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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

For Canada’s discount brokerages, fall not only means a busier season with investors, but for many of them it is also the time of year they either dread or cheer. The stretch of time between September and January is typically when a number of Canadian discount brokerage rankings get published – something that could be […]

This October the deal wheels keep on turning.    Overall, it looks like competition at Canadian discount brokerages is heating up with 6 discount brokerages currently offering some kind of promotion. To help make sense of the deals, this month we’re rolling out Deal Analytics (explained below) which will help provide support to individuals trying to […]

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 […]

After a long vacancy on the RBC Direct Investing website, the free educational seminars section looks like it has finally come back to life. For quite some time, the investor education seminars section has been more or less dormant and was pointing visitors to set up one-on-one sessions with its reps at investor centres. Recently, […]

Against the backdrop of smartphone maker drama, securities regulator announcements and US Federal Reserve tapering, Friday is finally here – and for some, it couldn’t come fast enough.  While it was hard to compete with the headline grabbing billion dollar writedown or a sexy new operating system, Canadian discount brokers were busy making some big […]

Welcome to the Friday the 13th edition of the discount broker weekly roundup.  It’s been an exciting week in the markets as news of the widely anticipated Twitter IPO became official.  This week, I’ll provide some highlights of fee drops and deal announcements that took place, followed up by a couple of interesting forum on […]

The swelling costs of funding higher education are on the minds of a lot of folks lately.  With the speed and magnitude at which fees for post-secondary tuition are growing, simply putting money aside for “junior’s” education may not be enough.  It seems like even the savings have to go out and find a second […]

With the end of the first week in September, there was certainly lots of news around the globe and in the markets to keep investors on the edge of their seats.  Within the discount broker space, there were some noteworthy deal extensions that showed up late into week one of September.  From the investor side […]

Updated Sept. 20/13 September is here, and with it comes a number of deal extensions from Canadian discount brokerages.  Going into the home stretch of the calendar year, several factors might be at play that explain why there are more ‘extensions’ of deals than new deals appearing just yet. First, a number of financial firms […]

If Yoda were watching the discount broker activity this past week, he’d probably say: ‘a slow news week this was not’.  Going into the long weekend there’s quite a bit of activity to report from Canadian discount brokers. In this week’s discount broker roundup we look at the big news coming out of a major […]

National Bank Direct Brokerage announced yesterday that their offer for commission-free ETF trading has been extended out until the end of October of 2013.  The commission-free ETF offer was first mentioned back in April where it was explained in detail. Some strings attached To recap, there are a few conditions attached to this offer (full […]

As September draws nearer, Canadian discount brokers are polishing up their websites and marketing campaigns to get ready for the increased activity in the stock markets that tends to happen at the end of the year.  This past week, there have been some notable updates in the homepages and advertising campaigns of a couple of […]

As we officially cross through the halfway mark of August, interest in the markets is picking up on the forums and the discount brokerages are busy planning their September promotions. In this week’s roundup, I recap the most recent addition to the mobile trading platform reviews; I look at a couple of brokerages gearing up […]

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, […]

This week’s discount brokerage roundup will be short and sweet as we continue to cruise through August. In this roundup, a major US discount brokerage comes under fire for how it handled client orders, the mobile trading landscape gets a little clearer for some investors and a little bumpier for others and lastly the marketing […]

Like several of its discount brokerage peers, National Bank Direct Brokerage has opted to use a mobile-friendly website to enable users with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to access and manage their investment accounts.  As such, no special apps are required in order to access the mobile trading features of a user’s online […]