Questrade – Page 5 – SparxTrading

Posted on February 16, 2021December 31, 2021 by user

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 16, 2021

It’s fitting that after so much discussion about “shorts” in the news, we also now have a short(er) trading week upon us. With one fewer trading day, it also means the deadline for RRSP contributions is ticking closer, adding to the pressure that is evidently already building at Canadian online brokerages this month.

In this edition of the Weekly Roundup, we take yet another look at the customer service angle at Canadian online brokerages, this time zeroing in on another recent set of rankings that measure digital interactions. From there, we dive into some exciting new features being launched by Canadian brokerages that will help take some of the guesswork out of investing before and during retirement. As always, we’ll serve up a generous helping of investor commentary from Twitter and the investor forums.

Canadian Online Brokerages Struggle at Delivering Service Online

The drumbeat for better customers service among DIY investors in Canada is getting louder by the day.

Increased coverage among high-profile financial writers in Canada, as well as a number of studies by financial research firms, validates what we have been seeing for many months on social media: Most Canadian online brokerages are falling short on providing timely customer service experiences.

Columnist @rcarrick said he’s received complaints about several bank-owned firms, but @TD_DirectInvest was named most often. As the largest player in the brokerage business, TD has had issues keeping up with client demand to speak to its live reps. https://t.co/J7SXJWBNWx
— Ellen Roseman (@ellenroseman) January 25, 2021

While data has been emerging this year that puts the issues faced by online brokerages in the spotlight, it is somewhat confusing for online investors since different studies measure different aspects of the “service” experience.

Both the actual wait times experienced by Canadian DIY investors and the unpredictability of what users can expect when reaching out as either a customer or an interested consumer have potentially far-reaching consequences to the industry as a whole. And, as the data shows, if these issues are not addressed, the recent online brokerage challenges taking place in the US could spill over to providers here in Canada.

The Story in Numbers

At the end of January, a couple of important Canadian online brokerage rankings were published. We covered The Globe and Mail’s online brokerage rankings in detail earlier this month, with a significant amount of time spent diving into the wait times that were measured at Canadian online brokerages in January (2021).

Online Brokerage	Wait Times (min)
BMO InvestorLine	87
CIBC Investor’s Edge	101
Desjardins Online Brokerage	170
HSBC InvestDirect	125
Interactive Brokers	66
National Bank Direct Brokerage	69
Qtrade Investor	28
Questrade	128
RBC Direct Investing	90
Scotia iTrade	179
TD Direct Investing	58
Virtual Brokers	7

For a quick refresh, the table above contains the average wait time data reported as part of the online brokerage rankings among the 12 firms that were reviewed. Interestingly, in a post by DALBAR on LinkedIn, additional information about the wait times was provided that illustrates the range of wait times at each firm. Readers of the Weekly Roundup post in which these numbers were thoroughly examined can appreciate why average values, on their own, might not convey the full picture. The study data cited by The Globe and Mail rankings reported the average wait times, but the graphic below adds additional context around those average values.

Aside from the 25x difference between the average of the lowest wait times (Virtual Brokers) compared to the highest average wait times (Scotia iTrade), one of the most striking trends to jump out is variation in wait times that occurred as online brokerages took longer to respond. At the far right of the chart shown above, five firms in particular stand out with highly variable wait time ranges:

Of these firms, it was most evident that Questrade had the highest range of wait times, which stretched from about 50 minutes to just under 300 minutes, with an average of 128 minutes. By comparison, HSBC InvestDirect had an average of 125 minutes but a much narrower range of wait times, stretching from just over 60 minutes to about 210 minutes. When ranges this wide are part of the service experience, it is essentially a gamble for DIY investors as to exactly how long they are going to have to wait before connecting with a service agent.

Another striking feature of the data on the chart is where Qtrade Investor landed in terms of wait times. Their “worst” wait time (of about 50 minutes) was approximately the best wait time that any firm behind them could achieve.

These data points are also important because of how they compare against another set of online brokerage rankings that focused specifically on service levels. Financial services research firm Surviscor also released online brokerage service rankings at the end of January and concluded that there were clear and persistent shortcomings in the response times of most Canadian online brokerages.

Unlike the DALBAR study, which took a snapshot of one week’s worth of telephone data in January 2021, Surviscor conducted 163 service inquiries per online brokerage between January and December of 2020 on contact forms, emails, and social media channels.

Firm	Response Time (hours)
Questrade	2.90
Qtrade Investor	4.02
Canaccord Genuity Direct	11.15
National Bank Direct Brokerage	29.38
RBC Direct Investing	39.17
TD Direct Investing	39.27
Interactive Brokers	52.28
Laurentian Bank Discount Brokerage	62.30
BMO InvestorLine	76.10
HSBC InvestDirect	77.55
Desjardins Online Brokerage	89.75
Virtual Brokers	91.68
Scotia iTrade	94.20
CIBC Investor’s Edge	104.17

The average industry response time in 2020 ended up being 55 hours, which was actually an improvement over 2019, in which response times across the industry averaged out to 62 hours. One of the most compelling points observed in the Surviscor analysis of service response times, however, was that service has been trending in the wrong direction for many years now, and although COVID-19 can certainly be considered a contributing factor, the data shows that even before the pandemic, meeting customer response times online was a challenge.

Change the Channel or Channel the Change

When comparing the data from the Surviscor and DALBAR studies, it’s clear that the kind of service experience a consumer can encounter with a Canadian online brokerage depends on the channel used, which is a big problem on a number of levels.

First, and perhaps most ironic, is that when it comes to online capabilities for service touchpoints at Canadian online brokerages, in spite of the hairpulling wait times, it is still faster (in most cases) to wait on the phone than it is to send electronic correspondence.

In fact, when comparing the magnitude of the difference between the phone and online channels, the range went from 1x (Questrade) to 786x (Virtual Brokers). Excluding the outliers, the average factor difference was 39x between phone and online interactions. One clear standout in both the digital and telephone categories was Qtrade Investor, which had the shortest wait time on the phone and the second-fastest response time online.

To Surviscor’s point, the digital interactions may have been deprioritized compared to phone channels because customers would be more likely to use the phone channels; however, as far as making a first impression count, most Canadian online brokerages would not get a flattering response.

A second important consideration is that for the financial services industry as a whole, trust is an integral part of consumer confidence.

Granted, DIY investors are flocking to the markets in droves because of perceived generational opportunities to build wealth, but when those same investors are hitting roadblocks to getting issues addressed or questions answered, confidence takes a hit. If you add issues of platform stability to that, then individual investors lose faith that financial services firms are up to the task of safely and reliably providing the opportunities for wealth creation that much of the marketing suggests is possible.

With just a few weeks to go until the RSP contribution deadline for 2020, this is prime time for DIY investors looking to online brokerages for RSP options. It is against this backdrop that the wait times experienced by Canadian investors stand out as something that could ultimately become a much more important component to online brokerage selection than has been the case in the past. Deeper than that, however, the notion of lag time is anathema in the age of online investing.

The recent Robinhood debacle that resulted in trading in certain securities being restricted has been blamed on wait times for trade settlement – a stunning vulnerability in the year 2021. For DIY investors in Canada, the clear and present risk to consider is an online brokerage’s capacity to meet a respectable service delivery standard, especially during times of market volatility or heightened interest (which is arguably when those systems are needed the most).

For Robinhood, not only did they suffer a blow in the court of public opinion, but they are also going to have to answer tough questions from lawmakers and face the wrath of an increasing number of lawsuits. Other than the growing chorus of complaints from Canadian consumers and financial media, there isn’t anyone holding online brokerages accountable for their service standards.

Ironically (again), the longer Canadian online brokerages take to address these service gaps, the more likely it is that the industry will find themselves taking centre stage in a mass media story or, worse, the focal point of a Reddit wave. Make no mistake, the clock on this story is most certainly ticking.

New Features From Online Brokerages Chip Away at Guesswork

After talking at length about where Canadian online brokerages are struggling, it’s a nice change of pace to shift the focus to areas in which they’re looking to innovate and deliver additional value to clients as well as to DIY investors more broadly.

Readers of SparxTrading.com know that we regularly engage with Canadian online brokerages on a number of new features and developments (case in point: our Look Back / Look Ahead series). Two interesting features that were brought to our attention from Canadian online brokerages are worth highlighting to readers.

BMO InvestorLine Launches a Checkup for Portfolios

With a tsunami of new investors joining the stock market, one of the biggest challenges many of them face is understanding how to answer a very basic question: “Am I on the right track?”

Fortunately for DIY investors, BMO InvestorLine recently announced a new online tool that helps investors analyze their current portfolios against a set of investor profiles, to see whether or not their portfolios are in line with their desired investment objectives.

The adviceDirect Portfolio Health Check tool is interesting for a number of reasons, but chief among them is that it is freely available to the general public to use, and it is both simple and fast to complete.

Individuals can enter details about their financial picture (no personally identifiable information is captured) and assess it on four key parameters: asset allocation, diversification, security ratings, and risk. In about three steps, users can quickly see where they measure up to their “personality” type and also see what they may want to consider changing in order to bring their portfolio in line with their respective investing personality type.

In terms of who might be interested, this tool appears to be built around investors (rather than traders) who are interested in taking a portfolio approach to building wealth. This means that the tool is likely to have mass appeal, and it serves as a great starting point to the conversation about whether or not the composition of a portfolio is on target.

From a business development standpoint, this is also an interesting and savvy move by BMO InvestorLine to be part of the conversation about wealth management. Analogous to mortgage calculators helping potential homeowners understand some of the mechanics around house purchases and borrowing, the adviceDirect Portfolio Health Check tool is a timely resource for anyone wanting to get a digital “second opinion” on how their investments stack up. This is entirely in line with their adviceDirect offering, which enables investors to consult with a licensed investment professional about recommendations but leaves the actual work up to the investors themselves to implement.

In a crowded landscape of online brokerages that would normally be focusing on commission pricing, this public-facing tool will enable BMO InvestorLine to be visible to the right kinds of investors at the right moment and, because it is free, for the right price.

Looking in the RRIF-View Mirror

Against the backdrop of service enhancements at Canadian online brokerages, one important feature launched at the end of 2020 will help clients of RBC Direct Investing who are thinking about income when retiring.

Starting in December 2020, RBC Direct Investing enabled clients with Registered Retirement Income Fund accounts (such as RRIFs, LIFs, LRIFs, RLIFs, PRIFs) to be able to view payment details online, without needing to call or wait for a letter. In light of the wait times on the phone channel, this is a timely development.

To help navigate the most important details of a RRIF, the “RRIF View” provides a snapshot of a client’s plan, with information on the required minimum annual withdrawal amount and scheduled payment dates.

While this is a small development, it is an interesting example of a feature that is important to users who have this kind of account – it got a quick highlight as part of the Navigators series that publishes updates at RBC Direct Investing.

At this time of year, there is a lot of discussion about contributing to RRSPs, but there isn’t nearly as much information available on the next steps of funding retirement, in particular the variety of options available to individuals with an RRSP.

Fortunately, RBC Direct Investing also has a fairly good guide explaining RRIFs, which is helpful for individuals needing to navigate this new account type. With this new feature, RBC Direct Investing might also have the opportunity to spark a conversation about online brokerage platforms and the ease with which RRIF account holders can stay on top of key information.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Timing the Market

A potential investor asks in this post whether they should wait until after the stock market crash – or at least massive correction – that many experts predict is imminent, in order to buy stocks at rock-bottom prices. Fellow Redditors share their strong opinions about the value of time in the market versus trying to time the market.

Up, Up & Away

From boredom to FOMO to a record bull market, there are many reasons that retail investing is surging in Canada right now. In this post, hundreds of Redditors discuss meme stocks, cryptocurrency, market bubbles, crashes, index funds, interest rates, and a whole lot more.

Into the Close

With the combination of Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and Family Day, there have been many reasons to celebrate this past week, and Friday being that much closer certainly adds one more item to the list. There’s a lot of gripping drama playing out in the US this week, with the GameStonks trade under the microscope. With snow and cold showing up just about everywhere, including Texas, this is going to be a weird one. Hang in there.

Posted on February 8, 2021March 8, 2021 by user

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 8, 2021

February is now well underway. In case you might have missed it, a forty-something quarterback managed to nab yet another Super Bowl win, and for the moment, it appears that the forty-something-plus crowd on Wall Street managed to squeeze out a win over the younger investors – at least for now. History is in the making all around.

In this edition of the Roundup, we dive into the deals and promotions activities that Canadian online brokerages are up to. From there we analyze the fallout from the meme stocks push and contemplate what it should make Canadian online brokerages think about as we head out of this historic turn of events. As always, there’s thoughtful commentary from the investor forums and a selection of interesting tweets.

Forecast for Deals & Promotions: Mostly Sunny for February

The month before the official start of spring is a good news/bad news moment. Yes, better weather is around the corner, but no, it’s not here yet.

Fortunately for DIY investors, the forecast heading into the deadline for RSP contributions is filled with some bright patches, most notably that the Canadian online brokerage deals section is brimming with activity. If there is a dark cloud lingering over deals activity this year, it’s that several online brokerages have opted to stay on the sidelines rather than post an offer during RSP season for DIY investors.

In more “normal” times, not having a deal during RSP season would be unlikely. With the sustained interest by DIY investors in opening new accounts – especially given the recent run in “meme stocks” – many online brokerages are struggling to keep up with the level of demand and, thus, pacing themselves when it comes to bringing on new customers. It appears that there can be too much of a good thing after all.

For online investors looking to open an online brokerage account, February is the last month to be able to take advantage of the selection of offers. Most of the promotions in the cash-back or commission-free trade categories end at the beginning of March.

The current offers in the most enticing category for investors show that competition between the big five bank-owned online brokerages is fierce, with all of these discount brokerages putting forward competitive cash-back offers. Joining the bank-owned online brokerages in this category are Qtrade Investor and Questrade.

Curiously, mid-tier and newer online brokerages do not currently have a cash-back or commission-free trading offer, a signal that these providers might either be more strained by the substantial interest in investors coming to market or be pursuing a different strategy to attract new clients.

While deals and promotions are an effective strategy to attract DIY investors, another interesting way in which Canadian online brokers attempt to connect with new clients is via advertising – specifically on the world’s biggest search engine, Google.

As part of our proprietary research, we’ve reviewed recent search engine marketing tactics of Canadian online brokerages and found some fascinating results. One of the important findings is that there are fierce battles taking place between a small number of online brokerages on Google.

For example, it appears that Wealthsimple Trade is spending advertising directly on names such as Interactive Brokers, Qtrade Investor, Questrade, and TD Direct Investing. Alternatively, Interactive Brokers is advertising directly on Questrade, Wealthsimple Trade, and Virtual Brokers. It is especially interesting considering Wealthsimple Trade and Interactive Brokers couldn’t be more different in terms of user experience and intent.

Interactive Brokers is built, intentionally, for active traders. In contrast, when Wealthsimple Trade launched, it was built deliberately to support some trading, but active trading – and day trading in particular – was explicitly viewed as undesirable and something they stated they could intervene on if the trading activity would be deemed “inappropriate.”

It is therefore interesting to line up the sentiment expressed in the messaging of Wealthsimple Trade’s help page on day trading with their advertising targeting investors interested in Interactive Brokers and Questrade.

With just three weeks to go until the RRSP deadline, Canadian online brokerages are likely to ramp up their efforts to win over investors, and the most likely place this will happen is with heightened “promotion” via online advertising – and yes, even during the Super Bowl.

In the February edition of the deals and promotions section, the big five Canadian bank-owned online brokerages are well represented, along with Questrade and Qtrade Investor. Of the online brokerages not on the current list of promotions, however, it appears that two popular names, Interactive Brokers and Wealthsimple Trade, are instead fiercely battling it out with one another on Google search advertising and likely other channels, such as Facebooks, as well.

That two very different brands are battling it out directly with each other is telling of the competitive dynamics in the current online brokerage market in Canada. It does raise the question, however, of when that competition will materialize into something more value-added to a client than a convenient link on Google.

GameStop(ped) Out

Oh, what a difference a fortnight makes in the stock market of 2021.

Just over two weeks ago, Elon Musk wasn’t just talking about launching rockets into space, he was also weighing in on the meteoric rise of “GameStonks.” Same with Mark Cuban, AOC, and so many more people who normally give commenting on the stock market a pass. What has been happening in the stock markets over these past few weeks, however, has been almost impossible to ignore.

The sheer weight of the interest in the “meme stock” phenom was fuelled by a combination of FOMO and a strange quirk of market physics. Since the surge in the stock price of GameStop (ticker symbol GME) and subsequent restrictions on trading it by online brokerages, there have been countless commentaries on exactly what happened and what underpinned the stunning move up and back down in the price.

To be totally transparent, this section is going to add one more commentary to the pile; however, we’re going to sidestep most of what has already been said about short squeezes, Reddit threads, and a cabal of powerful financiers and instead focus on some very important elements that look at the consequences and lessons learned for online brokerages as a result of this recent anomaly.

One of the first things worth stating, especially from our perch here in Canada, is that so much of this story is driven by what happened in the US stock markets. For Canadian DIY investors and Canadian online brokerages, however, the opportunity to make fast money was still just as tempting. What ultimately ended up getting in the way for Canadian investors were the numerous friction points, such as commissions for trades, lack of fractional trading, or time required to fund a new account, to name just a few. Which, all told, probably saved some heartache for some investors.

Nevertheless, in the cast of stock market characters surrounding the great short squeeze of 2021, perhaps the most interesting question that stands out is why, of all the online brokerages in the US that restricted trading in GameStop (and other stocks), did Robinhood find itself cast as the villain?

pic.twitter.com/031zY2YcBy
— Poorly Aged Things (@PoorlyAgedStuff) January 28, 2021

Data gathered from a variety of sources indicate that other online brokerages in the US restricted buying in GME shares, including Interactive Brokers, Webull, and E-Trade. TD Ameritrade (and Schwab) raised margin requirements. Even so, media mentions and social media conversations (and memes) have overwhelmingly been dominated by Robinhood and the fact that they instituted a temporary restriction on purchasing certain stocks.

One possible reason why Robinhood has been singled out is that it became somewhat of a rising star across 2020, attracting more accounts in the early portion of the year than most of its competitors combined. And, although most of its US online brokerage competitors offer zero-commission trading now as well, Robinhood is often associated with making trading more accessible – or, in their words, “democratizing” finance. For years, Robinhood has positioned itself as “anti-Wall Street” and cultivated the narrative of Robinhood as the champion of the small investor in a way that incumbent online brokerages did not. Scandal definitely makes for good TV, and in a world where entertainment options are limited, seeing a rising star have a fall from grace sounds like the plot of another enticing movie about stock markets.

When the carefully curated identity of Robinhood is juxtaposed against the expectations of retail investors that Robinhood is an online brokerage “for the people,” it is understandable that when those same people were not allowed to trade what they wanted to trade when they wanted to trade it, they believed that something was afoul. After all, retail investors believe – and are led by a number of sources to believe – that markets are free from interference by outside forces or entities.

And, while the broader market of investors was willing to give Robinhood a pass on payment for order flow in order to get commission-free trades, the optics of relationships between Robinhood and the very institutions that meme stock proponents sought to profit from (e.g. Melvin Capital and Citadel) cast Robinhood as pro-establishment, essentially violating their brand promise.

Perhaps the greatest insight into this situation can be illustrated in the descriptions of “what happened” by the current head of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, and the founder and former CEO of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy.

In the immediate aftermath of the decision to restrict trading in GME, it didn’t help matters that the CEO of Robinhood could not articulate clearly why certain shares were frozen. That lack of clear explanation in the heat of a volatile market meant that retail investors were forced to jump to their own conclusions.

By contrast, it is worth noting a Bloomberg interview with Peterffy in which he clearly alludes to something that goes beyond a freeze on the trading of volatile stocks. Specifically, Peterffy positions as “illegal” the fact that individuals were piling into a name (like GME) to perpetuate and accelerate a short squeeze.

Putting the continuity of the business first and catering to clearing and settlement requirements are prudent activities, and it seems reasonable for people to assert that Robinhood and Interactive Brokers, as companies, would need to stay in business.

That said, younger investors or investors who sought to drive systemic change via “sticking it to the shorts” found themselves on the wrong end of a lock on buying, and the short squeeze that was taking shape ended up fizzling out.

Robinhood has made no secret of their intentional pursuit of younger investors. What seems to be clear, however, is that these “younger investors” have a very different view of wealth creation and investing (trading) than “boomers” do.

And herein lies the issue for all online brokerages. Currently, there are different audience segments that have very different views on financial services and the roles that online brokerages ought to play when it comes to facilitating participation in the stock market.

Aside from mobile app or website design, another important attribute of younger investors is where they go to learn about investing (Reddit or forums). Also, they seek out highly volatile (high risk, high reward) stocks, for a mix of excitement and wealth creation. When combined with the gamification of user experience and a reduction in commissions, the result is a powder keg that, given the right environment, will explode.

Younger investors also bring with them the beliefs and capacity to call out “injustice” or perceived hypocrisy on very public channels. While older investors did use forums to learn from and engage with one another, and occasionally to voice their discontent, it was rare to find social justice narratives or “greater good” themes driving investor choices. The recent events have shown that social media channels, including Twitter and Reddit, move exponentially faster than anything before and include sections like “tl;dr” to cut through the “boring analysis.”

Unlike their US counterparts, Canadian online brokerages did not suffer as significant a backlash from DIY investors, in part because they did not explicitly prevent buying or trading in the meme stock frenzy. That said, Canadian online brokers were not unscathed either.

Platform outages or delays in executing trades from a number of brokerages – along with popular online broker Wealthsimple Trade taking the unusual step of specifically labelling certain stocks very risky, such as GameStop and BlackBerry – did set off a smaller firestorm here in Canada. In particular, investors were upset that an online brokerage would take the position to designate any stock as “too risky” to trade, especially if it met listings requirements on a supported stock exchange.

It is still too soon to say how things will ultimately pan out for online brokerages as a whole. There are, however, some immediate lessons for the online brokerage industry to take heed of.

Regardless of being either an established name in finance or the latest fintech, financial services at their core are predicated on trust and confidence. Among the “older” generation of retail investors, that trust was established in the form of size and stature. Bigger equalled better. Among the “newer” cohort of investors, it could be argued that faster is better.

What is common to all investors, however, is that reliability matters when choosing an online brokerage, if for no other reason than to know what to expect. Nobody likes uncertainty, especially Canadian DIY investors. The events over the past few weeks have made it clear that newer online brokerages will have a much harder time making up for the fact that they don’t have anything to offer other than the promise of a brighter future. At least the established online brokerage brands have either the reputation of their parent brand or their history in the space to point to as a signal that they are stable.

Another really important takeaway from the events of the past few weeks is that the conversation that takes place online, in particular in forums and on Twitter, cannot be and should not be dismissed. Whether it is regulators or other entities who do this monitoring, the fact that retail investors could take a coordinated action on trading specific stocks is remarkable.

The consequences to the industry were made clear: Ignore the crowd at your peril.

We live in a world where individuals such as Elon Musk can become incredibly influential, and based on their whims and caprices on Twitter or Reddit, there can be massive investor behaviour shifts. The events of the past few weeks highlight that, going forward, the online investing industry will have a massive PR problem.

Even here in Canada, where much of the negative press around the events of the past two weeks focuses on platforms and connectivity, online brokerages are going to have to do better because of the circumstances in the US. More advertising is not going to do it, nor will telephone meetings. The bottom line is that investors now look to Robinhood with a suspicion it has never had to meaningfully contend with before. That’s something for Canadian online brokerages to think about as they race to design new interfaces and experiences to connect with investors.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

What Goes Up?

In this post, an investor wonders if the recent mania in the stock market perhaps signals the end of an epic bull market, which leads to a lengthy discussion that touches on corrections, crashes, business cycles, and much more.

Preaching to the Converted

The devil is usually in the details, and for DIY investors looking to avoid getting dinged with trading commissions, this post about “the catch” when it comes to using commission-free online brokerage Wealthsimple Trade offers up an important lesson.

Into the Close

With yet another Super Bowl win to add to his record, there’s no denying that Tom Brady has been defying physics in the NFL. Credit where credit is due, though (and no, not a margin call pun), there’s definitely something to be said for putting in the effort and seeing the results. As the shine comes off the short squeeze trade, it will be interesting to see how traders fare without wanting to put in the work. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and so too is Lunar New Year, so the good news is that this month is filled with even more reasons to celebrate.

Posted on February 4, 2021February 28, 2021 by user

Look Back Look Ahead: Questrade Q&A

What can beginner investors expect from your firm?
Helping Canadians become confident investors is what we do every day. And it’s important not only to serve their needs today but also to teach them more about the markets as things happen.

When COVID-19 hit, we sent out resources to help customers make sense of the markets. This investing series was focused on how markets historically rebound after pullbacks, to help arm our customers with knowledge to navigate through the uncertainty. We regularly communicated with customers throughout the pandemic, giving updates on our operations and the market, so they can feel confident that we are here for them and they are not alone.

We have also partnered with Passiv, a portfolio-rebalancing tool, to make it even easier for customers to manage their investments. Anyone with a Questrade account receives a free subscription to Passiv Elite, their highest-tier plan.

All customers have access to real-time quotes and fast trade executions.

And, of course, new investors can enjoy all this knowing that they can reach out to our award-winning customer service if they ever have any questions.

What can active investors expect from your firm?
Unlike at many other brokers, all Questrade customers can access all of our platforms absolutely free, whether you’re trading on a web-based browser, on a mobile app or using IQ Edge, our advanced desktop platform.

Every year we’re adding more and more features focused on more-active investors, and 2020 was no exception.

This year we completely upgraded the market data on the platform by partnering with Benzinga, to give investors an abundance of news and analyst commentary on the stocks they’re following.

Along with Benzinga, we added an entirely new events calendar, so investors can easily look up key dates that may affect their securities. Earnings releases, dividend dates and analyst upgrades can all be easily searched on the event calendar.

As always, all Questrade accounts are dual-currency accounts, so you can hold Canadian and US cash in your account (some competitors don’t give their customers this ability). With Questrade, you won’t get charged unnecessary currency-conversion fees when doing US trades.

2021 will continue to bring exciting new features for IQ Edge, with upcoming releases that will make it even more powerful.

What online investing trends do you expect to matter to DIY investors?
We anticipate an increase in desire for knowledge, greater engagement with educational content for investors of all levels, increased participation in investing-related social media and, ultimately, a more informed, educated and successful DIY investor.

What does user experience mean at your firm?
User experience at Questrade is about making investing easy for customers. At any given time, a user should be able to feel confident that they can access, read and understand all their portfolio information, that they can easily make trades using their platform of choice and that they know where to turn if they need help at any time.

What sets your firm apart from your peers?
At Questrade, we care about Canadians becoming financially successful and secure. As an independently owned online brokerage in Canada, we’re in the unique position of being accountable to our customers, not to shareholders. Our success is measured by our customers’ success, and we are always doing everything in our power to ensure that our investors have access to the knowledge, tools and resources they need to reach their investment goals. This means that every decision is made with Canadians’ best interests in mind.

And others have recognized this effort, as our list of awards grows:

#1 rank in investor satisfaction among self-directed brokerages by J.D. Power, as well as #1 for commission and fees and #1 for account information (for J.D. Power 2020 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards)
Canada’s fastest-growing online broker
8X winner of Canada’s Best Managed Companies
$18 billion in assets under administration
Over 100,000 new accounts opened annually
Award-winning #1 ranked customer service

This customer-first approach is a major driver of innovation at Questrade. We’re constantly searching for new ways to make investing easier for our customers, be it through the elimination of fees, the support of educational resources or one of the exciting programs and initiatives that we have planned for 2021.

And, as always, all with the low fees that Canadians have come to expect from us:

Trade stocks from 1¢/share (min. $4.95 to max. $9.95)
Buy ETFs commission-free
No annual account fees
No account opening or closing fees
All accounts are dual-currency accounts
Free to transfer in an account from another financial institution

This Q&A was featured in the Look Back / Look Ahead magazine.

Posted on February 1, 2021March 8, 2021 by user

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – February 2021

Just because the month is short, doesn’t mean we can’t be long on fun! From Lunar New Year to Valentine’s Day to Family Day, there is much cause for celebration – with safe social distancing in mind, of course. Another reason for DIY investors to rejoice: there’s still time to meet the RRSP contribution deadline for 2020!

Amidst the recent stock market volatility, there is one constant to look forward to at this time of year: a steady stream of promotions from online brokerages ahead of the RRSP contribution deadline. With over 30 kinds of promotional offers in the mix, there’s bound to be something available from most Canadian brokerages.

For all those looking for sweet deals during this rosy month, be sure to keep reading for all the latest promotions from Canadian online brokerages for February. We forward to a month filled with new surprises, and we will continue to monitor and provide updates on new online brokerage deals throughout the month.

In the spirit of Lunar New Year, we wish everyone an upcoming year filled with good luck and great prosperity – we’re hoping it will start with finding your perfect online brokerage deal here!

Expired Deals

No expired deals to report at this time.

Extended Deals

No extended deals to report at this time.

New Deals

No new deals to report at this time.

Discount Brokerage Deals

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
Referral Promotions
Transfer Fee Promotions
Contests & Other Offers
Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions
Offers for Young Investors

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer	Details Link	Deadline
	Open a new RBC Direct Investing account by March 31, 2021 and fund it with at least A) $5,000; B) $25,000; C) $50,000; D) $100,000; E) $250,000; F) $500,000 or G) $1M+ by May 31, 2021 and you may receive a cash back of A) $50; B) $100; C) $200; D) $300; E) $500; F) $1,000 or G) $2,000; plus 10 free trades to be used by August 31, 2021. The fund must be from a non-RBC investment account. Use promo code WCMP2 during account opening and be sure to review the full Terms and Conditions.	A) $5,000 B) $25,000 C) $50,000 D) $100,000 E) $250,000 F) $500,000 G) $1M+	Cash Back: A) $50 B) $100 C) $200 D) $300 E) $500 F) $1,000 G) $2,000 Plus 10 free trades	Free trades must be used by August 31, 2021.	Cash Rebate and Free Trades	March 31, 2021
	Scotia iTRADE is offering two choices for new investors who open accounts before March 1, 2021 and fund it with at least A) $5,000; B) $10,000; C) $25,000; D) $50,000; E) $100,000; F) $250,000; G) $500,000 or H) $1M+: Option 1: you can use promo code C21 to receive cash reward of A) $25; B) $50; C) $100; D) $200; E) $400; F) $750; G) $1,000 or H) $1,500; plus a discounted commission of $6.99 per trade until June 30, 2021. Option 2: Use promo code FT21 and you may be eligible for A) 10; B) 20; C) 50; D) 100; E) 200; F) 300; G) 400 or H) 500 free trades to use for 90 days after the account is funded. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $5,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000 F) $250,000 G) $500,000 H) $1M+	Cash Back: A) $25 B) $50 C) $100 D) $200 E) $400 F) $750 G) $1,000 H) $1,500 or Free Trades: A) 10 B) 20 C) 50 D) 100 E) 200 F) 300 G) 400 H) 500	Free Trades: 90 days	Scotia iTRADE’s Cash Back or Free Trade Offer	March 1, 2021
	Fund your new or existing CIBC Investor’s Edge account before March 2, 2021 with at least A) $10,000; B) 25,000; C) $50,000; D) $100,000; E) $500,000 or F) $1M+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $50; B) $100; C) $200; D) $500; E) $1,000 or F) $2,000. To qualify, the fund must be from outside CIBC. No promo code required. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $10,000 B) 25,000 C) $50,000 D) $100,000 E) $500,000 F) $1M+	Cash Back: A) $50 B) $100 C) $200 D) $500 E) $1,000 F) $2,000		Program Page	March 2, 2021
	Open a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $15,000; B) $50,000; C) $100,000; D) $250,000; E) $500,000 or F)$1M+, and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $150; B) $250; C) $500; D) $800; E) $1,000 or F) $2,000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	A) $15,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 D) $250,000 E) $500,000 F) $1M+	Cash Back: A) $150 B) $250 C) $500 D) $800 E) $1,000 F) $2,000		Winter 2021 Cashback Campaign	March 3, 2021
	Open a new TD Direct Investing account by March 1, 2021 with promo code INVESTNOW and fund it with new assets worth at least A) $15,000; B) $25,000; C) $100,000; D) $250,000 or E) $500,000, and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $100; B) $200; C) $300; D) $500 or E) $1,000. The fund must be deposited to the account by April 30, 2021 and at least one trade is placed by June 30, 2021. In addition, you may also be eligible for another $100 cash reward by setting up a Monthly Contribution Plan (min. $100 per month) with the first contribution occur before April 30, 2021. The maximum reward one could receive is $1,100. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $15,000 B) $25,000 C) $100,000 D) $250,000 E) $500,000	Cash Back: A) $100 B) $200 C) $300 D) $500 E) $1,000		TD Direct Investing Cash Back Promotion	March 1, 2021
	New clients who open and fund a new Qtrade Investor account before March 01, 2021 with at least A) $25,000; B) 50,000; C) $100,000; D) $500,000; E) $1M or F) $2M+ may be eligible to receive a pre-paid Visa gift card of up to A) $50; B) $100; C) $250; D) $800; E) $1,500 or F) $2,000. Only the first 500 customers are eligible. Please use promo code VISA2K. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M F) $2M+	Cash Reward: A) $50 B) $100 C) $250 D) $800 E) $1,500 F) $2,000		Up to $2,000 Visa Gift Card Offer	March 1, 2021
	New accounts opened between Jun 22 and Dec 31, 2020 will be awarded 100 free online trades in one year. This promotion applies to new and existing NBDB clients who use the code “FREE2020” to open new accounts. There’s no minimum funding requirement, however some other restrictions may apply.	$0	100 Free Trades	1 year	Please refer to the full details of the deal.	December 31, 2020
	Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive $88 in commission credits (up to 17 commission-free trades). Use promo code SPARX88 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully.	$1,000	$88 commission credit	60 days	Access this offer by clicking here: $88 commission-credit offer. For full terms and conditions, click here.	none
	Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully.	$1,000	5 commission-free trades	60 days	5 commission-free trade offer	December 31, 2021
	Open a new RBC Direct Investing account by December 31, 2020 and fund it with at least $5,000 by March 5, 2021 and you will receive commission rebates for 25 trades that occur within 1 year of account opening. Be sure to use promo code NTBW2 during account opening. You will be charged regular commissions on the trading date, and the rebate will be deposited back into your account after 3-5 business days. If you are an existing customer to RBC DI, the type of the new account being opened must be different from the account types that you current have.	$5,000	25 commission-free trades for a year	1 year	25 commission-free trades	December 31, 2020
	Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details.	$25,000	commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data.	1 month	Active Trader Program	December 31, 2021
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2021 16:00PT

Referral Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Incentive Structure	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit	Details Link	Deadline
	Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements.	A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+	$25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back	Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days)	Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759	none
	If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTRADE account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link.	A) $10,000 B) $50,000+	A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50)	60 days	Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade	tbd
	You may receive $10 cash incentive for each new client that you refer to Wealthsimple Trade. They must use your unique referral link during account opening and make a trade value of at least $100. The referred friend will also get $10.	$100	You and the referred friend will each get $10.	n/a	Referring a Friend to Wealthsimple Trade	none
	If you (an existing Qtrade Investor client) refer a new client to Qtrade Investor and they open an account with at least $1,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $25 cash. See terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	$25 cash back (for both referrer and referee)	Cash deposited at the end of the month in which referee’s account funded	Refer A Friend to Qtrade Investor	none
	If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $5,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details.	$5,000	You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50	Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period (subject to conditions).	BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend	January 6, 2022
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2021 16:00PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount	Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility	Details Link	Deadline
	Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150.	$150	n/a	Transfer Fee Promo	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $200 in transfer fees.	$200	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate Details	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered.	$152.55	$15,000	Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information.	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details.	$150	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees.	$135	$20,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details.	$150	$25,000	Transfer Fee Promo Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463).	none
	Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made.	$135	$25,000	Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343).	none
	Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Contact client service for more details.	$200	Contact client service for more information	Contact client service for more information (1-888-776-6886)	none
Expired Offers
	Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $10,000 into a Desjardins Online Brokerage account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info.	$150	$10,000	Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo	January 8, 2020
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2021 16:00PT

Other Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount Required	Details Link	Deadline
	The minimum commission per equity trade ($1.99) is waived for new accounts from account opening till December 31, 2020. As a result, your commission is just 1¢/share (max $7.99). However, this offer does not apply to Odd Lot orders (i.e. orders with quantity less than 100 shares if price >= $1 or price < $0.10; or less than 500 shares if price in the $0.10 – $0.99 range). Please be reminded that at Virtual Brokers ETFs are always free to buy.	$0	No Minimum 2020 – Terms & Conditions	December 31, 2020
	Submit your information via the Hardbacon website to be referred to National Bank Direct Brokerage. Open and fund a qualifying account and you may receive up to 200 commission-free trades and discounted trading commissions. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	n/a	Hardbacon Free Trade Promo	none
	Open a new Non-Registered trading account and fund it with at least $100 by December 18, 2020 and you may receive a random cash bonus ranging from $1 to $4,500. The cash bonus amount will be equivalent to the value of one of the fifteen stocks that have been selected by Wealthsimple Trade for this program. Please refer to the Terms and Conditions for more details.	$100	Wealthsimple Trade Free Stock Promotion	December 18, 2020
	Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering 5 commission-free trades for new 18-30 years-old Disnat Classic clients depositing at least $1,000. See terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	Broker@ge 18-30 Promotion	none
	Scotiabank StartRight customers can receive 10 commission-free trades when investing $1,000 or more in a new Scotia iTrade account. Trades are good for use for up to 1 year from the date the account is funded. Use promo code SRPE15 when applying (in English) or SRPF15 when applying in French. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	StartRight Free Trade offer	none
	Be one of the first 100 clients to open and fund an account with a minimum of $10,000 at Qtrade Investor using the promo code TRADE695 and you may be eligible for 100 trades at a preferred commission rate of $6.95 for 6 months. See terms and conditions for more details.	$10,000	100 Discounted Commission Trades	March 1, 2020
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2021 16:00PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor	Offer Type	Offer Description	Min. Deposit	Reward / Promotion	Promo Code	Expiry Date	Link
	Discounted Management	Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link.	$1,000	1st month no management fees	KDKFNBBC	None	Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
	Cash Back	Open a new SmartFolio account and fund it with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $1,000. Use promo code SFJAN1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer is limited to new SmartFolio clients only, and can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion.	$1,000	0.5% cash back to a maximum of $1,000.	SFJAN1000	March 2, 2021	SmartFolio Cash Back Promo
	Discounted Management	Open a new account with BMO SmartFolio and receive one year of management of up to $15,000 free. See offer terms and conditions for more details.	$1,000	1 year no management fees	STSF	April 30, 2019	SmartFolio New Account Promotion
	Cash Back – Referral	BMO SmartFolio clients will receive $50 cash back for every friend or family member who opens and funds a new SmartFolio account. Friends and family referred to SmartFolio will receive $50 cash back for opening and funding an account, plus automatic enrollment into SmartFolio’s mass offer in market at the time. See offer terms and conditions for more details.	$1,000	$50 cash back (referrer) $50 cash back (referee)	Unique link generated from SmartFolio required.	None	SmartFolio Website
	Transfer Fee Coverage	Transfer at least $25,000 into Virtual Wealth when opening a new account and you may be eligible to have up to $150 in transfer fees covered by Virtual Wealth.	$25,000	up to $150 in transfer fees covered	None	None	Contact customer service directly for more information.
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2021 16:00PT

Offers for Young Investors

Brokerage	Offer Type	Eligible Age Range / Client Segment	Offer Description	Min. Deposit	Expiry Date	Link
	Student pricing	Clients with CIBC Smart™ Account for students	$5.95 per trade and zero annual account fees	not required	None	CIBC Student Pricing
	Broker@ge 18-30	18-30 years old	Benefits: * 5 free transactions (Minimum deposit of $1,000 required) * No inactivity fees * No asset minimum to maintain for free registered accounts * Exclusive events * Disnat Mobile App	$1,000	None	Broker@ge 18-30
	Offers for professionals & students	Students in selected fields of study	Professionals and students in the below fields can benefit from a reduced pricing structure: * Engineering students * Legal, accounting and business students * Healthcare students * Health sciences students * Nursing students Benefits: * $5.95 commission on equities * $0 commission on ETFs * $0 annual administration fee	not required	None	NBDB Student Pricing
	Young investors offer	18-30 years old	Accounts holders who are 30 years old or younger are offered 10 free trades each year. After the free transactions, a commission rate of $4.95 per transaction will be applied (which is just half of the regular price).	not required	None	Young Investor Offer
	Young investor pricing	18-30 years old	Benefits: * $7.75 commissions for stock and ETF trades * No account minimums * No quarterly admin fees	min. $50 a month through pre-authorized contributions.	None	Young Investor Pricing
	Waiver of account maintenance fee	Clients who have RBC Student account, currently or in the past 5 years.	The Maintenance Fee ($25 per quarter) is waived, regardless of the account balance.	not required	None	Zero Account Management Fee
	Young investors offer	Clients 26 years old and under	Low activity account administration fee and the RSP account administration fee are waived.	not required	None	Young Investors Offer
	Waiver of account administration fee	Clients younger than 26 years old	The account administration fee ($24.95 per quarter) is waived.	not required	None	$0 Account Administration Fee
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2021 16:00PT

Posted on February 1, 2021January 10, 2022 by user

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 01, 2021

So. Much. To. Unpack. Unlike most pundits this week, we’re not going to talk about GameStonks, at least not in the kind of depth we normally would. No, for the moment we’ll save the commentary for the forum chatter and DIY investor feedback from Twitter.

There’s plenty on the menu for this edition of the Roundup. In fact, there’s so much to say about the latest online brokerage rankings from Rob Carrick at The Globe and Mail that we’ve decided to focus this edition on the wealth of data and insights the latest edition has delivered. To keep things on point with the conversations happening online, we’ve also included highlights from the forums and on Twitter. Get comfy – this is going to be a long (but fun) ride.

The Unsettled Elephant in the Room

We can safely say this up front: This current market is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

Specifically, the mobilization of massive waves of investors pouring into stocks that are heavily shorted and being able to generate shockwaves through the capital markets. Never before, or at least not in recent memory, have so many people learned so much about shorting, squeezing, margin, clearing, and settlement as they have in this past week.

Moreover, the lesson in what matters most to online investors – content and community – came courtesy of Reddit, a website that eschews modern aesthetics.

An almost incalculable number of lessons are to be learned from the time we’re living through (especially as DIY investors), so we won’t be covering these in this edition of the Roundup because there’s simply not enough time and space this week for all of it. In fact, in compiling the reactions online to the Canadian discount brokerages via Twitter, the software we use crumbled under the sheer volume of the conversation, taking with it hours of work sifting through visceral and convulsive reactions by online investors (traders) to the trading of GameStop, AMC, Blackberry, and others.

For now, it’s sufficient to leave this video as a tongue-in-cheek summation of events.

a normal person explains what’s happening on the stock market: pic.twitter.com/zKKvULCirX
— Avalon Penrose (@avalonpenrose) January 27, 2021

Rest assured, as the dust settles (probably faster than trades from Robinhood – had to do it), the spotlight will move to the seismic shift in trading behaviour we’re witnessing right now.

ICYMI: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev spoke out yesterday after the company decided to restrict trading in GameStop and other stocks. “In order to protect the firm and protect our customers we had to limit buying in these stocks,” he told @andrewrsorkin. https://t.co/LsJ5iNjJAB pic.twitter.com/XutnOQn9YN
— CNBC (@CNBC) January 29, 2021

2021 Canadian Online Brokerage Rankings: Spotlight on Service

Now in its 22^nd edition, The Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings, authored by Rob Carrick, are one of the most popular rankings available for Canadians who are shopping around for a new online brokerage or are simply interested in making sense of trends in the DIY investing space.

This past week, the latest edition of the rankings was published, and this one is by far one of the most interesting editions yet.

Fair warning, this post is going to be a long one, in part given the historic nature of current market conditions but also because of additional data added to this year’s review that doesn’t ordinarily appear in it.

What Goes Into the Online Brokerage Rankings?

Over the past two decades, there have been numerous changes to the review, ranging from what time of year it gets published, to the criteria used to evaluate brokerages, to the accessibility of the reviews themselves. These small changes make comparing absolute performance from year to year a challenge, so as a result, one of the best ways to understand the meaning of these reviews is on a relative basis. Contextually, there are important changes or factors that arise over time that make up part of how online brokerages get evaluated.

An important factor to note in the assembly of the rankings is that this review is based on data from the prior year. Or at least that’s how things used to operate. While the bulk of the 2021 online brokerage rankings are based on data from 2020, there is a significant addition to this year’s results: telephone customer service wait times that were collected in mid- to late-January of 2021. The data, which was supplied by financial research firm DALBAR Canada, tested the telephone wait times at all Canadian online brokerages.

It bears mentioning that the likely reason behind including telephone customer service experience stems from the many (many) complaints from online investors over the past year and especially in the latter portion of 2020 (and early 2021) concerning reaching an online brokerage by phone. If there is one thing that Rob Carrick’s reviews and commentary on the online brokerage space in Canada have evolved into, it’s a barometer for some of the most salient issues (and frustrations) faced by DIY investors.

With some important context out of the way, let’s dive into the results themselves to see what the scores looked like across the board this year, who was included (and who was not), as well as some of the important drivers of success in this year’s rankings.

Results from the 2021 Canadian Online Brokerage Rankings

To help put this year’s results into context, the table below compares the most recent set of scores to those of the past two years (2020 and 2019).

Online Brokerage	2021	2020	2019
BMO InvestorLine	B	B-	B
CIBC Investor’s Edge	C+	C	C
Desjardins Online Brokerage	C	C	C-
HSBC InvestDirect	D+	D+	C-
Interactive Brokers	B+	B+	B+
National Bank Direct Brokerage	B	B	B-
Qtrade Investor	A	A+	A
Questrade	B+	B+	A-
RBC Direct Investing	B	B+	B
Scotia iTrade	B	A-	A-
TD Direct Investing	A-	A	A
Virtual Brokers	B	B+	A

One of the first things that jumps out is in relation to first place in these rankings and which online brokerage scored the best: Qtrade Investor.

For the past three years, Qtrade Investor has achieved the highest score in this ranking and, in 2019, had to share that accolade with Virtual Brokers and TD Direct Investing. Since 2019, however, Qtrade Investor has handily outscored its rivals – including last year, when it scored an A+ rating. This year, Qtrade did earn the highest mark, an A, but it was a lower score than last year. No stranger to the podium, Qtrade Investor has been voted best online brokerage by The Globe and Mail 12 times in the 22-year history of the rankings.

Coming in second this year was TD Direct Investing, which is one of Canada’s largest and most popular online brokerages. As with Qtrade Investor, TD Direct Investing saw their score in 2021 drop from 2020, in this case falling to an A- from an A.

Third place, interestingly, was a tie between Interactive Brokers and Questrade, both of whom received grades of B+. One of the reasons this is an interesting result is because Interactive Brokers was, for many years, not included in The Globe and Mail rankings since they primarily catered to more active investors and traders (as opposed to the “everyday investor”) and they lacked an RRSP offering, which they now currently do offer. Since 2019, Interactive Brokers’ score has remained fairly level at B+, but Questrade has seen their score slip slightly, from an A- in 2019 to B+ in both 2020 and 2021. This year, however, that B+ was good enough to tie for third place.

While the middle-of-the-pack experience has largely remained intact, HSBC InvestDirect has consistently remained at the bottom of the rankings for the past three years. Despite their low commission rates, international access, and award-winning client service, several factors that matter more to these ratings, such as mobile accessibility, impacted the scores.

Also of note this year, only two of the 12 Canadian online brokerages covered this year improved in their scores relative to last year. BMO InvestorLine raised their score from a B- to a B, and CIBC Investor’s Edge improved from a C to a C+. In contrast, five online brokerages dropped in scoring compared to last year, the most notable among them being Scotia iTrade, which went from an A- to a B. Another interesting negative trend showed up for Virtual Brokers. In 2019 they tied for the highest score, an A that year, with Qtrade Investor and TD Direct Investing. In 2020, however, they slipped to a B+, and in 2021 they scored a B.

Not on the list of Canadian online brokerages reviewed for this ranking was Wealthsimple Trade – a notable absence given both the visibility and the popularity with younger investors. This is not the first review that the newest kid on the online brokerage block has had to sit out. However, in the context of Wealthsimple Trade’s features, pricing, and volume of interest, not to mention sheer growth in numbers, DIY investors are likely curious about how the brokerage would fare in the rankings framework.

As far as grades go, a comparison to 2019 shows that performance across the board has, on a relative basis, worsened. The strongest drivers for scoring on The Globe and Mail brokerage rankings have always leaned toward the experiences of “everyday investors” rather than more-active traders. This year, the ranking criteria are based on:

Convenience and security
Cost
The investing experience
Tools

Importantly, a big part of the convenience and security component of this year’s results included phone access, something that has been a major pain point throughout 2020 but especially into the end of the year.

Call Options

To address this timely topic, in addition to relying on data generated from 2020, this year the online brokerage rankings included telephone wait time data supplied by financial services research firm DALBAR Canada – and those results were also fascinating.

One of the first, and most glaring, results from that snapshot is that wait times in January at online brokerages averaged out at 92 minutes, with a standard deviation of almost 52 minutes. The importance of reporting the standard deviation here is clear because, while an average wait time of 92 minutes is bad enough, it doesn’t accurately convey how bad things are right now for DIY investors trying to contact customer service.

For a more accurate view, there’s going to be a little bit more math required.

What the overall average of wait times doesn’t convey is that the data has a couple of very clear outliers at both the short and the long ends of wait times. To help put this into perspective, the shortest wait time average was 7 minutes (Virtual Brokers), and the longest was 179 minutes (Scotia iTrade). That works out to almost 26x more time spent waiting to speak to someone at Scotia iTrade than at Virtual Brokers.

Online Brokerage	Wait Times (min)
BMO InvestorLine	87
CIBC Investor’s Edge	101
Desjardins Online Brokerage	170
HSBC InvestDirect	125
Interactive Brokers	66
National Bank Direct Brokerage	69
Qtrade Investor	28
Questrade	128
RBC Direct Investing	90
Scotia iTrade	179
TD Direct Investing	58
Virtual Brokers	7

These two extreme data points suggest they were outliers, and outliers tend to add noise or skew the more realistic picture. The next outlier in the data was Qtrade Investor, with an average wait time of 28 minutes – which is still long by most reasonable standards but is significantly lower than the next highest online broker, TD Direct Investing, where telephone wait times were 58 minutes on average.

Excluding the wait times of Virtual Brokers and Qtrade Investor as outliers, the average wait times at 83% of the Canadian online brokerages worked out to be 107 minutes, more than double what it would be if Virtual Brokers and Qtrade Investor were included in the analysis. Even more telling, the standard deviation drops to 42 minutes. At the upper end of the wait time range, if we exclude Scotia iTrade, with a wait time of 179 minutes, and Desjardins Online Brokerage, with a wait time of 170 minutes, a much more accurate view of wait times emerges.

The average wait time drops from 107 minutes to 91 minutes (about a 15% decrease), and the standard deviation drops from 42 minutes to 26 minutes (a 38% decrease). This represents 66% of the data, or eight out of 12 online brokerages.

Wait Times	Average (mins)	Standard Deviation (mins)	% of Brokers Represented
All Brokerages	92	52	100
Shortest Outliers Excluded	107	42	83
All Outliers Excluded	91	26	66
3 of Big 5 Banks (outliers excluded)	93	7	25

In light of the above data (that excludes outliers at the upper and lower extremes), and assuming a normal distribution, 68% of the time, calling an online brokerage in Canada in January would have resulted in a wait time of between 65 and 117 minutes. And 95% of the time, or 19 times out of 20, the wait time for a DIY investor would have been between 39 and 143 minutes. And 99.7% of the time, a Canadian DIY investor would have waited between 13 and 169 minutes. In other words, getting served quickly would be more because of good fortune than because of the system working as it should.

Let that sink in for a moment. These are private, profit-driven, million- or billion-dollar brands (in some cases) that are posting these kinds of numbers. For illustration, three out of the big five Canadian bank-owned online brokerages posted a remarkably consistent range of wait times: 93 minutes with a standard deviation of 7 minutes. On a peer-to-peer basis, this highlights how far ahead TD Direct Investing’s scores (with wait times of 58 minutes) would be relative to the others and how far behind Scotia iTrade sits. In either of these two cases, these would be considered so far outside of a statistical norm that it is not by accident that they’re achieving these numbers.

Imagine the frustration, dropped calls, and erosion in trust that occurs when an on-demand world meets a two- or three-hour wait time. And this doesn’t even factor in waiting by online chat.

It naturally raises the question: What are Virtual Brokers and Qtrade Investor doing so well, which causes them to be able to answer the phone so fast (relatively speaking), and what are Scotia iTrade and Desjardins Online Brokerage doing so poorly? One possible conclusion points to a capability of being ready to scale up, as pointed out in the Influencer Edition of the Look Back / Look Ahead series.

Now, to be clear, these numbers do not indicate whether or not issues were resolved, just how long it took for someone to answer the phone. Also, these are snapshots in time, and there is no comparable data taken from similar time periods to benchmark against. The fact that these tests added to the caller queue means they affected wait times, even if the impact was slight, so the numbers do need to be treated with some caution.

Even so, it is cause for concern for DIY investors to see that wait times can be meaningfully measured in hours instead of minutes. Coming into the peak season for RRSP contributions, it means that volume will only increase, as will frustration levels. If there are any outages, huge rallies or crashes in the market, or other market-moving events, then RRSP contributions via telephone are going to be nearly impossible at most Canadian online brokerages.

Of course, telephone service isn’t a major selling point for a lot of online investors. In fact, many will never have to deal with a client service rep on the phone, but there are some things that can happen only by talking to a representative. For a portion of the DIY investor population, that translates into being forced to wait.

That said, there are indications that this is clearly an issue of concern to certain online brokerages and that relief may be on the way.

Relief for Long Wait Times

First, in an interesting interview by Preet Banerjee with BMO InvestorLine’s president, Silvio Stroescu, there were some fascinating insights on the impact of the past year on this online brokerage. According to Stroescu, the huge influx of demand for online investing accounts, as well as from investors looking to “upgrade” their accounts, took customer service wait times from an average of five minutes in early 2020 to about 40 minutes in 2021.

The numbers reported by Stroescu for 2021 are still much higher than he was happy with, and in the interview he did explain a number of steps that BMO InvestorLine is undertaking to close the service gap. In fact, as early as this past summer, Stroescu mentioned that BMO InvestorLine undertook significant hiring and ramp-up to provide additional service support. Nevertheless, the observed results of DALBAR’s numbers and reported numbers of Stroescu all point to a significant wait time for online investors calling in.

Another interesting piece of news came from Questrade, in advance of the RSP season rush, in the form of a client email. In that email, they acknowledged that “longer wait times are the norm with all brokerages at this time,” that over the past year they have doubled the number of client service specialists, and that in the “coming weeks” they are slated to add over 100 customer service agents.

Putting the Pieces Together

Clearly, there’s much to digest from the data in this year’s edition of the Canadian online brokerage rankings by The Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick.

So much of the story that started in March of 2020 was about the volume of activity as well as the influx of individuals who wanted to trade on the market. The impact on Canadian online brokerages, in terms of service as well as stability, has been clear. The statistics point to a systemic lack of capacity to be able to address the surge in interest in online investing coupled with technology and operational shortfalls.

What, as a DIY investor, is especially worrisome about the online brokerage experience is that it has taken so long to remedy the capacity issues. Markets rely on confidence, and confidence comes from certainty. The relative stability of scores in the Canadian online brokerage space points to a “business as usual” pace that was moving far too slowly, or did not plan adequately, for the kind of strain that ultimately emerged over the past year. That said, at certain online brokerages, the persistent wait times point to a much deeper issue and lack of prioritization of client service. Conversely, some other brokerages have clearly shown the capacity to keep up somewhat reasonable wait times.

The qualitative commentary this year was in line with previous years; however, one of the great features for investors trying to get a quick answer on comparing features is toggling comparisons for key items like commission-free ETFs, high-interest savings ETFs, and performance reporting.

As much as we have said about this year’s rankings, there’s also a lot that we haven’t yet covered, including the reactions of investors to this data. This year’s rankings generated almost immediate reactions by readers, with the dominant theme being wait times at various brokerages.

With the latest rankings data in hand, it won’t just be hedge funds feeling the squeeze this year. The online brokerages in Canada now have added pressure to solve the customer service wait time issue and win back the trust of investors. Failing to do so quickly would almost certainly, at this point, raise the prospect of additional regulation and compliance to mandate accessibility and accountability.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Up & Up & Up

After so many years of the markets doing well and interest rates dropping, one investor wonders in this post if a market downturn is now unlikely, if not impossible. Other Redditors share their strong opinions on whether the stock market can stay up forever.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on just one of the several big events that transpired this past week. Looking forward, there’s a new month, which means a deals update is on its way, and there will likely be no letup from the buying army of retail investors who’ve firmly locked into all sorts of shorted stocks, including silver. Buckle up for volatile times ahead.

Posted on January 18, 2021 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 18, 2021

Normally we talk about news that has happened – but considering the gravitas of the week ahead, it seems fitting to weave in some discussion of the future, this week in particular. As of the publication of this edition of the Roundup, there’s certainly a nervous energy in the news; however, if there’s one thing the online brokerage world has come to realize throughout 2020, it’s that volatility attracts opportunity.

In this edition of the Roundup, we take a look at how one Canadian online brokerage is playing into the volatility forecast by offering extended hours for clients to access markets and also is telegraphing some interesting signals about a possible very big year ahead in terms of new features. From there, we figuratively dial into the latest performance metrics from one US online brokerage – and await being able to literally dial into an earnings conference call, which falls on the eve of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, for clues on the global state of online investing. In keeping with the usual diet of (mostly) healthy banter, we wrap with DIY investor conversations on Twitter and the investor forums.

Questrade Launches New Features & Teases a Big Year Ahead

It’s the early bird that gets the worm – or so the saying goes. When it comes to tapping into market-moving news, especially when that news takes place before the official start to the market trading day, being able to place orders and have them filled is an opportunity to get into potentially interesting trading opportunities a lot earlier than others.

This past week, Questrade announced the launch of a new feature: pre-market trading. Several Canadian online brokerages already offer this feature (as well as after-market trading), but for active traders, access to trading US-listed securities starting at 7 AM EST is bound to get some folks excited to be able to make moves on important news items, potentially ahead of the pack.

Trading outside of normal market hours is not without its risks, though. There is far less liquidity and far fewer participants outside normal market hours, meaning that bid/ask spreads are often very far apart. To mitigate the impact of this kind of volatile price movement, only limit orders are permitted, and the ECNs that can be selected to route the order to are ARCA or NSDQ. To accommodate the change, Questrade also updated the hours for their trading desk to now start at 7 AM EST.

Online, the reaction to the announcement was generally positive; however, it was clear that online investors had mixed feelings about trading outside of normal market hours. As such, the impact of the announcement will, likely, appeal to a smaller segment of users, those who are comfortable with the realities of extended market trading.

On a separate note, Questrade has also been ramping up the communications online to clients, which included a heartwarming milestone. Specifically, in 2020 Questrade was able to donate over 1 million meals to feed hungry Canadians via Food Banks Canada. Interestingly, and perhaps something that they might want to let more folks know about, Questrade donates a day’s worth of meals to Food Banks Canada for every new account opened.

Doing some further digging online this past week also revealed some interesting new features being telegraphed by Questrade representatives on Twitter. In response to customer service questions about mobile experience and the recent decommissioning of the Morningstar research features, it appears that two important developments are on the horizon.

In terms of the latter, it seems that a handful of clients were none too pleased at the removal of a research feature; however, Questrade reps did confirm that something “better” would be coming in its place.

In terms of mobile experience, which is a clear battleground issue among online brokerages in Canada, Questrade also hinted at plans for a new mobile app in the works for 2021. User sentiment on the Questrade mobile app is also starting to reflect the desire for change – at least for some categories of power or active users.

As we referenced in our recent Weekly Roundup, getting the user experience right for online investing is no simple feat. There are multiple categories of users, including those who like the predictability of knowing where things are, so making changes is a risk if user journeys or navigation takes a drastic turn. Ultimately, it should be great news for DIY investors; however, creating new things at the expense of shoring up existing features (e.g. customer service wait times) can make for volatile times for client support. A simple scan of Twitter posts over the past week points to that being the case.

Even though Questrade was playing it close-to-the-vest in the Look Back / Look Ahead (when it came to the looking-forward part), it’s clear that there’s a lot in the pipeline for 2021. In fact, taking a high-level view, with this many significant projects coming to market in the year ahead, this could signal a critical year for Questrade that brings with it even more surprises as it continues to compete in a potentially more crowded field. Finding the balance between promising new features to keep people excited and ensuring that these features hit the mark (and work properly) is also prudent. Kicking off the new year with this much news, however, is a clear indication that Questrade is hoping to have lots of positive things to say in 2021.

Interactive Brokers Latest Metrics & Earnings Call to Provide Clues on Marketplace Direction

With all of what’s been going on in the US, and what is poised to unfold this week, this is a great opportunity to tune in to one of the most informative trading bellwethers that has emerged over the past two years. Specifically, the Interactive Brokers earnings conference call, which is scheduled to take place on January 19th at 4 PM EST.

The primary purpose of the conference call will be to review the quarterly earnings for Interactive Brokers, which in this case happen to be for the fourth quarter of 2020 and, as such, will provide not only the performance of the quarter but likely a view on the year as a whole.

The latest stats released by Interactive Brokers about their performance over the final month of the year also reveal some very interesting numbers, which seem to indicate incredibly strong participation in trading.

Among the numbers we pay close attention to is the growth in client accounts, which for Interactive Brokers was 56% higher than at the same point last year and 3% higher than the previous month. The exceptional growth of their client base over the past year has fueled a surge in revenues and is likely, in part, responsible for their growth in valuation. Reinforcing that inference, Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) are up 198% year over year and about even on a month-over-month basis.

Given the profile of the traders who operate on the IB platform – i.e. active and professional traders – it was also interesting to see the acceleration of buying into the end of the year, which lines up with the surge in bitcoin-related activity and with the market action overall. Thus, it will be of interest to see what the view is on the near to medium term for business conditions for online brokerages (in the US) and, potentially, as a pulse on online investing around the world. Interactive Brokers’ international footprint gives it a unique window into what trends are emerging with online investors the world over.

Recall that entering periods of high volatility, Interactive Brokers has raised the margin borrowing requirements to control its risk exposure. On two of those recent occasions, that has seemed to foreshadow some significant moves in the market. What jumps out in the numbers supplied by Interactive Brokers in terms of trading metrics is that it appears that traders were heavily selling into the end of the year – which is a little strange given where the index has risen to. It might be a case of profit-taking, or fast money in and out of a bitcoin rally; however, the magnitude and direction of activity suggest smart money may have cashed out.

For online brokerages, 2020 clearly settled the debate on volatility being good or bad for business. Historically, passive investors would shy away from huge price swings in stocks, in favour of a steady approach to buying. Interestingly, the dynamics of the marketplace have changed – perhaps tilted far in the other direction – where lots of new investors have flooded into the market looking for rapid fluctuations in price (upwards). The following video on social media might presage where markets head from here; however, when lined up against the backdrop of Interactive Brokers data, moves higher in the market heading into RRSP deadline season could make this a stretch over which even more investors seek out new investment accounts.

A sneak peek of one of our top secret trading strategies. h/t @ryanfeller_ pic.twitter.com/V2PFee7vu4
— TikTok Investors (@TikTokInvestors) January 17, 2021

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Oh, Brother!

In this post, an investor asks whether they should acquiesce and allow their brother to open a second RESP account for their son. Is it just “free money” from the brother? Or a potential financial (and familial) nightmare? Fellow Redditors have strong opinions on the matter.

Ethics Over Profits?

Horrified by what happened in for-profit long-term care homes during the early days of the pandemic, this investor asks in this post how to make sure that none of her investments are in these types of businesses. Her fellow Redditors explain how to check this information and debate whether ethics and politics (and the resulting emotions) should be kept separate from investing.

Into the Close

This is going to be an unforgettable week. With so much on the line, there’s no question that eyes will be glued to the screen and folks will be tuning in to the news. So, let’s hope things go as smoothly as possible for our friends in the US, including our furry ones. Stay safe and good luck!

Ready for #Indoguration pic.twitter.com/ireGlW7VDr
— Naomi Biden (@NaomiBiden) January 17, 2021

Posted on January 11, 2021December 31, 2021 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 11, 2021

Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. 2021 is shaping up to be more of a hangover than a do-over. Now that we are just over 2% into the new year, the road ahead is clearly bumpy. Thankfully, with talk of new promos and the finer points of design choices, we have much brighter news to report than most of what’s been flying (or not flying) around on social media.

In this post–coup d’état edition of the Roundup, we provide a refreshing piece of good news as multiple online brokerages launch new offers and reset the game clock on existing promotions for DIY investors to take advantage of heading into this year’s RRSP deadline. Next, we weigh in on an interesting conundrum for the online investing experience: innovate quickly or stick to the basics? Happily, we’ve got some interesting forum chatter and informative commentary from DIY investors on Twitter to close out on.

Deals Activity Shows Cash Is King

If there’s one thing we could all use right about now, it’s a healthy dose of positive developments. Fortunately, the January deals and promotions section has been filling up with just that – especially for online investors looking to score a deal on an online investing account ahead of the RRSP contribution deadline.

Kicking things off is the great news that RBC Direct Investing has jumped back into the deals and promotions section with a cash-back and commission-free trade offer. After the conclusion of their go-to commission-free trade promotion at the end of 2020, it seems that RBC Direct Investing made a resolution to start off the new year with something bigger and bolder for DIY investors this RRSP season.

Beginning this January and lasting until the end of March 2021, RBC Direct Investing is offering a tiered cash-back promotion. The cash-back amounts range from $50 (for deposits of $5,000) up to $2,000 (for deposits of $1 million or more). In addition to a cash-back amount, all deposit tiers qualify for 10 commission-free trades that are good through to the end of August 2021, leaving ample time for individuals to use this bonus.

We were also eagerly awaiting what BMO InvestorLine would launch early this month. Their previous promotional campaign expired in early January, unlike many of their peer firms’ deals, which expired at the end of December, so it was interesting to see what BMO InvestorLine would do given the clear trend toward cash-back offers from their competitors this year.

Fortunately for DIY investors, BMO InvestorLine has shown up with a relatively competitive offer and significantly dropped the qualifying deposit amount for the lowest tier of the deal from their usual range of $25,000 to $50,000. As with their previous cash-back offer in the fall, the new cash-back offer is a tiered promotion; however, this promo features deposit tiers starting from $15,000 (which offers $150 cash-back) up to deposits of $1 million and more (which offers $2,000 cash-back).

In addition to the launch of new offers this past week, we also saw several offers have their expiry dates officially updated. Notably, there were a couple of offers from Questrade – their five-free-trades offer, as well as their one month of commission-free trading, saw their expiry dates move to December 2021. Also, the refer-a-friend offer from BMO InvestorLine was extended another year, with the new expiry date falling on January 6^th, 2022.

If there’s one clear trend this year when it comes to online brokerage deals and promotions, it’s that cash is king.

All of the big five bank-owned Canadian online brokers have a very competitive cash-back promotion now live, with most of them expiring at the beginning of March (RBC Direct Investing’s is the only exception, finishing at the end of March). That said, there are some patterns that emerge in the offers that are worth exploring further.

First, it was interesting to note the trends at the extreme ends of the deposit tiers.

At the lower end of the deposit spectrum (generally under $25,000), all of the big bank-owned online brokerages had some kind of offer in place. RBC Direct Investing had the highest offer, with a cash-back award of $50 and 10 commission-free trades, an offer that their only rival at this deposit level, Scotia iTrade, was well behind (Scotia iTrade offers $25 cash-back). Interestingly, BMO InvestorLine, who lowered their deposit threshold to qualify for a deal down to $15,000 (compared to the $50,000 minimum deposit for their fall campaign), went significantly higher than any of its peers with an offer of $150, which is 50% higher than what TD Direct Investing offered ($100).

Meanwhile, at the higher deposit levels ($500,000+), there appears to be a whole new battleground forming.

To start, almost all online brokerages with cash-back promotions have an advertised offer for deposits of at least $1 million. The one online brokerage that does not, however, is TD Direct Investing. This seems like a remarkable decision given the value of the prospective clients at that level, and while for portfolios of $1 million or more the deal isn’t the first thing that a shopper might consider, all else being equal, three direct competitors are willing to pay $1,000 more for the business.

It bears mentioning that the appearance of $1 million as a deposit tier used to be a headline maker; however, this deposit tier has almost certainly become the new-normal top-end deposit. That said, it was also fascinating to observe that Qtrade Investor created a new top-deposit tier for individuals bringing over at least $2 million. Given that the bonus Qtrade Investor is offering for this deposit tier ($2,000) is the same amount that rival online brokerages are offering for deposits of $1 million, it seems as if this tier was a clever way in which to stand out against their competitors. While the dollar amount for the bonus isn’t higher, the deposit tier is, which makes Qtrade Investor appear to be larger than their bank-owned peers. Further, there are no other non-big-five-bank-owned brokerage competitors to Qtrade Investor at these higher-level deposit tiers.

Aside from extreme deposit tiers, it was also fascinating to observe which segments were sought after by specific brokerages.

For example, neither BMO InvestorLine nor TD Direct Investing saw value in putting offers into market for prospects with less than $15,000. Additionally, in the deposit range between $15,000 and $500,000, BMO InvestorLine is aggressively pricing their cash-back bonus. With the exception of the $25,000 tier (in which TD Direct Investing has the highest cash-back offer), BMO InvestorLine either has the highest amount or is tied for the highest amount of cash-back (at the $100,000 deposit tier with CIBC Investor’s Edge).

With several key names still on the sidelines heading into RRSP season, we suspect that there might be a few offers still to come to market; however, it is unlikely that the current prices will be significantly outbid across pricing tiers. Instead, if an online brokerage is contemplating launching a cash-back offer, it is more likely that they will stick to the average offering in that tier or find a way to combine cash-back with commission-free trades to have a more competitive offering.

Thankfully, the deals and promotions news for Canadian DIY investors is actually improving in 2021 – and that was coming off a strong close to 2020 in terms of offers.

Most of Canada’s largest online brokerages have the most popular offer type (cash-back) available, which makes this an opportune time for anyone considering opening an online investing or online trading account to get the maximum benefit for doing so. Of course, we’re curious what some smaller or lesser-known online brokers are going to do in terms of promotions, but from now through the end of February we expect the focus to be on marketing and advertising.

Mind the Generation Gap: User Experience for Online Investing in the Spotlight

There’s no question that the picture of the world we’re living in exposes divisions nearly everywhere we look. In the world of online investing, although it is not nearly as polarizing, there is a significant challenge for online brokerages to contend with: trying to balance providing the kind of user experience younger (read Millennial and now Gen Z) investors expect with that preferred by the existing (and likely higher-asset-bearing) clientele comprised of “boomers.”

Originally, this second story of the Roundup was going to focus on only one topic – either the myriad of recent legal woes experienced by Robinhood while the Weekly Roundup was on hiatus, or an article published by Rob Carrick in The Globe and Mail at the end of December explaining to baby boomers how they can manage their investments using online brokerage apps. In diving into the comments of the Carrick article, however, it became clearer that the story of Robinhood’s regulatory troubles and the realities of mobile apps for older clients represent two sides of a user-experience coin. Hence, they’re both the focus of this particular story.

Starting first with Robinhood’s journey back into the spotlight at the end of 2020. Without question, for most of 2020, it was an incredibly positive year for the balance sheet of the scrappy “zero-commission” online brokerage in the US. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in North America, and for the better part of the first half of 2020, Robinhood saw its client base skyrocket. Stunningly, Robinhood added more new clients in that timeframe than many of their peers – in fact, arguably adding more clients than most of their competitors. In 2020, Robinhood added 3 million new customers to its ranks in the first four months alone, it grew to 13 million users, and it currently sits at a valuation of more than $20 billion (USD). What has helped Robinhood skyrocket in users over 25x in seven years has been a combination of zero-commission stock trading prices as well as a user experience designed around being mobile-first and appealing to younger investors. Clearly, they are onto something.

That growth, however, was not without missteps. Whether it was the botched roll-out of their “chequing account” or multiple trading platform outages, their hypergrowth in 2020 exposed many of the leaks in the system running at full tilt. There was the tragic news of the suicide of a young investor who, because of the way information was presented on his account page, believed he had lost over $700,000 (USD) from a failed trade; there were security breaches with client accounts getting drained; and there were outages in times of heightened volatility.

This past December, however, there were consecutive regulatory arrows slung at the online brokerage, first in the form of a $65 million (USD) settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for misleading customers about how Robinhood made money from selling order flow to high-frequency trading firms. Also, from securities regulators in Massachusetts in December, the charge that Robinhood resorted to “aggressive tactics to attract inexperienced investors, its use of gamification strategies to manipulate customers, and its failure to prevent frequent outages and disruptions on its trading platform.”

Given the meteoric success of Robinhood coming into 2020, and certainly throughout the year, it has clearly had an impact on the online brokerage industry as a whole in North America and is helping to shape the trading and user experience here in Canada as well. The emergence of Wealthsimple Trade, and their use of tactics similar to the ones that Robinhood used to fuel their own growth, is perhaps the most striking illustration of the Robinhood effect in Canada. More specifically, however, the issue at hand is the interface that users of online brokerages use in order to access their online investing experience, as well as the features they prioritize. Which brings us back to the article posted in The Globe and Mail at the end of December.

As part of the requisite research for the upcoming edition of the popular online brokerage rankings, Rob Carrick dove into the various Canadian online brokerage mobile apps to test-drive what the investing experience was like with all of them. While the article itself provides a useful overview of where mobile apps from Canadian online brokers shine and where they fall short, it was especially interesting to wander through the comments and reactions.

It was clear that “boomer investors” were the intended audience for this piece, and as such, the comments turned up what seemed to be significant resistance to the notion of trading on a mobile app – or to active trading in general – as well as the much greater pain point of the phone experience, which has nothing to do with the online interface and everything to do with customer service staff actually answering the phones at online brokerages in Canada. And therein lies the conundrum for online investing.

When it comes to designing features and capabilities, there has clearly been a shift away from cramming everything that could be done or said on an online investing interface into a more streamlined interface. That is a significant departure for almost a generation of online investors who’ve been accustomed to lots of menu options, features, and information on a landing page and who’ve generally not had a “mobile” interface to contend with, preferring to use a web-based interface instead.

By comparison, the “mobile first” approach to user interface design is highly constrained by the viewing area and behavioural inputs of a smartphone. To put it plainly, designers for phone interfaces need to decide what the most important functions and features to make available on mobile apps are.

Thus, it seems mobile apps reflect the collision course of the newest innovative design aesthetic – something that younger cohorts of investors and clients favour – and the functionality and user experience of managing wealth as a DIY investor. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for Canadian online brokerages.

From a business standpoint, the balancing act between building a technology and user environment for the future versus creating an environment that meets the needs of stakeholders today is what Canadian brokerages need to wrestle with. Based on the feedback accruing from Twitter and DIY investor forums, it appears that neither group – the newer investors nor the established and seasoned ones – is likely to find the perfect experience in one place.

The current slate of lawsuits and regulatory challenges facing Robinhood is likely going to put user experience for investors – especially in mobile environments – under the microscope. At what point does making investing more approachable, plain-language, and enjoyable cross the line into something bad? At what point is change necessary to enable more people to participate in wealth creation? The regulations have been formed, for better or for worse, based on historical notions of what investing ought to be, and, thus, to a degree, what it should look like.

Robinhood, along with the platforms and interfaces that emulate it, represents drastic change. Rules and established norms represent order. There is clearly a middle ground to be struck, but firms that seek to draw a line of best fit through different user groups, instead of building around those groups, risk being “forgettable.”

The real prize, it seems, is achieving more thoughtful customization at scale or accepting being very good at being niche, even if it does mean being “boring.”

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

How do you end a relationship with a financial advisor and take control of your own investing? That’s the question on the mind of the investor in this post. Fellow Redditors offer their opinions.

New Year, New Room in Your TFSA

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for anyone with a Tax-Free Savings Account. DIY investors share their enthusiasm for making a lump-sum TFSA contribution as soon as possible each January.

Into the Close

The tragic and shocking events that unfolded in the US in the first few days of 2021 certainly do offer cause for pause. As the fallout from that surreal riot/coup attempt continues to play out, there are still scary headlines about COVID-19 here in Canada. It goes without saying that we could all stand to hear some better news – or at least see a steady stream of cute kittens as a palette cleanser. It’s all about finding the small wins at this point.

Posted on January 4, 2021 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 4, 2021

2020 is now officially behind us. 2021 will be one of those years that most of us will not have any trouble remembering to write correctly, even in the first few weeks. And, speaking of easy to remember, this month and year are off to a memorable start. Once again cryptocurrency FOMO is sweeping through online investors, there’s a whole host of drama in the US in the lead-up to the inauguration, and RRSP season is now in full swing. Lace up your new sneakers because week one of the new-year news cycle is going to hit the ground running.

Keeping things manageable but exciting heading into week one is on our agenda for this Roundup. The first story of the new year is one that will definitely be worth diving into as we look at the huge volatility in deals action heading into 2021 and what online investors can expect in the weeks leading up to the RRSP contribution deadline. Up next are a series of fun announcements about new features to look forward to from Sparx Trading. We know time is a premium as everyone eases back into the workweek so we’ll keep this edition short and sweet. Happy New Year and enjoy!

Volatility Hits Online Brokerage Deals and Promotions

There’s no doubt that the end of 2020 couldn’t come fast enough. In the real world, it was a year of challenges and tragedies, and while there is no question it was a year that many want to leave behind, anyone looking at the “digital world” of equity markets or cryptocurrency would say there were at least some things that 2020 brought that were not bad.

For Canadian online brokerages, the start of 2021 is an interesting moment as it represents the convergence of several key factors that point to one heck of a year ahead. Already the latest deals and promotions activity forecasts a heavy dose of volatility (if not outright drama).

The first key factor to the start off the new year is that this is the time of year when Canadian discount brokerages kick into overdrive to get on the radar of online investors. The RRSP contribution deadline (March 1st) is behind the ramp-up of efforts to win over investors in the market for online investing accounts. And, DIY investors can expect to see even more advertising, offers, and other activities from asset-hungry online brokerages.

From a deals and promotions perspective, December was the busiest stretch since the start of 2020, signaling a return by online brokers to this popular tactic of attracting new clientele. Interestingly, the official start to 2021 (i.e. January 1^st) was a holiday, and, as such, many of the offers that were scheduled to end on December 31^st were left posted on the websites of several online brokers. It is unclear if the offers that were scheduled to expire at the end of December will actually be renewed or extended or if other offers will be launched to replace the outgoing ones. Suffice it to say, it will be a busy first week back to amend dates, update websites, or launch new offers. So, stock markets aside, we expect a bit of deal volatility to start the year.

Brokerages with offers that expired at the end of December include National Bank Direct Brokerage, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, and Virtual Brokers. It would be hard to imagine a scenario in which all of these online brokerages stay on the sidelines for the duration of RRSP season, especially considering that all of the other major bank-owned online brokers have live offers and that, as of mid-December, Qtrade Investor jumped into the promotions pool with a new cash-back offer as well.

The second key factor that is bound to play a role in DIY investor demand for online trading access harkens back to the start of 2019. Similar to what took place two years ago, there’s been a huge run-up in the price of cryptocurrencies to start the year. What’s also on the menu this year (akin to the cannabis push in 2019) are rumblings of a new push into psychedelics. These “hot” new investor stories are compounded by enormous gains from tech companies benefitting from the work-from-home boom. The takeaway: Retail investor sentiment to jump into fast money seems to be driving markets to very frothy levels.

For Canadian online brokerages this a very bullish signal – something that could factor into either the scale or the duration of offers that might yet still come to market. Note that during the height of the market volatility here in mid-2020, many online brokerages pulled their deals altogether, with retail investor interest being sufficiently strong to render offering promotions and incentives unnecessary. We believe, however, that RRSP season is too tempting an opportunity to pass up, in spite of the retail investor sentiment, suggesting more offers to come from online brokerages this January. Also coming: increased urgency to open accounts and the accompanying frustration to get started right away.

Given the run-up in cryptocurrency prices, there is one Canadian online brokerage that stands to benefit disproportionately compared to its peers: Wealthsimple Trade.

Heading into the end of the year, we saw them launch a very short and creatively packaged cash-back promotion. Tearing a page out of the US online brokerage Robinhood’s playbook, Wealthsimple Trade pitched a “free stock” promotion that offered new users the equivalent dollar value to certain popular stocks traded on Wealthsimple Trade. The promotion ran for just about a month, and so it is curious from a timing standpoint as to what could be coming next for this online broker. Nonetheless, they are the only Canadian online brokerage to offer up direct cryptocurrency (Bitcoin and Ethereum) trading – something that would undoubtedly attract retail investor interest at this point. For that reason, there is a serious tailwind behind Wealthsimple Trade until (or if) cryptocurrency prices turn.

With so much happening in just the first week, we’ll be keeping our eyes on the deals activity among Canadian online brokerages throughout the month. There’s almost certainly going to be additional promotions updates coming and, if 2020 has taught us anything, probably a surprise or two before the month is over.

Announcements From SparxTrading.com

One of the fun things that the start of a new year affords us the opportunity to do is to change things up just a bit. Normally, we’d recap the latest developments in this section, but seeing as how we’re coming off a bit of a quiet spell in December (not counting the fact that Robinhood is in the crosshairs of financial regulators in the US), we’re going to take the opportunity to talk about a few big developments taking place at Sparx Trading.

Relaunching of Our Newsletter

Elon Musk won’t be the only one sharing epic launches in 2021. Sparx will also be launching a few big items, although ours will be into cyberspace and way less boring (pun intended).

The first of these will be an epic reboot of the SparxTrading.com newsletter. After being dormant for more than a few years, the newsletter is being completely remade and will feature a handy way for you to stay on top of the latest online brokerage news – and especially the Weekly Roundups. The newsletter is going to be published monthly and will feature quick recaps of the biggest stories across the online investing space over the previous month as well as any important updates taking place on SparxTrading.com (of which there will be more than a few!). Look for the first edition to launch in mid-January, and sign up using the following link:

Even More Perspectives on 2021

We’re thrilled with our latest Look Back / Look Ahead edition. Not only does it give readers a unique window into the world of the Canadian online brokerage industry during the pandemic – from the vantage point of those in charge of leading those brokerages – but it also provides previews on what’s coming up next in 2021.

Online brokerages, however, aren’t the only voices that have a unique and influential impact on how DIY investors navigate online investing. We’re excited to be launching a follow-up to Look Back / Look Ahead that features some of the most influential reviewers in the Canadian online brokerage landscape.

This exciting new edition is coming up at the end of January so be sure to follow us on one of our social media handles (like Twitter) for a first look. In the meantime, you can review the online brokerage edition of Look Back / Look Ahead.

A Shiny New Website

This one we’ve telegraphed already, but we’re getting close to launch and are really excited to be testing out features on the new SparxTrading.com website. A lot has changed about the online brokerage world since we started Sparx Trading, and much has also changed about the team behind the scenes at Sparx. With more hands on deck, and even more excitement about where we can take things, it was only fitting that we tackle something more ambitious. So, fingers crossed, we’re good to launch by the end of January, and users will be able to research online brokerages even faster, look for deals and promotions more intelligently, and track the latest developments at the online brokerages they’re most interested in more conveniently.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for this first-of-2021 edition of the Weekly Roundup. With cryptocurrency mooning and stocks in rally mode to start the year, there’s a welcome dose of green amidst some of the negative news still confronting us regarding COVID-19. Clearly, there’s a lot to take in for the week so best of luck catching up, and we look forward to a wild month and year ahead. Happy New Year again, and stay healthy and profitable!

Posted on January 1, 2021January 30, 2021 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – January 2021

*Update: January 8* Cheers to 2021! While 2020 marked a year full of surprise and change – both inside and outside the DIY investing space – we believe it is safe to say we are all ready for a fresh start. To help you ring in the new year and celebrate in (financial) style, Sparx Trading has rounded up the latest deals and promotions from Canadian discount brokerages.

With 2021 officially here, RRSP season is now officially in full swing. Whether it is a personal New Year’s resolution of yours or not, make sure you do not fall victim to procrastination this year. The deadline for contribution to RRSPs to count for the 2020 tax year is March 1^st, 2021.

Scroll on to learn more about all the current online brokerage deals and promotions for January – including a new offering and a few that are set to expire at the very start of the month.

As always, we will continue to monitor the deals space and provide updates on new discount brokerage developments, so make sure you check back throughout the month. In the meantime, if you discover any new deals that you believe would be of interest to fellow DIY investors, please let us know in the comments below.

Expired Deals

The stroke of midnight not only signified the beginning of a new year, but it also signified the end of several online brokerage deals. Optimistically, we expect that after the holiday, various online brokerages will be updating their sites and long-standing offers which technically happened to expire might be given a new lease on life. That said, here’s what officially expired as of January 1st, 2021.

National Bank Direct Brokerage’s 100 free online trades
~~Questrade’s 5 commission-free trades and month-long commission-free trades/advanced data~~ (now back)
RBC Direct Investing’s 25 commission-free trades
Virtual Brokers’ “No Minimum 2020” promotions all expired on December 31st, 2020

During the month of December, we also saw a rather creative cash back offer from Wealthsimple Trade quietly expire.

Looking ahead, three promotions are scheduled to expire on January 5th, 2021: BMO SmartFolio’s cash back promotion, BMO InvestorLine’s refer-a-friend campaign, and BMO InvestorLine’s Fall 2020 cash back campaign. See tables below for full promotion details and eligibility requirements.

Extended Deals

*Update: Jan. 8 – Questrade’s promotion section is now up to date as their entry level five commission-free trade offer makes a comeback. Also back, is the 30 days of unlimited commission-free stock and option trades in the form of commission rebates, plus one free month of an advanced data package, when opening a new account. Both deals will expire on December 31st. See the full terms and conditions in the tables below.*

New Deals

*Update: Jan. 8 – RBC Direct Investing has launched a new cash back promotion that will run until the spring. Set to expire on March 31st, this new deal offers cash back and commission-free trades to investors who open a new account and transfer funds from a non-RBC investment account to their new account. See the table below for full terms and eligibility details.

BMO InvestorLine has also launched a new cash back promotional offer which is set to expire on March 2, 2020. This new promo is a tiered promotion and qualifying deposit levels start at $15,000. Scroll down to see the full promotion terms and conditions.*

Though not technically new, we are adding the Wealthsimple Trade referral promotion to our coverage. DIY investors can receive cash towards their next trade each time a new client signs up for an account using their referral link. For more details, including eligibility requirements, please see the table below.

Discount Brokerage Deals

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
Referral Promotions
Transfer Fee Promotions
Contests & Other Offers
Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions
Offers for Young Investors

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer	Details Link	Deadline
	Open a new RBC Direct Investing account by March 31, 2021 and fund it with at least A) $5,000; B) $25,000; C) $50,000; D) $100,000; E) $250,000; F) $500,000 or G) $1M+ by May 31, 2021 and you may receive a cash back of A) $50; B) $100; C) $200; D) $300; E) $500; F) $1,000 or G) $2,000; plus 10 free trades to be used by August 31, 2021. The fund must be from a non-RBC investment account. Use promo code WCMP2 during account opening and be sure to review the full Terms and Conditions.	A) $5,000 B) $25,000 C) $50,000 D) $100,000 E) $250,000 F) $500,000 G) $1M+	Cash Back: A) $50 B) $100 C) $200 D) $300 E) $500 F) $1,000 G) $2,000 Plus 10 free trades	Free trades must be used by August 31, 2021.	Cash Rebate and Free Trades	March 31, 2021
	Scotia iTRADE is offering two choices for new investors who open accounts before March 1, 2021 and fund it with at least A) $5,000; B) $10,000; C) $25,000; D) $50,000; E) $100,000; F) $250,000; G) $500,000 or H) $1M+: Option 1: you can use promo code C21 to receive cash reward of A) $25; B) $50; C) $100; D) $200; E) $400; F) $750; G) $1,000 or H) $1,500; plus a discounted commission of $6.99 per trade until June 30, 2021. Option 2: Use promo code FT21 and you may be eligible for A) 10; B) 20; C) 50; D) 100; E) 200; F) 300; G) 400 or H) 500 free trades to use for 90 days after the account is funded. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $5,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000 F) $250,000 G) $500,000 H) $1M+	Cash Back: A) $25 B) $50 C) $100 D) $200 E) $400 F) $750 G) $1,000 H) $1,500 or Free Trades: A) 10 B) 20 C) 50 D) 100 E) 200 F) 300 G) 400 H) 500	Free Trades: 90 days	Scotia iTRADE’s Cash Back or Free Trade Offer	March 1, 2021
	Fund your new or existing CIBC Investor’s Edge account before March 2, 2021 with at least A) $10,000; B) 25,000; C) $50,000; D) $100,000; E) $500,000 or F) $1M+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $50; B) $100; C) $200; D) $500; E) $1,000 or F) $2,000. To qualify, the fund must be from outside CIBC. No promo code required. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $10,000 B) 25,000 C) $50,000 D) $100,000 E) $500,000 F) $1M+	Cash Back: A) $50 B) $100 C) $200 D) $500 E) $1,000 F) $2,000		Program Page	March 2, 2021
	Open a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $15,000; B) $50,000; C) $100,000; D) $250,000; E) $500,000 or F)$1M+, and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $150; B) $250; C) $500; D) $800; E) $1,000 or F) $2,000. Use promo code SDCASH2000 when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	A) $15,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 D) $250,000 E) $500,000 F) $1M+	Cash Back: A) $150 B) $250 C) $500 D) $800 E) $1,000 F) $2,000		Winter 2021 Cashback Campaign	March 2, 2021
	Open a new TD Direct Investing account by March 1, 2021 with promo code INVESTNOW and fund it with new assets worth at least A) $15,000; B) $25,000; C) $100,000; D) $250,000 or E) $500,000, and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $100; B) $200; C) $300; D) $500 or E) $1,000. The fund must be deposited to the account by April 30, 2021 and at least one trade is placed by June 30, 2021. In addition, you may also be eligible for another $100 cash reward by setting up a Monthly Contribution Plan (min. $100 per month) with the first contribution occur before April 30, 2021. The maximum reward one could receive is $1,100. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $15,000 B) $25,000 C) $100,000 D) $250,000 E) $500,000	Cash Back: A) $100 B) $200 C) $300 D) $500 E) $1,000		TD Direct Investing Cash Back Promotion	March 1, 2021
	New clients who open and fund a new Qtrade Investor account before March 01, 2021 with at least A) $25,000; B) 50,000; C) $100,000; D) $500,000; E) $1M or F) $2M+ may be eligible to receive a pre-paid Visa gift card of up to A) $50; B) $100; C) $250; D) $800; E) $1,500 or F) $2,000. Only the first 500 customers are eligible. Please use promo code VISA2K. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M F) $2M+	Cash Reward: A) $50 B) $100 C) $250 D) $800 E) $1,500 F) $2,000		Up to $2,000 Visa Gift Card Offer	March 1, 2021
	New accounts opened between Jun 22 and Dec 31, 2020 will be awarded 100 free online trades in one year. This promotion applies to new and existing NBDB clients who use the code “FREE2020” to open new accounts. There’s no minimum funding requirement, however some other restrictions may apply.	$0	100 Free Trades	1 year	Please refer to the full details of the deal.	December 31, 2020
	Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive $88 in commission credits (up to 17 commission-free trades). Use promo code SPARX88 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully.	$1,000	$88 commission credit	60 days	Access this offer by clicking here: $88 commission-credit offer. For full terms and conditions, click here.	none
	Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully.	$1,000	5 commission-free trades	60 days	5 commission-free trade offer	December 31, 2021
	Open a new RBC Direct Investing account by December 31, 2020 and fund it with at least $5,000 by March 5, 2021 and you will receive commission rebates for 25 trades that occur within 1 year of account opening. Be sure to use promo code NTBW2 during account opening. You will be charged regular commissions on the trading date, and the rebate will be deposited back into your account after 3-5 business days. If you are an existing customer to RBC DI, the type of the new account being opened must be different from the account types that you current have.	$5,000	25 commission-free trades for a year	1 year	25 commission-free trades	December 31, 2020
	Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details.	$25,000	commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data.	1 month	Active Trader Program	December 31, 2021
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Jan. 10, 2021 18:00PT

Referral Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Incentive Structure	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit	Details Link	Deadline
	Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements.	A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+	$25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back	Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days)	Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759	none
	If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTRADE account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link.	A) $10,000 B) $50,000+	A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50)	60 days	Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade	tbd
	You may receive $10 cash incentive for each new client that you refer to Wealthsimple Trade. They must use your unique referral link during account opening and make a trade value of at least $100. The referred friend will also get $10.	$100	You and the referred friend will each get $10.	n/a	Referring a Friend to Wealthsimple Trade	none
	If you (an existing Qtrade Investor client) refer a new client to Qtrade Investor and they open an account with at least $1,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $25 cash. See terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	$25 cash back (for both referrer and referee)	Cash deposited at the end of the month in which referee’s account funded	Refer A Friend to Qtrade Investor	none
	If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $5,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details.	$5,000	You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50	Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period (subject to conditions).	BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend	January 6, 2022
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Jan. 10, 2021 18:00PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount	Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility	Details Link	Deadline
	Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150.	$150	n/a	Transfer Fee Promo	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $200 in transfer fees.	$200	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate Details	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered.	$152.55	$15,000	Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information.	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details.	$150	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees.	$135	$20,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details.	$150	$25,000	Transfer Fee Promo Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463).	none
	Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made.	$135	$25,000	Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343).	none
	Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Contact client service for more details.	$200	Contact client service for more information	Contact client service for more information (1-888-776-6886)	none
Expired Offers
	Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $10,000 into a Desjardins Online Brokerage account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info.	$150	$10,000	Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo	January 8, 2020
Last Updated: Jan. 01, 2021 10:00PT

Other Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount Required	Details Link	Deadline
	The minimum commission per equity trade ($1.99) is waived for new accounts from account opening till December 31, 2020. As a result, your commission is just 1¢/share (max $7.99). However, this offer does not apply to Odd Lot orders (i.e. orders with quantity less than 100 shares if price >= $1 or price < $0.10; or less than 500 shares if price in the $0.10 – $0.99 range). Please be reminded that at Virtual Brokers ETFs are always free to buy.	$0	No Minimum 2020 – Terms & Conditions	December 31, 2020
	Submit your information via the Hardbacon website to be referred to National Bank Direct Brokerage. Open and fund a qualifying account and you may receive up to 200 commission-free trades and discounted trading commissions. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	n/a	Hardbacon Free Trade Promo	none
	Open a new Non-Registered trading account and fund it with at least $100 by December 18, 2020 and you may receive a random cash bonus ranging from $1 to $4,500. The cash bonus amount will be equivalent to the value of one of the fifteen stocks that have been selected by Wealthsimple Trade for this program. Please refer to the Terms and Conditions for more details.	$100	Wealthsimple Trade Free Stock Promotion	December 18, 2020
	Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering $50 in commission credits for new Disnat Classic clients depositing at least $1,000. See terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	Broker@ge 18-30 Promotion	none
	Scotiabank StartRight customers can receive 10 commission-free trades when investing $1,000 or more in a new Scotia iTrade account. Trades are good for use for up to 1 year from the date the account is funded. Use promo code SRPE15 when applying (in English) or SRPF15 when applying in French. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	StartRight Free Trade offer	none
	Be one of the first 100 clients to open and fund an account with a minimum of $10,000 at Qtrade Investor using the promo code TRADE695 and you may be eligible for 100 trades at a preferred commission rate of $6.95 for 6 months. See terms and conditions for more details.	$10,000	100 Discounted Commission Trades	March 1, 2020
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Jan. 01, 2021 22:00 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor	Offer Type	Offer Description	Min. Deposit	Reward / Promotion	Promo Code	Expiry Date	Link
	Discounted Management	Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link.	$1,000	1st month no management fees	KDKFNBBC	None	Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
	Cash Back	Open a new SmartFolio account and fund it with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $1,000. Use promo code SFJAN1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer is limited to new SmartFolio clients only, and can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion.	$1,000	0.5% cash back to a maximum of $1,000.	SFJAN1000	March 2, 2021	SmartFolio Cash Back Promo
	Discounted Management	Open a new account with BMO SmartFolio and receive one year of management of up to $15,000 free. See offer terms and conditions for more details.	$1,000	1 year no management fees	STSF	April 30, 2019	SmartFolio New Account Promotion
	Cash Back – Referral	BMO SmartFolio clients will receive $50 cash back for every friend or family member who opens and funds a new SmartFolio account. Friends and family referred to SmartFolio will receive $50 cash back for opening and funding an account, plus automatic enrollment into SmartFolio’s mass offer in market at the time. See offer terms and conditions for more details.	$1,000	$50 cash back (referrer) $50 cash back (referee)	Unique link generated from SmartFolio required.	None	SmartFolio Website
	Transfer Fee Coverage	Transfer at least $25,000 into Virtual Wealth when opening a new account and you may be eligible to have up to $150 in transfer fees covered by Virtual Wealth.	$25,000	up to $150 in transfer fees covered	None	None	Contact customer service directly for more information.
Last Updated: Jan. 08, 2021 10:00PT

Offers for Young Investors

Brokerage	Offer Type	Eligible Age Range / Client Segment	Offer Description	Min. Deposit	Expiry Date	Link
	Student pricing	Clients with CIBC Smart™ Account for students	$5.95 per trade and zero annual account fees	not required	None	CIBC Student Pricing
	Broker@ge 18-30	18-30 years old	Benefits: * 5 free transactions (Minimum deposit of $1,000 required) * No inactivity fees * No asset minimum to maintain for free registered accounts * Exclusive events * Disnat Mobile App	$1,000	None	Broker@ge 18-30
	Offers for professionals & students	Students in selected fields of study	Professionals and students in the below fields can benefit from a reduced pricing structure: * Engineering students * Legal, accounting and business students * Healthcare students * Health sciences students * Nursing students Benefits: * $5.95 commission on equities * $0 commission on ETFs * $0 annual administration fee	not required	None	NBDB Student Pricing
	Young investors offer	18-30 years old	Accounts holders who are 30 years old or younger are offered 10 free trades each year. After the free transactions, a commission rate of $4.95 per transaction will be applied (which is just half of the regular price).	not required	None	Young Investor Offer
	Young investor pricing	18-30 years old	Benefits: * $7.75 commissions for stock and ETF trades * No account minimums * No quarterly admin fees	min. $50 a month through pre-authorized contributions.	None	Young Investor Pricing
	Waiver of account maintenance fee	Clients who have RBC Student account, currently or in the past 5 years.	The Maintenance Fee ($25 per quarter) is waived, regardless of the account balance.	not required	None	Zero Account Management Fee
	Young investors offer	Clients 26 years old and under	Low activity account administration fee and the RSP account administration fee are waived.	not required	None	Young Investors Offer
	Waiver of account administration fee	Clients younger than 26 years old	The account administration fee ($24.95 per quarter) is waived.	not required	None	$0 Account Administration Fee
Last Updated: Jan. 01, 2021 10:00PT

Posted on December 21, 2020March 5, 2021 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 21, 2020

The phrase that’s been a mantra for many of us in 2020 – aside from “You’re on mute” – has been “Is it over yet?” Finally, it’s a lot closer to being true than at any previous point in the year. Thank goodness. In keeping with the sentiment of a very long year, this end-of-year edition of the Weekly Roundup is itself longer than usual. Unlike 2020, however, it is intentionally long because so many interesting things took place.

Packaging so many big developments into one post was a challenge. So, for this final edition of the Roundup for the year, we offer up an homage to a movie franchise that seems to go on just about as long as 2020 has. This Fast and Furious edition of the Roundup recaps the year one quarter at a time. Keep reading for high-octane stories that powered the Weekly Roundup for the past year, including important feature releases, interesting trends, and the stories that were kind of a big deal. In true Weekly Roundup form, we roll the credits on 2020 with DIY investor chatter from Twitter and the forums.

Buckle up, it’s going to be a wild ride.

Q1 2020: Everything Was Normal Until It Wasn’t

Looking back on the beginning of the year, the start to 2020 in the Canadian online brokerage space seemed pretty “normal” by most accounts.

One theme early in the year was pricing drops. Desjardins Online Brokerage, for example, significantly dropped their commission rates, especially for active investors, to under $1 per trade. Similarly, HSBC also teed up an offer for active investors: zero-commission pricing between April and December 2020. Although these two firms aren’t as well known in the Canadian online brokerage space as other mainstream firms or the big-five bank-owned online brokers, it was clear that commission pricing in 2020 would continue to be under pressure as smaller firms looked to gain market share. These moves were also timed around the start of the year because of the heightened interest in RSP accounts, and, as such, there would be a much larger audience of investors willing to consider these new pricing features. Interestingly, the rest of the Canadian online brokerage industry did not immediately move to lower commission prices. As it turned out, once the tsunami of investor demand for online brokerage accounts took hold, commission prices stayed largely untouched until the latter part of 2020.

Another important theme early in the year (prior to COVID-19 hitting with full force) was the release of online brokerage reviews and rankings. Both The Globe and Mail and Surviscor released their respective rankings of Canada’s online brokers in order to coincide with the time in the calendar when many DIY investors hunt out new online investing accounts and offers.

What stood out about the 2020 edition of The Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings (which happened to be the 21^st edition of these rankings) was that a number of firms scored a respectable grade (B or better), but of the top three firms by letter grade, two of them were bank-owned online brokers: TD Direct Investing and Scotia iTrade. The firm that reappeared at the top of these rankings was Qtrade Investor, which earned an A+ rating overall. Ironically, TD Direct Investing suffered from a trading interruption (something that would become a lot more commonplace across the industry in 2020), and Scotia iTrade continued to face challenges responding to clients in a timely fashion over the phone.

In the Surviscor rankings, Qtrade Investor also took top spot, edging out Questrade and TD Direct Investing. Not to be outdone, Questrade earned a DALBAR award for client service, providing additional points for their brand in a year that started off strong in terms of rankings progress.

Of course, the major story during the first quarter of 2020 was COVID-19, and specifically how it roiled markets and caused a massive shock to trading systems, online brokerages, and DIY investors. For some, it was catastrophic, but to others, the opportunity of a lifetime. It was this latter group that won the day, however, as new investors jumped at the chance to invest in household-name stocks at incredible prices. Further, the “Robinhood effect” was cited as another reason the volatility seemed to skyrocket. The US online brokerage had moved to a largely commission-free model, and, as such, investors could “scalp” trade – making small and frequent trades – with no real downside (in terms of commission pricing). It turned out, however, that most online brokerage systems were not equipped to handle the surge in interest in trading combined with market volatility.

Some weird things happened. Among them, Wealthsimple Trade having to effectively halt new clients from being able to trade on their platform.

@wstrade As a new user, why would you not include this message when I was signing up and depositing money? I now can’t make trades and have not even been provided with a timeline of when I can expext to be off the waitlist #disappointing pic.twitter.com/tO2Y52wmjF
— Parker Gold (@Parker_Gold) March 26, 2020

Major online brokerages also suffered trading platform downtime, slammed telephone reps, and the biggest surge in online brokerage account opening since the bitcoin craze in 2018. Oh, and they had to contend with all of this while being transitioned to a work-from-home model.

Also strange, people deciding to hoard toilet paper.

Q2 2020: Outages & Outrage

The start of the second quarter picked up right where the first ended, as things went from weird to certifiably insane. Volatility and trading volumes managed to take down trading systems at multiple Canadian bank-owned online brokerages, but that would not even be the weirdest thing to take place in April. As it turns out, prices for commodities, like barrels of oil, could not only fall to zero but also go negative.

Unfortunately for traders – and especially for Interactive Brokers clients – the oil contract price going negative wound up impairing (if not wiping out) a significant number of traders, and that was because of a programming glitch on Interactive Brokers’ platform that didn’t account for prices of contracts being able to turn negative. All told, Interactive Brokers ended up taking a $90 million loss because of the exceptionally rare move to reimburse traders caught offside by this issue. Of course, while embarrassing for Interactive Brokers, these were truly unusual times, and there were other traders who didn’t see it coming.

Nonetheless, Interactive Brokers also had a huge silver lining after the oil futures contract fiasco: They experienced record-breaking new-account growth. As the canary in the coal mine, Interactive Brokers telegraphed exceptionally strong account openings (+22% year over year) and revenue gains from the sheer volume of activity taking place. In fact, there were more accounts opened at Interactive Brokers in April 2020 than in the last six months of 2019 combined.

Against the backdrop of market volatility, another online brokerage ranking was published, this time from J.D. Power. The Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study was revealing in that even before many of the issues that came to light during the heavy volatility in the markets, the Canadian online brokerage industry was starting to slip in terms of investor satisfaction. The report card showed that online brokerages fared worse in 2020 than they did in 2019 when it came to overall satisfaction.

Questrade managed to take top spot in the rankings for 2020, an accolade that is the result of a long journey of constant improvement. Conversely, the bottom four online brokerages in Canada, according to J.D. Power, were from the big five: RBC Direct Investing, TD Direct Investing, CIBC Investor’s Edge, and Scotia iTrade, respectively, were the firms that scored the lowest on the 2020 edition of this ranking. One telling stat was that website stability and accessibility were areas where online investors felt underserved, with 46% of those polled experiencing a problem with their provider’s website.

One of the best, smartest, impromptu speeches I have ever heard. Amazing leadership. pic.twitter.com/SHiPBdVDvC
— Ahmed Fareed (@FareedNBCS) May 30, 2020

Finally, the major development in the second quarter of 2020 (outside of COVID-19) was the death of George Floyd and the igniting of social justice movements in North America (and across the world) to a point not seen since the US Civil Rights movement. Though the stock markets were largely insulated from the headline risk, major names in the public markets (like Nike) took very public stands on the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. One potentially coincidental shift that we noted in the websites of two online brokerages at this time was the use of more inclusive and diverse imagery. What a DIY investor was “supposed to look like” changed in terms of the imagery used on the websites of Interactive Brokers and Virtual Brokers. Other online brokerages in Canada had already made the shift to more inclusive imagery, so it was nice to see these online brokers take a step in the right direction when it comes to representation.

Another important note on Virtual Brokers emerged during this time, which was that the parent company, CI Financial, had opted to consolidate the “Virtual Brokers” name under CI Direct Investing along with another key name in the digital investing space: WealthBar. Although no definitive timetable was published on this move, it means that a long-standing name in the online brokerage space will disappear, and DIY investors will have to learn another new name. To make matters even more challenging, the new online brokerage that formed from the acquisition of Jitneytrade by Canaccord is named CG Direct. These two names are bound to confuse DIY investors even more than the current challenge of sorting out Qtrade Investor and Questrade.

Q3 2020: Sun and Shade

With the nicer weather and relative calm in stock markets, it seemed like an opportune moment for several online brokerages to make big announcements and feature enhancements/changes. And there were a few.

Starting in June, TD Direct Investing announced updates to its mobile app that focused on enhancements to investor education. Interestingly, as it came to be seen later in the year, this move toward bolstering investor education was both a timely one, given the number of new investors coming into the stock market, and a well-calculated one, supporting the big reveal that would come in Q4. The trend of improvements to mobile trading experiences was something that surfaced several times in the year, notably with RBC Direct Investing as well as Virtual Brokers.

One of the biggest announcements to cross the tape was that Wealthsimple Trade would be launching cryptocurrency trading in Canada. Offering trading in both Bitcoin and Ethereum, this move by the “zero-commission” online broker in Canada was yet another step to appeal to a younger, more tech-savvy audience who wanted both an easier way to access these digital currency instruments and a more user-friendly way. This pilot program will ultimately help to inform whether cryptocurrency trading can be properly regulated by financial authorities in Canada. In 2020, Wealthsimple Trade continued to lean into its identity as a “Robinhood Canada,” given the success of the US online brokerage in winning over new investors to its platform.

One big feature roll-out that didn’t quite go as planned was from CIBC Investor’s Edge. Unfortunately, the feature upgrade’s first attempt resulted in trading interruptions that, in turn, prompted the online broker to offer commission-free trades to those who were impacted by the outage. Eventually, however, a new online trading experience was rolled out – in part – and set the stage for further improvements to the user experience.

After a very quiet stretch, signs of life in the deals and promotions section started to appear. National Bank Direct Brokerage launched a sizable commission-free trade offer, and, interestingly, Wealthsimple Trade launched a contest with a draw for $5,000 in cash. What made the latter offer stand out is that it was an early signal that despite offering zero-commission trades, Wealthsimple Trade also had to undertake some further effort to entice new clients to their platform (something that showed up again in Q4).

Q4 2020: A Few Good Mends

It’s hard to believe that the fourth quarter was actually just one quarter, given how much happened. The resurgence of COVID-19 via the “second wave,” the huge rally in the stock market to set new highs, and the US federal election all would have been massive stories on their own but, combined, they made it nearly impossible to keep from watching the news.

Despite all of the negative headlines, what did emerge for online brokerages and DIY investors was an interesting convergence of events.

While the first portion of the year showed unprecedented strength of interest by online investors to open up accounts and trade, by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, things had levelled off somewhat. Nevertheless, Canadian online brokerages, much like their US counterparts, were seeing elevated trading activity and, unlike their peers in the US, were generating significant revenue as a result. The fourth quarter in the year is also the time when online brokers in Canada typically start their ramp-up to campaigns for RSP season. What resulted from these events taking place simultaneously was that the deals and promotions activity in November just exploded. Offers came to market from all major online bank-owned brokerages as well as most other Canadian online brokers in one way or another. Even Wealthsimple Trade managed to jump into the deals and promotions fray, once again taking their cues from Robinhood and launching a promotion to give away cash in an amount equivalent to a particular popular stock.

Deals were just one part of what the fourth quarter of 2020 had to offer. Also on deck for the end of the year was a huge announcement from TD Direct Investing, which launched their new commission-free ETF trading platform, GoalAssist. While the platform only allows commission-free trading for TD-branded ETFs, it is a huge step in moving the needle forward on commission-free trading for Canadian DIY investors. Already ETFs are free to buy (at Questrade and Virtual Brokers) or free to buy and sell (all ETFs at National Bank Direct Brokerage and a limited selection at Scotia iTrade and Qtrade Investor). So, for TD Direct Investing, one of the biggest names in Canadian DIY investing circles, to launch this product (and in a mobile-only format to boot) means that they are directly going after the commission-free trading offering by Wealthsimple Trade.

TD GoalAssist™ is here!
Learn more here 👉 https://t.co/nl2sHMvFPx #TDGoalAssist pic.twitter.com/agj7n4SKNR
— TD Direct Investing (@TD_DirectInvest) October 27, 2020

Ironically, it appears that in the fourth quarter, Wealthsimple Trade was already at work to challenge the traditional Canadian online brokerage offering of a “desktop experience.” Prior to this year, Wealthsimple Trade had been available in mobile-app format only – something that ultimately ended getting Wealthsimple Trade disqualified from being included in some of the Surviscor online brokerage rankings.

As of the fourth quarter, however, Wealthsimple Trade has launched a desktop version of their web platform that is being tested by users. Given that fewer people are actually going into an office or are on the go to and from an office, more and more users are spending time on their laptops or desktop computers. So, this highly sought-after feature is another shot across the bow aimed at the online brokerage industry indicating that Wealthsimple Trade is getting up to speed on the features that online investors want.

New features didn’t stop there for Canadian online brokerages, however. BMO InvestorLine rolled out a 2.0 version of their online trading experience, which significantly streamlines their existing web interface, though it is still being updated in terms of features. At first blush, it looks like the trend among online brokerages has shifted away from completing all features before launch, moving instead to an “agile” model of shipping features out and enhancing/optimizing over the product lifecycle. Another big announcement from an online broker regarding features was from National Bank Direct Brokerage, which officially rolled out OptionsPlay as part of their offering to clients. This platform is intended to assist individual investors in manoeuvring through trading options.

Finally, one more noteworthy milestone took place in the quarter, as the Sparx team launched the fourth edition of the Look Back/Look Ahead series. This publication featured in-depth coverage of several of Canada’s most popular online brokerages, which offered a unique glimpse at how 2020 unfolded for them as well as what features and trends they’re looking to in 2021. In addition to the online brokerage space as a whole, the magazine also offered a sneak peek at the new SparxTrading.com website coming in 2021.

Even summarizing it a quarter at a time, this year had lots of other stories that we didn’t get a chance to highlight in the Roundups as well as in this ultimate year-end review of stories that shaped 2020 in the Canadian (and US) online brokerage industry.

2020 being what it is, there’s still room for some kind of unplanned surprise that could impact investors – whether it’s a new deal or feature launch – however, the good news is that with just a few more days until the official end of the year, online brokerage employees are going to be in holiday mode, too. As such, we don’t anticipate more feature releases going live just yet.

So, on that note, we’ll be doing something different and signing off for the Weekly Roundup for 2020 for the final stretch of December. We will be rebooting in early January, with a few other surprises to mention right out of the gate, as well as more exclusive content. Unless, of course, 2020 drops a story too big not to cover in the online brokerage space.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

A Sure Thing?

In this post, one investor asks for recommendations of stable, secure American companies to invest in for the next 10 to 15 years. The advice pours in, covering ETFs, the couch potato strategy, Canadian versus American stocks – and why you should avoid taking advice about specific stocks from random people on the internet.

Live and Learn

An investor who knows very little about their own investments asks about the best way to learn about the topic. Redditors share their favourite books, websites, courses, podcasts, and more, along with their personal financial journeys.

Into the Close

That’s it for the final Roundup for 2020. With vaccines now in place and hope on the horizon, there is lots to look forward to in the coming months. The next few weeks will be the most challenging; however, to pull a (final) line from the Fast and Furious franchise, “We do what we do best, we improvise.”

Stay safe, healthy, and connected, and see you again in 2021.

Canadian Online Brokerages Struggle at Delivering Service Online

The Story in Numbers

Change the Channel or Channel the Change

New Features From Online Brokerages Chip Away at Guesswork

BMO InvestorLine Launches a Checkup for Portfolios

Looking in the RRIF-View Mirror

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Timing the Market

Up, Up & Away

Into the Close

Forecast for Deals & Promotions: Mostly Sunny for February

GameStop(ped) Out

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

What Goes Up?

Preaching to the Converted

Into the Close

Expired Deals

Extended Deals

New Deals

Discount Brokerage Deals

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Expired Offers

Referral Promotions

Expired Offers

Transfer Fee Promotions

Expired Offers

Other Promotions

Expired Offers

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Offers for Young Investors

The Unsettled Elephant in the Room

2021 Canadian Online Brokerage Rankings: Spotlight on Service

What Goes Into the Online Brokerage Rankings?

Results from the 2021 Canadian Online Brokerage Rankings

Call Options

Relief for Long Wait Times

Putting the Pieces Together

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Up & Up & Up

Into the Close

Questrade Launches New Features & Teases a Big Year Ahead

Interactive Brokers Latest Metrics & Earnings Call to Provide Clues on Marketplace Direction

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Oh, Brother!

Ethics Over Profits?

Into the Close

Deals Activity Shows Cash Is King

Mind the Generation Gap: User Experience for Online Investing in the Spotlight

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

New Year, New Room in Your TFSA

Into the Close

Volatility Hits Online Brokerage Deals and Promotions

Announcements From SparxTrading.com

Relaunching of Our Newsletter

Even More Perspectives on 2021

A Shiny New Website

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Into the Close

Expired Deals

Extended Deals

New Deals

Discount Brokerage Deals

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Expired Offers

Referral Promotions

Expired Offers

Transfer Fee Promotions

Expired Offers

Other Promotions

Expired Offers

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Offers for Young Investors

Q1 2020: Everything Was Normal Until It Wasn’t

Q2 2020: Outages & Outrage