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Desjardins Bank

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 19, 2014

*Edited Dec. 22/14* It looks like December isn’t going to go quietly. With huge volatility coming into the markets, traders are certainly cheering. Canada’s discount brokerages are also not wont to stand still going into the year end. Whether they’re gearing up for a busy 2015 or pushing hard into the finish line of 2014, this is definitely a year for the record books all around.

In this week’s roundup, we take a look at a major compilation of Canadian online brokerage’s perspectives on the year that was and the year upcoming. Following that we take a look at one online brokerage that had a change at the top, a brokerage that decided to launch an early Christmas gift to potential clients, some news from a technical analysis provider and round out with some festive forum banter.

Online brokerage year in review & preview

2014 has been a wild ride for DIY investors. It started with a boom and is ending with a bang.

This past week we released our exclusive compilation of perspectives from 9 Canadian online brokerages. Here is the list of discount brokerages that participated (the links go to their particular submission):

Regardless of their size or focus, when compared alongside one another, there was a wealth of information about the year that has just passed.

Without question, commission price lowering was one topic that stood out almost across the board. As each discount brokerage showed, however, price wasn’t the only place they sought to evolve. New features, order types, services, platforms, investor education offerings and service experiences were among the other areas that brokerages were all actively working to improve in.

Something that was really special about this compilation was what certain brokerages were able to share about what’s coming around the corner for 2015.

For example, in our recent interview with Nancy Paquet, President of National Bank Direct Brokerage, she shared with us the focus that NBDB will be placing on investor education – however they’re not alone. In addition to NBDB, brokerages such as Desjardins Online Brokerage, Scotia iTRADE and TD Direct Investing are all highly active in terms of providing investor education and plan to be even more so in 2015.

What was interesting to learn from the year in review compilation was that Credential Direct may be looking to augment its educational resources as well as the news that Jitneytrade has been partnering with educational providers. Even for several brokerages that didn’t participate in the year-end review, we’ve learned that investor education is going to be a priority in 2015.

As a lead into the holiday season this year, we thought it would be great to offer up the top 5 themes we saw emerge from the year end compilation. With so much information provided by the brokerages, we’ve put together a fun way to learn about what the brokerages had to say. Here’s a teaser from day one of the top 5 countdown. We’ll be releasing one a day over the next 5 days exclusively on our twitter feed.

Qtrade announces leadership changes

This past Wednesday, Vancouver based online brokerage Qtrade Financial announced that CEO Scott Gibner and President and COO Joe Perrin will leave the organization as of January 16, 2015.

Bill Packham, who is the Co-Chair of the Qtrade Board of Directors, will take over as interim CEO, as the firm seeks to make a permanent appointment.

The announcement comes just weeks after Qtrade earned top billing in the annual Globe and Mail Online Broker Rankings. In a statement, Qtrade’s Board Co-Chair and Director, John Sibley, thanked Gibner and Perrin for their “vision, inspiration and dedication to Qtrade.”

Packham brings along several years of executive experience having served as the Co-Chair of Qtrade’s Board of Directors since the completion of the arrangement transaction between Qtrade and Desjardins Group in April 2013. He is also Executive Managing Director, Wealth Management and Life and Health Insurance with the Desjardins Group.

National Bank Direct Brokerage launches new deal

December continues to be a big month for news. In the deals & promotions department, National Bank Direct Brokerage boldly launched a rather sizeable commission-rebate offer going into the holiday season – perhaps as an early Christmas gift to potential new clients. The offer provides up to $500 in commission fee rebates for deposits of $20,000 or more and rebates of up to $1,000 for deposits of $100,000 or more. Click here to read more about this promotion.

A technical win for Recognia

The maker of the most popular technical analysis platforms among Canadian brokerages, Recognia, was acquired this week by Paris-based investment research firm Trading Central. Headquartered in Ottawa, Recognia actually services over 45 brokerages in 12 countries with their various software platforms. Most DIY investors would recognize Recognia’s flagship ‘Technical Insight’ tool as part of the suite of research/tools for technical analysis provided by their online broker.

Event Horizon

Things have quieted down significantly on the events front going into the Christmas holidays. Here is the lone event featured for next week:

Dec. 23 (Tues) Scotia iTRADE – ETFs 101 with Horizons ETFs (Online)

From the Forums

 Chatter on Interactive Brokers

Last week we wrote about Interactive Brokers starting to offer registered accounts. Slowly news has filtered through to Canadian investor forums so we thought we’d provide a couple of threads that discuss Interactive Brokers’ latest move:

Battle of the Banks

In this post from the reddit Personal Finance Canada thread, one user is considering going with CIBC Investor’s Edge, TD Direct Investing or RBC Direct Investing. Find out what redditors (who normally champion the smaller brokerages) had to say about dealing with the bigger bank-owned brokerages.

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup. We’re right around the corner from Christmas so hopefully everyone makes it onto the nice list this year – although for the not so nice, getting some coal may not be the worst thing at this point. On another note – it’s also a milestone week for the ending of a great show – the Colbert report. In case you missed it, here is a much bigger and more awesome send off than anyone on TV could really pull together.

Happy Holidays and Season’s greetings to all from the crew at SparxTrading.com. We’ll see you again (soon)!

 Editor’s Note: The list of participating brokerages in the year in review has been updated to include a submission from CIBC Investor’s Edge which was received after the original publication date.

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Exclusive: A Year in Review and Look Ahead from Canada’s Online Brokerages

Pic_Blog_201412_YearInReview_LeadImage_B*Edited Dec. 22/14* What an exciting year to be a DIY investor. As an active observer and commentator on the landscape of Canada’s online brokerages, we’ve seen some dramatic changes this past year. Whether it was reduction in commission pricing, changes in account types or enhancements to platforms, user experience or investor education, 2014 presented no shortage of exciting developments.

With so many online brokerages, DIY investors now enjoy more choice in terms of who they want to end up doing business with and how they want to trade online. The flip side to the benefit of having so much choice, however, is actually keeping up with all of the innovation that’s taking place amongst online brokerages.  Every time a new feature, like a platform or a new order type, comes out, there is a lot of information that goes with it.

In their own words

So, in keeping with our continued efforts to track and structure the information coming from Canadian online brokerages, we thought it would be great if we gave Canada’s online brokerages the opportunity to give investors their own take on 2014 and also to provide everyone with a preview of where 2015 is heading.

We reached out to all the brokerages and were more than pleased with the response we received to participate. Our request was simple. We asked that brokerages provide SparxTrading.com readers with a recap of 2014, perhaps with milestones or achievements as well as to provide some direction as to what’s around the corner for next year.

What follows is a really interesting (in our opinion) compilation of voices of 8 9 of Canada’s most influential and visible online brokerages – from bank-owned online brokerages to independent brokerages. It is clear from reading these submissions that 2014 was a busy year everywhere. Nobody was standing still. Even more interesting, however, are the hints and previews online brokerages have shared for 2015.

Table 1: Canadian Online Brokerages Participating in the Year in Review

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Click on a logo to read the review of that particular brokerage. #colspan# #colspan#

Getting up to speed

Heading into RRSP deadline season and the first half of 2015, we know that there will be many individuals who are either considering online investing or who are already with a provider and would just like to better understand the landscape of choices that are out there.

This compilation is a great starting point to learn more about each of the providers listed. They are certainly a diverse group of providers which is reflected in the different ways in which each has written their submission. In our opinion, this diversity will become one of the biggest themes for 2015.

With standard commission pricing having dropped significantly across several brokerages, the focal point will turn to standing out. Our view on this is that ‘standing out’ will be achieved by being ‘outstanding’. That means improved service, pricing (yes, we still think there’s room to go lower for some), features and user experience.

We believe that in 2015, Canada’s online brokerages will work even harder to differentiate themselves from one another. And, as was the case in 2014, we are looking forward to tracking these developments and helping our readers make sense of them all as they unfold.

Click the logos above or the page numbers below to read this year’s submissions.

Editor’s Note: We received a submission from CIBC Investor’s Edge after our original publication date and so we have included their submission as part of this series. For functionality purposes, however, we have placed their submission at the end of the series rather than in alphabetical sequence.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 21, 2014

What do shows like Big Bang Theory, Dancing with the Stars and Sons of Anarchy have to do with Canadian Discount Brokerages? Well, if you guessed fall ratings then Bazinga!

Finding the right metric to judge the ‘best TV show’ is easier in some respects than finding the “best online brokerage”. As we move into the unofficial ratings season for the brokerages, however, prepare for all kinds of plot twists.

In this week’s roundup, we take a look some of those twists, first by reviewing the latest online brokerage rankings to be published. Next we take a look at the interesting news coming out of the wealth management space with a major move by one online brokerage stepping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Finally we take a quick tour through the investor education events being held in late November and close out with a couple of interesting brokerage-focused forum discussions.

Best Online Brokerage Rankings Kick-Off

For consumers, when evaluating who Canada’s best online brokerage is, it is essential to understand the ranking system used. As we’ve highlighted in the past, there are several rankings and ratings that each measure and define “best online brokerage” or some variation of “best” (like “top” or “#1”) in many different ways.

Surviscor 2014 Rankings of Canadian Online Brokerages

This past week, financial services ratings firm Surviscor released their latest edition of rankings of Canadian online brokerages. BMO InvestorLine ranked the highest according to the Surviscor criteria (earning a score of “90%”), followed by Scotia iTrade (“84%”) and then Credential Direct (77%). As we’ve done with other rankings and ratings of Canadian online brokerages, we drilled down into the the scores and stats for a better picture on what these results tell us.

One of the first things that jumped out was how everyone else did in the rankings. The average score of the group was 68% with the standard deviation coming in at just under 16%. What does all that math mean (no pun intended)?

The rankings for the whole field show there are many companies clustering around the average score. We interpret this to mean that most of these companies are pretty close to one another except for some very clear outliers (to the downside): Laurentian Bank’s discount brokerage and HSBC InvestDirect (which interestingly placed near the top in Dalbar’s rating for client service but near the bottom when evaluated by Surviscor).

When we dropped these two firms from the rankings, the distance between first and last narrowed substantially and the differences between the online brokerages became even less numerically significant. For example, the difference between 3rd place and 8th was a difference of 7%.

With a race this close, small changes in features, especially those that impact the heavily weighted categories within this evaluation could have an outsized effect. For example, account services, cost of services and getting started are collectively responsible for 60% of a firm’s result.

Also, with changes happening constantly taking a snapshot of who the “best” online brokerage is (or was) as of a certain point in time of the year doesn’t necessarily hold true several months down the road.

So, while BMO InvestorLine did score well in this analysis, their victory may be short lived. There are already changes within their own firm as well as with their competitors that could disrupt those results at any moment.

Handling Change

While they were alluding to something big last week via social media, this past week Questrade officially launched their new wealth management division and reconfigured their website in the process.

Questrade has officially added managed wealth into their service mix, and in doing so, has definitely got the attention of brokerages big and small.

There are many angles to this recent announcement that can’t be squeezed into the roundup – so stay tuned for more perspective on Questrade’s recent move. One that stands out is that Questrade has been incredibly busy pulling together information for this launch, which has seen them go on an all out social media blitz on YouTube, Twitter and Reddit.

So, even though the headline here is definitely the shift into a new service line, one of the more curious aspects is their marketing and communications.

Questrade has assembled a lot of videos and content related to their products and services, as well as positioned themselves across many online (and traditional) channels. The scale of this effort is something that even the larger bank-owned brokerages are having trouble contending with.

What this means for online brokerage consumers is that they will likely be seeing Questrade in more places than ever before. The challenge, however, is going to be establishing and communicating what Questrade should now be known for as the shift away from being known for DIY investing exclusively has pitted them against an even wider field of competitors.

Event Horizon

November closes with an flurry of educational events. Enjoy.

Nov 25. (Tue) NBDB – Introduction to technical analysis: Trends – [Fr]

Nov 25. (Tue) Scotia iTrade – Leveraged and Inverse ETFs with Horizons ETFs

Nov 25. (Tue) NBDB – Technical analysis – [Fr]

Nov. 26 (Wed) NBDB – Day Trading – [Fr]

Nov. 26 (Wed) Scotia iTrade – Introduction to Canadian ETFs and ETF Options with Montreal Exchange (online)

Nov. 26 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Fundamental Analysis

Nov. 26 (Wed) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Trading ETFs with Desjardins Online Brokerage

Nov. 26 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Options as an Income Strategy

Nov. 26 (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Do-It-Yourself Investing for Women

Nov. 27 (Thur) NBDB – Introduction to technical analysis: Supports and resistances – [Fr]

From the Forums

 On Cue

Although this is not one of the most popular comparisons, it was worth mentioning for two reasons. First, it’s an example of brokerages being compared head to head but also of where one brokerage is prepared to venture into so that they can reach those interested in their brand.  Check out this post for an interesting comparison of Questrade vs Qtrade and the comments (and commentators) on each.

Calculated Move

So, it seems like everyone is talking about Robo-advisors.  And, as they start to make their presence felt here in Canada, this post from the reddit personal finance Canada thread showcases one attempt to start comparing them.  Again, it looks like Questrade is all over this Reddit section with their newly released portfolio IQ figures in hand.

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup.  It’s been an exciting week all around and for those who’ve made it this far, here’s a little treat from 30 Rock’s Tracy Jordan on how to handle this (and every) week ahead.  Have a great weekend!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 14, 2014

This week has been one of milestones, or as we might say here in Canada, kilometer-stones. Perhaps the biggest stone of all with all of the kilometers or miles behind it was the first ever landing of a probe on a comet hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

Back here on Earth, investors this week apparently also had stars in their eyes. The big news from the US was markets touching new all-time highs, however even a Canadian marketplace, the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) crossed the 2 billion shares traded mark within a year; the first time that securities exchange has done so.

Not to be outdone, Canadian discount brokerages also had some technical achievements to marvel and tweet over.

In this week’s roundup we take a look at a new trading platform being launched into the mix by a bank-owned brokerage. Next we look at a marathon effort on social media from another brokerage that has earned them a bit of distinction from their online peers. On the home stretch will be a quick highlight of an article focusing on the power of communal advice. Finally we’ll showcase upcoming investor education events and close out with some investor banter from the forums.

BMO InvestorLine’s New Trading Platform: BMO Market Pro

BMO InvestorLine quietly rolled out their newest platform offering this past week – BMO Market Pro. After months in development it was interesting to see the soft-launch take place for this platform.

So, why a fancy trading platform?  

In a bid to compete with their bank-owned direct brokerage peers, BMO InvestorLine is throwing a more sophisticated order entry interface into their mix to attract and appeal to clients who want the bells and whistles. More importantly, they don’t want their clients who want those features to be wandering elsewhere to get them.

While public details on the platform are few, here are some early details. BMO Market Pro will include real-time data and analysis and also streaming charts with technical analysis studies. For individuals trading 30 times or more in a quarter (i.e. spending about ~$100/month on average in commission costs) or who maintain a balance of at least $500,000 the data fees for this platform are waived.

The trading platform is a very interesting battleground that we mentioned this past summer and with BMO Market Pro, it enables BMO InvestorLine to better compete against a similarly featured Scotia iTrade platform as well as some of the smaller players who rely on platforms as a key selling feature.

If history is any precedent, however, we anticipate a much larger splash to be right around the corner. Hopefully, however, the team at BMO InvestorLine can take a cue from US online brokerage Tradestation’s commercials from a few years ago (see the end of this week’s roundup for the video).

One Small Tweet for Brokerage-Kind

#Props must be given to the social media team at Questrade. Unlike several of their peers on Twitter, Questrade has been quite persistent in their efforts to be visible and relevant on social media.

Although we don’t typically report it, it is something we monitor. And, the reason that we mention it here is that they’ve done something that is worth commenting on out loud. Images from Questrade’s twitter feed are showing a lead up to a ‘special announcement’ on Nov. 17th.

The lead up itself is noteworthy as it takes the combination of personality and medium in an interesting direction. Equally interesting is that this announcement could be in line with earlier hints from Questrade’s CEO and posts on the Questrade blog as well as a lot of hype about advisors (and robo-advisors) of late.

What does it all mean?

While just speculation at this point, the addition of a wealth management arm does imply that this could be another area that Questrade is hoping to capitalize on while the interest level in this space continues to heat up. And, they wouldn’t be the first discount brokerage to make such a move.

For some context, the largest brokerage in the US Charles Schwab just announced that they would no longer be reporting monthly trading stats (boo) but as far as optics and brand identity go, they are looking to shift the perception of their business away from discount brokerage and towards wealth management (and full service). They also recently rolled-out robo-advisors in a big way.

The fact that we’re talking about it may be proof enough, however the fact that Questrade has teamed up with a popular Twitter personality means that they may have a little social media comet dust of their own with this next announcement and business direction.

More Than Just Cat Videos

Reddit brands itself as the ‘front page of the internet’ however there is definitely a sense of being an information frontier.

In a special piece we published this past week, we take a look at the growing influence of a popular Reddit thread, Personal Finance Canada (PFC). We also had the opportunity to interview one of the forum’s moderators to get a unique perspective on what draws people into the community space and what motivates the people who run it to keep going. Click here to read the full article.

Event Horizon

There’s lots going on with investor education related events this week, including the Desjardins Online Brokerage Stockscores tour.  Ready, Set, Scroll.

Nov 15. (Mon) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour – Edmonton

Nov 17. (Mon) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour – Calgary

Nov 17. (Mon) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour – Calgary

Nov 18. (Tue) Scotia iTrade – Day Trading with Pro Market Advisors

Nov 18. (Tue) TD Direct Investing – Minimum Volatility Investing

Nov 18. (Tue) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Technical Analysis

Nov 18. (Tue) NBDB – Managing risk while investing in stock

Nov 18. (Tue) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour – Calgary

Nov 19. (Wed) NBDB – Mastering Technical Analysis for Trading Success – [Fr]

Nov 19. (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Fundamental Analysis

Nov 19. (Wed) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour – Burnaby

Nov 19. (Wed) NBDB – Find trading opportunities using technical analysis

Nov 19. (Wed) Scotia iTrade – Getting Started With ETFs with iShares

Nov 19. (Wed) TD Direct Investing – Investing in a context of rising interest rates – [Fr]

 Nov 19. (Wed) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour – Burnaby

Nov 20. (Thur) NBDB – Take advantage of margin accounts – [Fr]

Nov 20. (Thur) TD Direct Investing – Unlocking the Value of your Locked-In RSP

Nov 20. (Thur) Scotia iTrade – Charts and Patterns 101 with AJ Monte

Nov 20. (Thur) Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat) – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour – Surrey

From the Forums

TFSA SOS

This past week in the investor forums was noticeably quieter. That said, here was one particular thread that points to an investor who is opening their first TFSA and decided to ask the community of investors on Reddit for some advice. Click to see what the readers offered up.

Anonymous  Advice

As an add-on to our special on the personal finance Canada thread on reddit, this post on the forum captured the reactions and conversation that surrounded the topic of taking the advice of strangers.  There’s also a cool link in there to a ‘Because Money’ episode.

And that’s a wrap for this week’s roundup.  Congrats for making it through this week and and this roundup! Here’s some fun discount brokerage marketing from the US which may or may not inspire some Canadian brokerages to become a whole lot more entertaining.  Have a great weekend!

 

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 7, 2014

November is Financial Literacy Month and with it has come a number of events geared towards helping Canadians better understanding and manage their personal finances. There’s also another growth-oriented spin to November – facial hair, as it also happens to be Movember. While we have yet to see too much in the way of wacky mustaches (it’s still early though), Discount brokerages appear to have hopped onto the investor education bandwagon in a big way.

In this week’s roundup, we take a moment to walk visitors and readers through one of our most exciting projects (and acronyms) of this year, AXIS. Next, being the beginning of a new month, we’ve got a quick recap of the latest offers and promotions being pitched by Canadian brokerages.  We’ve finally made it through the pile of education events being offered this month and provide an overview of interesting observations as well as bring back the Event Horizon from a week’s hiatus. Finally, we are excited to loop the SparxTrading community activity into the forum posts that caught our attention over the past week.

There is no Community Without U and I

One of the reasons marketplaces of all kinds are so exciting is because they bring together different, sometimes opposing, interests.  But, as any seasoned investor or trader knows, it takes two sides to make a market.

If you’ve ever stared at the strangely hypnotic stream of market data quotes and marveled (or gasped) at the way in which buyers and sellers connect then you’ll probably appreciate the symbolism behind the SparxTrading.com logo letter X.

Why the diatribe on logos and symbols? At the heart of the logo is the idea of convergence – of bringing investors, providers, opinions and facts together into the same space.

In line with the theme of this year’s financial literacy month theme of strengthening financial literacy through collaboration, our latest feature launch, AXIS (which stands for Answers, eXperiences, Insights and Sharing) is the next step in the evolution our site.

We believe that by creating and caring for a space for the community of online investing stakeholders, from investor to provider, the quality of the online investing experience and understanding will improve for all.

Over the next several weeks, while the platform is in beta testing, we will include highlights and information on AXIS in the roundup.  We encourage all visitors to sign up and contribute their experiences, questions, answers and perspectives for the betterment of online investors everywhere.  Click the following link to access our community page.

Cold Weather, Warm Deals

At the outset of another month, we’ve surveyed the Canadian discount brokerage deal landscape and packaged all of the published offers we’ve found into our deals section.

This month the deals and promotion activity looked fairly healthy with 13 (and a possible 14th to be confirmed soon) offers on the table. Of these only two are scheduled to expire before the end of November meaning that DIY investors have a bit of time to shop around.

The deals that are set to expire this month come from TD Direct Investing and Questrade.  Of the two, TD has not historically offered as many deals during the year so those on the fence may want to weigh that into their decisions as the deadline approaches.

Making the Grade

One of the interesting observations from the list of this month’s investor education events is just how many providers are offering intensive education.

This month, Desjardins Online Brokerage’s educational partner Stockscores (and its founder Tyler Bollhorn) will be going on a ‘Coast-to-Coast’ intense Canadian tour. For those who haven’t attended a session with Tyler Bollhorn and are interested in Technical Analysis/Trading, this is an interesting and ‘beginner friendly’ session.

Desjardins isn’t the only brokerage also sponsoring a national investor education roadshow.  Scotia iTrade along with Larry Berman’s Independent Investor Institute are also taking their investor education seminar back and forth across the country this month.

Interestingly, National Bank Direct Brokerage is stepping up their educational offering by partnering with educational providers from Learn to Trade Global (who are partners with the Montreal Exchange teaching many of their options courses for DIY investors) as well as a Quebec based firm Decision Plus.  New to the lineup of offerings from NBDB are paid investor education courses.  Clients of NBDB, however, may be eligible for reimbursement of certain sessions in the form of trade commission credits.

While TD Direct Investing still offers the most investor education events this month, it looks as if they are looking over their shoulders a lot more as other brokerages are holding special events across the country to make up for the lack of physical branch presence.

Discount Brokerage Rankings

Speaking of grades, there are only a couple of weeks until Rob Carrick’s annual online brokerage rankings are set to roll out.  Brokerages and online brokerage enthusiasts are keeping an eye out for who will wear this year’s crown.

The Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings won’t be the only broker rankings/ratings to be unveiled later this month.  Morningstar Canada, as part of its investment awards gala, will announce their ‘best online brokerage’ award at a ceremony to be held November 26th.  Unlike other rankings/ratings brokerages pay to participate in the Morningstar rankings so depending on who decides to participate, the field of brokerages covered may be narrower than other rankings.

Event Horizon

Nov 8. (Sat) – Desjardins Online Brokerage – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour

Nov 10. (Mon) – Desjardins Online Brokerage – Coast to Coast Stockscores Tour

Nov 12. (Wed) – Scotia iTrade – Building a Collar with Montreal Exchange

Nov 12. (Wed) – TD Direct Investing – Options Trading Mistakes to Avoid

Nov 12. (Wed) – TD Direct Investing – Understanding Margin & Short Selling

Nov 12. (Wed) – TD Direct Investing – Dividend Investing using ETFs

Nov 12. (Wed) – NBDB – Technical Analysis – [Fr]

Nov 13. (Thur) – TD Direct Investing – Options Strategies for your RSP & TFSA

From the Forums

Penny Wise

In this week’s forums sweep, we take a look at an interesting question one SparxTrading.com visitor asked about deep discount brokerages and how they can afford to stay in business with ultra low commissions. Check out the full question and answer here.

Prose on Pros

Talking about advisors is all the rage right now in the investment community. While most of the discussion has been about robo-advisors, there are still lots of folks who swear by the human touch.  In this post from the Reddit Personal Finance Canada thread, a user wants to find out what the community had to say about using professional advisors.

For the Record

Most people know that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The same applies to services offered by financial institutions, even when it comes to record keeping. If there’s one thing folks should count on its that those who run financial institutions for a living like to count things, including the cost for services. In the following post from RedFlagDeals’ investing forum, one visitor wondered aloud about where the fees for record keeping come from at financial firms.  Check out what the community had to say in response.


That’s a wrap for this first week of November roundup. While many of us have heard that money doesn’t grow on trees, there are many homeowners out there that can vouch for what does grow on trees (and where it all seems to land).  Have a great weekend either admiring the fall colours, trying to keep them off your lawn or thoroughly enjoying making a mess!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 24, 2014

Makeovers seem to be making the headlines this past week. Markets this past week gave investor’s a bit of a portfolio makeover, actress Renee Zellweger got a bit of an extreme makeover and set the internet ablaze and even the Canadian discount brokerage landscape saw (and is about to get) a bit of work done.

In this week’s roundup we take our cues from a Zellweger movie-inspired theme to lead us through the makeover from a major bank-owned online brokerage pricing adjustment. Next we look at earnings from a pair of US brokerages to see what their operation looks like without the makeup on. Finally we’re proud to announce a new community feature from SparxTrading.com that we think will help change the landscape for the better for all DIY investors. Of course, our roundup will be completed by some insightful banter from the Canadian investor forums.

You Didn’t Quite Have Me at Hello

This past week saw an interesting announcement come from BMO InvestorLine regarding their flagship AdviceDirect platform. Specifically, BMO InvestorLine is changing the fee structure and lowering the threshold to participate from $100,000 down to $50,000.

While BMO InvestorLine has tactfully positioned this move as improving ‘accessibility’ the timing and nature of the changes demonstrate that evolutionary axiom: adapt or die.

It has been just over two years since BMO InvestorLine bet big that their unique AdviceDirect platform would meet a need for the “in-between” DIY investors who embrace the lone wolf approach, but still need the “pack” to provide counsel and confidence.

In the wealth management industry of today, however, two years is a long time to go status-quo. The “phone a friend” and flat fee approach of AdviceDirect has faced headwinds of ultra-low MER ETFs and the robo-advisor phenomenon. In fact, the same day BMO InvestorLine announced their changes to AdviceDirect, National Bank Direct Brokerage formally announced their launch of InvestCube service, an automated ETF management solution for DIY investors.

With new tiered pricing, fixed dollar charges and lower thresholds to participate, the new face of AdviceDirect may be more accessible to DIY investors. The challenge in front of BMO InvestorLine, however, is getting Canadian investors to pay attention in an even more crowded marketplace.

Show Me the Money

It’s earnings season for some major US online brokerages and with it comes a chance to ask or answer “how’s business?” Quarterly earnings for E*Trade Financial and Interactive Brokers seem to suggest the answer depends on who you talk to.

On the one hand, there is a ‘good news’ story. Bolstered by higher trade volume, E*Trade saw its third quarter earnings jump more than 31% as well as impressive performance on key metrics such as the number of trades and net new accounts. Interestingly the average commission per trade came in at $11.05 per trade, a number that seems incredibly high relative to Interactive Brokers’ average of $4.21 per trade. Nonetheless, after many years of grinding away at deleveraging their business, the results and market conditions are lining up in their favour. These latest results this represent a third successive earnings win for the US brokerage.

Interactive Brokers, on the other hand, probably provoked a wave of face palms from analysts and shareholders alike. The Q3 EPS tallied in at $0.05 – a far cry from the consensus estimates of $0.23. Among the reasons cited for the miss were some rather hefty losses (~$70M) by their market making segment demonstrating that markets can humble traders of all sizes. On a slightly more positive note for Interactive Brokers, they continued to see growth in the number of accounts (18% y/y) and total daily average revenue trades (DARTs) up 14% over the same period last year.

Help Me Help You

Many Canadians understand that being a DIY investor isn’t simple, but even so, we believe it certainly shouldn’t be prohibitively hard either. What we’ve observed over the few years we’ve been around is that one of the biggest sources of support for investors is actually other investors.

It’s both inspiring and awesome to know that there are lots of great online communities that investors of all experience levels can access to get support, encouragement and perspective on their investing journey.

So, after much research, discussion, caffeine and coding, we’re happy to announce first to the loyal weekly roundup readers that we’re launching a space on SparxTrading.com for the community of online brokerage users. We’ll have the official beta launch link on our Twitter feed so be sure to check our feed over the upcoming week to get the first look.

Ultimately we believe that by making finding and navigating information more efficient, we can improve the experience of being a DIY investor. We hope it will be a platform that will attract like-minded folks to help, support and learn from one another as well as a place to get reliable answers to questions relevant to their online brokerage experience.

Event Horizon

Attention all self-directed investor education and event enthusiasts, learning opportunities are abound. This week’s event horizon features a veritable potpourri of offerings. Sample and enjoy.

Oct. 25 (Sat)

  1. TD Direct Investing – Workshop: Getting Started with Options

Oct. 28 (Tues)

  1. NBDB – Introduction to Call Options
  2. TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Fundamental Analysis
  3. Scotia iTrade – Cash Management Using ETFs
  4. Desjardins Online Brokerage – Maximizing Your Trading Experience

Oct. 29 (Wed)

  1. TD Direct Investing – Understanding Margin & Short Selling
  2. Desjardins Online Brokerage – Portfolio construction using ETFs

Oct. 30 (Thur)

  1. TD Direct Investing – Introduction to Fixed Income
  2. NBDB – Introduction to Put Options

 From the Forums

Just when you thought you were out…

Is too much of a good thing no longer a good thing? In this forum post from Canadian Money Forum, a client of Scotia iTrade is testing the waters for what other investors might suggest as a good alternative. Check out the long list of pros and cons given to the author of the post from a handful of level headed voices.

Clear and present pricing

The impact of regulatory changes to the way brokerages report their fees shines through in this post from the Financial Wisdom Forum. In the post a BMO InvestorLine user details a breakdown of a potential bond transaction and shows that when brokerages are more transparent with pricing, good things can happen.

 

That does it for this week’s roundup. It has been a tough week for Canada. Going into the weekend, the SparxTrading.com team salutes and says thank-you to the brave men and women who, because of their courage and sacrifice, make this country the great nation that it is.

 

Credit: Nathan Denette/CP
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 17, 2014

[updated Oct.18] If you’re like the markets this past week, you’ve ‘bear’ly made it to Friday.  For many investors and traders, a higher than usual dose of uncertainty made it a harrowing week.  Of course, Canada’s discount brokerages know all too well about the specter of uncertainty as they are now trying to navigate a brave new world of low-commission pricing.

In this week’s discount brokerage round up, we take a look at the different directions brokerages are taking in this new landscape. First, we look at a pair of direct competitors adding features into their product mix. Next we scope out an emerging battle for investor attention as brokerages are going to new channels to capture attention.  We then roll-out a new feature of the roundup – our “event horizon” which highlights upcoming investor education webinars and seminars. Finally, we cap off the week with some very instructive investor comments on the harsh realities of online trading.

Support and Resistance are Futile

The infamous mantra of Star Trek’s Borg came one step closer to becoming reality as the “robo-advisor” trend continues to gain momentum here in Canada.

National Bank Direct Brokerage recently launched their new “InvestCube” service and in doing so, they’ve taken direct aim at that large segment of investors who want intelligently diversified, low-fee ETF portfolios without the ongoing maintenance work of constant rebalancing.

While NBDB are not alone in this regard, they are casting their nets at a time when marketplace excitement over these kinds of services is heating up.

Briefly, InvestCube is being touted as a way to simplify DIY investing by combining expertly curated exchange-traded fund (ETF) portfolios with smart automatic rebalancing synched to allocation thresholds.  Investors can choose from the following five portfolio categories:

  1. Conservative
  2. Moderate
  3. Balanced
  4. Growth
  5. Equity

With a catchy name and polished pitch, National Bank Direct Brokerage is hoping InvestCube has the curb appeal and sticker price to win over long-term investors who want to go it alone, but don’t necessarily have the time, or the desire, to analyse data.

Fees for the service range from 0.99% to 1.04%, depending on the portfolio selected, with no per trade commission costs. The minimum buy-in for this service is also $25,000, which means there is a clear segment of this ‘robo-advisor seeking’ group NBDB is looking to go after.

NBDB says InvestCube is currently available for all account types; including RRSP, TFSA, RESP, LIRA / LRSP, RRIF account cash margin account and InvestCube is available in all Canadian dollar denominated account types.

Party in the TFSA (…and RSP)

Desjardins Online Brokerage was also on our radar as they’ve recently added US dollar registered accounts (RRSP and TFSA) to their feature offering.  Although this feature release has been in the works for some time, it comes on the heels of a recent announcement from TD Direct Investing highlighting the long awaited launch of USD registered accounts.

Foreign exchange fees have (and continue to be) a generous revenue generating function for brokerages but with several other brokerages already offering USD registered accounts (RRSP, TFSA and LIRA), Desjardins Online Brokerage is wisely closing the gap between themselves and their competitors on a long-sought after feature.

For Desjardins Online Brokerage’s competitors, things are less rosy. The impact of this latest feature release means that smaller players, who were among the first and most vocal champions of this account type (and the ones who rely on it the most to differentiate themselves from larger brokerages), will have to dig deep to come up with something that makes them seem to be truly ahead of the curve. Also, competitors (big and small) that don’t offer this particular feature have a very tough time convincing clients to continue to park all of their assets in one place.

May I Have Your Attention, Please?

While pricing and features are one way to get attention from investors, another way is to try and be more ‘interesting’. In today’s world, one way to do that is to turn to video.

Qtrade recently rolled out a platform product video demonstration, that we spotted on their website. While popcorn and soda won’t be required for this screening, the video features a palatable 210-second run through the platform. And Qtrade is not alone.

National Bank Direct Brokerage is also in the mix with some branding video content, all geared towards capturing the attention of Canadian self-directed investors. Other brokerages such as TD Direct Investing have gone even further into the “video” field by pushing and sponsoring their own content channel.

As today’s online investor is smarter, more knowledgeable and spends more time online, Canadian online brokerages are going to have to go beyond price in order to compete for and win their attention. If they don’t like what’s being said, today’s investors will simply change the channel or worse swipe left.

Event Horizon [New!]

Introducing the newest feature of the round up: the event horizon. This section highlights the self-directed investor education events and opportunities for the upcoming week.  While many of the events are held by discount brokerages, there are other events included too. [note: TD Direct Investing holds many events however because of space limitations, we’ve selected a few we thought might be interesting to include. Also, events may reach capacity at which point registration may not be possible. Please ensure to check if space is available if you’re interested in attending.]

Oct. 21 (Tues)

  1. National Bank Direct Brokerage: Stop Orders: A Winning Solution Worth Knowing
  2. Scotia iTrade:  Index Iron Condors – A Friend When There Is No Trend with Pro Market Advisors
  3. TD Direct Investing: Smart Money: Investing Like a Pension Fund
  4. TD Direct Investing – Options as an Income Strategy

Oct. 22 (Wed)

  1. Scotia iTrade: Options Trading and Volatility with Montreal Exchange
  2. TD Direct Investing – Portfolio Strategies

Oct. 23 (Thur)

  1. TD Direct Investing: Options Trading using Technical Analysis
  2. TD Direct Investing:  Financial Repression – Where are interest rates heading? [Fr]

Oct. 24 (Fri)

  1. TD Direct Investing:  Advanced Options

Oct. 25 (Sat)

  1. TD Direct Investing: Workshop – Getting Started with Options

From the Forums

Hello, is it cash you’re looking for?

With the exception of Lionel Ritchie, there’s probably nobody else that could charm their way out of a margin call from their broker – and even then those are slim odds.  As one online investor found out from this comment on Questrade’s profile page, that when it comes to risk-management, it’s every trader (and brokerage) for him or herself.

D-Lister

For every shining star there has to be a lot of surrounding darkness. In the stock market, there are many companies that don’t make headlines for the good reasons and there are many more that fade into the darkness of being delisted.  This post on the reddit personal finance Canada highlights some important points about which stocks can and can’t get past the velvet rope of TFSA eligibility.

That does it for another edition of the roundup.  Wherever your adventures happen to boldly take you this weekend, hopefully fun follows at warp speed!

 

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Special Series: An In-Depth Look at the 2014 J.D. Power Canadian Discount Brokerage Rankings – Part 1

This year’s J.D. Power & Associates’ Canadian discount brokerage rankings were recently announced. As with years past, the rankings and the underlying survey they’re based on, provided a unique window into the collective voice of Canadian self-directed investors and their perceptions of Canada’s online discount brokerages.

In the first of our multi-part special series on this year’s discount brokerage rankings, we take a look at the survey that produces the rankings, including how it measures investor satisfaction as well as some of the unique features of this year’s survey and results.

The next part of our series will drill down into the actual performance of Canada’s brokerages on this year’s ranking and what these results mean for the online brokerages as a whole as well as self-directed investors.

A Quick Recap of the 2014 Canadian Discount Brokerage Rankings

When it comes to the various Canadian discount brokerage rankings, the J.D. Power & Associates evaluation occupies a special niche. Unlike other rankings that focus on direct evaluation of features, the J.D. Power ranking of Canadian brokerages is unique because its is the based on the systematic organization of opinions, experiences and perceptions of discount brokerage clients – what they call the “voice of the customer”.

Between mid-May and mid-June of this year, the Investor Satisfaction Survey polled just over 2500 clients from a number of Canadian discount brokerages to find out just how satisfied (or dissatisfied) these investors were with their current online brokerage. In total, 7 Canadian discount brokerages ended up having sufficient data to participate in the rankings (compared to 11 last year), with an average investor satisfaction score of 736 (compared to an average of 724 last year).

The firms covered in this year’s ranking (along with their overall investor satisfaction score) are shown in the chart below.

J.D. Power & Associates Canadian Discount Brokerage Rankings 2014
While numbers help to make the assessment and ranking easier, the process behind how these numbers are generated is actually fairly complex.   (For those who want a more detailed explanation of the survey and scoring system, click to read our overview on the J.D. Power Investor Satisfaction Survey here)

It is useful, however, to get a quick sense of how these numbers are derived to better understand what they mean.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – September 26, 2014

When it rains it pours. That’s not only true if you’re in Vancouver, but also if you’ve been following what’s been going on with Canadian discount brokerages this week.

In this edition of the roundup we highlight what’s probably been one of the biggest and busiest weeks of 2014 for Canadian brokerages. On the menu: an article that dives into the strategy behind one of the largest offers currently available from a brokerage, a major discount brokerage ranking announcement, a big price drop announcement from an independent online brokerage as well as a mention for SparxTrading in the news, and the tour of the Canadian investor forums.

Trade Here Often?

It’s no secret that competition between Canada’s discount brokerages is at an all-time high. Since the RBC Direct Investing commission price drop earlier this year, brokerages big and small have been scrambling to not only match the offer but to also innovate and differentiate themselves in a new pricing world. While many brokerages have followed suit by lowering commission prices (including one this past week that we look at below) Scotia iTrade, a major bank-owned brokerage, has opted for a particularly challenging road by not lowering their standard commission fees. In this article on Scotia iTrade’s latest promotion we take a deep dive into one of their recent strategies of offering 500 free trades, and what it signals to consumers as well as to iTrade’s fellow brokerages.

They’ve got the Power

As we step into discount brokerage rankings season, JD Power’s Investor Satisfaction Survey results are in and Desjardins Online Brokerage has once again taken top prize. There were many interesting angles to this past year’s results: from the fact that only 7 online brokerages were actually covered instead of the previous years’ 11 to rise in the ranks of RBC Direct Investing. The big story, of course, is that Desjardins Online Brokerage has managed to not only earn a podium finish in all of the awards and for most of those they’ve been first. Stay tuned for our upcoming story on the results for 2014. In the meantime, check out our primer on the survey and how the results are typically calculated.

What Rhymes with Price Drop?

There are those who believe that if you’re planning on showing up fashionably late then you better look fashionably good. One online brokerage may have done just that with their standard commission price drop today when Qtrade Online Brokerage announced that they have lowered and simplified their standard commission price for online trading. The new numbers they’re sporting: $8.75 for their standard commission price and $6.95 for their “investor plus” pricing – eligible to those who make 150 or more trades per quarter or have $500,000 or more in assets with Qtrade.

Not content to just match the offers of the big banks, Qtrade has taken their standard pricing to lower than the “$9.99” and “$9.95” crowd, and also lower than their regional counterpart Credential Direct’s $8.88 per trade pricing. Their previous standard pricing started at $19.99 per trade and so this move offers substantial commission savings for the “standard” crowd.

Like their bank-owned counterparts, the way to offset lowering commission prices is with administrative and ‘inactivity fees’. The conditions on the new offer include paying an administrative charge of $25 per quarter for those who have less than $25,000 with Qtrade. The fee may be waived by placing at least 2 commission-generating trades per quarter.

While the new commission fee structure is effective immediately, it seems that the inactivity fees take effect in January, so there’s just about a quarter without having to worry about that new charge for those to whom it applies. Be sure to check out the upcoming piece on Qtrade’s latest move coming shortly.

That’s Us in the Spotlight

SparxTrading got a little media love courtesy of an interesting piece in the Globe and Mail by Gail Bebe on discount brokerage deals – something we track pretty closely here.

While the crux of the article was to make a careful decision when weighing the benefits of an incentive such as free trades (or a “free iPad”), one of the reader comments to the article also made a compelling point:

“Given that most of the brokerages basically all offer the same core level of service for the same price (give or take a couple of bucks per trade), if you are looking for a new broker you might as well take advantage of the best promo you can get.”

 From the Forums

 Aaand it’s gone

Although it’s an infamous South Park reference, the feeling of putting money into an online investing account only to have it disappear is not just the stuff of fiction apparently. In this post from the RedFlagDeals.com investing forum, one user had the unfortunate scenario play out. Check out what readers had to offer for perspective and how the brokerage involved (Questrade) tried to correct it.

Tricks of the Trade

In another post about getting funds into Questrade, this post by a reddit personal finance Canada reader offers up a tip when transferring money to this discount brokerage. Check out the commentary offered by the group and the interesting fact that Questrade’s social media team (aka John from Team Questrade) is also covering reddit.

That wraps up another edition of the roundup and takes us into the end of September. Hopefully the only red we’ll see stepping into fall will be on the trees and not the markets!

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Kind of a Big Deal: Scotia iTrade Raises the Stakes for Discount Brokerage Deals

Earlier last week the Canadian discount brokerage landscape saw a massive deal unfold. Scotia iTrade, one of Canada’s bank-owned online brokerages, launched their latest offer: 500 commission-free trades or $500 cash back for deposits of $500,000 (or more). Yes, that’s correct, 500 commission-free trades or $500 cash back.

Aside from the headline grabbing numbers, what arguably makes Scotia iTrade’s most recent deal interesting to highlight is its timing, scope and what it signals to the other discount brokerage players on the field. The message Scotia iTrade seems to be sending to the other players: get ready to play hard ball.

What’s Being Offered

As Scotia iTrade’s promotional machinery kicks into high gear, many online investors (especially if they spend enough time surfing online) will inevitably come across the splashy advertisement with 500 free trades in big bold red letters.

Drilling down into the deal, however, reveals that there are two other tiers of commission-free trade/cash-back offers that investors may be eligible for. The initial tier is for deposits of $15,000 to $99,999 which qualifies individuals for either a cash rebate of $50 or 100 commission-free trades (valued at $9.99 per trade). The next tier is for deposits of $100,000 to $499,999 and offers $250 cash back or 250 free trades.

While the top tier offer is going to raise eyebrows, the other two offer tiers directly challenge offers from both bank-owned brokerages, such as BMO InvestorLine and independent brokerages such as Questrade.

Timing the Market

For much of 2014, the big story amongst Canadian brokerages has been the dropping of the standard commission rate by RBC Direct Investing. Interestingly, although several of their bank-owned brokerage peers quickly followed suit, Scotia iTrade elected not to lower its standard commission fee per trade (which currently sits at a minimum of $24.99 per trade) for those with balances under $50,000.

Instead of lowering their standard commission-price, Scotia iTrade has chosen to look at other strategies to enhance the value of their offering. These moves include lowering their commissions for their most active traders (defined as those who make 150 or more trades per quarter) from $6.99 to $4.99, promoting their ‘loyalty’ program Scotia iClub and widening the eligibility threshold of what it takes to qualify for preferred pricing ($9.99 per trade).

Against this backdrop, the deal currently being offered makes sense with Scotia iTrade’s current strategy of trying to improve the value to clients with higher assets or who are more valuable to the business (such as highly active traders).

While the strategy of not lowering their standard commission fee appears in line with their other moves so far, what is particularly interesting is how this has been received by consumers and industry observers. As we mentioned in our weekly roundup from September 12th, Rob Carrick from the Globe and Mail has made it clear that Scotia iTrade’s performance in this year’s online brokerage rankings will likely be weaker because they are not competing on price (both amount and simplicity) with most of the other Canadian discount brokerages. Also, the latest results from the 2014 JD Power Investor Satisfaction Survey put Scotia iTrade second-to-last, signaling that they are falling behind their peers in terms of client satisfaction.

Thus, the choice by Scotia iTrade to keep their standard pricing intact means they’re going to have to get creative at challenging their competitors, especially for the segment of clients with less than $50,000 in assets.

Chasing the Podium

So, what does this latest deal mean for Scotia iTrade’s potential clients and competitors?

First, it will certainly succeed in getting everybody’s attention. Whether it’s 500, 250 or 100 free trades, Scotia iTrade is trying to wave a big flag on value. Interestingly, they’ve also signed on as sponsors for the World Money Show and co-sponsored Larry Berman’s cross-Canada education tour all of which are taking place this Fall. In order to compete with and perhaps get ahead of the Globe and Mail discount brokerage rankings, Scotia iTrade looks like they’re ramping up their own marketing efforts in a big way.

Second, Scotia iTrade is definitely positioning itself to compete for clients with larger assets. Whether someone will actually pony up $500,000 for $500 or that large number of trades is hard to predict, however landing just one of those clients would represent 10 to 100 times the value of clients being sought after by other brokerages’ incentives. On Scotia iTrade’s part this offer is also strategic in that there are no other advertised offers for clients with this level of assets (other brokerages do have offers for higher portfolio amounts but they aren’t advertising them as widely). As such, Scotia iTrade has created the field for this asset level and now is the only player on it.

Finally, Scotia iTrade’s offer dwarfs the only other advertised offer from a bank-owned online brokerage.

Currently, BMO InvestorLine is the only other bank-owned brokerage that is advertising a promotion for deposits of $100,000 or more. Its offer of 25 commission-free trades or $250 cash back has been topped substantially by Scotia iTrade which is offering 250 free trades or $250 cash back for the same deposit ($100,000). In addition to offering 10 times as many trades, the window of time to use those trades is three times as long (180 days for the iTrade offer vs 50 days for BMO InvestorLine).

Online brokerages such as Desjardins Online Brokerage and Questrade are offering comparable deals to the lower tiers of Scotia iTrade’s offer but at a lower deposit level. More details on these promotions can be found at our discount brokerage deals and promotions section here.

The Bottom Line

On several levels, the timing and scope of Scotia iTrade’s latest offer is an interesting play for investors and competitors alike.

While finding a high value client who would be actively investing/trading to use up the 500 trades would be a great catch for iTrade, it seems that they’re banking on the deal to generate interest and buzz and hopefully people through the online door.

As they head into the Globe and Mail discount brokerage rankings for this year, Scotia iTrade is ramping up its visibility and hoping that, in spite of their higher pricing, investors will look to them for value in the form of promotions and services. With Scotia iTrade pushing this hard, it’s now going to be up to their competitors to decide which brokerage is going to be viewed as second-best.