As March comes to a close, winter still seem reluctant to leave so many Canadians. Even so, spring is in the air and it is bringing with it some surprises from online brokerages which will hopefully leave DIY investors with more green in their accounts. In this week’s discount brokerage roundup we cover the news […]

If there is one thing that March madness can guarantee, its unpredictability. In the discount brokerage space this was certainly the case as we were watching to see who, if anyone, would launch a promotion that could make a splash in the already ultra-competitive online brokerage market. This past week it happened. In this week’s […]

This week’s discount brokerage roundup is a little ‘rounder’ than most as it falls on Pi Day. This irrational edition of the weekly roundup features a quick announcement about an ETF webinar reschedule followed by a release by one discount brokerage of a refreshed trading platform.  In addition, we provide some interesting results from US […]

The beginning of March has seen a frenzied week across international markets and here at home in the discount brokerage space.  While the world is watching to see what unfolds between the Ukraine and Russia, markets paused only briefly on the news but then continued to push higher into new all-time highs (for the S&P […]

Less than a week after skiers and snowboarders were making their way down the slopes, a different set of peaks and valleys are now confronting investors. At the peak, the S&P 500 chased a new all-time high this week. Down in the valley is bitcoin because of the loss of a major exchange to a […]

This past week in the Canadian discount brokerage space seemed about as quiet as the US Women’s Olympic hockey team dressing room after that most spectacular win by Team Canada.   The silence on the brokerage front, however, is likely indicative of the planning and ‘strategizing’ by marketing and product teams as the battle for brokerage […]

On this Valentine’s Day edition of the discount brokerage weekly roundup, romance is definitely the air for many folks.  Yes, it appears more bank-owned discount brokerages are lining up to show just how much they love their self-directed investor clients by offering lower commissions.   Courting self-directed investors, however, is going to take more than just […]

If there’s one thing that the world can agree on, it’s that those little asterisks can be a pain in the…well you know where.  Many self-directed investors have come to accept them.  Even the opening ceremonies for the Olympics certainly weren’t immune to bad case of the unexpected asterisk. This past week, however, another major […]

As January comes to an end, looking back on all of the deals and announcements from discount brokerages, it seems like that there was way more drama amongst the brokerages than even Justin Bieber could muster up.  And if this past week is any indication of what’s ahead, February will see discount brokerages pushing to […]

The temperatures are down. The loonie is down. The markets are down.  And while it seems like the “polar vortex” was busy cooling things off this past week, the action at the marketing departments of Canadian discount brokers was heating up. In this week’s roundup, we cover the reaction from several online brokerages to RBC […]

Staying on top of all of the discount brokerage action going on this January feels a bit like chasing either Russell Wilson or Colin Kaepernick around the field.  The competition between these two elite quarterbacks pales in comparison, however, to that of Canadian brokerages. This past week saw a game-changing commission drop announcement by a […]

This week it was bone-chillingly cold everywhere in Canada except for the discount broker deal space (and maybe Vancouver).  Several big promotions heated up the deals space this week in what is likely a sign of the fierce competition for self-directed investors’ assets to come this RSP deadline season.   Just in time for all that […]

Welcome to the first discount brokerage roundup of 2014.  Unfortunately for Canadian and US equity markets, the reception to the new year was about as warm as the Toronto winter was this past week.  Thankfully though, January looks like it will be a hot month for activity for Canadian discount brokerages. In this week’s roundup, […]

Amongst Canadian discount brokerages, it was supposed to be a quiet ride into the end of 2013. Alas, it was not to be. With a Boxing Day promotion launched by one of Canada’s discount brokerages this past week, the competition for Canadian investors officially hit a new high.  This bodes well for self-directed investors going […]

Here we are just a few days away from Christmas and while it seemed that things would settle down going into the end of the year, the discount brokerage world has been anything but quiet.  In this week’s roundup, news of fees dropping from a major Canadian discount brokerage kicks things off.  Next, the major […]

This week Canadians learned that for some of us, getting letters to and from the North Pole may get harder and also more expensive now that Canada Post may cut back on mail deliveries. Not to fear though, SparxTrading is still delivering the best roundup of Canada’s discount brokerage related news, rain or shine, snow […]

This week’s discount brokerage roundup finds us crossing into the home stretch of 2013.  Now that December is finally here things will almost certainly begin to gear down on the discount brokerage front until 2014.  Even so, this past week had a number of stories from various discount brokers including a new fee & commission […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]