SparxTrading.com Look Back Look Ahead 2020-2021

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LOOK BACK /2020 LOOK AHEAD /2021

/Contents

Canadian Online Brokerage 06 08 10 12

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PUBLISHER

Sparx Publishing Group Inc. sparxpg.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

From the Editor

Hamish Khamisa ART DIRECTOR

BMO InvestorLine

Silvio Stroescu Head of Digital Investing, BMO Wealth Management

HSBC InvestDirect

Attilio Montanari Vice President, HSBC InvestDirect

National Bank Direct Brokerage

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Highlights from more Canadian online brokers

Qtrade Investor

Christine Zalzal Senior Vice-President, Head of Qtrade Investor and VirtualWealth

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Questrade

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RBC Direct Investing

Claude-Frédéric Robert President, National Bank Direct Brokerage

Surveying the Canadian Online Brokerage Landscape

Elisabeth Choi

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PROJECT MANAGER

Ashley Kizlyk EDITOR

Sheri Radford COPYWRITER

William Davies ANALYTICS

Ankita Goyal

Stacey Petersen Vice President Strategy, RBC Direct Investing

Introducing Sparx Trading 2.0

Get an early look at our exciting new website

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Look Back 2020 Look Ahead 2021 / 5

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 2020 is a year that many of us won’t soon forget (much as we might like to). As hard as it is to describe the year in polite or succinct terms, I will say that it has been a year of unparalleled challenges faced by individuals, societies and economies the world over.

The picture for Canadian online brokerages was no less challenging. Early in 2020 they had to simultaneously confront the shockwaves of a pandemic that forced nearly all online brokerage employees to shift to working remotely; one of the sharpest stock market declines on record; historic trading activity; and DIY investors flooding into online investing accounts to take advantage of once-in-a-generation wealth-creating opportunities.

Against that backdrop, it is remarkable to see where the industry as a whole has landed by the time this edition of our exclusive Look Back / Look Ahead series goes to publication.

Now in its fourth iteration, this SparxTrading.com original series continues its tradition of providing a unique window into the experiences, accomplishments and visions of Canada’s online brokerages via the voices of the leaders of those organizations.

This year, however, we believe DIY investors will be able to get something even more special from this issue: an appreciation of what it takes for an online brokerage to successfully navigate a generational crisis as well as how to move forward in the “new normal.”

Of the many things that have changed about the world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe that going forward, DIY investors will be much more inclined to evaluate Canada’s online brokers by their ability to communicate a vision of the future as well as by their actions taken to bring it into being.

DIY investors will be much more inclined to evaluate Canada’s online brokers by their ability to communicate a vision of the future as well as by their actions taken to bring it into being.

With uncertainty about the future and stock markets simultaneously reaching all-time highs, it is more important than ever to hear how Canadian online brokerages are equipped to navigate adversity and, perhaps more importantly, what new features and exciting developments DIY investors can look forward to in 2021 from these firms. As such, I’d like to both thank and congratulate those online brokerages who chose to share their experiences with Sparx Trading readers in this edition of the Look Back / Look Ahead series.

I sincerely hope that readers enjoy learning about the fascinating developments taking shape in the Canadian online brokerage industry as much as we have enjoyed pulling this issue together.

On behalf of the SparxTrading.com team, we hope you and your loved ones stay safe and find opportunities to prosper as we head into an exciting chapter ahead.

Hamish Khamisa Founder, SparxTrading.com For more Canadian online brokerage news, reviews and promotions, check out SparxTrading.com!

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Tools of the Trade DIY investing is made easier with SparxTrading.com, your one-stop source for navigating the world of online trading.

Learn about the latest trends and compare features, pricing and promotions at Canadian online brokerages with our easy to use resources.

Before you buy low and sell high, let SparxTrading.com help you make better-informed choices.

Invest your time wisely.

SparxTrading.com

Featured Online Brokerage

BMO InvestorLine

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Silvio Stroescu Head of Digital Investing, BMO Wealth Management

Disclaimers: BMO InvestorLine Inc. is a member of BMO Financial Group. ®Registered trademark of Bank of Montreal, used under licence. BMO InvestorLine Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Montreal. Member – Canadian Investor Protection Fund and Member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada.

An adviceDirect account is a non-discretionary, fee-based account which offers investment recommendations. adviceDirect does not provide portfolio management by a portfolio manager. The client makes their own investment decisions and manages their own investment portfolio. adviceDirect does not offer discretionary, managed accounts.

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o one could have predicted the global challenges we’d be facing in 2020, but at BMO, we’ve been determined to meet those challenges head-on. COVID-19 has increased the demand for digital investing, acting as a tailwind for our investment platform BMO InvestorLine. We’ve seen an influx of younger investors entering the market directly under digital channels, hoping to find market opportunities that may arise.

Earlier in the year, like many other businesses, we had to rethink how we were operating. In order to keep our team members safe, many of our teams established remote-working models. Spikes in volumes to our call centres forced us to be flexible: To provide the most help to our clients, we redeployed team members to our call centres and shifted resources to support our back-office operations team.

As physical distancing changed how we interact with our clients, we knew it was important for our digital experiences to evolve as well. MyWealth, which launched earlier this year, in March, is InvestorLine’s new digital account opening application – it offers clients a full-serve and remote onboarding experience, complete with electronic signatures and real-time account openings. Thanks to MyWealth, we were able to handle a surge in

new account applications (>100% YoY), and we enabled our clients to start trading without having to leave their homes.

Plus, we’re looking forward to the imminent launch of InvestorLine 2.0, available for both Self-Directed and adviceDirect clients.

This is the largest update we’ve made to the InvestorLine platform in over a decade, and it includes a suite of upgrades for our clients: an updated design that is easier to use, greater access to meaningful investment data, customizable components to fit any investor’s needs and a streamlined trading experience. It’s part of a bigger push to know our clients: who they are, how they invest with us and what we can do to serve them better.

We’ve been incredibly proud of how quickly our team has been able to meet client demands, especially during the early peak of the pandemic. Thanks to our team’s responsiveness, we continue receiving top marks from third-party reviews of discount brokerage providers in Canada.

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ooking ahead to 2021, we believe the demand for digital advice will continue to rise: Investors want to control their investment decisions, but they want help making those choices. Our adviceDirect platform is designed specifically to meet this need, as

Q&A Q1 What can beginner investors expect from your firm?

Beginning investors can expect a robust platform, with user experience enhancements that make it easy and intuitive to invest. We’re passionate about helping new investors find the right online investing tools for them.

Q2 What can active investors expect from your firm?

Active investors will appreciate the overhauled design of InvestorLine 2.0 – it’s easier than ever to place trades, see meaningful data to help you make decisions, and manage your accounts. We make monthly updates based on user feedback, so we’re always looking to make a positive impact on how clients use the platform.

it combines InvestorLine’s ease-of-use with professional advice that’s tailored to each investor. For clients who might be on the fence about adviceDirect, we’ll be launching the Portfolio Health Check. This lightweight, zero-cost tool compares a client’s existing portfolio holdings against a self-identified investor profile. It can give clients a general overview on if their portfolio matches up with their chosen profile and suggest how adviceDirect could help them better achieve their goals.

We’re also excited to continue evolving InvestorLine 2.0.

Soon, clients will be able to use the new experience to purchase mutual funds, HISAs and GICs; next year, options quotes and trading will make its way to the new platform. Continuing with digital advice, we’ll be creating a market data and research hub that is personalized to each client’s holdings and watchlist items.

Enhanced transaction history and order history will be coming soon, too, giving clients the ability to filter their order history and quickly renew expired or filled orders.

When looking at upcoming trends and features that will interest DIY investors, personalization is key: It’s important to give clients an experience that meets their unique goals and investment strategies. Planning and ideation are also key, making sure investors know what actions to take toward their goals and empowering them to take those actions. To that end, InvestorLine 2.0 will introduce enhanced screener tools for equities, ETFs and mutual funds, while adviceDirect clients will be able to add personalized filters to refine buy recommendations based on more detailed criteria, including ESG scores and third-party ratings.

Q3 What online investing trends do you expect to matter to DIY investors?

Digital is going to be a big space for investors, both in the self-serve category as well as in the advice realm. As more people enjoy the autonomy and freedom of choosing their own investments, we believe having the tools to support that will become more and more important.

Q4 What does user experience mean at your firm?

We’re fanatic about client-centred design. We regularly incorporate user testing and feedback in every step of the product development cycle, and we use client data and feedback to guide us toward what our next updates will bring and how we improve our services.

Q5 What sets your firm apart from your peers?

We believe our holistic investing platform is what really sets us apart. We have a full-featured platform that doesn’t just enable you to place trades, it’s also easy to use without sacrificing customizability, meaning you can truly make the platform your own. More specifically, adviceDirect empowers our clients by allowing them to make their own investment choices, since adviceDirect provides advice that’s customized to each client’s portfolio and goals.

Look Back 2020 Look Ahead 2021 / 9

Featured Online Brokerage

HSBC InvestDirect

Attilio Montanari Vice President, HSBC InvestDirect

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SBC InvestDirect, the self-directed brokerage arm of HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., is an online brokerage suited for globally minded investors, which provides access to 30 domestic and international markets. With HSBC InvestDirect, you can access an integrated suite of research tools and trading capabilities right at your fingertips.

2020 has been an interesting year so far, to say the least. COVID-19 has brought with it significant uncertainty to the world, and it has also brought unprecedented volumes to HSBC InvestDirect and the brokerage industry as a whole.

HSBC InvestDirect has been working under a split-site protocol since March, with staff at the main office, at our BCP site and working from home. We have been dealing with extremely high volumes in phone calls, emails, trading and new accounts due to the market volatility surrounding the impact of the pandemic. To put the volumes into perspective, March 2020 was HSBC InvestDirect’s highest trading month on record, followed by April 2020, which was the highest new account month in our history.

In April 2020, HSBC InvestDirect introduced a special pricing promotion of $0 for online North American equity and ETF trades for Active Traders (150+ trades per rolling threemonth period). The Active Trader rate of $0 is

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valid until December 31, 2020. Effective January 1, 2021, the Active Trader rate of $4.88 for online North American equity and ETF trades will apply.

This program has been an unbelievable success and exceeded our expectations. (Terms and conditions apply.)

In addition to the Active Trader special pricing promotion, we also launched a Free Trading promotion for new accounts that ran from July until the end of October 2020. The offer entitled all new accounts (new or existing clients) to 60 calendar days of free North American online equity and ETF trading (up to a maximum of 60 trades) through the new account.

So far in 2020, we have been focused on system enhancements and resiliency to minimize any potential system downtime and to improve the overall customer experience. With the high level of market volatility that we saw during the beginning of the pandemic, we optimized several popular pages on the trading site by including quick order entry and execution from all pages, in addition to improving the performance of our market data database and adding extra capacity to effectively handle increases in site usage and volumes. We also launched the electronic delivery of tax forms, introduced several client forms with e-signature capabilities and made improvements in our onboarding process to make things easier for our customers to get things done.

The high level of market volatility and unprecedented volumes experienced were motivating factors for the system enhancements performed in 2020, along with our commitment to providing a stable and highly effective trading platform. Although several of our enhancements were behind the scenes, client feedback has been very positive with regards to our enhancements and modifications.

HSBC InvestDirect has a great deal to be proud of this year. We are extremely proud of the way our team rallied around each other and our customers to support them when dealing with the numerous challenges that they encountered as a result of COVID-19.

equity and ETF trades, which started in April and runs until December 31, 2020. (Terms and conditions apply.) HSBC InvestDirect Active Trader pricing is amongst the best in Canada. We are also looking to provide new tools for Active Traders, such as a streaming data portal.

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SBC InvestDirect has a lot in store for 2021. We will continue to listen to feedback and focus on what is important to our customers. We are excited to continue to provide our customers with innovative products and services, along with a secure trading platform and innovative tools to assist them in managing their investments with ease and confidence.

Our customers can look forward to a redesigned website with improved navigation and education, on top of the introduction of a mobile app within the next 12 to 18 months, which will include an integrated view within the HSBC Bank Canada mobile banking app.

We feel that DIY investors are constantly looking for good value, a high level of customer service, high-quality tools and resources and a reliable platform with quick access to the markets. Offering more educational pieces has been an important trend in the industry, as information and knowledge are key. HSBC InvestDirect has supported customer education by partnering with the TMX this year in virtual options training, and we are looking forward to providing our customers with access to more events such as these along with access to additional Investor Insights from our HSBC affiliates.

HSBC InvestDirect is pleased to welcome many beginner investors each year. Beginner investors can expect a redesigned website to help them find what they are looking for with ease. They also have access to our interactive demo and demo videos that highlight functionalities of the trading site for different investment products. When you become a new customer of HSBC InvestDirect, the first thing you should expect is to receive a warm welcome call from one or our highly trained Investment Representatives with an offer to walk you through our trading platform and to answer any questions that you may have.

Active Trader investors are very important to us, as shown from our Active Trader special pricing offer of $0 commissions for online North American

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ser experience is extremely important to us.

Service is key, and that all begins with our customers’ user experience. We take great pride in our service, and we are always looking at ways to take it to the next level and to ensure that we always provide a fast and reliable platform. We continue to optimize our customer journeys and accessibility to information, to allow our customers to manage their investments effectively.

HSBC is a leading international bank, and HSBC InvestDirect uses that international reach to set us apart from the pack. Our customers can expect:

client support in four languages ➪ Dedicated (English, French, Cantonese and Mandarin) access to 30 domestic and international ➪ Global markets, with settlement in 10 currencies commission structure, current➪ Best-in-class ly offering $4.88 for Active Traders ($0 until

December 31, 2020) and $6.88 for all clients on North American equity and ETF online trades (Terms and conditions apply.)

➪ Fast, reliable and secure website ➪ Integrated brokerage/banking combination HSBC InvestDirect is a division of HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of, but separate entity from, HSBC Bank Canada.

HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. is a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Look Back 2020 Look Ahead 2021 / 11

Featured Online Brokerage

National Bank Direct Brokerage HOW 2020 WENT

Note from the President, Claude-Frédéric Robert Claude-Frédéric started working at National Bank in 2011 and has been president of NBDB since 2018. Under his leadership, the management team of NBDB has generated many innovations that have significantly improved the client experience, ranging from the deployment of a new platform to the launch of the best pricing in Canada for bank-owned direct brokers.

Claude-Frédéric plans on simplifying the client experience even further and increasing the pace of change by continuing to launch new services and tools.

To learn more about National Bank Direct Brokerage, visit nbdb.ca.

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2020 was a fantastic year for us and our clients. We are very pleased that we delivered several important initiatives, including the launch of the best commission pricing in the industry.

Our goal was to offer pricing that met the needs of our clients, particularly active investors. And we succeeded!

This is not the first time that National Bank Direct Brokerage has led on pricing in the direct brokerage industry: we were the very first to lower commission fees on ETFs to $0.

2020 also saw the launch of our new transactional platform, more adapted to the needs of active investors. We have made several improvements along the way, listening to our clients’ feedback, to ensure that the platform is exceptional, and we are very proud of the result.

In addition to our new transactional platform, which was conceived with the goal of facilitating transactions, this year we added the Market-Q transactional application, again with the goal of improving our clients’ experience.

Throughout the years, we have always held numerous educational events,

and despite the turmoil caused by the pandemic, we continued supporting our clients to become more self-directed by offering all kinds of events. In fact, we’ve even done more! Knowing that our clients needed to stay home, we offered daily online webinars. We created the “NBDB Break...” events, a series of 15-minute webinars that allowed participants to learn a little something during their breaks.

Currently, we are also offering a series of options webinars, to further educate clients on this product that, at first glance, may seem complex.

2020 was certainly marked by many unforeseen events, but thanks to our powerful tools and our knowledgeable and dedicated employees, we were able to navigate through the crisis with ease. All of these factors allow us to say with conviction that we are leaders in the direct brokerage industry. And this is only the beginning!

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO FOR 2021 We have lofty ambitions for the year 2021. True to ourselves, we want to be a driving force of positive change in the direct brokerage industry. We are preparing an unprecedented offer that will delight investors of all stripes.

National Bank Direct Brokerage wants to meet the needs of all its clients and wants to offer them the best in class. This year, we will go even further and offer new tools and services for self-directed investors that are not yet available at other discount brokers.

We will be the direct broker that offers you the most innovative solutions.

Before the end of 2020, we will be the first broker to offer access to OptionsPlay, a financial education and analysis tool specializing in options.

OptionsPlay will allow you to visualize and compare trading strategies, let you easily find additional technical analysis, and help you find and choose covered calls.

Training programs will continue to be our priority, in order to educate and empower our clients and thus help them better manage their investments and have a better-performing portfolio. Be on the lookout: We will be holding a number of online and in-person events throughout the year, if the situation permits.

We will also be the first bankowned direct broker to launch a pilot project on a retail securities lending program. NBDB clients will be able to earn additional income on their fully paid shares in their cash and margin accounts.

Q&A Q1 What can beginner investors expect from your firm?

At National Bank Direct Brokerage, beginner investors are taken care of and guided from the very beginning of their experience. For young and notso-young, we are the place to start investing in ETFs with $0 commissions. We support them with an ETF Centre, an easy-touse filter tool and ETF research reports from Morningstar and National Bank Financial.

For young investors aged 30 and under, we offer special and advantageous pricing, with 10 annual free trades, $4.95 pricing on stocks and no administration fees.

NBDB offers the necessary tools to trade, but we also offer an educational component. We have training courses, a YouTube channel where we publish instructional and educational videos, and several other tools that allow new investors to gain confidence and make informed decisions.

Q2 What can active investors expect from your firm?

Best pricing, best service and a high-performance transactional Market-Q tool. Active investors can have the best of both worlds: $0.95 per trade on stocks and $0 on ETFs, when they qualify. For 2021, active investors can expect continued downward pressure on commission fees, including option pricing.

Q3 What online investing trends do you expect to matter to DIY investors?

The feedback that we’ve received from our clients is clear: Clients are looking for greater online content (fundamental analysis, technical analysis, ETFs, options and strategies) and support that can assist them in managing their investments and become better investors.

Q4 What does user experience mean at your firm?

At NBDB, we value customer experience. That is why we routinely send surveys to our customers to better understand their needs.

This valuable information is then used to guide our decision-making, whether it be for tools, services or any other aspect of our business. We are customer-focused, and that is why our customers’ opinions are taken into account on a daily basis.

Q5 What sets your firm apart from your peers?

We may not be the biggest direct broker in Canada, but we are the first in setting the tone by offering competitive pricing that benefits everyone. We offer innovative tools and services; a distinctive service for high-net-worth clients, InvestCube (ETF portfolios); and tools and services not offered by the competition.

Look Back 2020 Look Ahead 2021 / 13

Featured Online Brokerage

Qtrade Investor

Empowering Canadian investors during the industry’s largest surge in trading growth

I Christine Zalzal Senior Vice-President, Head of Qtrade® Investor and VirtualWealth® Christine oversees Aviso Wealth’s online brokerage and robo-advice businesses, with a focus on empowering Canadians with best-inclass wealth management choices. Under Christine’s leadership, Qtrade Investor has solidified its reputation as Canada’s best and most reliable online broker.

Christine has held executive roles with several financial institutions, where she led product-line strategy, digital strategy, marketing and sales distribution for a wide range of products, including the online brokerage business of a big-five Canadian bank.

Christine’s involvement in the community includes being a mentor with the Women in Leadership Foundation and a cabinet member for Women Against Multiple Sclerosis.

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t’s been quite a year. Words like “unprecedented,” “unmatched” and “extraordinary” have been bandied about, but 2020 almost defies description.

Trading volumes in the Canadian online brokerage industry doubled in the second quarter of 2020, the highest growth in its history. Qtrade® Investor was no exception; we saw account openings and trading volumes reach two to three times our normal trends. Of course, we’ve seen significant trading volume spikes before, like 20 years ago, when the tech bubble burst, or in 2008/9, with the global financial crisis.

Then, as now, Canadians have been eager to take advantage of market volatility.

The industry experienced a surge in growth in the spring of 2020 as Canadians responded to market volatility by opening online brokerage accounts. Qtrade Investor was well positioned to address online investor needs. We empower our clients with secure online access, a reliable technology platform and an award-winning customer service team, with which we extended service hours to handle the record volumes of client inquiries. Utilizing our robust educational resources and timely market commentary, our clients were able to navigate significant market volatility with greater confidence.

In an environment with so many new investors, we also recognized that clients needed more tools to help them invest with confidence.

In April, we launched new portfolio analytics tools – Portfolio Score™, Portfolio Simulator™ and Portfolio Creator™ – giving our clients unrivalled access to the most advanced risk analysis and portfolio-building technology in the Canadian online brokerage industry. As always, we’re committed to the continuous improvement and innovation of our platform to empower Canadians in their investment choices.

The unprecedented surge in trading volumes and customer service inquiries put an incredible amount of pressure on Canada’s online brokerage industry. I’m proud of the Qtrade Investor team for keeping their focus on the client experience during these challenging times – all while transitioning to working from home.

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2021

At Qtrade Investor, we’re always looking for ways to create more value for clients, to provide innovative tools and resources that help them make investment decisions with confidence. A focus on the client experience drives our platform-design decisions, and that focus was top of mind when we integrated our new portfolio analytics tools into the Qtrade Investor platform.

For do-it-yourself investors, knowledge is power. Qtrade Investor’s new portfolio analytics tools are a comprehensive set of risk analysis and portfolio-building tools that can help investors make informed investment decisions and manage their risk exposure as they navigate market volatility. Portfolio Simulator™ lets clients test investment scenarios in a simulator mode, to explore ideas and fine-tune their investment strategy. Portfolio Score™ provides a second opinion by grading a portfolio, helping investors understand their diversification and risk exposure and scoring selected securities across five key dimensions. If an investor is looking to build an ETF portfolio, with just a short series of questions, Portfolio Creator™ generates a portfolio, customized to their investing preferences, that will help them maximize risk-adjusted returns.

In 2021, we’ll enrich the overall platform experience by adding guided how-to paths to walk investors through our platform. We’re also developing ways to achieve faster account opening, streamlining and automating our processes to get clients trading sooner. Enhancements to our existing interactive charting tools are planned for next year, so clients can make more-informed trading decisions.

Qtrade Investor has won Best Overall Brokerage awards 22 times over the past 15 years, which reflects our commitment to continuous platform innovation and improvement, and our focus on the client experience. As part of that ongoing commitment, we’re interested in looking outside our industry at other sectors’ best-in-class online and customer experiences. I look forward to seeing how we might be able to adapt to better serve Canadian investors in the years ahead.

Q&A Q1 What can beginner investors expect from your firm?

capabilities and award-winning customer support.

New investors can access an award-winning online investing platform, robust mobile-trading capabilities and unrivalled customer service. Qtrade Investor has consistently been ranked among the top online brokerages across all major rankings, including The Globe and Mail, Surviscor and MoneySense. We have achieved 22 first-place wins for best online brokerage over the past 15 years, and eight first-place awards in customer service experience over the past five years.

Q3 What online investing trends do you expect to matter to DIY investors?

We empower beginner investors with online resources and innovative tools that help them invest with confidence. Just launched in 2020, Portfolio Simulator™ lets clients test investment scenarios in a simulator mode, to explore ideas and finetune their investment strategy, while Portfolio Score™ provides a second opinion on their portfolio, helping investors understand their diversification and risk exposure and grading the selected securities across five key dimensions. If a beginner investor is looking to build an ETF portfolio, with just a short series of questions, Portfolio Creator™ generates a portfolio, customized to their investing preferences, that will help them maximize risk-adjusted returns.

Q2 What can active investors expect from your firm?

Qtrade Investor offers the Investor Plus program, an enhanced service for active traders with larger portfolios. Investor Plus includes discounted trading fees, no fees on US-dollar registered accounts and reduced margin borrowing rates. Active traders will also enjoy the benefits of Qtrade Investor’s robust, stable trading platform, mobile-trading

Long before the pandemic, investors were making the shift to online platforms and, more specifically, mobile apps. This is a trend that has accelerated over time and shows no sign of slowing. We expect that Canadian do-it-yourself investors will continue to demand more-robust mobile apps to research, trade, view and make transactions in their portfolios.

Investors also require more self-service capabilities in their online brokerage, with goal-planning tools that help them assess their investment choices. Managing risk in a historically volatile market requires an online brokerage platform that provides investors with the tools to analyze their portfolio performance. We think we’ll see industry participants launch more tools for performance and risk measurement at the individual portfolio level.

Open banking is also on the horizon, and Canadian consumers can expect to see the emergence of aggregator tools that give them a full view of all their active accounts, no matter what financial institution(s) they’re with.

We’ll also likely see more incentive offers, particularly during high investment seasons, as firms attempt to attract a younger demographic.

Q4 What does user experience mean at your firm?

At Qtrade Investor, we’re obsessed with the user experience; our clients and partners are at the heart of everything we do. It’s this obsession that drives us to answer calls in half the time of our nearest competitor (Surviscor’s “The State of Financial

Customer Service in Canada,” 2020), and it’s the reason we’ve won eight awards for customer service.

And when we built our leading-edge portfolio analytics tools, we didn’t simply patch on a widget that would require clients to input portfolio data to use it. We integrated it within our platform, so your portfolio data is populated and automatically updated directly into the tool. It’s a simpler, more seamless way for clients to use analytics tools to build a portfolio, assess risk and maximize their returns.

Q5 What sets your firm apart from your peers?

What makes us different is our focus on the client experience. It’s not just words to us, and the proof is in our long history of industry honours. In addition to 22 awards over the past 15 years for best online brokerage across all major rankings, including The Globe and Mail, Surviscor and MoneySense, we’ve won an additional eight first-place awards in customer service experience over the past five years.

“No other broker is good in so many different areas and no other broker makes such consistent year-by-year improvements,” said Rob Carrick, personal finance columnist for The Globe and Mail, in his review of Qtrade Investor. “What impresses about Qtrade is its attention to details in supplying almost all the features investors need to be successful.” ® Qtrade and VirtualWealth are registered trademarks of Aviso Wealth Inc. Online brokerage services are offered through Qtrade Investor, a division of Credential Qtrade Securities Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Aviso Wealth Inc. VirtualWealth is a division of Credential Qtrade Securities Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Aviso Wealth Inc. and Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. ™ Portfolio Score, ™ Portfolio Simulator and ™ Portfolio Creator are trademarks of Credential Qtrade Securities Inc.

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Featured Online Brokerage

Questrade

stocks from 1¢/share ➪ Trade (min. $4.95 to max. $9.95)

➪ Buy ETFs commission-free ➪ No annual account fees account opening or ➪ No closing fees accounts are dual➪ All currency accounts

Not only did we see growth in new customers but we also saw growth among customers switching their accounts from other financial institutions and taking advantage of our “transfer for free” promotion, where they could transfer any account, of any size, from any financial institution and we rebated the transfer-out fees (up to $150) those institutions charged for moving the account.

This year Questrade was ranked #1 in investor satisfaction by J.D. 16 / SparxTrading.com

Power among self-directed brokerages, and we were also ranked #1 for commission and fees and #1 for account information. For J.D. Power 2020 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards.

We are proud to add this J.D. Power win to the growing list of accolades: winner of Canada’s ➪ 8X Best Managed Companies billion in assets under ➪ $18 administration over 100,000 new ➪ Well accounts opened annually #1 as Best Online ➪ Rated Brokerage – MoneySense 2019

#1 in customer ➪ Rated service

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his year we eliminated inactivity fees. Low fees are what customers expect from us, and this change continues to show our commitment to making investing more accessible to everyone.

For 2021, as always, our focus is on our customers and making it easy for them to invest, with low fees. We have already significantly increased our customers’ onboarding resources, so they not only know how to invest with Questrade but also have a foundational knowledge about investing generally. We are developing an entire video series, so customers can learn the platform and get started trading quickly.

You can count on us to continue to find ways to bring low fees to investors. And add education and new features to our platforms that make them even more powerful.

Q&A

2020 was a year of unprecedented change, not just for Questrade but for the entire industry. While online investing has been getting more popular since we opened our doors back in 1999, the pandemic significantly increased interest in doing more of your financial transactions online, including investing.

In 2020, Questrade saw enormous growth across the board.

As Canada’s fastest-growing online broker, we saw a surge in customers switching over and opening accounts at an unprecedented rate. Essentially, more and more Canadians are choosing to move away from high-fee investments and retire wealthier with Questrade.

With Questrade you enjoy low fees and keep more of your money.

Q1 What can beginner investors expect from your firm?

Helping Canadians become confident investors is what we do every day.

And it’s important not only to serve their needs today but also to teach them more about the markets as things happen.

When COVID-19 hit, we sent out resources to help customers make sense of the markets. This investing series was focused on how markets historically rebound after pullbacks, to help arm our customers with knowledge to navigate through the uncertainty. We regularly communicated with customers throughout the pandemic, giving updates on our operations and the market, so they can feel confident that we are here for them and they are not alone.

We have also partnered with Passiv, a portfolio-rebalancing tool, to make it even easier for customers to manage their investments. Anyone with a Questrade account receives a free subscription to Passiv Elite, their highest-tier plan.

All customers have access to real-time quotes and fast trade executions.

As always, all Questrade accounts are dual-currency accounts, so you can hold Canadian and US cash in your account (some competitors don’t give their customers this ability). With Questrade, you won’t get charged unnecessary currency-conversion fees when doing US trades.

2021 will continue to bring exciting new features for IQ Edge, with upcoming releases that will make it even more powerful.

Q3 What online investing trends do you expect to matter to DIY investors?

And, of course, new investors can enjoy all this knowing that they can reach out to our award-winning customer service if they ever have any questions.

Q2 What can active investors expect from your firm?

Unlike at many other brokers, all Questrade customers can access all of our platforms absolutely free, whether you’re trading on a web-based browser, on a mobile app or using IQ Edge, our advanced desktop platform.

Every year we’re adding more and more features focused on more-active investors, and 2020 was no exception.

This year we completely upgraded the market data on the platform by partnering with Benzinga, to give investors an abundance of news and analyst commentary on the stocks they’re following.

Along with Benzinga, we added an entirely new events calendar, so investors can easily look up key dates that may affect their securities. Earnings releases, dividend dates and analyst upgrades can all be easily searched on the event calendar.

We anticipate an increase in desire for knowledge, greater engagement with educational content for investors of all levels, increased participation in investing-related social media and, ultimately, a more informed, educated and successful DIY investor.

Q4 What does user experience mean at your firm?

User experience at Questrade is about making investing easy for customers.

At any given time, a user should be able to feel confident that they can access, read and understand all their portfolio information, that they can easily make trades using their platform of choice and that they know where to turn if they need help at any time.

Q5 What sets your firm apart from your peers?

At Questrade, we care about Canadians becoming financially successful and secure. As an independently owned online brokerage in Canada, we’re in the unique position of being accountable to our customers, not to shareholders. Our success is measured by our customers’ success, and we are always doing everything in our power to ensure that our investors have access to the knowledge, tools and resources they need to reach their investment goals.

This means that every decision is made with Canadians’ best interests in mind.

And others have recognized this effort, as our list of awards grows: rank in investor satisfaction ➪ #1among self-directed brokerages by J.D. Power, as well as #1 for commission and fees and #1 for account information (for J.D. Power 2020 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards)

fastest-growing ➪ Canada’s online broker winner of Canada’s Best ➪ 8X Managed Companies billion in assets under ➪ $18 administration 100,000 new accounts ➪ Over opened annually #1 ranked ➪ Award-winning customer service

This customer-first approach is a major driver of innovation at Questrade. We’re constantly searching for new ways to make investing easier for our customers, be it through the elimination of fees, the support of educational resources or one of the exciting programs and initiatives that we have planned for 2021.

And, as always, all with the low fees that Canadians have come to expect from us: stocks from 1¢/share ➪ Trade (min. $4.95 to max. $9.95)

➪ Buy ETFs commission-free ➪ No annual account fees account opening or closing ➪ No fees accounts are dual-currency ➪ All accounts to transfer in an account ➪ Free from another financial institution

We look forward to continuing to get better and better, as the leader, to further help Canadians become more financially successful and secure.

Look Back 2020 Look Ahead 2021 / 17

Featured Online Brokerage

RBC Direct Investing Stacey Petersen, Vice President Strategy, RBC Direct Investing

O

ur focus at RBC Direct Investing for 2020 was continuously improving the online experience for our clients, bringing exceptional value for investors seeking direct access to markets at a low cost. We accomplished a great deal this year, with more to come!

LOOKING BACK ON 2020 Mobile Investing Experience In May, we introduced a refreshed Direct Investing mobile-friendly experience within the RBC Banking app, providing investors easy access to great resources like analyst ratings, news and charts on the detailed quote page for both Android and iOS devices. For RBC Online Banking clients with a Direct Investing account, there’s the added convenience of being able to easily toggle between banking and investing profiles.

Work did not end with the launch.

Refinements to the design in response to client feedback are ongoing, and we’ve added new functionality to the mobile experience, such as the ability to open a new Direct Investing account through the app.

Level 2 Quotes > free for all clients

Market Data Building on the launch of free real-time streaming quotes for all clients in December of 2019, in April we introduced Level 2 quotes on TSX/ TSX-V, free for all clients. Real-time streaming on the online Standalone Watchlist went live in June. This competitive differentiator is free premium market data available to all clients, without the need to qualify on the basis of trade volume or asset level.

Client Service RBC DI Contact Centres serve clients in English, French, Cantonese and Mandarin; we are proud to offer a domestic call centre for times when clients have questions. Call volumes spiked during the early days of the pandemic, at a time when we were prioritizing the health and safety of our contact centre representatives.

As part of meeting that challenge and ensuring that we continue to deliver on our promise to Royal Circle clients that they will have access to our most experience licensed representatives, 18 / SparxTrading.com

we introduced authenticated call routing at our call centres.

Modernizing Our Platform A number of design and navigation improvements were made to our platform over the year to ensure that key information and resources are easily found and accessed. The Detailed Quote page, our Analyst Ratings page and the way we display transactions have undergone a series of significant changes to make them more client-friendly.

Investor Education Our digital Inspired Investor newsletter is widely read, providing helpful tips and insights to build investing knowledge. A special print-magazine edition was distributed through The Globe and Mail in February to mark our 30th anniversary. Inspired Investor is available by subscription to DI clients, and the public can now subscribe, too.

Those looking to grow their investment knowledge can tap into Investing Academy for a deeper dive

on investment related topics like “Why Buy Stocks” or “How to Invest in Options.”

And Sometimes It Isn’t What You See We’ve approached the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act – which comes into effect in January – as an opportunity to review our platform and public sites to ensure they are welcoming and easy to use for investors with accessibility needs. We consider the legislation as a minimum standard and strive for an exceptional experience for all clients.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2021

In the near term, clients will see refinements to Order Status pages and more intuitive order filtering.

Making It Easier to Open Accounts We’ve made great strides on improving our online account open experience. Online applications for our most common account types can be completed

by RBC Online Banking clients in 10 minutes or less.

In the next few weeks, many non-RBC clients will be able to take advantage of this as well. More to follow!

Research Resources

We’re paying close attention to client feedback to continuously improve in the areas that matter most.

Here’s a look at what lies ahead.

Work is underway to make it easier to find existing news and research across our platform as we continue to explore new research partnerships.

Our Platform

Stock Screeners

We will build on platform and digital enhancements in the coming months and look forward to sharing updates about the active-trader experience with you soon.

In 2021, we’re building additional resiliency into all areas of our ecosystem, as we know that it is key to ensuring clients continue to have uninterrupted access to the markets.

A more robust Stock Screener is in the works, with improved charting and additional filtering. We’ll also look to refresh the ETF and Mutual Fund Screeners.

We look forward to sharing updates about these initiatives in the coming months and throughout 2021!

Look Back 2020 Look Ahead 2021 / 19

More Online Brokerages

Surveying the Canadian Online Brokerage Landscape Highlights from more Canadian online brokers CG Direct

CIBC Investor’s Edge

By all measures, it was a year spent under the radar for CG Direct, the online brokerage arm of Canaccord Genuity.

Aside from small website updates, there wasn’t much in the way of publicized information by or about CG Direct directly. Earlier in the year, however, US giant Morgan Stanley did select the parent of CG Direct, Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, as a platform and a custody and clearing services provider for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Canada. Indirectly referenced in that relationship is the self-directed online investing capabilities of Canaccord. There is clearly the potential for 2021 to hold some interesting developments for this online brokerage.

Like many Canadian online brokerages, CIBC Investor’s Edge hit some turbulence during the most volatile patches of market trading. As the year progressed, however, they were able to regain their footing and get back to some of the original projects scheduled for 2020. One big milestone was the launch of their new online investing experience. Though still undergoing development, the new look and feel to their site is a promising upgrade that is generating buzz with clients. Also, heading into the end of the year, CIBC Investor’s Edge launched a competitive cash-back promotion that runs through RSP season in early 2021.

Desjardins Online Brokerage

Interactive Brokers Canada

After starting off 2020 with a significant restructuring to pricing for commissions for both the Disnat Classic and Disnat Direct platforms, the storm that was COVID-19 struck. In some respects, the timing for very active investors worked out, as the active trader pricing is among the lowest available at Canadian online brokers. That said, it appears from a features or activity standpoint that the focus was on improving client experience. An updated mobile app generated some positive responses with clients. For the moment, it seems Desjardins Online Brokerage will continue to pace itself and take its competitive cues from local competition rather than national players.

The Canadian arm of the popular US online brokerage maintained its usual pace of product and feature launches based on its larger US parent. In a year characterized by volatility, Interactive Brokers seemed relatively unfazed, a testament to both their technological prowess as online brokers as well as the fact that their clients are attracted to the kinds of volatility 2020 has brought with it. Of course, not even Interactive Brokers was immune from technological missteps, having to absorb losses on trades when oil futures amazingly went negative. With that in the rearview mirror, however, Interactive Brokers has maintained its positive growth among active, price-sensitive traders. One important milestone feature being rolled out by Interactive Brokers is their Impact Dashboard, which is geared to helping investors identify companies that align with their personal impact values.

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What about the online brokerages not already featured? Not all brokerages chose to submit a review, but we still saw interesting developments worth reporting on. Keep reading to see what we spotted in 2020 and some possible trends to watch for in 2021.

Scotia iTRADE

TD Direct Investing

Compared to the other bank-owned online brokerages in Canada, Scotia iTRADE was remarkably quiet through 2020. As such, it is more the story of what didn’t happen in 2020 – rather than what did – that makes Scotia iTRADE stand out. A previously vibrant (or semi-active) social media stream went largely dormant except for client service responses. Instead, it appeared that iTRADE leaned into paid advertising to stay visible with new investors and continued providing its usual rotation of investor education webinars. After staying out of the deals and promotions section for most of the year, Scotia iTRADE did flash signs of life with a strong cash-back plus discounted trade or commission-free trade offer.

As one of Canada’s most popular bank-owned online brokerages, TD Direct Investing is no stranger to being in the spotlight. Of course, that kind of fame is a double-edged sword, as trading interruptions or other client service issues also get amplified. Momentum, however, was on the side of TD Direct Investing in 2020, as they experienced recordbreaking account growth. After a relatively quiet summer, the fall saw a ramp-up of activity related to investor education culminating in the release of a flagship mobile trading feature called TD GoalAssist. The roll out of commission-free trading among Canadian online brokerages has been spotty; however, with GoalAssist, TD Direct Investing has put commissionfree trading of ETFs into the spotlight. Looking ahead to 2021, it is likely this new app will feature prominently in TD Direct Investing’s strategy.

Virtual Brokers

Wealthsimple Trade

Larger forces were at play in 2020 for Virtual Brokers. The historically active and visible online brokerage also kept a relatively low profile after the early part of the year. Likely contributing to that was behind the scenes activity related to the consolidation of multiple wealth management brands under the CI Financial (parent company to Virtual Brokers) umbrella. Though there was a change of pace in terms of visibility, Virtual Brokers did manage to achieve some important milestones in 2020, such as the launch of an updated mobile app experience. With some important branding changes on the horizon, there are some open questions on what from the existing Virtual Brokers suite will carry forward to the CI Direct Investing platform.

It was a huge year for the challenger-brand online brokerage.

The wave of zero-commission trading enthusiasm that swept across the US online brokerage marketplace in 2019 helped to propel Canada’s only full zero-commission online broker into the spotlight. 2020 saw record new-account growth at Wealthsimple Trade as well as the launch of new and innovative features. Cryptotrading – a first among online brokerages – was launched this year as well as a desktop version of the previously mobile-only trading app. Finally, in the promotions department, Wealthsimple Trade pulled off yet another clever move with a limited time “free stock” promo that sounds very similar to a promotion offered by popular US online brokerage Robinhood. Expect Wealthsimple Trade to continue to make waves in 2021 with new features released on a regular basis.

Look Back 2020 Look Ahead 2021 / 21

INTRODUCING SPARX TRADING 2.0

by William Davies

2020 has been a year of changes. Some planned, some forced. For SparxTrading.com, however, a big (positive) change has been coming for quite some time, and we’re proud to announce that in 2021 it is finally arriving.

At the start of Q1 2021, we will be launching the revamped Sparx Trading website, with a refreshed user experience and interface and increasingly powerful features to give both new and veteran DIY investors the information they need to stay on top of the Canadian online brokerage marketplace. Here are some of the new and updated features users can expect in the new SparxTrading.com

New Features, Fresh Look

One of the most popular features on SparxTrading.com is the ability to view information on deals and promotions being offered by Canada’s online brokerages. To make comparing these offers even easier, we’ve built a Deals Calculator: a new, simple-to-use interactive tool that makes finding the best possible deals for each DIY investor even faster.

Another important activity that users of SparxTrading.com do, is compare online brokerages. With multiple features, account types and pricing differences, this new Online Brokerage Comparison Tool simplifies the process of researching and choosing an online brokerage.

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Beyond creating dynamic functionality to better serve our users, we’ve significantly overhauled Sparx Trading’s useability. With the website’s simplified structure, finding the right information is faster and easier than ever, regardless of the device that users come to the site with.

Another big improvement is in a popular feature that allows users to do in-depth research on specific online brokerages. Our online brokerage review pages, known as broker profiles, have been reorganized to enable users to navigate easily to the information that is most relevant to their needs.

Finally, readers of SparxTrading.com’s regular content, like the Weekly Roundup, will be pleased to learn that there is even more in-depth content on the DIY investing experience available on the new site- from profile pieces on specific online investing topics, to more frequent industry updates, to first-look access to new features coming to market. The new site is a mustread for anyone thinking about investing online.

The Future of Sparx Trading Despite the incredible changes confronting the world as a whole, as well as the world of online investing, our mission to simplify the experience of DIY investing remains intact.

Having covered the world of Canadian online brokerages for almost a decade, we’ve witnessed significant change in the world of DIY investing. With the benefit of that experience and hindsight, it’s clear that change in the industry is accelerating, and we’re confident that even more substantial change will be coming in the years ahead.

Whether in the form of commission pricing, new features, mobile trading or innovations in trading products, new developments will require Canadian online brokerages to evolve along with changing consumer preferences and expectations. As such, there will always be a need for a resource to help make sense of these changes for DIY investors and industry alike.

For anyone who’s worked on getting a new website across the finish line, it can certainly seem like an ending. Here at Sparx, we’re excited by the prospect of the launch of a new and improved SparxTrading. com as the beginning of another amazing journey.

HSBC InvestDirect Self-directed Online Investing Access an integrated suite of research tools and trading capabilities right at your fingertips with HSBC InvestDirect1. $6.88* – Pricing that you can count on Our flat pricing rate of $6.88* on North American online equity and ETF trades, or options2 trades for just $6.88* + $1.25 per contract, allow you to trade with straightforward and consistent pricing for all of your transactions.

$4.88* – Active Trader Pricing If you are an Active Trader3, you can trade for as low as $4.88* on all North American online equity and ETF trades, or options2 trades ($4.88* + $1.25 per contract) when you trade 150+ times per quarter.

Global reach – access to 30 domestic and international markets

Take control with investing tools and resources World-class research and tools: Convenient access to real-time quotes, news and stock reports, such as Standard & Poor and Morningstar, and charting tools that will keep you informed on your investments and the financial markets.

Alerts and watchlists: Sign up to receive email alerts on stocks and news items, as well as on trade executions on Canadian, U.S. or Hong Kong exchanges. Create up to 20 watchlists to test and track a personalized investment strategy for your HSBC InvestDirect holdings, securities you hold elsewhere, and securities you are considering.

Online trading: HSBC InvestDirect offers online access to all major North American and four major international stock exchanges, including Canada, U.S., Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Frankfurt.

Interactive demo and videos: View journeys such as Equities, Options, Fixed Income, Mutual Funds, ETFs, Investor Tools and an Overview.

Telephone trading: Customers can access 30 domestic and international markets in North America, China, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Europe and many more.

Dedicated client service and support

Multi-currency settlement capability: Settle trades online in multiple currencies to protect against currency risk (select from 10 different currencies).

Open an HSBC InvestDirect account today and access a world of investment opportunities.

Count on the knowledge and expertise of our investment representatives to execute your trades and answer technical questions about our online trading system in English, French, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Click hsbc.ca/trading Visit your nearest branch Call 1-800-760-1180

*Terms and conditions apply.

1 HSBC InvestDirect is a division of HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of, but separate entity from, HSBC Bank Canada. HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. HSBC InvestDirect does not provide investment advice or recommendations regarding any investment decisions or securities transactions. No investment advice is provided or suitability review conducted on accounts held at HSBC InvestDirect.

2 Options may involve a high degree of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Read the Risk Disclosure Statement for Futures and Options before applying to trade in options (http://www.hsbc.ca/1/ PA_ES_Content_Mgmt/content/ canada4/pdfs/personal/terms-conditions-en.pdf).

3 An Active Trader is a person who conducts at least 150 Qualifying Trades (defined below) during the Trading Period (defined below) in either (a) their HSBC InvestDirect (personal sole and joint accounts (the “Personal Accounts”) or (b) their non-personal account(s) (the “Non-Personal Accounts”). A Qualifying Trade can be any of the following: (i) online equity, ETF or option orders traded on a North American exchange, (ii) online equity trades on an International exchange except Hong Kong, (iii) any telephone equity trades, ETF or option orders on a North American or International exchange. Active Trader Rates are disclosed in our Commissions Schedule.

Every month we will determine if you are an Active Trader. Specifically, on the 4th calendar day of every month we will add up the number of Qualifying Trades you conducted in the Personal Accounts or Non-Personal Accounts for the preceding 3 month period (the “Trading Period”). If at least 150 Qualifying Trades were conducted in the Personal Accounts or Non-Personal Accounts during the Trading Period, you will receive for the Personal Accounts or Non-Personal Accounts, as applicable, the Active Trader Rates from the 4th calendar day of the month until the 3rd calendar day of the following month. For example, on April 4, 2020, we will count the number of Qualifying Trades in the Personal Accounts or Non-Personal Accounts for the Trading Period from January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020. If you qualify as an Active Trader, you will receive the Active Trader Rates in any of the Personal Accounts or Non-Personal Accounts from April 4, 2020 to May 3, 2020. To continue to receive Active Trader Rates, you must qualify every 4th calendar day of a month based on the trading activity during the Trading Period. As soon as you do not qualify, we will charge you the regular trading rates until you qualify again.

We will automatically assess whether you qualify for Active Trader Rates. The trade count for Non-Personal Accounts is not combined with the trade count for Personal Accounts, and vice versa.

Active Trader Rates are only available if you qualify as an Active Trader (as explained above). The zero commissions limited time offer for Active Traders is only available for North American online equity and ETF trading (excludes Option and Fixed Income Trades).

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