One of Canada’s first online trading platforms is rolling out new tools to attract the booming hordes of Canadian daytraders (or at least people who lurk in r/WallStreetBets).
What happened: Questrade announced a suite of enhanced offerings, including a new platform called Questrade Pro, aimed directly at the most sophisticated of retail investors.
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New tools include custom indexing, which allows investors to use fractional shares to replicate ETFs or indexes; and cash-secured puts, an option that can result in investors buying a desired stock at a lower price.
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The move comes in the wake of Wealthsimple, one of Questrade’s chief rivals, unveiling a bevy of new products last month also aimed at high-level retail traders.
Why it matters: From big banks to upstart brokerages, financial institutions are in an arms race to provide the most attractive trading services to a mass of retail investors that’s grown exponentially in recent years.
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Between June 2024 and June 2025, more than 2.9 million Canadians opened trading accounts, per Investor Economics. That’s a whole lot of Canucks getting their Gordon Gecko on.
Zoom out: Earlier this month, regulators officially granted Questrade a banking license. The company will roll out banking services next year under the name Questbank, and will surely look to increase the $85 billion worth of assets it currently has under administration.—QH