Blog

Hard to believe how fast time flies. As we near the end of the 2017, we felt it was an appropriate time to reflect on what has been yet another eventful year for Canadian online brokerages. And, while we could comment on the rise of roboadvisors or the changing preferences of online investors, we figured it would be far more ... Read More »

Even though Scotia iTRADE has a predominantly red logo, it appears that they’re banking on investors seeing this online brokerage as being green thanks to a new sustainable investing push. Earlier this year, Scotia iTRADE launched an interesting tool for DIY investors interested in socially responsible investing by introducing a sustainability research add-on to its online trading platform. The sustainable ... Read More »

The online brokerage industry is no stranger to change. In fact, it was born from it. When “online” trading first came onto the scene in Canada just over 20 years ago, dial-up, DOS and CRT monitors were all the rage, the internet was just getting its footing and the concept of do-it-yourself trading seemed to be on the cutting edge ... Read More »

Data breaches, fraudulent activity, and online tricks and traps are all around us. It happens so often we’ve dubbed March fraud month to raise awareness of the growing issues. In fact, we’ve got enough to say about it that we’ve broken up this article into two parts. Part one looks at two factor authentication (TFA) and your responsibilities as a ... Read More »

With all the legal and political battles going on in the US right now, it’s a little hard to keep track. There are, however, a pair of feuds that DIY investors and Canadian discount brokerages may want to keep on their radars, namely the commission price war between US online brokerages and the efforts to rescind the Department of Labor’s ... Read More »

Snapchat has taken its sweet time to go public since co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel hinted in 2015 that the company needed an IPO. But the time for Snapchat (whose official name is now Snap Inc) to go public has finally arrived. This week,  200M Class A Common stocks went public, and what an entrance it made. Up 44% in ... Read More »

If you haven’t heard much about IPOs this year, you’re not alone. Globally, investment bankers have had a lot more time on their hands and deal flow has slowed to its lowest levels in a decade (see data on Global IPO proceeds below, courtesy of Renaissance Capital). Just about 6 months ago, however, Questrade waded head first into IPO deal ... Read More »

One of the interesting paradoxes of DIY investing is that for many investors, the journey to doing it yourself actually starts by consulting a lot of other people. Knowing this, several online brokerages have created incentive programs aimed at giving existing clients a ‘win/win’ approach to refer their friends and family. Unfortunately for many investors, when it comes to the ... Read More »

If there’s one thing that can take a Canadian discount brokerage from obscurity to contender, it’s dramatically lowering its standard commission pricing. Despite a relatively quiet summer, the lead up to the fall of 2015 has now officially been marked with a price drop from an unlikely source: HSBC InvestDirect. As of early September, HSBC InvestDirect has dramatically lowered and ... Read More »

The big story for Canadian online brokerages in 2014 was undoubtedly lower commission pricing. For 2015, however, it appears that Desjardins Online Brokerage has clearly cast user experience and design into the spotlight as they prepare for the launch of their newly redesigned website. SparxTrading.com was fortunate enough to get an exclusive first look at Desjardins Online Brokerage’s new website ... Read More »