Tag: Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 15, 2017

Any fans of Die Hard know that just because it’s Christmas time, doesn’t mean there isn’t room for action to happen. In the online trading space, this also happens to be the case as December has proven itself to be filled with excitement, setting the stage for a very eventful 2018.

In this edition of the roundup, we look at a major merger that took place that will undoubtedly pose a challenge to the big bank-owned online brokerages. Following that story, we continue to cover how cryptocurrency, in particular, bitcoin, trading is making its way into the online brokerage space in the US. As always, we’ll close out by looking at what DIY investors were chatting about on Twitter and in the investor forums.

Joining forces: Merger of Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct

The restructuring of the Canadian discount brokerage industry continues to play out in 2017. Earlier this year (in September) Virtual Brokers’ parent company, BBS Securities, was acquired by CI Financial Corp, a move that added significant resource to the Virtual Brokers brand. And now, this week, there was yet another major structural development in the Canadian online brokerage space with the announcement that Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct would be combining thanks to a massive merger deal between Qtrade Financial Inc, Credential Financial Inc and NEI Investments.

The combined entity, which will be known as Aviso Wealth, will have more than 500,000 clients and manage about $55 billion in assets. With that kind of size, Aviso Wealth will pose a serious challenge to the bank-owned wealth management space. And, in the online brokerage sector, it effectively provides two small players with the kind of resources needed to compete against much larger and better funded competitors.

One of the major drivers behind this transaction was Desjardins Group, who will be a 50% owner of Aviso Group (Desjardins acquired a minority stake in Qtrade Financial in 2013, eventually taking a majority stake), with the other 50% ownership split between the CUMIS Group Ltd and five provincial credit unions.

Bill Packham, CEO of Aviso Wealth explains the merger on BNN

On a fun side note, just over 4 years ago I had a sit down with the head of an online brokerage talking about what might happen with the industry. I speculated at the time that a merger between firms aligned with the credit union network would make sense. Fast forward to 2017 and it makes even more sense for online brokerages to consider creative ways to gain efficiencies of scale, in particular those brokerages that are servicing the credit union networks.

As we referenced in the 2017 online brokerage year in review, technology development is on the minds of leadership at all online brokerages. With falling commission prices and DIY investors demanding more technologically advanced features, scale or massive technological advantage seem to be the only ways in which online brokerages can realistically navigate the future of online investing.

For DIY investors, even though there will be ‘fewer’ online brokerages to choose from, the important difference is that there will now be a brokerage that can operate at significant scale. With scale can hopefully come efficiencies, which in turn, can result in better value for clients.

While the merger is expected to take some time to close (Q1 of 2018 is the target), there are some outstanding issues to resolve from a branding/marketing point of view

For example, Qtrade Investor is very well known for its continuous strong performance on the Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings, as well as in the Surviscor/Moneysense rankings. Changing names or brands at this point might remove them from years of credibility they’ve earned with online brokerage reviews. Credential Direct, by comparison, is less well known, and it would almost certainly make sense to fold the Credential Direct brand into the Qtrade Investor one. Of course, this is all speculative – an entirely new online brokerage entity could emerge to help bring brand recognition and generate excitement over this new merger.

Another interesting angle is what happens to the smaller discount brokerage players (e.g. Questrade) in a space where competitors are now much bigger?

For almost two decades, Questrade has managed to hold its own alongside other larger financial service providers, but with the latest move by Desjardins, Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct, there seems to be a case for Questrade to consider how they can bulk up to navigate the next chapter in online-based wealth management.

We’ll continue to monitor this evolving situation; however, it appears that 2017 was finally the year that the dynamics of the Canadian discount brokerage industry caught up with participants. Whether the larger firms can provide the same service levels at scale that they were able to do as smaller entities is going to be interesting to watch. Larger organizations are notorious for being more complex and thus, slower to respond to changes in the market. Now that Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct are teaming up, they will have to navigate the culture change and manage to strike the right balance between giving clients stability and innovation. Suffice to say, however, they’re no longer going to be considered a ‘small’ online brokerage.

Back to the futures: Interactive Brokers enables bitcoin shorting

Like any good trader knows, don’t fight the market. This past week, Interactive Brokers changed its position from bearish to bullish on enabling clients to short bitcoin futures.

Granted, the official position of the CEO and founder of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, is that shorting bitcoin futures would be “suicidal” he nonetheless walked back the restriction for anyone brave (or foolish) enough to do so.

For the first week of bitcoin futures trading, however, it looks like Interactive Brokers benefited handsomely, with close to half of the trading volume being processed through IB. With the CME Group set to launch its own bitcoins futures trading next week, it looks like even more opportunities to trade bitcoin are about to open up.

As we mentioned in last week’s roundup, Interactive Brokers won’t be the only online brokerage in the arena as TD Ameritrade will also enable clients to trade bitcoin futures. For TD Ameritrade clients, the minimum account balance to trade bitcoin futures is $25,000, with margin requirements for trading through TD Ameritrade set at 44%. Margin requirements at Interactive Brokers are also steep. Outright margin for long positions set at 50% of the prior day’s lead month settlement price and short-sellers required to put up an eye-watering five times the value of their futures contract.

With all of the hype surrounding the increase in value of cryptocurrency, a recent post from the Ontario Securities Commission’s Get Smarter About Money site seems timely. Interestingly – but perhaps not surprisingly – in a recent poll they found that 29% of males aged 18-34 had some exposure to cryptocurrency. This is reminiscent of the stock day trading that took place during the dot-com bubble when a lot of young trading ‘geniuses’ were created.

For DIY investors, the rise in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has already prompted requests for Canadian online brokerages to start enabling trading of these instruments. Which Canadian online brokerage will be ‘first’ to allow trading in bitcoin/cryptocurrency? It’s difficult to say, however the lessons from what’s happening in the US are going to be instrumental in making the case for trading here in Canada.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Mentioned by Canadian DIY investors were BMO Investorline, Credential Direct, CIBC Investor’s Edge, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, and TD Direct Investing.

From the Forums

Beyond the limit

Transferring from one online brokerage to another should be a straight forward process – at least in theory. In practice, this post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada section, shows how transferring a TFSA account left a negative balance in place and a whole lot of questions. It’s a good read for those considering making a change.

Leftovers

What happens when your balance is too low to trade but still high enough to incur a fee? One user encountered this situation with a low balance in their RSP investing account in this post on reddit’s Personal Finance Canada thread. Find out what (mostly) helpful suggestions were put forward by other readers.

Into the Close

That’s it for another week of action. With markets continuing to push higher and cryptocurrency doing the same, it’s safe to say the only red this Christmas season will be coming from those who are trying to short either of these. Have a great weekend and best of luck fighting the crowds for the last few shopping days before Christmas!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 8, 2017

If there are two things dominating the headlines the past few weeks, it’s bitcoin (or cryptocurrency) and America. While Canadian DIY investors have a chance to peek around the corner to see what online brokerages have coming in 2018, we also wanted to review what US discount brokerages were up to to see what else might be coming down the pipeline soon.

So, for this edition of the roundup, we take a look state side to note moves this past week by two US online brokerages that could help shape what new trading features could be available to Canadian DIY investors. From there, we’ll provide a snapshot of the latest tweets by DIY investors about Canada’s discount brokerages and we’ll cap off the roundup with highlights from the forums.

Interactive Brokers Hitting its Stride

As part of our exclusive review of Canadian online brokerages in 2017, one of the biggest trends that stood out was that online brokers are locked in a technological arms race. One online brokerage in particular, however, stands out from its peers in the way in which it has built up its business by betting big on technology and automation to lower its operating costs (thereby passing along savings to clients).

Interactive Brokers, parent company to Interactive Brokers Canada, released its monthly performance metrics at the outset of December and according to the numbers, they are having an exceptionally good year. Let’s have a quick look at some of the key numbers on a year over year basis:

  • 795 thousand Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs): 9% higher year/year
  • Client equity of $121.6B: 44% higher than prior year
  • 474 thousand client accounts: 25% higher than prior year

For greater clarity, a presentation given earlier this week at the Goldman Sachs US Financial Services Conference illustrates just how dominant Interactive Brokers has become in the US online investing market space:

Why this matters for other online brokerages – and perhaps for traditional financial service providers – is that Interactive Brokers has shown a consistent ability to make its technology work and to keep costs for traders so low that it is a natural contender for DIY investors – especially active ones. As such, their foray into traditional ‘banking’ services could signal the natural evolution of integrated financial services that might encroach on more than just the online investing space here in Canada.

While it’s difficult to extrapolate a straight line into the future, the performance of Interactive Brokers over the past year seems to signal that years of creating a technology driven culture positions them well to compete in the modern-day footrace to become an outstanding online brokerage, especially from the trade execution side.

For Canadian DIY investors, Interactive Brokers Canada is one of two online brokerages that might offer a conduit for innovative services in the online brokerage space in America to migrate north. The other, TD Direct Investing, may look to import ideas developed by TD Ameritrade into the Canadian space.

In either case, however, Interactive Brokers has made a compelling business case for other online brokerages to invest in automation and operational efficiency, and to do so at an accelerated pace.

Interactive Brokers, as well as online brokerage Robinhood, in the US have both demonstrated commission pricing can continue to come down. Another very compelling slide from the Interactive Brokers presentation deck shows how much lower Interactive Brokers’ commissions are for equity and, in particular options trading, relative to their US peers even after a significant commission price cut by the group of online brokerages earlier this year.

The bottom line for Canadian discount brokerages is to figure out how to offer their services faster and less expensively because Interactive Brokers Canada is likely to continue to attract more mainstream attention.

After the addition of RSP and TFSA accounts to Interactive Brokers Canada and the regular feedback from DIY investors to include Interactive Brokers Canada in the highly popular Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings, the combination of low pricing and popularity with DIY investors (at least the most active ones), might bode well for bringing Interactive Brokers Canada into the spotlight alongside the dozen or so other online brokerages regularly included in the review.

Interactive Brokers’ latest trading metrics and recent investor presentation paint a very interesting picture of how they continue to grow market share with active DIY investors – a highly prized segment in the online brokerage market.

Whether IB can disrupt the Canadian marketplace to the same degree that they have in the US remains to be seen, however the combination of global ambition, high degree of popularity with active DIY investors and a major emphasis on technology suggests Interactive Brokers Canada may find itself in the spotlight sooner than their peers would hope.

TD Ameritrade Betting on Bitcoin

One of the most intriguing things about the capital markets is that when there are buyers, there are inevitably people motivated to figure how to sell. Case in point: bitcoin.

The beyond-meteoric rise in the digital currency this year has continued to gain international attention, and likely drawn the interest of traders everywhere to figure out whether or not this would be a worthwhile risk to take on to trade.

And, while many folks (including the founder and CEO of Interactive Brokers) have warned against enabling futures trading of bitcoin, the green light has been given and one online brokerage in the US, TD Ameritrade, appears to be the first to move into the space to enable clients to trade these instruments.

It will be interesting to follow what happens with Bitcoin and in particular the institutions that enable trading of futures of Bitcoin. The fact that online brokerages in the US are now gearing up to participate in the trading of Bitcoin derivatives is, perhaps, a signal that a new product line will be coming soon to online brokerages that have traditionally dealt in equities and options.

We’re definitely keen to monitor this development starting on Sunday and naturally to see how Canadian online brokerages try to keep pace with investor interest (or fever) to participate in the cryptocurrency trading that is gripping the world.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

There was no shortage of heat coming from Twitter this past week as several Canadian online brokerages faced more than a few unhappy campers when outages and long phone line wait times drove DIY investors online to complain.  Mentioned by Canadian DIY investors were BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

It’s not easy getting green

Comparing one of Canada’s largest online brokerages (TD Direct Investing) with one of social media’s most popular online brokerages (Questrade) turned up some interesting posts this past week in the DIY investor forums. In this post, from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada thread, one user was looking to get the most mileage on saving fees and asked for the pros and cons of choosing a passive investing strategy at each of the two ‘green’ online brokerages.

Party in the TFSA

While that Miley Cyrus reference is upbeat and generally capture how investors perceive TFSAs, perhaps another song – Wrecking Ball might also describe the downside of TFSA. In this post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada section, one user gets enlightened on the pluses and minuses of a TFSA when asking about a good online brokerage for TFSAs.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on this edition of the roundup. This weekend will be a tense one as all eyes will be on what happens next with cryptocurrency. Of course, for a change of pace from fantasy money, there’s also fantasy football playoffs that have started. Best of luck on whichever screens you’re on!

 

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 24, 2017

It’s black Friday which means deal hunters are out in full force online and in the stores looking for a great bargain. For DIY investors, looking for a deal in the markets or even looking for a deal when opening an online trading account got a little easier as yet another Canadian online brokerage joined the deals pool this week.

We’ll keep things light and easy for this week’s roundup with a quick check in on the latest online brokerage deal to cross the wires followed by a roundup of the DIY investor education events that are taking place heading into the end of 2017. As usual, we’ll also serve up a generous helping of DIY investor chatter from Twitter and interesting conversations from the DIY investor forums.

Virtual Brokers launches new promotional pricing offer

Just in time for the Black Friday offers, this week Virtual Brokers stepped back into the spotlight with a new promotional commission price offer.

Trade commissions are now being offered at $4.99 per trade for two months, with a maximum of 15 trades per month at the discounted pricing. According to the terms and conditions of the deal, the full commission will be charged at the time of trade execution and then a reimbursement will be offered after June 30th, 2018 provided eligibility conditions are met.

With the addition of the Virtual Brokers offer, this puts the active advertised deal count we’ve spotted at 25 and is a signal that the 2018 RRSP season will be off to a heated start. Also of interest, the cash back and commission-free trade promotion category is regaining ground lost in 2017 as competition between Canadian discount brokerages heats up.

Click the following link to see the latest discount brokerage deals/promotions info for November.

Investor Education Events on the Horizon

Heading into the end of the year, there are still a couple of investor education events for DIY investors that are worth tuning into or attending in person. We’ve flagged a few that might be of particular interest for getting some perspective on how to trade the markets heading into 2018 as well as a pair of sessions that are focused on every trader’s least favourite (but nonetheless very important) topic: taxes.

Here’s a quick rundown:

What’s Your Investor Personality – Larry Berman – Nov. 25th; Dec. 2nd

Larry Berman will be making an appearance in Vancouver on November 25th as part of the cross-country tour he has been on since mid-October. Vancouver is the second last stop with the final show taking place in Toronto on December 2nd.

On the docket for the presentation in Vancouver is a discussion by BMO ETFs to debunk some of the common misconceptions about ETFs. Following this presentation, Larry Berman will discuss the role that psychology plays in influencing investor behaviour and how some simple ETF strategies can be applied to assist investors with their own investment biases.

For more information on the remaining segments of the tour, click here.

Online Free Trading Workshop  – Ziad Jasani – Dec. 2nd

Ziad Jasani of the Independent Investor Institute is holding a webinar on December 2nd to assess market risks and opportunities heading into the end of 2017. Topics to be covered include: global equity markets; macro assets as well as short and long-term trading and allocation strategies. Click here for more information (just wait about 5 seconds for the registration window to pop up).

Tax-Effective Estate Planning – CIBC Investor’s Edge – Dec. 13th

Over the past several months, we’ve observed an uptick in the number of investor education events being held by CIBC Investor’s Edge. The next webinar coming around the corner is by the ever-popular Jamie Golombek, managing director, tax & estate planning with CIBC and it focuses on steps that individuals can take with regards to estate planning, with a focus on minimizing taxes upon death.

For more information or to register for this event, click here.

Proposals for the Taxation of Private Corporations and Tax Planning Strategies – TD Direct Investing (Montreal) – Dec. 13th

TD Direct Investing has geared down the number of events it’s holding heading to the end of the year, however there was one even in Montreal that caught our attention. Specifically, it is a session will dive into recent proposed tax changes by the Federal Government and how they may impact business owners. For more information on this session, click here.

In case you missed it: 2017 Online Brokerage Year in Review

In case you missed last week’s edition of the weekly roundup where we announced that the 2017 Canadian Online Brokerage Review and 2018 Preview was live, we highly encourage you to read through it.

With responses from 9 of Canada’s most popular online brokerages, this series offers a unique and fascinating overview of what Canada’s online brokerages were up to in 2017 as well as what many of them have in store for DIY investors for 2018.

To view the responses from participating online brokerages, click any of the links below:

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

The temperature outside may be falling but DIY investors turned up the heat on Twitter to report everything from glitches in account opening to platform outages and more. The news wasn’t all bad, however, as there were some bright notes included in this week’s selection. Mentioned this week were BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

RESP Questions

When it comes to navigating RESP options for Canadian DIY investors, things can get a little complicated – especially when mixing in provincial bonuses and the additional options that are now available beyond online brokerages (e.g. robo-advisors). In this post from RedFlagDeals.com’s investing forum, one user from Quebec is looking for a little perspective on choosing between TD Direct Investing, Questrade’s self-directed account or Portfolio IQ.

Avoiding RRSP Fees

For DIY investors, every penny counts. When it comes to having to pay fees to access your own money, however, getting dinged for that access doesn’t typically go over well. In this post, from reddit’s personal finance Canada thread, it was interesting to see the responses one DIY investor received when asking about getting around withdrawal fees from an RRSP.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup. With US stock markets closed for Thanksgiving, things were a bit quieter than usual for some. Fortunately, there was lots of hype for Black Friday and sales galore to take advantage of across the weekend and into Cyber Monday. Of course, for anyone dipping into cryptocurrency trading right now, the madness of Black Friday seems pretty tame. Have a great weekend and best of luck hunting for great bargains in the stores and online or just kicking back and relaxing!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 17, 2017

If we didn’t need any more reminders that we’re hurtling towards the future faster and more furious than ever, we nonetheless got not one but two this week with Elon Musk’s mindblowing new Tesla semi-truck and updated roadster. What, you might be asking, does this have to do with Canadian discount brokerages? Well, simply put, Tesla’s re-imagining of the trucking industry is a reminder that no industry is safe from disruption by technology, and that includes the online trading industry.

In this edition of the roundup, we look at the recently published and highly-anticipated year in review series as told by the Canadian online brokerages themselves. From there, we’ll review the latest discount brokerage deal to cross the wires as well as some interesting opinions by one online brokerage CEO on the perils of bitcoin trading. Finally, we wrap up with the results of our scans of social media and the DIY investor forums for investor chatter.

2017: A look back on a very eventful year

Earlier this week we published our highly anticipated Canadian online brokerage ‘year in review and preview to 2018.’ This series, which featured participation from leaders from 9 of Canada’s online brokerages, provides a unique window into the performance and priorities for each firm in 2017 as well as a sneak peek into what DIY investors can expect for 2018.

We were genuinely excited by the responses and participation from Canada’s online brokerages. Not only did they chronicle some of the major milestones and accomplishments for 2017, we also were able to see some trends emerging across the responses we received, and have summarized several of them below.

One of the first and clearest trends that emerged across Canada’s online brokerages for 2017 was being able to harness web and trading technology and, in turn, improve user experience.

As financial services firms, Canada’s online brokerages face similar challenges that other financial service providers do in that they require constant responsiveness to changes in technology and consumer technology preferences. This past week, for example, there was news that BMO has created a voice-enable service that pairs with Amazon’s Alexa and also that RBC is field testing a robo-advisor.

Of course, as features and services evolve, online brokerages may be able to deliver more value to DIY investors without increasing commission pricing. The fierce competition among Canada’s discount brokerages mean that everyone is vigilant about enhancing perceived value to their clients by using technology. This past year, for example, saw firms such as National Bank Direct Brokerage drop commission fees on all ETFs or other firms, such as RBC Direct Investing and Credential Direct, launch personal-finance focused content to their clients.

Another important theme that emerged from the responses from Canada’s online brokerages about 2017 was that the trading experience is being fine-tuned across the board.

There are surprisingly many moving parts to the investing/trading process and the entire cycle from how trades are placed to managing and monitoring the status of open orders to keeping track of the documentation associated with an online trading account has seen improvements. BMO InvestorLine, for example, made accessing tax documentation smoother and both Questrade and TD Direct Investing improved the options trading capabilities for clients interested in these products.

In addition to the look back on 2017, several online brokerages provided a glimpse of what’s in store for DIY investors in 2018.

As we reported last week, Qtrade Investor actually published information on many of the enhancements they have planned or have just deployed, including removing account deposit minimums and new features for tracking contributions to registered accounts. However, they are not alone.

Other online brokerages, such as NBDB and TD Direct Investing are forecasting improvements to account opening processes, while on the active trader side of the spectrum, firms such as Interactive Brokers Canada and TD Direct Investing have upgrades planned to account and trade management planned for the near future.

Check out the full list of online brokerages in the year in review article here or by clicking one of the links below.

Scotia iTRADE deals in

Just in time for the Black Friday rush, one more Canadian online brokerage has released its own cash-back offer. This week, Scotia iTRADE rejoined the discount brokerage deals and promotions pool in a significant way by launching their latest offer: a tiered pre-paid Visa card for opening a new account.

Source: Screenshot from Scotia iTRADE website

As with previous promotions, this is a tiered offer that provides a cash back amount in line with the amount of assets deposited. Qualifying deposits start at $25,000 which will land a $50 pre-paid gift card and go up to $1200 for deposits of $1,000,000 or more. Check out the deals section for more details..

Interactive Brokers founder warns of Bitcoin Futures

The new world of online trading has expanded to include cryptocurrency. While still highly controversial, there have been recent developments that show signs that cryptocurrency trading is going mainstream – including the clearing of futures of bitcoin.

This past week, the founder and CEO of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, took the bold step of issuing a stern warning to regulators and financial market participants about the potential systemic risk of clearing trades of bitcoin futures.

The ‘father of high-speed trading’ just put bitcoin on blast from CNBC.

One especially interesting nugget that he provided in the interview was that Interactive Brokers would be open to enabling clients trade bitcoin and even possibly bitcoin futures through the appropriate venue. The key takeaway, however, is that there needs to be a separation between bitcoin futures clearing organizations and organizations that also clear regulated securities.

Check out the interview he gave on CNBC above and read the notice he placed in the Wall Street Journal – it definitely helps put some the recent enthusiasm in bitcoin into perspective.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From outages to wait times, most of this week’s tweets provide an interesting look into what happens when things go off the rails at Canadian online brokerages. Of course, there are a handful of positive ones in the bunch too. Mentioned by Canadian DIY investors were BMO Investorline, CIBC Investor‘s Edge, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, and TD Direct Investing.

From the Forums

Mini e-Series

TD Direct Investing’s e-Series funds are undoubtedly a hit with DIY investors. In this post from reddit’s personal finance Canada section, one reader was curious about how to optimize participating in the e-Series but minimizing the banking costs. Worth a read.

Starting Young

One of the great things about being young in 2018, aside from Snapchat and high-speed internet, is that many online brokerages have pricing or pricing breaks for younger investors. Find out what tips this young investor on reddit’s personal finance Canada section received when inquiring about the best online brokerage for young investors.

Into the Close

With all this talk of fantastical electric vehicles, it seems fitting to celebrate the weekend by recharging for the week ahead. Of course, traders will almost inevitably be looking for ways to ‘buy low’ for the upcoming Black Friday, so best of luck hunting deals inside of and outside of the stock (or cryptocurrency) market. Have a great weekend!

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2017 Canadian discount brokerage review & 2018 preview

Hard to believe how fast time flies. As we near the end of the 2017, we felt it was an appropriate time to reflect on what has been yet another eventful year for Canadian online brokerages. And, while we could comment on the rise of roboadvisors or the changing preferences of online investors, we figured it would be far more interesting to hear what Canada’s online brokerages had to say about their milestones in 2017 and what they have planned for 2018.

In total, we received submissions from 9 Canadian online brokerages and we’re excited to share these perspectives from, in many cases, the voices of the individuals leading these organizations.

In keeping with the spirit of the exercise, we’ll keep the commentary to a minimum but before diving in, we highlight three interesting themes we noted shine through from comparing all of the submissions. If there’s one takeaway for online brokerage industry however, it’s that brokerages can no longer afford to stand still.

Theme 1: It’s a technological arms race

While it hardly seems surprising that online brokerages would naturally be heavily reliant on technology, the rapidly changing nature of technology has required all of Canada’s online brokerages to become more adept at leveraging this technology in their favour.

Larger online brokerages have had to adapt their technology development cycles to be faster and more agile; smaller online brokerages have had to learn how to leverage technology to do more to compete with larger bank-owned brokerages and nearly all online brokerages have had to learn how to create a seamless trading experience across screens and devices.

As smartphones continue to surpass home computers in usage, price and functionality, and as internet speed and coverage increase, there’s a greater likelihood that consumers will be using smartphones for many aspects of the trading experience. A very interesting example of this from 2017 has been the investment in enhancing options trading capability by Questrade and TD Direct Investing.

A noteworthy mention is Interactive Brokers’ deployment of a ‘personal assistant’ style trading interface (called IBot) which offers a view of how ‘AI’ might find its way into online brokerage services and help online investors execute and manage trades with simplified text and spoken commands.

Theme 2: Delivering more value to DIY investors

In a fiercely competitive discount brokerage landscape, commission costs still stand out as one of the most (if not the most) important factor for many Canadian DIY investors to consider when choosing an online brokerage. While prices still have room to fall (and they are falling), the reductions in standard commission pricing are not likely to be as significant as they were in 2014 and as a result, other features have to help Canadian online brokerages stand out.

Enhancing the value that DIY investors receive, and more importantly perceive, is one strategy online brokerages can use to keep from having to lower trading commissions.

While none of the online brokerages who provided a submission lowered their standard commission pricing this year (so far), they have found ways to lower commission pricing on certain products – such as ETFs in the case of National Bank Direct Brokerage, or to enable DIY investors to use loyalty points to pay for commissions (RBC Direct Investing).

Other sources for enhancing value came from improving and creating DIY investor content. Whether it was through investor newsletters, blogs or other content sources and streams, a number of Canadian online brokerages were actively creating and curating DIY investor-focused content.

Theme 3: Focus on better trading experiences

A third interesting theme for 2017 was to improve the trading experience. Whether it was focusing on making complex trading strategies easier to execute (e.g. TD Direct Investing and Questrade deployed improvements to complex options trading execution) or improving management of holdings and documentation (as in the case of BMO InvestorLine and Qtrade Investor), there has been and will continue to be a lot of resources devoted to enhancing how and where online trading takes place.

Like a good Netflix series, we’ve released all of the submissions provided to us by Canada’s online brokerages – although there are no shadow monsters or stranger things (we promise). So, go ahead and binge-read about some of the highlights from 2017 and get a sneak peek at what’s in store for 2018.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 10, 2017

For all the madness that’s been driving the world of cryptocurrencies higher, this past week seems to have introduced the first stumble in quite some time. In the stock market, there was also a stumble of sorts, perhaps the sign that expectations were out of sync with actual results. In either case, the lesson the markets always come back to is real results – which is something Canadian online brokerages are focusing more intently on heading into the end of the year.

In this week’s roundup, we take a look at some of the latest features launched by one online brokerage which will be sure to get the attention of other Canadian discount brokerages as well as DIY investors. From there we take an interesting snapshot of the latest events and developments in the online brokerage space as seen from social media. As usual, there’s also a lot of DIY investor commentary to be had in the discount brokerage tweets of the week and chatter from Canadian investing forums.

Getting more for less

Heading into the end of the year, the activity level at Canadian discount brokerages is showing no signs of slowing down.

This past week, some very important changes were rolled out at Qtrade Investor, one of Canada’s remaining non-bank-owned online brokerages, and a usual top ranking online broker in the Globe and Mail discount brokerage rankings.

The first, and arguably most salient improvements for DIY investors, is the removal of certain fees and fee thresholds. Qtrade Investor has now removed a quarterly administration fee (of $100) so long as individuals set up a recurring electronic transfer of at least $100 per month. In addition, Qtrade Investor has also removed the minimum deposit requirement (of $1,000) to open a new account.

These latest improvements are in line with recent enhancements to the online account opening process in that they also help to streamline account opening, especially for younger investors (most likely to have more modest portfolios).

As a bonus to dividend investors, Qtrade Investor has also updated its dividend reinvestment plan interface to make it easier to identify stocks that are eligible for DRIPs.

On a technical note, there are additional features which have been announced including a handy registered account centre that makes it easier to track contributions and withdrawals as well as additional portfolio tracking tools.

The full list of improvements and new features are available here. Also, be on the lookout next week for the release of exclusive features/content from Qtrade Investor as part of the SparxTrading.com online brokerage year in review series.

Spotted on Social Media

There are certainly tough gigs, however crawling through social media for content is not one of them. While it did take some restraint to avoid trending hashtags, listicles and the never ending …., we did manage to pull some interesting social media posts from or about Canadian online brokerages.

Options Education Day Toronto

This past week there were photos posted from the Toronto edition of Options Education Day which took place on November 4th. This was the last and largest of four events held across Canada and, interestingly enough, was the only one in which pictures were posted to social media. Both National Bank Direct Brokerage and Interactive Brokers Canada were sponsors of this event.

Spotted on the National Bank Direct Brokerage LinkedIn page was a snapshot of NBDB reps ready to field questions about options trading.

 

Also from the day were pictures from the Montreal Exchange’s Twitter feed which included shots of a very busy looking Interactive Brokers Canada table.

Social Finance Forum

Also spotted on Twitter this past week was a tweet from Scotia iTRADE announcing their participation in the 2017 Social Finance Forum in Toronto.

 

The tweets and coverage on social media from this forum were interesting for a number of reasons.

First, it was definitely interesting to see the number of firms and individuals who are active in the social finance space. The tie-in for Scotia iTRADE is in line with initiatives they launched earlier this year on socially responsible investing.

Another notable observation is that investors were in attendance and sought out this conference as a way to put their investment dollars behind projects that hold meaning to them. As the picture below shows, this conference offered one investor an idea of where to invest in a TFSA.

It will be interesting to monitor the trend towards socially responsible investing to see if other Canadian online brokerages not only start deploying these investment tools and options to their clients, but also to monitor whether they also start to show up in a more visible fashion on social media and at events like the Social Finance Forum in the future.

Online brokerages meetup in Montreal

Last month, online brokerages from across North America and across the globe converged in Montreal for the online brokerage summit. Produced by Trading Central/Recognia, this annual event taps into industry participants and commentators to take a snapshot of the state of the industry as well as where the trends are for DIY investors.

Spotted recently on the Trading Central LinkedIn feed was an interesting and insightful blog piece written by Mike Foy, from J.D. Power and Associates North American Wealth Management Practice, on some of the emerging trends and ‘disruptors’ in the online brokerage marketplace.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Technical issues and customer service woes made their way onto Twitter this past week across the board. Mentioned in this week’s tweets were CIBC Investor’s Edge, Credential Direct, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing, and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Going international

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, there’s also an increasing interest in looking further abroad for trading opportunities. In this post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada subreddit, there was an interesting commentary on the realities for Canadian DIY investors looking for online brokerages that let you trade international markets.

Limit(ed) orders

Record keeping is something that is very important for DIY investors to get right. Nonetheless it would be nice if online brokerages could figure out a way to make this easier. This post, also from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada thread, highlights the limitations encountered with one bank-owned online brokerage in trying to access historical trading data.

Into the close

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup. Wherever the weekend takes you, we hope it’s a safe and enjoyable one. Of course, we also hope and encourage everyone to take some time over the weekend to remember and pay tribute to the brave women and men who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our freedom.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – September 15, 2017

Let’s see, this week’s headlines were dominated by the launch of the iPhone X, a massive data breach at a credit agency (Equifax), North Korea firing missiles over Japan, and a few record highs in the US markets. For DIY investors, it seems tricky to keep calm but the tale of the tape is not pricing in the end of the world, but rather more earnings ahead. Of course figuring what to tune into or tune out is part of learning the ropes for any investor.

In this week’s roundup we take a snapshot of the latest content offerings by Canadian discount brokerages to see which online brokerages are making strides in the production of content that investors want and will engage with in this multi-channel world. From there, we look at some upcoming investor-focused events that might also provide some clues as to some of the moves being made by Canadian online brokerages across the country. As always, we’ll take a look at what DIY investors were saying on Twitter and highlight some very interesting developments we stumbled across in the investment forums.

Homemade content

It might have taken some time, but a handful of Canadian online brokerages have gradually been improving their in-house content offering. While there are still several brokerages offering investor education, it seems that another content strategy, namely financial market research and commentary, has emerged as a type of content that DIY investors are keen to tune into.

It is against this backdrop that the activities of a few brokerages this past week offered an interesting cross section of where online brokerage generated content happens to be and which online brokerages are creating their own content for DIY investors. Specifically, it appears that bank-owned online brokerages are doing the most work in this area, with different brokerages trying out different approaches.

Earlier this week, CIBC Investor’s Edge provided an ever-popular economic update featuring one its own economists, Andrew Grantham. This webinar presentation (which was just under an hour long) offered a very high level view of recent economic developments as well as trends and forces impacting markets and where the data appears to be pointing to opportunities for investors. Given the heightened level of controversy with the US political situation, many investors are unsure of what the economic ramifications will be of the U.S.’s actions, hence the additional popularity of economist presentations. That said, this presentation covered quite a bit ground, touching on topics ranging from interest rates to NAFTA to housing and more which means lots for investors to think about and digest when making investing decisions.

In contrast to the lecture style format of a webinar, TD Direct Investing has been investing in a bigger budget production called Money Talk. This production with professional video content and hosting is on par with business television news and the scope of topics covers the spectrum of personal finance and business news. This past week, their episode on technology investing with Bill Priest from Epoch Investment Partners was particularly insightful with a great balance of explanation on valuation of technology companies and investments as well as ideas and perspectives on where opportunities may lie in this fast moving space. Among Canadian online brokerages, TD Direct Investing (via TD) is almost certainly investing the most in terms of content generation with a long list of videos available on their website MoneyTalk.

Turning to user generated content, in particular social media, BMO InvestorLine once again took to Twitter alongside online personal finance commentators and a social media influencer (Lena Almeida – @Listen2Lena) to talk about investing. In this case, the Twitter chat was about TFSAs. It was a timely discussion as data from Statistics Canada earlier in the week highlighted that 62.5% of Canadian households contributed to at least one of three major types of registered savings accounts in 2015.

Among the questions asked were:

  1. Have you gotten started with a Tax-Free Savings Account?
  2. What kind of investments can you hold in a TFSA?
  3. How is a TFSA different from an RRSP?
  4. What are your questions about TFSAs
  5. What are you saving for?

This was a highly interactive session with a quick quiz type format as to what can or cannot go into a TFSA. To add some extra incentive to participate, there was a draw for $500 in prizes which caught the attention of more than a handful of Twitter users.

The use of Twitter and social media to connect with investors is something that appears to be gaining in popularity with Canadian online brokerages. Scotia iTRADE, for example, still has their #mymakeithappen social media campaign, which is tied to their website in which people share personal finance stories in exchange for a chance to win an Apple Watch Series 2.

Now more than a month into the contest, it is interesting to note that while more stories are being published to their campaign page on the Scotia iTRADE website, on Twitter, the hashtag hasn’t generated the same kind of visible participation as the #InvestSmart campaign from BMO. Admittedly, these are two very different formats of content, however, perhaps the cash offering from BMO was more salient for social media users than the Apple watch.

The biggest takeaway from the above mentioned list of digital content activities online is that the bank-owned brokerages are outpacing the independent and smaller online brokerages when it comes to social media presence. The smaller brokerages, who were previously more active on social channels, are allowing some of the larger players the opportunity to gain mindshare in the ‘innovative’ category. Whether it is in long form copy, social media or on video, smaller players are being quickly displaced by the work being done by some of the larger brands which means that DIY investors looking for content on investing or investor education, will likely be drawn to the bank-owned brokerages’ content channels or online contests while swiping or surfing online.

Interesting Events

Extraordinary Future (Vancouver)

There are a couple of interesting events for DIY investors coming up in the next week (and beyond) that offer some opportunities to learn about markets and offer up investing ideas.

The first is the Extraordinary Future conference happening in Vancouver on September 20th. This conference is a great opportunity to learn about the hottest technologies currently making waves with investors and technology companies.

Topics such as cryptocurrency and blockchain, virtual and augmented reality technologies, health technology, artificial intelligence and more will be discussed. Like most investment conferences, there will also be exhibition booths and some conference swag.

The conference itself is produced by Cambridge House International which many West Coast-based investors will recognize from the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference that happens every January and Toronto investors may recognize from the Cantech Investment Conference that takes place in Toronto.

Co-sponsored by the Canadian Securities Exchange, this event is definitely worth checking out for anyone curious about companies active in these areas as well as what thought leaders have to say about being able to invest in such new fields. Unlike some previous investment conferences, there is a cost to this conference (about $47 + tax) however it is possible to save 25% on admission with the code CSE25.

For more information on the show or to register, click here.

Options Education Day (Across Canada)

The annual Options Education Day events are poised to kick off in Vancouver and Calgary this weekend. Hosted by the Montreal Exchange, these sessions offer DIY investors a day-long intensive series of lessons on the world of options trading. With content catered specifically towards beginner or intermediate investors, these are usually great for both those who are just starting out or for those who are looking for more sophisticated approaches to trading options.

This year, there are three events taking place in September: Vancouver (September 16th), Calgary (September 17th), Montreal (September 23rd) and the final even in November in Toronto (November 4th).

Aside from the educational aspect of the day, which is great for DIY investors, what is also interesting about the Options Education Day is the sponsorship and participation of Canadian discount brokerages, who have a natural interest in connecting with DIY investors who trade options.

This year, as opposed to years past, we noted that fewer online brokerages are actually participating as sponsors in this event. It is particularly noteworthy to see and comment on which brokerages are sponsoring and in what locations, to see what that might suggest about who particular online brokerages might be targeting and which markets they might be most interested in.

Comparing sponsorships across regions, it appears that National Bank Direct Brokerage has committed the most in sponsorship (so far) by participating in all the cities in which the Options Education Days take place.

Sponsorship in Options Education Day City
Discount Brokerage Vancouver Calgary Montreal Toronto
National Bank Direct Brokerage X X X X
Desjardins Online Brokerage X
Interactive Brokers X X

Interestingly, Montreal appears to be the city which attracted the most discount brokerage sponsorship (three) suggesting there are some specific dynamics at play in the Montreal market to draw three online brokerages.

One obvious reason is because all three online brokerage sponsors have their respective headquarters in this city (the same city as the Montreal Exchange), so travel is not an additional expense to prevent participation. Another interesting observation is the tight competition between Desjardins Online Brokerage and National Bank Direct Brokerage – especially in Quebec – which might have been a driver for Desjardins to have a presence at this event.

Curiously, Toronto doesn’t yet have more than two online brokerages who’ve signed up to sponsor this event. With travel not really being an issue for several brokerages who are headquartered in Toronto, and given the size of the Toronto market, it is definitely interesting to see Interactive Brokers reach to sponsor the event in Toronto while other locally headquartered brokerages sit it out.

Perhaps the sponsorship list may change closer to the event (since Toronto’s Option Education Day is in November) but it might be a signal that Interactive Brokers is tactically going after the active options trader segment in key locations. Given Interactive Brokers Canada pricing structure, it is going to be very challenging for other online brokerages to beat them on execution price for options trading. The fact that there is only one other online brokerage present in Toronto on that day (NBDB) leaves plenty of room on the field for Interactive Brokers to shine in one of the largest markets for DIY investors in Canada.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

There was a mix of big and small news items across the board this week. Mentioned by Canadian DIY investors were BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Making a splash

Even on a quiet week in the forums, there was still some rather eventful news. Specifically, it looks like someone with the TD Direct Investing handle has joined reddit this week and contributed to the Personal Finance Canada subreddit. This is an important development because, up until this point, Questrade was largely uncontested as the only Canadian online brokerage fielding inquiries and responding to questions on reddit. Here is the post that TD chimed in on.

Build a Bot

Even in a world where robo-advisors exist, there are still folks who are just DIY’ers by nature. It was fascinating, therefore, to stumble across one user’s creation on reddit in which they’ve essentially created a DIY robo-advisor tool for everyone – free of charge that can be compatible with Questrade. Now, there are likely many many many caveats about using something like this, but as a proof of concept, it is pretty neat to see a community of DIY’ers who have some programming and investment understanding come together to build something like this.

Into the Close

So, the only thing left to say about this week is TGIF (not to be confused with TIFF). This is the last official weekend of the summer of 2017 so make the most of it if while you can! Have a great weekend!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – September 8, 2017

Between natural disasters or man-made ones, this short week has felt much longer than even a regular one.  Of course, there’s still lots of important action to stay on top of, which is something all DIY investors (especially the more active among us) quickly learn is a reality of life in the markets.  This past week there were more than a few market moving announcements – from interest rates hikes to new settlement dates which traders had to maneuver around.

This week’s roundup looks at some market moving news of a new entrant to the Canadian online brokerage space and what that will mean for competitors and DIY investors alike. Next, we do a quick recap of several small developments including the kick-off to a popular investor conference as well as a stock market contest for students that aims to raise awareness for a great cause. As always, we’ll review what DIY investors had to say about Canadian discount brokerages and trading in general on Twitter and in the DIY investor forums.

Virtual Brokers acquired by CI Financial Corp.

It was bound to happen sometime. With pressures on commission pricing and a modest market-size, competing and succeeding in the Canadian online brokerage space in 2017 and beyond requires the scale to withstand commission price declines while monetizing clients through a variety of channels.

Perhaps that was among the factors that led to the major news this past week that wealth management firm CI Financial Corporation announced that it is acquiring BBS Securities, parent to Canadian discount brokerage Virtual Brokers. CI Financial Corporation is one of Canada’s largest independent investment fund companies, and though the terms of the transactions were not released, the safe bet is that Virtual Brokers just leveled up in terms of competitive ability.

According to reporting in the Globe and Mail,  “there are no plans to change any of the current funds offerings or trading fees” at Virtual Brokers, so for the moment clients can rest easy as the deal makes its way through regulatory approvals. Nonetheless, National Bank Direct Brokerage’s move to drop commissions on ETF buying and selling might still mean a shakeup of Virtual Brokers’ pricing is in the cards not too long from now, especially since CI Financial owns ETF provider First Asset.

Competitors to Virtual Brokers, including both the bank-owned brokerages and independent online brokerages, likely need to revisit their game plans now that Virtual Brokers is owned by a company with over $120B assets under management and that has a market cap of $7B. CI Financial is no small fry when it comes to the wealth management footprint in Canada and so the combination of the advisor network alongside substantially greater resources means that Virtual Brokers has discounted access to hundreds of thousands of customers who might also be interested in doing some DIY investing alongside their managed wealth.

For Virtual Brokers, the acquisition means that there are now some serious resources at their disposal.

As part of their news release, founder, CEO and president of BBS Securities, Bardya Ziaian, mentioned “Our firm will benefit from the financial strength and stability of CI, which will support investments in technology, product development and service.” For CI Financial, there is clearly an interest in the financial technology developed by BBS Securities and preparing for the technology arms race that has come to define the wealth management space in general.

Since CI Financial Corp (a publicly traded company) owns Virtual Brokers, it will be interesting to monitor the extent to which online brokerage contributes to the earnings and bottom line. For Canadian DIY investors, there is a strong possibility that Virtual Brokers may once again be able to aggressively revise their commission structure or add in value drivers for their clients that bank-owned brokerages may not be able to match. Either way, this translates into more mileage for the DIY investor dollar, which is always a good thing.

With the ramp up to the ‘busy’ season starting soon, it will be very interesting to see how Canada’s discount brokerages respond. One thing is for certain, however, the newest player on the field will likely force that response to happen sooner rather than later.

Quick highlights

Toronto Moneyshow kicks off

What is arguably one of the largest investment shows in Canada is underway on September 8th and 9th in Toronto, with several Canadian online brokerages in attendance. We took a peek at the social media displays to see what kind of activity was taking place at the event with some snapshots of the action compiled below. Among the online brokerages in attendance are BMO Wealth Management (BMO InvestorLine), CIBC Investor’s Edge, Interactive Brokers and National Bank Direct Brokerage. Check out the @MoneyShows twitter feed for more updates and action from the show floor. (In case the tweets from the show are not loading, they can be accessed here.)

CIBC Investor’s Edge trades for a cause

Canadian bank-owned online brokerage CIBC Investor’s Edge was announced this week as the presenting sponsor in the virtual stock market challenge, the Capitalize for Kids Student Challenge, organized by Capitalize for Kids. Along with market platform company IRESS, who is supplying the software and market data used in the simulation, these firms are helping to raise awareness and funds for Kids Help Phone. Also, funds raised up to $75,000 will be matched thanks to a grant from Brain Canada.

The competition is open to any student at the age of majority who in enrolled in high school or a post-secondary institution for any amount of time between September 1st 2017 and December 31st 2017. Note that the deadline to register for the competition is September 30th.  The challenge itself takes place from October 2nd to December 31st

Top prizes in the competition consist of a combination of a cash credit in a CIBC Investor’s Edge account as well as a lunch or skype session with a CIBC Executive. Top prize in the competition is $2,000 cash credit in a CIBC Investor’s Edge account while second place nets $1,000 and third place $500, both of which are cash credits in a CIBC Investor’s Edge account. In addition to cash prizes, entrants may also have their written analysis of their portfolios evaluated and have their resumes screened by a number of well-known financial firms.

Full details on the competition are available at the Capitalize for Kids website. Also, check out the video below for more information on the competition.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Despite the shortened week, there was still plenty of action on Twitter. Mentioned by Canadian DIY investors were Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Importer Exporter

One of the realities of DIY investing is tracking trades in a spreadsheet. In this post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada section, one user was looking for an easy way to export trading data from Questrade into a spreadsheet program. Fortunately, folks from Questrade provided a couple of tips to make it a snap.

Exchanging Ideas

Figuring out how to save on foreign exchange fees between Canadian and US currencies at CIBC Investor’s Edge sparked an interested discussion in this post in Canadian Money Forum. Worth a read for those looking for recent pricing on Norbert’s Gambit costs at this online brokerage.

Into the Close

Never a dull Friday. Our thoughts are going out to all of the folks impacted by hurricane’s Irma and Harvey and we’re hoping everyone can weather the storms safely. There’s no shortage of news to keep eyes glued to screens this weekend – from weather to scandal to sports, most of which will have markets chattering on Monday. Have a safe long weekend and rest up if you can, the next week looks to be a particularly busy one.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – September 1, 2017

Heading into a long weekend where Canadian and U.S. stock markets are closed until Tuesday, certain investors are braving a long gulf of uncertainty. Meanwhile, a new and white-hot market in cryptocurrency continues to burn 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the digital era, “money” truly doesn’t sleep. For Canadian online brokerages, it is a brave new world where technology is rapidly changing where and how investors manage wealth, and forcing everyone in the world of money to move ever-faster to keep up.

In this week’s roundup, we look at the latest move by one bank-owned Canadian discount brokerage to disrupt the DIY investing space by offering commission-free ETF trading. From there, we profile the newest promotional offer to cross our deals radar from the robo space looking to leverage a social approach to building their client base. As always, we’ll review which Canadian discount brokerages were active on Twitter and which ones were being talked about by Canadian DIY investors in the forums.

Tipping the balance of power: Commission-free ETF trading gives National Bank Direct Brokerage an edge

This week, National Bank Direct Brokerage redrew the map for the Canadian online brokerage industry by eliminating commissions on ETF buying and selling on both Canadian and U.S. listed ETFs, and in doing so, have likely touched off yet another price war in an already competitive commission marketplace.

The skeptical among us, and in fact most seasoned investors, would be right in asking whether or not this is too good to be true – or at the very least, how National Bank Direct Brokerage expects to make any money. Looking into the details and also putting this latest move into context can shed some light on both those points.

First, is commission-free ETF buying and selling too good to be true?

Well, the good news is commission-free ETF trading is positive – sort of. There are some important details to this new pricing structure that DIY investors should be clear about that clarify exactly the conditions under which NBDB clients can trade ETFs commission-free.

The first, and probably most important, condition for the commission-free trading is that purchases or sales need to be made in 100 unit increments. That means that only online orders of 100 or more units at a time will be considered commission-free. Fractional buys and purchases (or sales) of less than 100 units at a time will be charged at the regular commission rates ($9.95 per trade).

Another important condition is that individuals must sign up to receive all of their documents electronically. In today’s world, it’s not that uncommon to be fully digital, however the onus is on users to ensure that the digital versions of trade confirmations and statements are properly stored.

Finally, other important details that could impact users taking advantage of this offer are that commission-free ETF trades do not count towards active trader pricing activity levels, enable annual administrative fees to be waived nor do they help with getting free or discounted access to trading platforms.

In short, for the average investor – including the long-term passive investor, the ability to trade commission-free ETFs is a significant win.

According to Laurent Blanchard, President of National Bank Direct Brokerage, “More than ever, our aim is to innovate to meet the needs of self-directed investors. It’s our priority and today’s announcement is tangible proof. By saving on commissions, our clients will be able to build their portfolios and grow their wealth. This change benefits all types of investors.”

Yes, executing trades in volumes sufficiently high enough to qualify for zero commission pricing will require more organization and, potentially, a higher balance to take advantage of the offer, but savings on transaction fees are savings nonetheless.  On this last point, however, is where the answer lies as to whether or not NBDB can make money by effectively enabling free trading on ETFs (spoiler alert: they’re able to do it).

By including a minimum amount of 100 units to purchase in order to qualify for commission-free ETFs, there’s a reasonable likelihood that this would appeal to individuals with higher portfolio amounts – especially for passive portfolio holders.  As such, for NBDB, their commission-free ETF program might end up having slightly more appeal to individuals with somewhat larger portfolios than to individuals who are just starting out. Therein lies the value proposition.

Individuals with larger balances may also be looking for convenience in wealth and financial management, which would make National Bank and its constellation of traditional banking, lending and other financial services a natural fit. If individuals have multiple accounts at bank-owned brokerages, for example, there is now an incentive to consolidate at National Bank Direct Brokerage. And, it is that increased integration factor that appears to be an emerging trend for the online brokerage space, with notable examples in the U.S. online brokerages.

Screengrab from National Bank Direct Brokerage website

Two weeks ago, we reported on the move by Interactive Brokers to offer the ‘integrated’ approach to wealth management by linking a credit card into their wealth management mix. E*trade Financial, another US-based online brokerage, also offers chequing accounts and bill payments. On the commission-free trading side, both Robinhood and Merrill Edge have commission-free trading, the latter specifically offering commission-free ETFs.

The takeaway: online brokerages relying solely on commission revenue to survive are an endangered species – increasingly integrated financial and wealth management services will be the model that tomorrow’s online brokerages – bank-owned, credit union owned or otherwise will need to adapt to.  The writing is on the wall for high commission charges for order execution.

In that light, the latest move by National Bank Direct Brokerage is clearly a long-term strategy to get the attention, and hopefully business, of investors with larger portfolios. For those with modest portfolios, NBDB’s latest offer provides room to grow with the upside of occasional commission free trading. The added bonuses of being with a bank-owned brokerage, such as convenience of moving money into and out of banking accounts, might be enough to at least put National Bank Direct Brokerage into consideration.

Whichever way the Canadian online brokerage markets respond from here, the latest move by National Bank Direct Brokerage is reminiscent of the commission price drop from RBC Direct Investing in 2014.

Canadian bank-owned online brokerages are now in a world where a bank-owned brokerage is offering commission-free ETF trading. And, regardless of the conditions associated with the offer, nothing gets the attention of investors like something that sounds like a good deal. A bank-owned brokerage with no-commission trading on ETFs is just that.

Predictions are often perilous, but in this case, recent history offers a lesson for the online brokerage market in Canada: adapt quickly or risk obscurity. The one thing that we can predict is that DIY investors will continue to be the winners.

It pays to have friends: SmartFolio launches cash back Refer-a-Friend offer

Refer a friend programs are a great way for existing clients and their friends or family to mutually benefit from opening a new account. For early adopters in the online portfolio management and robo-advisor space, however, there is now another firm that is rewarding existing clients for referring new clients to them.

This week, BMO Nesbitt Burns’ online portfolio management service, BMO SmartFolio, rolled out a referral program as part of its growth efforts in this increasingly competitive space. The “Refer a Friend” program from SmartFolio offers $50 cash back to both the referring party and the referee.

Within the Canadian online portfolio management and robo-advisor space, there are a handful of firms that offer promotional referral deals which typically include waiving of fees and cash back incentives. What is interesting about SmartFolio’s approach to refer a friend programs, is that the referee’s referral bonus can be combined with an existing ‘mass market’ offer. Currently, SmartFolio is offering the first year of management free on assets up to $15,000, so the new referral bonus for the referee can be used in conjunction with this offer.

Another interesting component of the referral approach with SmartFolio is that they’ve managed to automate (or semi-automate) the process of facilitating a referral. In this referral program, SmartFolio clients get an individualized link that they can share directly with their friends/family. This is an efficient and easy way for both the individual doing the referring and the referee to ensure a bonus is generated. SmartFolio clients also receive an individualized referral code that can be shared with friends/family who would prefer to drop by a BMO branch to open their SmartFolio account.

With BMO InvestorLine, by comparison, the referral method relies on entering an email address of the referring party at the time of new account sign up.  Whenever a manual entry is involved, it typically takes more time and can lead to individuals not entering in correct information which can delay or potentially invalidate a bonus being offered.

Like all promotions, there are some important details to consider.

First, to qualify for the SmartFolio “Refer a Friend” bonus, the referee’s new account must be funded with a minimum of $5,000 and it must be kept open with this minimum amount for at least 90 days. If this is done, the $50 bonus will be deposited by the last business day of the month following the 90-day holding period. Another important condition to be aware of is that SmartFolio clients can get credit for up to 30 referrals per year.

As the competition between Canada’s digital online portfolio management providers (aka ‘robo-advisors’) increases, so too will the incentives in play. BMO SmartFolio’s referral program is a win-win solution for existing clients, new clients and of course for BMO Nesbitt Burns too. The fact that this offer can be combined with the current promo from SmartFolio means that anyone interested in testing the waters with SmartFolio can benefit from someone who has already done so.

[*disclosure note: SparxTrading.com has a referral program in place with BMO InvestorLine and BMO SmartFolio and may receive compensation for individuals opening a BMO InvestorLine account with code SPARXCASH or a SmartFolio account with code STSF and/or clicking through to the BMO InvestorLine or BMO SmartFolio websites]

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

It was a tame week for folks on Twitter, with customer service queries taking the spotlight. Mentioned by Canadian DIY investors were Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Deals on data?

For investors and traders alike, data is crucial to making good decisions. How often, and how quickly one trades or invests can determine whether having level 2 data is a worthwhile investment. In this post from CanadianMoneyForum.com, however, one user is looking to get the best price on some detailed information, and finds some pretty interesting online brokerage options.

Cross border shopping

In this post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada thread, one user was looking for a little clarification on buying U.S. stocks for their TFSA at CIBC Investor’s Edge. Find out what money saving tips and insights other readers had to offer for a user hoping to save on exchange fees.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another eventful week. With the last long weekend of the summer upon us, hopefully you’re in a part of the country that isn’t going to require shoveling snow (amirite Labrador?) . And, speaking of snow, it looks like the Game of Thrones fans will have to find something to occupy their time between now and oh, sometime in 2019 when the next season rolls around. Good thing there’s never a dull moment in the markets.  Except when they’re closed for the holidays. In any case, hope you have a great and safe long weekend whatever you happen to be doing!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 25, 2017

Whether it’s mythical dragons, rare celestial events or a new album from a musical mega-celebrity, the bar for getting peoples’ attention this past week felt significantly higher. Of course, against the backdrop of so many big events DIY investors are looking for places to talk finance and trading – and astute online brokerages in Canada and the US are finding a way to tap into this desire in some new and exciting ways.

In this week’s roundup, we check in on an interesting social media/content-based contest from one of Canada’s bank-owned brokerages to see how the first month is shaping up. From there we take a look at a new technology solution being deployed in the U.S. that could change the face of online brokerage customer service here in Canada. For good measure, we’ll also take a look at the latest discount brokerage tweets and see what Canadian DIY investors were chatting about this week.

Make it Happening

Earlier this month we reported on an interesting contest being run by Scotia iTRADE as part of a new venture into user generated content. Their “#MyMakeItHappen” campaign seeks out submissions from Canadians on their personal finance stories, with entrants then being eligible to win an Apple iWatch Series 2.

Given the excitement that follows all things Apple as well as the lively conversations we track online every week about personal finance in Canada, we were curious about the progress thus far of Scotia iTRADE’s latest venture, in particular, what is being displayed online. Though not a perfect measure, the participation of DIY investors serves as an indicator of the level of interest and engagement with DIY investor audiences.

For a quick refresher, as part of this campaign, Scotia iTRADE will be posting stories about personal finance that individuals submit to iTRADE on the contest landing page. Specifically, those stories that meet the submission criteria will be selected for posting. At the time of publication, and just under a month into this contest, we have spotted one submission that has gone live.

A post from user, “Vanessa B” from Ontario, was posted to the stories section of the contest website and on Twitter, there have been a handful of user generated comments.

We checked on social media to see what kind of traction the hashtag received. Here’s what we found:

So far, the early results – at least on Twitter – suggest either participation is low or that people aren’t tweeting about their participation. Fortunately, this contest runs through the end of October so there is ample time for Scotia iTRADE to continue to build awareness of this competition and to generate more interest from DIY investors as there are numerous personal finance discussions happening online all the time.

Taking a step back, however, it is interesting to observe that part of this contest may rely on connecting with younger investors, in particular those that would be on Twitter to notice the hashtag, something that might prove to be particularly challenging for Scotia iTRADE.

One of the biggest challenges for Scotia iTRADE in gaining traction on social media, where millennial investors are largely present, boils down to pricing. Standard commission pricing at Scotia iTRADE ($24.99+ per trade) is almost 2.5x higher than at peer bank-owned brokerage institutions and almost 5x higher in some cases than firms such as Questrade.

While Scotia iTRADE does offer lower commissions for individuals with at least $50,000 in assets or relatively active trading levels, this generally doesn’t characterize the beginner or younger investor. The relatively high standard commission fee force DIY investors to carefully consider the value proposition put forward by Scotia iTRADE as a bank-owned brokerage. There is also another hurdle for Scotia iTRADE and Scotiabank to clear with social media users – reviews by other users.

As the post above (from Facebook) shows, online brokerage pricing strategy can also act as a drag on the banking side of the business underscoring how important it is for bank-owned brokerages to get the service and value experience consistent between services. The reverse is also true, the banking side of the business can impact whether or not investors may take their business elsewhere or not.

Ironically, the first user generated post published as part of the new campaign is about saving money, something that high commission rates make more difficult for the very demographic likely to come across the publication on Twitter.

While the lure of a contest will capture the interest of certain individuals, whether or not these folks turn into Scotia iTRADE clients (which is the hope behind this campaign) will largely depend on their financial situation. Many might find themselves looking at the minimum balance required to avoid fees or high commissions and saying ‘money just doesn’t happen.’

TD Ameritrade launches Facebook messenger chatbot

Now that robo-advisors are a thing for investors, could robo-customer service be next? For DIY investors, it very well could be.

This past week U.S.-based online brokerage TD Ameritrade, released a new chatbot feature enabling clients to ask a bot to provide updates on their investments and to get stock quotes. While the functionality of the chatbot is limited right now, there’s little doubt that the data provided by users will help improve the experience over time.

For the near future, however, TD Ameritrade will still have human representatives on standby to handle interactions deemed too complex or volatile for the chatbot to respond to. Amusingly, it appears that the use of “salty language” will automatically result in the chatbot escalating the session to a human representative.

With Canadian online brokerages generally lagging their US counterparts when it comes to technology and features, there doesn’t seem to be a definite time horizon to bring chatbots to DIY investors in Canada. Additionally, the technology is still in early stages, so there’s still a lot that needs to be learned about integrating a robo touch into a chat/client service role.

That said, there’s nothing quite like a functional demonstration of a technology in action to motivate decision makers and executives into seriously looking at a solution that might end up reducing the operating cost of an online brokerage client service program. Some estimates peg chatbots to be able to automate up to 46% of the tasks done by financial services contact centre staff.

Another data point to watch is the increasing number of individuals who rely on mobile banking rather than traditional banking options. Recent data from the Canadian Bankers Association measuring mobile banking usage found that 52% of individuals anticipate using a mobile device to do more banking over the next two to three years.

In an upcoming article on SparxTrading.com, we’ll be reviewing the client service options for DIY investors at Canadian online brokerages. Early data already shows, however, that there are major differences in the technologies made available by Canadian online brokerages as well as the time that ‘live chat’ services are available. With chatbots, online brokerages could conceivably add software-based resources at a fraction of the cost of a human service agent which could then provide coverage and support to clients trying to reach support personnel.

The “bot”tom line for investors is that whether it is a human or bot on the other end of a chat window, if it can handle basic requests easily and quickly, it probably won’t matter to most investors. For Canadian online brokerages, however, the potential for cost savings or for performance enhancement is compelling. Eyes will be on how this bot works with TD Ameritrade and if the initial feedback appears positive, it will then be a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ Canadian customer service chatbots start to appear.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Some of the comments from DIY investors were ‘off the charts’ – specifically because the charts were off. Mentioned by Canadian DIY investors were CIBC Investor’s Edge, Questrade, Scotia iTRADE and TD Direct Investing.

From the Forums

Risk-free parking

When it comes to getting a good deal, asking around can pay off. In this post on the Canadian Investing Forum, one CIBC Investor’s Edge client was rewarded for asking around about their plan to get more mileage out their savings strategy.

Rebutting heads

A debate between friends as to which brokerage was better – Questrade or Interactive Brokers, spilled over into reddit in this post on the personal finance Canada section. Find out what other DIY investors had to say about the pros and cons of each brokerage.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another controversy-filled week. Of course, this weekend the biggest controversy will be whether to spend it indoors or out: UFC star Conor McGregor dukes it out with (yet to be) undefeated boxing star Floyd Mayweather and the season finale of Game of Thrones takes place on Sunday. For a lot of folks, there will be plenty of spoiler warnings, memes and time spent on social media. Ironically, that might also describe the U.S. President’s  schedule this weekend too. Wherever the last weekend of August takes you, have a safe and enjoyable few days off!