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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – April, 2020

*Updated April 7* It’s finally April and, after the unprecedented changes and challenges that have unfolded over the past month, we would love to say that current world events are nothing but an April Fool’s Day joke gone wrong but sadly, that isn’t the case. 

To start off the month, online brokerages have opted to stick to tried-and-true offerings, perhaps as a result of the air of uncertainty and instability that currently looms over the markets. 

Even with volatility and turbulence rocking the markets in the past month, which has rightfully left many investors feeling panicked, there has been an emergence of risk-taking investors who have been trying to hastily enter the markets in hopes of making fast money or picking up assets at low prices. 

That said, investors should be prepared to wait. Increased interest and call volumes have put a strain on online brokerage technical systems and client service teams – here’s hoping there’s some good music to pass the time on hold.

For investors who are keen on moving fast and stepping into the present market, scroll on to review the current deals and promotions activity from Canadian discount brokerages this month.

Expired Deals

Two deals officially concluded at the end of March. The first was RBC Direct Investing’s promotion that offered 25 commission-free trades with the opening of a new account, which ended on March 27th.

Another deal that expired in March was Qtrade Investor’s cash back promotion, which officially concluded on March 31st. If cash back promotions are what you’re in the market for, though, be sure to scroll down to the table below for similar offerings.

Extended Deals

No extended deals to report at this time.

New Deals

*Update: Apr. 7 – This month, we’re introducing a new category of deals to the tables below: offers for young investors. Whether for yourself, or for someone you may know, this is a great resource for younger investors who may be looking to get started in the markets. It is worth mentioning that different online brokerages have different definitions of what a “young investor” means, so be sure to check to see if you qualify. 

CIBC Investor’s Edge offers special student pricing of $5.95 per trade if you already have an eligible CIBC Account for students, plus save on annual account fees. Scroll down for more details.

Investors within the age range of 18 to 30 are eligible for two current deals. The first is the Broker@age 18-30 promotion from Desjardins Online Brokerage (Disnat), which they’ve stated is “the perfect starter kit to help you invest in the markets.” The second promotion available for investors within this age group is the special Young Investor Pricing offered by Qtrade Investor. For more details, see the tables below. 

Investors who are up to 26 years in age are eligible for two promotions. At Scotia iTrade, young investors can save on administration fees with their Young Investors Offer. At Virtual Brokers, clients in this age range can take advantage of their zero account administration fee offer. See tables below for more details. 

National Bank Direct Brokerage is offering a reduced pricing structure for young professionals and students of various fields. Scroll down to discover which fields are eligible.

Finally, RBC Direct Investing is offering to waive the account maintenance fee for clients who currently have or had an RBC Student Account (within the past five years) with them. More details in the tables 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
  6. Offers for Young Investors

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Commission/Cash Offer/Promotion Type Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Details Link Deadline
Open 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, 2020
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
Open a new RBC Direct Investing account by March 27th and you may be eligible for 25 commission-free equity and ETF trades. You must deposit or transfer $5,000 in your account by May 8th, 2020 to be able to use this promotion. Make sure that the offer code MFTC2 is applied during account opening. 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 March 27, 2020
Open and fund a qualifying new or existing account at TD Direct Investing with at least A) $15,000; B) $25,000; C) $100,000; D) $250,000 or E) $500,000 or more and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward up to A) $100; B) $200; C) $300; D) $500 or E) $1,000. Use promo code RSPCash20 when applying online. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $15,000 B) $25,000 C) $100,000 D) $250,000 E) $500,000 A) $100 B) $200 C) $300 D) $500 E) $1,000 Cash back will be deposited by Aug. 16, 2020. TD Direct Investing Promotion March 03, 2020
Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $25,000 commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data. 1 month Active Trader Program December 31, 2020
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
Open and fund a new Qtrade account with at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000 C) $100,00; D) $500,000; E) $1M or D) $2M+ in new assets by March 31, 2020 and you may be eligible to receive a cash bonus of A) $75; B) $150; C) $400; D) $800; E) $1,500 or F) $2,000. Individuals who contribute more than $1,000 through pre-authorized contributions by December 31, 2020 may also be eligible to receive an extra $50. Use promo code QTRADECASH at sign up to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for more details. A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M F) $2M+ A) $75 B) $175 C) $400 D) $800 E) $1,500 F) $2,000 The cash award will be credited to your cash/margin account in the week of October 30, 2020. Qtrade Investor Q1 2020 Cash Back Offer March 31, 2020
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $100,000; C) $250,000; D) $500,000 or E) $1M+, and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $250; B) $450; C) $800; D) $1,000 or E) $2,000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $50,000 B) $100,000 C) $250,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M+ A) $250 B) $450 C) $800 D) $1,000 E) $2,000 Cash back will be deposited week of December 14, 2020 BMO InvestorLine Cash Back Offer Details June 1, 2020

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Apr. 01, 2020 15:44PT

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
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
You can send an invitation link from your Interactive Brokers profile to friends or business contacts for a chance to receive up to $200 reward for each successful referral. The referee needs to maintain $10,000 or more in their account. Please read the full terms and conditions. $10,000 Your can get 30% of the commission generated by each referred account for up to $200.00. Referred clients must maintain at least $10,000 or USD equivalent in their account. 1 year from the account opening date. Interactive Brokers Referral Program none
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 5, 2021

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Apr. 01, 2020 15:55PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150. $150 n/a Transfer Fee Promo none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $200 in transfer fees. $200 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered. $152.55 $15,000 Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information. none
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 Transfer Fee Promo Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463). none
Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made. $135 $25,000 Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343). none
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
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 $10,000 into a Desjardins Online Brokerage account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info. $150 $10,000 Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo January 8, 2020
Last Updated: Apr. 01, 2020 15:47PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Submit your information via the Hardbacon website to be referred to National Bank Direct Brokerage. Open and fund a qualifying account and you may receive up to 20 commission-free trades and discounted trading commissions. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. n/a Hardbacon Free Trade Promo none
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: Apr. 01, 2020 15:49PT

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: Apr. 01, 2020 15:54PT

Offers for Young Investors

Brokerage Offer Type Eligible Age Range / Client Segment Offer Description Min. Deposit Expiry Date Link
Student Pricing Clients with CIBC Smart™ Account for students $5.95 per trade and zero annual account fees not required None CIBC Student Pricing
Broker@ge 18-30 18-30 years old investors Benefits: * 5 free transactions (Minimum deposit of $1,000 required) * No inactivity fees * No asset minimum to maintain for free registered accounts * Exclusive events * Disnat Mobile App $1,000 None Broker@ge 18-30
Offers for professionals & Students Students in selected fields of study Professionals and students in the below fields can benefit from a reduced pricing structure: * Engineering students * Legal, accounting and business students * Healthcare students * Health sciences students * Nursing students Benefits: * $5.95 commission on equities * $0 commission on ETFs * $0 annual administration fee not required None NBDB Student Pricing
Young investor pricing 18-30 years old investors Benefits: * $7.75 commissions for stock and ETF trades * No account minimums * No quarterly admin fees min. $50 a month through pre-authorized contributions. None Young Investor Pricing
Waiver of account maintenance fee Clients who have RBC Student account, currently or in the past 5 years. The Maintenance Fee ($25 per quarter) is waived, regardless of the account balance. not required None Zero Account Management Fee
Young Investors Offer Clients below 26 years old Low activity account administration fee and the RSP account administration fee are waived. not required None Young Investors Offer
Zero Account Administration Fee Clients below 26 years old The account administration fee ($24.95 per quarter) is waived. not required None $0 Account Administration Fee
Last Updated: Apr. 01, 2020 15:54PT
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – March 2, 2020

March is now here and while March Madness is synonymous with college basketball, it seems to sum up the sentiment in the stock market as fears about global economic slowdowns and uncertainty around COVID-19 continue to spread. Also at a fever pitch: deals from Canadian online brokerages at the RSP contribution deadline.

In this edition of the Weekly Roundup, we kick things off by looking at the best news coming out of the world of DIY investing this month: deals and promotions activity. From there, a review of the recent trading outage and how that serves as a constant reminder of the risks of trading online. As always, we’ve gathered colourful comments from investors on Twitter and in the investor forums.

Deals Marching On

The beginning of this month saw the apex of the number of offers that Canadian discount brokerages had for DIY investors. With offers from big bank-owned online brokerages and the smaller competitors, the race to RSP season meant a lot of selection for DIY investors to be able to choose from. Transitioning into March, however, there will almost certainly be a significant contraction in the number of promotions.

In terms of deals that expired at the beginning of March or that are set to expire during March, one common element is that most of these offers are from the bigger bank-owned online brokerages. Deals from BMO InvestorLine, TD Direct Investing, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, and CIBC Investor’s Edge are all set to expire in March, with the latest of them being the commission-free trade offer from RBC Direct Investing. In addition, recent online brokerage award winner Qtrade Investor will also see their deal expire at the end of March.

For consumers, the money conversation is still very much active and happening as we ramp up to the income tax filing deadline at the end of April.

What this means is that there are going to be a lot of Canadians with funds available to either direct towards investing or to keep safe somewhere while the market volatility continues to grip stock markets. Against this backdrop, the acquisition of SimpleTax by WealthSimple in 2019 is a particularly savvy example of being able to find a place that many of their potential key customers would be going to in order to make decisions about managing their wealth. And, make no mistake about it, tax planning is a key part of wealth management.

It will be interesting to see how Wealthsimple – in particular Wealthsimple Trade – benefits from this kind of software partnership. With an enormous amount of data being available from tax returns – including household income, investments, and more – there are a number of marketing possibilities with respect to understanding who might be interested in a wealth service provider.

Cycling back to the deals and promotions available for DIY investors, one new offer did surface at the outset of the month – a small commission-free trade offer from Virtual Brokers. In response to the launch of their new mobile app, Virtual Brokers is offering up 5 commission-free trades in exchange for completing a survey and downloading their new mobile app. Although it is small, it is a positive sign that Virtual Brokers is stepping back into the spotlight after having maintained a relatively quiet presence after its acquisition by CI Financial.

DIY investors continuing to think about and manage their financial well-being during the tax season indicates a bullish sign for deals and promotions for investors. That said, the backdrop of market meltdowns is going to make it considerably more difficult to attract DIY investors into the market. While some will see this dip as a buying opportunity, talk and fear of a recession or prolonged uncertainty is enough to keep investors at arm’s length. That reality might mean Canadian online brokerages will ramp up their efforts or incentives to attract gun-shy investors. Whether it is through investor education or using some well-timed, short term promotions, Canadian online brokerages will likely have a very bumpy beginning to spring season.

Wild Week of Market Outages

It’s (fortunately) not something DIY investors and traders see every day. This past week, a technical issue brought trading on Canadian stock exchanges to a grinding halt into the end of the day. No trades could be executed and as a result, lots of traders ended up frozen out and could only watch their trading screens broadcast error messages.

Were it some ho-hum week, it would still be bad, but on a week in which markets fell sharply, heightened emotions were already in play and this outage only amplified worries and concerns about market performance and integrity. Add into the mix the last business week heading into the RSP contribution deadline and it could hardly have been a worse confluence of events.

The fallout from the outage and heightened volume appeared to impact trading systems, and retail investors did not hold back in their dissatisfaction with the experience.

This is the second outage in two years at the TSX and a reminder that for online investing, there are many, many possible failure points for DIY investors to contend with. Whether that issue then contributed to a domino effect of systems issues at Canada’s online brokerages is tough to say. There were definitely messages that the change in price on Friday was actually relative to Wednesday’s closing price, since Thursday’s close technically didn’t happen.

With continued volatility in the immediate forecast, the benefactors are online brokerages who charge commissions. This is typically the kind of market that day traders love (because of the volatility) and that investors (even the nervous ones) tend to sell what they can or take profits off the table. And, that means trading, which means commissions.

Of course, if trading halts because of market technology failures or online brokerage failures, the ones impacted may include a higher number of active traders – the most valuable of the trading food chain for online brokerages in Canada.

Even if stock prices aren’t higher at the moment, stakes for online brokerages are.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Upsides to Down Time?

With the effect of the coronavirus being felt in the markets, a Redditor asks fellow forum users to weigh in on how DIY investors have been responding in this post. A discussion ensues on timing the markets and how world events can affect ill-prepared, anxious investors.

The Fare-est of Them All

A forum user seeks advice on which online brokerage to use in this post. Fellow Redditors give advice on how to weigh out their options and how to invest while keeping risk tolerance in mind.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another wild week. Activity at the end of the market day on Friday was interesting – it may have been some optimism stepping back in or shorts looking to cover into the weekend. It’s clear that market direction is decidedly undecided. With debates raging over pullbacks versus corrections and the news cycle fixated on coronavirus, some seasoned investors are hoping to employ the same enthusiasm in the markets that is taking place in toilet paper and hand sanitizer aisles in Costco.

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – March 2020

*Updated March 9* Even though the markets might be in meltdown mode, one of the interesting features of the Canadian discount brokerage deal landscape is that there’s still solid ground for DIY investors in search of a good deal.

Most offers from Canada’s online brokers were timed around the RSP contribution deadline and though several will be expiring in the next few days, there are a number of big names that are staying in the deals and promotions mode through the end of this month.

There will certainly be turnover forecasted in the deals space. Even though TD Direct Investing extended the deadline for their cash back offer from Feb. 29th to March 3rd, the largest bank-owned online brokerage will be joining CIBC Investor’s Edge in winding down their promotion in the first week of March.

Later on in the month, RBC Direct Investing and Qtrade Investor have scheduled the end of their RSP campaigns. BMO InvestorLine does have their RSP offer scheduled to expire in the first week of March however if history is any indicator, there may be another offer coming after March 3rd. Finally, Scotia iTRADE peeled off a little bit early with their promo expiring at the end of February.

In terms of volatility, stock markets aren’t the only place where uncertainty reigns this month. With so much negative sentiment around stocks, it will be a real challenge to Canadian online brokerages to navigate getting DIY investors to step into a falling market. For most DIY investors, however, money is still on their minds – including during tax filing season – so for the right price (or promotion) – it could still be compelling enough to consider opening an online investing account. For that reason, it will be especially interesting to tune into deals and promotions activity this month.

Expired Deals

One deal officially concluded at the end of February and that was from Scotia iTRADE. Their historical cadence of promotions has changed so it is unclear when or if another large public offer will be launched to replace the cash back/free trade/commission drop combo offer.

Extended Deals

*Update: Mar. 9 – If you were worried you had missed out on BMO InvestorLine’s special cash back offer, then have no fear. Originally set to expire on March 3, the deal has now been extended until June 1. This means you have about three months to take advantage of this deal with the code SPARXCASH when you open a new qualifying account. See table below for additional details.*

Although it is only for a few more days into the month, the good news for last minute RSP contributors is that the TD Direct Investing cash back offer has been extended through to March 4th.

New Deals

Virtual Brokers has jumped back into the deals and promotions pool – with a catch. To presumably boost adoption and feedback on their recently launched revamped mobile app, Virtual Brokers is offering up 5 commission-free trades for downloading their app and complete a 3-minute survey about the app.

With a number of expiring offers early in March, we’ll be watching for something new to sprout up in time for spring.


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
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, 2020
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
Open a new RBC Direct Investing account by March 27th and you may be eligible for 25 commission-free equity and ETF trades. You must deposit or transfer $5,000 in your account by May 8th, 2020 to be able to use this promotion. Make sure that the offer code MFTC2 is applied during account opening. 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 March 27, 2020
Open and fund a qualifying new or existing account at TD Direct Investing with at least A) $15,000; B) $25,000; C) $100,000; D) $250,000 or E) $500,000 or more and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward up to A) $100; B) $200; C) $300; D) $500 or E) $1,000. Use promo code RSPCash20 when applying online. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $15,000 B) $25,000 C) $100,000 D) $250,000 E) $500,000 A) $100 B) $200 C) $300 D) $500 E) $1,000 Cash back will be deposited by Aug. 16, 2020. TD Direct Investing Promotion March 03, 2020
Open and fund a new qualifying account with at least $25,000 and you may qualify for one month of unlimited commission-free trades and up to one month free of an advanced data package. Use promo code ADVANTAGE14 when opening a new account. Be sure to read terms and conditions for full details. $25,000 commission-free trades for 1 month + 1 month of advanced data. 1 month Active Trader Program December 31, 2020
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
Open and fund a new Qtrade account with at least A) $25,000; B) $50,000 C) $100,00; D) $500,000; E) $1M or D) $2M+ in new assets by March 31, 2020 and you may be eligible to receive a cash bonus of A) $75; B) $150; C) $400; D) $800; E) $1,500 or F) $2,000. Individuals who contribute more than $1,000 through pre-authorized contributions by December 31, 2020 may also be eligible to receive an extra $50. Use promo code QTRADECASH at sign up to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions for more details. A) $25,000 B) $50,000 C) $100,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M F) $2M+ A) $75 B) $175 C) $400 D) $800 E) $1,500 F) $2,000 The cash award will be credited to your cash/margin account in the week of October 30, 2020. Qtrade Investor Q1 2020 Cash Back Offer March 31, 2020
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account at BMO InvestorLine with new assets worth at least A) $50,000; B) $100,000; C) $250,000; D) $500,000 or E) $1M+, and you may be eligible to receive a cash back reward of up to A) $250; B) $450; C) $800; D) $1,000 or E) $2,000. Use promo code SPARXCASH when registering to qualify. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. A) $50,000 B) $100,000 C) $250,000 D) $500,000 E) $1M+ A) $250 B) $450 C) $800 D) $1,000 E) $2,000 Cash back will be deposited week of December 14, 2020 BMO InvestorLine Cash Back Offer Details June 1, 2020

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Mar. 9, 2020 11:08PT

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
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
You can send an invitation link from your Interactive Brokers profile to friends or business contacts for a chance to receive up to $200 reward for each successful referral. The referee needs to maintain $10,000 or more in their account. Please read the full terms and conditions. $10,000 Your can get 30% of the commission generated by each referred account for up to $200.00. Referred clients must maintain at least $10,000 or USD equivalent in their account. 1 year from the account opening date. Interactive Brokers Referral Program none
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 5, 2021

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 28, 2020 17:13PT

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150. $150 n/a Transfer Fee Promo none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $200 in transfer fees. $200 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered. $152.55 $15,000 Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information. none
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 Transfer Fee Promo Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463). none
Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made. $135 $25,000 Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343). none
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
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 $10,000 into a Desjardins Online Brokerage account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info. $150 $10,000 Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo January 8, 2020
Last Updated: Feb. 28, 2020 17:15PT

Other Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Required Details Link Deadline
Submit your information via the Hardbacon website to be referred to National Bank Direct Brokerage. Open and fund a qualifying account and you may receive up to 20 commission-free trades and discounted trading commissions. Be sure to read full terms and conditions. n/a Hardbacon Free Trade Promo none
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: Feb. 28, 2020 17:15PT

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: Feb. 28, 2020 17:15PT
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 3, 2020

After the ‘big game’ in the NFL, it’s now time for the championship race between Canadian online brokerages to kick into high gear. With just a few weeks left until the deadline for RSP contribution, it will be an all-out sprint by Canadian online brokerages to land new accounts and assets from Canadian DIY investors. It won’t be easy though, with more choices than ever before and jittery markets because of fears about the corona virus, DIY investors are bound to be cautious, which means when it comes to choosing an online brokerage, the juice has to be worth the squeeze.

In this edition of the Roundup, we review the latest discount brokerage promotions that are available as of the beginning of February (great news there are lots!). From there, we launch into even bigger news with another less popular online brokerage cleverly finding a way to get attention by dropping their commission prices to zero well ahead of their peers. Finally, the third big story this week is the launch of the 2020 Globe and Mail online brokerage rankings, which offers another perspective on the different features available from Canadian online brokerages. As always, we’ll cap things off with a review of DIY investor comments (including reactions from the outages) from the forums and Twitter.

New Month, New Deals

On the heels of the Lunar New Year celebration, the start of the new month (and new year) shows that promotional efforts by Canadian discount brokerages are well under way.

The tail end of 2019 and the first weeks of 2020 have been filled with new promotions and pricing announcements at several prominent online brokerages – so much so that news of new feature releases or website redesigns have taken a back seat to the focus on cost.

At the start of February, almost all Canadian discount brokerages have made adjustments of one kind or another to try and win the attention (and assets) of Canadian investors. Many of these brokerages have opted for highly competitive cash back offerings to make it worthwhile for DIY investors to at least consider opening a new account or transferring an account to them. Even so, there are a couple of online brokerages that have remained on the sidelines despite the busy season for DIY investors.

One interesting observation about the state of deals and promotions heading into the final stretch for RSP season is that all of Canada’s large bank-owned brokerages have a promotion in play. Ideally, smaller online brokerages would leverage more aggressive pricing or promotional offers to win attention of investors away from larger bank-owned competitors. This year, however, that isn’t really the case, so it is noteworthy to see bank-owned online brokerages jockeying for investor attention with promotional offers and several smaller brokerages stand aside.

Of the big five bank-owned online brokers, only RBC Direct Investing is offering a purely commission-free trade offer, with the rest of its peers offering up cash back promotions. Typically, cash back promotions are most popular among investors, and even though commission-free trade offers might present significant value, the reality is that cash is still king.

The amounts of cash back offers and requirements to qualify for them this year reveal which kinds of customers brokerages are most interested in trying to appeal to. For example, Scotia iTRADE and TD Direct Investing have minimum deposits of $5,000 and $15,000 for their offers, respectively. This lower threshold means that less established investors – even  beginner or younger investors – may see either of these brokerages as a viable option to open online investing account with. By comparison, offers from CIBC Investor’s Edge and BMO InvestorLine require a minimum deposit of $25,000 and $50,000 respectively, which suggests a more established investor would pay more attention to the offerings by these bank-owed brokers.

Another interesting observation among all the cases of big-bank owned brokerage promotions (except RBC Direct Investing) is that the promotions are tiered offers that offer greater amounts of cash back with higher deposits. This tiered structure also reveals some interesting competitive dynamics among certain brokerages. For example, for deposits exceeding $250,000, it is essentially a race between three big bank-owned discount brokerages: BMO InvestorLine, Scotia iTRADE and TD Direct Investing for cash back incentives to this financially elite club.

Outside of the big bank-owned brokerages, popular online brokerages, such as Qtrade Investor and Questrade, have cash back offers (and in the case of Questrade also commission-free trade offers and a very competitive transfer fee coverage offer) that they hope will help them to stand out from the bank-owned crowd.

Qtrade Investor, which has a cash back offer (also tiered), is up against some stiff competition for new business and assets, as three big bank-owned brokerages are directly competing against Qtrade’s offer. At the other Q-named online brokerage, investors looking for a promotion can find a wide selection of offers. Questrade’s long-standing commission-free trade deal is an option and all of their most popular offers have very low barriers to access or qualify for them, which is ideal for younger investors. In addition, younger investors can benefit from special pricing and commission free trades from National Bank Direct Brokerage, which offers up 10 commission-free trades per year each year the account is open.

With most brokerages now on the deals board, it is curious to see other discount brokerages stand on the sidelines this year.

For instance, neither Virtual Brokers nor HSBC InvestDirect have commission-free trade or cash back promotions this year (as of the time of publication) – an interesting option given the fierce competition for assets. Also interesting is that newcomers to the discount brokerage space, Wealthsimple Trade and CG Direct, opted not to take advantage of RSP season with a new promotion. Passing up this cycle of investor interest means that they are giving up valuable airtime when DIY investors are most actively shopping around.

Ultimately, however, the news is great for DIY investors this month. There are several really strong deals from reputable Canadian discount brokerages. Timing to try to take advantage of these offers couldn’t be better; however, for investors, just be prepared to spend some time waiting on hold or with slow account processing.

Commission Price Drop: HSBC InvestDirect Launches Zero Commission Pricing

The zero-commission spectre has surfaced at yet another Canadian online brokerage. HSBC InvestDirect, one of Canada’s lesser well-known online brokerages, has announced they are prepared to offer zero commissions for clients who qualify as active investors, i.e. anyone who makes 150+ trades per quarter, for a limited time from April through December of 2020.

As has been mentioned in previous Roundups, it will only be a matter of time until larger, more popular Canadian online brokerages are forced to figure out how they are going to adopt zero commission trading.

Fortunately for most competing online brokerages, HSBC InvestDirect is a relatively small and unknown online brokerage to many Canadian investors. Much like what happened when HSBC InvestDirect dropped their prices down to sub $7 per trade (making them the cheapest bank-owned online brokerage as far as standard commissions), the market as a whole effectively overlooked this announcement and went on its merry way.

Even though existing Canadian online brokerages are navel gazing and potentially looking for additional information on their clients to improve monetization, competitors such as Wealthsimpe Trade have already taken what felt like a giant leap.

Wealthsimple Trade has already led the way in this offering and as of late last year, the first ‘household’ name in online brokerages has drastically reduced their per trade commission. National Bank Direct Brokerage reduced their standard trade commissions for active investors (who they define as X trades per month) down to $0.99 per trade. Earlier this year, Desjardins Online Brokerage countered by dropping their commission rates (also for active traders) down to $0.75 per trade.

With HSBC InvestDirect now taking trading commissions down to $0 for active traders, there is clearly a trend taking shape where active traders are likely to be the first benefactors of the reduced pricing from some of the larger, established online brokerages.

The standard commission rates for trading at HSBC InvestDirect are 6.88 for North American ETFs or equities, which makes them among the lowest cost per trade (currently) for bank-owned online brokerages standard commissions.

That said, the cost to qualify for this new pricing means having to trade 150 times in a quarter which at that online brokerage can cost a hefty $1,032. It also means that clients have to continuously trade that kind of volume to maintain their commission-free status – which will be a challenge for all but the most dedicated or active traders. What will make this even more challenging is the user interface and client experience for very active traders, who need (typically) streaming quotes, level 2 preferably and multiple market data, as well as a trading platform that has advanced charting capabilities and rapid order entry. Even at a modest constant pace, the platform will need to handle 2.5 trades per day – which could be reasonable except that there is no robust market trading platform in place to do essential research.

The fact that this new offer hasn’t made the kind of splash we envisioned it would is not surprising given lack of visibility of this online brokerage within the Canadian DIY investor community. HSBC InvestDirect is not that well known among Canadian DIY investors, however their new pricing structure offers a valuable ‘canary in the coal mine’ for the brokerages as a whole and this latest move in pricing might be enough to prompt a larger brand to take a bolder step ahead of other brokerages.

For active traders, the new pricing structure at HSBC InvestDirect (and several other brokerages) is tempting – however, the platform will need to compare with and do better that it is now. Nonetheless, if HSBC InvestDirect was looking for at least a long shot kind of promotional event to generate some noise and coverage, then mission accomplished. Though we have yet to see major media outlets pick up the story, commission-free trading with the convenience of a bank is a secret that can’t be kept much longer.

Globe & Mail 2020 Online Brokerage Rankings

This past week, the 21st edition of Canada’s longest running evaluation of Canadian online brokerages was published by Rob Carrick at the Globe and Mail. Along with the changes in the online brokerage industry in Canada, this analysis of the industry continues to evolve.

This year, there was a familiar structure to the rankings, with letter grades being assigned to each brokerage as well as brief commentary provided from Carrick on the merits and drawbacks of each online brokerage, mostly from the point of view of the ‘everyday’ investor. There were also comparisons of all brokerages analyzed on 10 key questions or components, namely:

  • How do online stock trading commissions compare?
  • Is there a simplified fee for all accounts with small balances?
  • Is commission-free ETF trading available?
  • Foreign exchange charges
  • Are U.S.-dollar registered accounts available?
  • Can you buy high-interest savings ETFs?
  • Can clients send secure e-mails to get personal account questions answered, or use online chat?
  • Are there comprehensive tools to help clients assess their returns over the short and long term and against benchmark indexes?
  • How does the client website experience rank on a scale of 1 to 5?
  • Is there a security guarantee saying clients will be reimbursed fully for losses in their account due to unauthorized transactions?

The grades this year were generally decent, with 8 out of 12 of the online brokerages evaluated scoring a letter grade of B or better. This is an encouraging sign that, generally speaking, the online brokerages in Canada are starting to do a better job of catering to DIY investors’ needs according to this ranking. The top score (A+) was achieved by Qtrade Investor, while the lowest score (D+) was received by HSBC InvestDirect.

The most popular grade (B+) was achieved by four online brokers: Interactive Brokers, Questrade, RBC Direct Investing, and Virtual Brokers. This collective is a very interesting combination because they are comprised of mostly independent online brokerages and one bank-owned online broker. Conversely, of the three discount brokerages that scored A- or higher (Qtrade Investor, Scotia iTRADE, and TD Direct Investing), two thirds of those are bank-owned online brokers. What the latest Globe and Mail online brokerage ranking points to, as far as the experience for the ‘everyday investor,’ is that going with a non-bank owned online brokerage is generally going to be a safer or better bet than going with a large bank-owned brokerage.

As with the previous rankings, the full access to this ranking is for subscribers to the Globe and Mail, which means details on the comparisons section and full commentary are visible only to folks prepared to pony up for the Globe, as well as to readers of forums where this information has also been posted.

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

 

It bears reiterating, with each ranking or rating mentioned here, that the grades are the product of the ranking system itself. As such, it is important for readers to understand the strengths and limitations of this kind of grading system at helping them arrive at a fair assessment of which online brokerage is ultimately best for them.

The detailed methodology for the online brokerage rankings did not accompany this year’s rankings so it was not clear what, if anything, had changed about the way in which online brokerages were assessed. Nonetheless, the scoring as well as the commentary reflect the informed opinions and expertise of the author, who in this case, has extensive experience in this area.

Overall, rankings from different organizations or entities point to a general improvement in the provision of online investing services for Canadian DIY investors. The difference between online brokerages in Canada from both a pricing, as well as a features, point of view isn’t so drastic, generally speaking, that they would feel compelled to move unless it were for features that weren’t available at their current online broker.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Time in the Market is Better than Timing the Market

The perennial question of “the markets are so high, should I buy now?” comes to a head when a Redditor brings forward an article from “Of Dollars and Data” that digs into the numbers for this very question in the US markets. Fellow forum users debate the merits of this argument and break down the numbers even further here.

Inherited Stress

A user asks for advice on which self-managed brokerage account to put some newly-inherited wealth. Users put some fears to rest and offer brokerage options in this post.

Into the Close

Another week is in the books and the start of the month feels decidedly shakier than the start of the previous one. For DIY investors, this is an interesting moment to either scale in or start looking for some protection. Here comes the news cycle ready to report on the scare trade – and as every seasoned investor knows – now might be the time to look for places where things are getting a little too emotional.

 

 

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 20, 2020

There’s snow doubt about it, winter definitely showed up in Canada this past week. Of course, for those fortunate or wise enough to have been prepared, weathering the storm just seemed like just a matter of time.

Speaking of time, curling up by a cozy fire to read this edition of the Roundup is a great way to get up to speed on a few interesting developments that took place amidst all the wild weather this past week. To kick things off, we look at the latest (and long-awaited) update to a mobile app for one online brokerage. From there, we provide an update to the deals & promotions being offered by Canadian discount brokerages as a familiar cast member makes a re-appearance just in time for the RSP season. Also, the race to the top of the online brokerage mountain in the US is providing some interesting clues to online brokers here in Canada. Finally, we welcome back the comments and critiques from DIY investors on Twitter and in the forums.

Virtual Brokers Unveils New Mobile App

With more investors turning to their mobile devices for just about everything, having a strong mobile app experience for online brokerages is no longer becoming a ‘nice to have’ feature. In fact, with brokerages like Robinhood (in the US) and Wealthsimple Trade going ‘mobile first’ with their online investing experiences, there is little room for error for existing online brokerages when trying to retain clients.

After a long-awaited update, Virtual Brokers has begun rolling out their new mobile app for both iOS and Android. The new app, which replaces their existing Power Trader Mobile app couldn’t have come any sooner for many clients.  Power Trader Mobile, which has been around since 2013, managed just 2 stars out of 5 on both Google’s Play Store and the Apple App Store.

So, hopefully, with a new year there’s a new start to the mobile experience. Already the early reviews on the App Store paint a picture of a better experience. Although there are only 2 reviews, the score of 4.5 from what look to be beta testers, looks promising.

The features on the new mobile app enable users to trade stocks and mutual funds – including get stock quotes; view account and transaction details; review orders and positions; withdraw and deposit funds, as well as view basic charts.

The interface of the new app also appears to be much more modern looking and easier to navigate. Screen shots available on the App Store highlight a refreshed look and improved user experience.

Like the refresh of a website, the launch of a new trading platform isn’t going to generate a lot of news or waves for DIY investors. Yes, it is something that is probably going to be appreciated by the scores of patient clients who were waiting for something better but the current release of the mobile app by Virtual Brokers is not so much a game changer as it is something that brings them back into contention with other brokerages.

One of the bigger challenges facing Virtual Brokers in the highly competitive online brokerage space in Canada is to get online investors to pay attention to this and any new features they roll out. While the online brokerage rankings offer a great way to showcase Virtual Brokers to the readership of the Globe and Mail, there is a lot of ground to cover to compete against their traditional rivals, Questrade, and the bank-owned brokerages in terms of brands that investors will talk about or tune into. Features like a mobile app launch are important but to truly stand out, pricing and innovation are key elements that should take centre stage. 

New (Reappearing) Deal for RBC Direct Investing

As we tick closer to the RSP contribution deadline, there is yet another discount brokerage deal announcement crossing the wires. Making a reappearance to the deals and promotions section this month, and in time for the RSP season, is a familiar commission-free offer from one of the most popular online brokerages – RBC Direct Investing.

Their 25 commission-free trade offer is back. With trades that are good for up to one year, a minimum deposit of $5,000 to qualify and an expiry date well after the contribution deadline, there is a low hurdle to qualify for this promotion at this bank-owned online broker.

With the re-entry of RBC Direct Investing to the premiere tier of offers for DIY investors, the major bank-owned online brokers are now all offering something substantial this RSP season. In fact, there are really only a handful of online brokerages who don’t have a major offer in this category at this time – notably Virtual Brokers and HSBC InvestDirect. With the bigger or better-known providers now offering up something substantial, there is not going to be any better time for those on the sidelines to launch an offer that can compete with the other online providers.

Schwab Rallies Despite Earnings Miss

If there’s one thing that investors pay attention to when it comes to stocks, it’s earnings. And, generally when earnings don’t meet expectations, prices usually fall. Of course, when they don’t, there is always a pretty good reason behind the gravity-defying behaviour and often it comes back to a bet on something bigger on the horizon.

Such was the case for the largest online brokerage in the US (and planet), Charles Schwab, who reported quarterly earnings this past week. While the reported earnings per share fell short of estimates by a few pennies, the eye-popping numbers that also accompanied this earnings report demonstrates just how big of a juggernaut Schwab has become on the heels of their decision to go to zero-commission equity trading and to acquire their large rival TD Ameritrade.

One big stat to pay attention to in their latest earnings announcement was the drop of commission revenues of 58% (down to $86 million dollars US). Nonetheless, the bigger news is that client assets under management ballooned 24% higher in the year to cross the $4 trillion dollar (US) mark – a new record high for the online brokerage.

For the share price to rise by almost 3% to end the week is signal by investors that they’re looking at the future for this online brokerage with optimism. Indeed, the assets that continue to get accumulated by Schwab are a great reminder that sustainability for online brokerages is going to be linked either to scale, operational efficiency, or irresistible innovation. For Canadian online brokerages, it’s tough to point to any brokerages right now that are winning based on personality (although Wealthsimple is certainly putting on a clinic as far as marketing is concerned), so it’s either go big, go fast, or go home. And as far as the market’s concerned, it seems that go big is the winning option for now.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Age-Old Tips

A user wonders if their plan of allocating “my age minus 10 to bonds” is considered wise and fellow Redditors weigh in on a potentially outdated, and overworked, practice. Read more here.

Lights, Camera, Class-Action

When it comes to being in the spotlight ahead of RSP season, the Canadian financial service industry invests quite a bit to be top of mind. In this Reddit post, however, there is a significant storm brewing in the form of a class-action lawsuit over the way mutual funds were recommended to investors.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another bumpy week in the markets. In spite of the of volley of news stories of various degrees of shocking, equity markets in the US are sloping higher than a Newfoundland snow drift and Canadian equity markets are also pushing to new heights. If there’s solace or good news to be found anywhere, right now it’s in market momentum. And a Superbowl featuring the 49ers and Chiefs.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 16, 2019

Heading into mid-December, there are clearly lots of numbers being thrown about. The number of shopping days left until Christmas, the countdown to the end of the year, and the exact deadline for trades to be counted for inclusion in 2019. To add to the pile, there are also numbers to consider that measure the online brokerage industry in Canada – which for some folks is like getting an early Christmas present.

In this edition of the Roundup, we take a deep dive into the latest online brokerage rankings to be released ahead of the end of 2019, and look at the impact that big changes in definitions can have on how investors ultimately decide which online brokerage is best. After that heavy dose of numbers, we’ve layered on some interesting comments and reactions from DIY investors in the forums and from Twitter to close things out.

2019 Online Brokerage Rankings: Focus on Experience over Price

Just in time for the end of 2019, there was a fresh round of online brokerage rankings for DIY investors to review as they do their financial planning for the year ahead. The annual Canadian discount brokerage rankings from financial services analysis firm, Surviscor, were released this past week and featured some interesting results on the pool of Canadian brokerages.

For DIY investors, rankings and ratings from third party agencies help to provide insights into what the client experience is like at particular Canadian online brokers. In Canada, there are three primary rankings that investors typically turn to – the Globe and Mail’s annual online brokerage rankings, the Online Self-Directed Discount Brokerage Rankings by Surviscor, and the J.D. Power & Associates Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study.

Expectedly, each of these rankings and ratings measures different aspects of the online brokerage segment and provides a rating based on their respective view of what separates the best online brokerages in Canada from their peers. For DIY investors, this translates into a somewhat muddled experience where different rankings and ratings provide different perspectives on the question: “which online brokerage is best?”

It is against that backdrop that the most recent iteration of Surviscor’s Canadian discount brokerage review offers some fascinating insights and also provides important lessons for DIY investors relying on rankings for researching online brokerage accounts. In particular, because of significant changes to how they have defined their Canadian online brokerage review in 2019 and what the resulting effects are for interpreting the rankings, it is important for DIY investors to look more carefully at the latest Surviscor rankings to understand how those changes impact potentially important decisions around choosing an online broker.

Starting with Definitions

An important but easy to overlook detail about the difference between the 2019 Surviscor rankings and the 2018 rankings is seen in the respective press releases associated with the rankings data release. In the 2019 rankings news release, it states:

“Surviscor’s proprietary scorCard methodology measures over 3,600 objective usage-related criteria questions over six independent categories, each weighted according to industry importance through direct feedback with industry firms.”

However in the 2018 news release, the following was stated:

“Surviscor’s proprietary scorCard methodology measures over 4,000 objective usage-related criteria questions and reviews each firm by 9 independent categories, each weighted according to industry importance through direct feedback with industry firms.”

Thus, the first important difference appears to be a change in the number of criteria and in the number of categories that are being used to assess Canadian online brokerages in 2019.

As seen in the table below, the categories that did not make it into the 2019 assessment were related to service experience, mobile experience, transactional experience, and cost of services. This selection of categories substantially changes the way in which an online brokerage is evaluated as a whole – shifting the focus to certain components of the experience.

2018 Categories 2019 Categories
Initial Experience Initial Experience
Service Experience X
Mobile Experience X
User Experience User Experience
Account Experience Account Experience
Market Analysis Experience Market Analysis Experience
Transactional Experience X
Investing and Planning Experience Investing and Planning Experience
Cost of Services X

Another important qualifier to the 2019 Surviscor rankings is that these rankings are purposefully attempting to measure the overall “self-directed online brokerage experience” for desktop users. The rationale for the significant change to this year’s study was to focus “on the pure online usability experience to better determine the best online/desktop platform for Canadians.”

Diving into Numbers

Those important contextual points considered, this year’s ranking saw Qtrade Investor still manage to retain its position atop Surviscor’s rankings for the fourth consecutive year. While this is a laudable feat in such a competitive field, it is noteworthy to see that this year the gap between first and second place (TD Direct Investing) came down to one percentage point – a gap that has never been that narrow in the four consecutive years that Qtrade Investor has topped these rankings. Rounding out the top three this year was Scotia iTRADE, a bank-owned online brokerage which has traditionally had a strong showing in these rankings and is back on the podium in 2019 after having placed fourth in last years assessment.

When transactional, service, mobile, and cost data are removed from the evaluation criteria, the 2019 online brokerage rankings paint an interesting perspective of the field of DIY trading service providers. Immediately, the relative advantage that “low-commission pricing” provides is removed in the 2019 rankings.

Three of the four lowest cost online brokerages occupy the lowest three positions when it comes to the “online brokerage experience”: CIBC Investor’s Edge (ranked 10th), National Bank Direct Brokerage (ranked 11th) and Interactive Brokers Canada (ranked 12th).

Clearly, it is important for DIY investors to note that the “best online brokerage” doesn’t necessarily translate into the lowest cost online brokerage nor the “best value,” since commission prices appear to be heavily factored out.

Even with most online brokerages now charging standard commission pricing in the sub-$10 per trade range, events in the US online brokerage space as well as recent moves by brokerages such as Wealthsimple Trade (which was not featured) and National Bank Direct Brokerage point to a significant enough gap in pricing that DIY investors could still see merit in switching brokerages to realize savings on commissions. In other words, DIY investors are still price sensitive when shopping for online brokerages.

The performance of the Canadian online brokerage field in 2019 as measured by the Surviscor rankings is interesting in and of itself. Removing price factors as well as mobile and service features, however, introduces a substantial degree of variability in the scoring when comparing results year over year, and paints the picture of an industry that – other than the excluded factors – is generally getting it right when it comes to “online brokerage experience” for DIY investors.

One of the first interesting characterizations was noted by Surviscor in their press release as a “surge” in performance by TD Direct Investing moving up three ranking positions from fifth place in 2018 to second in 2019. We took the extra step of crunching the numbers on the gainers and decliners for 2019 compared to 2018 to highlight the magnitude of performance difference. Indeed, TD Direct Investing did “surge” a remarkable 22 percentage points from 69% in 2018 to 91% in 2019.

That said, a positional shift (or surge) also took place with two other firms: Desjardins Online Brokerage and HSBC Invest Direct. The latter of these was particularly interesting given the historically poor performance shown by HSBC InvestDirect on the Surviscor ratings since 2016 where it has either been second last or last. Using the new criteria for measurement in 2019, this suggests that the combination of pricing, transaction, mobile experience and service were actually dragging these firms down in terms of performance on the Surviscor rankings.

Two other firms saw double digit percentage point improvements compared to 2018: Scotia iTRADE (+16 percentage points) and Virtual Brokers (+17 percentage points). Despite these sizable gains, however, their respective rankings only improved one position, with Scotia iTRADE climbing to third place this year and Virtual Brokers rising to seventh place.

Interestingly, there were three firms that saw percentage improvements but did not see any change in their rankings: Qtrade Investor (remained in first), RBC Direct Investing (remained in sixth), and CIBC Investor’s Edge (remained in 10th).

Perhaps the biggest curiousity from this year’s rankings comes not with the advancers, but in the decliners category.

There were four firms that saw position rankings slip, however, in three of those four brokerages, there were actually increases in the percentage scores compared to 2018. This underscores a broader takeaway from the results of this year’s online brokerage rankings, which is that the quality of online brokerage experience appears to be significantly better this year at almost all brokerages. The one exception according to these results is Interactive Brokers, which plunged from seventh place in 2018 to twelfth in 2019.

Removing the factors related to price, mobile experience, transaction experience, and service experience appears to have a significant impact on the comparability of results year over year.

Compared to previous years, the year over year volatility in rankings and percentage points seen from 2018 to 2019 is significantly higher. The standard deviation in scoring in 2018 vs 2017 was 1.97 whereas in 2019 compared to 2018, this worked out to be 7.62 or almost a factor of four (3.87x) difference.

Why that is relevant to note, however, is that in comparing rankings from one year to the next, it is also important to understand that those rankings are not measuring the same set of attributes. And, it is on that particular point of year over year comparability of rankings that consumers and DIY investors need to take the streaks and the ranking shifts with a grain of salt.

To put the impact of the measurement changes in perspective, in 2018, only one firm (Qtrade Investor) scored better than 79% for overall experience whereas in 2019 there were six – or half the firms analyzed – that scored above 79%. Since 2019 to 2018 is not a true apples-to-apples comparison, however, the shift in ranking positions year over year has to be heavily qualified, as does the consecutive nature of a particular ranking. While it is true that Qtrade Investor is first overall (again), why they are first is materially different.

The Takeaway for DIY Investors

For DIY investors shopping around for online brokerages, rankings and ratings are generally a go-to resource to better understand what kind of brokerage experience can be expected. That said, it is important to note that online brokerage rankings and ratings are not static, nor do they measure the same things between rankings.

As such, while an accolade such as being named “best online brokerage” by a particular rating firm is certainly something online brokerages can be proud of, for consumers it is crucial to ask more questions about the nature of what’s being measured. In other words, definitions matter as much as the results.

In the case of the 2019 Surviscor online brokerage rankings, the focus has shifted away from a number of previously important components to focus on the desktop user experience.

The fascinating implication of this analysis, however, is that the differentiators for almost half the brokerages are on the factors that were excluded. That is to say, with so many brokerages scoring 80% or better on “experience” features, this evaluation shows the brokerages have very similar (and reasonably good) platforms and will have to differentiate themselves on other features.

The real answer (if there is one) is how these experience factors combine with the separated-out factors like mobile experience, price, and service. Strategically, Surviscor will be launching a comprehensive “Digital Brokerage Experience award” in 2020 that combines the multiple assessments into one evaluation. The challenge for DIY investors, however, is making sense of the different ranking performances and the inevitable confusion from multiple online brokerages rightfully claiming that they are the “best online brokerage.”

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Cast a Wide Net Worth

Following the loss of their preferred finance tracking tool, one DIY investor wants to know how others keep tabs on their net worth and investments. Read on for tools and tips provided by fellow forum users.

Singled Out

A DIY investor has questions about how to go about investing in a single US stock as a Canadian. See what advice other Redditors provided.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on this edition of the Weekly Roundup. We’re going to be putting the Roundup on park for the remainder of 2019, so this is the official sign off for the year (unless some kind soul in the online brokerage world decides to take commissions to zero just before the end of the year). While we’ll be monitoring developments and reporting on deals updates (and potentially groundbreaking news), we’ll otherwise be in the workshop until 2020.  On behalf of the SparxTrading team, we’d like to thank the loyal Weekly Roundup (marathoners) readers for tuning in, and wish you all the best for the holiday season, and the New Year! Stay safe and profitable!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – December 9, 2019

With the holiday season just a few short weeks away, gifts and presents are top of mind for many folks. Fortunately for Canadian DIY investors, there are some early presents that have arrived courtesy of some of the newest online brokerages in Canada – and the timing couldn’t be better.

In this edition of the Roundup, we keep things all Canadian (for a change) with a look at the newest online brokerage to roll out in Canada – including the challenges and opportunities they face in a crowded field. From there we’ll review the latest feature being rolled out by another relatively new online brokerage, and how their newest feature can be both a blessing and a curse. As usual, we serve up some interesting chatter from DIY investors on Twitter and in the investing forums.

CG Direct Rolls Out as Canada’s Newest Online Brokerage

This past week, an important and long-awaited shift took place in the Canadian online brokerage space. Jitneytrade, the online brokerage in Canada that is heavily focused on the active trader, and which was acquired in 2018 by Canaccord Genuity, officially wound down their website and transitioned to the new online brokerage segment at Canaccord called CG Direct.

In keeping with the acquisition trend in the Canadian online brokerage space, the smaller independent discount brokerages such as Virtual Brokers, Qtrade Investor, and Credential Direct have been snapped up by larger wealth management players. In the case of Virtual Brokers, it was CI Financial and for Qtrade Investor and Credential Direct, it was Desjardins. And, although the figures related to these transactions weren’t made available, the deal for Jitneytrade was, and came in at $14.8M in June 2018.

The key takeaway: independent online brokerages in and of themselves are not sufficiently profitable to be commercially sustainable in Canada. They need to be part of a spectrum of wealth or financial management services in order to have a chance of competing in the ultra-crowded online investing segment.

So, what would possess Canaccord to wade into a very crowded online brokerage space in Canada? Like most deals, it’s likely driven by ROI.

According to Canaccord’s FY 2019 annual report, the acquisition “serves to support the Company’s mid-market growth strategy by enhancing its market share of equities trading and providing access to new areas of growth through accelerating its development of an enhanced fintech product offering.”

What a positive return looks like for Canaccord is not just growth in revenues from commissions but also a deepening of relationship with their existing (and wealthy) managed wealth client base. With the acquisition of an online brokerage, no longer does Canaccord have to step aside while their private wealth clients who want to “dabble” on their own take assets to another firm or online broker. Instead, Canaccord can now keep those clients “in the tent” and create a stronger case for bringing assets located elsewhere into Canaccord.

Of course, growing assets from within is only one facet of the ROI picture. Another component to the possible return on this purchase will be the extent to which they can win new clients. In this regard, things are going to be considerably more difficult for Canaccord to successfully execute on.

While Jitneytrade may be a name more familiar to professional traders, among most retail investors it is not. This creates two distinct challenges: one is carrying over the Jitneytrade “brand” to the active trader segment, and the second is translating the Canaccord brand into something retail investors believe is compelling.

In the case of the first challenge, retaining existing Jitneytrade clients under a new banner of CG Direct will likely not be too difficult assuming service and pricing stay relatively close to where they were pre-merger. Interestingly, digging into the details of the deal, there was a category of the transaction labelled “intangible assets” which was valued at $1.9M, which specifically related to the value of customer relationships. Indeed, the ultra-active and professional trader segment is a high-touch client, which simply means that while pricing is key, relationships matter (a lot). Going forward under a new banner of CG Direct, growing the brand among the active trader community will now require selling the merits of CG Direct as the destination for active traders. It will have to compete directly with Interactive Brokers in this regard.

The second challenge will clearly be attracting business in the retail investor segment in an already crowded discount brokerage field.

With a new brand, there are inherent hurdles to clear (such as: Who is this firm? Can they be trusted?) and out of the gate, there are already some clear stumbling blocks to winning the attention battle for CG Direct. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be the “differentiator” among the other players.

For new entrants to the Canadian online brokerage space, pricing is one of the biggest drivers of attention among DIY investors. The pricing for CG Direct – at least for the equity commissions – is at the industry standard $9.99 per trade (plus any ECN fees), which pits it against the larger online brokerage competitors. When it comes to options, though, pricing is a bit more competitive (or even better) than most of the online brokerage peers. CG Direct will be charging $1.00 per options contract with a minimum commission of $10.

On the technology front, the retail web-based trading platform for CG Direct, called DirectFolio, will be up against incredibly tough competition. While the core business of an online brokerage is order execution, the “standard” offering for most online brokerages when it comes to platform is to deliver a relatively feature rich experience. As an extension of that, the current website and digital experience of CG Direct is not the kind of wave-making experience that something like Wealthsimple Trade has been.  In particular, there is a sense that CG Direct is a “desktop” brand versus a “mobile” one, suggesting that the pace of growth in the retail investor segment is going to be limited by the ability of CG Direct to appeal to the newer, tech-savvier generation of investor who all the competitors are working very, very hard to attract.

When an online brokerage can focus its identity on a segment – e.g. if CG Direct were purely for active traders – it becomes easier for consumers to understand what CG Direct does and when the right time would be to engage them as an online brokerage. In this case, however, with CG Direct going after two segments of the market, it will be an uphill battle to structure communications to be appealing to both.

One component of the story that we have not yet dove into is the potential for robo-advisory services to also emerge from this transaction. In addition to Jitneytrade, Canaccord acquired Finlogik – a company also started by the founder of Jitneytrade. The Finlogik side of the deal also brings with it the software platform that could be used for the deeper push into the digital wealth management experience (e.g. robo-advice) and the web-based trading platform for the self-directed investor.

Ironically, as online brokerages, their core business comes down to execution. In this case, success of the CG Direct brand will undoubtedly come down to execution on the value proposition and brand promise.

For active investors and traders, this means CG Direct needs to continue to execute well on the “bespoke” pricing and service experience that Jitneytrade was known to offer. And, in wading into ultra-competitive waters on the retail investor side, delivering on the value that online investors expect from a discount brokerage (pricing, platform, ease of use, service, resources, etc.) will be crucial if the online brokerage arm of Canaccord is going to be more than a retention tool for existing clients.

Wealthsimple Trade Transfers Now Active

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In the road to bringing even lower commission costs to Canadian DIY investors, Wealthsimple Trade has been slowly moving forward on its plans to be a genuine competitor to other Canadian online brokerages. This past week, the social media feeds for Wealthsimple Trade highlighted another important step that the zero-commission brokerage has taken to make it easier to do business with them: enable account transfers.

DIY investors can now request a transfer of their eligible registered and/or registered accounts to Wealthsimple trade. Among the accounts users can transfer over to Wealthsimple Trade are TFSAs, RRSPs and non-registered accounts.

As an added bonus, if the amounts being transferred over are greater than $5,000, then Wealthsimple Trade is willing to cover the transfer fee that the existing brokerage will likely charge on the way out.

There is still no way to directly transfer between Wealthsimple and Wealthsimple Trade, however the fact that it is now possible to go from one institution directly into Wealthsimple Trade without having to sell a portfolio into cash first is a big plus for DIY investors who want to take a dive into the zero-commission experience.

For other online brokerages, even though the changes that are taking place at Wealthsimple Trade are still small enough not to be too concerning, the ability to have investors transfer funds and securities away from their brokerage is one which undoubtedly raises some eyebrows.

The addition of account transfer capability was undoubtedly an important feature to get rolling just before RSP season ramps up to full speed, however, this particular feature is not without its risks.

Unlike many of its peers, Wealthsimple Trade (and its parent, Wealthsimple) have made significant strides to redefine user experience in the financial and wealth management space. Their websites, apps and even content are very much the envy of other wealth management firms and as such, the Wealthsimple brand has earned a substantial degree of goodwill with consumers, in particular millennials.

Of course, aesthetics aside, when it comes to people and their money, emotions inevitably factor in and expectations around reliability, stability and speed are also crucial. Why this matters in the context of account transfers is because unlike account opening (which can be completed in minutes online) the account transfer process can take anywhere from two to four weeks (and in many cases, even longer). This pits the ultra-fast, low-friction experience and promise of Wealthsimple Trade against the realities of the financial network between online brokerages in Canada today. And, for anyone who reads the financial forums and tweets about online brokerages on a regular basis, it’s clear that account transfers make up a unique category of frustration among DIY investors.

So, as widely anticipated as this feature is for Wealthsimple Trade, it is almost one of those “be careful what you wish for” situations as well.

Not only is the risk (based on ample evidence from other DIY investors’ brokerage transfer experiences) of mistakes incredibly high, the consequence and subsequent optics of delays that stretch into the weeks and months are terrible. If Wealthsimple Trade manages to generate enough interest, they could be the victims of their own success when it comes to having too much volume of transfer activity taking place, which would also strain their internal resources. Add to that the very high likelihood that their target client is on social media in some way shape or form, and the magnitude of the mistake or delay – even if it is not on Wealthsimple’s end – would be outsized relative to their peer firms.

When it comes to trading and markets, timing is really everything. In the case of Wealthsimple Trade’s new transfer capabilities, it may be a question of investors waiting and seeing as to whether or not the two to four week window is realistic or if it is something even longer. If there’s one thing worse than paying bad fees, it’s enduring the uncertainty of exactly who has your entire nest egg while it’s being moved. Trading markets is fun, trading brokerages – at least from what is written about online – not so much.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

No Time for Bonds

A DIY investor questions the advantages of bonds over HISAs. Fellow forum users weigh in, providing insight on situations in which each type of investment would prevail. Read more here.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

A 45-year-old, self-employed Redditor wants to start investing and turns to the forums for guidance on where to begin. Read the advice that fellow forum users gave this new DIY investor here.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another eventful week. Fortunately this week there was lots taking place in the Canadian online brokerage space. Just like the shopping habits of many consumers, the online brokerage space still might have a few last-minute surprises left before the end of 2019. With a new decade just around the corner, some new discount brokerages starting to make waves here in Canada, there’s lots for DIY investors to look forward to in 2020. To anyone braving the malls to shop, hats off to you and wishing you lots of great parking karma!

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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.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 21, 2019

On the eve of election night in Canada, citizens are tasked with making an investment of their own in the party or candidate that they believe is in their best interest. Another voting machine, the stock market, provides price as a proxy for expectations. Fascinatingly enough, the recent activity in US and Canadian online brokerage is providing a glimpse of where DIY investing is heading next.

In this edition of the Roundup, we dive into the latest earnings announcements from US online brokerages in the wake of the recent commission-fee cuts and read the tea leaves as to what’s brewing for the industry and investors alike in this new pricing reality. Speaking of trends, it looks like combos are the menu item of choice in the bank-owned online brokerage battle here in Canada – our second story spills the tea on what’s about to be trending for DIY investors. As always, there’s plenty of chatter from investors to dish out in the Twitter posts and in the investor forums.

Forecast for Online Brokerages: Cloudy with a Chance of Upside

As every experienced trader knows, sentiment and expectations drive pricing. Prices in the stock market, however, are dynamic and constantly changing which, by extension, means that so too are expectations.

The recent and rapid implosion of prices of US online brokerage stocks was anything but rational. While the market is an efficient pricing mechanism, during times of heightened emotion or uncertainty there’s a natural mispricing moment, and since the big price drop earlier in the month, we’ve witnessed the recalibration of expectations and calculations restore some sense of calm to a rattled industry.

This past week, the earnings announcements and management guidance for three of the big four names in the US online brokerage space were released. And, without giving away any spoilers, it appears expectations are shifting from pessimism to cautious optimism.

Since early October, the stock prices for publicly listed online brokerages AMTD, EFTC and SCHW have rallied an average of 15.3%. Interestingly, the online brokerage that touched off the avalanche in pricing drops, Interactive Brokers, is down about 4% over the same period of time.

What’s behind the change in sentiment? Fortunately, the question is somewhat answerable thanks to earnings conference calls held last week for E*TRADE Financial and Interactive Brokers.

The timing of earnings releases and subsequent investor conference calls so close to drop in commission pricing means that predictably, the “plunge” is almost all of what analysts covering these online brokerages wanted to discuss on the conference calls.

Despite the best efforts to pry additional information out of company management, there wasn’t a lot of brand-new market moving information that was revealed. More than anything, there was a lot of soothing of nerves and spin on what the significant loss of revenue from trading commissions would mean going forward.

At E*TRADE, for example, the CEO Mike Pizzi framed the loss of $300 million per year of commission revenue as an opportunity to win back clients to a best-of-breed trading platform. Indeed, that appears to be a pillar of the new narrative and the competitive reality.

Without trading commission costs, active traders will undoubtedly be seeking out the best online investing experience – including the best trading platform, decision support, and feature set. In that way, established brands like E*TRADE and Interactive Brokers (and Schwab and Ameritrade) have a significant leg up on the newcomer Robinhood for the most lucrative account holders (active traders) who need advanced tools and convenience.

Despite the many evasive dips and weaves of management to the analyst questions about what happens next, there were still a few interesting takeaways revealed by tuning into these calls.

The first, and arguably most significant for Canadian online brokerages, is that Interactive Brokers sees a business case for bringing commission-free trading here to Canada. In a question from analyst Will Nance from Goldman Sachs during the Interactive Brokers earnings conference call, it was asked whether or not IBKR Lite would be expanded to other locations around the world served by Interactive Brokers. Chairman and now former CEO of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, stated that unlike the US, there weren’t that many equities markets internationally that could support robust payment for order flow. One exception: Canada.

Another important and recurring question that arose was the prospect of consolidation in the US online brokerage space and whether E*TRADE would be a candidate to be acquired.

Asked on both the E*TRADE conference call and on the Interactive Brokers one, it was interesting that there appears to be a renewed chatter about this online brokerage in particular. While nothing was affirmed in the call with E*TRADE, the door wasn’t closed on the topic either.

For additional context, E*TRADE had communicated achieving a target earning per share (EPS) of $7 by 2023 and in this earnings announcement call, that timeline was pushed back by a year to 2024. The current EPS forecast is ~$4 so even if the P/E ratio (9.88) manages to stay the same by 2024, the share price by that point could hit $70 (closing price on Friday was $40.85).

Normally, a downward revision or delay in EPS of that nature would prompt a sell off, however based on the drop in price prior to this earnings release, it’s evident the market believes it was oversold and hence the stock rallied. Moreover, it’s a vote of confidence in management that the market believed that hitting that target is achievable.

Suffice to say, the fact the door was left open to an acquisition suggests that if the price is right, management would consider a sale, and there’s even a target price on what that might be. When asked by an analyst if Interactive Brokers would consider buying E*TRADE, Peterffy rejected the prospect – however, it would be hard to imagine that even if they were kicking the tires on an acquisition, that they would disclose as much in a conference call.

Another very interesting takeaway from the investor conference calls was that even though there might not be commissions on equities trades any more, commissions on options trades are likely to stay buoyant for quite some time. The complexity of options strategies and trading almost necessitate having the right platform in place, and so this somewhat technical requirement could serve to ringfence trading commissions for these types of securities.

All told, the story going forward for the US online brokerage industry is still highly fluid.

There were a slew of new feature announcements (which will be covered in a subsequent Roundup) most notably the ability for investors to trade fractional shares (something Schwab and Ameritrade announced last week).

The reality is that there is no exact playbook to navigate a fundamentally different world than the one that has been in place for the past three decades. That said, it is fascinating to see just how adept each online brokerage is at evolving to the new reality of zero commissions for equity trades.

There are undoubtedly other levers and fees that can be used to grow revenues, as well as diversification away from just order execution – a preferred path it seems for Schwab and E*TRADE. There’s also a lot of cost cutting that is slated to take place. E*TRADE announced a number of initiatives in its conference call. Curiously, Interactive Brokers reported a 15% year over year increase in their total headcount, a signal that in spite of everything, they appear to be building out their overhead and team resources, not shrinking it the way that Schwab recently announced they would.

We’re eagerly awaiting what TD Ameritrade will have to say about the journey forward in their conference call, however, we suspect it will be some variation of what as already been said by E*TRADE, Schwab, and Interactive Brokers. There is a strong platform and client experience appeal to TD Ameritrade, so they certainly have a leg to stand on in that department. Add to that another very strong trading platform experience and new entrants are going to have a tough time competing. Ironically, zero commissions might accelerate the onboarding of clients to TD Ameritrade at the expense of other “low cost” online brokerages.

It does beg the question as to what’s next for Robinhood – the zero cost online brokerage that essentially helped to catalyze the industry race to zero commissions. In a way, they appear to be victims of their own success, and the other online brokerages appear to be forcing the hand of Robinhood to compete on feature sets and value drivers beyond just commission price.

Just because commission prices have fallen to the ground, it doesn’t mean that the incumbent online brokerages won’t be hitting that same ground running.

Packaged Delivery

For any fast food aficionados, there’s nothing unfamiliar about the combo being a better deal than the single item. Turns out that DIY investors hungry for a deal at Canada’s bank-owned brokerages might just be in luck. Earlier this month, National Bank Direct Brokerage launched their newest pricing offer which also happened to come with perks (like lower commission pricing) for anyone who was also a National Bank client.

Another bank-owned brokerage also seems to be looking to offer a compelling online investing side-order to its banking clients. Scotiabank, parent to Scotia iTRADE, is offering up clients who sign up to the recently launched Ultimate Package 10 commission-free trades in the first year, and five commission-free trades every year that the account is open.

This new offer is likely going to generate some waves with DIY investors and potentially open a new front in the online brokerage battle.

In terms of the offer itself, the threshold for this banking package requires a minimum balance of $5,000 to be maintained in the bank account. However, there are a number of daily banking features and perks to keep things worthwhile. To boot, there is a cash incentive of up to $350 that would make this offer even more compelling relative to other onboarding offers from the online brokerage side of many big bank-owned brokerages. Finally, there is the ongoing commission fee waiver for five trades per year which is likely to appeal to the very passive investor. Combined with Scotia iTRADE’s selection of commission-free ETFs, there’s a lot on the table for the right profile of investor who has enough to surpass the inactivity fee threshold ($10,000). For investors under the age of 26, however, this is an especially interesting choice because those inactivity fees are waived for younger investors.

When it comes to the future of online trading in Canada, it appears that bank-owned brokerages are relying on their biggest asset – the banking relationship – to entice DIY investors to stay put.

This is almost certainly the next front in an ongoing battle for DIY investor assets, one that non-bank owned brokerages such as Questrade, Virtual Brokers or Qtrade Investor will have to figure out how to counter.

One likely scenario is for the non-bank owned brokerages to start providing high interest on uninvested cash – something that has clearly been shown to work for Interactive Brokers. As has been the case in the US online brokerage market, the major online brokerages have increasingly started to deploy “bank-like” solutions such as bill payment capability and even credit cards to enable a “one-stop shop” experience for personal finance management.

With more zero-commission fees on the horizon for the Canadian discount brokerage space, this latest combo experiment may buy brokerages some much needed time before having to drop their commission rates to zero. More importantly, combo offers like this keep customers from casting their gaze over the fence.

Interestingly, unlike a race to the bottom, this appears to be the next step in a bidding war for loyalty.

The unintended consequence to the bank-owned brokerages, however, is that they will have to get all points of the service experience right – from banking through to wealth management – because going forward, those fortunes, like those of their clients, are going to be tied closer together than they have ever been before.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Clean Break

Breaking up is never easy, so in this forum post on the Financial Wisdom Forum, a user seeks advice on the process of leaving their full service broker for a discount brokerage account at NBDB.

Fee-dom

In search of investment options without fees that add up over time, a Redditor asks for discount brokerage options and advice for a first-time investor in this forum post.

Into the Close

With online brokerages and the ongoing fee-asco now in the spotlight, the focus on the industry is almost unprecedented. We are definitely in uncharted territory as to what will ultimately shake out as a direction for the industry, and that uncertainty is going to definitely translate into lots of questions from consumers.

Turns out that in addition to putting an X on a ballot this week, DIY investors are going to need to remember to tune into the blue X to stay on top of what’s going on. We’re thrilled to see where this next chapter takes us and are starting to get the feeling we’re going to be needed now more than even we could have imagined. Here’s to whatever comes next.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 15, 2019

Welcome back to the market action after what was hopefully a restful long weekend. While many DIY investors will start the week feeling cheerful, it was pretty clear that after a stretch like the one we’ve just witnessed, a few online brokerages are feeling like they’ve had the stuffing knocked out of them.

With so much chatter and attention focused on commission-free trading battles taking place in the US, it’s easy for news stories and developments from Canadian online brokerages to fly under the radar. Fortunately, this post (Canadian) Thanksgiving edition of the Roundup is tracking some of the smaller but important developments taking place. Our first story highlights some deals activity that points to more volatility in October for discount brokerages in Canada. From there we’ll review emerging trends of features and enhancements that, curiously, aren’t getting a lot of coverage. As always, we’ll serve up the forum post favourites and a healthy portion of Twitter commentary to cap things off.

Discount Brokerage Deal-ite

With the end of the year in sight, there will be more than just Christmas decorations starting to light up online brokerages across Canada. Invariably, the more organized among us will already be done with their Christmas gifts and be kicking the tires on RRSP accounts. As such, Canadian discount brokerages are likely seeing their websites light up with traffic from these early shoppers looking to get a handle on what offers and features exist to support investing for retirement.

This past week, we noticed RBC Direct Investing, one of Canada’s largest bank-owned brokerages, re-release one of their more popular offers to Canadian DIY investors: 25 commission-free trades that are good for up to one year.

While this latest move by RBC Direct Investing coincides with the celebration of their 30th anniversary as an online brokerage in Canada, it’s clear that commission-free “offers” now have to stack up against the expectation and anticipation of “commission-free trading.” Indeed, a lot has changed over the past 30 years in the online brokerage industry, with the biggest changes taking place over the past few weeks.

Undoubtedly, the tsunami of zero-commission trading that slammed into the US online brokerage market has been (and will be) a hot topic of conversation among Canada’s discount brokerages. With the launch of this latest offer from RBC Direct Investing, other Canadian online brokerages will also be feeling the pressure to come to market with something equally, or more, compelling.

Timing-wise, October will continue to be an interesting and somewhat volatile month for Canadian discount brokerage deals – especially those from bank-owned online brokerages.

For example, Scotia iTRADE’s “Get Self-Started” lowered pricing and cash back offer is scheduled to expire on October 15th (at the time of publishing). Later in October, BMO InvestorLine’s cash back promotion is also set to expire.

Add into the mix that National Bank Direct Brokerage’s new lower pricing takes effect on October 15th, and it is clear that the remainder of the fall season will be great for DIY investors seeking out better pricing on commissions and deals suited to attract new business.

With all of the activity taking place this week, we’re banking on the fact that this will be just the beginning of a burst of activity from Canadian online brokerages who are gearing up for their most competitive year ahead yet.

New Website Changes Signal New Features & Strategies

With online trade commission pricing facing even more downward pressure, the writing is on the wall for the Canadian discount brokerages to get more creative and improve their user experience. Given the recent events in the US online brokerage market, the timetable to deploy these new changes has almost certainly been accelerated.

Commission commotion aside, over the past few weeks we’ve noticed some interesting changes to several online brokerages websites that have been curiously flying under the radar.

One of the first important changes noted was the Virtual Brokers website, which quietly underwent a significant facelift earlier this month.

Historically, the launch of a new website was almost always accompanied by some kind of announcement, press release, or even chatter on social media or investor forums. In this case, there was no mention to be found on social media channels run by Virtual Brokers or chatter from investors.

The look and feel of the new site is more streamlined and hints towards a new visual direction. It’s less “cartoony” and more corporate, with a heavy emphasis on their designation as the “best online brokerage” by the Globe and Mail.

It’s hard to say whether no reaction is better than a negative one, but it is noteworthy that nobody mentioning anything is possibly a harbinger of where online investors are pointing their attention (and where they aren’t) when it comes to Canadian online brokerages. Redoing a website is no small feat, so it’s a safe bet there was a lot of effort and expense that went into the redesign and what the ROI is will remain to be seen.

Interestingly, with a new CEO (Kurt MacAlpine) taking the helm at CI Financial, the parent to Virtual Brokers, as well as digital being “critical” to the long-term strategy at CI, it seems like there will have to be a series of significant changes coming.

Clearly the non-bank-owned brokerages (other than Questrade) are going to have to double down on efforts to stay in the spotlight given the competitors they are up against. A rethink of digital experiences and pricing strategies is almost certainly the next order of business to come.

On the bank-owned brokerage end of things, we have also been noticing changes appearing to the CIBC Investor’s Edge website, specifically with regards to the design and knowledge-driven features appearing on the homepage. Interestingly, there were whispers of a new platform coming from Investor’s Edge in a forum thread in September so these changes seem to be in line with, or supporting, a shift in either look and feel or user experience.

One of the most important evolutions to the CIBC Investor’s Edge site that has been taking place is in the knowledge base. From webinars to video content to articles, it appears that Investor’s Edge has been working quietly to build out this important kind of resource and making it publicly accessible to DIY investors.

Similar to Investor’s Edge, we’ve also taken notice of a buildout of the knowledge base at Scotia iTRADE. Historically iTRADE has invested consistently in webinars for educational content, however, over the past year or so there has been more focus being placed on supporting material (e.g. “how to”) and other financial content, such as their tax content series.

In spite of all of the changes mentioned above, one interesting observation regarding these additional features has been the relatively quiet, if not completely silent, roll out.

The emerging picture is a curious one. On the one hand, it’s clear that Canadian online brokerages are actively working to deliver value-added components to their product experience, in part, to offset the perception of being a place to go to for low-cost trade execution. That said, the accompanying lack of chatter or lack of excitement/buzz is anomalous.

With commission rates under pressure of falling further, it is going to become increasingly more important for online brokerages to highlight what makes them special.  The muted messaging and marketing from several notable online brokerages around new feature development make it harder for DIY investors to talk about what’s special about an online brokerage.

By cutting back on marketing, discount brokerages may feel like they’re saving precious resources, but if there’s one thing that online brokerages can’t afford more than lower commissions, it’s to be forgettable.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Platform for Discussion

When it comes to picking a trading platform, finding a straight answer is somewhat of a challenge. In this forum post on RedFlagDeals, one forum user decided to create a new watering hole for fellow readers to contribute information on and learn about discount broker trading platforms.

Greener Pastures

There’s no question the environment is having a moment. But is investing in green energy as good for a portfolio as it is for the planet? A Redditor asks for advice to help his parents invest in green energy ETFs and gets some sage advice for those nearing retirement. Read more here.

Into the Close

After the long weekend, there’s a lot to digest heading into the week ahead (not just the leftovers either!). It will be another wild week for US online brokerages as earnings from Schwab cross the wire premarket on Tuesday, and E*TRADE after market on Thursday. The lingering questions for analysts, investors, and other industry participants is where things go from here, and this week, we may just get a much clearer picture.