Scotia iTRADE – Page 10

Posted on February 18, 2019 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 18, 2019

Even though markets took a pause for Family Day in Canada and President’s Day in the US, the calm before the storm is officially over and when the market bells ring again on Tuesday, it will be a mad dash to the RSP contribution deadline. With first time and seasoned DIY investors alike kicking the tires on Canadian online brokerages, the good news is that there is plenty on the table in terms of offers as well as ranking data to help make those important decisions.

In this edition of the roundup we take a deep dive into yet another deals & promotions development in which two Canadian discount brokerages launch late-stage offers. Next, we profile another online brokerage ranking dealing with customer service that revealed some very interesting trends as well as challenger brands that will shift the online brokerage landscape in Canada in the years to come. Of course, we’ll also serve up a healthy dose of online brokerage tweets as well as chatter from the investor forums.

No Country for Old Deals

With the RSP contribution deadline just a few days away, Canadian discount brokerages are pulling out all the stops to try and get DIY investors’ attention (and business) while investments are on their mind. This month has seen a flurry of activity ranging from commission price drops at Scotia iTRADE, something that they have resisted doing for about five years, to just about all Canadian online brokerages putting forward either a commission-free trading or cash back offer.

The trend of posting new offers continued last week with offers from non-bank-owned online brokerages, Questrade and Virtual Brokers, both posting promotional offers.

Questrade’s offer is actually one that deserves a bit more discussion since it is unlike anything we have observed take place in the industry since we have been tracking deals and promotions. Questrade’s latest promotional offer is a transfer-fee coverage offer (something almost all online brokerages offer) however the big development is that Questrade is offering to cover the transfer out fee for any deposit level. This is a massive development for two reasons.

At Questrade, we set out to give Canadians better, simpler and more affordable ways to invest. Until March 31, transfer your account over to Questrade, and we’ll cover any transfer fees regardless of the amount transferred over https://t.co/LloS4O3grV. pic.twitter.com/yLq20CWPn4

— Questrade (@Questrade) February 12, 2019

First, the normal deposit threshold for qualifying for a transfer fee coverage offer is between $15,000 and $25,000. Even then, there are times where there is a sliding scale of coverage, so only larger deposit amounts qualify for the full coverage. Occasionally, Qtrade Investor has lowered the transfer fee coverage threshold from the standard $25,000 down to $10,000. So, for Questrade to drop the deposit transfer requirement altogether (for a limited time) is an aggressive move to get accounts that normally would not have qualified for transfer fee coverage to consider switching.

The second reason this offer from Questrade is a big deal is because it reflects their doubling down on a segment of the market that is largely underserved by their competitors. In response, Canadian online brokerages are almost certainly going to have to decide how valuable customer accounts with deposits less than $15,000 to $25,000 are worth, because it now is possible for online investors to ask their brokerage how much they’re prepared to offer to keep their business.

For DIY investors stuck paying fees at online brokerages because their balances are too low, this is an amazing exit opportunity. To be clear, Questrade also charges low balance/inactivity fees, however the threshold to have those fees waived is lower than at their competitors. Questrade charges inactivity fees of $24.95 per quarter on accounts with less than $5,000 in total assets and waives those fees for placing a commission generating trade in a quarter; for individuals under 25 years old; subscribers to a data package and to anyone depositing at least $150 per quarter.

Finally, one more interesting observation with regards to Questrade’s promotional offer is that this is the first time in many years that Questrade has launched a new mass market offer. Earlier on in their history, Questrade was the most active among Canada’s discount brokerages in terms of offering promotions however that activity essentially plateaued with Questrade keeping their same suite of commission-free trading offers. This uptick in their promotional behaviour is a signal that Questrade is revisiting their promotional offers which is one more thing that their competitors now have to factor in.

Also crossing the deals wire last week was Virtual Brokers, who launched a $50 cash back promotion tied to RSP season. Their latest offer, which also comes after having been on the deals sideline for some time, coincides with their being named as Canada’s best online brokerage by the Globe and Mail (alongside TD Direct Investing).

Virtual Brokers’ latest promotion is open to both existing and new clients and offers up a $50 cash back reward for a deposit of $10,000. In comparing the current cash back offers on the market, this is one of the most aggressively priced ones.

To start, they are the only online brokerage offering a cash back amount for a deposit at that level. The next available cash back offer requires a deposit of at least $25,000 – at which point there are three different offers to choose from. Interestingly, the aggressive nature of this offer really stands out when compared against Qtrade Investor, who is offering a cash back amount of $50 for a minimum deposit of $50,000.

Another feature of the latest Virtual Brokers deal that stands out is the timing for when the cash back award will be deposited. According to the terms and conditions of the offer, the cash back will be deposited “after July 1^st” which, compared to other offers, is a shorter payback time. To be fair, the exact date was not specified so it does leave considerable wiggle room for that repayment to be issued

Brokerage	Minimum Deposit	Cash Back Amount
Virtual Brokers	$10,000	$50
HSBC Invest Direct	$25,000	$188
CIBC Investor’s Edge	$25,000	$100
Scotia iTRADE	$25,000	$100
BMO InvestorLine	$50,000	$400
Qtrade Investor	$50,000	$50

It should be noted that Questrade does have a referral offer in place that is easily accessible for investors that would also be similar in value to Virtual Brokers’ offer (i.e. $50 cash back for a deposit of $10,000). Scotia iTRADE also has a referral offer however the process of accessing that offer is more difficult than entering in a code.

With over 35 offers now available for DIY investors to choose from, this is a record year for choices and incentives. Not only are there more offers in play for DIY investors to be able access but also the amounts of those offers have increased relative to last year – especially in certain deposit segments.

There have clearly been benefits to anyone who’s waited to see what the online brokerages would come forward with in terms offers. But, for online brokerages, has waiting until RSP season to launch a deal/promo been a good thing?

One hazard of waiting for the RSP season is that consumer expectations shift. If DIY investors look back over the past three to five years, there’s clearly a pattern of Canadian online brokerages offering deals and promotions in the new year or, more recently, from November onwards. Not unlike consumers and Black Friday, however, online investors may start to withhold their account opening or selection until they see the full set of offers available.

What we suspect will unfold is that online brokerages will want to establish a more regular or tactical approach to offering promotions through the year. At the very least, finding a way to stay on investors’ radar throughout the year will be important when it comes to the ‘high season’ of being able to stand out from all of the different offers that will go on display.

The most recent activity from Questrade and Virtual Brokers show, however, that if you’re going to be advertising a promotion later into the RSP season, that in order to get noticed, you will have to go big – which is a great development for DIY investors.

Qtrade Earns Top Customer Service Scores from Surviscor

Earlier this month, Qtrade Investor managed to notch yet another award win in an online brokerage ranking, this time in customer service. Financial services research firm Surviscor announced the results of their service level assessment of the Canadian banking and online brokerage sectors and found that in the brokerage segment, Qtrade Investor provided the strongest service experience.

The results of this year’s service level assessment provided some eye-opening scores, and will undoubtedly cause some furrowed brows across the Canadian online brokerage sector as many of the scores came up less than flattering. More on that in just a moment though.

At the top of the board, Qtrade Investor scored 84% and narrowly beat out RBC Direct Investing who came in second at 82% followed by Questrade in a distant third at 68%. For some context, the average score was 39% while the standard deviation was 27%, which means on a relative basis Qtrade Investor and RBC Direct Investing substantially outperformed the rest of the field.

With an average score of 39% however, this evaluation is indicating that Canadian online brokerages are struggling when it comes to providing what Surviscor defines as quality service. Laurentian Bank Discount Brokerage came in last at 4% while Virtual Brokers landed at 8%. Some big bank-owned-brokerage names also were included in the below average group: Scotia iTRADE, CIBC Investor’s Edge, National Bank Direct Brokerage, and (perhaps the most surprising) BMO InvestorLine (16%).

Of course, while these rankings provide a snapshot of performance over the past year, what is even more interesting – and perhaps telling of a trend in the online brokerage industry – is comparing results year over year.

Online Brokerage	2017 Score	2017 Ranking	2018 Score	2018 Ranking	Score Change (y/y)
BMO InvestorLine	12%	13	16%	11	4%
CIBC Investor’s Edge	16%	12	30%	8	14%
Desjardins Online Brokerage	74%	T3	52%	5	-22%
HSBC InvestDirect	28%	T8	12%	12	-16%
Interactive Brokers	54%	6	62%	4	8%
Jitney Trade	28%	T8	24%	9	-4%
Laurentian Bank Discount Brokerage	4%	15	4%	14	0%
National Bank Direct Brokerage	28%	10	20%	10	-8%
Qtrade Investor	90%	1	84%	1	-6%
Questrade	36%	7	68%	3	32%
RBC Direct Investing	86%	2	82%	2	-4%
Scotia iTRADE	66%	5	38%	7	-28%
TD Direct Investing	20%	11	50%	6	30%
Virtual Brokers	8%	14	8%	13	0%

Looking at the year over year results, one of the first things that jumps out is that the top two firms are the same this year as last, however the absolute scores are lower. So, last year, Qtrade Investor took top spot with 90% however this year they fell by six percentage points to 84%. Similarly, RBC Direct Investing was in second place last year at 86% and declined to 82% in the most recent set of rankings. While still strong relative to the rest of the field it appears both of these firms took their foot of the gas pedal slightly in 2018.

Who did put more effort into service in 2018, however, was readily apparent. Questrade leaped by 32 percentage points from 36% for 2017 to 68% for 2018. Similarly, TD Direct Investing also shot up by 30 percentage points to 50%, moving from 11^th place up to 6^th. CIBC Investor’s Edge also showed double digit improvement, climbing by 14 percentage points to 30% for 2018.

In the other direction, the most remarkable drop off in service was from Scotia iTRADE, who fell 28 percentage points from 66% in 2017’s rankings to 38% in the 2018 analysis. Desjardins Online Brokerage, who was tied for third place last year with 74%, fell this year to 5^th place (which is still a strong finish) despite a drop of 22 percentage points to 52%.

For DIY investors hunting around for an online trading account, getting a sense of the service experience is partly an exercise in reviewing what other investors have to say about their own experiences as well as relying on rankings and ratings. The interesting contrasts in the service experience appear when compared with the Globe and Mail’s online brokerage rankings – specifically for firms such as Virtual Brokers (which took top spot in the online brokerage ranking this year) and bank-owned brokerage BMO InvestorLine (who also scored well). The wide difference in scoring suggest that there are some areas of the online trading experience where some firms are doing well and others where those same firms might be lagging their peers.

By the same token, for online brokerage firms that are doing well in different rankings/evaluations, this could be a strong indicator of a generally strong (positive) experience. Qtrade Investor, for example, scored well in Globe and Mail ranking as well as taking top honours in the Surviscor evaluation, which indicates that they will likely be a go-to consideration for DIY investors who use rankings/ratings to decide which online brokerages to choose.

Perhaps the most interesting takeaways from the Survsicor results relate to the performance of two particular firms.

The first is Interactive Brokers Canada. Largely relegated to the category of “active trader” online brokerage, this broker has often (anecdotally) been cited by investors as hands off and not providing much in the way of support or service. In the case of the latter, however, there is clearly a disconnect. Interactive Brokers scored fourth in terms of service in 2018, improving 8 percentage points over 2017. While bank-owned brokerages would be assumed to have a lock on offering quality service, in reality 3 out of the top 4 online brokerages in terms of service ratings are non-bank-owned online brokerages.

Another firm to watch, in terms of rankings performance, is Questrade. Rob Carrick stated that “This fast-growing independent is riding an improvement trajectory that will most likely put it on top of this ranking in the next several years.” The surge in performance in service quality rating for 2018 also seem to reflect this trend. So, in terms of driving feature development and client experience across the online brokerage space in Canada, Questrade appears to be taking a leadership position.

As for the firms out of the spotlight, or worse, in the bottom end of the service pack, it will be interesting to see whether the latest Surviscor ratings prompt any notable changes. Interestingly, if the service experience is as good or poor as reflected in the latest Surviscor results, there’s a good chance we will see the spillover in forum and social media posts.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Some Q-onfusion

For frequent watchers of the deals and promotions section, Questrade’s latest move to cover transfer fees is a significant event in the marketplace. In this post, from RedFlagDeals.com, there seems to be some confusion regarding the Questrade offer that just launched and a historical offer from different brokerage, Qtrade Investor, whose name tends to trip up forum posters who like to abbreviate.

Passive Aggressive

When it comes to passive investing, it seems like everyone in the business of providing ETFs is jumping on the passive train. In this post, from RedFlagDeals.com, it’s clear that BMO was not about to let some big moves in the ETF space go unchallenged. Check out the reactions to the launch of some new ETFs, ZGRO, ZBAL, ZCON and ZMI.

Into the Close

With another week in the books, it looks like the market storms that spooked investors in December are well behind us. One thing that hasn’t really gone away, however, is the consensus that volatility will be a big part of the market experience for the remainder of the year. As this weekend’s NBA All-Star game showcased, it’s best to be prudent when it comes to the markets. Even though certain trades might seem like a slam dunk, your portfolio can still end up in the loser’s circle by trying to get too fancy.

Posted on February 11, 2019January 7, 2022 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 11, 2019

Now that February is here, there’s all kinds of buzz surrounding the entertainment industry awards shows like the Grammy’s and the Oscars. For Canadian discount brokerages, this month also marks an important awards window with long anticipated online brokerage rankings getting published.

In this edition of the Roundup, we take an in-depth look at the latest Canadian online brokerage rankings from the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick. Of course, that wasn’t the only big news to drop this past week, as the last bank-owned online brokerage standard commission fee above $10 finally capitulated to join the sub-$10 party. As always, we’ve also got some interesting DIY investor chatter to share to round things out for the week.

Who is Canada’s Best Online Brokerage? Hint: It’s a Tie

It’s incredible how fast time flies. This past week Rob Carrick from the Globe and Mail, published the 20^th edition of his popular online brokerage rankings (this is the longest running evaluation of Canadian online brokerages) that delivered its signature mix of insight, evaluation and a dash of sass to report the state of the Canadian online brokerage marketplace in 2018.

As arguably the most popular online brokerage ranking in Canada, there has been a lot that has changed in the industry since this ranking first launched two decades ago. Having witnessed and reported on it all, it is especially interesting to see what Carrick homed in on for this year’s rankings.

Canada’s online brokerages were analyzed and evaluated on the following categories:

Client experience
Cost
Investing experience
Tools
Website

In keeping with the more recent format, letter grades were assigned to brokerages (as opposed to numerical scores) and there was a mix of objective and subjective elements to the scoring. This year, there was also one less online brokerage on the list, as Credential Direct merged with Qtrade Investor, which resulted in 12 Canadian online brokerages being measured.

Of course, the first question everyone asks of the rankings is: who won best online brokerage? Interestingly, for 2018 it wasn’t just one firm that took home the prize as Canada’s top online brokerage. This year both Virtual Brokers and TD Direct Investing shared the top prize displacing last year’s winner Qtrade Investor from the winner’s circle.

While TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers couldn’t be more different in their size, scope of services and recognizability with investors, they nonetheless both took home top marks for their efforts in catering to the mainstream investor in 2018.

Comparing scores this year to last, it is interesting to note that a significant portion of the brokerage pool made strides to improve their overall appeal to mainstream investors. In fact, in the latest online brokerage rankings, there were five online brokerages who scored A- or better compared to only one last year (Qtrade Investor). This bodes well for DIY investors who now have a strong pool of firms to choose from when it comes to selecting an online brokerage.

Online Brokerage	2018 Rating	2017 Rating
BMO InvestorLine	B	B
CIBC Investor’s Edge	C	C
Desjardins Online Brokerage	C-	C
HSBC InvestDirect	C-	C
Interactive Brokers	B+	B+
National Bank Direct Brokerage	B-	C+
Qtrade Investor	A-	A
Questrade	A-	B+
RBC Direct Investing	B	B
Scotia iTRADE	A-	B+
TD Direct Investing	A	B
Virtual Brokers	A	B

Firms who improved slightly were National Bank Direct Brokerage (C+ to B-), Questrade (B+ to A-) and Scotia iTRADE (B+ to A-). By comparison, both TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers improved by a whole letter grade going from B to A, albeit because of different features and improvements.

There were four firms that remained unchanged year over year: Interactive Brokers (B+), BMO InvestorLine (B), RBC Direct Investing (B) and CIBC Investor’s Edge (C).F

Finally, three firms did slightly worse than last year, including Qtrade Investor (A to A-), HSBC InvestDirect (C to C-) and Desjardins Online Brokerage (C to C-). It is worFFth noting that the drop in scores is likely more because of improvements at other online brokerages rather than something that these brokerages did i.e. the rest of the field just did better.

Of course, it helps that the detailed comparisons of features were also published so that we can more closely examine where some of the variation between last year and this year appeared. One of the first differences that jumps out is the foreign exchange conversion fees. While Interactive Brokers Canada remains first in terms of having the lowest fees for forex conversions (USD to CAD), Questrade slipped from 2^nd to 12^th. Interestingly, Qtrade Investor moved from 6^th to 2^nd and National Bank Direct Brokerage from 8^th to 3^rd. This volatility in currency exchange fees is an interesting observation however what hasn’t changed is the extent to which Interactive Brokers is ahead of other online brokerages in terms of this fee category.

Although not as drastic as forex fees, another category that had some interesting shifts compared to last year was the website experience. One of the most notable improvements from the last set of rankings was Virtual Brokers. In 2017 they scored 2.5 (out of 5) but moved up to 4.5, on par with Questrade and behind TD Direct Investing who maintained their 5 out of 5 score. Interestingly, there were a number of scores that declined – even in spite of changes made to their websites over the time between the previous rankings and the latest one. National Bank Direct Brokerage’s website experience score stands out with a score of 1 in spite of a website overhaul that took place in November 2018. Their previous site scored 2 (out of 5) so the drop is a particularly tough break.

As a group, it was also interesting to see how bank-owned brokerages fared. TD Direct Investing (5) and Scotia iTRADE (4) had the strongest website experience scores however their peers didn’t do nearly as well. In fact, the average score of remaining big five bank-owned online brokerages was 1.8, an indication that, according to Rob Carrick, there is still considerable room to improve.

When it comes to determining which online brokerage is best, it is always important to understand exactly how that title is defined.

The 2018 Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings are now in their 20^th year and arguably Rob Carrick has one of the best perspectives and context on how the industry has evolved over the time he has been covering it. Even so, it is important for anyone shopping for an online brokerage to note that these are primarily his opinions of what brokerages are doing well (or not). One of the most helpful components aside from the rankings themselves is actually the comparison details which accompany the rankings and provide additional information on features each online brokerage offers.

What is also interesting about this year’s rankings is that they are open only to subscribers of the Globe and Mail.

By putting this highly coveted ranking behind a paywall, there are already ‘gripes’ from online readers who have come to expect this information to be available freely. Of course, the internet being the internet, the popularity of this content means it already has surfaced almost in its entirety on a forum thread for DIY investors.

Why this matters is because unless these rankings are made more publicly available, they will be restricted to the readers of the Globe and Mail (and savvy, forum dwelling investors), which in turn erodes the reach and impact of the ratings. Although this is not the first time this content has been put behind a subscriber paywall, it will no doubt challenge investors to wonder whether they really want to subscribe to the Globe and Mail just to access these rankings. For frugal, tech savvy DIY investors, that’s going to be a tough sell.

Scotia iTRADE Quietly Lowers Standard Commission Prices

If a commission price drops but nobody is paying attention, is anybody going to save? Despite what is an important development in the Canadian online brokerage space, there has been almost zero chatter, buzz or activity online related to the drop in standard commission pricing at Scotia iTRADE last week.

The standard commission price at Scotia iTRADE is now $9.99 per trade, down from the $24.99+ which it has managed to maintain since the wave of commission price drops kicked off by RBC Direct Investing back in February 2014 (for those keeping score, that’s five years ago).

The decision to remain defiant on dropping commissions for so long, however, has appeared to have taken its toll on the most vocal digital users – young investors. By effectively pricing out this group from adopting and potentially evangelizing this online brokerage, Scotia iTRADE is now forced to play catch up.

The issue, however, runs deeper than that. Scotia iTRADE’s $24.99 commissions routinely earned the ire of some DIY investors on Twitter, which means that there is also a lot of negative earned media that iTRADE has to overcome on top of trying to tell their story to DIY investors in a very crowded market.

@Scotia_iTRADE Why are you guys the most expensive for trading $24.99 a trade, Think I will start looking elsewhere.

— Chris. S, Ont,Canada (@Chritters1) January 31, 2019

In fact, it was an interesting decision to drop commission prices to almost exactly the levels other bank-owned brokerages are currently offering and not use this opportunity to introduce a lower standard commission price.

Given the absence of excitement about this move in the DIY investor space (and even nothing on the iTRADE website itself), it is clear that Scotia iTRADE is going to now have to throw some significant marketing dollars to inform investors that standard commission prices have dropped to what everybody else is already offering (and others are offering even lower pricing).

And, they’ll have to do it at a time when their bank-owned brokerage peers and independent competitors are heavily advertising as well. So, unless they can generate some positive buzz, getting the word out and getting people excited are not going to be cheap.

About time..

— Sultan Kabani (@SultanKabani) February 8, 2019

Suffice to say, Scotia iTRADE lowering standard commission pricing is a positive development for DIY investors. A major bank-owned brokerage with a strong platform, commission-free ETFs and (now) competitive pricing means that fellow bank-owned brokerages will be working a little harder to attract clients with less than the $50,000 in assets that the standard commission rates impacted.

The big hurdle for Scotia iTRADE now will be overcoming the years of negative press and doing something bigger than a giant Lego banana that will make DIY investors pay attention (in a good way).

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Chatter on the Rankings

Readers of the investor forums weighed in on the latest online brokerage rankings from the Globe and Mail. See what users had to say about the winners and other brokerages in this post from RedFlagDeals.

Sorry to Bug You

With any big technology roll out, there are bound to be a few hiccups. When it comes to handling peoples’ investments, however, the chatter around the rollout of Wealthsimple Trade reveals some simultaneously fascinating and frightful scenarios of glitches being detected. Check out this reddit thread to see what DIY investors encountered with their shiny new accounts.

Into the Close

It’s time to roll the credits on another edition of the roundup. The week ahead should be interesting as marketing departments from award winning online brokerages will find clever ways to showcase their accomplishments as investors head into the last few weeks before the RSP contribution deadline. Also coming up this week is Valentine’s Day, which is timely given that investors have been showing the market lots of love to start of 2019 – which may (or may not) change with all of the big earnings announcements also poised to be published this week too. As any seasoned trader knows, however, it’s best not to get emotional over (or fall in love with) any stock, no matter how attractive it might seem. Have a great week!

Posted on February 1, 2019 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – February 2019

*Updated: Feb. 19* The start of February means it’s almost time for the Super Bowl. Like the big game, Canada’s discount brokerages are fiercely competing with one another heading into the final stretch of their busy season: RSP contribution time.

Fortunately for Canadian DIY investors looking for a new online trading or investing account, this year won’t be a disappointment. All of the most popular players are on the field offering up a promotion of one sort or another ranging from cash back to commission-free trades.

To keep things interesting, Canadian online brokerages have gotten creative with their playbook. From offering up longer stretches of time to use free trades or cranking up the volume of commission-free trades to lowering deposit thresholds and turning to the tried and tested paying to outcompete the other players, DIY investors have lots to choose from.

Kicking things off this month, there is one big deal announcement from RBC Direct Investing, who formally launched a promo offer of 20 commission-free trades at the end of January. As we had flagged last year, there was already a 20 commission-free trade offer on the market targeted towards individuals from the healthcare industry however both offers are independent of one another with different expiry dates and as such RBC Direct Investing makes into the deals section twice.

As exciting as it is to launch the month with a new promotional offer in the mix, heading into this month was equally exciting. January saw cash back deals from BMO InvestorLine, HSBC InvestDirect and Qtrade Investor come to market which provided DIY investors with a broad selection of the ever-popular promo category.

With RBC Direct Investing formally launching their latest offer, we’re not expecting too many big surprises on the deals & promotions from the major players. That said, there are still a couple of brokerages waiting on the sidelines and we’ve learned to never underestimate the element of surprise when it comes to online brokerages during RSP season. So, stay tuned and let us know if you’ve spotted an offer for DIY investors that could be of use to other readers & deal hunters.

Expired Deals

There were no expired deals to report.

Extended Deals

We saw some minor extensions take place at BMO InvestorLine and BMO’s SmartFolio. Their refer-a-friend program for BMO InvestorLine was extended as was their cash back promotion for SmartFolio. The new expiry dates are early January in 2020.

New Deals

*Update: Feb. 19 – There were two big deal announcements late into the race towards the RRSP contribution deadline. Rivals Questrade and Virtual Brokers both announced offers that they hope will get the attention of DIY investors searching for an online trading account.

Questrade’s latest promotion, which is a transfer fee offer, is bound to turn heads because it requires no minimum deposit to qualify for. The transfer promo is unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory so DIY investors looking to make the leap to Questrade now have a very compelling promo to consider. See the table below for more information.

Virtual Brokers also stepped into the deals and promotions arena with an RRSP related offer for new and existing clients. This cash back offer is for $50 for deposits of at least $10,000. See the table below for more details. *

The big news to report here is the public roll-out of RBC Direct Investing’s 20 commission-free trade offer. Unlike the earlier incarnation which was directed at healthcare professionals (but still open to the public), this fully public offer is being widely advertised. In terms of details, to qualify for this deal, DIY investors require at least $5,000 and the 20 commission-free trades are good for up to one year. Another important observation about this offer is the expiry date, which is March 29^th – well after the RSP contribution deadline. See the table below for more information.

It is worth reiterating here the cash back offers from Qtrade Investor and HSBC InvestDirect that showed up around mid January. We covered them in detail in previous weekly roundups (here & here) however to quickly recap, Qtrade Investor’s cash back offer ranges from $50 to $1,500 and requires a minimum deposit of $50,000. By comparison, HSBC InvestDirect is offering $188 to $1,288 cash back with qualifying deposits starting at $25,000.

Discount Brokerage Deals

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

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer	Details Link	Deadline
	A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with Jitneytrade and receive access to their preferred pricing package.	n/a	Discounted Commission Rates	none	For more details click here	none
	Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive $88 in commission credits (up to 17 commission-free trades). Use promo code SPARX88 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully.	$1,000	$88 commission credit	60 days	Access this offer by clicking here: $88 commission-credit offer . For full terms and conditions, click here.	none
	Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully.	$1,000	5 commission-free trades	60 days	5 commission-free trade offer	December 31, 2019
	Open and fund a new account with at least $5,000 at National Bank Direct Brokerage and you may be eligible to receive up to 50 commission free equity trades, which are good for up to one year. Use promo code: FREE50 when applying. Be sure to read offer terms and conditions for full details.	$5,000	50 commission-free trades	12 months	National Bank Direct Brokerage 50 Free Trade Offer	April 30, 2019
	Open a new qualifying account with RBC Direct Investing with at least $5,000 and you may be eligible to receive up to 20 commission-free equity trades, which are good for up to one year. Use promo code SPARX when signing up. See terms and conditions for full details.	$5,000	20 commission-free trades	12 months	RBC Direct Investing Free Trades Promotion	March 29, 2019
	Open a new account or fund an existing account at Virtual Brokers with at least $10,000, and you may be eligible to receive $50 cash back. Use code RRSP2019 when registering to claim this offer. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details.	$10,000	$50 cash back	Cash back will be deposited after July 1, 2019.	Virtual Brokers RRSP 2019 Cash Back Promo	March 31, 2019
	Open a new account or fund an existing account with A) $10,000; B) $25,000; C) $50,000; D) $100,000 E) $250,000; F) $500,000 or G) $1M+ and you may be eligible to receive either A)20; B) 50; C) 100; D) 200; or E), F), G) 300 commission free trades; or B) $100; C) $200; D) $500; E) $800; F) $1100 or G) $1500. Use promo code 19CA for the cash back or 19FT for the free trades offers. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for full details.	A) $10,000 B) $25,000 C) $50,000 D) $100,000 E) $250,000 F) $500,000 G) $1M+	For cash back: A) $0 B) $100 C) $200 D) $500 E) $800 F) $1100 G) $1500 For commission-free trades: A) 20 B) 50 C) 100 D) 200 E) 300 F) 300 G) 300	For cash back: Cash will be deposited by July, 2019. For commission free trades: 120 days to use trades from date of account funding.	iTRADE commission-free trade + cash back offer	March 31, 2019
	Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering new clients 1% of assets transferred into the new account in the form of commission credits (to a maximum value of $1,000). Minimum qualifying deposit is $10,000. To qualify, individuals will have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer or email: [email protected]. See details link for more info.	$10,000	1% of assets transferred in the form of commission-credits (max credits: $1,000)	6 months	Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo	none
	Open a new qualifying TD Direct Investing account by March 1, 2019 with a minimum deposit of A) $15,000; B) $25,000; C) $50,000 or D) $100,000+ and you may be eligible to receive commission rebates for A) 25; B) 50; C) 100 or D) 200 trades. To qualify online, individuals must register here and open the account by March 1, 2019. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $15,000 B) $25,000 C) $50,000 D) $100,000+	A) 25 B) 50 C) 100 D) 200	Trades made prior to July 1, 2019 will be eligible for rebate.	TD Direct Investing Winter Promotion	March 1, 2019
	Open and fund a new account with at least A) $25,000; B) $100,000; C) $250,000; D) $500,000 or E) $1M+ AND place at least three commission-generating trades and you may be eligible to receive a cash back promotion amount of at least A) $188; B) $388; C) $688; D) $988 or E) $1288. Be sure to read offer terms & conditions for full details.	A) $25,000 B) $100,000 C) $250,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M+	A) $188 B) $388 C) $688 D) $988 E) $1288	Cash back will be deposited by November 29, 2019	HSBC InvestDirect 2019 Winter Offer	April 30, 2019
	Open and fund a new qualifying account with CIBC Investor’s Edge with a deposit of at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000 or C) $100,00+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back bonus of A) $100; B) $200 or C) $400. This offer is open to both new and existing clients. Use offer code SPARX18 when opening the account to obtain this offer. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for complete details.	A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000	A) $100 B) $200 C) $400	Cash back will be deposited on the week of March 24, 2019 for transfers received by December 31, 2018; transfers received after December 31, 2018 but before May 1, 2019 will receive cash back on the week of July 1, 2019.	CIBC Investor’s Edge Cash Back Promo	March 24, 2019
	Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details.	$25,000	commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data.	1 month	Active Trader Program	December 31, 2019
	Open a new qualifying account or fund an existing qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $250,000; C) $500,000 or D) $1M+ and you may be eligible to a cash back reward of up to A) $400; B) $900; C) $1200 or D) $1600. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	A) $50,000 B) $250,000 C) $500,000 D) $1M+	A) $400 B) $900 C) $1200 D) $1600	Cash back will be deposited the week of September 16, 2019.	BMO InvestorLine Winter 2018 Campaign	February 28, 2019
	Open a new qualifying account or fund an existing qualifying account at Qtrade Investor with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $100,000; C) $250,000 D) $500,000 or E) 1M+ and you may be eligible to a cash back reward of up to A) $50; B) $100; C) $250 or D) $750 or E) $1500. Use promo code CASH2019 when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	A) $50,000 B) $100,000 C) $250,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M+	A) $50 B) $100 C) $250 D) $750 E) $1500	Cash back will be deposited the week of September 25, 2019.	Qtrade Investor Cashback Promo	March 15, 2019
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 19, 2019 09:30 PT

Referral Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Incentive Structure	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit	Details Link	Deadline
	Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements.	A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+	$25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back	Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days)	Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759	none
	If you (an existing Qtrade Investor client) refer a new client to Qtrade Investor and they open an account with at least $1,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $25 cash. See terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	$25 cash back (for both referrer and referee)	Cash deposited at the end of the month in which referee’s account funded	Refer A Friend to Qtrade Investor	none
	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
	If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $5,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details.	$5,000	You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50	Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period (subject to conditions).	BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend	January 2, 2020
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2019 23:30 PT

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	no minimum required	Transfer Fee Promo	March 31, 2019
	Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered.	$152.55	$15,000	Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information.	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details.	$150	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees.	$135	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate Details	none
	Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees.	$135	$20,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details.	$150	$25,000	Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463).	none
	Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made.	$135	$25,000	Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343).	none
	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 $50,000 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	$50,000	Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo	none
	Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account, by transferring in at least $200,000+ in net new assets and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Use promo code SPARXCASH when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer.	$200	$200,000	BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign	September 3, 2018
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 19, 2019 09:30 PT

Other Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount Required	Details Link	Deadline
	Desjardins Online Brokerage, in conjunction with MoneyTalks, is offering 3 months of the “Inside Edge” investor information service to Desjardins Online Brokerage clients. Use promo code DESJ2016 during checkout to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for more information.	n/a	MoneyTalks Inside Edge Discount	none
	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
	Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $5,000 at RBC Direct Investing and you may be eligible to receive up to 20 commission-free trades, which are good for up to one year. Use promo code MDFT8 to qualify. This promotion is being marketed towards healthcare workers, so be sure to review terms and conditions or speak to an RBC Direct Investing representative for full details.	$5,000	RBC Direct Investing 20 Free Trade Offer	Feb. 28, 2019
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2019 23:30PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor	Offer Type	Offer Description	Min. Deposit	Reward / Promotion	Promo Code	Expiry Date	Link
	Discounted Management	Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link.	$1,000	1st month no management fees	KDKFNBBC	None	Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
	Cash Back	Open and fund a new or existing SmartFolio account with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $1000. Use promo code PROMO1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion.	$1,000	0.5% cash back to a maximum of $1000.	PROMO1000	January 2, 2020	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
	Discounted Management	Open a new account with RBC InvestEase and the standard management fee will be waived until October 31, 2019. See offer terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	No management fees until October 31, 2019	None	March 31, 2019	RBC InvestEase Pricing Details
	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, 2019 23:30 PT

Posted on January 21, 2019 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 21, 2019

If there’s one way to beat the cold, it’s to keep moving. For Canada’s online brokerages, the sprint to the RSP contribution deadline is on and as a result they’re pulling out all the stops to keep the activity level high with new pricing, advertising and promotional offers.

In this edition of the roundup, we profile yet another cash back promotion that launched last week, this time from an online brokerage that has been popular on the awards podium. From there we’ll look at some smaller developments that crossed our radar, including new ads promoting a revised commission plan as well as a platform outage that serves as a good reminder of the hazards of trading online. As always, we’ll take a look at what online investors were talking about online on social media and in the forums.

New Cash Back Promotion from Qtrade Investor

Groundhog Day isn’t until February 2^nd but anyone reading the Weekly Roundup will have noted that yet again, there is another new cash back promotion launched by a Canadian online brokerage. This time around, it’s Qtrade Investor, whose latest cash back offer brings the tally of this category of promotions DIY investors can choose from to 6.

Qtrade’s is typically very calculated as to when it releases promotional offers, so it is particularly interesting to note how they’ve priced their offering, considering that they are one of the last online brokerages to do so ahead of the RSP contribution deadline next month.

One of the first things that leaps out about their cash back bonuses is that it lags competitor firms in all deposit categories – especially so for deposits under $250,000. That said, Qtrade Investor has a unique advantage in the online brokerage space, namely that they have a reputation for strong finishes in all of the most influential Canadian online brokerage rankings. And, with the Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings just around the corner, their timing couldn’t be better.

For that reason, Qtrade Investor has an advantage when it comes to reputation that can offset having to provide the “best” price for a cash back value – or at least that’s what they’re banking on.

For DIY investors with $50,000 to deposit, for example, Qtrade Investor will have to demonstrate significant value when compared to BMO InvestorLine, for example, whose offer is $400 – or 8x more – than Qtrade Investor’s offer of $50.

Another interesting observation about Qtrade’s promotional offer is that the deposit tiers are segmented the same way as other competitor firms, all the way up to the 1M+ category. So, although Qtrade’s offer lagged other cash back offers up to the $500,000 deposit level, they aggressively raised their offering at the $500,000 and $1M+ tiers. In fact, at the $1M+ deposit level, they are tied with Scotia iTRADE for the second highest cash back offer and have outbid HSBC InvestDirect – a strategic competitor in Western Canada – by a substantial margin at this deposit tier.

In what is the tactical equivalent of a ‘limit order’, it appears that Qtrade Investor has clearly marked out where they see the greatest value in competing aggressively with cash back offers and where they are content to let investors enjoy a modest bonus.

For DIY investors, the fact that one of the most popular and highly ranked online brokerages also now comes with a cash back promotion is a bonus. With the Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings just around the corner and a recent victory with the Surviscor rankings, online investors looking for a well-ranked online broker now have a little extra incentive to consider the brand.

With just over a month to go until the RSP contribution deadline and almost all of Canada’s major online brokerages now offering up incentives, it’s a sprint to the finish line for DIY investors. Happy hunting!

Virtual Brokers Rolls out New Ads

With the roll out of their new commission pricing and buzz starting to build around it, Virtual Brokers launched a new commercial featuring their latest offer.

Targeting the mobile & texting crowd (e.g. millennials), this new ad stays true to Virtual Broker’s historical use of animated characters to describe their service offerings. While it won’t likely generate the same kind of buzz that either the Wealthsimple, Questrade or Scotia iTRADE ads have, it will nonetheless be interesting so see how this new ad starts to spark interest and curiousity among DIY investors who can’t help but find the prospect of $1.99 per trade (well technically per ticket) tempting. See the ad below.

Scotia iTRADE Platform Spins Out

It seems like the beginning of a new year is a tough time for Canadian online brokerages. This year, it was Scotia iTRADE who suffered a trading platform outage during market hours. While crypto and weed stock mania can’t really be singled out as the issue, it is nonetheless an important reminder to DIY investors that online brokerages big and small can suffer from a wide range of connectivity issues. And, even though trading desks and call centres may exist, they’re not necessarily a great alternative if they get overloaded by large volumes of calls and emails.

iTRADE Platform Outage – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Good Catch

For DIY investors interested in capitalizing on commission-free trading, there is an interesting way to access popular passive investing ETFs XBAL and XGRO from Qtrade Investor and Scotia iTRADE. This forum post highlights to fellow forum readers the option to take advantage of these popular ETFs.

Open & Shut case

For active traders, looking for opportunities to trade the markets sometimes stretches to pre or post market action. Unfortunately for one DIY investor posting in this forum on reddit, they learned that trading Canadian markets is limited compared to the US.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on this edition of the roundup. US markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr Day. On our radar heading into the new week will be earnings for US online brokerages. After a healthy earnings surprise for Charles Schwab, eyes will be on Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade to see how recent volatility will translate into earnings as well as on what trends they’re seeing for DIY investing. Also, with the US Government shutdown still in the mix, the World Economic Forum (as well as a bunch of cannabis companies heading to Davos too) and lots of other earnings means traders will be looking for the markets win streak to continue.

Posted on January 14, 2019 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 14, 2019

As any avid sports fan or seasoned trader knows, sometimes there are lucky bounces, sometimes not. Fortunately, for many DIY investors, it was the market bears who got the bad bounce off the uprights. For many online brokerages, it’s also good news as long as the bounce sticks.

In this edition of the roundup we’ve got a stacked line up of developments for DIY investors to stay on top of. First, another week in 2019 and another new cash back offer to announce – this one also from a bank-owned online brokerage. Next, we look at a slew of stories that crossed our radar last week, including the big news of the ETF alliance between RBC & iShares, leadership changes at Interactive Brokers, how Twitter is being used by DIY investors to connect with Canada’s online brokerages as well as couple of great stories of online brokerages supporting good causes. As is customary, we’ve also got chatter from the DIY investor forums to share and what folks were saying on Twitter about (or to) Canadian discount brokerages.

HSBC InvestDirect Launches New Cash Back Offer

After a long break from the deals & promotions section, HSBC InvestDirect is stepping back in with a new cash back offer for DIY investors and also offering up some serious competition for its fellow bank-owned online brokers. The new tiered promotion, which is open to both new and existing clients, offers between $188 and $1288 in cash back bonuses for deposits ranging from $25,000 to $1M+.

There are two important observations about this new offer from HSBC InvestDirect that are worth noting.

The first is that for the deposit range between $25,000 to $50,000, this happens to be the best cash back promotion by a substantial margin (88%). On the heels of the aggressive cash back reward on their banking side, this new offer by HSBC InvestDirect is one that might cause DIY Investors to at least kick the tires on this discount brokerage. And, even though this offer is not the best for investors with deposits between $100,000 and $250,000, it does come close to other bank-owned brokerage offers.

Another important observation for this offer is the duration of it.

This cash back promotion is set to expire at the end of April – which is much later than offers from BMO InvestorLine (expires Feb. 28^th), CIBC Investor’s Edge (Mar. 24^th) or Scotia iTRADE (Mar. 31). This sets up an interesting scenario heading into the spring where, in addition to folks thinking about their RSP contributions, there’s also going to be consideration given to what to do with any income tax refunds as well. As it stands, that would leave HSBC InvestDirect with very little competition in the cash back promo segment.

Of course, there are also important details for DIY investors to consider about this offer. Unlike other cash back offers currently in the market, in order to qualify for this offer, DIY investors have to execute a minimum of three trades before the end of April, which at HSBC InvestDirect’s standard commission rate (for North American equities) of $6.88 works out to be about $20.64 that DIY investors have to pay.

Even so, at certain tiers, it still works out to being a relatively small price to pay to qualify for a cash back reward and, bonus win for HSBC InvestDirect, DIY investors will know how low the trade commissions are per trade and might just be impressed enough to stick around.

As we had mentioned in last week’s roundup, the competition for DIY investors’ assets is heating up.

With another bank-owned brokerage jumping into the mix, it is going to be hard for those not in the deals pool to stay on the sidelines for much longer. The same could also be true for DIY investors considering opening an online trading account.

This is probably the ideal time of year to consider opening an online account if getting an extra incentive is at all important – especially for cash back promotions.

Based on this latest move by HSBC InvestDirect, we suspect it won’t be the last announcement of a new promotion for a Canadian discount brokerage before the RSP contribution deadline of March 1^st, 2019. Stay tuned!

Lightning Roundup

Blackrock Canada’s iShares Teams Up with RBC

This past week there was a colossal shift in the wealth management space that surely sparked intense conversation (perhaps some panic) among some of the major ETF providers in Canada.

RBC Global Asset Management and Blackrock Asset management announced earlier this week that they would be forming a strategic “alliance” and combine forces to create RBC iShares. The new ETF powerhouse will have about $60 billion in assets under management and roughly 150 ETFs. Most notably, however, it gives RBC a leg up on BMO’s ETF selection and position in the Canadian ETF marketplace.

While things should largely stay the same for DIY investors, there will be a few changes made to the rosters of funds being offered which appear to be scheduled to take place around early April 2019.

Importantly, there will be no change to the names or ticker symbols of RBC ETFs or iShares ETFs as a result of the alliance, which means trading them should be seamless.

For more information on the new RBC iShares offering, the website: https://www.rbcishares.com/ offers up more details.

Interactive Brokers’ Founder Hands Over the Reins

Some big news for Interactive Brokers this past week as founder, chairman and CEO of the online brokerage announced that he is “retiring” as CEO and appointing long time president of the company, Mr. Milan Galik, as his replacement. According to the press release, Galik has been with Interactive Brokers for 28 years and has served as its president since 2014.

DIY Investing on Twitter

This past week we noted an interesting development on social media – specifically about what DIY investors are talking about when it comes to Twitter.

Even though it was a small ‘blip’ on the radar it was nonetheless important to flag that DIY investors – many of whom are on Twitter and actively trading or watching developments in the markets via their Twitter accounts, have called out bank-owned online brokerages for a lack of presence on the social media channel.

I checked to see which banks had a Twitter feed for their discount brokerage operations. BMO InvestorLine & CIBC Investor’s Edge do not. @TD_DirectInvest & @Scotia_iTRADE do. RBC Direct Investing also not on Twitter, so only 2 of the Big 5 are. https://t.co/NgZ8PMPE06

— Ellen Roseman (@ellenroseman) January 8, 2019

To clarify, this tweet indicated one user’s frustration with being able to access RBC Direct Investing via Twitter when – according to this user – other bank-owned online brokerages offer a direct route to their self-directed investing units on this channel. For RBC, the Twitter handle @AskRBC is the single point of contact for all of the banks brands – so often answers about the specific arms are routed to those divisions.

What stood out about this encounter, however, was that an influential voice in personal finance and consumer advocacy, Ellen Roseman (at the Toronto Star), also weighed in on the presence of online brokerage-specific Twitter accounts.

Further, someone at the senior level of RBC wealth management also responded directly on Twitter to this DIY investor. And, while not unprecedented, it is rare to see executives at these institutions weigh in on individual issues. Of course, we’ve noted that an online brokerage doesn’t need its own Twitter handle for executives to get involved.

The president of BMO InvestorLine, for example, does have a Twitter handle and has personally responded to individuals even though BMO (like RBC) has a central Twitter handle. Conversely, we haven’t really seen Scotia iTRADE’s senior executives take to the Scotia iTRADE Twitter handle to respond directly to a user in the same fashion – that is typically handled by their social media team.

The conversation about the conversation on Twitter among DIY investors and online brokerages is an interesting one.

On the one hand there is typically a lot of sensitive information that neither party would want to disclose to the general public. On the other, part of the strength of a platform like Twitter is that it provides a very public and documented opportunity to call attention to the strengths and shortcomings of a particular brand – in this case an online brokerage – to a wider audience.

Moreover, it appears that at least at some bank-owned brokerages, comfort with engaging directly on Twitter is growing (albeit slowly). Most importantly, however, it shows that it is important for online brokerages (not just the parent brands) need to consider making themselves accessible to DIY investors on the online channels that they’re clearly spending time on.

Capitalize for Kids Student Competition Deadline Approaching

Also spotted on Twitter this past week was a notice from Capitalize for Kids, the non-profit organization dedicated to helping raise funds for research in children’s mental health.

Another trading competition for students across Canada is being launched with the top prize of $10,000 going to the winner of the contest. The lead sponsor of the competition is CIBC Investor’s Edge. Visit the Capitalize For Kids website here for more information & be sure to share.

Questrade Delivers on Massive Donation to Food Banks Canada

Another very inspiring bit of news to kick off the new year (also spotted on Twitter) was the tweet from Food Banks Canada announcing the support given by Questrade to donate the equivalent of 250,000 meals to the organization.

In many respects it is a win-win-win with. The benefit for Questrade is that they’re demonstrating their commitment to being a socially responsible organization. For a certain demographic (i.e. millennials) what a brand stands for (and what they actually impact) is an important component in deciding whether to work for or purchase from that brand.

Questrade’s recent tv/video commercials have also positioned them as a challenger to traditional fee-based advice, so this initiative amplifies some of the messages about their brand they’re trying to create. And, as a bonus, organizations such as the Food Bank of Canada stand to benefit and in turn, provide assistance those in need.

https://twitter.com/foodbankscanada/status/1083406906243325954

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Don’t Be Fooled by Rocks We Got

The wealth management waters are getting choppy. This forum user notes RBC’s move to partner with Blackrock and takes to the forums to see what this means for investors and how it changes the landscape for other wealth management firms.

Lip Service

Despite digitization taking hold of the world, there are clearly pockets of the wealth management space still working on analog. This forum user was shopping for portfolio managers and tried to find tips on where and how to find the right fit.

Into the Close

If the pace of 2019 already being set is any indicator, this is going to be a very eventful year. Interest rates may not have made the same new year’s resolutions as a lot of others, and instead look to be taking a breather – which will be good news for equity investors – for now. Perhaps the best news is that we now know the official date that Winter is Coming – which will be later this spring. Go figure. Either way, investors will want to stay frosty for the volatility ahead.

Posted on January 7, 2019 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 7, 2019

Welcome to 2019 and Happy New Year! The arrival of a new year brings with it the promise and opportunity for change and so, we’re happily announcing a change of our own to the Weekly Roundup, now moving to a new day and time, launching on Monday mornings. Of course, we’re not the only ones starting off the new year with some big changes – as Canadian online brokerages and financial services providers ring in 2019 with some interesting moves of their own.

In this edition of the roundup, we take a look at the latest new discount brokerage promo to cross our radar and what it means for DIY investors looking for a new online brokerage account. Next, we dive into another possible game changer from a wealth management firm that is doing its best to reshape the conversation about investing in 2019. Of course, some great traditions in the weekly roundup persist into the new year, including our lineup of DIY investor tweets as well as what investors were talking about in the forums.

BMO InvestorLine Launches New Promo Offer

There’s nothing quite like starting off the New Year with a win. And for DIY investors, despite the market volatility, the good news is that BMO InvestorLine has launched a new cash back promotion.

Launched on January 3^rd (and through February 28^th) the new cash back promo offers between $400 and $1600 cash back for deposits ranging from $50,000 to $1M+. The offer is open to new and existing clients so long as the qualifying deposit amounts are “net new assets” to BMO.

There are several interesting observations about this latest promotion from BMO InvestorLine that are worth noting for anyone watching the Canadian online brokerage deals activity.

First, this cash back offer, in absolute terms, the highest cash back offering currently available. With $1600 now being offered for deposits of $1M+, BMO’s offer outbids Scotia iTRADE’s offer of $1500 for the same deposit tier. Interestingly, when compared to last year, the cash back amount for this deposit level is 33% higher. Last year around this time, the highest cash back amount being offered for that tier of deposit was $1200 from Scotia iTRADE.

It got us curious, however, to see how other deposit tiers for cash back offers stacked up against last year’s analysis so naturally we compared them to see how things have changed – and that was super interesting.

Upon closer inspection, another important point about that jumps out about the latest cash back offer is that it reflects a change compared to last year in terms of who else is offering up these kinds of promos. Last year there were five online brokerages: BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge, Questrade, Scotia iTRADE and TD Direct Investing. This year, however, TD Direct Investing elected to go with a commission-free trading offer instead of a cash back so in terms of cash back offers, it’s BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge, Questrade and Scotia iTRADE. Questrade is being included in this set even though their offer is part of a referral campaign (see below for further explanation).

Another interesting observation of last year’s cash back offers compared to this year’s, is that there aren’t as many areas in which there are at least two brokerages tied for the best cash back offer. In fact, this year only at the $25,000 deposit level is there a tie between CIBC Investor’s Edge and Scotia iTRADE (both of whom are offering $100 cash back).

When it comes to online trading account deals at the outset of 2019, it appears BMO InvestorLine has come out swinging and has the best cash back offer at the $50,000 deposit level and from $250,000 and up.

What is particularly interesting about the cash back promo from BMO InvestorLine is that the amount being offered at $50,000 deposit level is double what the best offer was last year ($200 from CIBC Investor’s Edge). This year also, BMO InvestorLine’s cash back offer at deposits of $50,000 to $100,000 are double that of their bank-owned brokerage peers CIBC Investor’s Edge and Scotia iTRADE and more than four times that of Questrade’s offer of $100.

Another substantial increase (80%) compared to last year was noted at the $250,000 deposit tier. BMO InvestorLine’s offer of $900 cash back is much higher than last year’s offer of $500 cash back from TD Direct Investing. This year, however, Scotia iTRADE isn’t that far behind at this price tier with an offer of $800 on the table – a signal that competition for this level of assets has jumped dramatically.

It wasn’t all good news for DIY Investors hunting for a cash back offer this year. In the deposit tiers between $10,000 and $25,000 there was a decrease of 50% compared to 2018. Last year, TD Direct Investing’s offer of $100 gave it the best cash back offer in these deposit tiers however this year, Questrade is the lone standout in this segment via their referral offer of $50. It should be noted that BMO InvestorLine, Qtrade Investor and Scotia iTRADE also have similar cash back referral offers in place but theirs are not as accessible as are Questrade’s and for that reason they are not included in the table below.

Overall, the cash back promotions reveal that competition for investors with certain levels of assets is increasing in 2019. For DIY investors with at least $50,000 in assets, there’s clearly a battle going on between a couple of bank-owned online brokerages to win clients in this segment.

Interestingly, for cash back promotions, the segment of investors with less than $25,000 have been largely overlooked. This is a curious circumstance as it creates a perfect storm for any online brokerage that is targeting younger/millennial investors to get significant attention with that segment (see who might be interested in our next story below).

Given how competitive the online brokerage space is, there’s a strong likelihood that many online brokerages will not want to leave the sub $25,000 client on the sidelines or subject to just commission-free trade offers. And, we’re wagering that it won’t be left to the sidelines for very long as RSP season is now upon us. Stay tuned.

Wealthsimple Makes Online Investing Human

As the world of online investing gets more digital, there’s an interesting paradox playing out by those who are providing those service, namely they’re trying to shift the focus of the experience to being more human.

Ironically, last week the poster child for robo-advice, Wealthsimple, revealed that they are launching a mutual fund investment firm, with actual humans providing advice and managing clients. Even so, this story isn’t about their move into the human world of advising, but rather with Wealthsimple’s latest blog post which once again casts a light on how they’re changing the wealth management conversation in Canada.

This blog post, in which they’ve revealed their latest ad campaign, showcases nothing about finance yet capture exactly what “personal finance” is intended to support: living life.

Their blog post goes into more detail as to their intention behind this series of commercials, including who they chose to collaborate with when putting these spots together. It’s worthy of a read to see just how different it looks and feels when compared to almost anything else that’s being produced at Canada’s online brokerages.

The choice to talk about life instead of numbers or features is a gamble in such a fee-driven space, but it is precisely that which sets them apart their peers.

Even though the management of money ought to be rational and free from emotion, in the real world, money is an emotional subject. In these commercials, do you learn about Wealthsimple’s fees? No. Do you learn about robo-advisors? No. Investing? Zilch. Client experience? Nada. In fact, nobody is heard saying anything – the scenes speak for themselves and more importantly, and powerfully, these scenes speak to just about everyone.

These are commercials about hope and the future – which taps into what people invest for. Just like the name of Ellen DeGeneres’ new comedy special on Netflix, these commercials from Wealthsimple are relatable.

Another financial services brand, Questrade, has also been ramping up its use of “real life” situations to convey the broader point of the human side of their digital wealth solutions. Although not as artistic, they are impactful. Their series of “difficult conversations” about money have provoked many reactions on social media – Twitter in particular – a sign that they’ve successfully struck a chord with investors.

Why this is important is because when it comes to online investing and trading, yes commissions and pricing matters, but how consumers feel about what a brand stands for also matters. For online brokerages in Canada this is a glaring gap that Wealthsimple is clearly hitting into. And, even though Wealthsimple isn’t a discount brokerage just yet, their zero-commission Wealthsimple Trade product will, for all intents and purposes, compete with Canada’s online brokerages.

That also raises another important point: semantics. The notion of who is managing money is getting blurrier now that robo-advisors or digital advice is a thing. For DIY investors, it started with “discount brokers” however a “discount brokerage” is inherently associated with price. The base case: it’s cheaper to manage your own investments than to have someone do it for you.

The language shift over the past five years has been subtle, however, as “discount brokerage” has given way to “online brokerage” and recently “direct investing” or “self-directed investing.” Regardless of which label is used, in many respects the experience at the “discount brokerages” still feels transactional and commoditized whereas the new breed of wealth management service providers appear to be appealing to more human-centered themes.

There are lots of online brokerages in Canada competing on commission price, but very few online brokerages competing on values.

Yes, larger bank-owned brands do have very deep corporate social responsibility initiatives, but they also have all of the friction that being a large financial organization brings with it in terms of communicating authentic values. Challenger brands, like Wealthsimple or Robinhood and even Questrade in their earlier years, get attention precisely because they don’t represent the status quo.

What will be interesting to watch for 2019 is whether Canada’s online brokerages will be able bring a more human side to their business and whether they will be able to tap into the hearts (and wallets) of DIY investors.

Ultimately, choosing a discount brokerage (and any financial services provider really) shouldn’t be emotionally driven. That said, emotion is always going to be part of the financial services equation. For DIY investors, however, it is wise to use that emotion to help pose one fundamental question: “How well will my needs be looked after?”

Wealthsimple’s latest campaign is clearly demonstrating to consumers that “they get it” when it comes to the journey. To Wealthsimple’s credit, this new campaign is likely going to break through the noise of a lot of other advertisements and get people’s attention and curiousity. The next challenge will be following through on the promise to help investors through their ‘tomorrows’ which, given the state of today’s markets, will be a formidable challenge.

As for other Canadian online brokerages, they have been dealt one more hurdle to figure out for 2019, which is how to go beyond “price” and stand out by standing up for something. This year, if there’s one thing that shouldn’t be discounted, it’s that there are people on the other side of the screens.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Margin Caller ID

As consumer experiences in other parts of the digital world shape expectations for DIY investors, one forum user shares how one online brokerage’s notification of a “margin call” type event could end up leading to them switching. Find out more in this post from RedFlagDeals.com

Dipping into a New Pool

One DIY investor took to the forums to test the waters on switching brokerages for a no fee service from Questrade. See what these forum users had to say in this post from Canadian Money Forum.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on what was an eventful first week of 2019. Falling apples have typically been symbolic of gravity, and poetically describe markets out of the gate in the new year. Of course it might be precisely because things are more unpredictable than normal that the theme of 2019 will be volatility and everyone will trying to figure how best to capitalize on it. One thing you can bet on, it won’t be boring.

Posted on January 1, 2019 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – January 2019

*Updated Jan. 13* Welcome to 2019! The first day of the new year often brings with it a sense of optimism for the upcoming year and for Canadian DIY investors looking for an online investing or trading account, there’s a lot to look forward to, especially in the deals department. With offers from many of Canada’s largest and most popular online brokerages now available, it’s an ideal time to take advantage of a highly competitive marketplace.

The big story out of the gate in 2019 is that Canadian discount brokerages have extended their offers out either to the end of 2019 or until further notice, which is a bullish signal for DIY investors. On the one hand, while the lead up to the RSP contribution deadline will be the busiest time of the year for promotions, for some investors looking to take their time when jumping into the online investing space (especially with market volatility picking up the way it has recently), this reduced pressure of the ‘limited time offer’ means there will be promotions beyond March to be considered. Secondly, this is a bullish signal because it means those brokerages (Questrade and Desjardins Online Brokerage in this case) are committed to staying in the promotions space. Other online brokerages are also then more likely to follow suit.

The bottom line for DIY investors heading into 2019 is that this RSP season is stacked with offers. From commission-free trades to cash back promotions, investors can get a little something extra when opening an account or transferring in more assets. Also, we anticipate at least one or more offers still to come, so stay tuned as 2019’s discount brokerage deal section may continue to get even hotter.

Expired Deals

*Updated Jan. 4: BMO InvestorLine’s combined commission-free trade and cash back promotion from their Fall campaign has officially concluded. Good news for deal seekers, however, there’s a new cash back promotion that has replaced it. See below for more information.*

There are no expired deals to report at the start of the month.

Extended Deals

There were several important deals that were set to expire at the end of 2018 that have now been extended. Questrade has extended two of its current offers out until the end of 2019. The first is their ‘5 free trades’ promotion which offers five commission-free trades (that can be used with 60 days). The second Questrade promotion to receive an extension is the 30 days of commission-free trading plus one month free of their advanced US data package.

Desjardins Online Brokerage also updated their long running 1% commission-credit promotion. The terms and conditions for this offer were updated and removed the deadline date, previously set to end on December 31^st 2018. The transfer fee coverage offer also associated with this promotion has been extended as well, so there is no longer a deadline date listed to take advantage of this offer.

New Deals

*Updated Jan. 22: Qtrade Investor has launched a new cash back offer. From now until March 15, 2019, Qtrade Investor is offering between $50 and $1500 cash back as part of a new tiered promotion with minimum deposit tier to qualify starting at $50,000. See the table below for more details.*

*Updated Jan. 13: HSBC InvestDirect has jumped into the promotional offers pool with a new cash back offer for DIY investors. This new tiered promo offers up cash back bonuses ranging between $188 and $1288 for deposits ranging between $25,000 and $1M+. The offer requires three commission-generating trades be placed in order to qualify for the cash back bonus. See table below for more details.*

*Updated Jan. 4: BMO InvestorLine has launched a new cash back offer to replace their previous combined cash back & commission-free trade deal. From now through the end of February, BMO InvestorLine is offering between $400 and $1600 cash back as part of a new tiered promotion with minimum deposit tier to qualify starting at $50,000. See the table below for more details.*

While there were technically no new deals to start off 2019, the arrival of TD Direct Investing’s commission rebate offer in December certainly qualifies as a new offer worth mentioning at the start of the new year. As Canada’s largest online brokerage and a popular choice with DIY investors, it is noteworthy that TD Direct Investing’s promotion is now live and available to all.

Other bank-owned online brokerages also have offers for DIY investors however one in particular to watch in early January is BMO InvestorLine. Their current offer is set to expire on January 2^nd which means that very early into the new year, there is likely to be another possible cash back or commission-free trade deal coming to market.

Discount Brokerage Deals

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

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer	Details Link	Deadline
	A Sparx Trading exclusive offer! Use the promo code “Sparx Trading” when signing up for a new account with Jitneytrade and receive access to their preferred pricing package.	n/a	Discounted Commission Rates	none	For more details click here	none
	Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive $88 in commission credits (up to 17 commission-free trades). Use promo code SPARX88 when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully.	$1,000	$88 commission credit	60 days	Access this offer by clicking here: $88 commission-credit offer . For full terms and conditions, click here.	none
	Open and fund a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) with at least $1,000 and you may be eligible to receive 5 commission-free trades. Use promo code 5FREETRADES when signing up. Be sure to read terms and conditions carefully.	$1,000	5 commission-free trades	60 days	5 commission-free trade offer	December 31, 2019
	Open and fund a new account with at least $5,000 at National Bank Direct Brokerage and you may be eligible to receive up to 50 commission free equity trades, which are good for up to one year. Use promo code: FREE50 when applying. Be sure to read offer terms and conditions for full details.	$5,000	50 commission-free trades	12 months	National Bank Direct Brokerage 50 Free Trade Offer	April 30, 2019
	Open a new account or fund an existing account with A) $10,000; B) $25,000; C) $50,000; D) $100,000 E) $250,000; F) $500,000 or G) $1M+ and you may be eligible to receive either A)20; B) 50; C) 100; D) 200; or E), F), G) 300 commission free trades; or B) $100; C) $200; D) $500; E) $800; F) $1100 or G) $1500. Use promo code 19CA for the cash back or 19FT for the free trades offers. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for full details.	A) $10,000 B) $25,000 C) $50,000 D) $100,000 E) $250,000 F) $500,000 G) $1M+	For cash back: A) $0 B) $100 C) $200 D) $500 E) $800 F) $1100 G) $1500 For commission-free trades: A) 20 B) 50 C) 100 D) 200 E) 300 F) 300 G) 300	For cash back: Cash will be deposited by July, 2019. For commission free trades: 120 days to use trades from date of account funding.	iTRADE commission-free trade + cash back offer	March 31, 2019
	Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering new clients 1% of assets transferred into the new account in the form of commission credits (to a maximum value of $1,000). Minimum qualifying deposit is $10,000. To qualify, individuals will have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer or email: [email protected]. See details link for more info.	$10,000	1% of assets transferred in the form of commission-credits (max credits: $1,000)	6 months	Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo	none
	Open a new qualifying TD Direct Investing account by March 1, 2019 with a minimum deposit of A) $15,000; B) $25,000; C) $50,000 or D) $100,000+ and you may be eligible to receive commission rebates for A) 25; B) 50; C) 100 or D) 200 trades. To qualify online, individuals must register here and open the account by March 1, 2019. See terms and conditions for full details.	A) $15,000 B) $25,000 C) $50,000 D) $100,000+	A) 25 B) 50 C) 100 D) 200	Trades made prior to July 1, 2019 will be eligible for rebate.	TD Direct Investing Winter Promotion	March 1, 2019
	Open and fund a new account with at least A) $25,000; B) $100,000; C) $250,000; D) $500,000 or E) $1M+ AND place at least three commission-generating trades and you may be eligible to receive a cash back promotion amount of at least A) $188; B) $388; C) $688; D) $988 or E) $1288. Be sure to read offer terms & conditions for full details.	A) $25,000 B) $100,000 C) $250,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M+	A) $188 B) $388 C) $688 D) $988 E) $1288	Cash back will be deposited by November 29, 2019	HSBC InvestDirect 2019 Winter Offer	April 30, 2019
	Open and fund a new qualifying account with CIBC Investor’s Edge with a deposit of at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000 or C) $100,00+ and you may be eligible to receive a cash back bonus of A) $100; B) $200 or C) $400. This offer is open to both new and existing clients. Use offer code SPARX18 when opening the account to obtain this offer. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for complete details.	A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000	A) $100 B) $200 C) $400	Cash back will be deposited on the week of March 24, 2019 for transfers received by December 31, 2018; transfers received after December 31, 2018 but before May 1, 2019 will receive cash back on the week of July 1, 2019.	CIBC Investor’s Edge Cash Back Promo	March 24, 2019
	Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details.	$25,000	commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data.	1 month	Active Trader Program	December 31, 2019
	Open a new qualifying account or fund an existing qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $250,000; C) $500,000 or D) $1M+ and you may be eligible to a cash back reward of up to A) $400; B) $900; C) $1200 or D) $1600. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	A) $50,000 B) $250,000 C) $500,000 D) $1M+	A) $400 B) $900 C) $1200 D) $1600	Cash back will be deposited the week of September 16, 2019.	BMO InvestorLine Winter 2018 Campaign	February 28, 2019
	Open a new qualifying account or fund an existing qualifying account at Qtrade Investor with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $100,000; C) $250,000 D) $500,000 or E) 1M+ and you may be eligible to a cash back reward of up to A) $50; B) $100; C) $250 or D) $750 or E) $1500. Use promo code CASH2019 when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	A) $50,000 B) $100,000 C) $250,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M+	A) $50 B) $100 C) $250 D) $750 E) $1500	Cash back will be deposited the week of September 25, 2019.	Qtrade Investor Cashback Promo	March 15, 2019
Expired Offers
	Open a new account or fund an existing account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $200,000; C) $400,000 or D) $600,000+ and you may be eligible to receive 30 commission-free equity trades AND a cash back reward of up to A) $100; B) $300; C) $600 or D) $1000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions.	A) $50,000 B) $200,000 C) $400,000 D) $600,000+	30 commission-free equity trades plus: A) $100 B) $300 C) $600 D) $1000	commission-free equity trades can be used in February & March of 2019. Cash back will be deposited the week of July 15, 2019.	BMO InvestorLine Fall 2018 Campaign	January 2, 2019
Last Updated: Jan. 22, 2019 21:30 PT

Referral Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount	Incentive Structure	Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit	Details Link	Deadline
	Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements.	A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+	$25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back	Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days)	Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759	none
	If you (an existing Qtrade Investor client) refer a new client to Qtrade Investor and they open an account with at least $1,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $25 cash. See terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	$25 cash back (for both referrer and referee)	Cash deposited at the end of the month in which referee’s account funded	Refer A Friend to Qtrade Investor	none
	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
	If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $5,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details.	$5,000	You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50	Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period (subject to conditions).	BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend	January 2, 2020
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Jan. 1, 2019 17:00 PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount	Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility	Details Link	Deadline
	Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered.	$152.55	$15,000	Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information.	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details.	$150	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees.	$135	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate Details	none
	Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees.	$135	$20,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150.	$150	$25,000	Transfer Fee Promo	none
	Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details.	$150	$25,000	Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463).	none
	Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made.	$135	$25,000	Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343).	none
	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 $50,000 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	$50,000	Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo	none
	Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account, by transferring in at least $200,000+ in net new assets and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Use promo code SPARXCASH when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer.	$200	$200,000	BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign	September 3, 2018
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Jan. 1, 2019 17:00 PT

Other Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount Required	Details Link	Deadline
	Desjardins Online Brokerage, in conjunction with MoneyTalks, is offering 3 months of the “Inside Edge” investor information service to Desjardins Online Brokerage clients. Use promo code DESJ2016 during checkout to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for more information.	n/a	MoneyTalks Inside Edge Discount	none
	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
	Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $5,000 at RBC Direct Investing and you may be eligible to receive up to 20 commission-free trades, which are good for up to one year. Use promo code MDFT8 to qualify. This promotion is being marketed towards healthcare workers, so be sure to review terms and conditions or speak to an RBC Direct Investing representative for full details.	$5,000	RBC Direct Investing 20 Free Trade Offer	Feb. 28, 2019
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Jan. 1, 2019 17:00PT

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 and fund a new or existing SmartFolio account with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $1000. Use promo code PROMO1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion.	$1,000	0.5% cash back to a maximum of $1000.	PROMO1000	January 2, 2019	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
	Discounted Management	Open a new account with RBC InvestEase and the standard management fee will be waived until October 31, 2019. See offer terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	No management fees until October 31, 2019	None	March 31, 2019	RBC InvestEase Pricing Details
	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. 1, 2019 17:00 PT

Posted on December 21, 2018 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 21, 2018

In addition to frenzied shopping, and trading platforms flashing more red than Rudolph’s nose, if there’s one thing to look forward to in the end of year hustle, it’s blockbuster releases. And, here at SparxTrading, we did not want to disappoint.

This final edition of the roundup for 2018 ends on a high note with a review of the launch of our special series: the Canadian online brokerage look back on 2018 and preview to 2018. We’ve been teasing this launch for a few weeks now and we’re very excited to have rolled out the blog version earlier this week. To give loyal readers of the Weekly Roundup a little thank you for reading, this roundup also has a first look at the full magazine version here before it goes live on our blog (yay presents!). Of course, that’s not the only gift in this roundup. In time for Christmas, there’s also a new online brokerage deal to announce from one of Canada’s largest online brokerages that will be sure to excite investors shopping around for a new trading account. Also, we’ve got a great stocking stuffer with the latest set of Canadian online brokerage rankings and ratings. Finally, it wouldn’t be a proper roundup without the discount brokerage tweets as well as chatter from investors in the forums.

Look Back & Look Ahead: 2018 Online Brokerage Review & Preview to 2019

After lots of anticipation, coffee, trimming, cutting and wrapping it’s finally here (and just in time for Christmas)! The much-awaited third edition of SparxTrading’s exclusive Canadian Online Brokerage Look Back / Look Ahead series for 2018/2019 is now live.

This year’s edition features nine of Canada’s online brokerages big and small, who’ve shared their milestones for 2018 as well as what’s around the corner for 2019. And wow, are there ever some interesting announcements.

To recap, the annual look back & look ahead series is an opportunity for Canada’s online brokerages to directly, and in their own words, share with DIY investors what it is they’ve been up to and where they see the priorities for the year ahead.

The format we’ve developed is a unique one in the Canadian online brokerage space. Unlike the structure of a review or rating, this compilation provides a good look at what online brokerages accomplished in the year as well as their vision for their priorities into the next year. Given the highly competitive nature of the industry, it is a challenge and somewhat rare to find online brokerages providing as much detail as we saw this year – so this is a definite score for readers. To be clear, there were still several intentionally vague answers about what 2019 holds for some brokerages, however, judging by both the activity in 2018 as well as from those brokerages who have telegraphed what they’re going to doing in 2019, the industry is definitely not standing still. In fact, quite the opposite.

Among the themes that we review in this year’s piece, is the influence of millennial investors on so many different elements of the online brokerage industry. This digitally savvy segment of the market has forced a reimagining of online investing. From mobile-first design, to expectations about performance, pricing and user experience to the access they demand to investment products, catering to the requirements of this increasingly important demographic is pushing technology teams at online brokerages into overdrive.

Another major theme that appeared to be a driver of online brokerage strategy is buffering against commission drops and the entrants of competitors, like Wealthsimple Trade.

While Wealthsimple Trade has rightfully grabbed the spotlight for their commission-free trade announcement in the summer of this year, a black swan competitor appears to be poised to challenge existing online brokerages. Jitneytrade, which was acquired by Canaccord Genuity earlier this year, announced that they are launching a mainstream-investor focused online brokerage trading experience.

After years of catering almost exclusively to professional or highly active investors and traders, Jitneytrade announced their intent to launch a more mainstream service. Without giving too much away, some of the features of their new brokerage offering will include free ETF trading, young investor pricing, digital account openings and mobile applications to name but a few. This feature set would put them on par (if not possibly ahead of) many other mainstream-investor-oriented online brokerage offerings from their competitors.

The result of consolidation and acquisitions in the Canadian discount brokerage space is that the bigger and better capitalized entities are able to make bolder bets on the Canadian DIY investor. These bets may be driven, in part, by a wager that even DIY investors will be open to having portions of their wealth in a ‘managed’ format.

From a big picture perspective, Canaccord Genuity, CI Financial and Desjardins via Aviso Wealth have collectively introduced serious competition for share of investor wallet to the standard bank-owned brokerages’ wealth management practices. In particular, they are equipped to provide a suite of services historically dominated by bank-owned brokerages. In the case of CI Financial and Aviso Wealth, there is the full spectrum of wealth management – including robo or digital advice – that investors can access.

While the launch of InvestEase by RBC, the coming digital wealth management offering by TD Direct Investing and digital advice programs at BMO, Questrade and HSBC, it is clear that those online brokerages that don’t currently have a digital advice product live, are likely in pursuit of getting this offering on a roadmap to launch soon.

And, speaking of what’s coming around the corner, there were several interesting clusters of developments that emerged as priorities for Canadian discount brokerages in 2019.

One of the clearest areas in which online brokerages appear to want to improve and focus efforts on is the mobile investing experience. Firms such HSBC InvestDirect, Jitneytrade and Qtrade Investor have each mentioned this as an area in which they would be looking to enhance their current online trading offering.

A second important area of focus for online brokerages will be content. From educational offerings, to product and platform orientation to market intelligence and personal financial planning, financial content production appears to be ramping up in 2019. In this regard, the larger bank-owned online brokerages have an edge as they have deep talent pools of analysts and existing stock market research that they can leverage and turn into content investors, especially DIY investors, would be hungry for.

Finally, one of the most interesting things that we noted in this year’s look back and look ahead series comes from what was NOT said – namely pricing. None of the online brokerages who participated in this series mentioned dropping their commission prices (yet) however it’s hard to imagine that online brokerages aren’t already planning out how to navigate in that (soon to arrive) commission-free trading world.

The sum total of activity reflected in the submissions of Canada’s online brokerages about 2018 and 2019 indicate that they are working quickly to build strong value drivers. While order execution may be something that can be commoditized, user experience and account management can’t. Similarly, great service, attention to details and support are also things that clients may be willing to pay a bit more for.

For DIY investors, 2018 saw brokerages make substantial enhancements that will start to pay off with more stable, scaleable technology experiences in 2019. Competition for DIY investor business continues to drive commission prices for online trading lower as well as introduce interesting incentives (such as deals), valuable resources and a concerted effort by online brokerages to win over (and keep) investors. In spite of market volatility, heading into the new year, this could be the best year yet to be a DIY investor hunting for an online brokerage account for the long haul.

TD Direct Investing Launches New Promo in Time for the Holidays

Just in time for the holidays, the online brokerage arm of the big green bank, TD Direct Investing, delivered some festive cheer in the form of a new commission rebate promotion. There were several interesting observations about this promotion that stood out – especially against the landscape of current offers – that might signal a subtle shift in how discount brokerage deals are run.

First, however, let’s take a look at the details of the offer. This is a commission-rebate offer which means that trade commissions that meet eligibility requirements, will be rebated by a certain point after the trades are placed. In this particular offer the number of trades that can be rebated are between 25 and 200. To qualify for this offer a minimum deposit of $15,000 is required.

In terms of the window of time that trade commissions can be rebated, the deadline to place eligible trades is before July 1^st, 2019. This means that users that open accounts sooner derive more benefit from this offer than those who open an online investing account later, in that early birds have more time to use the commission rebate.

It is noteworthy that of the discount brokerage offers that are currently live, TD Direct Investing has elected to stick to commission rebates (e.g. a form of commission-free trading) rather than compete directly with cash-back offers. This pits TD Direct Investing’s offer against the other commission-free trading or commission rebate offers from National Bank Direct Brokerage, Desjardins Online Brokerage and Scotia iTRADE. Of course, TD Direct Investing enjoys a massive advantage in terms of recognition and market share so relatively speaking, they don’t have to bid as aggressively to win new assets.

Another very interesting feature of this offer is that individuals need to register first in order to qualify to be eligible. While other online brokerages, such as Questrade, RBC Direct Investing or Scotia iTRADE have attempted something similar, they have often disclosed codes in their terms and conditions which means that filling out a form is optional. In the case of this offer from TD Direct Investing, filling out the webform is one of the mandatory conditions attached to this offer. From a marketing point of view, this means that users who submit their information into TD’s system then become prospective clients that TD can follow up with. Though subtle, it is one way that TD may be able to improve their success rates at DIY investors opening an account with them.

Finally, the timing of this offer indicates that TD is once again focusing its promotional campaign squarely on the RSP season rush. 2018 was a big year for new account openings, spurred at the outset by strong momentum in cannabis and cryptocurrency stocks. With the recent volatility across markets, however, this should be an interesting RRSP season for online brokerages. With this offer from TD Direct Investing now going live, DIY investors have the best selection of deals that they’ve had since last RSP season, however they’ll have to weigh these incentives against the choppiness in the market. Either way, a new deal to choose from just before the holidays is a great present for all DIY investors.

2018 Online Brokerage Rankings from Surviscor Released

The latest online brokerage rankings from financial research firm Surviscor were released this past week. The big takeaway according to founder and president of Surviscor, Glenn LaCoste, who appeared on BNN Bloomberg, was that there was not much of interest that took place in the industry since the last ranking.

One thing that did stand out as a negative, according to the Surviscor analysis, was deteriorating service. According to their mystery shop data, response times for online enquiries at Canadian discount brokerages slipped, with no firm apparently responding faster than 12 hours.

Taking top spot again this year was Qtrade Investor followed by Questrade and BMO InvestorLine. At the bottom of the pool was HSBC InvestDirect. Interestingly, this set of rankings included Interactive Brokers which placed 7^th out of 12 brokerages analyzed.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount
Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Miss Understanding

With the changing representation of the DIY Investor in social media and some Canadian online brokerages recently (e.g. National Bank Direct Brokerage – who recently overhauled their website with a more balanced inclusion of women) there seems a shift happening in the visual identity of the “typical” online investor. Nevertheless this shift is not happening as quickly in the real world. One unhappy forum user shared on Personal Finance Canada this week her experiences with poor service and misinformation about ETF’s that suggests perhaps some people are reluctant to get past gender stereotypes at the expense of compromising customer satisfaction.

Flying in Coach

A newcomer to Wealthsimple – whose tagline is investing on Autopilot – took to the forums this week asking for advice on automated auto-rebalancing and fees. Wondering whether they should “copy the portfolios” themselves or put it in the hands of the online brokerage, the user put the two options up for debate.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on a very eventful roundup on top of a very eventful year. With Christmas just around the corner, good luck to all the brave souls who live for thrill of the last minute gift chase! It’s been a great year here at SparxTrading.com so thanks to all the loyal readers and site visitors for making this year our best yet. We’re thrilled at what’s coming around the corner in 2019 and so to prepare we’ll be using the “down time” over the holidays to be doing some retooling and work behind the scenes. On behalf of the whole team here at Sparx, have a very safe and merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you again in early January.

Posted on December 14, 2018 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 14, 2018

If there’s one place in Canada that should be prepared to handle the rain, it’s Vancouver. And yet, even on the We(s)t Coast, this past week has shown that sometimes, when it rains, it really does pour. As it turns out, if you’re an otter, however, Vancouver is shaping up to be a pretty sweet place to hang out. CFO’s of major Chinese telecom companies, however, not so much. Like this past week in Vancouver, there has been a torrential downpour of information across the online investing world and it looks like there’s even more coming.

So, even though we can’t boil the ocean, in this edition of the roundup we nonetheless wanted to provide a solid run down of what crossed our radar this week, sprinkle in some analysis and for the faithful readers of the roundup, provide an exclusive preview of the look back/look ahead piece. As usual, there’s also an interesting selection of DIY investor tweets and forum posts to round things out.

Virtual Brokers Drops Commission Prices

There’s no question that things are busy across the online brokerage space heading into the end of the year. In the midst of all that flurry, however, there was a very important change that took place at Virtual Brokers at the close of market on Thursday (December 13^th) and the start of trading on Friday, rain wasn’t the only thing coming down, commission prices did also. Namely, the commission structure for Virtual Brokers has now changed to as low as $1.99 commission per trade (technically per ticket – more on that in a moment).

That’s right Virtual Brokers now offers one of the lowest (until Wealthsimple Trade goes fully live to the general public) trading commissions for equities and options trading. The new pricing structure is $0.01 per share with a minimum charge of $1.99 per ticket up to a maximum commission charge of $7.99 per ticket. For active traders, defined as those who made 150 or more trades in the past quarter, the price changes to $3.99 flat per ticket

While it does benefit passive or minimally active traders, this is a huge development for very active traders. To understand why, it’s important to know the difference between “trades” and “tickets.”

A ticket refers to a collection of trades on the same side (either buy or sell) on the same day for the same stock. An example can help clarify.

Let’s say trader of TSLA purchases 3 separate orders of 200 shares a piece of the stock at multiple points in the day. Those 3 trades amount to 600 shares. Assuming they were all routed through the same market, those 3 trades would be on the same ticket because they’re the same stock, same direction, same day. At $0.01 per share x 600 shares, that’s $6.00 in commission charges. If on that same day a trader wanted to then sell 100 shares, that would be 1 trade which would also be one ticket at the $0.01 per share – which works out to $1.00 however the minimum commission charge is $1.99 so the final commission charge would be $1.99.

Unlike almost all other online brokerages (with the exception of Jitneytrade for example), using tickets instead of trades means that clients have to do a bit more math to truly understand the commission costs.

That said, if there’s one thing active or day traders are not afraid of, it’s a little order tracking, especially for a flat fee of trading that could be as low as $3.99 for an unlimited number of shares. In fact, for ETF swing traders the math is even more compelling – purchases of ETFs are free at Virtual Brokers so long as they are held for a minimum of one business day, which means anyone who is on the standard plan would only pay a max of $7.99 for a round trip on an ETF trade (assuming all units were sold same day). For passive rebalancing – especially for smaller accounts, this is also a great score as selling 200 shares of an ETF costs $2.00 in commission charges.

Clearly, in the commission price pool, Virtual Brokers has just made a massive splash.

Unlike lesser known online brokerages, Virtual Brokers has the benefit of having been featured in the Globe and Mail’s online brokerage rankings, including having achieved top online brokerage or a high finish for several years in a row.

Although prior to this move Virtual Brokers’ popularity was waning, they are certain to get the attention of investors of all stripes – but especially the active ones – who will now likely take a serious look at an online trading account with a provider that has professional grade platforms and the pricing to match.

It will only be a matter of time until word spreads among investors and if/when Virtual Brokers decides to advertise this widely – other brokers will be racing to figure out how to catch up.

Back to the Future: A Preview of the Look Back on 2018 & Look Ahead to 2019

From outages & outrage in early 2018, online account opening landing at TD Direct Investing, new website roll outs at BMO InvestorLine, Questrade and National Bank Direct Brokerage, and so many interesting promotions and deals, there was a lot that took place at Canada’s discount brokerages this past year.

We could go on (and on) about these developments (which we will next week!) but for the moment, we’re excited to hand over the spotlight to Canada’s online brokerages themselves to see what they had to say about 2018 and what they’re doing next in 2019.

Readers of the roundup will get a first look at this amazing edition of the Look Back/Look Ahead. Why is it so amazing? Without being too biased, firstly it offers a unique window into hearing from Canadian online brokerages themselves, in many cases directly from the leaders of the organizations that Canadian DIY investors entrust their business to. It helps to know and understand the vision these organizations have for building online brokerages that are suited for today’s world as well as tomorrow’s.

Second, this is a chance to spot interesting trends in the year that past as well as in what is coming around the corner at many online brokers. With RRSP season about to ramp up, consumers will be very hungry for information that helps them better understand the decision to work with a particular online brokerage. While there are rankings or ratings, those are generally focused on past performance. The look ahead component this year offers a fascinating window into what 2019 is going bring for DIY investors in terms of new features, technology enhancements, pricing (potentially) and more.

Finally, this particular edition has exclusive information on how the landscape of online brokerages will have another competitor to contend with this year. That’s right, one of the biggest stories in this year’s series is the upcoming launch of a ‘dark horse’ competitor. It’s not Wealthsimple Trade – who’s commission-free trading is certainly going to make waves, but rather an existing online brokerage who has some very ambitious plans. Who is this mystery online brokerage? Tune into Sparx next week to find out!

To provide some more intrigue, here is the list of online brokerages who we received submissions from and who will be featured in this upcoming year in review & preview to next year piece:

BMO InvestorLine
CIBC Investor’s Edge
HSBC InvestDirect
Jitneytrade
National Bank Direct Brokerage
Qtrade Investor
Questrade
RBC Direct Investing
TD Direct Investing

Also new for readers this year will be a digital magazine format that provides another way to experience this informative and unique piece. Here’s a preview of the cover art:

This format is the first from SparxTrading and is also a reflection of our growing team and focus on delivering great DIY-investor information about Canadian online brokerages.

Since you’ve read this far here are some early teasers from three firms covered in the look back on 2018 & look ahead pieces for 2019:

CIBC Investor’s Edge: Invested in online education content, young investors and trading platforms in 2018; for next year (and beyond) enhanced trading & reporting features
Qtrade Investor: Listening to clients helped drive improvements in service & support, financial planning tools and access to premium market research; coming up, big technology enhancements including mobile improvements
National Bank Direct Brokerage: Enhancements to the website, promotional offers and special educational events provided improved user experience; coming in the new year are new trading features and improved online account opening experiences.

Stay tuned!

Lightning Roundup

Here are some interesting online brokerage stories that crossed our radar this week.

Robinhood Online Brokerage Launches Banking Feature

The US-based zero-commission online brokerage continues to make waves in the online investing and financial services space. This week they took a literal swipe at the banking industry by launching checking & savings accounts that pay 3% interest to users. That, according to CNBC, is more than 30x the national average. Check out this interesting interview that has an ironic moment talking about technical glitches.

CI Financial Acquires Wealthbar

After acquiring BBS Securities, parent of Virtual Brokers, CI Financial is again going shopping just ahead of the holidays with an acquisition of Vancouver-based robo-advisor Wealthbar. This acquisition provides an interesting spectrum of services for CI Financial as they will now be equipped to provide direct online investing as well as digital advisor services.

Scotia iTRADE Movie Deal

With more foot traffic passing through downtown Toronto’s underground PATH, it was an opportune time for Scotia iTRADE to launch a short promotion for 2000 SCENE points for a deposit of $5,000. We’ve spotted ice cream in the summer, popcorn in the fall and now hot drinks with winter around the corner.

Questrade Spreading Holiday Cheer

We’ll end the lightning round with a feel-good move by Questrade. Spotted on their Twitter feed this week was a message stating that Questrade will donate a meal to the Daily Bread Food Bank for every retweet the message gets until the end of December. In addition, Questrade has also committed to providing a day’s worth of meals for every account opened with them in 2019. This is a great example of corporate social responsibility in action and gives DIY investors who open an account with Questrade something extra to feel good about while they’re doing it.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount
Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

From the Forums

Questwealth Query

One user took to the Personal Finance Canada forum on reddit this week with a question on growth portfolios for their RRSP. With the user considering a switch to Questwealth, read what helpful advice was given on how to dissect some “complicated” portfolios.

Checking in on Wealthsimple

Robinhood’s recent announcement of checking and savings accounts with 3% earnings and no fees, led the discussion on to whether Wealthsimple Trade, the commission-free trading Canadian analogue, would also follow suit as their “next logical step”. Read more in this thread from Personal Finance Canada forum.

Into the Close

That’s another rocky week in the bag for the bulls. Ironically the Christmas colours of red and green are flashing red as major support levels are being challenged. Of course, it’s all a matter of perspective at this point as bargain hunters continue to get more and more excited for interesting entry points. Speaking of interesting entry points, if you’re out holiday shopping in the malls, may the parking gods be forever in your favour! Have a great weekend!

Posted on December 7, 2018 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 7, 2018

Only in the stock market does everybody get more when everybody gets less. The cuts in oil supply provided a much-needed relief to an otherwise dour stretch into the final month of the year. With most of the gains of 2018 now erased on major indices and selloffs despite good jobs news, the good news is, it could be worse.

Fortunately, there is actually good news for online investors to be had. In this edition of the roundup we review the latest crop of deals that will add some Christmas cheer for DIY investors hunting for a great deal on an online trading account. Of course heading into the end of a year, it’s also a timely opportunity to review a portfolio – which is what we do by taking stock of the year that passed and what’s coming around the corner (hint: it’s exciting!). As always, we capture the reactions and questions of online investors on the forums and on Twitter.

December Deals

It’s the holiday season, and, true to form, there are lots of presents and still a few surprises left for Canadian DIY investors. December kicked off with a healthy count of 25 discount brokerage deals and promotions ranging from cash back deals and commission-free trades to transfer offers.

The big stories in this month’s deals section include the return of Desjardins Online Brokerage’s commission credit offer (along with some festive imagery befitting the season); the promotional offer accompanying the launch of RBC InvestEase as well as the return of Scotia iTRADE to the deals section with a cash back or commission-free trade offer.

With participation by Canadian discount brokerages at a healthy level, DIY investors hunting for a bargain on an online trading account certainly have a lot to choose from.

Of course, December wouldn’t be complete without a few surprises. There are already whispers of two online brokerages keen on launching some interesting promotions. Whether they get here in time for Christmas is a bit of a jump ball at the moment, however it’s a safe assumption that those brokerages currently on the sidelines without a commission-free trade or cash back offer won’t be staying off the promotions field for too much longer.

As a segue into the next story, it’s important to remember that last year at this time, the world was going crazy about “investing” in cryptocurrency and marijuana stocks. It’s likely that the enthusiasm for trading these was amplified across the holiday season with friends and family gathering to talk about these “investments” – so there’s still a good chance that, in addition to talking turkey, there’ll also be talk of investing.

We’re also really excited to see what happens to the promotional landscape next year as Wealthsimple Trade starts to roll out live trading accounts. Competing against commission free trading will be a challenge for the incumbent online brokerages, however our bet is that many DIY investors would still be open to cash back offers and incentives which is something Wealthsimple Trade may find difficult to match (since they’re already taking a hit on commission fees). Making a few trades a year (even at a “nominal” cost) may not be worth as much as the cash incentive on the way in.

In light of that, one interesting scenario that could play out in 2019 is that strong cash back (or better commission credit offers) could majorly slow the roll of Wealthsimple Trade. At that point it will be a faceoff between low pricing and design technology (i.e. user experience) and a mature functionality in the form trading platforms with news, research, screeners and more.

Looking Back & Looking Ahead

With just about three weeks until the end of 2018, it’s an opportune moment to reflect back on the year that was and where things are going in 2019 for online investors.

Last year at this time we were knee deep in crypto mania; it’s a good thing weed has been legalized because there are some people who are going to definitely want/need to chill after the drop in both cannabis and crypto stocks over the past few months.

Also around this time last year, SparxTrading pulled together a collection of 9 voices from across the Canadian online brokerage space to provide a platform for them to share what the year was like in their own words and what DIY investors could look forward to in 2018. In that piece, we highlighted three important themes that seemed to emerge from all of the submissions:

There’s a technological arms race
Delivering more value to DIY investors
Focus on better trading experiences

Although these three items are interrelated, we saw evidence of distinct activities to address these themes over the course of the year.

From multimillion-dollar investments in the technology stack from firms like TD Direct Investing, to the adoption of youth or ‘student’ friendly pricing at major bank-owned online brokerage CIBC Investor’s Edge to trading platforms to roll outs of upgrades of custom-built trading platforms at Questrade there were numerous examples of these themes unfolding at many of Canada’s online brokerages.

One thing that also stood out over the past year was the consolidation of the online brokerage market.

After the merger of Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct under the umbrella of Aviso Wealth, the acquisition of BBS Securities by CI Investments and the acquisition of Jitneytrade by Canaccord Financial, the war chests of non-bank owned online brokers have gotten much stronger. The industry as a whole seems to be in a ‘rebuilding’ phase – with investments in their business and technology taking place to enable them to serve investors of the future. Case in point, the launch of robo-advisors/digital advice platforms at RBC and the announced roll out of one at TD clearly signal this as a product line ‘must have’ for 2019 and beyond. They’ll have their work cut out for them, though, as Vanguard is also reportedly pursuing a launch of a robo-advisor as well.

Coming up next week we’ll launch the online brokerage look back on 2018 and look ahead to 2019 and this is definitely (and literally) going to be a page-turner.

With an exciting new look and rendering for this unique piece, interesting new themes on where online brokerages are focused as well as the unique opportunity to hear what online brokers have to say about themselves and what they’re looking forward to in 2019, we’re thrilled to be rolling this out. Be sure to follow SparxTrading on Twitter for exclusive sneak peeks at this year’s set.

Lightning Roundup

There were more noteworthy developments that took place this past week in the online brokerage space here in Canada as well as in the US.

Interview with Interactive Brokers Founder

Earlier this week, founder and CEO of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy was interviewed at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference. In this informal fireside chat, there were a number of very interesting nuggets shared by Peterffy.

The first was his perspective on the “zero commission” trading trend emerging in the US online brokerage market. He specifically mentioned Robinhood and JP Morgan in this respect but he had some rather ominous words for the latter. Peterffy mentioned that JP Morgan’s decision to also do so was “a big mistake” and that ultimately “they will regret this.” Within that conversation about commission-free trading, he also laid out the simple truth to online brokerages which is that they need to make money or break even in order to exist so the money will have to come from somewhere – including with administration fees. This could be an important consideration for those online investors contemplating platforms like Wealthsimple Trade or who might be hoping for online brokerages to lower their trading commission pricing.

Another major development shared by Peterffy is that as of January 1^st 2019, Interactive Brokers will be paying interest out to accounts with balances underneath $100,000. Specifically, the interest paid on an account will be indexed against the $100,000 threshold so that investors who, for example, have a cash balance of $50,000 will get an interest rate that is half the rate of an account with $100,000 or more in cash. This will definitely spur a larger segment of investors to consider kicking the tires on Interactive Brokers who simply want a better deal on their uninvested cash.

Mobile Trading Apps Spinning Their Wheels

Interactive Brokers was once again in the spotlight but this time in Canada where financial research firm Surviscor released the findings of their mobile online brokerage experience study. The mobile trading experience at Interactive Brokers blew the doors off its competitors according to the Surviscor study.

According to the rankings, Interactive Brokers’ mobile trading experience scored a 94% followed next by Questrade at 64% and then BMO InvestorLine at 57%. Perhaps most surprising is the number of firms who scored under 50% (8 out 11 firms). Desjardins Online Brokerage’s mobile trading experience ranked last with a score of 24%.

Glenn LaCoste, President and CEO of Surviscor cautioned that while the scores may appear shocking, that “it is important to understand that they do not reflect the overall merits of any of the firms. The take-away is that most industry firms fail to provide a seamless mobile accessible experience for the base online offering.”

Earlier this year, a similar sentiment was echoed by J.D. Power in their Canadian Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study in which Mike Foy, Senior Director of the Wealth Management Practice at J.D. Power stated “Investment firms in Canada, in general, are significantly behind the curve when it comes to their mobile app offerings, capabilities and customer engagement.”

From the Forums

Robo-Wars

Vanguard Canada is the latest wealth manager to join the robo-advisor phenomena. The news hit the forums this week as one user kicked off a discussion on the global investment company’s choice to compete in the growing market. Check out the discussion points here.

Passive or Active Retirement

One forum user took to personal finance Canada on reddit this week, wondering if a DIY investment approach would be the way to go after years of a passive strategy. With a personal aversion to financial matters at the age of 60, this proves an interesting post both for those looking for advice on what to do with their finances after retirement and for those who are curious to know if they’re on the right track.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Discount
Brokerage Tweets – Curated tweets by SparxTrading

Into the Close

With just over two weeks to go before Christmas, the procrastinators among us are still not worried about getting that great gift in time for the holidays. For the traders, however, that deadline day for making trades in 2018 is coming. Circle December 27^th as the final day to make trades in Canada that will settle in 2018 (Dec. 31^st). Speaking of settling and end games – now that the weekend is here, it’s a great time to relax and marvel at the great indoors, starting with a trailer for the Avengers Endgame. Have a great weekend!

No Country for Old Deals

Qtrade Earns Top Customer Service Scores from Surviscor

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Some Q-onfusion

Passive Aggressive

Into the Close

Who is Canada’s Best Online Brokerage? Hint: It’s a Tie

Scotia iTRADE Quietly Lowers Standard Commission Prices

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Chatter on the Rankings

Sorry to Bug You

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

New Cash Back Promotion from Qtrade Investor

Virtual Brokers Rolls out New Ads

Scotia iTRADE Platform Spins Out

From the Forums

Good Catch

Open & Shut case

Into the Close

HSBC InvestDirect Launches New Cash Back Offer

Lightning Roundup

Blackrock Canada’s iShares Teams Up with RBC

Interactive Brokers’ Founder Hands Over the Reins

DIY Investing on Twitter

Capitalize for Kids Student Competition Deadline Approaching

Questrade Delivers on Massive Donation to Food Banks Canada

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Don’t Be Fooled by Rocks We Got

Lip Service

Into the Close

BMO InvestorLine Launches New Promo Offer

Wealthsimple Makes Online Investing Human

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Margin Caller ID

Dipping into a New Pool

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

Look Back & Look Ahead: 2018 Online Brokerage Review & Preview to 2019

TD Direct Investing Launches New Promo in Time for the Holidays

2018 Online Brokerage Rankings from Surviscor Released

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Miss Understanding

Flying in Coach

Into the Close

Virtual Brokers Drops Commission Prices

Back to the Future: A Preview of the Look Back on 2018 & Look Ahead to 2019

Lightning Roundup

Robinhood Online Brokerage Launches Banking Feature

CI Financial Acquires Wealthbar

Scotia iTRADE Movie Deal