Weekly Roundup – Page 44

Posted on November 29, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – Nov. 29 2013

With bargain hunters being bullish on all kinds of deals, this Black Friday edition of the weekly roundup will hopefully be enjoyed on the screens of some newly purchased electronic goodies. While the Black Friday madness has yet to hit the discount brokerage world (*yet*), there was still quite a bit of activity to report on. This past week another discount broker was crowned “best online brokerage”, there was a roll out of practice accounts from a major discount broker and low fee mutual funds start to pick up steam.

And the award for best online brokerage goes to…..

It’s been a busy year for the titles of best discount broker/best online broker. This year, 7 out of the 14 major Canadian discount brokerages (HSBC InvestDirect, Scotia iTrade, Interactive Brokers, National Bank Direct Brokerage, BMO InvestorLine and Virtual Brokers ) have won some kind of ‘best’ title in the discount brokerage/online brokerage space. Of course, each of the rankings and evaluations uses a different method to evaluate the brokerages, however with so many “best online brokers” it can be tough to choose. Thankfully there are tools to help simplify comparing discount brokerages on price and key features. Look out for the full review of all of this year’s awards and a look ahead to 2014 coming soon.

This past week, BMO InvestorLine was awarded the crown for Best Online Brokerage by the judging panel (Paul K. Bates, Jonathan Chevreau, Jon Purther and Glenn A. Lacoste) from the Morningstar Awards. Although Qtrade did not win this year, they got a couple of honourable mentions. For more information on the win, check out this press release and also this video interview of BMO InvestorLine President & CEO Viki Lazaris with Morningstar’s Ashley Redmond.

At Scotia iTrade, Practice Makes Perfect

Scotia iTrade has now widely rolled out practice accounts for those clients interested in trading with pretend money instead of real money. Practice accounts are a great tool to help self-directed investors get oriented to their online trading accounts and become familiar with the process of trading. For those seeking to improve their trading performance, practice accounts are also great tools for building discipline and testing trading strategies. Other Canadian discount brokerages that offer practice online trading accounts include RBC Direct Investing, Interactive Brokers, Virtual Brokers and TD Direct Investing (US Trading Platform).

On the D List

Earlier this year, RBC Direct Investing announced that it was lowering the threshold for participating in the RBC Series D mutual funds. Given the interest in low cost ETFs and mutual funds, this certainly raised more than a few eyebrows in the mutual fund industry. Fast forward to this week and it seems that interest is turning into action with the announcement from RBC Direct Investing that BlackRock Canada, Invesco Canada and Mackenzie Investments will also be planning to roll out funds that fit into the Series D family. Check out Rob Carrick’s article in the Globe and Mail for a good overview of the Series D funds and how they stack up against ETFs.

From the Forums:

Curiosity About the KIP

Amidst all the Black Friday deal hunting, on the RedFlagDeals.com forum, there was an interesting post about Virtual Brokers’ recently launched Kick Start Investment Program (KIP). Check out what the investor tribe had to say to user Leahjz’s questions about using the KIP.

That’s it for this week’s edition of the roundup. Happy shopping everyone!

Posted on November 22, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 22 2013

Well when it rains in the discount brokerage world, it certainly pours. Fitting for November. This week’s roundup looks back on a busy week filled with a major discount brokerage ranking being released, a very cool (and geeky) way to learn about options pricing as well as a frenzy of conversation about discount brokerages from the forums. It’s a full card so this roundup is 2 pages long – be sure to check out the ending for some sage ‘market wisdom’ courtesy of Guns N’ Roses.

2013 Online Brokerage Rankings are here

After a lot anticipation, the 2013 Online Broker Rankings were finally released this past week by the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick. This year the online broker rankings went back to the ‘report card’ style evaluation of 12 Canadian discount brokerages, with each broker receiving letter grades rather than percentages. In line with the past few evaluations (learn more about the historical online brokerage rankings here) the key criteria being measured were:

Costs
Account Info
Trading
Tools
Innovation

While getting called a cheap option by one of Canada’s largest newspapers may not seem flattering, for a discount brokerage in the midst of a price war the label is a badge of honour. The brokerage with the best overall ranking (and ‘cheapest broker’) for 2013 was Virtual Brokers (overall grade: A) for the second year in a row. The first runner up was Qtrade (overall grade: B+).

Despite being tied for third with RBC Direct Investing and Scotia iTrade, BMO InvestorLine was described as “the best bank-owned” online brokerage (each of these bank-owned online brokerages scored a B overall). The media team at BMO published a release celebrating the claim. Incidentally, Questrade also received an overall grade of “B”. The worst overall score received this year was a “D” and it was given to HSBC InvestDirect along with some pointed remarks about their offering.

Some new features in this year’s online broker rankings included comparisons of current margin rates, forex rates and costs for trading certain amounts of stock at each broker. To read the online brokerage rankings, click here. Also, stay tuned for the in-depth analysis of this year’s Globe and Mail online broker rankings coming soon.

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Posted on November 15, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 15 2013

At the official halfway point in November, it seems like this month is poised to disappear faster than a message from (the now multibillion dollar valued company) SnapChat. While the tech space looks like its poised for a bidding war, the discount brokerage space looks like it’s in for quite the price war.

In this week’s discount brokerage roundup, we’ll take a look at the ultra-low commission prices announced this week from one discount brokerage that are bound to make a big splash in the discount brokerage pool. Next, we’ll review a pair of contests from two different brokerages that reflect some of the more creative ways brokerages are trying to get the attention of retail investors. Finally, there are a couple of interesting forum threads that shed light on starting out with investing as well as what to do with a modest portfolio.

Take a Penny, Leave a Penny

This past week, Virtual Brokers announced a price reduction in their already low trading commission that is sure to cause a stir with other Canadian discount brokerages as well as with investors looking to save on trading. Virtual Brokers has now officially replaced their infamous “The 99” commission plan (which had a minimum of $0.99/trade) with “The Penny” plan which now sets the minimum amount a client can pay at $0.01 per trade.
The offer itself is a combination of clever marketing as well as aggressively low pricing. Essentially the new “The Penny” plan from Virtual Brokers is the same as “The 99” except that the minimum charge is $0.01. While several other brokerages have $0.01/share offers (most notably Questrade) the minimum charge per trade is higher than the new Virtual Brokers offer. In an upcoming article, the new penny plan is detailed along with the other services announced in the news release – a new automatic savings program (Kickstart Investment Program) and a novel Direct Purchase Plan (DPP). In the meantime, there are a number of important details for individuals to pay attention to when considering Virtual Brokers’ new offer – such as the fact that pricing applies to trades made via the VB Webtrader platform. For more details on “The Penny” plan, click here.

Reasons to Cheer

When it comes to running contests and promos for investors, Questrade is one of the most active discount brokerages. This past week, they launched their latest contest on social media (Twitter & Facebook) for football fans to tell them which fantasy trade either the Buffalo Bills or Atlanta Falcons should make to land them in the playoffs. The prize for this contest is a pair of VIP tickets to the NFL game in Toronto on December 1^st between – you guessed it, the Buffalo Bills and the Atlanta Falcons. For more info on the contest, click here.

Just as one contest begins though, another big discount brokerage contest is wrapping up. National Direct Brokerage’s “Biggest Winner” officially wrapped up today bringing to an end several weeks of stiff trading competition. Up for grabs were weekly prizes of $500 for best weekly portfolio performance and a top prize of $7500 for best overall performance and second prize of $2500.

From the Forums

Getting Started with Investing

A perennial favourite, how to get started with trading or investing is one topic that always offers the chance to see how more seasoned investors answer tackle that question. In this post on Canadian Money Forum, the user ‘Nasha’ is a twenty-something looking to learn more about how and where to start on the investing journey. Check out what the forum members had to provide in terms of their own experience and guidance.

What Would You Do with $2K at Questrade?

Every portfolio has to start somewhere. For those with modest portfolios or who are just starting out, low cost discount brokerages offer an attractive opportunity to participate in the markets without eating up significant amounts in trading commission costs. That said, how to get started with a modest portfolio size while also being prudent with managing risk poses a problem raised in the following post on Canadian Money Forum. The user “swoop_ds” provides a few of the options being considered with what to do with $2000 in a recently opened Questrade account. Find out what trading ideas the rest of the crowd had here.

That’s it for this edition of the roundup. Have a great weekend!

Posted on November 8, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 8, 2013

The big news everywhere this week was the Twitter IPO. For many individual investors, accessing the Twitter IPO ahead of public trading meant having to meet specific account requirements laid out by their discount brokerages. Once TWTR did go live though, the frenzy of buyers helped to propel the opening day price up from $26 to as high as $55.

In a tribute to the debut of TWTR, this week’s roundup will feature discount brokerage news gathered from Twitter.

Financial Literacy Month (#FLM2013)

November (or “Know”vember) is Financial Literacy Month. A couple of discount brokerages are helping to spread awareness and connect investors to educational resources. Parent accounts of National Bank Direct Brokerage (@nationalbank) and Disnat (@DesjardinsGroup) shared the following on their feeds this week:

For those interested in following events and information related to financial literacy month on Twitter, keep track of #FLM2013.

#BMO InvestorLine in the Globe and Mail

A piece by the Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick (@rcarrick)on the adviceDirect product from BMO Investorline got tweeted by the @BMO media team. Interestingly while the article provides a balanced perspective on some of the merits and drawbacks of adviceDirect, the comments section has some very strong opinions on why adviceDirect seems like it is missing the mark with investors.

Finally, to stay on top of all of the discount brokerages on Twitter, you can access our discount brokerage Twitter channel.

From the Forums

Twitter also had made quite the splash on the Canadian investor forums. In particular, the RedFlagDeals.com investor forum saw a rather large spike in activity around the launch of TWTR this week. Aside from the Twitter hoopla though, there were also a pair of interesting threads on discount brokerages, specifically on Canadian Money Forum.

Questrade vs Interactive Brokers

In this first post, a new investor is looking to become more active and is wondering whether a platform geared towards active traders, such as Interactive Brokers, is a better choice overall than another low cost option, Questrade. Fellow investors weighed in to provide some important tips.

Switching to TD Waterhouse (TD Direct Investing)

Questrade was also the focus of a different investor’s decision making. In this post, an investor was trying to weigh the pros and cons of having their investment accounts at the same place they do their daily banking (TD), even if it means paying slightly more on commissions. Hear what the community had to say about the potential move.

That’s it for this week. #TGIF!

Posted on November 1, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – November 1, 2013

For many banks and discount brokerages, the start of November is not just the beginning of a new month but also a new fiscal year. Going into the feverish sprint that is typical of a year-end means that attention was probably turned to getting the year wrapped up. It also might help to explain why things were relatively quiet across the Canadian discount brokerage space this past week.

Quiet as discount brokerages were, Canadian investors have some interesting discount brokerage related news to look forward to this November. This month a pair of brokerage rankings are expected to be released – something that always generates quite a bit of buzz. Additionally, a pair of interesting articles on the discount brokerage industry provide contrasting perspectives on whether online investing will continue to grow or if it has peaked. Finally, the Canadian investor forums had some thoughtful and spirited perspectives on DIY investing for beginners and for more seasoned investors.

More Best Online Brokerages on the Horizon

Globe and Mail discount brokerage rankings are just around the corner and are sure to make waves when they are released. This year’s selection should be interesting to watch as the previous year’s winner, Virtual Brokers, has had to digest taking over OptionsXpress Canada clients shortly after they were named ‘best online brokerage’ by the Globe and Mail last year. To get up to speed on how Globe and Mail rankings are performed and previous results, click here.

In addition to the Globe and Mail rankings, the Morningstar Awards will be held on November 27^th in Toronto and one of the categories up for grabs will be “Best Discount Brokerage”. This award is ‘submission based’ meaning that a $1,000 fee is required to be considered as a contender. Discount brokerages that wish to compete for the ‘best discount brokerage’ award will be assessed on a number of criteria including:

Website
Breadth of investments available
Customer service
Online tools/resources
Costs

The jury for the selection of this year’s best online brokerage winner will include:

Jonathan Chevreau, Editor of Money Sense Magazine
Glenn A. Lacoste, President of Surviscor
Paul K. Bates, Assistant Professor of Leadership, McMaster Divinity College

For more information on the best online brokerage award from Morningstar, click here.

Questrade Chooses Fee Over Free

With the introduction of new data fees, Questrade clients may want to think twice before springing for their next cup of coffee. It appears that Questrade is adding in another fee starting this November. Going forward, Questrade will be charging $1.99 per month for streaming quotes for NASDAQ’s basic data feed. Snap quotes will still be free however, so users can access quotes by hitting refresh. For more information, check out Questrade’s blog post here. Of course, one question that has been brewing – where are Questrader’s finding coffee for $1.99?

Online Investors Waning or Still Going Strong?

A pair of interesting articles shed two different perspectives on the retail investor in the US. In the first piece, there is some noteworthy data that shows the scale of the retail investor shift away from traditional financial intermediaries (brokers) and into more direct or self-serve style investment portfolio tools and services. While the numbers are staggering, there still appears to be the belief that traditional brokers will face more and more competition from direct brokerages as tools from the latter better serve and support clients to manage their own investments. Of course, the next article goes on to point out that much of the growth and adoption of online investing appears to have taken place. The argument in the second article uses US discount brokerages (such as TD Ameritrade and Etrade) and their account growth/trading data as proxies to suggest that for now there appears to be no big rush for investors to jump into equities.

From the Forums

Starting out as a new investor can be an intimidating exercise. In this post on the RedFlagDeals.com investing forum, one self-described investing newbie discovered one of the basic rules of the stock market: that it is that everyone has an opinion.

Of course, every now and then the forums also turn up some interesting topics for seasoned/advanced investors too. As this post shows, differing opinions are at the heart of what makes a market and it is interesting to see how different investors ‘rationalize’ their choices for one asset/investment over another.

That’s a wrap for this week. Have a great weekend and don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour (or you might just show up very early for market open!).

Posted on October 25, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup October 25 2013

Coming into the home stretch of October, equity markets are continuing push higher. The constant string of ‘good news’ is something that may lure more investors back into the markets, which is also probably why there are some major initial public offerings (IPOs) also being announced.

Against the backdrop of optimistic markets, some discount brokerages also got some news to cheer about. This past week, a discount brokerage launched its new mobile website, one more “best online brokerage” was crowned and there was some interesting chatter in the investing forums about keeping cash ready in a trading account and what can go wrong if it it’s in short supply.

Disnat’s New Mobile Site Ready to Roll

Canadian discount brokerage Disnat officially rolled out their new mobile website (available at m.disnat.com). The new site offers quite a substantial upgrade over their previous mobile website (reviewed here). There are quotes and market updates available directly on the front end (without having to login). There’s also access to videos and event info so the mobile site offers some of the core features of the full site. Look out for the updated mobile website review coming soon.

The Best Online Brokerage – For Now

BMO InvestorLine announced this past week that they had been awarded the title of “best online brokerage” in the 2013 Q3 evaluation by Surviscor. BMO InvestorLine managed to edge out competitors Qtrade and Scotia iTrade by 3% landing a score of 84% overall versus Qtrade and Scotia iTrade who both scored 81%. The winner of the Q1 2013 evaluation period, Scotia iTrade, enjoyed a brief stay atop the discount brokerage field however as these results show, the industry is highly dynamic and the best discount brokerage today might not still be the best tomorrow.

Around the Forums

A popular idiom among traders is ‘keeping some powder dry’. This refers to having some cash on hand so that if or when an investing opportunity presents itself, there is a way to take advantage of it instead of having to watch it go by. Cash in the account seemed to be the theme with two interesting posts about discount brokerage accounts this week.

Hurry up and wait

In the first of two threads from Canadian Money Forum, user “Peterk” was feeling a little restrained from the delay of moving money between bank accounts into brokerage accounts. Sometimes the delay could be a good thing, however in markets timing is half the battle. Check out what fellow users had to say about it here.

Feeling marginalized

So what does happen when cash isn’t available in the trading account when one wants to make a purchase? Well if the account is a margin account, the transaction may still take place but it will be made ‘on credit’ i.e. on margin. In the following thread, Scotia iTrade caught a bit of heat from forum user “mrcheap” after this user was apparently dinged for margin interest while cash was en route from a yet-to-be-settled trade. It’s a valuable lesson to investors that they have to pay attention to the settlement dates (usually T + 3 for stocks) between execution and settlement.

That’s it for this week’s roundup. Keep on your toes because while the markets might seem like a treat today, there’s still a good chance it has some tricks up its sleeve. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend and most of all stay classy!

Posted on October 18, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup October 18 2013

After all of inescapable deal making drama in Washington this past week, it appears that stock markets had already placed their bets that events would unfold with a deal being struck. Rather than a disastrous crash, The S&P 500 hit an all-time high and Canadian traders also shrugged off their Thanksgiving turkey hangovers to push the TSX to close at its highest point since July 2011.

What does all of this mean? It seems a lot of folks will be asking that question, so in this week’s roundup, there was one Canadian discount brokerage who offered up a trader’s perspective on what happens next. In this post-Thanksgiving week, one discount broker got into the giving spirit by offering a chance to win some free trades while another discount brokerage officially rolled out some new features to their trading interface. Finally on the roundup, it looks like a proposed switch over from a major discount brokerage is now rolling out, albeit somewhat slowly for the likes of a few investors.

What’s the Deal with the Deal?

If Jerry Seinfeld chimed in on airplane snack food, one can only wonder what he would be asking what now that there has been a deal to extend the debt ceiling in the US. It just so happens that a video from TD Direct Investing’s investor education section looks into that. In this episode, Ryan Lewenza (North American equity strategist & portfolio manager for TD Waterhouse private investment advice) laid out his thoughts on the market sentiment in response to the debt ceiling deal.

Trading Gravy

Questrade got into the Thanksgiving spirit by offering to give away 10 free trades. The deal was announced on their blog on October 9^th with the contest rules and regulations stating that it would run until October 16^th.

Later on in the week though, a couple of tweets by Questrade seem to suggest that the contest is still on although it is not quite clear based on the rules for the contest when this offer expires.

Taking Quotes to the Next Level

As hinted at last week, the new feature from Qtrade that got released was an addition of free level 2 trading data on Canadian stocks to their equity order screen. It should be pointed out the quotes are ‘snap’ quotes not streaming quotes so users wanting to see updated information on a particular stock or ETF’s trading activity will have to hit refresh. As this feature is limited to Canadian equities at the moment, it might be of interest to those looking for additional depth information on smaller or less liquid names.

Canadian Discount Brokers React to J.D. Power Survey Results

A recent article in Investment Executive this past week covered the recent results from this year’s J.D. Power’s discount brokerage rankings. In particular, the article highlighted the win by National Bank Direct Brokerage as well as how discount brokerages, such as BMO InvestorLine, are trying to figure out how to respond to some of the information and advisory needs of self-directed investors. Interestingly, while BMO InvestorLine may have been first out of the gate to launch an ‘on demand’ advisory type feature, other discount brokers appear to be opting for providing portfolios that investors can ‘follow along with’. To learn more about the J.D. Power discount brokerage rankings for 2013, click here.

Rolling Out the Canadian Carpet

Around the forums, the chatter on discount brokerages was somewhat subdued this past week. There was, however, important news on the roll out of Interactive Brokers Canada account transition announced earlier this year. The following post from forum user Mark77 in the RedFlagDeals forum suggests that Interactive Brokers Canada clients are having their account restrictions updated to reflect the changes that were announced earlier this year.

Despite the short week, there was still lots to digest (including the turkey!). Have a great weekend all and for those who’ve made it this far, here’s a tusk-in-cheek cartoon from cartoonist Mike Luckovich on the recent Washington shenanigans.

Posted on October 11, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup October 11 2013

After a bumpy week in the markets, it is nice to get to Friday. For Canadian readers, it’s Thanksgiving long weekend so that means Canadian markets will be closed on Monday while everyone digests the news and a whole lot of turkey.

On the heels of the major announcement last week from BMO InvestorLine, this week there was a flurry of activity with several Canadian discount brokerages launching new features for research and trading. The news wasn’t all smiles and sunshine though. While one discount brokerage was improving access to low cost funds, another discount broker decided that margin trading had started to become too risky for some stocks and subsequently raised margin requirements. Finally, a couple of forum posts on a pair of Canadian discount brokerages were worth sharing this week.

CIBC Investor’s Edge Announces New Features

After their recently announced RESP administration fee elimination, it seems like CIBC Investor’s Edge is again moving to improve their service offering to Canadian self-directed investors. This time, it looks as if research tools and education support are being given a lift. Specifically, this past week, CIBC Investor’s Edge announced that they are rolling out an improved ETF research centre with resources from Morningstar (such as screeners, educational materials and more) powering the section. ETF education and support materials are offered by other Canadian discount brokerages, with discount brokerages such as National Bank Direct Brokerage, Qtrade and RBC Direct Investing also offering “ETF Centres” too.

RBC Direct Investing Lowers Investing Threshold on Series D Mutual Funds

In a news release this past week, RBC Direct Investing announced that they are lowering their investment minimum on their Series D mutual funds from $10,000 to $500. This will certainly be of interest to those investors with smaller portfolio sizes and those looking for lower Management Expense Ratio (MER) investment products. For more information on the RBC Direct Investing Series D Funds, click here.

Qtrade Launches New Features

Major bank-owned discount brokerages weren’t the only ones busy launching new features, a major independent discount brokerage is quietly rolling out some of their latest improvements for users. This past week, Qtrade launched several new or improved features for clients including:

A new model portfolio feature that allows clients to ‘follow’ different portfolio types
An improved ETF centre that provides detailed information and research on ETFs (powered by Morningstar)
Improved account transfers between brokerages
Improved new issues centre
Improved trading interface with improved quotes, order tracking and help resources

Look out for a more detailed look at these new features in an upcoming post. In the meantime, users might be interested to know that are also some hints by Qtrade of further exciting changes coming to their trading interface. Stay tuned!

Interactive Brokers Hiked Margin Requirements for certain stocks

Interactive Brokers laid the smack down on margin traders this week by hiking margin requirements for many recently popular momentum stocks. A move like this begs the question – why now? The following two articles (Article 1 & Article 2) from Zero hedge tackles why Interactive Broker with a very interesting series of theories. Be warned though, these articles are fascinating but could definitely leave readers feeling a little nervous about market directions in the near term.

From the Forums

This past week, sifting through the chatter on discount brokerages on Canadian investing forums landed two interesting threads on CIBC Investor’s Edge and TD Direct Investing (TD Waterhouse) from Canadian Money Forum.

The first was a great discussion started by the user “2tire2work” who was interested in getting their personal finances in order – specifically getting going with some investing they had been thinking about. Click here to read more about what others in the forum had to say about which discount brokerage to choose.

In the second discount brokerage related post, dividend payment time was on the mind of the user “Gibor” who was curious to know why their dividend payments were getting posted to an account at CIBC Investor’s Edge at a different time from than at their account with TD Direct Investing. There were lots of interesting answers by forum members on this one – click here to read the thread.

That brings us to the end of the roundup for this week. Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend (for the Canadians!) and a great Columbus Day for those in the US. As a quick reminder, Canadian stock markets will be closed on Monday but US Markets will remain open for trading.

Posted on October 4, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – October 4 2013

It’s Friday once more and with it brings a whole slew of discount brokerage related news and activities. As the calendar rolled over into a new month, there was the usual hubbub with new deals being offered and updated by some major discount brokerages. This past week also saw one major Canadian discount brokerage sponsor an investor education roadshow, and another celebrate a milestone birthday with a launch of some mobile trading platforms.

Deals Galore

In the October count of discount brokerage deals, there are more deals happening from major (bank owned) discount brokerages than have taken place in the recent past. Large discount brokerages such as RBC Direct Investing and HSBC InvestDirect that historically have been less visible with their promotions, are now offering some competitive deals.

To keep all of the deal action straight, there’s a new feature in the deals section called ‘deal analytics’. This section will take the deal info one step deeper to provide a quick way to digest all of the deal information. Stay tuned as this exciting feature will continue to evolve into an awesome tool for investors looking for a deal when opening a discount brokerage account.

Will That Be #ForHere or #ToGo?

BMO InvestorLine has had a pretty busy week. On Friday of last week, they officially turned 25 years old and like most 25 year olds, they are becoming obsessed with mobile phones. Earlier in the week BMO InvestorLine had a big focus on their new mobile trading apps/platforms by pairing their latest deal with the launch of their mobile platform. In one of the most unique promotions from a discount broker, BMO InvestorLine is offering 250 commission-free mobile trades (good for up to 2 months of trading). For those with opening balances of over $100,000 there is also a $250 cash back offer. Checkout the deals section for more information.

On the Road Again

One of the most recognizable figures on Canadian business television, Larry Berman, kicked off his 12 city cross country tour this past week in Calgary. These sessions will be promoting investor education, his investor education course and his company. One of the major discount brokerage sponsors of the event is Scotia iTrade. They’ve paired up with Larry Berman to provide the platform (FlightDesk) on which audience members can see Berman do his famous “Berman’s Call” style stock analysis in person. Look out for a review of the session that landed in Vancouver coming up shortly. To find out more information about the events, check out the schedule here.

Interactive Brokers Metrics

As they do every month, Interactive Brokers has released the latest set of trading activity statistics for September 2013 showing that on many of the key metrics, such as DARTs (daily average revenue trades), margin loans and number of accounts are all up well over last year at this point and incrementally up over last month. For the active trading segment of the market Interactive Brokers is definitely proving hard to catch and with recent changes to Interactive Brokers Canada, the same might become true on our side of the border.

That’s it for this week. With all that’s been going on in the news, this market is about to get far more interesting before it gets boring. Have a great weekend!

Posted on September 27, 2013 by user — Leave a comment

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – September 27, 2013

As hard as it is to believe, September is almost over and with it there was some major news this past week in the discount brokerage space. In this edition of the roundup, I look at the big news in discount brokerage rankings that was announced earlier in the week as well as highlight what month end means for some deals. Also included in the roundup are some interesting events spotted taking place at a major brokerage and some informative posts in the investor forums.

Another Best Online Discount Brokerage Announced

Earlier this week JD Power & Associates released the results from their annual investor satisfaction survey and the discount brokerage rankings that go with them. This year’s winner was National Bank Direct Brokerage who narrowly edged out the reigning winner Disnat. Some highlights from this year’s investor satisfaction survey were that the overall average satisfaction for the Canadian discount brokerage industry rose to 724 (out of 1000) up from 700 a year earlier. While the rankings did cover most of the Canadian discount brokerages, there were a couple of popular brokerages (Virtual Brokers, Credential Direct and Interactive Brokers) that just didn’t have enough of a sample to be included.

To learn more about how the JD Power & Associates discount brokerage rankings work, check out the special series explaining this award. Also coming up shortly is an in-depth look at the award results for 2013 as well as commentary from National Bank Direct Brokerage on the win.

So You Think You Can Trade?

National Bank Direct Brokerage has also been busy on the contest front. In partnership with Horizons Exchange Traded Funds, National Bank Direct Brokerage is sponsoring the Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner Contest. The simulated ETF trading competition awards cash prizes to those whose ETF portfolios outperform other competitors. The contest has a grand prize of $7500, second prize of $2500.00 and weekly prizes of $500. The competition starts on October 7^th, 2013 and runs until November 15th. For more information about the competition check this link.

Guess Who’s Back?

Earlier this week, one of the major bank-owned discount brokerages, RBC Direct Investing, revived their investor education seminar series by holding some introductory sessions at their investor centers in Vancouver and Toronto. This article goes over what the event was like and what attendees can expect if they wish to attend.

What’s the Deal?

As we near the end of the month there a couple of discount brokerage deals are set to expire. Scotia iTrade’s “Refer-a-Friend” offer is scheduled to expire at the end of September however on several occasions in the past this has been extended at the beginning of the next month.

Another notable deal expiring at the end of September is BMO InvestorLine’s Air Miles/$250 cash back offer. With the recent launch of deals by RBC Direct Investing, HSBC InvestDirect and the extensions of deals by a number of other brokerages earlier in the month, it will be interesting to see what BMO InvestorLine decides to roll out through next week as this is their major promotional offer currently being advertised. Although it was originally set to expire in early September, the expiry date for the “AirMiles/Cash Back” deal got pushed out until the end of the month so it will be interesting to spot what, if any deals will be announced.

Unhappy (Divid)Ending

In the RedFlagDeals forums this past week there was an interesting post spotted that discussed how dividends are treated while trading on margin. Specifically, the answer to the following post by user Mark77 indicates that rules about where a dividend originates can determine how they get classified.