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The latest posts from SparxTrading – in depth views on the world of online investing.

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Mobile Trading Review – Qtrade

Published August 13, 2013
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This mobile trading website review covers the major features of Qtrade Financial’s MobileWeb as well as some of the strengths and limitations for self-directed investors looking to trade on the go on this platform. Access to the mobile website is possible by pointing a mobile browser to www.qtrade.ca. As with the previous mobile trading reviews, […]

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Mobile Trading Reviews – Discount Brokerages’ Mobile Platforms

Published August 7, 2013
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The term “mobile trading” doesn’t mean the same thing today that it did a few years ago. As little as 5 years ago, the notion of trading on the go would have typically been thought of as something you would do with your laptop, palm trees swaying in the background.  Today, however, an entirely new […]

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – August 2013

Published August 1, 2013
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August Discount Brokerage Deals Overview The discount brokerage deals activity remains largely in a holding pattern as we move into August.  While there were a couple of noteworthy deals that expired in July, the bigger news last month was Questrade’s announcement that they would be re-introducing their unlimited trading offer.  Currently Questrade is offering the […]

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Commission-Free ETF Trading at Canadian Discount Brokerages: A Clever Lure or a Good Deal for Investors? Part 4

Published July 15, 2013
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In the final part of our series on commission-free ETF trading at Canadian discount brokerages, we look at the offers from Virtual Brokers and Questrade and conclude the series with some lessons learned from researching commission-free ETF offers.  If you missed the earlier parts of the series, click here for part 1, here for part […]

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 12, 2013

Published July 12, 2013
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In this week’s discount broker roundup, we highlight an article launch, how hard it is for discount brokers to be really, really popular and the beginning of what looks to be a busy promotional battle between discount brokerages for self-directed investors’ new business. More commission-free ETF info Earlier this week, part 3 of the series […]

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – July 5, 2013

Published July 5, 2013
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Even though we roll into July on a short trading week, the discount brokerage space managed to toss along several newsworthy items. In this week’s roundup, we look at the US discount brokerages pointing to signs of improved investor enthusiasm, some fine tuning of ETF offers at Canadian discount brokerages, and some extra summertime heat […]

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – July 2013

Published July 1, 2013
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[Updated July 2nd] For the most part, many of July’s discount brokerage deals and promotions look to be mostly similar to last month’s offering.   First, I’ll recap of the deals that expired at the end of June and then launch into the deals that got extended and round out with the newest offerings. Expired Deals […]

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Commission-Free ETFs at Canadian Discount Brokerages: A Clever Lure or a Good Deal for Investors? Part 1

Published June 25, 2013
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Every day increasing numbers of self-directed investors are either turning to exchange traded funds (ETFs) to meet their investing goals or are learning more about how ETFs could help lower their investing costs.   Given the interest in these products by self-directed investors and the commission costs that are associated with buying and selling ETFs, Canadian […]

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Special Series: Dalbar Canada’s Direct Brokerage Service Award – Part 2

Published June 14, 2013
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In part 1 of this series, we took a brief look at how self-directed investors typically access information about discount brokerage customer service and introduced Dalbar Canada’s research in this area.  Specifically, Dalbar’s Direct Brokerage Sales Effectiveness (DBSE) program measures the performance of client service teams at discount brokerages. In this part of our series, […]

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – June 7th 2013

Published June 8, 2013
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This week’s discount brokerage update features the newly announced deal by BMO InvestorLine, a couple of great forum post on the Financial Webring Forum on Qtrade vs. RBC Direct Investing  as well as another article from The Globe and Mail about Canada’s best discount broker. Deals Getting Some Air Unlike a lot of deals that […]

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – June 2013

Published June 1, 2013
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[Updated June 12th] With summer just around the corner, a few of Canada’s discount brokerages are going to be working a little harder this month to try and win over self-directed investors.  The recently announced earnings from several major Canadian banks indicate that they aren’t making as much money as their shareholders are expecting. As […]

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Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup – May 31st 2013

Published May 31, 2013
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Discount Brokerage News This roundup features deal spotting from Disnat and TD Direct Investing at the Cambridge House World Resource Investment Conference, a new review of Qtrade and news about a costly mistake made by a  Questrade trader. In addition we take a quick peek at the latest ranking of Canadian discount brokerages. Deal Me […]

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – May 2013

Published May 1, 2013
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Deals have been updated, see below for more details This month’s deals and promotions from Canadian discount brokerages feature a new promotion by Questrade, as well as an interesting deal/contest by Scotia iTrade announced last month.  Also, Qtrade‘s transfer fee rebate is also back, this time with no apparent time limits.  Before launching into the […]

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National Bank Direct Brokerage to offer commission-free ETFs

Published April 17, 2013
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Commission-Free ETFs: Peer Pressure? Letting self-directed investors trade exchange traded funds (ETFs) commission-free appears to be all the rage amongst Canadian discount brokerages these days. National Bank Direct Brokerage has now become the latest Canadian discount brokerage to offer free trading of Canadian ETFs (click here to read their press release) joining the likes of […]

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – April 2013

Published April 1, 2013
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April’s discount brokerage deals and promotions heralds the return of unlimited trading by an unlikely character in the deals section – HSBC InvestDirect. This deal is in ‘celebration’ of HSBC’s recent award by Dalbar Inc for best customer service at a Canadian discount broker, an award that RBC Direct Investing had won for several years. […]

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Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions – March 2013

Published March 1, 2013
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As we move past the 2013 RRSP season, many of the promotions offered last month are either expired or will be expiring at the end of this month.  It seems like several discount brokerages are going to pass altogether on offering up any promotions for March whereas others are just extending out the deadlines of […]

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Desjardins Group buying a piece of Qtrade

Published February 7, 2013
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Desjardins Group invests in Qtrade for the long-term Desjardins Group, parent to discount brokerage Disnat, announced earlier this week that they are taking a significant ownership stake in Qtrade Financial Group.  Desjardins has committed to purchasing between 25 to 40% of Qtrade’s outstanding shares initially with the option to acquire the remaining shares within six […]

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Questrade Launches Commission Free Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) Buying

Published February 4, 2013
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Commission Free ETFs – The New Normal? Earlier this month, Questrade made a major announcement that impacts the commission fees associated with trading or investing in exchange traded funds (ETFs).   Specifically, Questrade has eliminated the commission fees associated with purchasing ETFs so that now any Canadian or American listed ETF is available for purchase commission […]

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