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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

It has been predictably quiet in the discount brokerage space this past week with many self-directed investors out enjoying summertime activities. Still, there are some updates on several discount brokerage promotions that are noteworthy as we head into July.  Also, there are a couple of advertising/marketing stories that might be of interest for those keeping […]

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 the third part of our series comparing Questrade’s $0.95 trade commission plan to Virtual Brokers’ $0.99 trade commission plan we focus on how order types can impact the total cost associated with either trading commission plan.  If you missed the beginning our series, you can read Part 1 here or Part 2 here.  If […]

Commission-Free ETFs: Peer Pressure? Letting self-directed investors trade exchange traded funds (ETFs) commission-free appears to be all the rage amongst Canadian discount brokerages these days. National Bank Direct Brokerage has now become the latest Canadian discount brokerage to offer free trading of Canadian ETFs (click here to read their press release) joining the likes of […]

In the second installment of our special series comparing Questrade’s and Virtual Brokers’ lowest stock trading commission plans, we take a look at what our study results showed us about the impact of market data to the overall cost of trading.  If you missed the first part, you can check it out here or if […]

Canadian Discount Brokerages Cut Commissions Canadian discount brokerages are in the midst of a price war.  The newer entrants to the Canadian discount brokerage market, such as Questrade and Virtual Brokers, have driven prices for equity trade commissions to below the $1 per trade mark.  With Questrade’s recently announced $0.95 commission per trade offering, they […]

In search of Canada’s best discount brokerage Getting to the bottom of who’s on top in the Canadian discount brokerage market is a lot trickier than it seems.  After all, one would assume that winning the crown of “best discount brokerage” is fairly difficult to do and also when a discount brokerage gets that award, […]

Commission Free ETFs – The New Normal? Earlier this month, Questrade made a major announcement that impacts the commission fees associated with trading or investing in exchange traded funds (ETFs).   Specifically, Questrade has eliminated the commission fees associated with purchasing ETFs so that now any Canadian or American listed ETF is available for purchase commission […]

In part one of this series, we looked at the background of the Globe and Mail discount brokerage rankings as well as how they’re structured and who they’re targeted towards. In this next part, we take a detailed look at what the discount brokerage rankings are actually measuring and some interesting observations we made about […]

Happy New Year to all of our deal hunting readers and welcome to another edition of Discount Brokerage Deals & Promotions. One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions for folks is to slim down. As it turns out, the number of deals being offered by discount brokerages has also slimmed down.  Right out of […]

Interactive Brokers made the news this week as it released its trading metrics for the month of November.  While not a perfect proxy for the rest of the investment market, Interactive Brokers’ transaction volumes, known as Daily Average Revenue Trades (DARTs) help to provide an indirect measure of the ‘health’ of the stock market participants […]

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 […]