky to keep up with who offers which feature and who doesn’t. In the end, getting a user from A to B reliably appears to be the driving force. This forum thread from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada section highlighted the mobile experiences between CIBC Investor’s Edge and TD Direct Investing. See what interesting feedback others had to offer.

A Head Start

From robo-advisors, to couch potatoes to plain old mutual funds, choices for ‘passive’ investing are easier than ever, which, ironically might make choosing more challenging. One young investor looking to grow their TFSA asked about these options in this post in reddit’s Personal Finance Canada forum. The questions were met with a wealth of knowledge and advice on navigating student loan repayments, interest fees as well as useful information on robo-advisors and ETF fees. Worth a read.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another wild week inside and outside of the markets. Optimistically, there’s lots to look forward to heading into the weekend, including news that there will be the first ever Space tourist and, of course, that NFL football is back. Wherever your adventures boldly take you, we hope you have a great weekend.

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – September 2018

*Updated Sept. 24.* September is officially here. And, along with pumpkin spice everything, the Canadian discount brokerage deals and promotions section is also going to get bold, rich and flavourful. Ok, maybe not that last one, but nonetheless this month is going to shape up to be a very busy one as far as promotions go.

The good news is that we know from a number of different sources, that promotions are on their way this month. The not-so-good news is that we’re not sure exactly when. But sit tight, because as in the stock market where higher prices beget higher prices; when it comes to promotions – more deals lead to more deals.

Kicking off the month, there is nothing crossing the wires as of September 1st. In fact, technically speaking, the expiry of Scotia iTRADE’s promotion (and accompanying transfer offer) at the end of August puts the deals count down by two heading into the new month. Not to worry though. Since it is a long weekend and there is a promotion timed to expire on September 3rd from BMO InvestorLine, there’s a good chance that the return to work and school will bring with it at least one new offering announcement.

Throughout last month, however, there were two very noteworthy deals and promotions developments that are worth highlighting here.

First, Qtrade Investor launched a refer-a-friend promotional offer. This was big news as this program now enables Qtrade to take advantage of their stellar service reputation (which is very helpful when it comes to referral programs) and it positions them to compete directly against the very small group of online brokerages who also have referral bonuses.

The second important deals development last month came from HSBC InvestDirect, which launched a commission-free trading promotion that lasts until the end of September. Of course, no sooner did the HSBC InvestDirect deal make it to their public facing website than Wealthsimple Trade rattle the Canadian discount brokerage space by offering up commission-free trading – period.

In fact, the latest move by Wealthsimple Trade means that a once popular category of “commission-free” trade deals could itself see some important changes.

It’s too soon to tell however Wealthsimple Trade could result in commission-free trade offers evaporating altogether or if some hybrid/better solution comes along. After all, the optics of 30 trades which are good for only 60 days doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as free trades, forever.

What may be a more likely development is that the value or flexibility of commission-free trades might expand or, hopefully, we’ll start to see online brokerages compete more often with cash-back offerings in which case, larger online brokerages have a golden opportunity to outspend their competitors.

The bottom line, September is going to be very interesting for deal-seeking DIY investors, and if the markets continue their push upwards, a rewarding time to be an online brokerage too. That certainly puts a little extra spice on already bold selection of offers.

As always, if there are offers that we haven’t spotted that would be good for other DIY Investors to know about, let us know in the comments section below.

Expired Deals

Scotia iTRADE’s cash back offer for existing clients expired at the end of August. This promotion offered a prepaid Visa card ranging in value from $100 to $1,500 for deposits between $25,000 and $1M+.

Extended Deals

*Update Sept. 5 – BMO InvestorLine has extended the deadline for their current cash back offer to September 30th.*

There are no extensions to report at this time.

New Deals

*Update Sept. 24 – The first new deals of the official fall season have arrived. CIBC Investor’s Edge has launched a cash-back offer exclusively for SparxTrading.com readers. This promotional offer, which runs until March of 2019, consists of a $100, $200 or $400 cash back for opening a new CIBC Investor’s Edge account. Both new clients and existing clients may be eligible for this offer. See table below for more information*

*Update Sept. 5 – This is an exciting development, BMO InvestorLine has lowered the minimum deposit requirement substantially to qualify for their referral offer. The new minimum deposit requirement is $5,000 (reduced from $50,000), which makes it much easier to qualify for a referral bonus. See table below for more information.*

There are no new deals to report at the start of the month. As mentioned above, both Qtrade Investor and HSBC InvestDirect joined the deals roster through the middle of August. Stay tuned, though, as there are several offers in the works scheduled to arrive this September.

Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Details Link Deadline
Jitney Trade A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with Jitneytrade and receive access to their preferred pricing package. n/a Discounted Commission Rates none For more details click here none
Open and fund a new account at HSBC InvestDirect and you may be eligible to receive up to 30 commission-free equity trades (North American equities only). See terms and conditions for full details. n/a 30 commission-free trades 60 days Click to access HSBC InvestDirect Summer Promotion September 28, 2018
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive $88 in commission credits (up to 17 commission-free trades). Use promo code SPARX88 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 $88 commission credit 60 days Access this offer by clicking here: $88 commission-credit offer . For full terms and conditions, click here. none
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 5 commission-free trades 60 days 5 commission-free trade offer December 31, 2018
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering new clients 1% of assets transferred into the new account in the form of commission credits (to a maximum value of $1,000). Minimum qualifying deposit is $10,000. To qualify, individuals will have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer or email: [email protected]. See details link for more info. $10,000 1% of assets transferred in the form of commission-credits (max credits: $1,000) 6 months Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo October 31, 2018
Open and fund a new qualifying account with CIBC Investor’s Edge with a deposit of at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000 or C) $100,00+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back bonus of A) $100; B) $200 or C) $400. This offer is open to both new and existing clients. Use offer code SPARX18 when opening the account to obtain this offer. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for complete details. A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 A) $100 B) $200 C) $400 Cash back will be deposited on the week of March 24, 2019 for transfers received by December 31, 2018; transfers received after December 31, 2018 but before May 1, 2019 will receive cash back on the week of July 1, 2019. CIBC Investor’s Edge Cash Back Promo March 24, 2019
Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $25,000 commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data. 1 month Active Trader Program December 31, 2018
BMO InvestorLine Open a new account or fund an existing account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $100,000; C) $300,000 or D) $500,000+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $75; B) $200; C) $500 or D) $1000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $50,000 B) $100,000 C) $300,000 D) $500,000+ A) $75 B) $200 C) $500 D) $1000 Cash back will be deposited the week of April 15, 2019. BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign September 30, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Sep. 24, 2018 22:00 PT

Referral Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Incentive Structure Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit Details Link Deadline
Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements. A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+ $25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days) Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759 none
If you (an existing Qtrade Investor client) refer a new client to Qtrade Investor and they open an account with at least $1,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $25 cash. See terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 $25 cash back (for both referrer and referee) Cash deposited at the end of the month in which referee’s account funded Refer A Friend to Qtrade Investor none
Scotia iTrade If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTRADE account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link. A) $10,000 B) $50,000+ A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50) 60 days Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade tbd
BMO InvestorLine If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $5,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details. $5,000 You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50 Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period (subject to conditions). BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend January 2, 2019

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Sep. 5, 2018 09:30 PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees. $135 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150. $150 $25,000 Transfer Fee Promo none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463). none
Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made. $135 $25,000 Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343). none
Disnat Disnat is offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info. $150 $50,000 Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo October 31, 2018
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account, by transferring in at least $200,000+ in net new assets and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Use promo code SPARXCASH when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer. $200 $200,000 BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign September 3, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Sep. 21, 2018 1:15 PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage, in conjunction with MoneyTalks, is offering 3 months of the “Inside Edge” investor information service to Desjardins Online Brokerage clients. Use promo code DESJ2016 during checkout to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for more information. n/a MoneyTalks Inside Edge Discount none
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering $50 in commission credits for new Disnat Classic clients depositing at least $1,000. See terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 Broker@ge 18-30 Promotion none
Scotia iTrade Scotiabank StartRight customers can receive 10 commission-free trades when investing $1,000 or more in a new Scotia iTrade account. Trades are good for use for up to 1 year from the date the account is funded. Use promo code SRPE15 when applying (in English) or SRPF15 when applying in French. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 StartRight Free Trade offer none

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Sep. 1, 2018 12:15 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open and fund a new or existing SmartFolio account with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $1000. Use promo code PROMO1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion. $1,000 0.5% cash back to a maximum of $1000. PROMO1000 September 30, 2018 SmartFolio Cash Back Promo
Discounted Management Open a new account with BMO SmartFolio and receive one year of management of up to $15,000 free. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 1 year no management fees STSF April 30, 2019 SmartFolio New Account Promotion
Cash Back – Referral BMO SmartFolio clients will receive $50 cash back for every friend or family member who opens and funds a new SmartFolio account. Friends and family referred to SmartFolio will receive $50 cash back for opening and funding an account, plus automatic enrollment into SmartFolio’s mass offer in market at the time. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 $50 cash back (referrer) $50 cash back (referee) Unique link generated from SmartFolio required. None SmartFolio Website
Transfer Fee Coverage Transfer at least $25,000 into Virtual Wealth when opening a new account and you may be eligible to have up to $150 in transfer fees covered by Virtual Wealth. $25,000 up to $150 in transfer fees covered None None Contact customer service directly for more information.
Last Updated: Sep. 11, 2018 09:05 PT
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 24, 2018

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. There’s certainly been no shortage of smoke as fires rage across the country, however, in the online brokerage space, it appears that commissions are definitely smoldering and set to touch off a fire sale in the coming months.

In this week’s roundup, we take a look at a major US-based financial services provider that just went all in on zero-commission trading fees. From there, we provide a quick scan of some small but interesting developments in the Canadian discount brokerage space that crossed our radar in the week. As always, we close out the roundup with interesting chatter from DIY investors in forums and on Twitter.

J.P. Morgan Drives Trading Commissions Down to Zero

Just when you thought that things couldn’t get any wilder in the battle for DIY investors, this past week yet another financial services provider has decided that trading commissions should be a thing of the past.

Unlike last week’s announcement by Wealthsimple Trade to drop online trading commission fees to zero here in Canada, when J.P. Morgan announced this past week that they too would be deploying commission-free trading in US, the publicly traded online brokerages swiftly lost a collective $5.5B in market cap.

J.P. Morgan’s new platform, called “You Invest” offers users 100 free trades in the first year and those who retain at least $15,000 receive 100 free trades per year thereafter. Higher net worth clients are eligible to receive unlimited commission-free trading. Those with less than $15,000 or who use up their commission-free trades will be charged $2.95 per trade, which is about half price of where commissions are generally at the big US online brokerages. In a nutshell, pricing for trading online in the US is set to get much cheaper.

The latest move by J.P. Morgan is bound to redraw the map on online brokerage pricing in the US.

JP Morgan, late to mobile trading, eyes a splash with its new app from CNBC.

On the zero-commission trading side, Robinhood, which up until now enjoyed no competition with commission-free stock trading, is bound to have to get even more creative to build its brand and attract new clients at the blistering pace it has been doing so. With a player that has the size, reputation and reach J.P. Morgan does, Robinhood is facing quite the opponent.

At the other end of the spectrum, the larger online brokerages in the US such as Schwab, TD Ameritrade and E*Trade Financial are also bracing themselves for the inevitable price drop. Interestingly enough, while trading commissions are important, firms such as Schwab and Ameritrade may be better positioned to contend with a ‘zero-commission’ player because they have diversified their revenue streams so that they are not exclusively reliant on trading commission fees. And, for firms like Interactive Brokers, whose fees are already quite low, the impact may not be as drastic.

The conversation surrounding J.P. Morgan’s latest move certainly mirrors many of the same points being made here in Canada regarding Wealthsimple Trade. One of the biggest challenges to the ‘free trading’ platforms is that they have to learn to accommodate and support the active and somewhat active trader. In the case of J.P. Morgan, offering up 100 commission-free trades per year is a signal that they’re interested in the ‘occasional’ or passive investor, however even this tier of investor expects a feature set that helps to navigate the maze of data surrounding stocks and trading.

Investors who are heavily reliant on advanced or sophisticated trading platform features and order types, for example, may take an interest in the zero-commission pricing but will likely not see the same kind of value in a poor or limited trading experience. Free might not be good enough of a value without alerts, watchlists, stop orders and more. What that implies is that there will undoubtedly be a looming battle over user experience and innovation that will come to dominate how DIY investors on both sides of the border assess what makes a ‘good’ choice for an online broker.

Another crucial component to the zero-commission conversation right now is that the right tools and resources need to be made accessible for DIY investors to actually execute trades and generate order flow. If not, there are going to be lots of zombie accounts sitting with idle deposits. For Wealthsimple, there is already a solution to put idle cash to work. For online brokerages, however, they may have to adopt Interactive Brokers’ approach and simply offer to pay interest on cash balances. Of course, building the right content tools and screeners is much easier said than done. Figuring out how to deliver financial content to an audience that is primarily mobile-first will require reimagining how to address a topic like personal finance in a way that is entertaining, accessible and ultimately value added.

Finally, it is important to note that commission price is one of several ways in which online brokerages derive revenue. If trading commissions go down, perhaps other fees will likely rise to offset the drop, or perhaps online brokerages will choose to ‘unbundle’ their service the way that airline carriers or cable providers have, so that DIY investors can tailor what they pay according to what they use. Of course, this also portends the dreaded baggage fee equivalent – let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Clearly, commission-free trading is quickly becoming a new force for online brokerages to have to contend with. That said, investors will have to pay in some way shape or form for the ‘free’ trade. Whether it’s through execution efficiency, currency conversion, margin lending, data platforms or any of the host of other charges, it’s important to ask what the “catch” might be, as there almost certainly is one.

Stay tuned as not only are there Canadian online brokerages who will be mounting a challenge to Wealthsimple Trade, but there are now also likely US online brokerages who’ll be figuring out how best to price a response to zero-commission online trading.

Lightning Roundup

Like a good summer salad, here’s a quick and refreshing medley of online brokerage and investing stories that also crossed our radar this (and last) week.

National Bank Direct Brokerage Pushing Benefits

In a highly competitive landscape, loyalty is becoming an ever more valuable commodity among online brokerages. Earlier this month we noted that National Bank Direct Brokerage had posted their “Distinctive Benefits” offer to their home page. Along with cross-town rivals Desjardins Online Brokerage who have also deployed a similar program, other online brokerages (especially bank-owned brokerages) have programs in place for higher net worth DIY investors. What’s changing is that we might start to see more of those programs find their way into the spotlight.

Interesting Offers for Younger Investors

This week there was also an interesting article from the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick talking about low-cost online investing services. In particular, it appears that there is a reference to an upcoming (yet to be published) offer by CIBC Investor’s Edge which will lower commissions on ETF trades to $5.95 for post-secondary students, as well as waive administration fees on ‘small’ registered and non-registered accounts.

Also revealing in this article was information on RBC’s digital advice/robo-advisor offering, RBC InvestEase, which is waiving management fees (on the first $10,000) for individuals who sign up for a new account by the end of October.

Scotia iTRADE Moving Quietly with USD Accounts

After a very quiet rollout of their new USD registered account offering, clients of Scotia iTRADE received notice via email that Scotia iTRADE has, in fact, gone live with the USD registered account feature. While we expect there to be much louder and more prominent advertising to come, it looks like coverage on this feature is happening at a very measured pace.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Post Before You Leap

There was still lots of chatter this week from forum participants about Wealthsimple. One debt-free user started a discussion on which type of platform he should use to begin his investing journey. Read what others had to say in this Personal Finance Canada reddit thread here.

Mutually Funded

This post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada Section, offered a number of interesting insights for a young DIY investor who wants to convert their parents’ mutual funds to an e-series. Worth a read for some good, plain language clarification on making the switch.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another week. Regardless of what’s happening in politics north or south of the border, markets are powering higher. Seems like the market has more bull than…well you know who. Speaking of good runs, it’s fantasy football season yet again, so if you’re looking to pick even more portfolios, this is prime time to do so. Regardless, with only a few more days left in August and summer nearing the ‘end zone’ be sure to enjoy it and have a wonderful weekend!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 3, 2018

It was a big week for big apples. For the iconic technology firm, there were 1 trillion reasons to celebrate. For the New York Mets, there were probably 1 trillion reasons to explain what went so terribly wrong. Nonetheless, when it comes to comparing apples to apples, we’ve picked a few discount brokerages from the bunch to do some interesting analysis with.

In this edition of the roundup, we take a look at the latest crop of deals from Canada’s discount brokerages as a new month kicks off. From there, we launch into some big picture analysis – first with a continuing thread about content and how one online brokerage appears to be pulling back on it for the moment. Next, we look at some interesting numbers from a US online broker that signals a shift towards the next big revenue drivers for online investing. As usual we’ll cap off the roundup with a look at tweets from DIY investors and what’s making waves in the investor forums.

New Month, New Deals – Sort of

2018 continues to fly by as August – along with the summer weather – is now upon us. With the nicer weather, this is generally the window in which the online brokerages take the opportunity to enjoy said good weather, which might explain the leisurely pace of this month’s discount brokerage deals and promotions activity heading into the new month.

Aside from a one-month extension by Desjardins Online Brokerage of their standing commission credit offer, the deals pool remained steady with no new offers being advertised and no deals expiring heading into the new month. In July, National Bank Direct Brokerage’s offer expired early on in the month leaving 5 brokerages on the field with commission-free trades or cash back offers.

Even though things are relatively quiet at the moment, behind the scenes Canadian discount brokerages appear to be gearing up for a busy fall season. Another detail suggests that brokerages are lining up more activity for September, namely that there are two offers that are also timed to expire at the end of August and the beginning of September.

The cash-back offer from Scotia iTRADE, for example, is scheduled to expire at the end of August which could be convenient point to launch a new offer. Also, BMO InvestorLine has their current cash back offer set to expire in the first week of September, and if history is any indicator, there is likely something being planned to replace it.

So, for any DIY investor looking for a deal when opening an online trading account, the good news is that there are still a handful of interesting cash back or commission-free trade offers to choose from.

For deposit levels between $1,000 and $50,000, Questrade has both a cash back option as well as a commission-free trade offer to choose from. Also, Desjardins Online Brokerage’s offer is applicable for deposits of at least $10,000. Above $50,000, BMO InvestorLine’s cash back offer becomes an option as well as the cash back referral offer from Questrade, however at deposit levels of $100,000+, BMO InvestorLine currently has the highest cash back offer.

Overall, the competitive landscape for Canadian online brokerages, and online investing in general, is shifting, which means deals and promotions are likely to tread water.

With consolidation of Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct still taking place and the absence of a catalyst for pricing pressure or promotional efforts in the DIY trading space itself, Canadian brokerages are, at least for the moment, on cruise control. In all likelihood, brokerages are keeping their marketing budget powder dry for the upcoming fall and winter where the battle for DIY investor deposits and trading activity is sure to be fierce.

Questrade Gears Down on Content

The digital age provides the ability to connect some interesting dots. In keeping with a theme of the past two roundups, we continue to take a look at the evolving nature of content delivery across Canadian discount brokerages and this week turn the spotlight on Questrade.

Over the past two weeks, we noted that Questrade’s blog has started to show signs of activity after being dormant for some time. Now, a blog post or two doesn’t usually signal a trend nor is it the kind of thing that generally makes “news” however the bigger picture here is that content production – specifically content geared towards DIY investors – is something that has historically been a fixture at Questrade. The story here isn’t so much what is happening, but rather, what isn’t.

It is unusual to see a shortage of content activity from Questrade simply because historically they have been active and frequent in this particular endeavour.

We started down this rabbit hole by looking at the Questrade blog which, including the post this week, has a total of 18 posts. The first available post appeared on May 25th, 2017.

The graph above shows the timeline of post activity on the Questrade blog, which appeared somewhat regularly at the outset with the average time between posts between May 25th and October 10th working out to about a post every 11.5 days. The minimum time between posts in that range was 5 days while the maximum was 34.

After October 2017, however, things shifted and the next post took 62 days (at which point there were two posts) followed by the next post after that which took 135 days. Incidentally, a little digging on LinkedIn revealed (perhaps coincidentally) that was the same point in time that Questrade’s manager of content and social media landed a new role at RateHub; another member of the content team went off to RBC in December as well.

But the blog wasn’t the only content section to slow down.

We also saw Twitter activity from July 2017 to July 2018 slow down considerably. Not including tweets about service-related issues, there were approximately 27 tweets in July 2017 compared to 6 in 2018. The tweets last year were largely of personal finance topics whereas this year they seemed to be focused on holidays and media mentions. To be fair, however, Questrade is actively responding to client service issues on Twitter, making it one of the standout online brokerages in this regard. Nonetheless, the change in publishing pace was noticeable.

Finally, the client notifications and new feature developments published to Questrade’s other blog/content space, the Exchange, has also not seen an update since April and no self-direct investing customer notice has been published since February.

What does this all mean and why does this matter?

For starters, while Questrade has seen their content publication slow down, other online brokerages, including and especially several bank-owned online brokerages have ramped up their investor content programs considerably.

This means that the “value” that information and content represents to investors, notably to clients, is somehow absent or muted. On a relative basis, competitor brokerages are pulling ahead of Questrade in terms of compelling content.

Another reason why this is important is because one of the increasingly important metrics for any technology company will be perceived innovation.

Those on the outside looking in will be asking and looking for “what’s new” as a reason to pay attention to a particular brokerage. If an online brokerage appears to be standing still – even if they are doing work behind the scenes – DIY investors won’t have a reason to tune in, which is sure to make some folks at Questrade more than a little discontent.

Interactive Brokers Steering Towards Growth

Sometimes taking a step back and looking at the big picture reveals some fascinating trends. As with the beginning of every month, Interactive Brokers released their trading metrics and, as with every month they’ve reported these metrics (since 2008) they’ve seen growth across a number of important metrics, including and especially the number of accounts. In fact, the growth in new accounts on a month/month basis in July was an enviable 40%.

Despite all of these very healthy metrics, one of the interesting data points that has been trending downwards since 2008 has been the cleared average daily average revenue trades (DARTs) per account (the number trades made by each account). It is perhaps no surprise or cause for concern that the latest figure of 314 is less than half of what it was in 2008 (842) considering that number of accounts has increased ten-fold over that same amount of time – and all of the revenue drivers to go with that.

What is interesting about that shift, however is that it signals, in all likelihood, that fewer trades are being made. This might be a result of a combination of factors such as lower volatility in the market and/or less active traders being drawn into the client mix of Interactive Brokers than has traditionally been the case.

While it may not be ‘news’ to anyone in the industry, it does reinforce that active traders are a valuable segment of the market. They are also just a small fraction of the “investor” pool. Even so, active traders are only going to be really active and attracted to trading when there is volatility and movement in the market.

As a result, being niche is not enough. Online brokerages will need to build scale to survive a lower volatility environment and perhaps ask themselves the tough question as to where online investing – especially at the active segment – is heading in the near to intermediate future?

Perhaps the clearest hint on the direction of active trading is the capitulation by Interactive Brokers to exit the market-making business with the sale of the Timber Hill side of their business. If the pros can’t make money actively trading the market, it begs the question, who can?

The moves being made by Interactive Brokers in both their international expansion as well as the introduction of a credit card, higher interest payments on account balances, lower fees for trading commissions and features such as payroll deposit capability signal that even active trading has its limits when driving profitability at an online brokerage. Revenue from interest/lending appears to be the next revenue-generating chapter as do fees for services – such as managed wealth in the form of robo-advisors.

For Canadian discount brokerages, especially those seeking out active traders, the trend revealed by Interactive Brokers is certainly worth considering. What this also likely might signal is that online brokerages here in Canada may start to shift their user experience efforts towards less active investors who can bring with them considerable investable assets. Funnily enough, that seems close to the same group robo-advisors are also looking to capture.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Safe Keeping

When it comes to online investing, online security is top of mind for many DIY investors. Questrade was in the spotlight in a couple of interesting threads on reddit – the first directly referencing two factor authentication (2FA) being mentioned as being ‘in testing’ and the other which focused on the fine print of the Questrade security guarantee. Worth a read for those interested in security-related features.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for another week. With a long weekend for Canadian investors now on deck, it’s a great time to enjoy and gear down until the ‘fun’ begins again on Monday courtesy of the action stateside. Have a safe and happy long weekend and in the meantime here’s an awe-inspiring look at ways other folks are getting out and enjoying themselves!

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – August 2018

*Updated: Aug. 18* Welcome to the August edition of the discount brokerage deals and promotions section where, at least at the outset, the theme of the month appears to be ‘status quo’.

It is worth noting that unlike most months thus far, August is starting off on a relatively quiet note, with no deals expiring or launching at the outset of the month. And, although nothing new showed up, things weren’t entirely still, as Desjardins Online Brokerage quietly extended their commission-free trade offer forward another month.

For DIY investors, it’s important to note that despite the quiet start to the month, online brokerages are busy working behind the scenes through the summer for what will likely be a very eventful fall. At the end of August Scotia iTRADE’s offer is set to expire and shortly into September BMO InvestorLine’s current promotion is also set to turnover.

As such, we’ll be keeping an eye out for any movement in the deals space through the month, as this would be an ideal window for a brokerage not currently in the deals pool to ‘make a splash.

As always, if there are any offers that you think would be worth sharing for other DIY investors, please let us know in the comments section below.

Extended Deals

Desjardins Online Brokerage was the only online brokerage to officially (and quietly) extend their offer. The new expiry date for their commission-free trade offer is now October 31st, 2018.

Expired Deals

There are no expired deals to report at this time.

New Deals

*Updated: Aug. 18 – HSBC InvestDirect has rolled out a summer promotional offer consisting of 30 commission-free trades. The promo, which stated it officially started in mid-July, looks to have finally been published on the HSBC InvestDirect website, and will run until the end of September. For more information about this deal, be sure to check out the details below. *

*Updated: Aug. 10 – Every now and again, there is a deal or promotion that makes a big splash in the online brokerage space. After a quiet start to the month, Qtrade Investor has definitely kicked the summer deals action back up to sizzling hot as they launched a refer-a-friend program with a cash back bonus. The deal itself offers up $25 cash to both the referrer and referee and requires a minimum deposit of $1,000, however the bigger prize for DIY investors is that is a very popular online brokerage just stepped into the promotions pool with a compelling offer and one that other online brokerages will find hard to ignore. See table below for more details.*

There are no new deals to report at this time.

Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Details Link Deadline
Jitney Trade A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with Jitneytrade and receive access to their preferred pricing package. n/a Discounted Commission Rates none For more details click here none
Open and fund a new account at HSBC InvestDirect and you may be eligible to receive up to 30 commission-free equity trades (North American equities only). See terms and conditions for full details. n/a 30 commission-free trades 60 days Click to access HSBC InvestDirect Summer Promotion September 28, 2018
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive $88 in commission credits (up to 17 commission-free trades). Use promo code SPARX88 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 $88 commission credit 60 days Access this offer by clicking here: $88 commission-credit offer . For full terms and conditions, click here. none
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 5 commission-free trades 60 days 5 commission-free trade offer December 31, 2018
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering new clients 1% of assets transferred into the new account in the form of commission credits (to a maximum value of $1,000). Minimum qualifying deposit is $10,000. To qualify, individuals will have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer or email: [email protected]. See details link for more info. $10,000 1% of assets transferred in the form of commission-credits (max credits: $1,000) 6 months Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo October 31, 2018
Scotia iTrade Open and fund a new account with Scotia iTRADE (or fund an existing account) with at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000; C) $100,000; D) $250,000; E) $500,000 or F) $1M+ and you may be eligible to receive a pre-paid Visa card worth A) $100; B) $200; C) $500; D) $800; E) $1,100 or F) $1,500. Use promo code 18SUM when registering. Be sure to read terms and conditions for more details. NOTE: this offer is open to existing Scotia iTRADE clients only (who were clients prior to May 14, 2018). A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 D) $250,000 E) $500,000 F) $1M+ A) $100 B) $200 C) $500 D) $800 E) $1,100 F) $1,500 pre-paid Visa card will be awarded by Jan. 31, 2019. iTRADE Summer Promo August 31, 2018
Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $25,000 commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data. 1 month Active Trader Program December 31, 2018
BMO InvestorLine Open a new account or fund an existing account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $100,000; C) $300,000 or D) $500,000+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $75; B) $200; C) $500 or D) $1000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $50,000 B) $100,000 C) $300,000 D) $500,000+ A) $75 B) $200 C) $500 D) $1000 Cash back will be deposited the week of April 19, 2019. BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign September 3, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Aug. 18, 2018 00:55 PT

Referral Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Incentive Structure Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit Details Link Deadline
Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements. A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+ $25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days) Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759 none
If you (an existing Qtrade Investor client) refer a new client to Qtrade Investor and they open an account with at least $1,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $25 cash. See terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 $25 cash back (for both referrer and referee) Cash deposited at the end of the month in which referee’s account funded Refer A Friend to Qtrade Investor none
Scotia iTrade If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTRADE account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link. A) $10,000 B) $50,000+ A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50) 60 days Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade tbd
BMO InvestorLine If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $50,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details. $50,000 You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50 Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period(subject to conditions). BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend October 31, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Aug. 10, 2018 21:30 PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees. $135 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $25,000 or more from another brokerage and Credential Direct will cover up to $150 in transfer fees. Use promo code SWITCHME when signing up to qualify for the transfer promotion. $150 $25,000 Credential Direct Transfer Fee Rebate none
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 at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463). none
Scotia iTrade Transfer at least $25,000 in new assets to Scotia iTRADE and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. $150 $25,000 iTRADE Summer Promo August 31, 2018
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 information (1-800-567-3343). none
Disnat Disnat is offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info. $150 $50,000 Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo October 31, 2018
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account, by transferring in at least $200,000+ in net new assets and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Use promo code SPARXCASH when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer. $200 $200,000 BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign September 3, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: August 1, 23:30 PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage, in conjunction with MoneyTalks, is offering 3 months of the “Inside Edge” investor information service to Desjardins Online Brokerage clients. Use promo code DESJ2016 during checkout to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for more information. n/a MoneyTalks Inside Edge Discount none
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering $50 in commission credits for new Disnat Classic clients depositing at least $1,000. See terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 Broker@ge 18-30 Promotion none
Scotia iTrade Scotiabank StartRight customers can receive 10 commission-free trades when investing $1,000 or more in a new Scotia iTrade account. Trades are good for use for up to 1 year from the date the account is funded. Use promo code SRPE15 when applying (in English) or SRPF15 when applying in French. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 StartRight Free Trade offer none

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Aug. 1, 2018 23:30 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open and fund a new or existing SmartFolio account with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $200. Use promo code PROMO1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion. $1,000 0.5% cash back to a maximum of $200. PROMO1000 September 4, 2018 SmartFolio Cash Back Promo
Discounted Management Open a new account with BMO SmartFolio and receive one year of management of up to $15,000 free. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 1 year no management fees STSF April 30, 2019 SmartFolio New Account Promotion
Cash Back – Referral BMO SmartFolio clients will receive $50 cash back for every friend or family member who opens and funds a new SmartFolio account. Friends and family referred to SmartFolio will receive $50 cash back for opening and funding an account, plus automatic enrollment into SmartFolio’s mass offer in market at the time. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 $50 cash back (referrer) $50 cash back (referee) Unique link generated from SmartFolio required. None SmartFolio Website
Transfer Fee Coverage Transfer at least $25,000 into Virtual Wealth when opening a new account and you may be eligible to have up to $150 in transfer fees covered by Virtual Wealth. $25,000 up to $150 in transfer fees covered None None Contact customer service directly for more information.
Last Updated: Aug. 1, 2018 23:30 PT
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 27, 2018

Summer is in full effect. And, as is typically the case, it’s the time of year when folks work a little harder to tone up or bulk up for the beach. Interestingly enough, it looks like Canadian online brokerages are also taking the summer to get themselves into top form for the months ahead.

In this edition of the roundup, we stay with the summer vibes and keep things brief and easy. We kick off the roundup with an article about one online brokerage taking a measured approach to competing by using content effectively. Next, we dive into the chatter from DIY investors on social media and what investors were talking about in the forums.

CIBC ramps up new digital content

In last week’s roundup, we took a look at how online investor education is evolving at Canadian online brokerages and, in particular, how online content is becoming a key area for online brokerages to differentiate themselves with as well as to deliver value to their clients. And, even though TD Direct Investing is a major force in the space, their bank-owned competitors are not standing still when it comes to content development.

This week we spotted two interesting content pieces on the CIBC Investor’s Edge website which further validate the observations noted in last week’s roundup about the importance of delivering good content.

The first small but still noteworthy development is the release of the latest edition of the CIBC Investor’s Edge newsletter. Long time clients and regular readers of the newsletter will have noticed the changes in format to the newsletter, which were initially rolled out in 2016, as well as to the design of the Investor’s Edge newsletter.

What is especially interesting about this summer edition of their newsletter, however, is that offers interesting content related to investing that is a bit more focused on what DIY investors might be able to use in understanding different investing strategies. Notably, articles in this newsletter focus on options trading basics as well as on momentum investing. Also interesting is the inclusion of a tax planning component that is often overlooked for DIY investors when it comes to ‘educational’ content, other than AT tax time.

Screenshot of CIBC Investor’s Edge website (taken 2018-07-27).

From a content perspective, this investor newsletter is quite well done – short enough to be digestible, but long enough to provide some helpful information. The biggest draw of the newsletter, however, is that it is accessible to non-CIBC Investor’s Edge clients. In this respect among its bank-owned peers, CIBC Investor’s Edge is relatively unique.

CIBC Investor’s Edge produces and publishes a newsletter for DIY investors that is available on the front end of their website (and also happens to be a part of a well curated section of educational/informative materials called the ‘knowledge bank’). This is not what most of their competitors do and as a result, enables Investor’s Edge to compete using educational content in a way that other brokerages aren’t doing.

Another content element that caught our attention was the publishing of an upcoming webinar on RESPs that will be taking place in September. There are two interesting features of this webinar. The first is that it is being offered in English (on September 5th) and in French (on September 20). French language webinars are rarely found outside of typically French-focused online brokerages (Desjardins Online Brokerage or National Bank Direct Brokerage) or occasionally TD Direct Investing.

The second interesting observation is that the timing of the presentation is lined up with the ‘back to school’ point in the calendar as well as the month (September) with one of the highest rates of births in the calendar, which means that the topic is timely to be raising.

Overall, it appears that going beyond the content machine that is TD Direct Investing, there are signs among other online brokerages that there are opportunities to compete effectively and deliver value to DIY investors in the form of value-added content. CIBC Investor’s Edge has shown that it is possible to put together a strong content offering at a reduced pace but still do it well. The next hurdle for Investor’s Edge to overcome is to let DIY investors know these features exist.

Lightening Roundup

Here are a few small but potentially important items that crossed our radar this week.

TD Direct Investing continues to invest in growth

Earlier this week, the Globe and Mail published an article about TD’s plans to boost its wealth management business by hiring about 200 financial advisers to come on board next year. Buried in that article was an interesting reference to ongoing projects and possible features. The first noteworthy mention on the direct investing side was that TD has invested $125M into revamping mobile trading functions and, most importantly, have set the stage for digital/robo-advice.  Another interesting reference was to TD having the appetite to acquire more new clients in the wealth management division, which will undoubtedly get people talking about who TD Direct Investing might consider partnering with or acquiring outright.

Good content on personal finance

Finding good content on the internet, especially those seeking out information on Canadian markets, is generally a challenge. Fortunately there are a handful of reliable and engaging sources from which to do so. Check out this podcast from Canadian Couch Potato which offers an interesting perspective from the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick on the landscape for DIY investors in Canada and how he has managed to keep his own personal finance content relevant to changing populations of investors.

Speculation on E*Trade Financial merger

Earlier this week, an interesting article surfaced that looked at the likelihood of TD Ameritrade as being the most likely suitor to acquire E*Trade. While it is all speculative at this point, it is an interesting story to watch unfold because it sets up the business case for a deal being done with E*Trade.

The move in the US may also provide a hint of what’s to come here in Canada. Questrade, like E*Trade, is an established player in a market that has seen substantial merger and acquisitions activity. While the price has to be right, for Canadian DIY investors, the possibility that Questrade ends up being acquired by a larger online brokerage is not as far-fetched of an outcome.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Keeping Costs in Check

When it comes to online investing – especially for active investors – trading costs (such as commission) are important to consider. In this interesting post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada section, one user is trying to ascertain the difference between Interactive Brokers and a different platform to get started.

Slow to Move

While ETFs might be popular with investors, they may not be as popular as they could be. In this post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada thread, one user sparks an interesting conversation around adoption of ETFs by Canadian investors.

Into the Close

What an end to another crazy week. For Facebook shareholders, it’s been a rough ride and the prospect of having a couple of days to reflect on what went wrong there is undoubtedly welcomed. Of course, in spite of the crazy headlines and stranger-than-fiction stories coming out in the news, markets continue to march upwards. Enjoy the trend while it lasts. Wherever your adventures take you for the weekend, have fun (hopefully in the sun) and make the most of the good weather – as there is undoubtedly a storm brewing on the horizon for DIY investors.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 20, 2018

There might be no more teachers or no more books, but just because summer’s here, doesn’t mean that lots can’t be learned. In fact, it appears that several online brokerages are banking on the fact that investor education may not be coming from books (or teachers) for much longer.

In this edition of the roundup, we take a look at a slow-moving development that has finally reached an interesting juncture – the end of the in-person seminar for investor education. Find out which bank-owned online brokerage is driving the digital bus. Next, we cover the slow and steady plan for global supremacy in the online brokerage space by one ambitious online broker. As always we’ve got a great selection of DIY investor chatter from the tweets and forums for the past week.

Investor Education Goes Digital

For online traders and investors, especially the DIY kind, there’s always something new to learn when it comes to trading and markets. What has been fascinating to watch over the past several years is how ‘investor education’ has evolved at Canadian online brokerages.

Normally, the Weekly Roundup profiles things that are event-driven, however when it comes to investor education from Canadian online brokerages, the story here is that there has been a slow but noticeable shift away from in person education events to ‘on demand’ and digital content to cater to investors’ needs.

What piqued our interest in revisiting this topic, was TD Direct Investing’s transition away from their previous seminar website towards their new webinar focused one. Specifically, when trying to access TD Direct Investing’s old seminar and webinar site: http://tddirectinvestingseminars.com/ we were repointed to the Investor Education section of the TD Direct Investing website.

Yes, gone is the map of Canada that displayed the number of seminars in different regions around the country and in its place, there is a selection of video content, as well as FAQs, investor terminology and tools and resources.

For those looking to stay sharp or learn about different investing topics, fear not, there is an extensive collection of about 115 webinars available. With so many webinars available, TD has taken an interesting approach to the webinars page by creating filtering and search capabilities and categories of videos are accessible via a ‘hamburger’ menu icon.

The list of webinar categories include:

  • Upcoming & Recent Events
  • Most Popular
  • All Webinars
  • Getting Started
  • WebBroker
  • Advanced Dashboard
  • Thinkorswim
  • Mobile Trading
  • Account Types
  • Investment types
  • Portfolio Management
  • Researching Your Next Trade
  • Chart Tools
  • Options Trading
  • ETFs
  • BNN Money Talk Aftershow

Another interesting feature of these webinars is that many of them are available to Mandarin and Cantonese speakers – something that none of the other Canadian online brokerages’ investor education tools have managed to do.

In fact, in comparing the webinar and recorded investor education video sections of other Canadian online brokerages offering investor education webinars, really the only competitors are Scotia iTRADE, National Bank Direct Brokerage and Desjardins Online Brokerage. Of those, it is only Scotia iTRADE which has taken a highly structured approach with their ‘Knowledge Navigator.’ Even then, the webinar archive for Scotia iTRADE, which is available on YouTube, 66 videos long and not segmented out as extensively as TD Direct Investing has done it.

Of course, we couldn’t talk about TD Direct Investing and digital content without mentioning the Money Talk site, which is by far one of the most comprehensive approaches to finance media published by any Canadian financial services provider – event to the point where it rivals a news channel for in-depth topic coverage.

Why this matters to DIY investing in Canada is because strategically, financial news content (especially video) in Canada is hard to come by – BNN and Bloomberg were once competitors but then joined forces in order to sustainably compete in the Canadian space. On a relative basis, TD’s digital content strategy and implementation is very far ahead of their peers, including and especially in the online brokerage segment, which means TD can keep themselves top of mind to a lot of curious consumers.

DIY investors looking for free, insightful content that on demand and frequently updated can (and might inevitably) turn to TD (and TD Direct Investing) to stay current on market news or to get a pretty decent handle on key topics.

For both the evergreen topics of investing basics and strategies, to the event-driven market moving information, TD (and by extension TD Direct Investing) has successfully made the transition from being a powerhouse in investor education seminars to being dominant in digital content – including educational webinars.

Clearly, TD’s digital content teams are putting on a master class of their own when it comes to content production and it will be genuinely interesting to see how or if other online brokerages can step up to the content challenge.

All Roads Lead to Interactive Brokers

Whether it’s Game of Thrones or Risk, global domination is not a game for the faint of heart. What does that have to do with online investing? Well, interestingly enough, it appears to be the (very) long term vision of Interactive Brokers – specifically of founder and CEO, Thomas Peterffy.

Interactive brokers held their Q2 2018 earnings conference call this week to walk investors through the strong performance of the company and to provide context and ‘colour’ to the direction of the business. Without spending too much time on numbers, perhaps some of the most pertinent are the record high number of customer accounts – up 27% in a year to 542,000.

While the growth streak continues at Interactive Brokers, the part of the conference call that piqued our interest was the following statement made by Thomas Peterffy in which he stated:

“Our introducing broker segment continues to benefit from two major trends, the increasing regulatory burden worldwide and the growth of the new investor class in developing countries. First, in developed and developing markets around the world there are thousands of brokerage firms, some just being newly formed. For a new firm it is almost impossible in terms of time, knowledge, and money to create the compliance processes and technology needed to be in business. For an existing firm new, more onerous regulations constantly come up so an existing broker must either increase its personnel and regulatory cost significantly to comply or come to us. In both cases the brokers optimal choice is to outsource their account opening, order routing, and back office functions to us. That means our platform will be used for the introducing brokers trading, clearing, and custody so what the brokers customers see is a front end with the brokers logo.”

This is a significant position to take for several reasons.

First, especially within a smaller marketplace like Canada, the odds of a new online brokerage setting up shop to seriously compete with existing players is low. In order for that to be true, there would likely have to be some kind of hybrid (which we’ve seen unfold already) with a larger financial services firm essentially providing resources to an online brokerage to compete against a larger firm.

Alternatively, if there were to be a ‘new’ brokerage, in all likelihood, the new brokerage would take care of the customer service while Interactive Brokers would take care of the trade execution. In other words, Interactive Brokers still benefits. Thus, the current Canadian online brokerages are essentially playing a game of chicken with one another to see who may flinch on pricing. What they may not fully realize, however, is that Interactive Brokers has already got pricing in their favour and may come to play a role in the Canadian investing space the way that robo-advisors may start to play an increasingly prominent role in reducing the operating costs for wealth management firms. The key will clearly be technological supremacy which is integral to keeping operating costs low.

Another statement that should concern existing online brokerages (which was also made by Peterffy) is that Interactive Brokers isn’t just going to stay in the ‘online trading’ space. They’ve been steadily widening the scope of their financial services business to include integrated cash management, introduction of a mastercard, bill payment functionality and very soon, payroll direct deposits. According to Peterffy, “This means our customers will have less and less reason to leave our platform to transact any of their financial business.”

Of course, other online brokerages and financial service providers are not going to gingerly stand by, however Interactive Brokers has been living lean for a long time and continue to operate with remarkable efficiency by relying extensively on automation.

With far too many Canadian online brokerages, including several bank-owned online brokerages, still sorting out how to transition to online account opening or have stable, feature-rich, trading platforms, the Canadian space seems particularly fertile ground for disruption. Because of the size of the Canadian market, innovation in the online brokerage segment is slower however it’s clear that Interactive Brokers’ global ambitions and our proximity to the US market, might disruption might happen sooner than anyone had planned for.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

 

From the Forums

Looking at the Fine Print

Terms and conditions can contain some pretty extraordinary stuff. When it comes to online brokerages, however, one DIY investor, in this reddit post, felt the Questrade terms and conditions attached to the “online security guarantee” were worthy of a second opinion. Find out what the community had to say.

Cents and Sensibility

Having a bank-owned online brokerage account holds a great deal of appeal with online investors. One investor who was somewhat on the fence about going the online brokerage route, asked what fellow DIY investors in the reddit forums, thought about the benefits of a bank-owned brokerage.

Into the Close

That brings another week to a close. For Raptors fans, the word trade has a particularly strong sting to it, however just as in basketball, the markets thrive on trade – so let’s hope the Raptors made the right move. Wherever this weekend takes you (even it if is to San Antonio), have a great weekend!!

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – July 2018

*Updated: July 5* With lots of sunshine, July’s crop of discount brokerage deals is still in full bloom. That’s great news for DIY investors looking to open online investing account with a Canadian online brokerage. While the cash back offerings still lag the commission-free category, there remains ample opportunity to get a transfer-free bonus when switching online brokers.

As July 1st falls on a holiday (happy Canada Day!) and a weekend, online brokerage websites may not have been updated with the latest deals for July. Not to worry though, we’re keeping a lookout for new deal announcements that might appear after the long weekend.

All told, after an eventful June, the deals and promotions activity in July looks like it will have a few surprises of its own to offer. Early on this month, we’re watching the National Bank Direct Brokerage offer (which is scheduled to expire July 6th) as well as what will transpire with BMO InvestorLine in the first week of July.

Stay tuned and as always, if you spot a deal that would be interesting to fellow DIY investors, please feel free to let us know or leave a comment below.

Expired Deals

It was interesting to see this deal come to market when it did, and we’re certainly sad to see it go, but the RBC Direct Investing commission-free trade promotion expired mid-month in June. The move by the large bank-owned brokerage is a signal that they can still surprise the marketplace.

Another offer that technically expired heading into July was BMO InvestorLine’s cash back and commission-free trade promotion. Since a replacement has not yet been posted to the BMO InvestorLine website at the time of the deals & promotions update, we’ll count this one out. If history is any indicator, however, there may be a pleasant surprise coming very shortly.

Extended Deals

There were no extended offers to report (yet).

New Deals

*Updated: July 5 – BMO InvestorLine launched a new cash back deal this month which is sure to get onto DIY investors’ radars. The tiered offer, which is open to new and existing clients, provides cash back bonuses ranging from $75 (for a $50,000 deposit) to $1,000 (for a $500,000 deposit). Keep in mind that BMO InvestorLine’s offer can be combined with their refer-a-friend promotion which can add an extra $50 cash back to the total reward amount. See table below for more information.*

At the start of July, there were no new offers that we spotted, however heading into this month there were a pair of important offers in June that caught our attention.

The first new offer that showed up in June was from Scotia iTRADE, specifically a cash back (in the form of a gift card) offer that was being marketed to existing clients. Specifically, this deal is open to existing clients as of May 14th, 2018. We’ve added that deal to the table this month as it is worth enquiring about for new clients to see if iTRADE is prepared to match or provide a better offer when signing up.

Another promotion that crossed the deals radar last month was from BMO SmartFolio, who launched a cash back offering. The cash back amounts on this offer ranged from $25 cash back (for a deposit of $5,000) to $1000 cash back (for a deposit of $200,000 or more). See the table below for more details.

Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Details Link Deadline
Jitney Trade A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with Jitneytrade and receive access to their preferred pricing package. n/a Discounted Commission Rates none For more details click here none
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive $88 in commission credits (up to 17 commission-free trades). Use promo code SPARX88 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 $88 commission credit 60 days Access this offer by clicking here: $88 commission-credit offer . For full terms and conditions, click here. none
Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully. $1,000 5 commission-free trades 60 days 5 commission-free trade offer December 31, 2018
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering new clients 1% of assets transferred into the new account in the form of commission credits (to a maximum value of $1,000). Minimum qualifying deposit is $10,000. To qualify, individuals will have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer or email: [email protected]. See details link for more info. $10,000 1% of assets transferred in the form of commission-credits (max credits: $1,000) 6 months Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo September 30, 2018
Scotia iTrade Open and fund a new account with Scotia iTRADE (or fund an existing account) with at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000; C) $100,000; D) $250,000; E) $500,000 or F) $1M+ and you may be eligible to receive a pre-paid Visa card worth A) $100; B) $200; C) $500; D) $800; E) $1,100 or F) $1,500. Use promo code 18SUM when registering. Be sure to read terms and conditions for more details. NOTE: this offer is open to existing Scotia iTRADE clients only (who were clients prior to May 14, 2018). A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 D) $250,000 E) $500,000 F) $1M+ A) $100 B) $200 C) $500 D) $800 E) $1,100 F) $1,5000 pre-paid Visa card will be awarded by Jan. 31, 2019. iTRADE Summer Promo August 31, 2018
Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $25,000 commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data. 1 month Active Trader Program December 31, 2018
BMO InvestorLine Open a new account or fund an existing account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $100,000; C) $300,000 or D) $500,000+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $75; B) $200; C) $500 or D) $1000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $50,000 B) $100,000 C) $300,000 D) $500,000+ A) $75 B) $200 C) $500 D) $1000 Cash back will be deposited the week of April 19, 2019. BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign September 3, 2018

Expired Offers
Open a new account at National Bank Direct Brokerage with at least 5,000 and you may be eligible to receive up to 25 commission-free trades, good for up to one year. There is also a promotional discounted commission-pricing available within the first year to individuals who use up their 25 trades; trading commissions for the first year are $6.95. Use promo code SPRING 2018 when signing up to be eligible for this offer. This offer is also available to existing clients. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $5,000 25 commission-free trades + $6.95 commission per trade pricing 365 days National Bank Spring Offer July 6, 2018
Last Updated: July 27, 2018 21:45 PT

Referral Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Incentive Structure Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit Details Link Deadline
Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements. A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+ $25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days) Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759 none
Scotia iTrade If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTRADE account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link. A) $10,000 B) $50,000+ A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50) 60 days Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade tbd
BMO InvestorLine If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $50,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details. $50,000 You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50 Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period(subject to conditions). BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend October 31, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: July 1, 2018 14:55 PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees. $135 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $25,000 or more from another brokerage and Credential Direct will cover up to $150 in transfer fees. Use promo code SWITCHME when signing up to qualify for the transfer promotion. $150 $25,000 Credential Direct Transfer Fee Rebate none
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 at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463). none
Scotia iTrade Transfer at least $25,000 in new assets to Scotia iTRADE and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. $150 $25,000 iTRADE Summer Promo August 31, 2018
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 information (1-800-567-3343). none
Disnat Disnat is offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info. $150 $50,000 Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo September 30, 2018
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account, by transferring in at least $200,000+ in net new assets and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Use promo code SPARXCASH when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer. $200 $200,000 BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign September 3, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: July 5, 10:00 PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage, in conjunction with MoneyTalks, is offering 3 months of the “Inside Edge” investor information service to Desjardins Online Brokerage clients. Use promo code DESJ2016 during checkout to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for more information. n/a MoneyTalks Inside Edge Discount none
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering $50 in commission credits for new Disnat Classic clients depositing at least $1,000. See terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 Broker@ge 18-30 Promotion none
Scotia iTrade Scotiabank StartRight customers can receive 10 commission-free trades when investing $1,000 or more in a new Scotia iTrade account. Trades are good for use for up to 1 year from the date the account is funded. Use promo code SRPE15 when applying (in English) or SRPF15 when applying in French. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 StartRight Free Trade offer none

Expired Offers
Last Updated: July 1, 2018 18:55 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open and fund a new or existing SmartFolio account with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $200. Use promo code PROMO1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion. $1,000 0.5% cash back to a maximum of $200. PROMO1000 September 4, 2018 SmartFolio Cash Back Promo
Discounted Management Open a new account with BMO SmartFolio and receive one year of management of up to $15,000 free. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 1 year no management fees STSF April 30, 2019 SmartFolio New Account Promotion
Cash Back – Referral BMO SmartFolio clients will receive $50 cash back for every friend or family member who opens and funds a new SmartFolio account. Friends and family referred to SmartFolio will receive $50 cash back for opening and funding an account, plus automatic enrollment into SmartFolio’s mass offer in market at the time. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 $50 cash back (referrer) $50 cash back (referee) Unique link generated from SmartFolio required. None SmartFolio Website
Transfer Fee Coverage Transfer at least $25,000 into Virtual Wealth when opening a new account and you may be eligible to have up to $150 in transfer fees covered by Virtual Wealth. $25,000 up to $150 in transfer fees covered None None Contact customer service directly for more information.
Last Updated: July 1, 2018 14:55 PT
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – June 29, 2018

It’s hard to believe but the halfway point of 2018 is just around the corner. Heading into the Canada Day long weekend, it’s an opportune time to review the latest activities from the second quarter of 2018 and see what stories made waves, as well as some of the trends we see taking shape in the online brokerage space.

In this edition of the roundup, we’ll take a look back at the (calendar) Q2 of 2018 and review what we think are the most compelling stories and developments. Suffice to say technology has been a key driver of change, but it also seems like the fundamental economics of the space are experiencing a shift. As usual, we’ll also serve up some DIY investor content treats with DIY investor tweets and close out with interesting forum posts.

Making the Highlight Reel

Before jumping in to Q2, a quick recap of what happened in Q1 is available in this roundup from early April. In the first quarter of the year, some of the dominant stories included online brokerage outages, RSP season promotions and online brokerage rankings from the Globe and Mail.

At the end of the second calendar quarter of 2018 there are a number of interesting stories to reflect on as well as some hints dropped and telegraphed by Canadian discount brokerages as to what’s coming around the corner for the summer of 2018.

Acquisitions

One of the biggest news stories to emerge in Q2 was the announcement that independent online brokerage, Jitneytrade, was being purchased by wealth management giant Canaccord. The deal, the terms of which were not published, means that the small independent online brokerage players in the Canadian space have all but disappeared. Only Questrade stands out as the online brokerage that is not owned by a larger parent financial brand, bank or other significantly larger financial services company.

Last year saw the purchase of BBS Securities (parent to Virtual Brokers) and the merger of Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct. This trend towards consolidation or purchase by deeper pocketed investment firms is a signal that the online brokerage space is in transition. Some services, such as Jitneytrade, cater to a very select group of active/professional traders – so the requirements for a broader investor profile are not as prominent as firms such as Qtrade Investor or Virtual Brokers. With bigger backers, however, the online brokerage platforms will really be put to the test to see if they’ve got what it takes to challenge the big bank online brokerages.

Online Brokerage Reviews – Moneysense magazine

In late May, the online brokerage reviews and rankings prepared by Moneysense magazine were published. Our roundup post on the Moneysense reviews compared the ratings from last year to this, and looked at the categories that these rankings included this year such as:

  • Best overall online brokerage
  • Best discount brokerages for ETFs
  • Best online brokerages for mobile and market data
  • Best online brokerages for low fees
  • Best online brokerages for design and user experience

One of the big stories from this year’s Moneysense rankings is that Qtrade Investor came out on top, narrowly edging out Questrade in the category of “best overall” online brokerage. Interestingly the top four firms last year are once again in the top four this year. Joining Qtrade Investor and Questrade are Scotia iTRADE and BMO InvestorLine, although it should be noted that these latter two bank-owned online brokerages scored notably lower than either Qtrade Investor or Questrade.

Looking at the results from a category point of view showed that different online brokerages have particular strengths in certain areas. For example, HSBC InvestDirect and Questrade were ranked best for fees; Questrade was ranked highest for initial impression; TD Direct Investing was ranked best for Data while National Bank Direct Brokerage was ranked best for ETFs.

All told, when it came to online brokerage rankings, Qtrade Investor performed exceptionally well, managing to top both the Globe and Mail and Moneysense rankings and placing second overall in the last J.D. Power Investor Satisfaction rankings. From a competitive point of view, this provides a lot of positive momentum for Qtrade Investor as they transition into life as the dominant non-bank online brokerage brand in Western Canada (now that Credential Direct has merged). It will be particularly interesting to see how a considerably bigger Qtrade Investor decides to challenge bank-owned rivals in ways that Qtrade has traditionally avoided, such as with more prominent advertising or with platforms/products for active investors (or even traders) – the affiliation with Desjardins Online Brokerage (and in particular Disnat) – could present a compelling wildcard that would almost certainly cement Qtrade Investor’s status (among its peers) as the brand to beat going forward.

V for Volatility

The past several years since the financial meltdown, markets have been mostly on a steady track upwards. This year, however, that all changed. Since the election of Donald Trump, markets – in particular US equity markets – have done really well. But, as all seasoned traders know, the trend is your friend until it ends. For US online brokerage, Interactive Brokers, the move on their part to raise the cost of borrowing for clients requiring margin of US stocks was a direct response to the data pointing to a pending downturn. Well, they called it, and earlier in the second quarter of this year, Interactive Brokers published the results of having prepared well in advance of the pending volatility. The result, Interactive Brokers was able to limit losses to a fraction of the losses experienced by names such as TD Ameritrade and E*TRADE.

Uptick in Deals Activity

On the deals and promotions front, Q2 of 2018 presented a little bit of volatility of its own as the post-RSP dip in activity also took down a number of online brokerage deals and promotions. That said, it didn’t take too long for a rebound to take hold so that by the time the quarter was winding down,  offers were back on the table and during the quarter, a short lived but very intriguing offer from RBC Direct Investing also surfaced indicating that this big player is capable of some nimble promotional work.

Cash back offers in particular saw a resurgence in Q2, with BMO’s SmartFolio launching a new cash back offering and Scotia iTRADE also launching a cash back offer (in the form of a gift card) for existing clients.

Be sure to check out the deals action this summer as the online brokerages get themselves ready for the fall and invariably try to find some winning combination for investors active during the summer.

What’s Coming Up

In addition to setting the world on fire with the Yanny vs Laurel craze, social media also proved itself to be useful in providing DIY investors some hints as to what several online brokerages have coming up in the near future.

Keeping Currency

One great example comes from Scotia iTRADE, whose service staff let one tweeter know that USD registered accounts are ‘on their way’ (i.e. close to completion) for DIY investors. This kind of insight is easy to miss but will be a notable value driver when it does go live. We also expect there to be quite a bit of noise generated when it is released which means even more iTRADE commercials.

Platform Leap

Another interesting tip that came from social media was from TD Direct Investing, who let followers know about a webinar that provided a first look at the new Advanced Dashboard to be rolled out to clients. This new approach to rolling out feature releases appears to be something TD is testing the waters with – as a recent enhancement for French-speaking users was also telegraphed on Twitter in mid-May and was confirmed to be live as of this past week.  As for the Advanced Dashboard, we’ll be watching to see what the reaction is like to a new user experience and to upgraded trading features.

Also rolling out in the summer is a new trading platform from Virtual Brokers – VB Wave. We first spotted the new platform on the VB website in early June however it appears to still be in active development with the soft roll out intended to help iron out any wrinkles in performance or user experience that may arise. In any case, the addition of a new trading platform to the suite of Virtual Brokers’ product line positions them as having one of the most diverse selections of trading platforms available to any online brokerage in Canada.  Stay tuned.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

 

 

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for this pre-Canada Day edition of the roundup. Although markets are going to be closed in Canada on Monday, there’s no doubt that traders will want to keep an eye out for the fallout from the trade tariffs which are set to take effect July 1st. For all the folks in Ontario, stay cool and for the folks out west in BC, feel free to blame it on the rain. On behalf of the Sparx Trading team, Happy Canada Day to everyone!!