In a landscape littered with commission price drops, lowering price can only go so far in winning the attention and loyalty of potential and existing DIY investor clients. So, what is the secret ingredient Canadian online brokerages need in order to win the attention of self-directed investors? It’s no secret actually – build something really helpful.

With the update of their investor education calendar, Desjardins Online Brokerage has taken a bold move in committing to user experience for accessing education events. Their competitors, most notably those with significant investor education offerings such as National Bank Direct Brokerage, Scotia iTrade and TD Direct Investing, will most certainly be less enthusiastic about the new calendar roll out however for self-directed investors, the change is a signal of something significant across the industry.

Think Outside the Box

Of course, there are those that would ask (and rightfully so) what’s so exciting about a calendar? Well, coming from a site that continues to compile investor education events from Canada’s online brokerages, there’s actually several very interesting things the new calendar signals.

First, with pricing becoming less of a distinguishing feature between providers, there is likely going to be more of an effort required by Canada’s online brokerages to stand out.

This calendar is yet another example of benefits to investors that competition amongst brokerages brings. User experience and the ‘look and feel’ of an online brokerage on the front end are going to matter more.

Another important angle to this calendar launch is that it signals a significant commitment to investor education.

Desjardins Online Brokerage currently runs in the order of 350 events per year. TD Direct Investing, by comparison, runs closer to 3000 per year. While the ‘number’ of events may not be the most telling indicator, it does communicate the scale at which investor education has to be provided and resourced. For Desjardins Online Brokerage, however, they’re continuing to bet big on education, as seen with their partnerships with Stockscores, DayTrader Canada and a potentially wider set of education partners.

On Your Left

The calendar itself is incredibly feature-rich and full of thoughtful details.

The left located sidebar menu enables users to specify what topics they would like to learn about, where the nearest event would be to them, the experience level the event is appropriate to and who the speaker is that’s providing the content.

At the top of the calendar, there is a great little summary that shows the number of events appearing in each month. On the calendar itself events are shown in traditional calendar format with the current date nicely identified. Past events are visible but greyed out and upcoming events are shown with a title and a coloured subject code.

Clicking on an event pulls up a quick summary of the important details of what the event is about as well as the relevant information on cost, timing (and time zone!). The icons included also help simplify the information visually. Using icons of different walking/running speeds for beginner, intermediate & advanced is a very clever way in which to visually communicate the “pace” at which an investor may approach learning the material.

Registration is also very intuitive. Upon clicking the event on the calendar, there is a big ‘I want to register’ button that requires little more than entering an email and registering.

Finally, and frankly most impressively, the calendar is tied into Desjardins Online Brokerage’s streamlined content notification system which means that users can be alerted when an event matching their criteria gets listed.

With so many great features it was difficult to find any real gaps or limitations. One important one that was noted was that the calendar is available on the full version of the site but not the mobile site (yet). Larger tablet (landscape mode) and desktop/laptop users, however, should find accessing and using the calendar to be a step forward from the previous version.

The Bottom Line

At first blush, a calendar change may not seem like an earth-shattering event, especially when compared to a commission price drop. With pricing have stolen the spotlight for so long, however, it seems like the ‘race to the bottom’ has slowed and the focus of Canada’s online brokerages has shifted to other components of the experience.

For Desjardins Online Brokerage, they are clearly not standing still when it comes to improving the function and the form of trading online. After recently unveiling their new mobile site and now launching their new investor education calendar, their next user upgrade is something self-directed investors and Desjardins’ competitors will likely want to mark down on their respective calendars.