Category: Topic

News: QTrade launches free money promo

RobH3 Comments

What seems to be normal nowadays is to have online brokers write cheques to investors in an attempt to attract new money. I wrote about Wealthsimple’s latest offer yesterday, and now I see that QTrade is the latest broker to try to entice investors to move their money. I’ve been a QTrade client for many years (you can read my take on them here), but this year moved most of my holdings to Questrade1 (my take here).

Anyway, the maximum possible free money you can earn is $2000 with this latest QTrade promotion. All the details are captured here, and the fine print is found here.

I’ll save you the trouble, the details as I see them:

  • To be eligible, you can be a new or existing client, but you have to open a new account23 with QTrade before November 30, 2025 using the promo code QTRADE20254
  • Fund your account5 before the end of the year to be eligible for your free money
    • 5% matching on the first $15k (total possible: $750)
    • 1% matching on the next $125k (total possible: $1250)
    • No matching after that (i.e. the total reward is capped at $2000)
  • Keep your money there until December 31, 2026 and get paid in a lump sum in February 20276.
  • If you’re also a new client, you get free trades7 until the end of the year

Comparing Wealthsimple’s latest offer to QTrade’s offer might be fun. In the table below, I’m ignoring the margin account bonus offered by Wealthsimple and the impact of free trades offered by QTrade8.

If you move…Wealthsimple BonusQTrade BonusWinner
$15k$09$75010QTrade
$25k$250$850QTrade
$50k$500$1200QTrade
$100k$1000$1600QTrade
$150k$1500$200011QTrade
$200k$2000$2000Wealthsimple12
>$200k1% of amount, up to $20k$2000Wealthsimple

QTrade’s offer is the clear winner for amounts up to $200k, but Wealthsimple wins if you’ve got more loose change. One big difference is how fast you get your hands on the bonus money. Wealthsimple starts paying out 1/12 of your bonus 60 days after the money lands, whereas QTrade makes you wait a whole year (and then some) before giving you the money.

As a certified cheapskate, I’m always happy to take advantage of free money, and more and more providers13 seem to be taking this route in an effort to attract new customers. It’s a good time to be a DIY investor!

  1. To take advantage of THEIR free money offer, naturally ↩︎
  2. My interpretation of the Ts and Cs is that opening multiple accounts will NOT increase your ability to collect free money. The limit is $2000 per client, across all new accounts opened by that client ↩︎
  3. There’s no restrictions that I see on the type of account. QTrade provides all of the ones you might care about: TFSAs, RRSPs, RRIFs, RESPs, non-registered. They also support USD accounts. ↩︎
  4. Speaking as a current QTrade client, opening a new account takes only a minute or two. I would expect it take a little longer for a new client, but this step needn’t dissuade you. ↩︎
  5. Has to be “net new” money, so my thought of shifting from one account to another isn’t eligible. Darn. ↩︎
  6. Paying out bonuses month by month seems to be a more common way of doing this, but to each his own I guess. ↩︎
  7. Most of the ETFs I care about are included in QTrade’s “Free to Trade” list ↩︎
  8. And the time value of money. ↩︎
  9. Wealthsimple requires minimum $25k before paying out ↩︎
  10. 5% for the first 15k, 1% after that ↩︎
  11. QTrade’s bonus cap is $2k which kicks in at $140k ↩︎
  12. Because Wealthsimple pays out faster than QTrade does ↩︎
  13. WeBull and moomoo (not making those names up, promise), two new providers on the scene, also have promotions. ↩︎

News: Wealthsimple Summer Promo

RobH5 Comments

UPDATE September 18th: Wealthsimple extended the registration window; it’s now October 15th. Still time to get free money if interested.

Summary: Wealthsimple announced a new promotion in an effort to drum up more business today. Ignoring the margin component, you could stand to make 1% cash back on new deposits, up to $2M. That’s up to $20k in free money.

The promotion is featured here, and the fine print is all here.

You may get the impression that the promotion is only targeting investors who trade on margin1, something I don’t do myself2. But no — they are paying 1% match for all money moved, margin or not. I think it’s worth taking a closer look if your current broker isn’t giving you free money to earn their business3. 1% cash back is a nice incentive, right?

The details of the promotion as I see it (you’re welcome):

  • You must first register your intent to participate no later than September 5th October 15th.
  • Once registered for the promotion, you have 30 days to initiate a fund transfer, and you have 90 days to complete it.
  • You have to move at least $25k4, and 1% bonuses will be paid out to a maximum of $2M in assets moved
  • Bonuses are paid out in 12 equal monthly instalments
  • Removing more than 10% of what you transfer in within the year will cause your bonus to be reduced accordingly

As I still have a few RRIF accounts with QTrade (reasons why here), I thought, perhaps, I could score a bit MORE free cash. Unfortunately, Wealthsimple doesn’t support self-directed spousal RRIFs (and my call to support confirmed this) so I guess I’ll have to wait this one out. As it turns out, this is indeed possible, but spousal RRIFs cannot be opened as brand new accounts; they have to be converted from an already-existing spousal RRSP account. This means that you need special agent support to pull this off without issue. As I like free money, I’ll be giving this a try.

Anyway, if you’re new to the world of Wealthsimple, want to earn $25, and want to use my referral code, it’s here.

  1. The promotion pays 2% match for margin accounts if there is active margin. They want to make money off of people who borrow money to invest which makes sense of course. ↩︎
  2. My wife does, though, thanks to a spousal loan. I really should write a bit about that. It’s a nice way to get a bit of income-splitting in certain instances. ↩︎
  3. My broker (Questrade) pays me a bonus every month as a thanks for moving my business there. ↩︎
  4. $25k is the minimum amount that has to be moved before Wealthsimple will cover transfer-out fees as well ↩︎

HISA Table for August 2025

RobH1 Comment

HISAs, for those in the know, are “High Interest Savings Accounts” and offer a nearly zero risk way to earn some interest on your cash holdings. Read all about them here. “Class F” funds are usually available via your online broker, often bought and sold in the same module as mutual funds, although they are NOT mutual funds.

Both central banks in the Canada and the USA declined to decline their interest rates at their last meetings, so there’s no significant changes to report in the table from last month.

If your broker doesn’t give you access to HISAs (or you have to pay large transaction fees to acquire them1), then there’s also ETFs that fit the bill, and some of them are now in this table, too.

ProviderFundLinkRate SheetRate
RBCRBF2011, RBF2021, RBF2031, RBF2041RBCLink2.55%
ScotiabankDYN6004, DYN5004, DYN3065, DYN3055, DYN3075ScotiabankLink2.70%
Equitable BankEQB1001, ETR1001Equitable Bankn/a2.55%
TDTDB8151, TDB8156, TDB8158, TDB8160TDn/a2.55%
RenaissanceATL5071Renaissancen/a2.55%
Home TrustHOM101,
HOM201		Home TrustLink2.65%
B2BBTB101B2B Bankn/a2.75%
ManulifeMIP610, MIP810Manulifen/a2.40%
National BankNBC200, NBC6200, NBC8200NBI Altamira CashPerformern/a2.55%
Global XCASHCASH Fact Sheetn/a2.55%2
EvolveHISAHISA Fact Sheetn/a2.79%3
BMOZMMKZMMK Fact Sheetn/a2.76%4
Canadian HISA rates, last updated August 5, 2025

Since I hold a substantial amount of USD-denominated ETFs, I also track US interest rates.

ProviderFundLinkRate SheetRate
RBCRBF2015RBCLink4.15%
ScotiabankDYN6005,
DYN5005		ScotiabankLink4.15%
Equitable BankEQB1101,
ETR1101		Equitable Bankn/a3.80%
TDTDB8153TDn/a4.15%
RenaissanceATL5075Renaissancen/a4.15%
ManulifeMIP611Manulifen/a3.30%
National BankNBC201NBI Altamira CashPerformern/a4.15%
Global XUCSHUCSH Fact Sheetn/a4.12%5
EvolveHISUHISU Fact Sheetn/a4.56%6
iSharesICSHICSH Fact Sheetn/a4.87%7
USA HISA rates, last updated August 5, 2025

UCSH and HISU invest in HISAs exclusively; I instead use ICSH which is a rough equivalent of ZMMK in terms of portfolio makeup. Like ZMMK, I enjoy a slight premium in yield as a reward for taking a bit more risk.

  1. I’m looking at you, Questrade. ↩︎
  2. Per July 31, 2025 dividend ↩︎
  3. Per July 29 dividend. Given what HISA holds (mostly National Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia HISAs), it’s puzzling how they managed to increase their per share dividend by 1.5 cents from last month, but that’s where it’s at. I wouldn’t expect that rate to continue. The website shows 2.58% yield (net). ↩︎
  4. I combined the two dividend payouts issued in July to come up with this number. Not sure why there were two; it’s certainly not the norm. ↩︎
  5. Per July 31, 2025 dividend ↩︎
  6. Per July 29 dividend. Same comment as for the Canadian side. This rate doesn’t make sense. Website shows 4.22%. ↩︎
  7. Per August 1, 2025 dividend. 30 day SEC yield shows 4.52% ↩︎

XEQT Shifts again

RobHLeave a comment

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but XEQT, one of my ETF all stars, recently made some changes under the hood1. Specifically, in their words:

XEQT primarily accesses its broad market U.S. equity exposure using …ITOT, a U.S.-domiciled ETF. In certain circumstances, U.S.-domiciled ETFs … are subject to limits on the sale of their shares to non-U.S. domiciled investment funds such as XEQT. Prior to July 2025, iShares Core S&P 500 Index ETF (XUS) had been held as an additional instrument… Effective July 2, 2025, XEQT has replaced XUS with iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market Index ETF (XTOT). Going forward, XEQT is expected to hold a mix of XTOT and ITOT.

https://www.blackrock.com/ca/investors/en/literature/product-brief/core-etf-portfolios-product-brief.pdf

So, in other words:

  • XEQT isn’t allowed2 to hold “just” ITOT (a broad US market ETF) to cover the US market3
  • XEQT used XUS (the 500 largest US stocks) to get around this restriction until very lately
  • XEQT now uses XTOT which is 99% the same as ITOT to get around this restriction
  • TL/DR: XEQT is now pretty much what it was at the very beginning of 2025

What this means is that lately4, XEQT has reduced its exposure somewhat to the very largest US stocks. I did a little analysis to convince myself, summarized below:

Stock5% delta change XEQT6% delta change ITOT7delta XEQT/ITOT8
Apple-1.7%1.2%-2.9%
Microsoft-2.9%0.2%-3.0%
NVIDIA3.5%6.5%-3.1%
Amazon-1.3%2.3%-3.6%
META-9.2%-6%-3.2%
Berkshire Hathaway-6%-3.4%-2.6%
Alphabet A2.6%6.4%-3.8%
Broadcom-1.0%2.3%-3.3%
Tesla-6%-4%-1.9%
Alphabet C1.6%6.5%-4.9%

The change in the contribution of the largest 10 US stocks has been consistently reduced in XEQT in the past month — that’s what the last column shows. This is what one would expect by removing the “double investing” that was going on previously when XEQT was holding both ITOT and XUS.

To me, that’s all round a good thing, since it provides greater diversification when holding XEQT. I’ve updated the What’s the deal with XEQT? post accordingly!

  1. Thanks to r/JustBuyXEQTfor pointing this out ↩︎
  2. And I don’t know why this is ↩︎
  3. XGRO, my normal go-to in this all-in-family, has not changed at all and continues to hold ITOT and never bothered adding XUS. I guess since the US portion of XGRO is smaller than that of XEQT, it can skirt this restriction. ↩︎
  4. Since July 2 to be precise ↩︎
  5. These are the top 10 US holdings of XEQT, and the top 10 for ITOT. ↩︎
  6. This is % change in the % contribution of each of these stocks between June 30 2025 and July 25, 2025 as reported by the XEQT “underlying aggregate holdings” data on its product sheet. The XEQT change is driven by both the differential in the monthly returns, AND a reduction in the weight of each of the underlying stocks. ↩︎
  7. This is the % change in the % contribution of each of these stocks between June 30 2025 and July 25, 2025 as reported by the ITOT “underlying aggregate holdings” data on its product sheet. The ITOT change is driven purely by differential monthly returns of the stocks. ↩︎
  8. Simply subtract the two previous columns ↩︎

Reddit groups worth watching

RobH1 Comment

I try to stay informed about the options out there for the DIY investor. Reddit has a lot of decent groups that help me stay in the know. Here’s a few I follow. And sometimes contribute to1.

r/Questrade

The Questrade subreddit is a good place to hear about changes on the platform. Questrade is currently my provider of choice since they are currently paying me to use their platform. Questrade employees do pay attention to this sub and will sometimes personally reach out to help (I’ve had this happen to me).

r/Wealthsimple

I have a growing relationship with Wealthsimple. I have one RRIF account with them (history of why is found here), their Cash card is a wonderful tool to save money when traveling and their chequing accounts actually pay reasonable interest rates. Lots to like. Their platform is ever evolving and the folks on the Wealthsimple sub help me to keep an eye on what’s coming up. I’m a fan of this product, and would consider using them as my primary financial services provider, once they have all the pieces I need in place. (Current shortfalls: USD support is weak, no spousal RRIF accounts last time I checked).

r/Bogleheads

No, not that kind. “Bogleheads” are folks that are disciples of Jack Bogle, credited for creating the first ever passive index fund. Bogleheads, like me, are passive index investors. The posts on the Boglehead subreddit are comprised of primarily US investors, but the concepts they talk about are applicable to the Canadian investor. My own investment philosophy is, as it turns out, strongly aligned with that of the Boglehead crew.

r/JustBuyXEQT

This sub’s biases are pretty plain to see. It’s populated by uber-fans of the all-equity all-in-one that I hold in my own portfolio,2 although not exclusively. (I prefer XGRO as it provides a bit of downside protection, but my thinking may be flawed on that front). XEQT is on my all-stars list. Posts are generally from younger investors who are looking for an easy way to invest and forget. Given my recent analysis, I’ll probably start buying into TEQT to save a few dollars on the MER front.

r/CanadianInvestor

This sub is more generally about investing in the Canadian market, and in some ways serves as a counter to the other subs that are more closely aligned with my couch potato style of investing. Unlike the other subs, I lack sufficient karma3 to contribute…I’m very close though.

r/cantax

This sub is all about the Canadian tax system. I sometimes pick up good tips this way.

Are there Reddit groups you think this community should know about? Let me know at comments@moneyengineer.ca!

  1. as u/RobHemm ↩︎
  2. About 6% as of July 2025 ↩︎
  3. You need a score of 50. I’m at 45. ↩︎