Interactive Brokers – Page 25

Posted on January 10, 2014 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 10, 2014

This week it was bone-chillingly cold everywhere in Canada except for the discount broker deal space (and maybe Vancouver). Several big promotions heated up the deals space this week in what is likely a sign of the fierce competition for self-directed investors’ assets to come this RSP deadline season. Just in time for all that were a couple of big announcements too. One from a discount broker lowering their commission fees and another from a discount brokerage customer service evaluation. Closing out the roundup, we’ll take a look at the investor forums for some valuable lessons for those venturing into wild west of online trading.

Discount Brokerage Promotion Bonanza

As many readers may know, the discount brokerage deals section is one of the most popular places for investors looking for an online trading account to review. This month however, there has been an unusual spike in activity, including from some usually dormant brokerages (such as Qtrade & Credential Direct for example).

On the whole, it looks like it’s a bench clearing deal brawl with BMO InvestorLine, Credential Direct, Qtrade and Scotia iTrade all launching some kind of contest, promotion or deal. Before the hockey tickets & cash settle, there are some insider sources that have mentioned some very big discount brokerage deals still to come.

The Gloves are Off

In a related vein, this past week Questrade dropped the gloves (and their commission fees) in the competition to offer Canada’s lowest trading commissions. Following Virtual Brokers’ lead a few months ago, Questrade too has now lowered their minimum commission on a trade down to a penny (on their active trader plan).

There is likely more to come from these two brokerages as RSP season heats up however the title of having the lowest commission in Canada is now one that Virtual Brokers will have to share.

Service with a Smile

Now that January is here, it is time for Dalbar’s online brokerage customer service award announcement. This year things are a bit different with two brokerages being named as providing, in Dalbar’s assessment, leading customer service.

The two brokerages coming out on top of the field were HSBC InvestDirect (who earned the honor the previous year) and RBC Direct Investing. Last year’s race was a close one so it is not a big surprise that these two brokerages find themselves atop the field for best customer service this year.

From the Forums:

With more people deciding to spend their time indoors, more than a few of them found their way into the investment forums. As with the weather, winter can provide its own investing lesson: bundling up can save you a bundle. Here are this week’s cautionary winter tales from the forums.

Limited Exposure

In this post, one user finds out the hard way about the difference between market orders and limit orders. Of course, with many investors it’s learning by trial and error however here’s how the community stepped in to clarify when and how order types matter.

Getting out of the Driveway

Even with many of the advances in opening up discount brokerage accounts, there is still a natural drag of transfer time and reporting that seems misplaced in this world of instant everything. In this post from the RedFlagDeals investing forum, a user getting started with Interactive Brokers gets a little helpful informational nudge from fellow forum users.

That does it for this week’s roundup. Be sure to check out the deals section regularly as this month is probably going to continue to see more deals announced. Have a great weekend!

Posted on January 3, 2014 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 3, 2014

Welcome to the first discount brokerage roundup of 2014. Unfortunately for Canadian and US equity markets, the reception to the new year was about as warm as the Toronto winter was this past week. Thankfully though, January looks like it will be a hot month for activity for Canadian discount brokerages.

In this week’s roundup, we’ll take a look at trading metrics from December, a new name for a growing Canadian stock exchange, some of the whispers going around the Canadian discount brokerage space and finally we’ll top things off a hearty serving of interesting investor forum posts.

Interactive Brokers’ Trading Metrics for December

As it is the beginning of a new month, the trading volumes and account metrics for one of North America’s largest discount brokerage firms (Interactive Brokers) were published for December of 2013. Trading activity improved on both an annual and month-over-month basis for Interactive Brokers across several important categories such as Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs), customer equity, margin loan balances and new accounts. Of particular interest is the average commission (including fees) per equity trade, which came in at $2.46. With these rates in mind, Canadian discount brokerages commission rates (especially at the bigger bank-owned brokerages) still have room to fall and so it will be interesting to monitor how long they will continue to hold out at their current pricing.

CNSX Becomes The Canadian Securities Exchange

Although the roll-out hasn’t officially hit full stride, Canada’s second largest stock exchange, the CNSX, is rolling into 2014 with a change to its name and logo. Going forward the CNSX will now be known as The Canadian Securities Exchange or The CSE. We’ll continue to provide more information on what the change will mean for the exchange and what the impact will be to retail investors. The new website can be found (appropriately) at www.thecse.com.

A Busy January for Canadian Discount Brokerages

The start of 2014 is bringing with it a flurry of activity from the Canadian discount brokerages. Either late next week or shortly thereafter the winners for Dalbar’s Direct Brokerage Service Award are expected to be announced. Recall that last year HSBC InvestDirect received the award displacing the multi-year winner in discount brokerage customer service RBC Direct Investing.

This year the format of the direct brokerage service award has changed slightly to include additional electronic service touch points such as chat. Along with the announcement it is likely that the winner(s) will probably have some promotional campaign. We’ll keep on top of the results for that award as & when they are released.

In addition to the award announcement, there are whispers of a discount brokerage about to launch a major deal for self-directed investors. Unfortunately we’ll just have to wait on the details however we expect that several brokerages will likely have to come up with something creative to match the proposed offer. We’ll be sure to monitor & report on the deal announcement(s) as they unfold.

From the Investor Forums

This week saw a big return of individuals back into the investor forums. While many topics were about the predictions for 2014, there were a number of great discount brokerage related topics.

Is Bigger Better?

In this thread from the Canadian Money Forum, there was a very interesting discussion about the importance of considering the size and/or stability of a discount broker when opening an account.

Growing the Pizza & Beer Fund

Even though for many university and college students, money is tight, there are still opportunities to learn about investing. In this post from RedFlagDeals, one young investor is shopping around for a discount broker that fits the needs and realities of a student.

That’s it for this first week of 2014. Bundle up out there and think warm thoughts!

Posted on December 6, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 6, 2013

This week’s discount brokerage roundup finds us crossing into the home stretch of 2013. Now that December is finally here things will almost certainly begin to gear down on the discount brokerage front until 2014. Even so, this past week had a number of stories from various discount brokers including a new fee & commission schedule taking effect at a major discount brokerage, an order type being removed from another brokerage, several discount brokerage-related events that popped up on the radar and finally a couple of interesting stories from the forums for good measure.

Trading Places

Speaking of measure, it being the beginning of the month, trading metrics from Interactive Brokers for November were released earlier in the week. Trading activity (as measured by daily average revenue trades (DARTs)) showed an increase of 16% year over year however it was about flat compared to October. A very interesting figure was the growth of customer margin loan balances which was $12.6 billion at the end of November compared to $9.6 billion from the year before. While the figures show quite a dramatic change from last year, on a month over month basis, activity and growth appear to be steady.

Mind the Fees

BMO InvestorLine’s updated commission fee schedule took effect December 1st, with mostly nominal increases to their AccountLink service fees making up the bulk of the changes. For more information on the new fee schedule, check it out here. Incidentally, there will also be another fee change coming in May of 2014 (details of which can be downloaded here).

Stopped Out

Scotia iTrade announced to clients that they are no longer accepting stop market orders on Canadian stocks. As part of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) review on ensuring investors receive the best available pricing at the time of order execution, stop market orders were put under the microscope to determine whether or not they were beneficial or harmful to investors.

Ultimately, IIROC strongly recommended that discount brokerages ensure their clients use stop limit orders (i.e. that clients should be entering in limit prices) rather than stop market orders. For the full report (13-0191) outlining IIROC’s position on stop market orders, click here.

IIROC guidance on stop loss orders — Excerpt from IIROC’s guidance on handling stop loss market orders

An Eventful Week

The SparxTrading Investor Education Calendar for December is full of interesting seminars/webinars from Canada’s discount brokerages. This past week two discount brokerages who don’t normally hold many seminars, Credential Direct and CIBC Investor’s Edge, held seminars on researching for investing ideas using Recognia’s Value Analyzer tool and Morningstar Research Tools respectively.

Two brokerages geared towards active and professional traders, JitneyTrade and Interactive Brokers, were among the sponsors of the Canadian Annual Derivatives Conference (organized by the Montreal Exchange) in Mont Tremblant this past week. Although it was geared towards investment industry professionals, there were several interesting discussion topics which will undoubtedly also impact retail investors.

From the Forums

TFSA/RRSP room after an options trade loss

This past week, two forum discussions were definitely worthy of sharing.

The first was a thread from the Canadian Money Forum on taking a loss on an options trade and how (or if) it impacts the contribution room.

Unpublished commission rate deals

Regular SparxTrading.com readers know that the discount brokerage deals section covers most of the deals offered by Canadian discount brokerages. Occasionally though, there are offers extended by discount brokerages to clients as an incentive to do more business with them (e.g. transfer a mortgage or loan over as well as open an investment account). This is known as ‘relationship’ pricing and while not every brokerage offers it, it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask. The following thread covers one forum user’s experience with trying to get a better commission rate with BMO InvestorLine.

That’s a wrap for this week, have a great weekend and happy shopping (only 19 days left until Christmas!)!

Posted on November 29, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – Nov. 29 2013

With bargain hunters being bullish on all kinds of deals, this Black Friday edition of the weekly roundup will hopefully be enjoyed on the screens of some newly purchased electronic goodies. While the Black Friday madness has yet to hit the discount brokerage world (*yet*), there was still quite a bit of activity to report on. This past week another discount broker was crowned “best online brokerage”, there was a roll out of practice accounts from a major discount broker and low fee mutual funds start to pick up steam.

And the award for best online brokerage goes to…..

It’s been a busy year for the titles of best discount broker/best online broker. This year, 7 out of the 14 major Canadian discount brokerages (HSBC InvestDirect, Scotia iTrade, Interactive Brokers, National Bank Direct Brokerage, BMO InvestorLine and Virtual Brokers ) have won some kind of ‘best’ title in the discount brokerage/online brokerage space. Of course, each of the rankings and evaluations uses a different method to evaluate the brokerages, however with so many “best online brokers” it can be tough to choose. Thankfully there are tools to help simplify comparing discount brokerages on price and key features. Look out for the full review of all of this year’s awards and a look ahead to 2014 coming soon.

This past week, BMO InvestorLine was awarded the crown for Best Online Brokerage by the judging panel (Paul K. Bates, Jonathan Chevreau, Jon Purther and Glenn A. Lacoste) from the Morningstar Awards. Although Qtrade did not win this year, they got a couple of honourable mentions. For more information on the win, check out this press release and also this video interview of BMO InvestorLine President & CEO Viki Lazaris with Morningstar’s Ashley Redmond.

At Scotia iTrade, Practice Makes Perfect

Scotia iTrade has now widely rolled out practice accounts for those clients interested in trading with pretend money instead of real money. Practice accounts are a great tool to help self-directed investors get oriented to their online trading accounts and become familiar with the process of trading. For those seeking to improve their trading performance, practice accounts are also great tools for building discipline and testing trading strategies. Other Canadian discount brokerages that offer practice online trading accounts include RBC Direct Investing, Interactive Brokers, Virtual Brokers and TD Direct Investing (US Trading Platform).

On the D List

Earlier this year, RBC Direct Investing announced that it was lowering the threshold for participating in the RBC Series D mutual funds. Given the interest in low cost ETFs and mutual funds, this certainly raised more than a few eyebrows in the mutual fund industry. Fast forward to this week and it seems that interest is turning into action with the announcement from RBC Direct Investing that BlackRock Canada, Invesco Canada and Mackenzie Investments will also be planning to roll out funds that fit into the Series D family. Check out Rob Carrick’s article in the Globe and Mail for a good overview of the Series D funds and how they stack up against ETFs.

From the Forums:

Curiosity About the KIP

Amidst all the Black Friday deal hunting, on the RedFlagDeals.com forum, there was an interesting post about Virtual Brokers’ recently launched Kick Start Investment Program (KIP). Check out what the investor tribe had to say to user Leahjz’s questions about using the KIP.

That’s it for this week’s edition of the roundup. Happy shopping everyone!

Posted on November 25, 2013 by user — 2 Comments

Virtual Brokers Introduces New Ultra-Low Commission Plan: The Penny Plan

When the penny was phased out, it was largely believed to be an insignificant little coin. For one Canadian discount brokerage though, they have cleverly fashioned this humble (and now obsolete) coin into a new offer that has become the Canadian discount brokerage industry’s worst pricing nightmare.

One of Canada’s newest discount brokerages, Virtual Brokers, recently announced that they are lowering their minimum commission on a trade from $0.99 down to $0.01 per trade as part of a new pricing plan, aptly named, “The Penny Plan”. While physical pennies may be a thing of the past, the Virtual Brokers penny per share offering is very real and very compelling for investors looking to save on trading commission fees.

How low can you go?

Paying $0.01 commission per share is not new to Canadian discount brokerages or to Virtual Brokers for that matter. Competitors to Virtual Brokers, such as Questrade, offer $0.01 per share trading and Virtual Brokers has been offering $0.01 per share as part of their “the 99”plan as well as their “per share” plan (learn more about ultra-low commissions plans here). What is new, however, is that the minimum commission per trade has never been this low.

Questrade’s standard commission pricing plan is $0.01/share with a minimum charge of $4.95 and a maximum charge of $9.95 (+ECN fees). Even on Questrade’s best pricing plan (the Advantage), the minimum cost per trade is $0.95. While it is possible that pricing per share could drop to the sub-penny level, in reality this kind of pricing is generally offered for day traders who trade lots of volume (see Jitneytrade or Interactive Brokers for example).

How can Virtual Brokers offer this pricing?

Virtual Brokers is able to take an aggressive pricing approach because of their ability to clear their own trades using their own software. Almost all other discount brokerages rely on paying a certain fee per trading ticket for the software that coordinates the actual order during a trade. Rather than outsource that function, Virtual Brokers developed and deployed their own version in house and as a result, they’re able to pass through savings on a per trade basis that few other brokerages are able to match, let alone beat.

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Posted on November 22, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 22 2013

Well when it rains in the discount brokerage world, it certainly pours. Fitting for November. This week’s roundup looks back on a busy week filled with a major discount brokerage ranking being released, a very cool (and geeky) way to learn about options pricing as well as a frenzy of conversation about discount brokerages from the forums. It’s a full card so this roundup is 2 pages long – be sure to check out the ending for some sage ‘market wisdom’ courtesy of Guns N’ Roses.

2013 Online Brokerage Rankings are here

After a lot anticipation, the 2013 Online Broker Rankings were finally released this past week by the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick. This year the online broker rankings went back to the ‘report card’ style evaluation of 12 Canadian discount brokerages, with each broker receiving letter grades rather than percentages. In line with the past few evaluations (learn more about the historical online brokerage rankings here) the key criteria being measured were:

Costs
Account Info
Trading
Tools
Innovation

While getting called a cheap option by one of Canada’s largest newspapers may not seem flattering, for a discount brokerage in the midst of a price war the label is a badge of honour. The brokerage with the best overall ranking (and ‘cheapest broker’) for 2013 was Virtual Brokers (overall grade: A) for the second year in a row. The first runner up was Qtrade (overall grade: B+).

Despite being tied for third with RBC Direct Investing and Scotia iTrade, BMO InvestorLine was described as “the best bank-owned” online brokerage (each of these bank-owned online brokerages scored a B overall). The media team at BMO published a release celebrating the claim. Incidentally, Questrade also received an overall grade of “B”. The worst overall score received this year was a “D” and it was given to HSBC InvestDirect along with some pointed remarks about their offering.

Some new features in this year’s online broker rankings included comparisons of current margin rates, forex rates and costs for trading certain amounts of stock at each broker. To read the online brokerage rankings, click here. Also, stay tuned for the in-depth analysis of this year’s Globe and Mail online broker rankings coming soon.

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Posted on November 8, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 8, 2013

The big news everywhere this week was the Twitter IPO. For many individual investors, accessing the Twitter IPO ahead of public trading meant having to meet specific account requirements laid out by their discount brokerages. Once TWTR did go live though, the frenzy of buyers helped to propel the opening day price up from $26 to as high as $55.

In a tribute to the debut of TWTR, this week’s roundup will feature discount brokerage news gathered from Twitter.

Financial Literacy Month (#FLM2013)

November (or “Know”vember) is Financial Literacy Month. A couple of discount brokerages are helping to spread awareness and connect investors to educational resources. Parent accounts of National Bank Direct Brokerage (@nationalbank) and Disnat (@DesjardinsGroup) shared the following on their feeds this week:

For those interested in following events and information related to financial literacy month on Twitter, keep track of #FLM2013.

#BMO InvestorLine in the Globe and Mail

A piece by the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick (@rcarrick)on the adviceDirect product from BMO Investorline got tweeted by the @BMO media team. Interestingly while the article provides a balanced perspective on some of the merits and drawbacks of adviceDirect, the comments section has some very strong opinions on why adviceDirect seems like it is missing the mark with investors.

Finally, to stay on top of all of the discount brokerages on Twitter, you can access our discount brokerage Twitter channel.

From the Forums

Twitter also had made quite the splash on the Canadian investor forums. In particular, the RedFlagDeals.com investor forum saw a rather large spike in activity around the launch of TWTR this week. Aside from the Twitter hoopla though, there were also a pair of interesting threads on discount brokerages, specifically on Canadian Money Forum.

Questrade vs Interactive Brokers

In this first post, a new investor is looking to become more active and is wondering whether a platform geared towards active traders, such as Interactive Brokers, is a better choice overall than another low cost option, Questrade. Fellow investors weighed in to provide some important tips.

Switching to TD Waterhouse (TD Direct Investing)

Questrade was also the focus of a different investor’s decision making. In this post, an investor was trying to weigh the pros and cons of having their investment accounts at the same place they do their daily banking (TD), even if it means paying slightly more on commissions. Hear what the community had to say about the potential move.

That’s it for this week. #TGIF!

Posted on October 18, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup October 18 2013

After all of inescapable deal making drama in Washington this past week, it appears that stock markets had already placed their bets that events would unfold with a deal being struck. Rather than a disastrous crash, The S&P 500 hit an all-time high and Canadian traders also shrugged off their Thanksgiving turkey hangovers to push the TSX to close at its highest point since July 2011.

What does all of this mean? It seems a lot of folks will be asking that question, so in this week’s roundup, there was one Canadian discount brokerage who offered up a trader’s perspective on what happens next. In this post-Thanksgiving week, one discount broker got into the giving spirit by offering a chance to win some free trades while another discount brokerage officially rolled out some new features to their trading interface. Finally on the roundup, it looks like a proposed switch over from a major discount brokerage is now rolling out, albeit somewhat slowly for the likes of a few investors.

What’s the Deal with the Deal?

If Jerry Seinfeld chimed in on airplane snack food, one can only wonder what he would be asking what now that there has been a deal to extend the debt ceiling in the US. It just so happens that a video from TD Direct Investing’s investor education section looks into that. In this episode, Ryan Lewenza (North American equity strategist & portfolio manager for TD Waterhouse private investment advice) laid out his thoughts on the market sentiment in response to the debt ceiling deal.

Trading Gravy

Questrade got into the Thanksgiving spirit by offering to give away 10 free trades. The deal was announced on their blog on October 9^th with the contest rules and regulations stating that it would run until October 16^th.

Later on in the week though, a couple of tweets by Questrade seem to suggest that the contest is still on although it is not quite clear based on the rules for the contest when this offer expires.

Taking Quotes to the Next Level

As hinted at last week, the new feature from Qtrade that got released was an addition of free level 2 trading data on Canadian stocks to their equity order screen. It should be pointed out the quotes are ‘snap’ quotes not streaming quotes so users wanting to see updated information on a particular stock or ETF’s trading activity will have to hit refresh. As this feature is limited to Canadian equities at the moment, it might be of interest to those looking for additional depth information on smaller or less liquid names.

Canadian Discount Brokers React to J.D. Power Survey Results

A recent article in Investment Executive this past week covered the recent results from this year’s J.D. Power’s discount brokerage rankings. In particular, the article highlighted the win by National Bank Direct Brokerage as well as how discount brokerages, such as BMO InvestorLine, are trying to figure out how to respond to some of the information and advisory needs of self-directed investors. Interestingly, while BMO InvestorLine may have been first out of the gate to launch an ‘on demand’ advisory type feature, other discount brokers appear to be opting for providing portfolios that investors can ‘follow along with’. To learn more about the J.D. Power discount brokerage rankings for 2013, click here.

Rolling Out the Canadian Carpet

Around the forums, the chatter on discount brokerages was somewhat subdued this past week. There was, however, important news on the roll out of Interactive Brokers Canada account transition announced earlier this year. The following post from forum user Mark77 in the RedFlagDeals forum suggests that Interactive Brokers Canada clients are having their account restrictions updated to reflect the changes that were announced earlier this year.

Despite the short week, there was still lots to digest (including the turkey!). Have a great weekend all and for those who’ve made it this far, here’s a tusk-in-cheek cartoon from cartoonist Mike Luckovich on the recent Washington shenanigans.

Posted on October 11, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup October 11 2013

After a bumpy week in the markets, it is nice to get to Friday. For Canadian readers, it’s Thanksgiving long weekend so that means Canadian markets will be closed on Monday while everyone digests the news and a whole lot of turkey.

On the heels of the major announcement last week from BMO InvestorLine, this week there was a flurry of activity with several Canadian discount brokerages launching new features for research and trading. The news wasn’t all smiles and sunshine though. While one discount brokerage was improving access to low cost funds, another discount broker decided that margin trading had started to become too risky for some stocks and subsequently raised margin requirements. Finally, a couple of forum posts on a pair of Canadian discount brokerages were worth sharing this week.

CIBC Investor’s Edge Announces New Features

After their recently announced RESP administration fee elimination, it seems like CIBC Investor’s Edge is again moving to improve their service offering to Canadian self-directed investors. This time, it looks as if research tools and education support are being given a lift. Specifically, this past week, CIBC Investor’s Edge announced that they are rolling out an improved ETF research centre with resources from Morningstar (such as screeners, educational materials and more) powering the section. ETF education and support materials are offered by other Canadian discount brokerages, with discount brokerages such as National Bank Direct Brokerage, Qtrade and RBC Direct Investing also offering “ETF Centres” too.

RBC Direct Investing Lowers Investing Threshold on Series D Mutual Funds

In a news release this past week, RBC Direct Investing announced that they are lowering their investment minimum on their Series D mutual funds from $10,000 to $500. This will certainly be of interest to those investors with smaller portfolio sizes and those looking for lower Management Expense Ratio (MER) investment products. For more information on the RBC Direct Investing Series D Funds, click here.

Qtrade Launches New Features

Major bank-owned discount brokerages weren’t the only ones busy launching new features, a major independent discount brokerage is quietly rolling out some of their latest improvements for users. This past week, Qtrade launched several new or improved features for clients including:

A new model portfolio feature that allows clients to ‘follow’ different portfolio types
An improved ETF centre that provides detailed information and research on ETFs (powered by Morningstar)
Improved account transfers between brokerages
Improved new issues centre
Improved trading interface with improved quotes, order tracking and help resources

Look out for a more detailed look at these new features in an upcoming post. In the meantime, users might be interested to know that are also some hints by Qtrade of further exciting changes coming to their trading interface. Stay tuned!

Interactive Brokers Hiked Margin Requirements for certain stocks

Interactive Brokers laid the smack down on margin traders this week by hiking margin requirements for many recently popular momentum stocks. A move like this begs the question – why now? The following two articles (Article 1 & Article 2) from Zero hedge tackles why Interactive Broker with a very interesting series of theories. Be warned though, these articles are fascinating but could definitely leave readers feeling a little nervous about market directions in the near term.

From the Forums

This past week, sifting through the chatter on discount brokerages on Canadian investing forums landed two interesting threads on CIBC Investor’s Edge and TD Direct Investing (TD Waterhouse) from Canadian Money Forum.

The first was a great discussion started by the user “2tire2work” who was interested in getting their personal finances in order – specifically getting going with some investing they had been thinking about. Click here to read more about what others in the forum had to say about which discount brokerage to choose.

In the second discount brokerage related post, dividend payment time was on the mind of the user “Gibor” who was curious to know why their dividend payments were getting posted to an account at CIBC Investor’s Edge at a different time from than at their account with TD Direct Investing. There were lots of interesting answers by forum members on this one – click here to read the thread.

That brings us to the end of the roundup for this week. Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend (for the Canadians!) and a great Columbus Day for those in the US. As a quick reminder, Canadian stock markets will be closed on Monday but US Markets will remain open for trading.

Posted on October 4, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 4 2013

It’s Friday once more and with it brings a whole slew of discount brokerage related news and activities. As the calendar rolled over into a new month, there was the usual hubbub with new deals being offered and updated by some major discount brokerages. This past week also saw one major Canadian discount brokerage sponsor an investor education roadshow, and another celebrate a milestone birthday with a launch of some mobile trading platforms.

Deals Galore

In the October count of discount brokerage deals, there are more deals happening from major (bank owned) discount brokerages than have taken place in the recent past. Large discount brokerages such as RBC Direct Investing and HSBC InvestDirect that historically have been less visible with their promotions, are now offering some competitive deals.

To keep all of the deal action straight, there’s a new feature in the deals section called ‘deal analytics’. This section will take the deal info one step deeper to provide a quick way to digest all of the deal information. Stay tuned as this exciting feature will continue to evolve into an awesome tool for investors looking for a deal when opening a discount brokerage account.

Will That Be #ForHere or #ToGo?

BMO InvestorLine has had a pretty busy week. On Friday of last week, they officially turned 25 years old and like most 25 year olds, they are becoming obsessed with mobile phones. Earlier in the week BMO InvestorLine had a big focus on their new mobile trading apps/platforms by pairing their latest deal with the launch of their mobile platform. In one of the most unique promotions from a discount broker, BMO InvestorLine is offering 250 commission-free mobile trades (good for up to 2 months of trading). For those with opening balances of over $100,000 there is also a $250 cash back offer. Checkout the deals section for more information.

On the Road Again

One of the most recognizable figures on Canadian business television, Larry Berman, kicked off his 12 city cross country tour this past week in Calgary. These sessions will be promoting investor education, his investor education course and his company. One of the major discount brokerage sponsors of the event is Scotia iTrade. They’ve paired up with Larry Berman to provide the platform (FlightDesk) on which audience members can see Berman do his famous “Berman’s Call” style stock analysis in person. Look out for a review of the session that landed in Vancouver coming up shortly. To find out more information about the events, check out the schedule here.

Interactive Brokers Metrics

As they do every month, Interactive Brokers has released the latest set of trading activity statistics for September 2013 showing that on many of the key metrics, such as DARTs (daily average revenue trades), margin loans and number of accounts are all up well over last year at this point and incrementally up over last month. For the active trading segment of the market Interactive Brokers is definitely proving hard to catch and with recent changes to Interactive Brokers Canada, the same might become true on our side of the border.

That’s it for this week. With all that’s been going on in the news, this market is about to get far more interesting before it gets boring. Have a great weekend!