As 2012 draws to a close, it looks like the discount brokerage industry is going into autopilot.  This past week saw the expiry of a couple of promotions. First, Scotia iTrade’s 100 days of unlimited trading offer expired this week.  This leaves Questrade as the only discount brokerage currently offering unlimited trades.   Speaking of Questrade, […]

On the heels of the results from the annual Globe and Mail Canadian Discount Brokerage rankings, the 2012 Morningstar Canadian Investment Awards were handed out on November 28th and included a “Best Discount Brokerage” category.  While not nearly as well known as the J.D. Power and Associates award for Investor Satisfaction, the Morningstar Awards offer […]

November’s lineup of discount brokerage deals and promotions features many of the same players from last month, except with some minor changes to dates and amounts. Starting first with the newest deals. National Bank Direct Brokerage is running the “Take Control of the Markets!” promo where they’re offering new clients who open an account with […]

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup This week provided an interesting lesson in activity fees handed out to one RBC Direct Investing client, covered via Global News here.  If you’ve got an account open that you’ve forgotten about, you may want to look closely at what you’re being charged by keeping the account open (you can check […]

For most Canadian investors and traders who place their trades online, the details of what happens after they press ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ on their stock trades is largely a trivial matter.  Should one start to think about it, however, the process of matching up millions of orders, confirming trades and documenting what went to whom […]

Discount Brokerage Weekly Roundup: As we roll into October, the Canadian discount brokerage industry continues to show signs of competitive evolution.   First, the huge news released earlier this week that Questrade will transition into clearing its own trades via an in-house clearing division (currently pending regulatory approval).  By replacing their current clearing agent (Penson Financial […]

For the month of October, most of the discount brokerages who are offering deals and promotions are fighting hard to win the business of Canadian retail investors. We’ve made a few changes to the deals section so that information is a little bit easier to find.  We’ve put the discount brokerage promotions that include commission […]

Discount Brokerage Weekly roundup: This week, we learned of a couple of major developments in the Canadian discount brokerage marketplace that  are likely to reshape the competitive landscape.  First, the major news that optionsXpress Canada is putting a hold on opening new Canadian accounts.  We found out from optionsXpress that out that for now this […]

Even though discount brokerages haven’t traditionally portrayed the most “fun and friendly” image, more and more of them are starting to become visible on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. While you (hopefully) won’t find those embarrassing pictures of a drunken night gone wild or an angry rant about a horrible boss, plugging […]

The arrival of September is generally when markets shake off the quiet days of summer and start to come back to life.  Across the landscape of discount brokerages, it looks like the major deal offerings that were around in August are standing firm or are being extended out.  For example, Questrade’s 100 free trades offer […]

As both investors and markets slow down in the tail end of summer, the discount brokerage deals and incentives have also gotten a bit quieter.  Still, for those of you looking for a deal on a discount brokerage account, there are some hefty commission rebate discounts being offered up this August. BMO Investorline has upped […]

Summer is officially here and with it are a few major league offers that Canadian online discount brokerages have going.  It seems like this month, the four big promos are from Virtual Brokers, Questrade, Scotia iTrade and Disnat Direct. We’ve also got a special discount brokerage deal offering from Jitneytrade now officially launched! It seems […]

This month’s discount brokerage deals and promotions from Canadian online discount brokerages still includes some substantial offerings, such as the Disnat Active 5 offer and the Scotia iTrade 100 free trades offer. Some new promos this month include the ‘one free trade’ offer from Scotia iTrade to download and try their mobile trading app (for […]

Options Education Day is an annual series of events organized and hosted by the Montreal Exchange (part of the TMX Group) as part of their goal to better educate retail investors about options and derivatives products.  While options and derivative products are more complex than your average stock, there has been an enormous growth in […]