Tag: Weekly Roundup

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – March 18, 2019

With spring around the corner and coming off St. Paddy’s Day weekend, green is definitely a theme colour for March. Of course, while investors are seeking a green of their own, Canadian online brokerages are also green with envy (perhaps even seeing red) with the official roll-out of a new competitor.

In this edition of the roundup, we cover THE story that has been waiting in the wings now for many months: the launch of Wealthsimple Trade. We’ll take a deep dive on the new platform and the early responses to see what DIY investors and online brokerages alike can expect with a zero-commission trading experience. For a little extra variety, we’ll also toss in some of the other things DIY investors were buzzing about on Twitter and in the forums.

Wealthsimple Trade Goes Live

The day that many of Canada’s discount brokerages were hoping would never come is finally here. Zero commission trading for Canadian DIY investors is now available thanks to the official roll out of Wealthsimple Trade.

Although it wasn’t clear exactly when this moment would come, it was just a matter of time, since Wealthsimple Trade was officially announced last year and beta testing has been taking place over the past few months. So, while it wasn’t necessarily a surprise, the official release brings with it the impetus for existing online brokerages to decide how (and how quickly) they want to compete with Canada’s newest online brokerage.

Now that Wealthsimple Trade is officially live, we can shine a spotlight on the new discount broker to see how it stacks up against existing online brokerages, and see what early reactions by consumers suggest are the strengths and limitations of the new provider.

Platform: Wealthsimple Trade is Mobile Focused

One of the first ‘features’ that is bound to be a source of contention with DIY investors and traders is that Wealthsimple Trade is only available (for now) on a mobile device – specifically those running either iOS 11+ or Android 7+.

Going mobile first with a launch is a radically different user experience for investors who are used to desktop (including laptop) environments to place their trades and manage their portfolios.

To be fair, the mobile-first approach does put a focus on making trading on the go or from other locations in one’s house, hotel or from wherever, a feature rich experience.  That said, the decision to go ‘mobile-first’ means that Wealthsimple Trade skews towards users who are generally younger and more comfortable interacting via smartphone instead of on a desktop/laptop, and who could conceivably spend hours on their phone researching and monitoring stock prices and news. So, in a nutshell, zero commission trading is probably great for your wallet but not so much for your posture.

Early responses from the respective app reviews show that there are mostly positive experiences, with iOS users rating it 4 out of 5 stars (based on 87 reviews) and Android users giving it 3.8 stars (out of 5) based on 34 reviews.

Security: Read the Fine Print

Another very interesting set of concerns raised by DIY investors out of the gate relate to security. While Wealthsimple Trade (like other online brokerages) is covered by the CIPF, it is actually funding the account where the trepidation lies.

To fund your trading account, Wealthsimple Trade requires that users provide their banking information to a third-party platform, Plaid, that is then able to authenticate and transfer funds into (and out of) a Wealthsimple Trade account.

Many initially curious users pointed out that by providing their bank details (i.e. their username and password) to this third party, their bank’s anti-fraud guarantee would no longer be valid.

This means that anyone who has provided Wealthsimple Trade their banking login information might be trading away their coverage in case of theft or fraud. For some, it is clearly a deal breaker – and seemingly unnecessary as other online brokerages (such as Questrade) do not require login information from a user’s funding source to deposit funds.

Of course, for others, the trade-off appears to be acceptable – perhaps a younger demographic is not as skeptical or cautious about third party vendors being part of Wealthsimple Trade’s process; the lure of commission-free trades is worth possibly waiving their agreement with their banking provider.

Interestingly, it is not possible at this time to be able to transfer funds in from either Wealthsimple or a Wealthsimple savings account, which means to get money into a Wealthsimple Trade account, it has to come from an external bank account.

Frequency: How Much is Too Much?

When it comes to commission-free trading, there is going to be one category of user that immediately perks up to take notice – the folks who typically generate a lot of commissions trading. That said, the idea of active trading or trying to outperform the market by trading securities rather than passively and over the long term appears a tad antithetical to the Wealthsimple approach. As a result, and perhaps to keep costs from spiralling out of control, Wealthsimple Trade imposes a somewhat ambiguous restriction on the frequency with which an individual can trade intraday.

Wealthsimple Trade’s official position on “day trading” (i.e. buying and selling a security on the same day) is that it is technically possible but the degree to which it is permissible is unclear. They state that “trading the same security in the same day can be flagged as inappropriate trading activity – as such Wealthsimple reserves the right to block transactions and accounts at our discretion.”

If there is one thing that spooks traders and markets it is uncertainty. With respect to traders, not knowing whether or not they will be able to execute certain trades makes it less likely that they will trust the platform as a ‘go-to’ for primary trading needs.

Yes, commission-free trades are nice but not being able to move on volatile stories – which are typically the most exciting for active investors – is a serious drawback. So, from a risk-management perspective, Wealthsimple Trade might not appeal to the active investor nor the day trader at this point until further clarification is delivered on exactly when the threshold of “inappropriate” is reached. Of course, there are some traders that just might try it out to see what happens but for many others, it will need to be clarified in writing first.

To truly appreciate the conundrum here it is important to understand that the most vocal advocates for Wealthsimple Trade would come from the active trading community online. After all, they are the ones who would stand to benefit the most from commission savings.

Active traders are typically on social media and reddit, and are the folks who would be influencing the demographic of interest that Wealthsimple Trade would be targeting. They (like most investors) would be interested in knowing where the ‘exciting’ trades are (e.g. in cannabis) and like most savvy traders or investors, they would be looking to minimize transaction costs in order to get the most bang for their buck. This hypothesis is supported, at least in part, by a recent post on Benzinga that revealed that during the beta testing phase, the three most traded securities on Wealthsimple Trade were all cannabis stocks (Aurora Cannabis, Canopy Growth, and Aphria).

As an aside, another feature which would make it challenging (perhaps even inadvisable) for active investors to trade using Wealthsimple Trade at this time would be that data for quotes is supplied on a delayed basis.

This means investors looking to make quick moves are receiving outdated pricing information when looking at a particular security. Again, if the stock is having a volatile day – such as Boeing did last week – then the price difference for a market order could be very different from the time a quote was viewed to the time the purchase was made.

Selection: Your Mileage May Vary

Another important category for DIY investors to have to consider when trading with Wealthsimple Trade is the selection of securities available. This is perhaps the most challenging area of the user experience that DIY investors will encounter in contemplating this platform because of the different conditions attached to which markets investors have access to, as well as the eligibility requirements for securities to meet in order to be traded.

Specifically, here are the conditions that Wealthsimple Trade currently has to be able to purchase a security:

  1. That is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX); TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV); New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or NASDAQ
  2. It can only be a stock or ETF – so options, preferred shares, mutual funds and other products are not available to be traded through this platform
  3. Must be CDS eligible
  4. Have a 52-week high that exceeds $0.50 (stocks only)
  5. Have an average daily volume that exceeds 50,000 shares (stocks only)
  6. Be the Canadian-listed security if dual-listed

Unlike at most of Canada’s other online brokerages, there generally aren’t stipulations on whether or not you can purchase a particular security because of its trading price or its liquidity.

Ironically, the notion of ‘buy low’ is somewhat challenged by the watermark on price having to meet that minimum threshold. For example, on the TSX Venture Exchange, there were almost 500 securities out of 1649 that would not be eligible to be traded based on this price threshold requirement.

Another ambiguous requirement is the average daily volume – it is not stated clearly on the help section as to what time frame that daily volume is calculated over (e.g. 10d, 30d, 60d, 90d are all possible choices). We have reached out to Wealthsimple Trade for clarification and they have stated 30 days is the time frame over which the average is calculated. Nevertheless, that window of time means that it would be possible that a security someone would be watching could be eligible to be traded and then lose eligibility based on a lack of activity – something that Canadian securities are prone to doing based on the size of our market.

Finally, based on the interest and popularity of cannabis-related stocks, it is interesting that the Canadian Securities Exchange is not on the list of markets that users can trade. With almost 500 securities listed on the exchange, if individuals wish to trade this market directly, they are currently not able to do it using Wealthsimple Trade.

Another part of the selection conversation that is important to consider is the account types that DIY investors would have access to in Wealthsimple Trade.

Currently there are only non-registered, cash trading accounts available. Individual investors who aren’t active traders would be more interested in accounts such as a TFSA or RSP accounts – vehicles that seem like they’d be better aligned with the structure of Wealthsimple Trade. Conversely, for active traders (and possibly one way to generate more revenue that comparable services like Robinhood have explored) margin trading isn’t available yet and as such, the scale of trading activity is limited.

Innovations: Wealthsimple Trade Doing Things Differently

Up to this point it does seem that there are a lot of gaps in the Wealthsimple platform as currently offered. While it is likely that they will work to iterate and close these user experience gaps over time, there are also features about Wealthsimple Trade worth highlighting out of the gate that will undoubtedly influence the market as a whole beyond just forcing a review on commission price.

One of the biggest and most obvious features is that DIY investing has been ‘reimagined’ in a mobile-first and aesthetically pleasing manner. With Wealthsimple Trade, the interface looks and feels modern, and while its worth will ultimately depend on its reliability and ease of use, the design features alone set them apart from anything currently on the market. It is fast to set up, there are no account minimums, and it looks and feels nimble.

Another less obvious but very interesting feature is their system status reporting. Wealthsimple Trade is the first online brokerage to report the real time status of their trading and supporting systems, bringing to the DIY market a level of transparency that up until now hasn’t existed.

If for no other reason than cutting down on the confusion of a technical outage that in turn leads to lots of unnecessary Twitter posts (ahem Facebook and Instagram), there is actually a system status page that publicly details multiple moving parts of the Wealthsimple Trade experience such as trading or market data or login capability. If you’re at all concerned about technical stability of the platform, this would be an important touchpoint to verify what’s gone off the rails because they also report historical data too.

Finally, it is worth noting that with the roll-out of Wealthsimple Trade, there is a genuine buzz and excitement about online trading and investing that hasn’t really been generated by a Canadian online broker in quite some time. It seems that there are users who, for now, are genuinely interested in seeing the ‘zero commission’ model take flight and are willing to provide constructively critical feedback to help improve user experience.

In addition to grabbing the spotlight on commission-free trading, Wealthsimple Trade has also captured the imagination of DIY investors. The prospect of being interesting and innovative (even shiny and new) is now something that other online brokerages have to contend with. People are genuinely excited about what this platform will do next. Will it be registered accounts? Will it be connecting to new markets? Will it be margin trading?

Regardless of the development pathway, as long as Wealthsimple Trade continues to move forward and roll out improvements, they have an audience that online brokerages are fighting hard to connect with. For investors and online brokerages alike, it appears that right now everyone is watching to see where things go from here and for that reason, it seems like we’re on the cusp of a truly exciting chapter in the online trading story in Canada.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Buzz on the launch of Wealthsimple Trade

We couldn’t do a spotlight edition the launch of Wealthsimple Trade without a snapshot of the forum chatter about them. Here are links to the various forum threads celebrating the launch of zero-commission trading in Canada:

  1. RedFlagDeals.com: Wealthsimple Trade – Free stock/ETF trades – Now available to all
  2. Personal Finance Canada on reddit: Wealthsimple Trade is Now Available to Everyone
  3. Canadian Investor on reddit: Wealthsimple Trade is live for everyone

Taking Stock

One investor has questions about holding US stocks in a TFSA. Other forum users on RedFlagDeals chime in with answers, advice, and some hard numbers. Read more here.

Strong Start

A newcomer to the investing world turns to reddit for advice on the best place to start. Fellow redditors deliver and provide a crash course in DIY investing. See more here.

Into the Close

Last week was an utterly tragic one for the people of New Zealand compounded by the perverse nature in which this tragedy was perpetrated and shared with the world. That it happened there, and here in Canada, are signs that the decisions we make, the words we choose and the people we elect matter. Being a fiercely proud Kiwi and Canadian, I am certain that collectively the people of New Zealand will move forward stronger as Canada and Quebec have. Learning to live together, peacefully, is something we often take for granted but in tragedies like the one that struck New Zealand, it is a stark reminder that the price we pay for indifference towards bigotry, discrimination and hatred is far too high.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – March 11, 2019

There’s a Bob Dylan song about times changing, which seems fitting for the post-daylight savings edition of a roundup and also following the celebration of International Women’s Day last week. Fortunately, even if it is still taking time, more than just clocks are changing when it comes to the world of DIY investing and finance.

In this edition of the roundup we highlight an interesting new financial planning tool for DIY investors that one big online brokerage hopes will enable users to trade more confidently. Shifting gears, we also put a spotlight on PDAC 2019 and recap some of the interesting things seen (and not seen) at this year’s show. Finally, International Women’s Day is also in focus as one online brokerage went the extra mile to put together some inspiring content related to the day. As always, we’ve pulled together chatter from DIY investors on Twitter and in the forums so be sure to scroll all the way through to get caught up.

TD Direct Investing Rolls Out GoalAssist to Help Investors Make Better Plans

Last week, we spotted an interesting development coming from TD Direct Investing in the form of a rollout of a new financial planning tool called GoalAssist. This new feature is a part of the WebBroker platform and is intended to provide investors with a personalized financial road map to reach important financial goals such as retirement or purchasing a new vehicle.

There is little debate about the importance of financial planning. However in 2019, it is remarkably challenging for investors to find an easy to use (and reliable) set of tools with which to manage their personal financial picture. Interestingly, many DIY investors use a patchwork of spreadsheets, software, and often financial forums to get a handle on what they should be doing in order to prepare for a big financial milestone like retirement or purchasing a home.

So, it is against this backdrop that TD Direct Investing’s release of their financial tool GoalAssist within the trading platform is particularly interesting.

Sure, there are calculators that exist to forecast how much money an individual may need during retirement or what someone would need to save in order to reach a financial goal (like taking a big trip). However, pulling together an integrated financial picture within the ecosystem of where you bank/invest is a powerful combination. The ability to view in real-time the distance between your financial goals and your current financial picture means users can shift gears more quickly if needed, or map out a path to close big financial gaps.

The tool itself uses a familiar approach of establishing a risk profile as well as an investor profile to determine what kind of financial plan would match the person using the platform. As a part of this approach, the tool makes a number of assumptions that are based on data analysis of market performance (including simulations of performance).

Specifically, the tool sets a threshold of 70% “statistical confidence” of your goal being met by the plan parameters and user inputs. If the combination of parameters results in a less than 70% statistical confidence that the goal will be achieved, then the plan will be considered to “need attention,” whereas if it is above 70% then the goal status is considered “good.”

To their credit, TD has provided detailed documentation of the assumptions and parameters that power the GoalAssist platform. It is written clearly and even though it is quite long, it does provide a user with a clear set of guidelines as to what the plan can and cannot account for. Factors such as taxes or the impact of fees are not fully accounted for by the simulations so there is still some degree of planning for these factors that users have to do to get a fuller picture of their financial outcomes.

What is particularly valuable about the details is that each “investor profile” details the performance range of each approach and reports the average return, best return, worst return, and standard deviation. They also provide a snapshot over time of the return picture (as a plotted graph) and report the geometric average (very important!) that more accurately depicts the return over time, factoring in compounding and volatility.

As a follow up on TD’s announcement in September 2018 about their partnership with fintech provider Hydrogen, the launch of GoalAssist reflects a move towards tools and features that take a bigger-picture view of a person’s wealth. Even though there are still shortcomings or gaps that users will need to consider (e.g. taxes) this new platform offers its users a convenient way to do a lot of financial planning in a single interface that is also tied to their accounts.

Ultimately, how much of a selling point this feature becomes will be tied to what people are saying about it. Already in forums there is chatter, however it will be worth watching over time to see what benefit clients ultimately derive from managing their wealth using a tool like GoalAssist.

Beneficially, anything that gets people thinking about planning for their financial future is a way in which investors can better identify what kind of investor they are, what kind of assumptions they have about their own wealth, and what kind of behaviours they may (or may not) need to modify in order to achieve their financial goals. Those are powerful conversations to have and to spark with investors, so where TD Direct Investing takes things from here will be of keen interest to both investors and industry.

PDAC 2019 Roundup

The global mining community descended on Toronto last week for what is arguably the most prominent mining convention in the world, PDAC (which stands for Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada). With just under 500 companies exhibiting in the Investors Exchange, many of which are publicly traded mining & exploration companies, this event provides a unique cross section of what is taking place in the mining sector here in Canada as well as in countries all across the world.

As with most years, it was cold outside during the conference, but inside there was a lot of activity. This year, however, as we had mentioned in a previous roundup, conference organizers elected to charge attendees of the Investors Exchange $25 per day – which as we noted previously, is a bold decision when it comes to the structure of a conference.

While the official numbers state that the attendance at this year’s show, which landed at 25,843, topped last year by 240 more people, the anecdotal response from companies hoping to connect with investors was less than enthusiastic. Granted, this year anyone purchasing access to the Investors Exchange also received access to the trade show section of the convention, which was a section of PDAC geared towards service providers of the mining industry.

Nonetheless, even though mining has been out of the spotlight for DIY investors because of stories such as cannabis and cryptocurrency, there are interesting conversations brewing about what it would take to get retail (aka DIY) investors engaged in the mining sector.

Around the show floor, it was apparent that battery metals and the “electric car” story are one important theme that appears to resonate with investors – and younger investors in particular – as evidenced by the presence of a number of firms in this space.

Another interesting theme on the show floor was the emergence of technology – such as augmented & virtual reality – to help communicate in a much more immersive fashion the projects that companies are working on.

Finally, the Canadian Securities Exchange also organized an interesting panel discussion focusing on millennials in mining. This panel discussion highlighted what challenges and opportunities exist for getting a new generation of investors engaged (and invested) in mining stories. There were a few themes within that discussion worth noting, however one that stood out was the notion that millennials are more aware of the impact of mining on the environment and the communities in which projects take place.

As a result, indicators such as the ESG score may become something millennial investors would want to turn to when making a decision on the corporate practices of the companies they may choose to invest with (in addition to the economic fundamentals of the project).

One thing that was not spotted on the show floor was an online brokerage. Unlike the Moneyshow or even, historically, at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, there were no online brokerages present this year (or last year for that matter) – highlighting an interesting gap in the outreach efforts of Canadian online brokerages to connect with DIY investors.

With so many investors and industry professionals who understand the value of investing in mining stocks, it’s likely not going to be too long before Canadian online brokerages also venture onto the show floor.

RBC Direct Investing Celebrates International Women’s Day with Investing Portraits

Last week, International Women’s Day was celebrated in a big way by many financial services providers, including several online brokerages. Among the more visible efforts was a piece from RBC Direct Investing from their new-ish content section known as Inspired Investor.

This piece offered a collection of three stories of women investors at different life stages and from different backgrounds who shared their experience with investing. Although two of the videos are slightly older, the context in this article highlights the change in perceptions about investing being a ‘boys only’ activity – something which will hopefully encourage and inspire other women (and men) to take a different view on what a DIY investor looks like.

Importantly, RBC Direct Investing has disclosed that the stories feature individuals who either work for RBC or were compensated for sharing their stories. Suffice to say the stories themselves don’t paint DIY investing in a negative light, but they aren’t overly promotional either. When it comes to encouraging people to consider DIY investing, subtlety is important because it isn’t necessarily a good fit for everyone.

Although a few other online brokerages also recognized International Women’s Day, it would be great to see more participation and support for highlighting stories of women investors on a more regular basis. There are lots of great stories out there that can hopefully demonstrate that when it comes to capital markets or DIY investing, barriers to participation don’t make good business sense.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Getting Benched

This DIY investor is looking to switch from US ETFs to Canadian ETFs. As they take a closer look at the benchmarks, they found some variances. See what other investors suggested in terms of whether to make the switch on this post from RedFlagDeals.

Testing the Waters

This DIY investor wants to enter the investing game but isn’t sure if what they have in mind will play out. Their hesitation was noted by fellow forum users. See what they had to say on Financial Wisdom Forum here.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another interesting week for DIY investors. It was the first time in 2019 that the TSX index closed at a loss but despite that, market sentiment still remains positive.  That is, of course, if you’re Jeremy Grantham. So, on that cheery note – here’s to having a profitable week ahead!

The full interview with Jeremy Grantham from CNBC.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – March 4, 2019

Welcome to March. With spring on the horizon (at least that’s what’s supposed to happen) and the RSP deadline now behind everyone, it’s time to start looking forward to bigger stories through the rest of the year. Fortunately for online brokerages (and DIY investors) once they recover from the mad dash that was the RSP contribution rush, there are some bullish signals that DIY investing continues to strengthen.

In this edition of the roundup, we highlight the latest activity in the deals and promotions section. With the arrival of a new month, and this month in particular, this month is going to be full of changes and surprises as the deals deck shuffles. Keeping on theme with spring, we’ve also spotted a few interesting developments sprouting up – one that mining investors may want to take note of and another that shows that IPO activity in 2019 extends even into the online brokerage segment. As always be sure to check out the latest tweets and forum posts from DIY investors.

Deals March On

Now that March has officially arrived, the mad dash to the RSP contribution deadline is finally over. Over the next few days, Canadian discount brokerages & investors alike will be tallying their respective wins.

For investors, there were definitely some big wins to celebrate. Historic high numbers of offers, participation from almost all online brokerages, as well as an increase (in certain segments) in the value of offers being put forward. The combination of these factors suggests a bullish sentiment for DIY investors through 2019.

That said, an adage of markets (and physics) applies equally to the online brokerage market and what has gone up will most certainly come down.

With a significant portion of deals timed to coincide with the RSP contribution deadline or shortly thereafter, March is scheduled to see quite a bit of turnover in the deals & promotions section. So, while market volatility may have taken a back seat for the first part of 2019, for online brokerages and DIY investors, the deals category is going to sail through choppy waters.

Case in point, the most popular categories of offers – cash back promotions and commission-free trade deals – is set to have 7 out of the 14 (50%) current offers expire in March.

Notably, the deal from TD Direct Investing expired at the RSP contribution deadline of March 1st. Offers from BMO InvestorLine (March 4th), Qtrade Investor (March 15th), CIBC Investor’s Edge (March 24th), RBC Direct Investing (March 29th) and both Virtual Brokers and Scotia iTRADE on March 31st.

Also on the chopping block in March is Questrade’s big transfer fee coverage offer (set to expire March 31st).

Of course, with so many deals set to expire, the landscape for DIY investors will be pretty interesting for those other deals still in play. Even though the big push of RSP contributions will have come and gone, income tax filing season is now here and personal finance questions will still be top of mind for many investors. In fact, what could be interesting to watch is whether there are any stumbles with regards to tax reporting across the tax-filing season as hiccups invariably lead to investors getting fed up and looking elsewhere for greener pastures. The result, for online brokerages with promotional offers still active during this time period, there will be less competition to contend with.

Interestingly, it will likely be challenger brokerages – such as National Bank Direct Brokerage, HSBC InvestDirect, Desjardins Online Brokerage and Questrade who will directly benefit from the deals action pull back. In all likelihood, however, we also expect BMO InvestorLine to post an offer to keep their long-time streak of offering a promotion intact. Additionally, given Questrade’s climbing prominence in rankings and growing awareness of this provider among online investors, it is unlikely that other, larger, online brokerages will sit by and cede market share to Questrade  – especially during this time of year.

So, even though we don’t know exactly what’s in store for DIY investors in March, the early data suggests a bullish sentiment for brokerages to introduce new deals and/or extend offers.

DIY Investing Potpourri

Despite the winter warnings, we can still look forward to March being the official start to spring. With that in mind, we’ve pulled together a few interesting developments across the DIY investor space that are worth taking note of.

PDAC 2019 Now Charging Investors to Attend

When it comes to conferences for investors, there aren’t a lot to turn to. And, when it comes to major mining conferences in Toronto that would attract the global spectrum of the mining industry, there really is only one: PDAC 2019.

Taking place between March 3rd and 6th this globally renowned show brings in mining and exploration companies at a scale that is unrivaled in Canada and so it was particularly interesting to see the PDAC roll the dice when it came to attracting investors into this convention. Specifically, this year PDAC opted to charge $24.99 for admission to the Investors Exchange – the hub of about 500 mining & exploration companies.

So, either sentiment in the mining sector is about to take a significant uptick or PDAC carries enough weight with investors to warrant charging admission. Among the many selling points for investors is that this is arguably the best opportunity to meet with mining and exploration companies’ representatives as well as to discover other ones.

There are just shy of 500 companies listed to exhibit in the Investors Exchange so for anyone to try and cover that kind of ground, it will likely require a multi-day effort. To make matters more potentially costly, 65 exhibitors (13%) are there only for one day, either March 5th or March 6th.

While the final numbers will ultimately bear out whether attendance is impacted by charging for admission, given the state of the mining markets, giving investors one more hurdle to cross seems like a bold move. So, for investors serious and committed enough to fork over $25 per day to talk to companies, you can almost bet the questions will be coming from more engaged investors and there will be fewer ‘no shows’ (although the extreme cold may also challenge attendance).

It will be interesting to see what kind of experience DIY investors can expect from this year’s show – but one thing is for certain – PDAC has raised the bar for creating an outstanding investor experience now that investors are paying to be there.

IPO for Chinese Online Brokerages

While the spotlight on IPO’s was dominated this past week by the filing from Lyft, earlier last week Chinese online brokerage Tiger Brokers also announced they would be seeking an IPO on NASDAQ (TIGR). Interestingly, they are not the only Chinese online brokerage and trading firm seeking to raise capital from and list on the US markets. Direct competitor of Tiger Brokers, Futu Holdings (FHL) also filed to go public with a target of raising up to $300 million.

Futu Holdings is backed by Tencent while Tiger Brokers is backed by Xiaomi and Interactive Brokers also reportedly has a stake in Tiger Brokers. For Interactive Brokers, their presence in the Asian markets continues to strengthen ahead of their peers in the US online brokerage space.

What also crossed our radar from the disclosure data was the reporting that 71.5% of clients were under 35 – a massive difference in the demographic profile compared to online brokerages in North America. Also noteworthy: conversion rates of 15% and retention rates of 82% through the end of 2018. In spite of attracting customers, a look at the financials show that negative earnings and operating losses which reflect a number of challenges the online brokerage segment still faces in the Chinese market.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Stop & Go

When it comes to investing, things don’t always finish on the upside.  At first glance, stop loss protection might be an option to mitigate the risks, but do fellow forum users on Canadian Money Forum agree? See what they have to say.

Expanding the Horizon

One investor takes to the forums to see what ETF options are available outside the energy and resource sector. Forum users take a closer look and share their thoughts on investing in mining and resources while offering up their suggestions on the Financial Wisdom Forum.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another set of noteworthy developments. There’ll be lots to see this week, including content coming out of PDAC. Metals are also in going to be in the news with the NAFTA trade deals now up in the air. For the numerologists, the 10th year of the bull market is coming up marking the week in which the S&P 500 hit its low of 666. Not creepy at all. Of course other numbers in focus will be the job growth and economic performance. Wherever the numbers land, here’s hoping you have a profitable week!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 25, 2019

Whether it was the spectacle of having no host, the spectacle of who wore what or of who won what, there was a lot of hype leading up to the Oscars and after it was all said and done, the controversy persists. Of course, Canadian online brokerages are caught in a swirl of hype as well, with the RSP contribution deadline looming, this is perhaps the most buzzworthy week for anything and everything related to investing online.

In this edition of the roundup, while there may be no big celebrities or shiny statues, there is no shortage of commentary (albeit not about outfits). Starting first with one Canadian online brokerage who made a subtle but important shift on their commission pricing page which could tilt them out of favour with active traders. Next, we review the interesting last minute moves made by a pair of online brokerages to put their deals for RSP season in the spotlight and keep them on the radar of DIY investors. Of course, in keeping with the awards season theme, we profile some very interesting highlights from the latest online brokerage ranking to come out of the US. As always, we’ve got a great selection of DIY investor chatter from Twitter as well as from the investor forums.

Virtual Brokers Quietly Tweaks Trading Commission

Sometimes a small change can have a big impact. This past week, we took note of a small change to the Virtual Brokers pricing & commissions page, that at first blush, might not seem like a big change but is, in fact, an important one.

Late last year, Virtual Brokers announced a new commission pricing structure that lowered their commissions from $9.95 to between $1.99 and $7.99 per ticket. This pricing structure put the standard commission per trade at Virtual Brokers under most of their competitors – certainly those of most bank-owned brokerages (with the exception of CIBC Investor’s Edge) as well as under the standard commission range of their long-time rival Questrade. There was, however, an important detail to take note of.

Commissions at Virtual Brokers were advertised “per ticket” rather than “per trade” which was uncommon for most of the other online brokerages who priced commissions per trade. For most everyday investors, per ticket pricing, though uncommon, wouldn’t actually work out to being anything different. For active traders, however, the difference is important.

We previously reported that having a ‘per ticket’ system could favour active traders who wanted to scale into (or out of) positions by buying (or selling) multiple orders of the same security in the same day. Now with pricing moving to the per trade pricing, this removes that cost efficiency.

So, even though the terms used to describe trade commission pricing might be easier to understand for a wider audience or user base, the pricing advantage is no longer as clear to the active segment. Another point of possible confusion – the terms & conditions underneath the commission pricing table available on the website at the time of writing this Roundup still refers to the ‘per ticket’ pricing. We’ve reached out to VB for clarification and will post an update when received.

Deals Action Down to the Wire

With the RSP contribution deadline within reach, the deals action in the online brokerage space it is at an all-time high. Even so, there were still a few interesting moves heading into the final stretch to the March 1st deadline.

The first, and most obvious, is RBC Direct Investing ramping up the visibility of their ‘pay with points’ promotional offer. Specifically, the homepage of the RBC Direct Investing has this offer splashed in big, bold letters where it cannot be missed.

For a quick refresher, until March 1st RBC Direct Investing is giving points holders 20% more value by lowering the required minimum point redemption amount from 3000 points to 2500 points.

Points can also be used to pay for trading commissions, and with the current promotion, fewer points are required for a trade. Instead of the 1200 points normally required, clients can use 995 points instead.

Another bank-owned online broker running hard to the RSP contribution deadline extended the deadline for their offer from the end of February to the first few days in March. BMO InvestorLine extended the deadline for their current cash back promotion from February 28th to March 4th – a move that enables the ultra-last-minute contributors to benefit from the promotion especially if they’re on the west coast.

As the clock ticks closer to the deadline, keep in mind that there is also another deal set to expire – TD Direct Investing’s tiered commission-free trading offer. This deal is timed to expire on March 1st so, for any procrastinators, this is crunch time.

Best Online Brokerages in the US Announced

In the spirit of the Academy Awards, and continuing the streak of awards for best online brokerage that have taken place in February, south of the border there was also a rather high profile announcement for the best online brokerages for 2019. Barron’s magazine published their 24th edition of their US online brokerage ranking which profiled 14 US brokerages.

From the Canadian vantage point, it is interesting to peer over the fence to see what some of the more noteworthy features are in the US online brokerage space. According to Barron’s, the five categories of features or experience that DIY investors expect in 2019 are comprised of: personalization, accessibility, convenience, thoroughness and sophistication or “PACTS”.

In terms of the top performers in this year’s ranking – which reports performance using a five-star ranking – Interactive Brokers came out on top with 4.5 stars. The top performer last year as well, the repeat performance is impressive considering the speed and scope of changes taking place in the US online brokerage marketplace.

One interesting observation of the field that we also have noted on several occasions is that “active trading” firms are increasingly targeting less active clients with features geared towards less frequent traders. Interactive Brokers is a great example of this, with features like a credit card, bill payments and high interest on uninvested cash, there are certainly mainstream investors as well as active traders who might find that feature stack appealing.

The top five performing firms in this year’s ranking were:

  1. Interactive Brokers
  2. Fidelity
  3. E*Trade
  4. TD Ameritrade
  5. Merrill Edge

So, what is life like for DIY investors on the other side of the border when it comes to online brokerages?

One interesting feature is substantially lower cost per trade. Although Canadian DIY investors have started to see zero commission trading start to emerge, the reality is that the US has a greater variety of lower cost or no cost trading options. For example, Merrill Edge now offers 100 commission-free equity trades per month for clients with assets over $100,000.

Commission-free ETFs are also another area where the US online brokerage space has a considerable advantage over Canadian brokerages. With catalogues of commission-free ETFs that range into the hundreds, there is certainly lots Canadian online brokerages can take note of from the performance of their US online brokerage counterparts.

Perhaps the biggest difference in terms of online brokerage experience for DIY investors in Canada compared to the US is when it comes to technology. While online account opening is still a work in progress at some firms here in Canada, there are virtual reality portfolio management tools already under advanced development from firms like Fidelity, or AI integrated trading experiences with firms such as TradeStation or Interactive Brokers, or smart home connectivity with trading applications at TD Ameritrade. Over the fence, it is truly a brave new world when it comes to technology.

On a side note, this edition of the Barron’s ranking was written by an author new to the Barron’s ranking, Matt Miller. Up until last year, these rankings were conducted and written by Theresa Carey (for the past 23 editions!) who has since moved over to Investopedia. One of the features that appears to be sorely missed by readers is the full spreadsheet of comparisons that appeared in year’s past.

What is interesting to take note of in the US online brokerage rankings that may impact Canadian DIY investors as well as online brokerage firms here is the rapid ascension in ratings that tastyworks has demonstrated.

Largely focused on options trading and founded by Tom Sosnoff, (who also founded and sold Thinkorswim to TD Ameritrade), the playbook of tastytrade (the media arm that is associated with the brokerage tastyworks) is impressive. The brokerage arm – tastyworks – was launched in 2017 so to rise to a middle of the pack ranking overall in such a short span of time is a sign that they are making significant strides with investors.

Why this is worth watching as a force within the online brokerage space here in Canada is because tastytrade’s second largest audience comes from Canada. Already, tastytrade has a nascent relationship with TD Direct Investing – having done joint events with them in the past. This definitely give TD Direct Investing a leg up on the other Canadian brokerages who would want to deliver access to a unique personality and product in the options trading space.

The key takeaways for Canadian online brokerages is that as Canadian DIY investors get to see what’s going on across the border, there will likely be a similar demand for a more rapid and innovative technology experience, lower cost for trading commissions, greater diversity of ETF trading commission-free and exceptional trading-related content. In a nutshell: they have to figure out how to do way more than they’re currently doing now, and do so in a falling commission-rate environment.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Straight to the Points

Value investing is all about getting more for your dollar. It’s no surprise then that DIY investors sparked a conversation on RedFlagDeals.com’s investing thread about RBC Direct Investing’s pay with points promotion set to expire at the beginning of March. Check out what investor’s had to say about the merits and limitations of this offer.

Trader’s Remorse

Despite the different coloured logo, things may not always be greener on the other side of the online brokerage fence. One investor had second thoughts about their move from Questrade to BMO InvestorLine, in this post in the Financial Wisdom Forum. Read about what fellow forum users had to offer in the way of sage advice.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on the action for another week. If you’ve watched any major sporting event or TV event or even surfed around online, you’ve likely seen at least one discount brokerage or robo-advisor pushing hard into the RSP contribution deadline. For those who’ve already tied a ribbon around their RSP contributions for the year, congratulations, there’s one less thing to worry about this week – but if you’re looking for anything to get your nerves frayed, good news, there’s lots on the US and Canadian political scene to keep you from resting on your laurels. Have a winning week!

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 18, 2019

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

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

No Country for Old Deals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Qtrade Earns Top Customer Service Scores from Surviscor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Some Q-onfusion

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

Passive Aggressive

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

Into the Close

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

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 11, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Client experience
  • Cost
  • Investing experience
  • Tools
  • Website

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scotia iTRADE Quietly Lowers Standard Commission Prices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Chatter on the Rankings

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

Sorry to Bug You

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

Into the Close

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

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – February 4, 2019

Welcome to the Super Bowl edition of the Weekly Roundup. Just like Tom Brady winning Super Bowls, discount brokerage deal announcements never get old. And, just like the big game itself, for DIY investors, landing a great offer when opening an online brokerage account is also a reason to celebrate.

Fortunately, this edition of the roundup makes scoring a great offer even easier. We kick things off with a highlight of yet another online brokerage deal announced last week and then go deep with an analysis of the deals being offered – specifically the commission-free trade promotions. Also on the field for this roundup: tweets about online brokerages and what DIY investors were chatting about in the forums.

Drill down on discount brokerage deals

There’s an old saying that if you chop your own firewood, it keeps you warm twice. For DIY investors hoping to lower their own costs for investing, hunting around for a promotion or deal will result in even greater savings – especially this month.

Just in time for the final push towards the RSP contribution deadline at the end of February, one more Canadian online brokerage launched a promotional offer, marking the third consecutive week in which a new online trading account deal has launched.

This past week, RBC Direct Investing launched a commission-free trade promotion that offers 20 commission-free trades for a minimum deposit of $5,000. These commission-free trades are good for up to one year and the offer runs until March 29th.

While RBC Direct Investing launched a similar offer late last year (that offer is still technically live) targeted towards healthcare professionals, this latest offer is being widely promoted to the general public and comes with a new (and interesting) deadline.

Now that RBC Direct Investing has more publicly joined the fray, all of Canada’s major online brokerages have an offer of some type to try and entice DIY investors into opening an account. With over 30 distinct offers for DIY investors to sift through, there’s a new challenge to deal with (ie figuring out which deal is best) however fortunately, the two most popular categories of offer fall into either cash back promotions or commission-free trade offers respectively.

We have covered the cash back promotions in previous roundups so in this roundup we’re going to drill down on commission-free trade offers to see what these offers reveal about the brokerages offering them as well as what it means for DIY investors.

Currently, there are six Canadian online brokerages offering a commission-free trade or commission credit offer. As shown in the table below that compares these offers, there are a couple of moving parts when it comes to comparing these offers, including how long an investor has to take advantage of these free trades, what the minimum deposit required would be to qualify and when these offers are set to expire.

Long time readers of the roundup and the discount brokerage deals section will note that the commission-free trade promotions currently being offered now come with a longer duration of time that investors have to take advantage of them has increased. Historically, the duration made available to investors to use the commission-free trades typically ranged between 30 and 90 days. Now, the shortest duration to use these trades is 60 days (Questrade) and the longest at one year, is available at RBC Direct Investing and National Bank Direct Brokerage. It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time RBC Direct Investing has used this promotion. Last year, for example, RBC Direct Investing also offered the 20 commission-free trade promotion with one year to take advantage of commission free trades. With National Bank Direct Brokerage also throwing their hat in the ring with year-long free trades, we couldn’t help but wonder whether the appearance of Wealthsimple Trade’s commission-free trading model has forced Canadian online brokerages to make the “free trade” period longer or if it’s simply competition between larger players driving these dates being extended. Either way, this is a positive development for DIY investors.

Another interesting observation is the expiry dates on the offers themselves. While RSP season was clearly a catalyst to prompting online brokerages to create promotions, the expiry dates of the promotions reflect the various strategies of the online brokerages to stay visible and accessible at a point in the year when money is on peoples’ minds.

In addition to RSP contribution deadlines, there is also tax season, specifically the deadline to file taxes (end of April) that only a handful of brokerages are currently poised to have offers live for.

What individuals who receive a refund ultimately decide to do with money is something that online brokerages like Desjardins Online Brokerage, Questrade and National Bank Direct Brokerage would be in a position to benefit from. The expiry dates for these offers enable them to be visible to anyone shopping around for an online trading account along with the potential cash to fund it with.

The tax season strategy is not new, however this year there is something worth paying attention to. Notably, this year Wealthsimple and TurboTax announced a partnership/integration that would enable individuals who file their taxes through the TurboTax software with easy access to sign up with Wealthsimple.

Although discount brokerages have offered discounts to users of the tax filing software in the past, this integration offers Wealthsimple privileged access to a pool of individuals who are already investing (or thinking about it). Canadian online brokerages with offers that expire close to the RSP contribution deadline may want to consider either extending offers or putting in place other offers geared towards Canadians thinking about what to do with their income tax refunds.

Finally, it’s worth taking a look at the numbers driving the appeal of the offers themselves. In terms of comparing offers to one another, we analyzed commission-free trade offers at each online brokerage that factored in what the maximum number of trades would be for every dollar deposited as well as for the duration of time available to use these offers.

[note: TD Direct Investing’s offer stipulates that trades made prior to July 1, 2019 qualify for rebates. Time to use trades was calculated from Feb. 1, 2019]

On a strict ROI basis, Questrade’s $88 in commission credits offers up a return of 1.7% (trades per dollar deposited) followed by National Bank Direct Brokerage (1%) and RBC Direct Investing (0.4%). Of course, there are other factors to be considered when choosing a commission-free trade offer, most importantly how long an investor would have to take advantage of this offer.

When compared that way, the offer from National Bank Direct Brokerage stands out as providing the best combination of value and availability.

With 50 commission-free trades for a deposit of $5,000, this works out to a 1% return on every dollar deposited. What really adds value here for investors, however, is the duration. With one year to use these free trades, investors can pace themselves with purchases, sales and any other opportunistic strategies. Interestingly, RBC Direct Investing’s latest offer puts them in second place in the group, albeit with a significantly lower number of trades, because the time to use the trades is one year. Rounding out third place was Questrade who had a much lower hurdle to qualify for up to 17 trades (assuming purchases that work out to $4.95 per trade).

Like all comparisons, it is important to acknowledge that different investors will have different priorities.

In this case of the above analysis, it assumes that how many free trades you get is as important as how long you have to use them, which may not be the case for all investors. Some investors might value the flexibility of being able to make a trade later on in the year whereas others are looking for get started with a smaller balance and basic portfolio building.

By comparing the latest crop of Canadian discount brokerage deals, it is evident that less popular online brokerages who want to compete against bigger and better-known online brokerages have to be willing to spend more in order to get the attention of DIY investors.

It is also important for DIY investors to consider what they’re ‘buying’ when they choose an online brokerage. Promotional offers are good consider after due diligence is done on a brokerage rather than as a starting point. Deals shouldn’t be a substitute for determining what features and pricing best suit their needs.

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Commission-free ETFs

With ETFs continuing to grow in popularity with DIY investors as well as commission-free ETF trading options now available, investors interested in passive investing strategies have more choice than they’ve ever had. In this post from the Canadian Investor thread in reddit, one DIY investor is looking to the forum for building a portfolio through a popular online brokerage.

Mutual funds cheaper than ETFs?

If you think Stranger Things is just a Netflix show, here is something to challenge that. In a recent article in the Globe and Mail, there was a look at some situations with passive investing strategies in which low cost mutual funds end up being less expensive than their popular ETF counterparts. This post in the Financial Wisdom Forum sparked some interesting responses.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on another action-packed week. Despite a rather sleepy Super Bowl all around, it was fun to witness both the longest punt in Super Bowl history and see Tom Brady collect yet another championship ring. Fortunately, the week ahead will be much more exciting. All the best to everyone celebrating the Lunar New Year and as a gentle reminder, Valentine’s Day is coming up and nothing says ‘I love you’ quite like getting a deal on an online trading account. Just saying. Have a profitable week!

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – February 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

Expired Deals

There were no expired deals to report.

Extended Deals

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

New Deals

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

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

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

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

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

Discount Brokerage Deals

  1. Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions
  2. Referral Promotions
  3. Transfer Fee Promotions
  4. Contests & Other Offers
  5. Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Cash Back/Free Trade/Product Offer Promotions

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

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 19, 2019 09:30 PT

Referral Promotions

Company Brief Description Minimum Deposit Amount Incentive Structure Time Limit to Use Commission/Cash Offer Deposit Details Link Deadline
Refer a friend to Questrade and when they open an account you receive $25 cash back and they receive either A) $25; B) $50; C) $75; D) $100; or E) $250 depending on the amount deposited amount. Enter code: 476104302388759 during account sign up to qualify. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for eligibility and additional bonus payment structure and minimum balance requirements. A) $1,000 B) $10,000 C) $25,000 D) $50,000 E) $100,000+ $25 cash back (for referrer per referral; $50 bonus cash back for every 3rd referral) For referred individuals: A) $25 cash back B) $50 cash back C) $75 cash back D) $100 cash back E) $250 cash back Cash deposited into Questrade billing account within 7 days after funding period ends (90 days) Refer a friend terms and conditions Code Number: 476104302388759 none
If you (an existing Qtrade Investor client) refer a new client to Qtrade Investor and they open an account with at least $1,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $25 cash. See terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 $25 cash back (for both referrer and referee) Cash deposited at the end of the month in which referee’s account funded Refer A Friend to Qtrade Investor none
Scotia iTrade If you refer a friend/family member who is not already a Scotia iTRADE account holder to them, both you and your friend get a bonus of either cash or free trades. You have to use the referral form to pass along your info as well as your friend/family members’ contact info in order to qualify. There are lots of details/conditions to this deal so be sure to read the details link. A) $10,000 B) $50,000+ A) You(referrer): $50 or 10 free trades; Your “Friend”: $50 or 10 free trades (max total value:$99.90) B) You(referrer): $100 cash or 50 free trades; Your “Friend”: $100 cash or 50 free trades (max total value: $499.50) 60 days Refer A Friend to Scotia iTrade tbd
BMO InvestorLine If you (an existing BMO InvestorLine client) refer a new client to BMO InvestorLine and they open an account with at least $5,000 the referrer and the referee may both be eligible to receive $50 cash. To qualify the referee must use the email of the referrer that is linked to their BMO InvestorLine account. See terms and conditions for full details. $5,000 You(referrer): $50; Your Friend(referee): $50 Payout occurs 45 days after minimum 90 day holding period (subject to conditions). BMO InvestorLine Refer-a-Friend January 2, 2020

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

Transfer Fee Promotions

Company Brief Description Maximum Transfer Fee Coverage Amount Minimum Deposit Amount for Transfer Fee Eligibility Details Link Deadline
Move your brokerage account to Questrade and they’ll cover the transfer-out fee up to $150. $150 no minimum required Transfer Fee Promo March 31, 2019
Transfer $15,000 or more into a new HSBC InvestDirect account and you may be eligible to have up to $152.55 in transfer fees covered. $152.55 $15,000 Confirmed via email contact with HSBC InvestDirect Rep. Contact client service for more information. none
Transfer $15,000 or more to Qtrade Investor from another brokerage and Qtrade Investor may cover up to $150 in transfer fees. See terms and conditions for more details. $150 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer $15,000 or more to RBC Direct Investing and they will pay up to $135 in transfer fees. $135 $15,000 Transfer Fee Rebate Details none
Transfer $20,000 or more to a National Bank Direct Brokerage account and they will pay up to $135 plus taxes in transfer fees. $135 $20,000 Transfer Fee Rebate none
Transfer at least $25,000 or more in new assets to TD Direct Investing when opening a new account and you may qualify to have transfer fees reimbursed up to $150. Be sure to contact TD Direct Investing for further details. $150 $25,000 Contact client service for more information (1-800-465-5463). none
Transfer $25,000 or more into a CIBC Investor’s Edge account and they will reimburse up to $135 in brokerage transfer fees. Clients must call customer service to request rebate after transfer made. $135 $25,000 Confirmed with reps. Contact client service for more information (1-800-567-3343). none
Disnat Desjardins Online Brokerage is offering up to $150 to cover the cost of transfer fees from another institution. To be eligible, new/existing clients need to deposit $50,000 into a Desjardins Online Brokerage account. You’ll have to call 1-866-873-7103 and mention promo code DisnatTransfer. See details link for more info. $150 $50,000 Disnat 1% Commission Credit Promo none
BMO InvestorLine Open a new qualifying account with BMO InvestorLine or fund a qualifying existing account, by transferring in at least $200,000+ in net new assets and you may be eligible to have transfer fees covered up to $200. Use promo code SPARXCASH when signing up. Be sure to read the terms and conditions for more details on the offer. $200 $200,000 BMO InvestorLine Summer 2018 Campaign September 3, 2018

Expired Offers
Last Updated: Feb. 19, 2019 09:30 PT

Other Promotions

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

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

Digital Advice + Roboadvisor Promotions

Robo-advisor / Digital advisor Offer Type Offer Description Min. Deposit Reward / Promotion Promo Code Expiry Date Link
Discounted Management Open and fund a new Questrade Portfolio IQ account with a deposit of at least $1,000 and the first month of management will be free. For more information on Portfolio IQ, click the product link. $1,000 1st month no management fees KDKFNBBC None Questrade Portfolio IQ Promo Offer
Cash Back Open and fund a new or existing SmartFolio account with at least $1,000 and you could receive 0.5% cash back up to $1000. Use promo code PROMO1000 when opening a new account. See terms and conditions for full details. This offer can be combined with the refer-a-friend promotion. $1,000 0.5% cash back to a maximum of $1000. PROMO1000 January 2, 2020 SmartFolio Cash Back Promo
Discounted Management Open a new account with BMO SmartFolio and receive one year of management of up to $15,000 free. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 1 year no management fees STSF April 30, 2019 SmartFolio New Account Promotion
Cash Back – Referral BMO SmartFolio clients will receive $50 cash back for every friend or family member who opens and funds a new SmartFolio account. Friends and family referred to SmartFolio will receive $50 cash back for opening and funding an account, plus automatic enrollment into SmartFolio’s mass offer in market at the time. See offer terms and conditions for more details. $1,000 $50 cash back (referrer) $50 cash back (referee) Unique link generated from SmartFolio required. None SmartFolio Website
Discounted Management Open a new account with RBC InvestEase and the standard management fee will be waived until October 31, 2019. See offer terms and conditions for full details. $1,000 No management fees until October 31, 2019 None March 31, 2019 RBC InvestEase Pricing Details
Transfer Fee Coverage Transfer at least $25,000 into Virtual Wealth when opening a new account and you may be eligible to have up to $150 in transfer fees covered by Virtual Wealth. $25,000 up to $150 in transfer fees covered None None Contact customer service directly for more information.
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2019 23:30 PT
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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 28, 2019

It’s hard to believe but the end of the first month of 2019 is almost here. In the short time the new year has been around there has been no shortage of activity in the markets. As timing would have it, however, we’re just a few days away from Groundhog Day, the Super Bowl and despite the reopening of the U.S. government, a possible round two of a government shutdown.

With news clearly going to tilt towards what’s happening in the U.S., we thought it would be a propos for this edition of the roundup to take a deep look at slate of quarterly earnings calls from US online brokerages, to gauge what sentiment was like with these leading firms and as a proxy for what DIY investors here in Canada can expect to see over the course of the year. Of course, there is also some regularly scheduled Canadian content to look forward to in the roundup, with DIY investor tweets featured as well as what online investors were chatting about in the investing forums.

Reviewing U.S. Online Brokerage Trends for 2019

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, it was fortuitous timing to also check in on US online brokerages as their calendar Q4 earnings calls took place this past week. Even though the primary focus for SparxTrading.com is on the Canadian discount brokerage market, the fact remains that the U.S. online brokerages offer a very interesting window into the business of being an online brokerage and can serve as a proxy for what Canadian DIY investors can expect to see (or not see) anytime soon.

We reviewed the earnings call transcripts from three major online brokerages in the U.S. – Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade and E*Trade Financial and while there’s certainly lots of inside baseball about the financial performance of each of these companies that was discussed, there were also a number of interesting insights about the state of each business and the industry as a whole that was revealed.

While the financials and quantitative side of the earnings discussion describe an interesting perspective of online trading in the U.S., we zeroed in on a few qualitative items that we think are shaping the U.S. online brokerages and, in turn, that could impact how Canadian online brokerages ultimately end up delivering services to Canadian DIY investors.

Byting More Off

One of the first themes that jumps out across the three online brokerages is that there is a concerted push towards automation.

Interactive Brokers is by far the leader when it comes to automation, with an ingrained culture of attempting to automate “anything that moves” this kind of wholehearted commitment to automation has, in their view, enabled them to offer low cost trading, stringent risk management and incredible scalability.

Fundamentally, they are not only becoming the choice of retail investors but also institutional investors and advisors who believe in the technology. The proof, as it were, is in the earnings pudding. Interactive Brokers operates at an enviable 60%+ operating margins while offering among the lowest cost of trading. The implications of this culture of automation are vast, but one crucial area that it impacts is account growth.

Interactive Brokers’ growth strategy is to build a trading experience that clients will want to refer to other investors to. In fact, according to Nancy Stuebe, Interactive Brokers’ Director of Investor Relations on the conference call – “The majority of our new customers come to us by recommendation of existing customers, so the more we do in order for our customers to have a successful experience, the more likely they will enthusiastically recommend our platform to others. The more new customers we onboard now, the more customers they will bring to us in the following weeks and months.”

Again, we have yet to see a month in Interactive Brokers’ history over the past decade where client account growth has contracted. On a year over year basis, their client accounts are up a staggering 24%.

Why we’ve spent so much time on Interactive Brokers is because their playbook is one that other online brokerages are clearly chasing when it comes to automation and digitization. Both E*Trade’s CEO Karl Rosser and TD Ameritrade’s CEO Timothy Hockey cited the importance of technology and innovation as drivers to competing in the online investing space going forward.

Pragmatically, this means organizations switching to agile development environments (something we’ve seen in Canadian online brokerages). As Hockey also highlighted, this path towards increased digitization means removing the inefficiencies that accompany filling/keying in client information manually (e.g. paper forms).

What that means for Canadian online brokerages is clearly that online account openings and digital experiences are going to be the standard. With several online brokerages in Canada still working on online account opening and still requiring some forms to be printed, signed and submitted, the “old way” of doing things will actually make certain online brokerages less accessible to younger investors who don’t have a printer and don’t want to bother trying to get access to one.

Focusing on China

Another really big talking point that emerged in the different conference calls was China. Specifically, Interactive Brokers – who has clear ambitions to become the world’s most dominant online brokerage and TD Ameritrade, who is venturing into the Chinese online investor market space, clearly see online investing in the Asian markets as another path to growth.

What was interesting about the conversations is the fact that these two leading American online brokerages referenced deploying WeChat integrations and citing dynamics in the Chinese markets as impacting financial performance of the online brokerage itself. In other words, there are idiosyncratic experiences of Chinese investors that U.S. online brokerage leadership have had to familiarize themselves with and stay on top of.

For Canadian online brokerages, there are really only two online brokerages (HSBC InvestDirect and Interactive Brokers) that offer a well-telegraphed access to foreign – and Asian in particular – equity markets.

With Lunar New Year just around the corner, it will be interesting to see which Canadian online brokerages also recognize this as an opportunity to tap into a highly prized investor base with direct and indirect ties to trading in Asian markets. We had noted some interesting developments at National Bank Direct Brokerage, for example, in 2018 with their sponsorship of an Asian-focused investing conference in Vancouver and prior to that, Questrade’s special promotion for Chinese New Year as well as TD Direct Investing offering educational sessions in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Clearly there is already activity from a handful of Canadian online brokerages to connect with segments of the Chinese-Canadian population and the movements from TD Ameritrade and Interactive Brokers also reiterate the importance of this trend across the industry.

Suite Tooth

A third (but by no means final) interesting theme to emerge from these conference calls is that the “new” business model for online brokerages goes beyond just DIY investing.

Even though TD Ameritrade, E*Trade and Interactive Brokers may have started as pure DIY investing platforms, the reality of trends in the past three to five years has been a realization that digital wealth management and advice services, are services that their clients may actually be interested in taking advantage of. Extending this point out a bit further, it clearly appears that online brokerages in the U.S. want to become more than just places for an investor to place a trade.

There is a clear effort to go beyond just DIY investing and provide digital wealth management (i.e. robo-advisors), banking services and human advisors as potential service offerings to DIY investors.

Even though Robinhood spectacularly blundered the roll out of their cash management program, Interactive Brokers did not, and launched a new program to pay interest to clients holding less than $100,000. E*Trade, by comparison, has seen a direct benefit for offering a high interest savings account option to clients.

The line between online brokerage and wealth management firm and traditional bank is blurring.

As financial services gets increasingly more digitized, the comments and activities highlighted in each of these three conference calls clearly point to a convergence of financial services. For Canadian DIY investors this likely means a combination of more choice when it comes to services available at the non-bank owned online brokerages (Questrade’s shift to include traditional wealth management is a good example of this) as well as being marketed to about advice services (digital or human) at the bank-owned online brokerages.

What it Means for Canadian Online Brokerages

In looking across the online brokerage industry in the U.S., it is evident just how different in terms of scale their market is to the Canadian one. That scale becomes important in the Canadian space since the smaller market size in Canada restricts the speed of innovation or the scale of undertaking simply because the business case is harder to make here.

For that reason, it is important to keep a pulse on what’s going on in the U.S. because there are developments to trading platforms, account services, and more that will surface in that market before they show up in Canada. Only the most compelling features, however, will seriously get discussed and acted upon at Canadian online brokerages.

Nonetheless, there is one principle that stands firm at U.S. online brokerages: putting the customer experience first. Fortunately this is something that transcends borders, however tactically, what Canadian online brokerages are able to do versus U.S. online brokerages is evidently quite different.

For a lengthy but informative example of the thinking by U.S. online brokerages on how to become a best-in-class online brokerage, Karl Rosser from E*Trade, provided an answer (quoted below) worth reading.

“So, when I think about customer experience, I think about and I talk about quite a bit what our vision is internally right, as E*TRADE. And when we talk and it’s plastered on all of our walls around our sites it’s on our employees’ desks and their computers, it’s to be the number one digital broker and advisor to traders and investors known for ease of use and completeness of offering, right.

So, the last two I think address your question in the biggest way which is ease of use and completeness of offering. From the first touch, as a customer, you need a mobile device, a mobile application, easy to download, easy to sign on to, ease of use on an online application, easy to find tools and services, a very simple chat pop that you can interact with if you don’t like to talk to a human being or a very nice customer service rep on the other side if you need help and you want some handholding, right. That’s the beginning of it all.

And then, what happens once you sign in and you log into that environment and now you’re in E*TRADE’s site, right. So, you’ve gone in, you’ve logged in, you are a customer. Does it look the same? Does it feel the same? Is it easy to move around? Can you get what you look for in one click, right? Can you drop down a menu, not a hamburger and one of the sites that you have that’s very hard to pull down, but can you sort of hover above it and see everything you want to see on that site and get right to it without getting confused? Is the education offering complete? Is it easy to use? Is it easy to understand, right?

So, I like your time horizon, but we need to get there a lot quicker. I think we are very good today. We need to be great tomorrow, right. That’s what E*TRADE has to be. We’ve always been the innovator and a disruptor in this space. To me, today, innovation has to start with what does your customer want, right. What kind of interaction does your customer want from you? What do they demand out of the device? What do they demand from your platform? You have to read that upfront, you have to have the right data and analytics and you need to drive it home all the way across your platform and site and every person in your organization from the first touch all the way through senior management, all the way up to our Board, needs to know that that customer is first and foremost in our existence and reason for being, right.

So, it’s a long-winded answer. But over a three-year period, that’s where we need to be. But, it doesn’t stop at three years. You’ve got to constantly innovate. You have to constantly listen to the feedback loop. What are your customers saying? What are the new market entrants, right? We talk about all the time as a management team. Yeah, there’s a lot of really cool technology out there, really easy apps to use, really nice things that people can do. What can we learn from that? What type of customer does that draw? What type of account does it open? How often do they interact? What types of balances do they bring? Do we want to offer that type of service? Does it cannibalize what we have? That’s what we think about every day.

So, the question you just asked is at the centerpiece of everything we strategically do as an executive committee here at the firm, all the way through our reason for being. So, it’s a great question and I think it has to start with customer first, completeness of offering, ease of use. It’s as simple as that.”

Discount Brokerage Tweets of the Week

From the Forums

Go Short

This forum user is changing the pace with short term investment options. See what these forum users suggest in tailoring plans to get the best options with what’s currently being offered.

Investing Playbook

Due diligence goes a long way as this forum user notes their investment process and takes to the Financial Wisdom Forum to see if there’s room for improvement. Fellow forum users jumped in to provide their feedback with their advice on managing investments. See what they had to say.

Into the Close

That’s a wrap on the biggest online brokerage news for the past week. From political footballs to actual footballs, the news channels and social media channels alike will be scrambling to keep up with all of the action. Layer in earnings announcements and it’s bound to be a volatile week. Regardless of whether you’re bullish or bearish though, it’s best to remember that past performance doesn’t predict future results. Unless you’re Tom Brady.

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – January 21, 2019

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

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

New Cash Back Promotion from Qtrade Investor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Virtual Brokers Rolls out New Ads

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

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

Scotia iTRADE Platform Spins Out

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

From the Forums

Good Catch

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

Open & Shut case

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

Into the Close

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