Tag: TD Direct Investing

TD Direct Investing

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions, December 2019

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday landing so close to the beginning of December, deal hunting is going to be top of mind for DIY investors heading into the final month of the year. Fortunately, there are deals to be had with a number of cash back and commission-free trade promotions going on to round out the final month of 2019.

Of course, like many offers taking place in the lead up to Christmas, there is a time limit to take advantage of them.

December looks to be an interesting month for deals activity because there are offers – such as the RBC Direct Investing commission-free offer – which are scheduled to expire just before the middle of the month. Questrade has a pair of longstanding offers which are set to expire at the end of the month too.

In addition to promotions that are scheduled to end in December, there are also competitive dynamics at work which might make it more likely for other brokerages to step up with an offer sooner rather than later. The addition of Scotia iTRADE and their commission-free trades or cash back offer to the deals pool last month basically sets the stage for more offers to come to market.

Given everything that’s happened in the US market with commission-free stock trading, Canadian DIY investors are anxiously awaiting the same to happen here in Canada with the mainstream online brokers. While it is unlikely to go to zero across the industry soon, price drops are in the forecast.

Looking ahead at the promotions picture, the reality is that it is more competitive than ever before in the Canadian online brokerage space so to win consumers. Online brokerages have to get even more creative (and they are starting to) and the fastest way to get on the radar of value-conscious DIY investors is through promotional offers. By that measure, we’re expecting to see brokerages roll out some interesting promos into the end of 2019 or into early 2020.

Those brokerages that are still on the sidelines in terms of offers won’t be there much longer. With RRSP season just around the corner and additional room for TFSA contributions coming at the beginning of the year, it will be an equally limited time offer to get the attention of DIY investors.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the deals space but if you find an offer that would be great for other DIY investors to know about, let us know in the comments.

Expired Deals

No expired deals.

Extended Deals

No extended deals to report at this time.

New Deals

There were no new deals to report at the beginning of December however there was a deal that came to market at the tail end of November from Scotia iTRADE. The latest promotion from this popular bank-owned online brokerage is sure to raise some eyebrows from competitors as it offers a potent combination of cash back and discount standard commission pricing or commission-free equity trades. To boot, iTRADE has also made this a multi-tiered offer that ranges from entry level investor/portfolio to high net worth portfolio, so there’s something for just about every stripe of investor here. With iTRADE now in the mix, the list of bank-owned online brokerages without an offer is becoming smaller than the list of bank-owned brokerages with an offer.

Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. 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
Jitney Trade 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
Scotia iTrade Open and fund a new Scotia iTrade account to be eligible for up to $1,500 in cash back and $6.99 commission pricing, or up to 500 free equity trades. The amount of cashback and free trades are dependent on the funding of your account. Take a look at the offer details link for further information. $5,000 Cash + discounted commissions, or free trades. $6.99 trades available until June 30, 2020; Cash or commission rebate for free trades available until July 31, 2020. iTrade Offer Details February 29, 2020
Disnat 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 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
When you transfer funds from another account into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account with assets worth at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000; C) $100,000, you may be eligible to receive A) $100; B) $200; or C) $400 in cash back. A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) 100,000+ A) $100 B) $200 C) $400 Cash back will be deposited between May 18 – September 17, 2020. CIBC Cash Back Offer Details March 4, 2020
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $250,000; B) $500,000; C) $2M or D) $5M+, and you may be eligible to a cash back reward of up to A) $400; B) $800; C) $2,000 or D) $5,000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $250,000 B) $500,000 C) $2M D) $5M+ A) $400 B) $800 C) $2,000 D) $5,000 Cash back will be deposited week of Aug. 17, 2020 BMO InvestorLine Cash Back Offer Details January 6, 2020

Expired Offers
Open a new RBC Direct Investing account by December 13th and you may be eligible for 25 commission-free equity and ETF trades. You must deposit or transfer $5,000 in your account by February 14th, 2020 to be able to use this promotion. Make sure that the offer code MCFT1 is applied if you wish to qualify for this deal. As always, be sure to take a look at the terms and conditions for further details. $5,000 25 commission-free trades 1 year Commission-Free Offer Details December 13, 2019
Last Updated: Dec. 20, 2019 15:35 PT

Referral Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Incentive Structure Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit Details Link Deadline
BMO InvestorLine 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
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
Scotia iTrade 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 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

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Nov. 29, 2019 13:39 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 n/a Transfer Fee Promo none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $200 in transfer fees. $200 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered. $152.55 $15,000 Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information. none
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 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
Disnat 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 $10,000 Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo none
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Contact client service for more details. $200 Contact client service for more information Contact client service for more information (1-888-776-6886) none

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Nov. 29, 2019 13:37 PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Disnat 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
Scotia iTrade 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

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Nov. 29, 2019 13:38 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open 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
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: Nov. 29, 2019 13:38 PT
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 25, 2019

Black Friday is just around the corner and with just about everyone looking for a bargain, it will be a fine balance to keep things profitable in the face of so many deals. For DIY investors, the good news is that deals keep rolling in and even for online brokerages, there seems to be some interest in making an important purchase.

In this edition of the Roundup, we dive into the latest deal from a bank-owned online brokerage that highlights just how competitive things are getting heading into the end of the year. Of course, the competitive landscape here in Canada pales in comparison to the US where another mega-story is unfolding between the largest players on the online brokerage field. After a decent helping of news, we’ve got just the right amount of extra topping with chatter from Twitter and the investor forums to dig into.

Scotia iTRADE Latest Offers Come Out Swinging

With November quickly drawing to a close, the one thing that Canadian discount brokerages are seeing more of (other than requests to drop their commission prices to zero) is investors hunting for places to open up online trading accounts – in particular TFSAs and RRSPs.

This past week we took note of yet another online brokerage who is jumping back into the deals hot tub. Scotia iTRADE, one of Canada’s big 5 bank-owned online brokerages, stepped forward with a promotion that combines a lowered standard commission price of $6.99 with either a cash back or commission-free trade option.

Building on the momentum from their campaign in the summer featuring a number of social media influencers, it appears that the mass market version of that offer has substantially more tiers and as such, Scotia iTRADE is marketing to multiple investors with this offer.

Scotia iTRADE’s latest promotion consists of 8 deposit tiers, starting with a remarkably low entry point of $5,000 and going all the way up to $1M+. In doing so, Scotia iTRADE has positioned its offer against two of its bank-owned competitors that also have cash back offers, namely CIBC Investor’s Edge and BMO InvestorLine. The table below, which we first wrote about earlier this month, shows an updated view of exactly where the different tiers for Scotia iTRADE’s latest promotion stack up against its peers.

For non-referral offers, Scotia iTRADE actually has the best cash back promotion going for deposits ranging from $5,000 to $24,999. Specifically, it has cash back offerings of $25 and $50 (respectively) as well as a combined drop of commission prices (albeit temporarily until June 2020) to $6.99 per trade. This puts the commission price for Scotia iTRADE’s promotional period very close to the standard pricing for CIBC Investor’s Edge, at $6.95. Scotia iTRADE’s platform and associated features, commission-free ETF selection, and experience in technology could overall, arguably, make it of greater value than the difference of $0.04 per trade (at least over the short term).

For deposits ranging from $25,000 to $249,999, Scotia iTRADE’s cash back offering is on par with CIBC Investor’s Edge. The differentiating factors, therefore, make it debatable as to which bank-owned discount brokerage offers the better value.

For active investors, or those investors that favour ETFs, the decision will likely tilt towards Scotia iTRADE and for more price sensitive investors, CIBC Investor’s Edge might win out because of their commission pricing (and the fact that $6.95 is their standard price, not a promotional one).

Where things start to get interesting is at the higher tier of deposits – specifically deposits greater than $250,000.

Alongside Scotia iTRADE the only other Canadian online brokerage with a cash back promotion for DIY investors at this deposit tier is BMO InvestorLine – another bank-owned online brokerage. For that reason, it is impressive to see that Scotia iTRADE is offering 88% more in cash back for deposits at $250,000 and 25% more for deposits at $500,000. Clearly Scotia iTRADE is trying to send a message to BMO InvestorLine that it is going to fight aggressively for clients at these deposit levels. Because BMO InvestorLine’s deposit tiers don’t include a direct offer at $1M, it means that Scotia iTRADE’s offer of $1,500 is almost 88% greater than the $800 a client would receive from going to InvestorLine.

At these high deposit levels ($1M+), it may seem trivial to be talking about the relatively small amount of cash back offered relative to the deposit itself, however when it comes to competing offers from bank-owned online brokerages, getting almost twice the level of cash back (and access to commission-free ETFs and lower per-trade commission pricing for a limited time), the value proposition is too hard to simply ignore.

Of course, there’s a whole other category that the latest Scotia iTRADE promotion also competes against, which is commission-free trades. In this category of promotion, there are three other primary competitors, Desjardins Online Brokerage, Questrade and RBC Direct Investing.

When it comes to something like a commission-free trade offer, however, there are a few more moving parts for investors to calculate to determine the true value. For example, what the standard commission pricing is and how long the free trades are “good for” are two important factors DIY investors should consider when evaluating a commission-free deal.

Another element that some investors find important is to distinguish between commission-free credits and commission-free rebates. In the case of the former, investors are not charged at the point the trade is made (or if they are, the trade commission is refunded immediately) and in the case of the latter, the commissions for the trade are charged to the client but are be reimbursed at a later date so long as the stipulations of the commission-free trade offer are adhered to for the promotional period.

The multiple moving parts, and the tangibility of cash back mean that commission-free trades are typically less appealing than their cash back counterparts.

In the case of commission-free trade offers, however, Scotia iTRADE is definitely offering up more commission-free trades than other Canadian discount brokerages for deposits over $25,000. Beneath that threshold, however, there is a lot more competition for Scotia iTRADE.

The primary competitor – RBC Direct Investing – is offering up 25 commission-free trades which are good to use for up to a year for a minimum deposit of $5,000. At that same deposit tier, Scotia iTRADE’s commission-free trade option ponies up 10 commission-free trades which are valid for 90 days. For deposits less than $5,000, Questrade has full share of the promotions field, with several commission-free trade offers in play, the best of which offers up 60 days to take advantage of the commission-free status.

Drilling down into the latest offer from Scotia iTRADE shows that the competition between bank-owned online brokerages in Canada is heating up. The end game for the Canadian discount brokerage space is about scale – and for DIY investors who have assets to invest, there is clearly room to negotiate. With iTRADE now in the mix, most of Canada’s bank-owned brokerages are “in market” with compelling offers for at least some segments of investors. This ups the ante and the pressure on any remaining brokerages without ANY offers to step in quickly.

As in the stock market, timing is everything. While there are benefits to seeing what everyone else is doing with respect to pricing, any brokerage waiting too long is going to risk being out in the cold when it comes to attracting clients and assets while investing is top of mind.

Market Hints at Schwab Acquiring TD Ameritrade

If it seems like the US online brokerage market has been in the news and been a topic of conversation in the Weekly Roundup since October, that is because it has. The tsunami of news about online brokerage commissions in the US going to zero took on even more life this past week, with chatter that the largest online brokerage, Schwab, looking to take over rival TD Ameritrade for a projected sum of $26 billion (USD).

Suffice to say that this combination of brokerages was not among the top of the list of forecasted scenarios. There was much more hype and focus on E*Trade as a takeover target than Ameritrade. Even so, contemplating a merger between two of the biggest online brokerages in the US paints a distinctly bipolar picture for the industry as a whole. The winners – both Schwab and Ameritrade – can be seen by the rise in the stock price upon the market learning of this potential deal. The clear losers, at least according to the market, E*Trade and Interactive Brokers.

It might be safe to say that Interactive Brokers didn’t see this magnitude of impact erupting when they chose to launch their commission-free trading platform, IBKR Lite, which is seen as being the tipping point that led the online brokerage industry as a whole in the US to decide to go to zero-commission pricing.

Among the pivotal questions – will this deal go through? And assuming it does, what does that then mean for rivals like Interactive Brokers and E*Trade? What about the new entrants? The Robinhoods of the world will be left competing against a brokerage the size and scale of the combined entity that might be Schwab and Ameritrade (aka Schwameritrade?).

If there are any clues as to what this means for other brokerages, it might be derived from Schwab’s reporting of their account growth since going commission-free. Schwab reportedly gained 142,000 new client accounts and blew the doors off their previous new account growth numbers (and likely that of their competitors). Clearly the calculus on commission-free trading accounts has paid off for Schwab.

Despite the still-fluid state of the US online brokerage landscape, Canadian market observers are trying to get a proxy on whether or not what is happening in the US will play out in the same way here in Canada.

It’s all just speculation at this point, but the lessons learned from the US online brokerage space points to there likely being little to no appetite for Canadian online brokerages to rush to zero. The benefit of letting the US online brokerage market go first is that players here can take a “wait and see” approach as to how online investing can be profitable with lower commission revenues in place.

Secondly, if it wasn’t clear before, it is now abundantly clear that scale matters when it comes to online investing and wealth management more broadly.

The only remaining independent (i.e. non-bank or non-big financial partner owned) online brokerage in Canada is Questrade. Its scale and technology stack – in particular its trading platform, make it an interesting possible fit for a very small number of bank-owned brokerages who are lagging behind the biggest player, TD Direct Investing, in terms of platform and user experience. Nonetheless, when it comes to choices for massive growth in the Canadian online brokerage provider space, there aren’t many places where it is possible; unless providers exit the space or merge (or are acquired).

The possible merger between Schwab and TD Ameritrade will still have to face a great deal of scrutiny from market and anti-trust regulators. The test of whether this will ultimately have beneficial or harmful effect for the marketplace is still an open question considering how much of the market of wealth management these two firms would influence or control. Even so, there are definite hints of further consolidation to come in the US and perhaps one day here in the Canadian online brokerage space.

In a world where lower commissions are a reality, there has to be greater scale or volume to keep things profitable otherwise the notion of a lower price making investing more accessible will actually have the opposite effect. Heading into Black Friday it seems that when it comes to low commission prices, investors should be careful of what they wish for.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Keeping it Real

A Redditor questions the appeal of real estate investments over index funds. Fellow forum users provide insight, discussing the pros and cons of real estate as an investment.

Won is the Luckiest Number?

A DIY investor seeks advice for creating his own portfolio and wonders if a one-and-done, or all-in-one, ETF can help him save on fees and get better returns. Forum users weigh in with the advantages of these types of investments in this post.

 

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another edition of the Roundup. Shopping is clearly in the air, with strong retail sales in Canada tied to economic strength, Tesla rolling out a new Cybertruck – the new Musk-have toy for Christmas, and Black Friday coming around the corner. DIY investors love a good bargain, so this week, more than most, it pays to do your homework. Happy hunting!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 11, 2019

This week more than most, the focus of November is on remembrance. For some (cough cough weed) investors, however, November is about trying to forget and cutting ties with losing stocks. Capitulation typically takes a while to set in. With so many losses accumulating this year for lots of DIY investors, however, this could be a bargain-filled month of investors finally throwing in the towel on non-performing names. Of course, on the other side of the trade, there are still several online brokerages who are not quite ready to throw in the towel.

In this edition of the Roundup, we take a look at the newest discount brokerage deal to cross the wire and what the uptick in activity suggests for the stretch heading into the end of the year. From there, we cover another new feature added by the newest discount brokerage on the block, and what it means for driving change among existing online brokerages. As always, we’ve got an intriguing selection of chatter from DIY investors in the forums and on Twitter to close things out.

Deals Uptick: New Cash Back Offer From CIBC Investor’s Edge Now Live

November is a month that a lot of bargain hunters look forward to. DIY investors, however, don’t have to wait until Black Friday to take advantage of deals coming their way, especially this year. Just a few days into the new month and there is another bank-owned online brokerage that has stepped up to the promotions plate with a competitive cash-back offer for online investors to consider.

CIBC Investor’s Edge has launched a new promotion with cash back offers ranging from $100 (for deposits of $25,000 or more) to $400 (for deposits of $100,000).  Currently there is only one other bank-owned online brokerage, BMO InvestorLine, that is offering cash back bonuses as part of a general campaign. The latest offer from CIBC Investor’s Edge, however, is decidedly more competitive than other cash back offers from Canadian discount brokerages, whether those offers be referral based or public cash back offers.

As can be seen in the table (below) there are currently five Canadian discount brokerages offering up some kind of cash back bonus offer. From the deposit tiers between $25,000 up to $250,000, CIBC is largely unchallenged (for now) with the only alternative offers for a cash back reward being Questrade or Scotia iTRADE via their referral bonus. Even then, CIBC Investor’s Edge is offering, in some cases, more than two times their competitors.

If history is any indicator, we would anticipate seeing other online brokerages start to enter the cash back promotional offer pool with the bulk of offers focusing between $25,000 and $250,000. That said, with millennial investors getting significant focus this year, it would not be surprising to see additional offers come to market for the sub $25K deposit level.

Already at the sub $25K deposit level, four of the five brokerages offering cash back promotions have an offer, however it is remarkable that those are the same four brokerages with cash back referral programs.

With the end of the year fast approaching, it is likely that additional offers will be coming to market. Those stepping onto the field will have to play a fine balance between waiting to see what competitors are offering and getting into the market to be visible when online investors are most actively looking for an online brokerage.

This year in particular, against the backdrop of commission-free trading in the US, it will be interesting to see what the mix of commission-free offers to cash back offers shakes out to be. With two of the big five banks offering up “mass market” offers that are cash back, it would be tough for the bigger remaining players who don’t yet have an offer (e.g. TD Direct Investing or Scotia iTRADE) to come to market with something less appealing. And, for the non-bank-owned online brokerages, this will be a particularly tricky needle to thread. Commission-free trades are less expensive (but also less appealing), however, their pockets are not nearly as deep as their bank-owned competitors.

With markets shrugging off uncertainty or political volatility and pushing into record new highs, strong economic data, and healthy jobs figures, the big picture sentiment seems strong for Canadian investors in many parts of the country to be thinking about saving (and investing) for retirement. That is likely to be an important driver of just how competitive brokerages are willing to be on incentives, especially considering the zero-commission trading train may pull into the station at any time.

The Long Route: Wealthsimple Trade Grinds Away at RRSP Accounts

The classic football film Any Given Sunday has an iconic speech delivered by Al Pacino in which he talks about football being a “game of inches.” In the highly competitive world of online brokerages in Canada, those inches (or centimetres to keep it metric) are also hard to come by in terms of gaining market share. For the newest online brokerage on the block, Wealthsimple Trade, there continue to be signs that it is making progress in its bid to be a serious contender against other Canadian discount brokerages.

One important step that Wealthsimple Trade recently took was the launch of RRSP accounts for DIY investors.

For such an important feature, it has received a remarkably small amount of spotlight on both the Wealthsimple Trade or the Wealthsimple social media channels. One clue as to why that may be the case is because the account feature is not entirely functional in the way it is at most other online brokerages.

The help section of Wealthsimple Trade provided additional details on why that is. Perhaps the most important limitation on the account right now (at least until November 18th) is that money that goes into the RRSP account cannot be withdrawn to a linked bank account. Convenience is a big factor for the target market of Wealthsimple Trade, so a perceived hurdle like this is not something they’d want to highlight (understandably) as it could be the source of a lot of confusion.

Another possible reason why there hasn’t been a lot of noise made yet is because there isn’t the ability to transfer RRSPs from another institution into the Wealthsimple Trade RRSP. As a result, the current pathway to gaining traction for Wealthsimple Trade is to rely on RRSP contributors to: 1. Open a new account with Wealthsimple Trade, and 2. Deposit funds there.  Again, with convenience being an important driver to adoption, having to open up another account with another provider and keep track of money in two different places is just more work than many DIY investors are prepared to put in. With most passive investors capable of accessing commission-free ETF trading at multiple online brokerages, there are just too many other lower friction options out there.

Despite all of the friction points currently in place for Wealthsimple Trade’s RRSP account (and there are a couple more), there is a strong likelihood that these will be addressed or removed entirely in short order. As RRSP season is just around the corner, it is likely that the creative folks at Wealthsimple will find a way to put an optimistic spin on the state of the RRSP account at whatever level of readiness it happens to be at.

Of course, the ace up the sleeve for Wealthsimple (and Wealthsimple Trade) going into RRSP season is that they recently acquired the very popular tax preparation platform SimpleTax. It is not a great leap to be able to see the synergy for Wealthsimple Trade and the tax preparation software, especially at the moment that an individual would be logging any RRSP contribution data or if they have a tax refund they might need to stash somewhere (like a TFSA, RRSP or other investment account).

For now, Wealthsimple Trade remains the underdog in the online brokerage competition in Canada. Even with zero-commission trades, convenience and ease of use are going to be the key areas that the competition can use to pull ahead. That said, other Canadian online brokerages can’t afford to fumble on service or stability any more, and if they do, DIY investors will be asking why they’re paying the fees they are.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Low Fees, High Price

In the midst of the announcement from Planswell that they’re shutting down, Redditors engage in a discussion on the downfall of the company and the precarity of robo-advisors in the race to the lowest fees.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

A Redditor concerned with optimizing his son’s RESP ponders whether or not to move from TD e-Series to Questrade or TD Waterhouse. Fellow forum users weigh in, offering advice about whether or not it’s a necessary change.

Into the Close

These days, it seems like there’s no shortage of vitriol kicking around online. Sadly, we’re at a moment in history when the efforts and sacrifices of those who fought against fascism and totalitarianism have been overshadowed by some who, if they were really students of history, ought to know better. Fortunately, the symbols of those who stood up to the world’s evils can inspire us to do the same and give each of us the strength to make the hard choice to do the right thing. Thank you to the brave individuals who continue to serve, in spirit and in person, this great nation.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 4, 2019

They say when it (November) rains, it (November) pours. It’s fitting for the start of the second-last month to reference the turbulent weather that many DIY investors encountered at the outset of the new month, and a fitting nod to the Guns & Roses song, since nothing lasts forever, especially these days for online brokerages where the winds of change are picking up.

In this edition of the Roundup, we review the latest action taking place in the deals and promotions section, and highlight potential game changers for online investors looking for free trades. Next, we review another emerging trend in the Canadian discount brokerage space that puts portfolio performance and risk in the spotlight. And, speaking of spotlight, we shine a “Lite” on the early results of the commission-free trading shift in the US, with the release of trading metrics at one online brokerage. As usual, we’ve served up a healthy selection of investor comments from Twitter and the investor forums.

Deal-vering Change

The start of a new month typically brings with it some interesting activity in the deals and promotions section and this month is no exception.

Promotional offers for Canadian DIY investors did see some turnover as the new month began with an offer from Scotia iTRADE expiring, as well as the summer promotion from BMO InvestorLine giving way to a new offer that runs through to early January. Nonetheless, savings are in the forecast for investors with the end of the year in sight and industry competition at an all time high.

In terms of turnover, after having been extended from the middle of October through to the end of the month, the latest offer from Scotia iTRADE signalled that something interesting is happening behind the scenes at this bank-owned online brokerage. These past two months have seen some creative approaches to pricing and offers emerge.

In particular, in September, the parent of Scotia iTRADE, Scotiabank, rolled out a banking package that also kicked in 10 commission-free trades for the first year an account holder has the account, and five commission-free trades per year thereafter. Also that month, they launched an offer of $50 cash back and discounted commissions – again something novel for both that brokerage and unusual for the online brokerage space – which suggests that efforts are ramping up to win and keep customers. It remains to be seen how offers from the parent bank co-exist, complement, or compete with offers from Scotia iTRADE, but it does raise an interesting prospect as to whether deals and promotions, as we have traditionally known them, are about to evolve into something new.

On the topic of change, this month’s deals suggest that BMO InvestorLine is hoping that their latest offer brings in DIY investors who’ve got lots of change to spare.

The latest cash back promotion launched by BMO InvestorLine is a tiered cash back promotion with the highest top-tier offer we’ve seen yet – $5,000 cash back for a deposit of $5M or more. Both the minimum deposit tier and the accompanying cash back bonus are new highs among online brokerages in Canada. Of course, the entry point to qualify for the current offer is also relatively high – at a minimum deposit of $250,000. All told, BMO InvestorLine is looking specifically to appeal to investors with higher balances and assets rather than something aimed towards younger or entry-level portfolio sizes.

For DIY investors, the combination of the ramp up to RRSP season, the looming end of year deadline, and the recent collapse of commission prices in the US point to a perfect storm of incentive offers set to launch from this point through to March. Although it’s tricky to predict the weather, the forecast for DIY investors heading into 2020 will bring with it a high ridge of downward pressure on prices and a flurry of savings.

Qtrade Investor Powers Up on Performance Analytics

In the battle for DIY investors in Canada, the discount brokerages can see the writing on the wall with respect to commission prices falling.

Slowly but surely, as online brokerages tinker with pricing, they are also working on improving the client experience to address important wealth management needs. This past week, Qtrade Investor announced the integration of a new set of risk management tools for investors called Portfolio Score.

The analytics tool for investors, which is developed by financial technology firm Wealthscope, provides assessments to DIY investors that explain the performance and risk features. For example, clients can now assess their portfolio against domestic and global market benchmarks which helps to showcase how well (or poorly) their portfolio is performing relative to a diverse set of indices. Winning strategies will typically outperform the market so depending on the approach investors are taking with managing their own financial destinies via online trading, this tool will spell out the performance being generated.

Another interesting feature about the Wealthscope Portfolio Score tool that will appeal to DIY investor clients at Qtrade Investor is that it analyzes portfolios using a “checkup” evaluation.  Included in the list of items being assessed are: downside protection, performance, diversification, income, and fees.

Earlier in 2019, Virtual Brokers also announced it had partnered with Wealthscope to offer clients portfolio analysis and analytics, bringing the number of Canadian online brokerages using the Wealthscope system to two.

For its part, TD Direct Investing has also offered up financial planning and portfolio analytics via their own partnership with Hydrogen Technology Corp. TD Direct Investing’s “GoalAssist” was rolled out in March 2019 with the objective to help support DIY investors in understanding the factors and behaviours required to achieve their wealth planning goals.

While Canadian discount brokerages are, almost by definition, not allowed to provide financial advice, there is clearly a market for providing DIY investors with the kinds of tools and support they need in order to successfully plan and navigate the world of investing on their own. The role that technologies are starting to be able to play in providing statistical analyses of goals or portfolio composition provide an important piece of information that DIY investors can use to plan their trading or investing strategies more rationally.

Clearly, with three highly visible online brokerages bolstering their suite of features with portfolio risk and performance analytics, there may be yet another trend forming for 2020 as other online brokerages look to replicate and do the same. Ironically, providing investors with in-depth benchmarks could itself become a benchmark feature savvy investors come to look for.

As Financial Literacy Month kicks off, these kinds of tools are very much aligned not only with enabling investors to see the power of aggregated data in managing their portfolio risk exposure, but it appears these platforms will also help to support investors learning about sound portfolio management principles.

While cooler heads are something most Canadians try to avoid having in winter, when it comes to investing online – especially DIY investing online – hot heads are dangerous liabilities. With the new slate of portfolio analytics tools coming to market, there’s finally an easier way to digest and act upon complex information in a calm and orderly fashion.

Early Numbers on IBKR Lite

With the rollover to a new month, Interactive Brokers released its monthly trading metrics. Aside from the usual stats provided by the US-based online brokerage, this month’s metrics featured a new “bullet point” that reported on the progress of the commission-free trading platform IBKR Lite.

The early numbers reported by Interactive Brokers show that IBKR Lite clients executed an average of one thousand US Reg-NMS orders per day. Unlike the standard metric for trading that gets reported, Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs), commission-free trading doesn’t generate revenue (at least from trading commissions), so it was interesting to see what the numbers were but also how they were being reported.

Given the short timeframe in which the IBKR Lite platform has been operational, it was interesting to see the reporting of the figures showcase the volume of an average of one thousand orders per day. To put that into perspective, Interactive Brokers clients overall generated 797 thousand trades per day, so the volume of activity in IBKR Lite is almost inconsequentially small by comparison to the standard IBKR platform.

Another interesting number to highlight from the metrics release was the growth in accounts at Interactive Brokers. The month over month increase was 1% which, considering the move to commission-free trading, reflects that the introduction of this feature was met with a more muted response by investors than it was with competitors.

Upon the release of the IBKR Lite platform in October, other online brokerages in the US quickly lowered their commission rates to zero – perhaps in an effort to prevent a flood of customers from leaving to go to a lower commission competitor. Clearly, it seems to have worked, at least for the time being.

Interactive Brokers has never been shy about its focus on catering to active investors and traders. The recent moves into providing more products that mainstream investors could find appealing is still just a small portion of their business. International expansion also factors heavily into the Interactive Brokers growth plans.

In another interesting move, after Schwab announced in September that it is closing its offices in Singapore at the end of 2019, Interactive Brokers appears to be stepping into Singapore in January 2020.

Over the next several weeks and months, analysts and industry observers will be looking closely at how the zero-commission trading fees will impact metrics like client acquisition and turnover (churn). In particular, we will be monitoring the growth (or contraction) rates to see if there is any suggestion that zero-commission trading moved the needle on online investing accessibility or if the market of DIY investors still maintained its steady state pace of ebbs and flows with respect to joining an online brokerage.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Shoring up an Exit Plan

After having left a full service broker, a new DIY Investor on this forum seeks help figuring out the logistics of investing as they make plans to leave the country. Forum users offer incredibly in-depth advice on how to approach DIY investing and weigh in on the possible home country bias in their investment strategy.

Switches in Stitches

A Redditor switched RESPs to Questrade in hopes of saving on fees, but encountered a lot of turbulence in the process. Fellow forum users share their experiences with transferring accounts and commiserate about the bumpy ride in switching online brokerages.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another series of updates. There are still lots of interesting developments taking place daily so it feels a bit like the ground is continuously shifting.  On the plus side, DIY investors are going to be in for a fun stretch into the end of the year.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions, November 2019

*Updated Nov. 27* Welcome to November, where DIY investors, like daylight, are in for some savings when it comes to investing online. Despite the extra hour available to online brokerages, TFSA contribution room dates, RRSP contribution deadline season and tax season are all quickly approaching, and as a result, investors are already kicking the tires on where best to park their capital. Add to the mix record highs on the stock markets, and it’s a potent combination for investors interested in market momentum.

After the most turbulent month in the history of online brokerages in the US that saw trading commission fees drop to zero, the moose in the room for Canadian discount brokerages is how to temper expectations for zero-commission trading. There is clearly demand for it across social media and among DIY investors, and there is even supply in the form of a couple of online brokers ponying up commission-free trading of one kind or another.

The next best option to fully dropping commissions to zero, is a generous helping of commission-free trades (or cash back) to win over investor loyalty.

It is against that backdrop that we see the Canadian discount brokerage deals activity at a bit of a crossroads this month. On the one hand, the uptick in investor interest is imminent, so there have to be offers coming to market soon. On the other, brokerages are watching one another carefully to see which major online brokerage makes the first move with respect to pricing or promotions (or both) going into the end of 2019.

Already at the beginning of the month we’ve witnessed some bold moves by BMO InvestorLine, with the launch of a new cash back offer geared towards bigger balances than have ever been pursued before. Other brokerages, such as RBC Direct Investing are in the mix with commission-free offers, and bank-owned brokerages National Bank Direct Brokerage and Scotia iTRADE are offering up free trades on an annual basis to certain account holders. In the case of National Bank Direct Brokerage, young investors (under 30 years old) can get 10 commission-free trades per month (as well as a discounted commission fee thereafter). For Scotia iTRADE, the Ultimate banking package with Scotiabank provides 10 commission-free trades in the first year and 5 commission-free trades every year thereafter.

All told, there’s plenty of activity to keep things warm, toasty and inviting for DIY investors looking for promotions or deals to open or add funding to an online investing account. Of course, there’s still likely more to come, so be sure to check back through the month or follow us on Twitter for more deals announcements.

Expired Deals

Scotia iTrade’s $50 cash back and $6.99 per trade promotion officially expired at the end of October. This unique approach to a promotion signals that there’s something creative being cooked up in the iTRADE kitchen and we’ll be watching to see what ultimately surfaces over the next few weeks.

Although it has been replaced by a new offer already, there was a technical expiry of the summer cash back promotions from BMO InvestorLine, which retired their tiered cash back promotion that started off at a minimum deposit tier or $100,000.

Extended Deals

No extensions to report at the time of publication

New Deals

BMO InvestorLine is pushing the line even higher on the top end of both the cash back and the deposit level required to qualify for it with the launch of their latest cash back promotion. The new deal has an initial qualifying deposit tier of $250,000 and associated cash back of $400, and tops out at a new high for a deposit tier of $5M+ for which a whopping $5,000 bonus can be paid out.

*Update November 12 – CIBC Investor’s Edge has launched a brand new cash back promotion for individuals that transfer their account out of their current online brokerage and into Investor’s Edge. The minimum deposit required to qualify for this deal is $25,000; you may be eligible to receive $100 – $400 in cash back depending on the size of your deposit. Scroll down for more details!

*Update November 27 – Scotia iTrade has released a promotion that offers new account holders the choice of a) cash back + $6.99 commissions; or b) free equity trades. The minimum deposit required for this deal is $5,000, and you could be eligible to receive either a) $25 – 1,500 cash back + $6.99 per trade; or b) between 10 – 500 free equity trades, dependent on the size of your funding. Scroll down for more info.

Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. 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
Jitney Trade 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 a new RBC Direct Investing account by December 13th and you may be eligible for 25 commission-free equity and ETF trades. You must deposit or transfer $5,000 in your account by February 14th, 2020 to be able to use this promotion. Make sure that the offer code MCFT1 is applied if you wish to qualify for this deal. As always, be sure to take a look at the terms and conditions for further details. $5,000 25 commission-free trades 1 year Commission-Free Offer Details December 13, 2019
Scotia iTrade Open and fund a new Scotia iTrade account to be eligible for up to $1,500 in cash back and $6.99 commission pricing, or up to 500 free equity trades. The amount of cashback and free trades are dependent on the funding of your account. Take a look at the offer details link for further information. $5,000 Cash + discounted commissions, or free trades. $6.99 trades available until June 30, 2020; Cash or commission rebate for free trades available until July 31, 2020. iTrade Offer Details February 29, 2020
Disnat 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 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
When you transfer funds from another account into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account with assets worth at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000; C) $100,000, you may be eligible to receive A) $100; B) $200; or C) $400 in cash back. A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) 100,000+ A) $100 B) $200 C) $400 Cash back will be deposited between May 18 – September 17, 2020. CIBC Cash Back Offer Details March 4, 2020
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $250,000; B) $500,000; C) $2M or D) $5M+, and you may be eligible to a cash back reward of up to A) $400; B) $800; C) $2,000 or D) $5,000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $250,000 B) $500,000 C) $2M D) $5M+ A) $400 B) $800 C) $2,000 D) $5,000 Cash back will be deposited week of Aug. 17, 2020 BMO InvestorLine Cash Back Offer Details January 6, 2020

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Nov. 1, 2019 23:00 PT

Referral Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Incentive Structure Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit Details Link Deadline
BMO InvestorLine 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
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
Scotia iTrade 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 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

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Nov. 1, 2019 23:00 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 n/a Transfer Fee Promo none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees. $200 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered. $152.55 $15,000 Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information. none
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 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
Disnat 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
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Contact client service for more details. $200 Contact client service for more information Contact client service for more information (1-888-776-6886) none

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Nov. 1, 2019 23:00 PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Disnat 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
Scotia iTrade 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

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Nov. 1, 2019 23:00 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open 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
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: Nov. 1, 2019 23:00 PT
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 28, 2019

Halloween is just around the corner, and for the online brokerage industry, it appears that they’re poised to deliver lots of treats and perhaps even a few tricks for DIY investors this year. Of course, this year’s scary prospect for Canadian discount brokerages might be vanishing profits, but as the US online brokerages are showing, even when commissions disappear, profits don’t have to.

In this edition of the Roundup, we continue our coverage of the fallout of falling commission prices, with a closer look at the conference call from TD Ameritrade and what hints it provided for the US and Canadian online brokerage industry. From there, we take a peek into what the folks in Sherwood forest are up to now that their vision of a zero-commission world is here, and they have to compete in it. As always, we’ll cap things off with chatter from investors on Twitter and in the investor forums.

More Commission Price Fallout: The TD Ameritrade Conference Call

It’s hard to pick a bigger story for this month or year than the fall of commission prices for stock trading in the US. This past week provided additional colour to the unfolding saga of the new reality for online investors and online brokerages in the US, as TD Ameritrade reported earnings and held their investor conference call.

With several earnings announcements and conference calls already having taken place (for Interactive Brokers and E*TRADE), it was interesting to see where the analysts who were on the call focused their questions and what could be gleaned from the responses of outgoing CEO Tim Hockey and CFO Steve Boyle.

There were a number of interesting, if not surprising, observations about this call, with implications for the US online brokerage market in general, and perhaps hints of things to come for Canadian online brokerages too.

One of the first standout items about this conference call was that the analyst questions appeared to take the new commission-free reality in stride. Unlike the clearly disoriented moments in early October when the pricing cuts were announced, there was clearly a more rational tone struck that seemed to suggest: “commission-free trading is here to stay, now what?”

Perhaps the clearest recurring question that came up on the conference call was that of mergers & acquisitions – with the subtext being the acquisition of E*TRADE.

A total of six questions referenced directly or indirectly the prospect of an acquisition being more likely now that commissions have gone to zero. While there was no definitive response on the part of Ameritrade regarding possible acquisitions (or being acquired), there was a clear acknowledgement that TD Ameritrade’s timing for the acquisition of Scottrade couldn’t have been better because it contributed scale. Nonetheless, reading between the lines on that response, it is clear that scale is going to be a critical pillar to the success of TD Ameritrade going forward.

In terms of the path forward, TD Ameritrade is looking for both growth and for increased efficiency. In terms of growth, areas such as stock lending appeared to have boosted earnings coming into this call (bets against cannabis and Beyond Meat helped that), however, in the longer term, they are looking to other lines of business and to other markets overseas to boost assets and revenues.

Outside of growth, there were also remarks and comments made with respect to cutting costs. It is abundantly clear from Schwab and E*TRADE that the path forward to sustainability in the zero-commission world is going to require efficiency, or as they like to call it, “streamlining.”

What stood out as an interesting move is the sentiment expressed by Boyle that Ameritrade is going to be “focusing on what is our core competency where we can grow, not trying to be all things to all people.” Subtle shade aside to the online brokerages moving into more traditional financial services, the notable context here is that Ameritrade is going to ramp up efforts to acquire and service high net worth individuals and potentially look to realign how they deliver services to account holders that may not take advantage of the full feature set. Specifically, Boyle stated “we do have a number of customers who have relatively small revenue with us. And we think it – there are a number of ways where we’re providing value that people will be willing to pay for.”

What is apparent from the ability of TD Ameritrade to pivot their pricing so quickly to zero was that this eventuality is something they had prepared for for quite some time. In fact, the “strategic resiliency project,” as it was called, was set in motion in 2017 so there was plenty of runway for Ameritrade to adjust to the new reality.

Hockey was surprisingly upbeat about the zero-commission move. His confidence rested on the premise that Ameritrade has an award-winning (and perhaps best of breed) platform that passive and active investors alike will take to, as well as deep bench of value-added features that other online brokerages have not invested in to the same degree. The net result: with commission price no longer a barrier, Ameritrade has one of the strongest competitive advantages in terms of customer experience of all the major US online brokerages and that will attract customers away from other brokerages. Anecdotally, according to Hockey, this is already happening.

For Canadian discount brokerages, the emerging playbook for the zero-commission reality is starting to become clearer thanks to the experiences of brokerages south of the border. While it is still likely to be some time before commission prices hit zero in Canada, it is clear that the path to financial sustainability for discount brokerages rests in creating a best-in-class service and technology experience, as well as offering access to other financial services. As such, it is no longer a race to the bottom per se as much as it is a race to the middle.

The balance of technology, pricing, and experience mean that investors looking to manage their wealth, not just trade the stock market, will think holistically about who the right online brokerage is for them. Conversely, the zero-commission rate also appears to be providing a chance for online brokerages to rethink who the right customers are for them.

Sherwood Like Cash

The ground is clearly shifting beneath the online brokerage industry in both the US and here in Canada. Even though the headlines this month have been dominated by the drop in commission fees by the major online brokerages, there have nonetheless been important stories and developments that deserve a little more time in the spotlight.

Now on the defensive, the online brokerage that was the catalyst in “democratizing” pricing for online investors, Robinhood, announced this month the re-launch of their cash management program.robinhood cash mgmt

One of the more potent arrows in its quiver, the cash management feature offers Robinhood clients the ability to earn high interest (2.05% at the time of publishing) on uninvested cash balances as well as access to a (great looking) debit card.

Just under a year ago, Robinhood attempted to launch this feature by labelling it as a checking/savings feature, and in doing so, earned the extreme ire of the US financial regulators. Nonetheless, after some time in the penalty box, Robinhood posted to their blog that their shiny new feature is “coming soon” – an interesting move in the midst of the zero-commission melee, as the report got eclipsed by bigger news stories about the industry.

Even so, Robinhood, like Interactive Brokers, has picked up on the idea that offering high-ish interest on uninvested cash balances is likely to not only keep existing customers happy but appeal to prospective customers.

Another new feature announcement from Robinhood also launched last week, which is the roll out of stop-limit orders for options trading. Interestingly, despite zero-commission trades for equities being implemented at other online brokerages in the US, options trading commissions – specifically per contract prices – are still in place. At Robinhood, however, options trading (including the per contract fee) is still $0.

The launch of this new feature is likely one part the result of client request and another part strategic news item to point out that there are still features to Robinhood that provide economic benefits to active investors. That said, options trading is both more complex and obscure to many DIY investors than stock trading is.

The data and platform requirements are equally more sophisticated, as are the competitors (e.g. Tastyworks) so Robinhood definitely has its work cut out to be able to effectively draw DIY investors into options trading if they don’t already do it, or to attract options traders into their platform and away from the bells and whistles that other platforms already offer.

In spite of the new features, it is clear the path forward for Robinhood is going to be significantly tougher to compete in. By all measures, the stand-alone online brokerage is officially a thing of the past, and where they were once entirely focused on stock trading, they are now going to have to be able to execute well in options trading, cryptocurrency trading, and broader personal financial services. With other financial service providers launching commission-free trades, including Square announcing the end of 2019 as when they’ll roll it out, we’re really excited to see what innovations drive interest and investors to particular brokerages and investments next.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Safety is no Accident

A self-proclaimed “couch potato investor” on Reddit contemplates switching from Questrade to TD Direct Investing due to concerns over Questrade’s security guarantee. Forum users weigh in on their favourite discount brokerages and the role they have to play in security precautions.

The Fund-amentals

A Redditor who has newly signed up to Desjardins for their group RRSP at work asks for guidance in which fund to pick. Commenters on this post explain RRSPs and offer advice on assessing one’s risk aversion.

Into the Close

That’s it for another week of discount brokerage activities. There continue to be lots of smaller developments that we’re tracking as the news about zero-commission trading continues to settle down. The next big wave of earnings is also washing over the market, so in addition to the sugar high from all the candy consumed this week, there’s also going to be lots of data to digest. Hooray for spreadsheets!

 

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 7, 2019

You have to hand it to October. For whatever reason, this is the month of the calendar year where there happens to be more volatility than usual in stock markets. It even featured prominently in the Back to Future franchise as the date in which travelling through time would be achieved. Although time travel in a DeLorean may not be here, it seems like for Canadian DIY investors, the future of online trading is.

In this week’s Roundup, the commission rate carnage in the US takes centre stage. With all major online brokerages in the US dropping trading commission rates to zero, it was an historic time to be witnessing this seismic shift in this industry. Speaking of history, our follow up story is about a Canadian bank-owned brokerage who marked their 30-year anniversary as an online broker with a timely video on how much has changed. Of course, staying on top of the comments on social media and in the forums is standard fare, and these close off this edition of the Roundup.

US Online Brokerage Commissions Rocked

There are big deals, and then there are the kinds of weeks like the one the online brokerage industry in the US had. In what could genuinely be characterized as the most explosive (or implosive) week in online brokerage history, investors, media, and online brokerages alike all watched in jaw-dropping awe as commission prices for trading online collapsed to zero. Everywhere.

Within one week of the already low-cost online brokerage Interactive Brokers announcing that they would introduce zero-commission trading as part of IBKR Lite, the entire suite of online brokerage players in the US followed. Starting on October 1st with Charles Schwab, then TD Ameritrade, and finally E*TRADE on October 2nd, billions of dollars in commission revenues were vapourized, along with market caps for the publicly traded US online brokers.

With the moves catching many in the investment world (surprisingly) by surprise, stock prices for the US online brokerages were hit hard. Charles Schwab dropped by 9%, TD Ameritrade was decimated to the tune of 25%, and E*TRADE fell by 16%. The blow back even hit Canadian bank TD for a drop of 2%, which owns 42% of TD Ameritrade.

There is certainly lots to unpack, and likely still many more stories to emerge from what just happened. One thing that does stand out, however, is just how fast the industry as a whole followed the lead of Interactive Brokers.

As we mentioned in last week’s Roundup, the “Z Day” playbook had likely already been written, with many online brokerages in the US aware of what could or would need to happen if one of the major competitors took commission rates to zero. For that reason, although it was painful to do so, the industry was prepared to respond quickly in the event the nuclear option was triggered.

As part of the fallout, the question many Canadian investors are asking (if not outright demanding an answer to) is when online brokerages in Canada will move to full zero-commission trading.

When the online brokerages in the US finally hit the big red button, Schwab was offering standard commissions at $4.95 and both TD Ameritrade and E*TRADE were at $6.95 (all dollar amounts in USD).

For an apples to apples comparison, the “standard” commission rates for Canadian online brokerages range from $4.88 at HSBC InvestDirect to $9.99 (at Scotia iTRADE and TD Direct Investing). Other online brokerages offer variable pricing of $0.01/share with minimums of $1 (Interactive Brokers), $1.99 (Virtual Brokers), and Questrade ($4.95) so depending on the order size, it may be cheaper to execute certain trades there than by paying a fixed fee. And, as we reported last week in the Roundup, National Bank Direct Brokerage will soon be launching their active trader pricing at $0.95. Flat fee pricing for active traders at Virtual Brokers is $3.99, and $4.99 at Scotia iTRADE.

The key takeaway is that the point of no return has likely already been passed for Canadian online brokerages’ commission pricing. For some quick context, Schwab’s $4.95 USD converts roughly into $6.59 CAD.

So, it seems that Canadian online brokerages are going to be counting on the “inertia” effect of Canadian DIY investors as long as they can, hoping that investors don’t want to go through the “hassle” of switching online brokerages if the perceived benefit is not really worth it.

It is worth pointing out that the majority of the word “meh” is comprised of “eh” and that might be appropriate to characterize what the response would be here if Canadian online brokerages took down their pricing to the near zero level. As such, it is likely that Canadian online brokers have much more time than their US counterparts to bring commission rates down. And that time buys flexibility.

One of the important differences between the Canadian and US online brokerage marketplaces is that the level of competition is nowhere nearly as intense. So, while the impact of publicly traded online brokerages taking their commission rates to zero makes headline news and moves markets in the US, there are no publicly traded online brokerages here in Canada to make the same kind of splash.

If zero is not the right number, then what is? Would it really be worth it for passive investors to switch online brokerages if the commissions they paid per trade were $3 or $2 or just $1?

For example, it might not be inconceivable that a Canadian online brokerage attempts to try the gym membership strategy of charging a monthly fee whereby traders can make as many trades as they want (subject to some very well thought out terms and conditions).

Alternatively, Canadian online brokerages could take their rates down to a “toonie” or a “loonie,” and the rates could seem inconsequential. A round trip using a cash fare on the TTC (Toronto’s transit system) costs $6.50 (as of the writing of this post) so a round trip for a stock trade that came in at less than that (without the risk of similar delays hopefully!) would be easy marketing fodder.

Perhaps the biggest ace up the sleeves of bank-owned online brokerages in Canada would be the bundling of banking relationships to achieve the best commission rates. National Bank Direct Brokerage’s latest pricing move is a perfect example of this approach where clients of National Bank get a break on commission pricing at NBDB. A much larger online brokerage competitor could, however, afford to take pricing even lower than the $6.95 watermark. For the non-bank-owned (or non-credit union-owned) brokerages, this latest pricing cut is a bellwether to move faster to cut rates and figure out other value drivers. Dragging their heels is not an option any more.

There will undoubtedly be lots to continue to watch unfold as the US industry tries to adjust to a new commission rate environment while still trying to remain profitable. One of the main forecasts for what will happen next is that industry consolidation will take place.

Sustainability in the online brokerage space lies in scale, which for now will be achieved through acquisition, so it won’t be surprising to see E*TRADE surface again an as acquisition story. Potentially, however, so could Robinhood. It has been structuring itself for an IPO and has been operating as a zero-commission broker from day one, so it not only has the infrastructure and critical mass of key client segment baked in, but it also has founders and their backers looking for a liquidity event. Add to that the terrible climate for tech IPOs in the US at the moment, and it seems like paying a premium for a Robinhood now would likely leapfrog an acquisition of E*TRADE. Like other brokerages, E*TRADE’s forecasts are going to be revised downwards, which means they’re also likely to be acquired at somewhat of a discount if they do get acquired at all.

For Canadian online brokerages, it is likely that the battle for DIY investors will further its split into either passive investors or active ones. With lower commission fees will likely come more trading, and more active traders need better tools – like trading platforms, and data, to time their entries and exits. With zero commissions, frequent trading is likely to see a resurgence, so those novice “day traders” on the sidelines will undoubtedly be enticed to step back in.

On balance, it seems that online brokerages who can offer a better trading experience are going to likely earn higher praise than those who simply offer lower pricing. Any broker who offers both a great trading platform and lower price for commission (*ahem Interactive Brokers*) will be a natural contender for Canadian DIY investors going forward. Throw in the convenience of managing banking, credit cards, line of credit or a mortgage, and you’ve got a trifecta for DIY investors.

The only question now is how long Canadian DIY investors will have to wait before someone claims the mantle of being the first to offer all three in this brave new commission-free world.

RBC Direct Investing Celebrates 30 Years as an Online Brokerage in Canada

The universe can be somewhat poetic in its timing. Amidst the backdrop of all of the activity in the online brokerage space in the US, this past week RBC Direct Investing officially celebrated the incredible milestone of 30 years as an online brokerage for Canadians.

To mark the occasion, the team from RBC Direct Investing opened the market at the Toronto Stock Exchange and produced a video commemorating the journey from 1989 to 2019.

It will undoubtedly be an exciting year for all the online brokerages, but in particular for bank-owned online brokerages like RBC Direct Investing for the remainder of 2019 and 2020.

No stranger to jumping ahead of their bank-owned brokerage peers in lowering commission prices, RBC Direct Investing was the first of the big bank-owned online brokerages to lower their commission rates down to $9.95 a trade in 2014. Like their peers, it’s clearly a question of when, rather than if, commission prices will drop again and by how much.

We’re keen to see whether RBC Direct Investing will once again set the pricing pace among the bigger brokerages and especially given the spotlight being shone on zero-commission rates in the US (and further afield in Europe and Australia). Given the volatility in the space right now, we’re curious where the next 30 (days) takes Canadian DIY investors.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Unluck-eh

While applying for a permanent residency, a Redditor who’s new to Canada is having trouble opening a TFSA and has asked the DIY investor community for their advice. Read the full discussion here.

Uncomfortable Questions

A Redditor with a managed portfolio is curious about index funds but worries that the inquiry will offend their financial advisor. DIY investors discuss the situation and the potential profit outlook here.

Into the Close

Staying on the throwback to the 80s, it was 30 years ago in 1989 that the video game Zero Wing was launched, which eventually gave rise to the meme “All your base are belong to us.” Video games, like the online brokerage industry, have changed dramatically since then. What the events of the past week have shown, however, is that the future can show up faster than expected and that those clamouring for commission-free trading (at least in the US) have now received what they wished for. While we now chuckle at how silly the games 30 years ago look compared to today’s, it is also remarkable to think that one day it will be considered equally silly that online brokerages were able to charge as much as they were for trades for so long.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions, October 2019

*Updated Oct. 15* There probably couldn’t be a better name for the current season that online brokerages find themselves in this year. Fall is definitely here and more than just the leaves on the trees, commission rates are dropping to the ground this October.

The casualties in the US online brokerage space are making headlines and among Canadian discount brokerages, there are already signs commission pricing is falling. The latest Weekly Roundup highlighted National Bank Direct Brokerage’s move to lower their rates substantially and their new offering for younger investors.

For those keeping score at home, this is just the beginning of October.

In terms of the impact to and outlook on deals and promotions, it’s safe to say that there are a lot of folks in the Canadian discount brokerage industry who are going back to the drawing board on how to navigate the coming tsunami of price drops. One possible life boat (for now) will be generous promotional offers – which is great news for DIY investors heading into the end of the year and what is almost sure going to be the most competitive RSP season yet.

For the moment, there wasn’t a significant amount of discount brokerage deal activity to start the month. Questrade extended their transfer fee offer while HSBC bid farewell to their summer promotion. October has historically been known as a volatile month for stock markets, and for deal hunters in the Canadian discount brokerage space, it’s likely to be just as wild a ride. Hang on tight!

Expired Deals

HSBC InvestDirect’s 30 commission-free trades promotion expired at the end of September.

Extended Deals

Questrade has extended their transfer fee promotion indefinitely. The terms and conditions don’t specify an end date to this offer although Questrade states they can change the terms of the promo at any point. This promo continues to see traction and offers coverage of transfer fees of up to $150 for switching to Questrade with no minimum transfer amount required to qualify. Scroll down for more info!

*Update October 15 – Scotia iTrade has extended their $50 cash back offer, which also includes discounted commission pricing until March 2020. This promotion has been extended from October 15th to the end of the month; for those DIY investors that are looking to open a new account, this could be the promotion for you. Further details on the offer can be found below.

New Deals

*Update October 15 – RBC Direct Investing is offering a new deal on commission-free trades. If you open a new Direct Investing account by December 13th, you can qualify for 25 commission-free equity and ETF trades to use within a year. More details on this promotion can be found below.

Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. 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
Jitney Trade 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
Scotia iTrade Open a new qualifying account and fund it with a minimum of $2,500 and you may be eligible to receive $50 cash back. This offer also includes $6.99 per trade commissions until March 1, 2020. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details. $2,500 $50 cash back and $6.99 per Canadian and US equity/ETF trade. Cash back will be deposited by January 31, 2020. $6.99 per trade commission pricing active until March 1, 2020. Cash Back Offer Details October 31, 2019
Open a new RBC Direct Investing account by December 13th and you may be eligible for 25 commission-free equity and ETF trades. You must deposit or transfer $5,000 in your account by February 14th, 2020 to be able to use this promotion. Make sure that the offer code MCFT1 is applied if you wish to qualify for this deal. As always, be sure to take a look at the terms and conditions for further details. $5,000 25 commission-free trades 1 year Commission-Free Offer Details December 13, 2019
Disnat 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 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
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $100,000; B) $250,000; C) $500,000+ or D) $2M+, and you may be eligible to a cash back reward of up to A) $100; B) $225; C) $600 or D) $2,000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $100,000 B) $250,000 C) $500,000 D) $2M+ A) $100 B) $225 C) $600 D) $2,000 Cash back will be deposited the week of June 15, 2020. BMO InvestorLine Cash Back Offer Details October 31, 2019

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Oct. 15, 2019 12:02 PT

Referral Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Incentive Structure Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit Details Link Deadline
BMO InvestorLine 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
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
Scotia iTrade 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 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

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Oct. 31, 2019 15:30 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 n/a Transfer Fee Promo none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees. $200 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered. $152.55 $15,000 Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information. none
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 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
Disnat 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
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Contact client service for more details. $200 Contact client service for more information Contact client service for more information (1-888-776-6886) none

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Oct. 2, 2019 00:30 PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Disnat 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
Scotia iTrade 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

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Oct. 2, 2019 00:30 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open 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
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: Oct. 2, 2019 00:30 PT
Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – September 9, 2019

Sports offer a great metaphor for the highly competitive nature of the stock market. After an epic weekend of football and tennis, there was lots to cheer for (not so much for Raiders fans though). While there are many lessons on the field that apply to the markets, another great feature of sports is the highlight reel.

In this edition of the Roundup, we serve up a series of highlights from what online brokerage activity crossed our radar this past week. Keep reading to learn more about deals updates, a pull back on shorts, healthy performance stats, new features, and upcoming investor education initiatives. As always, we’ll serve up the staple DIY investor conversations on Twitter and the investor forums.

Deal and No Deal at BMO InvestorLine

This past week, BMO InvestorLine saw a couple of interesting developments take shape. First, on the deals and promotions front, the popular bank-owned Canadian online brokerage kicked off their latest offer for the new season.

Similar to their summer promotion, BMO InvestorLine’s latest offer is also a tiered cash-back offering. The latest promo, like the one before it, has tiers that skew towards higher deposit amounts with the maximum tier with a reward being the $2M one. Interestingly, when compared side-by-side, the fall offer makes getting a deal more accessible, since the latest offer has a lower threshold to qualify ($100K minimum deposit vs $500K minimum deposit) for it.

Min Deposit Required Summer Offer Reward Fall Offer Reward
$100K – $100
$250K $500 $225
$500K $1,000 $600
$2M+ $2,500 $2,000

 

Unlike the summer offer, the most recent Fall promotion by BMO InvestorLine requires a minimum deposit that starts at $100K, which likely means that more DIY investors will be able to qualify for this cash back offering. Interestingly, for the other deposit tiers, the amount of the cash back reward was lowered significantly, with the highest cash back offering topping out at $2,000.

A quick scan of the deals board shows that there two big-bank owned online brokerages with cash back offers – BMO InvestorLine and Scotia iTRADE. Interestingly, they appear to be trying to reach very different segments with cash back offers. In the case of the latest offer from Scotia iTRADE, it is possible to qualify for a $50 cash back bonus for a deposit of $2,500. By comparison, BMO InvestorLine’s bonus is $100 for a deposit of $100K, a 40x difference in deposit size from the Scotia offer.

In spite of the scope/size difference in the reward amounts, when it comes to DIY investor interest in online brokerage deals, cash is king. As such, the amounts being offered are still better than nothing.

For more information, be sure to check out the deals & promotions section.

Short Shorts

Another “short” story from BMO InvestorLine surfaced last week and had to do with DIY Investors encountering difficulties with trying to short trade select cannabis securities. In this article in the Financial Post, author Victor Ferreira details the experiences of a few DIY investors who were unable to short sell shares of cannabis companies.

When the availability of shares to short sell, especially from a bank -owned brokerage, starts to dry up, it is often a sign of a very bearish market sentiment.  Very recently, the shine has come off the cannabis sector which means, as an investment, they may be considered “riskier” than other symbols or assets. Compounded with the overall volatility in the market, and its possible that BMO is preparing for the storm to hit.  What will be interesting to monitor is the extent of the restriction, whether it’s been formalized, and whether other financial services will follow suit.

Interactive Brokers Posts Stronger Numbers

This past week, Interactive Brokers announced performance metrics and highlights for the month of August as well as rolled out the ability for individuals to bet on NFL games via the free online sports betting platform.

Starting first with metrics, for this month’s numbers, the biggest highlight appears to be the volume of trades. Clients of Interactive Brokers generated 930K daily average revenue trades, which is a staggering 26% higher than trading volume at the same point last year. As per usual, the streak of account growth continues with the online broker now being home to 600K accounts which is a 17% growth compared to last year.

As we mentioned in this previous roundup, the volatility is generally good for generating trading activity which, in turn, is good for online brokerages. The double-edged sword though, is that, with the uncertainty contributing to jitters in the market, it also happens to be a deterrent to people wanting to invest on their own.

Another interesting development coming out of Interactive Brokers is that they’ve officially added and launched the NFL on their online betting platform. Recall that Interactive Brokers rolled out an official sports betting program in the summer to try and attract individuals who are into sports betting in the hopes that those folks who take it seriously would be a good fit for the IB platform and would want to trade real money.

The ability to bet on games opens up two weeks prior to the event itself, so there is some capability to wager on the outcomes in advance. Also interesting is the “trading” interface that IB has created to explain the “bet”. This betting console contains odds as well as what users can expect to gain if the bet materializes. In this way, it is more about understanding the consequences of the action (investment) than it is to blindly speculate.

Learning About Earning

September is synonymous with back to school. For students of the stock market, however, school happens to always be in session. Nonetheless, there is an uptick this month in the number and caliber of learning events for DIY investors.

Online brokerage events related to investor education are becoming increasingly rare except at larger online brokers, and even then, there is just a small group that deliver educational content on a regular basis. This month, TD Direct Investing and CIBC Investor’s Edge both have compelling information/education events planned and, as mentioned last week, Scotia iTRADE has an interesting education event planned for clients.

In the case of the former, TD Direct Investing has put together a well-structured and comprehensive series of webinars as part of their “Master Class” series. This series includes webinars on investing basics as well as advanced topics and software platform orientation. Even though this has been available for some time, it does stand out from amongst its peers in terms of breadth, structure and accessibility.

CIBC Investor’s Edge is also in the mix with an event of their own. Coming up on September 27th, CIBC economist Avery Shenfeld will be presenting his economic outlook for 2020 and the kinds of things investors will need to be aware of heading into 2020. With the volatility and uncertainty in markets, this is likely to be a highly sought after event.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Bubbling Over With Excitement

In a recent interview, Michael Burry dubbed index funds “subprime CDOs” and declared the existence of a “bubble” in passive investing. Investors on Canadian Money Forum are up in arms as they interpret and discuss the statement here.

Ou(TD)oing the Competition

TD e-Series mutual funds have been a long-time favourite for DIY investors, and as changes are being introduced, Redditors are discussing the new possibilities. Read the full discussion here.

Into the Close

Canada appeared to defy expectations on both the job front and on the tennis court. Of course, when it comes to the markets these days, there appears to be even more racket(s) than at the US Open – and probably just as much back and forth. It’s definitely a challenge to be a market spectator these days but just like viewing tennis, it’s important to focus on the long game and enjoy the rallies while they last.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions, September 2019

*Updated Sept. 4* When it comes to discount brokerage deals, it appears that this month, school is definitely in session. Even though there are no new deals that officially launched at the beginning of September, there were several that snuck in at the tail end of August, just in time for the Labour Day weekend and for the start of the new month.

Change is almost a given in the stock market these days, so it seems fitting that there be some turnover and excitement in the deals space. To that end, last month saw the start and finish of the RBC Direct Investing commission-free trade offer and the expiry of the CIBC Investor’s Edge commission-free trading offer. Early on in September, BMO InvestorLine is also poised to launch a new deal, too.

Despite the action at Canada’s bank-owned online brokerages, it was Scotia iTRADE that made the biggest splash in the discount brokerage deals pool at the end of last month.  With a creative deal for new clients as well as promotions for existing clients being offered by iTRADE, this online broker has left little doubt that they’re prepared to take the rest of the online brokerages back to school when it comes to interesting offers for DIY investors.

It’s clear that the timing of Scotia iTRADE’s offers are no accident. September is the time of year when investors are typically returning from vacations and getting back into the markets, so it would not be too surprising to see deals activity at other online brokerages begin to ramp up too and respond in kind with offers of their own.

As always if there are any new or interesting discount brokerage deals out there that online investors could benefit from, let us know in the comments below.

Expired Deals

*Update September 4 – The cash back promotion offered by BMO InvestorLine has expired, but quickly replaced with a new cash back deal. More details on the offer can be found below.

The two biggest offers that expired in August included an offer from CIBC Investor’s Edge and a commission-free trade from RBC Direct Investing.

Extended Deals

*There are no extended deals to report this period*

New Deals

*Update September 4 –BMO InvestorLine has released a new cash back promotion available for new qualifying accounts. You may be eligible for cash back when you deposit $100,000+ in your account. Enter promotion code SPARXCASH into your Online Application Form to qualify for this award. Scroll down for more details.*

Scotia iTRADE is offering up $50 in cash back for new clients as well as a standard commission rate of $6.99 per trade (until March 2020). In addition, this offer is accessible with a minimum deposit of $2,500.

For existing Scotia iTRADE clients, there are also some compelling incentives being batted around. The first is for individuals who add a certain dollar amount to their accounts to be eligible for commission-free trades. Since these are for existing clients, the typical YMMV (your mileage may vary) qualifier applies, however iTRADE is offering 5 commission-free trades for deposits of $10,000.

In addition, and potentially the most compelling offer for existing clients, is that Scotia iTRADE is offering up to 3 commission-free trades for attending an educational webinar on the “US Dollar Position” on September 24, 2019. Trading commission-free trades for attending a webinar is a very tempting offer that has very little downside for investors and could be something that other online brokerages that offer DIY investor educational webinars look to add into their mix to encourage participation.


Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. 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
Jitney Trade 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 a qualifying account at HSBC InvestDirect and you may be eligible to receive up to 30 commission-free North American equity or ETF trades. No minimum deposit is required for this offer and it is open to new and existing clients. Trades are eligible to be used for up to 60 days. See terms and conditions for full details. n/a 30 commission-free trades 60 days HSBC InvestDirect Summer Offer September 30, 2019
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
Scotia iTrade Open a new qualifying account and fund it with a minimum of $2,500 and you may be eligible to receive $50 cash back. This offer also includes $6.99 per trade commissions until March 1, 2020. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details. $2,500 $50 cash back and $6.99 per Canadian and US equity/ETF trade. Cash back will be deposited by January 31, 2020. $6.99 per trade commission pricing active until March 1, 2020. Cash Back Offer Details October 15, 2019
Disnat 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 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
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $100,000; B) $250,000; C) $500,000+ or D) $2M+, and you may be eligible to a cash back reward of up to A) $100; B) $225; C) $600 or D) $2,000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $100,000 B) $250,000 C) $500,000 D) $2M+ A) $100 B) $225 C) $600 D) $2,000 Cash back will be deposited the week of June 15, 2020. BMO InvestorLine Cash Back Offer Details October 31, 2019

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Sept. 04, 2019 09:55 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
Scotia iTrade 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
BMO InvestorLine 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: Sept. 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 n/a Transfer Fee Promo September 30, 2019
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees. $200 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered. $152.55 $15,000 Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information. none
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 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
Disnat 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
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Contact client service for more details. $200 Contact client service for more information Contact client service for more information (1-888-776-6886) none

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Sept. 1, 2019 23:30 PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Disnat 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
Scotia iTrade 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

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Sept. 1, 2019 23:30 PT

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open 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
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: Sept. 1, 2019 23:30 PT