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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

In the first two parts of this series we touched on the different types of commission-free ETF trading being offered by discount brokerages and provided several tips for investors to keep in mind when considering these types of offers. (Click here to read part one or here to read part two) In part three of […]

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 […]

[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 […]

In part one of this series, we looked at which Canadian discount brokerages are currently offering commission-free ETFs as well as why commission-free ETF trading has started to become so popular. In part 2 of this series, we take a closer look at the types of commission-free offers available and provide some tips for investors […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]