Whether it’s mythical dragons, rare celestial events or a new album from a musical mega-celebrity, the bar for getting peoples’ attention this past week felt significantly higher. Of course, against the backdrop of so many big events DIY investors are looking for places to talk finance and trading – and astute online brokerages in Canada […]

Right now, a lot of news in the US and from around the world seems bad. Rightfully so. This week, however, after many weeks of discounting the rhetoric, it seems that along with headlines, markets are also making a formation to look to the future with pessimism. For DIY investors and for online brokerages, however, […]

With the chaos in the Oval Office and the specter of nuclear war being played out on the world stage, Canadian DIY investors may’ve seen this short week as a week to either be short, enjoy wearing shorts or perhaps change shorts. To paraphrase a reference to Game of Thrones, to some, chaos is a […]

August is finally here and what a month so far. The Dow Jones touched a new all-time high, the US President’s popularity is finding a new low, and Canadian online brokerages are already stepping up their game in anticipation of the end of 2017. With only one month to go before September rolls around, a […]

Separating news from noise is harder to do some weeks than others. This might have been one of those weeks. Despite markets responding to earnings and fundamentals, and despite economic news that shows Canada’s economy is now firing on all cylinders, there’s just one story that seems to Trump it all. For traders and investors, […]

If there’s a lesson emerging from the scandal in the US or from Game of Thrones, it’s that details matter. At least in the case of the US, the details are emerging and in the process, the spin doctors are working overtime to shape the conversation. While this may seem like a leap for the […]

If there’s one thing Canadian investors heard a lot about this week, it’s that interest rates are coming. Also, winter is coming. While the latter is something Game of Thrones fans will be clamouring over,  ironically it’s the former that will get Canadian discount brokerages pretty stoked. After years of being forced to operate with […]

Oh boy, where to even begin? With the warm weather upon us it seems like real estate sales in Toronto are melting like ice cream left in the sun for too long, and the world’s attention is turned squarely on the meetings between world leaders for the G20. Of course, there are so many headlines […]

Not everyone would look forward to turning 150 the way Canada does. That’s simply because us Canadians love to do things our way – including the Canadian discount brokerages and DIY investors. Of course, defining what ‘Canadian’ looks (and trades) like is quickly changing and gladly it looks like most Canadian online brokers are keeping […]

With summer officially arriving this week, it also brought with it the longest day of the year. Of course, that is literally what happened on summer solstice, but for some traders (Sears, Home Capital?) and even several online brokerages facing outages, there were also some pretty long days that didn’t feel quite so sunny. This […]

Amazon buying whole foods, meanwhile Sears Canada expressed concerns it would be able to carry on. The law of the jungle is simple: eat or be eaten. This week, Amazon decided to do some eating while Sears Canada let the market know that they’re officially a wounded gazelle. In the highly competitive world that is […]

In a slight pause from presidential shenanigans, we kick off this weekend alongside the Canadian Grand Prix rolling into Montreal to celebrate its 50th anniversary. In many ways, the world of elite car racing mirrors the online brokerage space, both here in Canada and especially in the US. Both are subject to constant improvements and […]

There seems to be no way around it, what happens on social media has now become ‘the news’ cycle the world over. Curiously, the news cycle this week focused on deciphering covfefe as well as the art of the deal – or rather the art of pulling out of the deal. For Canada’s discount brokerages, […]

‘Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble’ seems to capture the sentiment of any market when buyers get far too ahead of themselves. Whether it’s real estate, the latest feverish run up in cryptocurrency ethereum, or tulip bulbs, wherever bubbles appear, Shakespearean style trouble isn’t too far behind. In this edition of the roundup, we look at […]

Drama. It’s what draws viewers into reality TV and it’s what reality TV producers and those in the entertainment world know how to harness – the innate human tendency towards uncertainty. Funnily enough, financial markets aren’t that different either, with human reactions (and aversions) towards uncertainty playing out almost daily. Interestingly, Canadian discount brokerages are […]

While savvy investors and traders enjoy the ‘boring’ trades, in these markets, the truth is that nothing is quite so boring. For now, stock markets are moving on earnings – which is a good sign – however there appears to be a little extra uncertainty thrown into the mix, which for better or worse, makes […]

Not sure if May got the memo, but it was April that was supposed to get the showers. For many traders, however, this is the month when many of them will be looking to exit the market according to the saying: ‘Sell in May and go away’. While things don’t always go to plan, Canada’s […]

This week, NAFTA was causing all kinds of nausea for media, government and economists who were trying to figure out exactly what was happening with this long standing free-trade deal. While not a multinational economic agreement, Canadian discount brokerages are looking to their own free-trade deals as a way to generate interest and enthusiasm across […]

There’s been lots of sabre rattling in the news recently. While the world is facing specter of war, online brokerages in the US are already in the throes of their own price war. For Canada’s discount brokerages, the storm clouds are still off in the distance but as their counterparts in the US have shown, […]

With markets closed today in observance of Good Friday, investors on both sides of the border can spend their weekend recounting United Airlines memes, legalization of marijuana in Canada and the mother of all bombs. Say what you will about the news, but investors have a lot on their plates to digest – and that’s […]