Scotia iTRADE – Page 24

Posted on August 12, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 12, 2016

One the great lessons embodied by the Olympics is that preparation, practice and discipline lead to success. It’s a message that holds true not only in the world of sport but also in the world of investing. For Canadian discount brokerages, one of the ways in which they can help enable investors to succeed is by providing access to great educational resources. While the Olympics may dominate the headlines for a few more weeks, at least one brokerage has big plans about making a big splash by getting back to school.

This week, we take a look at one bank-owned discount brokerage that is doubling down on investor education. Next we take a look at the climate for IPOs and how one brokerage has waded into this pool at a time when many others have stepped out. From there we’ll take a look at what DIY investors were talking about on social media and across the investor forums.

Getting Schooled

After a long absence, investor education is back in the spotlight. This week, Scotia iTRADE rolled out an updated and seemingly more structured version of their investor education offering with the launch of their iTRADE U and trading education boot camp.

With markets pushing new highs, it seems like those on the sidelines may become increasingly inclined to consider getting into (or back into) the world of DIY investing – which makes the rebrand and launch of the Scotia iTRADE investor education offering that much more timely.

So what’s under the banner of Scotia iTRADE U? For the moment, it appears that the webinars are largely the same as they were before, with educational partners such as Horizons ETFs and Montreal Exchange providing webinar content.

In addition to the iTRADE U, there’s also the boot camp that kicks off in early October which is being taught by long time education partner Pro Market Advisors. The four-week long series features courses on stock selection, entry and exit strategies, risk management and bull & bear market ETF strategies. Each course takes place once per week (for two hours on Tuesday evenings) with tutorial times on Thursday evenings. The best part is that these courses are provided free of charge.

What is interesting about the boot camp format is that unlike a one-off seminar and webinars that are the norm, this format seems more like a proper course.

The time allocated for the lessons is longer than the typical one-hour lunch & learn style courses so there are more opportunities to explore topics in detail. Also there are associated tutorial hours for individuals to ask questions or learn from the questions of others. Finally, there’s also the added touch of getting an ebook as well as a checklist to help follow along.

This is certainly not the first time (nor will it be the last) that a Canadian online brokerage has offered up a structured course as part of their investor education offering. Desjardins Online Brokerage, for example, has, in the past, provided structured investor educational partnerships with StockScores and DayTrading Canada. Scotia iTRADE has also previously partnered with Larry Berman at the Independent Investor Institute to offer ‘discounts’ to individuals taking courses.

It is, however, worth noting that this is a major “free” offering from a big-5 bank-owned discount brokerage – something that might induce RBC Direct Investing, CIBC Investor’s Edge or BMO InvestorLine to devote more resources to investor education. Curiously, TD Direct Investing, itself one of the most active online brokerages in providing investor education support, appears to have scaled back it’s in-person seminars in favour of the online format.

The latest educational offering from Scotia iTRADE definitely ups the ante for other Canadian brokerages looking to provide investor education to their clients (or potential clients). As September draws closer, it is likely that other bank-owned discount brokerages will find themselves thinking about how to get back to school.

Questrade’s IPO Centre Six Months In

When Questrade rolled out their new IPO Centre just over 6 months ago, they probably didn’t forecast just how bumpy a ride 2016 would be. First there was the sharp decline in the first few months of 2016, oil prices cratering and then markets have rallying back to make new highs. Then there was Brexit and of course the looming US Presidential election. Unfortunately, one thing hasn’t really made the news this year and that’s IPOs.

In what has turned out to be one of the worst starts for the Canadian IPO market in recent memory, Questrade’s IPO Centre has nonetheless been able to showcase just over 100 different deals that investors could have gotten access to since the Centre’s launch earlier this year.

Our recent post on Questrade’s IPO Centre takes a closer look under the hood and provides some more context on the progress of this feature year-to-date. Click here to read more.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Bugs, fixes, and suggestions to improve seem to sum up the interesting chatter on Twitter. Mentioned this week are Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Four-letter word

One of the dirtiest four letter words for investors is risk. In a world where consumers expect protection from the risk of having their trading accounts protected, online brokerages are forced to step up the level of protection. This past week BMO InvestorLine pushed a message out to clients about adding an additional layer of authentication to the trading process which touched off an interesting debate on reddit’s personal finance Canada thread. Worth a read for those interested in taking a pulse on the information security landscape of financial service firms.

Not easy being green

Riding out a losing stock is never fun – until it turns around and goes back into the green. Unfortunately for some DIY investors, portfolio values that fall below a certain minimum amount at most brokerages can end up racking up extra fees. In this post from reddit’s personal finance Canada thread, one TD Direct Investing client share their story about holding on to a stock until it turned around and the fees that showed up in the meantime.

Into the Close

That does it for another week. Although markets were off slightly heading into Friday, Team Canada, and especially the Canadian women athletes were busy making us proud in Rio. Have a great weekend & #GoCanadaGo!

Posted on August 12, 2016May 13, 2021 by Ken Yeung — Leave a comment

Questrade’s IPO Centre: What you need to know

If you haven’t heard much about IPOs this year, you’re not alone.

Globally, investment bankers have had a lot more time on their hands and deal flow has slowed to its lowest levels in a decade (see data on Global IPO proceeds below, courtesy of Renaissance Capital).

Global IPO Proceeds to June 2016 Source: Renaissance Capital

Just about 6 months ago, however, Questrade waded head first into IPO deal waters by launching a new feature on their website: an IPO Centre. Despite the challenging environment, Questrade’s vision for this area appears to be one of convenience for those investors looking for information about companies raising capital from initial or secondary offerings.

Here are some highlights for DIY investors:

First, it’s free to access, which is always nice for investors looking for interesting investment ideas. Deals are listed in a table format and after a deal link is clicked on, Questrade provides further details and a summary of the product in question, from the deal size to the use of proceeds. While due diligence is naturally required, fundamental investors will appreciate this essential overview format. Questrade advises clients to read the company issued prospectus, as would any broker.

Second, there’s more than just companies coming to market. Despite the name, IPOs of company stocks aren’t the only types of offers featured.

Questrade’s IPO Centre also highlights fixed income deals, new structured products, and secondaries for equities. In fact, in the 6 months since its launch, Questrade has featured 106 deals (as per the “closed” section of the IPO Centre), and at the time of publication, there are currently two open offers. Interestingly, of the closed offers, the vast majority (about 88%) have been some kind of treasury or structured product offering, validating many observations that the Canadian IPO market for companies coming to market has been virtually non-existent for 2016. It should be noted that Questrade’s IPO centre covers Canadian IPOs only.

Number of closed offerings on Questrade’s IPO centre ytd (Source: Questrade IPO Centre website)

While the branding and layout are cool, this kind of feature is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. US brokerages such as TD Ameritrade, E-Trade Financial and Interactive Brokers provide similar platforms and in Canada, Scotia iTRADE offers a variation on this deal information. In this case, Questrade looking to differentiate itself from its Canadian discount brokerage competitors. In a highly competitive market, every little feature helps.

Despite the rough year in IPOs, Twilio’s successful IPO in the US earlier this summer and speculation that Real Matters may seek to go public in Canada this fall suggests that there still might be a headline or two left before the year is out. In the meantime, all that Questrade’s IPO Centre can do is continue to be prepared.

For additional information on Questrade’s IPO Centre, check out this blog post.

Posted on August 5, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – August 5, 2016

Citius, Altius, Fortius – the Latin version of the motto of the Olympics which translates into faster, higher, stronger – seems to be an appropriate jumping off point for this week’s roundup, especially as the US stock markets hit new ‘personal bests.’ As with the Olympic games in Brazil, competition between Canadian discount brokerages is quite fierce – which definitely forces brokerages to step up their game.

This week’s roundup features an interesting review of one of the areas that Canadian discount brokerages continue to battle it out with one another and what that means for DIY investors and the industry as a whole. Next, we take a look at one online broker that may have finally stumbled after putting up strong performance numbers for many quarters in a row. From there we take a look at the chatter from investors on social media and in the investment forums.

Deal Pendulum

Like an intraday reversal, this month’s promotions and deals from Canadian brokerages appeared to show a bit of a pullback at the start of August but have inched up to show signs of coming back to life now that we’re a week in.

An extension of BMO InvestorLine’s summer promotion, an investor data partnership offer from Desjardins Online Brokerage and another contest from Virtual Brokers (this time to celebrate their 7^th anniversary) helped to offset the expiring offers from Scotia iTRADE and Virtual Brokers at the end of July and brings the total number of advertised offers we’re tracking to 23.

Virtual Brokers’ choice to go with a contest offer was also in line with its last set of offers, which were also contests. In this case, their latest offer is a bit more engaging requiring individuals to hunt around the VB website in order to get a unique link that they can then enter the contest with.

A quick overview of offers shows that transfer offers remain the most popular, but contest/other offers appear to be gaining ground, especially over and above the cash back or commission-free trade promotions.

Of the several interesting developments this month, one of the more notable observations is that Desjardins Online Brokerage has crept up to four active offers, the same as long-time leader in this space Questrade. Last month it was Scotia iTRADE that mounted a challenge to top Questrade however with the expiry of iTRADE’s “TSX shopping spree” contest along with the accompanying transfer fee coverage offer, Scotia iTRADE now has two active offers in play.

Another interesting observation about the deals/promotion space is that there appears to be a relatively low number of referral offers. In an industry where competing for new clients and growing an account base is so important, referral bonuses not only keep the costs of acquiring new clients low but they also signal, albeit indirectly, that a discount brokerage believes that their clients will find reasons beyond the financial incentive to endorse the company to their friends/family or colleagues.

Finally, it is also curious to observe that brokerages are not using their cash-back promotion structure even though brokerages are willing to extend coverage of transfer fees – effectively paying for clients. The paradox is that new clients, who don’t require complicated migration of holdings, are actually less expensive, and yet they are not the ones being offered an equivalent cash-back or commission credit incentive.

For DIY investors, although the choice of promotional offers has certainly thinned since the spring, the fundamental picture looks good for incentives to grow. There are more brokerages than there are clients rushing out to open a DIY investing account and brokerages are going to have to get creative to stay within budget while also attracting and retaining new clients.

With US markets hitting new all-time highs, the roll-out of CRM2 and Canadian investor sentiment ramping up, the winds are blowing in favour of online brokerages getting creative with their marketing. On the other hand, given the size of the Canadian pool of DIY investors, the opportunity to grow will largely go to the brokerage that moves the fastest and boldest.

Hitting the Hurdle

Even the best runners in the world occasionally stumble. For the online brokerage space, Interactive Brokers has been fortunate enough to post strong metrics for so long that the recent announcement of their July performance numbers rattled investors in the stock (IBKR) and revealed an interesting angle on the DIY investing market.

First the stats. While Interactive Brokers continued to grow their account base – now at a whopping 360,000 (and up 1% over the previous month), what those clients were doing (or not doing) is what led to more than a few eyebrows being raised.

For the month of July, trading volume through Interactive Brokers fell 8% year-over-year and 6% month-over-month to 602,000 trades per day. In addition, the number of options contracts were down about 29% compared to a year ago and down 12% compared to June. Finally, on a year-over-year basis, margin lending was down 12% to $15.9B (USD) but up slightly (6%) compared to last month.

Stepping back from the numbers, it is interesting to reflect on what might be at play.

On the one hand with more accounts there should be a greater likelihood that trading, or more specifically, that trading revenue increased. That was not the case here, however, where there were more Interactive Brokers clients but fewer trades being made. Could this be a signal that IB is now attracting a slightly less active segment (or less profitable) client type and thus becoming more “mainstream?” While it is difficult to say for sure, another possible explanation is that traders are finding less to trade and are somewhat uncertain as to what the near term market direction will be (read: US elections) so they’re stepping back.

The next 100 days will be telling as to whether or not the US presidential race will introduce some major volatility into the markets.

With more clients signing on to IB, there are likely more traders waiting for that volatility to show up in force to find some interesting trading opportunities – something that bodes well for Interactive Brokers despite the pull back in activity. The lesson for all those who make a living from the markets though is that as much as earnings and performance numbers help to inform decisions, trading at its core is about speculating on future events and right now there are some very crazy possibilities ahead.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

This week’s tweets featured a good cross-section of interesting positive and negative feedback about Canadian brokerages. Mentioned this week were Questrade, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Flow of Funds

The less obvious costs of DIY investing are things that all traders should make an effort to find out about. In this post from reddit, one community member the personal finance Canada group tries to get a better handle on the administration fees associated with moving money into, around or out of Questrade.

In the Red

For many investors learning the ropes of trading sometimes means learning the hard way that some account types let you spend more than you actually have. This post from reddit’s personal finance Canada section provides a good lesson to beginner investors to make sure they understand what kind of account they’re trading with and what happens if they incur a negative balance on the account.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for this week. The Olympic games are officially underway which means that for most of us, we’ll be watching really fit people exercise on TV. Hopefully the games bring a welcome reprieve from the recent misery and misfortune that has cast a shadow on the games. Best of luck to all the Canadian athletes – bring home the gold!

Posted on August 2, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – August 1, 2016

*Updated: Aug. 9th* At the start of August, discount brokerage deals and promotions appear to be in vacation mode.

With a pair of deals that expired at the end of July and one new partner offer that joined the list of promotion, the turnover and activity in offers coming into this month was minimal. While 22 23 offers still provide a lot for DIY investors to choose from, there are some noteworthy Canadian discount brokerages who still continue to sit on the promotional sidelines.

For DIY investors, the good news is that offers are still surfacing. For DIY investors eyeing BMO InvestorLine, their Summer 2016 promotion has been extended out to the end of August. Also entering the deals roster this month is an offer from a partner of Desjardins Online Brokerage, MoneyTalks, who is offering up three free months of their subscription program to Desjardins Online Brokerage clients.

Interestingly, TD Direct Investing held a one-day promotion during July as a “thank you” to clients in which they offered to waive the commission fee for one trade.

While it was positioned as a ‘thank-you’ gesture to TD Direct Investing clients, the move comes against the backdrop of recent technical difficulties which have been aggravating clients. Thus, it will be interesting to see what other promotional activities TDDI is planning and whether the offer of free trades and other deals might help smooth over some of the technical issues that have arisen recently. It is also interesting to see whether any of their competitors will be offering up something similar to existing clients.

With the ramp up to the fall season on the minds of many brokerages, it won’t be too long before more offers start to show up. As always, if there’s anything that we’ve missed that could help DIY investors fetch a better deal, let us know and we’ll post it here.

Expired Deals

Two noteworthy contest offers expired at the end of July from Virtual Brokers and Scotia iTRADE.

Virtual Brokers’ contest for passes to Canada’s Wonderland (or free trades instead) concluded at the end of July.

Scotia iTRADE’s TSX $10,000 shopping spree contest ended in July and along with the contest offer their official transfer fee credit offer also expired. Users who are considering transferring assets to a new Scotia iTRADE account may want to contact the customer service number at 1-888-872-3388.

Extended Deals

Late last month, BMO InvestorLine officially extended their summer 2016 offer to August 31^st from the previous deadline of July 31^st. As a reminder this promotion offers new clients between $200 and $1,000 cash back for deposits ranging from $100,000 to $500,000+. See table below for more details.

New Deals

*Updated: Aug. 9th – Virtual Brokers has launched another contest celebrating their 7th anniversary. Both existing or new clients that find a special promo code somewhere on the Virtual Brokers website and enter the code on a new account application will be entered for a draw to win 7 prizes of $500. See table below for more details.*

A new offer that crossed our radar was posted on Desjardins Online Brokerage’s website. The offer is for three free months of Michael Campbell’s Inside Edge investor information service. This service includes content such as interviews with market commentator Michael Campbell, analyst reports and access to bonuses and discounts. The monthly rate for the service is currently $19.95 so this offer translates into a $59.85 value. See table below for more information.

Discount Brokerage Deals

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
Referral Promotions
Transfer Fee Promotions
Contests & Other Offers

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 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, 2016
	Open and fund a new account at Virtual Brokers with at least $5,000 and you may be eligible to receive 3 months of commission-free equity trading and a $150 USD/mo credit towards Edge Trader Pro for 3 months. Use promo code sent at sign up to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for details.	$5,000	3 months commission-free equity trading + $150 USD/mo platform fee rebate.	3 months	3 months free trading / Sign up form for promo code available here	none
	Disnat is offering new & existing clients up to $500 in commission credits which can be used for up to 6 months. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code Disnat500. See details link for more info.	$50,000	$500 commission credit	6 months	Disnat $500 Commission Credit Promo	August 30, 2016
	Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine, and fund it with at least A) $100,000 or B) $250,000 or C)$500,000 in net new assets and you may be eligible to receive A) $200 cash back, B)$500 cash back or C) $1,000 cash back. Use promo code Summer1000 when signing up to be eligible. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer.	A) $100,000 – $249,999 B) $250,000 – $499,999 C) $500,000+	A) $200 cash back B) $500 cash back C) $1,000 cash back	Cash back will be deposited the week of Mar. 6, 2017.	Summer 2016 Promotion	August 31, 2016
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Aug 2 16:45 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 – $9,999 B) $10,000 – $24,999 C) $25,000 – $49,999 D) $50,000 -$99,999 E) $100,000+	$25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back	Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days)	Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759	none
	If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTrade account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link.	A) $10,000 B) $50,000+	A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50)	60 days	Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade	tbd
	If you (an existing Virtual Brokers client) refer a friend or family member to open a new account with at least $5,000 you may be eligible to receive $25 cash per referral. For 3 or more referrals Virtual Brokers will add a $50 bonus. Referred individuals depositing either A) $5,000 – $50,000 or B) $50,000+ may be eligible to receive A) $25 or B) $50 cash back. Be sure to read the full terms and conditions carefully for full details. Be sure to read the terms and conditions to this offer carefully for full details.	A) $5,000 – $50,000 B) $50,000+	Referrer: $25 per referral; $50 bonus for each 3 or more referrals. Referee: A) $25 B) $50	Cash to be deposited to VB account by August 15, 2016.	Cash Referral Program	May 31, 2016
	If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $50,000 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.	$50,000	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	October 31, 2016
Expired Offers
	Open a new account (TFSA, Margin or RRSP) and receive $50 commission credit . Use promo code: kdkfnbbc	$1,000	$50 commission credit	30 days	none	none
Last Updated: Aug. 2, 2016 16:30PT

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 to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees	$135	$15,000	Transfer Fee Rebate Details	none
	Transfer $25,000 or more from another brokerage and Credential Direct will cover up to $150 in transfer fees. Use promo code SWITCHME when signing up to qualify for the transfer promotion.	$150	$25,000	Credential Direct 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 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	$25,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Transfer $25,000 or more to Virtual Brokers and they may cover up to $150 in transfer fees.	$150	$25,000	Transfer Fee promo	September 30, 2016
	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
	Transfer $25,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees	$135	$25,000	Transfer Fee Rebate	none
	Disnat 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 Disnat account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code Disnat500. See details link for more info.	$150	$50,000	Disnat $500 Commission Credit Promo	August 30, 2016
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Aug. 2, 2016 16:30 PT

Other Promotions

Company	Brief Description	Minimum Deposit Amount Required	Details Link	Deadline
	Credential Direct has partnered with Trend Micro to offer 50% off Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security. Use code “TrendCF” at checkout.	n/a	Trend Micro Special Offer Code	none
	National Bank Direct Brokerage is offering a discount of 0.75% on it’s current margin lending rate for new margin accounts for a period of 3 months. In addition, new margin account registrants will receive a commission rate of $6.95 per equity trade. This offer is open to new and existing clients. Use promo code MARGIN2016 when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for full details.	n/a	Margin Account Promotion	August 31, 2016
	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
	Virtual Brokers is celebrating its 7th anniversary with an online contest to win one of 7 prizes of $500. Individuals need to find a special promotion code on a specially marked page on their website and enter the code on an application for a new account. This contest is open to new and existing clients. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for full details.	$1,000	Virtual Brokers 7th Anniversary	August 31, 2016
Expired Offers
Last Updated: Aug 9, 2016 09:50 PT

Posted on July 29, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 29, 2016

The summer Olympics are just around the corner and with them will come all kinds of excitement, fanfare and of course, the widely anticipated opening ceremonies. While there aren’t typically flag bearers, parades, fireworks or exotic choreography, there are a handful of Canadian discount brokerages who try to make opening an online trading account feel exciting.

In this week’s roundup we take a look at some interesting maneuvers in the US online trading space that signals where online brokerages might be looking for opportunity to grow their top (and bottom) line. From there we’ll take a quick look at the promotions set to expire heading into August to see which deals stay and which ones don’t make the cut. We’ll also take a look at what investors were thinking and talking about this past week on social media and investor forums.

E*Trade Exercises Options to Buy OptionsHouse

All across the board in the US, there are signs that some of the final shackles of the great recession are finally coming loose.

In the online brokerage space, one of the brokerages that was heavily impacted by subprime lending practices (E*Trade Financial) finally took the milestone step of acquiring a competing brokerage, OptionsHouse, for $725M USD. The good news for E*Trade is that they were in a financially strong enough point to raise the funds and move forward instead of backward.

E*Trade wants to further entrench itself with the active trader community and their latest move does just this. In particular, E*Trade will be gaining a reasonably profitable and active trading client base that tends to trade considerably more than their existing clients. Options trading capabilities are also more profitable a product.

The Numbers

Now that OptionsHouse is part of a publicly traded company, we can get a glimpse of its numbers. According to E*Trade’s press release, OptionsHouse clients have $3.6B USD in assets. 63% of the firm’s volume is options and they did about $675 in revenue per account last year (154k accounts and $104M).

Using Cash

The acquisition puts to work about 44% of E-Trade’s idle cash and cash equivalents. The firm will still have over $900M USD in cash after the purchase.

But E*Trade is not only getting OptionsHouse – there’s also a perk of the talent coming with it.

History

General Atlantica, private equity firm, saw an opportunity to consolidate the brokerage business in late 2014. The firm bought OptionsHouse and merged it with another acquisition, tradeMONSTER.

Both firms specialized in options. tradeMONSTER was cofounded by the Najarian brothers who frequently appear on CNBC as trading personalities. OptionsHouse on the other hand was founded by PEAK6 – a large proprietary trading firm in Chicago, located in the historic CBOT building. General Atlantic, merged tradeMONSTER and OptionsHouse to form Aperture Group in January of 2015.

Now just about a year and a half later, General Atlantic is calling on their inner trader to flip this to E-Trade.

While we don’t know General Atlantic’s cost basis, there’s a good chance they are in the green.

Heading into Expiry

With only a few more days left in July, the new deals cycle is almost here. While deals and promotions from Canadian discount brokerages have been lighter this spring/summer compared to last, there are still signs that there may be more deals on their way in August.

For instance, Virtual Brokers, who had not been active in the deal space for quite some time, has now launched several offers in 2016. It seems likely that Virtual Brokers will be pursuing new accounts and promotions a bit more actively in the past.

At the other end of the size spectrum, TD Direct Investing this week held a snap one-day promotion for clients. The offer included one commission-free trade as part of a ‘client appreciation’ maneuver. With the promotional landscape having thinned out, it was remarkable that TD was the one rolling out the deal.

In the meantime, there are a couple of deals from larger bank-owned brokerages BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTRADE that were slated to expire at the end of the month. For its promotion, BMO InvestorLine actually pushed out an extension to the promotion so that it now expires at the end of August. For Scotia iTRADE, there haven’t been any extensions (yet) on deals related to new accounts.

With a long weekend for many Canadians falling on August 1^stit will be interesting to see which brokerages are actually going to update the deals sections on their sites on (or before) the turn of the new month.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Another week and another set of platform outages. This past week there was a significant outage with Scotia iTrade which got a lot of active traders (understandably) fired up.

Mentioned this week were Questrade, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing, and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Pros and Cons: Comparing Questrade and Virtual Brokers

Even though pricing changes have forced an evolution for Virtual Brokers’ price point, there are still common questions on how Questrade compares to Virtual Brokers. In this post from reddit, it was interesting to see one how one user broke down their experiences with both these popular discount brokerages.

Out of Orders

As mentioned above, this past week Scotia iTRADE’s trading system went down – much to the chagrin of many clients. In this post from RedFlagDeals.com’s personal finance section, multiple users chimed in on the experience with Scotia as well as the help.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for another edition of the roundup. Have a safe and happy holiday weekend and remember that Canadian markets are closed on Monday.

Posted on July 22, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 22, 2016

With the activities going on in the US republican convention this week, it was difficult to escape the news cycle that was dominated by the upcoming US elections in November. Alas there are no plagiarized speeches, comb-overs or bad spray tans (at least that we know of) in the online brokerage space. Given the hubbub in the US, it seems fitting that this week we also shine a spotlight on US-based online brokerages as they reported their quarterly earnings and provided a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of the world of an online brokerage.

In this week’s roundup we take an in-depth look at the recent earnings from the major publicly traded US online brokerages as well as distill out some of the more fascinating talking points from the heads of the brokerages themselves. From there we’ll move to the borderless medium of Twitter to find out what had Canadian DIY investors talking about this week. Finally, we’ll close off the roundup with a few interesting conversation threads from Canadian DIY investors in the Canadian investor forums.

Feel the Earn

This past week, the latest quarterly numbers hit the tape for several of America’s largest publicly-traded discount brokerages. As a group, the four main publicly traded discount brokerages (Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, E*Trade Financial and Interactive Brokers) pulled in a combined $3B USD in revenues for the quarter ending June 30th – not a bad haul considering the ultra-low interest rate environment. Looking at these revenue figures, it is clear that they have not stood still waiting for them to rise. Instead, they have changed their model to incorporate everything from extra fees, fee-based advice and even integrated ‘robo-advisor’ products into the mix.

Here are some highlights from the most recent earnings reports.

Profitability

Quarterly income per account brings headline numbers into perspective and also indicates how active each firm’s users are. These stats are displayed below, but the key takeaways are as follows.

Interactive Brokers, despite having doubled their client base over the past five years to 357k clients, still has the lowest number of accounts compared to their peers. That said, Interactive Brokers is clearly holding its own when it comes to profitability compared to its peers. IB clients on average generated $596 of net income per account. On the other hand, the least profitable per account firm was TD Ameritrade which came in at $34.78 of income per account, however keep in mind Ameritrade has over 6.9M accounts.

Net Income per Client Account at US Online Brokerages Quarter Ending June 2016

DARTs

While all the other US brokerages houses showed mixed results DARTs (daily average revenue trades) wise, TD stood apart from the competition. TD posted the highest DART growth year-over-year, while Schwab had the hardest time quarter over quarter. The chart below displays DARTs for each firm.

Far from being the ‘apocalyptic’ event that many news headlines would have suggested, the Brexit volatility tended to benefit the online brokerages with, according to E*Trade’s CEO, many traders and investors jumping in to purchase securities that had sold off.

% Growth of Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) at US Online Brokerages Quarter Ending June 2016.

Technology & Platform Improvements

All these firms have acknowledged the importance of staying on the cutting edge of technology. As online brokerages, this should come as no surprise. Nonetheless, one of the biggest themes of discussion in company conference calls was the “digital advice” aka robo-advisors.

For example, Schwab released updates to their “Intelligent Portfolios” retirement planning feature. This application uses user generated initial investment, time and income stats to estimate monthly income levels. As the firm puts it, “clients now have more flexibility in setting their desired monthly income and receive suggestions on adjustments to meet their goal.”

E*Trade Financial also reported in on their robo-advisor product line, known as the “Adaptive Portfolio” which launched in June and has attracted $100M in assets under management since debuting the service. This application is E-Trade’s take on targeted asset allocation and automatic rebalancing, a hybrid strategy between completely self-directed and a managed account.

TD Ameritrade also rolled out a “digital upgrade” to their Amerivest service in June which will now enable Ameritrade to compete with its peers in the robo-advisor space. While not a full robo-advisor service just yet, the fully digital platform is forecasted to roll out in the fiscal year 2017.

Interactive Brokers continued to update their hallmark Trader Workstation desktop application. From Interactive Brokers, there was the admission that market making isn’t the business it used to be. After making only $5M this quarter, the lowest amount in the last 96 quarters, the writing is on the wall for this business unit to go out to pasture. It begs the question, if it’s hard for the so-called pros to make money by making markets, how well can individual investors fare?

Overall, despite the low interest rate environment, US online brokerages have managed to weather the storm by getting creative and offering a spectrum of services for investors. The biggest issues to watch over the next several months in the US will be the roll out of Department of Labor (DOL) rules on investor protection as well as the continued ramping up of robo-advisors.

These are two particularly important points for Canadian discount brokerages to monitor as well. The robo-advisor space in Canada is already becoming a crowded field, considering the Canadian market’s size, and so any Canadian discount brokerage contemplating entering into the space (following the lead of the US brokerages) will have to do so quickly and effectively.

The other item for Canadian brokerages to learn from is the role/impact of regulatory reforms (such as CRM2) that will force brokerages to be more efficient and effective in their use of technology. Already technology is clearly where Canadian brokerages, big and small, are trying to get right albeit with varying degrees of success. Throwing in the added pressure to ensure fees are disclosed properly and in a timely fashion means that brokerages might not focus as much on innovating as they do on ensuring they stay within the boundaries of the regulators.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Even though there was a lot of heat outside and on Twitter, there was some high praise sent to RBC Direct Investing on their new digital look and feel. Mentioned this week on Twitter were Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Interface Dialogue

RBC Direct Investing rolled out the latest upgrade to their online trading interface. Reactions to the new look and feel were definitely mixed, as seen in this post on RedFlagDeals.com’s forum. Click to learn more about the various reactions and perspectives on whether the new site hit or missed the mark with DIY investors.

Fee-ling Down

One of the perceived advantages of going with the deeper discount brokerages, such as Questrade, is that DIY investors can save quite a bit on commissions. While commission pricing isn’t the only factor to consider, it is an important one. In this post from Canadian Money Forum, one reader got a bit more than they bargained for with ECN fees at Questrade. Click to read more.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another wacky week. Despite the dour headlines, markets continue to push higher. Enjoy the ride while it lasts and have a great weekend!

Posted on July 15, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 15, 2016

Even when the world appears irrational, markets still move to beat of their own drum. Against a backdrop of turbulent headlines, markets in the US have managed to hit new all-time highs. For DIY investors in Canada, however, it is an interesting moment. As stock prices move higher, this will invariably attract investors back into the mix however most Canadian discount brokerages have yet to ramp up their marketing efforts to capture investor interest. Ironically, it seems that the Canadian discount brokerages are also having trouble timing the market.

In this week’s roundup we take a look at the clues about current DIY investor sentiment that were revealed by one US online brokerage and what that might mean for brokerages heading into earnings season. Next we take a look at one major bank-owned discount brokerage that took a bold move forward in the social media space. From there we’ll recap what investors were talking about on Twitter and in the investor forums.

Sentimental Value

It takes two to tango and also to make a market. In the case of the latter, it’s an ongoing debate between those who think buying is smarter and those who think selling is. One US-based online brokerage, E*TRADE Financial, released the results of its regular survey of ‘experienced investors’ which showed that there many shades of grey between the lines separating buyer from seller.

While not the most scientific of approaches, there was an interesting portrait of the DIY investor that could be painted based on looking at the ‘big picture’ of the data.

For example, it appears that when it comes to trading and markets, most investors associate their sentiment about the markets with the movie title “Dazed and Confused”. Although this number surged to 40% for Q3 of 2016 (up from 31% in Q2 of 2016), the fact that it has consistently been the top answer since Q3 2015 implies that a fair portion of experienced investors feel this way most of the time.

Another interesting observation is that most of these experienced investors would recommend individual stocks as the best option for friends/family thinking of getting into the markets at this moment. Remarkably, after stocks, equity mutual funds were the most popular recommendation rather than their lower priced counterparts, ETFs. That said, there has been a growing number of investors who seem to think that bonds would make a good investment to get into. When lined up against what’s been happening in the world and with a US election coming in November, this seems to imply that traders have been positioning for the “fear trade” for quite some time.

On the business side for discount brokerages, whether this forecast translates into more or less trading has real consequences. Next week, another US-based online brokerage, Interactive Brokers, will report its quarterly earnings. With markets hitting new all-time highs, volatility from the Brexit vote as well as other election related uncertainty, it will be interesting to see whether the fear of missing out trumps the fear of loss at least for another quarter.

Wanna Chat?

For those who still think that social media is all hype, selfies and food pics, any recent footage from major news events or articles writing about them probably contain or are based on content from social media. Donald Trump also took to Twitter to announce his running mate for Vice President for what it’s worth.

This past week, TD Direct Investing took the bold step of launching a DIY investing Q&A on Twitter that went reasonably well. It was a definite gamble from the big green given the amount of flack it has been catching from the intermittent (but unfortunately too frequent) outages from its flagship trading platform WebBroker. Nonetheless the social experiment was a success in that there were a number of influential Canadian personal finance bloggers/personalities fielding interesting questions about investing (and also because TD emerged relatively unscathed).

We’ve captured the 350+ tweets that were exchanged over the course of the session and presented them below for anyone interested in reviewing the conversation.

Here are the 10 topics that were covered:

Why should someone tackle DIY investing? Is the juice worth the squeeze?
What mistakes did everyone make when they first started DIY investing? What should 1^st timers be aware of?
Honestly, how hard is it really to DIY invest? How much reading and math do you have to do?
Where should you get started when it comes to making your first trade?
When is the best time to buy stocks and then sell them?
If you have debt, should you be investing?
How are you investing? In an RRSP, TFSA or other?
Any tips on what to invest in if you want to grow a housing down payment ASAP?
If the market is down in Canada, should you wait to invest until times are better?
What tools do you use to make it easier to build your confidence as an investor?

Overall the chat was an informative session that offered bite-sized pieces of insight into the world of DIY investing. Thematically it appeared that “slow and steady” was the central message of the talk.

It was clear that there were lots of opinions from the various financial bloggers in attendance and it was encouraging to see that at least some individual investors were participating in the conversation too. With most things personal finance, however, keeping the responses brief but informative was a challenge, especially when some of the questions take some length to explain fully. Nonetheless, there were lots of thanks being passed around for the useful information and for the opportunity to bounce questions off the Canadian personal finance community.

At one point, the #DIYInvesting hashtag was noted as “trending” in Canada indicating that this topic floated to upper layers of what was being discussed in Canada at the time the Twitter chat was happening.

Strategically, this was also a very interesting move for TD Direct Investing for several reasons. First, they were able to score some air time by having multiple participants providing answers and participating in the conversation. In fact, this was a great move by TD Direct Investing to change the conversation away from the issues plaguing WebBroker into something more positive and controlled that scores points with prospective and existing customers.

Another reason this was such a strategic win for TD Direct Investing is because they managed to dominate the conversation on the hashtag #DIYInvesting. One of TD Direct Investing’s direct competitors, Scotia iTRADE has also been using this hashtag as part of their marketing efforts however as was clearly seen over the course of the Twitter chat, there were no references to Scotia iTRADE (or any other brokerages). This is not to say that other brokerages can’t or won’t piggy back on the greater awareness of the #DIYInvesting handle, but there is definitely some ground that TD Direct Investing managed to gain at the expense of other brokerages’ attempts to create a conversation around DIY investing.

TD Direct Investing has come a long way on Twitter despite them having their own handle for a relatively short amount of time. For other Canadian discount brokerages who are contemplating how to compete in the digital landscape, this latest move by TD Direct Investing should raise some eyebrows and force everyone else to step up their game. #ShouldBeFun

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Technology on the fritz seemed to be yet another theme of why DIY investors reach out to online brokerages via Twitter. Could be the massive heat wave in Toronto that got tempers a little shorter than usual. Mentioned this week were Qtrade Investor, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Getting to Know You

For anyone signing up for an online trading account, one of the questions that inevitably comes up is how much trading experience you might have. In this post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada section, one user was curious as to why that happens.

Wrong Turn

Transferring from one brokerage to another involves quite a bit of paperwork, a bunch of patience and a whole lot of trust that things will go smoothly. Unfortunately for one reddit user, their experience in transferring an RRSP account into Questrade did not go as planned. In this post, find out what happened and how Questrade attempted to help get things back on track.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another crazy week. With all of the heavy news here’s something a little more uplifting to close out on. Whatever you happen to get up to this weekend, have some summer fun, stay cool and see you for a fun earnings-filled week next week!

Oh my God… pic.twitter.com/If507fxar5

— Kroony (@DeKroonCat) July 15, 2016

Posted on July 8, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 8, 2016

Bulls will be bulls. On a day when grim news captured the headlines, the S&P 500 managed to put it all in the rear-view mirror and touch a new record high intraday. Despite what naysayers are nay-saying, the numbers on the tape tell a different story. For Canadian discount brokerages, the news cycle is relatively quiet. The numbers coming out of brokerages, however, are doing most of the talking at least when it comes to deals and promotions and where brokerages are seeking out opportunities.

In this week’s roundup we take a look at the latest deals that were revived after the Canada Day long weekend. From there we look at one online brokerage that is banking on innovation as the path to winning against bigger bank-owned competitors. From there we’ll take a look at what investors were chatting about on social media and in the investor forums. Saddle up.

Guess Who’s Back?

This past week saw a number of deals get a reboot from several Canadian discount brokerages.

First, the refer-a-friend offers from both BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTrade, which originally expired at the end of June were picked up again and renewed well into 2016. While BMO InvestorLine had updated their terms and conditions at the time of writing, Scotia iTrade had not (although they confirmed the referral offer is still active). Until the revival of these two offers, Questrade held the sole refer-a-friend promotion among Canadian discount brokerages heading into July. As we referenced previously however, it was unlikely that other brokerages would allow Questrade to remain unchallenged for too long.

The third offer that was revived was Desjardins Online Brokerage’s $500 commission credit offer. Having been live for well over a year and a half, this deal is now active again through to the end of August.

Currently, there are 24 advertised offers from Canadian brokerages across the four categories we track.

Offers from Canadian Discount Brokerages (July 2016)

What is interesting about the kinds of offers currently being advertised, however, is that contests and other promotions are nearly at the same levels as more popular cash back/commission credit or transfer fee promotions. Another interesting observation is that, Questrade now shares the title of brokerage with the most number of advertised offers with Scotia iTrade. Surprisingly, Desjardins Online Brokerage is close behind, edging out other brokerages, including its cross-town rival National Bank Direct Brokerage.

With such a close race between providers, there is certainly more of an opportunity for any of the Canadian brokerages to make a move to become a dominant player in the promotional space. Virtual Brokers has certainly been attempting to compete with other brokerages in the deals section by offering up new deals every month or so. Even with these efforts, however, they’re still lagging. That said, should Virtual Brokers decide to bring back their referral offer as a standing promotion as well as a standing transfer fee coverage offer, they would definitely win some of the spotlight that Questrade has given up in this space over the past few months.

As competition heats up along with the summer weather, it will be interesting to see which offers currently scheduled to expire at the end of July will either get renewed or replaced and whether or not one brokerage reaches to claim top spot in the deals arena.

Widening Circle

One of the interesting side effects of the low interest rates on online brokerages in both the US and Canada is the squeeze on their revenues. Without lending generating substantial revenues, online brokerages are left to other streams like fees and commissions to keep the lights on and servers running. Of course, in order to make up for the shortfall in commission revenues from falling prices, brokerages, especially at the “discount” end of the commission spectrum (such as Questrade and Virtual Brokers) have turned to more creative endeavours to boost revenues.

This past week, BBS Securities, parent of Virtual Brokers, announced that they have partnered with one of Canada’s newest stock exchanges, Aequitas Neo Exchange, in order to provide Platform Traded Funds (PTFs) to Virtual Brokers’ institutional clients. More importantly, however, Virtual Brokers is already signaling that they wish to become the first Canadian discount brokerage to offer PTFs.

In a nutshell PTFs help to simplify the trading (and thus lower the cost) of mutual funds by integrating with securities trading platforms (for more background on PTFs check out this article from the Financial News). This makes it easier for advisors and dealers to process mutual fund orders which, in turn, can result in savings for investors. While it will likely take investors some time to untangle the difference between an ETF and a PTF, the bottom line is that innovation in how the financial services world delivers a very popular product (mutual fund) has resulted in lowered costs for investors.

For Virtual Brokers, the headline and optics of embracing a “fintech” solution positions them as a firm that is continuously innovating – something that the Globe and Mail has pointed out about Virtual Brokers in several of its discount brokerage rankings. Interestingly, the fact that this solution is aimed at their advisor client base means that Virtual Brokers is continuing to diversify its opportunities, something it has already done in the robo-advisor space.

The bigger picture indicates that the online brokerage space and “DIY investing” are clearly not enough to sustain most Canadian discount brokerages, so it is interesting to see how different firms are broadening their service offerings. It does beg the question, though, that if the ‘traditional’ discount brokerages are struggling to keep up with all of the changes in services and products, how can DIY investors do the same?

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

Battling technology issues in the summer heat has made for some interesting feedback to brokerages. Mentioned this week are Questrade, Scotia iTRADE, TD Direct Investing and Virtual Brokers.

From the Forums

Bank to Bank

Making the decision to switch to a bank-owned discount brokerage is a challenge for some DIY investors because banks are usually hard to distinguish from one another. In this post from RedFlagDeals.com’s investing forum, one user wants to find out which bank-owned brokerage is better: BMO InvestorLine or Scotia iTrade?

Tipping Point

Getting started with DIY investing is a challenge for many, mainly because there is a lot of trial and error. Hopefully for most investors, the errors aren’t too costly out of the gate. In this post from reddit’s Personal Finance Canada section, one user asks for any advice or tips for starting out using TD’s WebBroker.

Into the Close

That’s it for another edition of the roundup. This weekend is filled with all kinds of excitement (and investing metaphors) for the folks attending the Calgary Stampede. Regardless of which rodeo you follow, there are plenty of reasons to hold on to your hats and keeping your heads up going into next week. Have a great weekend!

Posted on July 1, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 1, 2016

Happy Canada Day! The recent visit of US President Barack Obama to Canada underscored the importance of the two countries’ working relationship. Interestingly, at least one US online brokerage has managed to maintain its presence in Canada as part of its international expansion plan and the writing on the wall suggests that it won’t be the last US online brokerage to make a push north. For Canadian online brokerages, the clock is ticking and between the coming wave of robo-advisors and pressures to step up their game.

In this week’s roundup we take a look at the latest promotional offers to hit the deal wire at the outset of a new month. Following that we’ll review the latest metrics from one US online brokerage that should raise more than a few eyebrows at Canadian online brokerages. From there we’ll take a look at the latest chatter from Canadian investors around social media and in investor forums.

Deal Breaker

It looks like Great Britain wasn’t the only one making an exit this past week. The Canadian discount brokerage landscape saw yet another series of brokerages deciding to pull offers off the table at the roll-over into a new month. At the outset of July only one brokerage, Virtual Brokers, launched a new offer while brokerages such as BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTRADE let their referral offers lapse. The biggest stories from this month’s deals and promotions section however concern Desjardins Online Brokerage and the state of referral programs.

Starting first with Desjardins Online Brokerage, it appears that their very long-standing promotion of offering up to $500 in commission credits for a $50,000 deposit has finally been retired. This offer initially launched back in 2014 and has been running strong ever since. There were various moments where the offer was scheduled to expire only to be renewed again for months at a time. With its removal, however, this leaves Desjardins Online Brokrerage with just a handful of offers.

One offer, for example, provides $50 in commission credits to DIY investors 18 to 30 years old. The other offers are directed toward individuals with assets over $500,000 as part of their ‘prestige’ program. This puts Desjardins Online Brokerage in a tricky position given that their fiercest competitor, National Bank Direct Brokerage, has launched a margin account discount offer that includes lower trading commissions and lower borrowing rates for margin.

The second big story from the deals and promotions space at the outset of July is the expiration of referral programs by brokerages other than Questrade.

At the beginning of July, Questrade has the enviable position of being the only Canadian brokerage to be advertising a current referral program. Competitors, BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTRADE both have refer-a-friend agreements listed on their websites but details on those offers clearly state the offers expired June 30^th.

While it is unlikely that either Scotia iTRADE or BMO InvestorLine wish to concede market share by abandoning this low cost onboarding strategy, the evolving landscape of online brokerage promotions suggests that brokerages are prepared to take all kinds of creative approaches to lower their own costs to stay competitive.

Follow the Brexit Signs

While most investors dislike market volatility there are certainly others in the market place who look forward to it. One is definitely the media who took full advantage of the heightened anxiety with the Brexit referendum. The other group that enjoys market volatility are active traders. And, as seen with the outcome of the Brexit vote, there was ample market volatility to keep traders locked onto their screens.

For Interactive Brokers, June appeared to be a great month for their key metrics. Specifically, they saw an 8% spike in new accounts over the previous month which will probably earn the envy of their fellow online brokerages. Another interesting observation from the metrics report is the inclusion of the basket of currencies (and their respective weights) that Interactive Brokers manages. In particular, what is interesting is that Interactive Brokers operates in many international markets and that they are factoring in the relative importance of China to their business. This is not the first time this month a US brokerage has relayed the importance of China to their growth plans. Startup online brokerage Robinhood, who offers commission-free trading, announced they have expanded into China by partnering with Baidu (the leading search engine in China) to enable Chinese citizens to trade US stocks and ETFs.

Canadian online brokerages who are looking to attract active investors/day traders certainly have their work cut out for them in trying to compete with Interactive Brokers. As one of a small number of firms in Canada that offer international trading, Interactive Brokers continues to be a formidable online brokerage to compete with in the US, Canada and other international markets.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Solid Platform

Trading technology being what it is in Canada is somewhat limited. For one online investor in this reddit post, figuring out what else is out there prompted some interesting suggestions and reviews from fellow community members.

R is for Reliability

For serious investors, price is one thing but reliability is paramount. Being able to get into and out of a trade how and when you need to can be worth the few extra dollars per trade – think of how expensive the alternative can be. In this post on the Canadian Money Forum, one DIY investor pitches the question of ‘which brokerage is most reliable’ to the crowd and gets some interesting perspective in return.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap for this shortened trading week. Have a safe and enjoyable Canada Day weekend, and of course, for those who decide to trade the US markets a quick reminder that Monday will also be a day off trading the US markets. As a shoutout to the recent visit from US President Obama, here’s a video of recent address to parliament.

Posted on July 1, 2016 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – July 1, 2016

*Update July 13* It looks like the ‘brexit’ wasn’t the only big exit to happen this week. Closer to home, the Canadian online brokerage deals and promotions space also saw a number of promotional offers take off, perhaps for the summer, perhaps longer.

The trend towards promotional offers continues to be a volatile one, which isn’t great news for DIY investors. Compared to this point last year, the total number of cash-back and/or commission-free trade offers has contracted significantly – a development we continue to track. Even though the number of offers has contracted, there are still signs that things are evolving. Interestingly, there has been a rise in the number of contest-related promotional offers.

Despite the turnover in offers, the news isn’t all bad.

Virtual Brokers continued its streak of new offers by launching a Canada Day themed promotion that is highly targeted to Ontario, particularly GTA based, DIY investors that have a penchant for roller coasters and funnel cake.

As part of their latest promotion, Virtual Brokers is offering up a raffle for 4 day passes to Canada’s Wonderland for individuals signing up for a new account during July. Alternatively, for those not in the Toronto area, or who’ve outgrown Canada’s Wonderland, there’s an alternate prize for 20 commission-free trades that potential winners can elect to receive.

Another Canadian discount broker, National Bank Direct Brokerage, also appears to be active in promotions space during the summer. Last month they launched an offer for a margin trading account which offers discounted borrowing rates (0.75%) for margin lending as well as discounted commission trading rates ($6.95) for 3 months. The offer is open to new and existing clients signing up for a margin trading account. As we pointed to in a previous weekly roundup, however, here is a lag time for opening an account at National Bank Direct Brokerage because documents need to be submitted by mail. With a possible strike by Canada Post, there could be an additional delay attached to this process.

We’re already hearing whispers of more offers coming this Fall so it will be interesting to see whether brokerages will be getting ahead of the promotional storm or will be taking it easy for July and August. With competition coming from robo-advisors, recent volatility in the markets and also competition from summer weather, brokerages will no doubt have to get very creative to win the attention of DIY investors.

Expired Deals

There were a number of expired offers from June but among them were a couple of big ones.

*Update July 13: Virtual Brokers has updated their website to include the reinstatement of their transfer fee rebate.*

*Update July 8: Desjardins has extended their $500 commission-credit offer* First, Desjardins Online Brokerage has elected to not extend their long running $500 commission-credit offer. This means that for the time being their best promotional offer is their ‘Broker@ge 18-30’ $50 commission credit.

*Update July 8: Both BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTrade have extended their refer-a-friend offers* Next, a pair of referral offers also expired at the end of June and as of Canada Day, these offers have yet to be renewed on their respective websites. BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTrade both had their refer-a-friend offers expire however in the past both of these firms haven’t let these kinds of low-cost promotions lay fallow for too long.

Another offer from Virtual Brokers, the draw for an Apple gift card, also expired at the end of the month and took with it the associated transfer fee rebate.

Extended Deals

*Update July 13: Virtual Brokers has re-posted the transfer fee deal on their website in the terms and conditions section. See table below for more information*

*Update July 8: Three brokerages, Desjardins Online Brokerage, BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTrade have each extended previously expired offers* At the moment, no deals have been extended.

New Deals

Virtual Brokers was the only Canadian discount brokerage to launch a promotion this month with their Canada Day themed raffle for either a series of 4 day passes to Canada’s Wonderland or 20 commission-free trades. See the table below for more details.