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Ontario Securites Commision - Investor offices
Investor News
September 5, 2019
Back to School for Investors
 

It's back-to-school season for investors and a perfect time to take a pop quiz! Test your investing knowledge and see how well you understand important concepts like investment risk, diversification and fraud prevention.

As students return to the classroom this week, investors can also take this opportunity to revisit their investor education after a long summer break. Improve your money management skills or gain confidence in financial decision-making with the help of our many free tools and calculators like our Retirement Ready Quiz, Scam Spotter Tool and Financial Goals Worksheet.

 
Education Cost Calculator
 

New Education Cost Calculator

Saving for post-secondary education? Do you know how much your college or university program could cost? Use our new Education Cost Calculator to find out the costs for attending a specific college or university program as well as typical food, residence and other living expenses. You can also compare up to three student loan options. Try our new calculator

 
Back-to-School Budgeting
 

Back-to-School Budgeting

Back-to-school season can stress a family's finances. The cost of new clothes, backpacks, laptops and other school supplies add up. Create a back-to-school budget to plan and track your child’s school-related expenses, or if you are attending post-secondary education for the first time, use our Student Budget worksheet. Learn more

 
Student Credit Cards
 

Student Credit Cards

If you’re a college or university student, you might notice credit card promotions around campus during the first few weeks of classes. You might be offered free T-shirts, gym bags and other swag to sign-up. A credit card can be a convenient financial tool but if used irresponsibly, credit card debt could limit your financial options for years after graduation.

Before signing up for a new credit card, make sure you understand the fine print. Does it have an annual fee? What is the interest rate? When is the balance due? Use our checklist when you’re looking for a credit card and read our how credit cards work article to understand the basics.

 
GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca
 

This year the OSC's Investor Office once again opened the Toronto Stock Exchange to mark back-to-school season for investors, to highlight the importance of financial education.

Our consumer website GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca is one of Canada’s most visited financial literacy websites and provides hundreds of free tools and resources for people to help them get smarter about money. It, along with other educational resources such as our digital question and answer website Re: Investing, had 5.4 million visits in fiscal 2018-2019, an increase of 17.1% over the year before.

 
Improving Fee Disclosure Through Behavioural Insights
 

In our last issue, we published our new research study, Improving fee disclosure through behavioural insights (OSC Staff Notice 11-787), which identifies behaviourally-informed tactics for designing more effective investment fee disclosures. The report focuses on the annual reports on charges and other compensation (annual fee reports) investors receive, and identifies 24 tactics for making these reports more engaging and easier to understand and act on for investors. Read the full study

 
MFDA's Mark Gordon
 

Mark Gordon is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA). The Investor Office sat down with Mark to catch up on the latest developments at the MFDA since our last interview in 2016. Catch up with Mark

 
Default Decisions
 

Default Decisions

How carefully do you explore alternatives before making a decision? Defaults have a powerful effect on behaviour because we are most likely to keep the pre-selected option. For example, many people stay with default ringtones or internet browser settings. When it comes to your investments and financial situation, even if the default option seems to be in your best interest, it’s a good idea to still review the alternatives before making a decision. Learn more

 
Pump and Dump Scheme
 

Pump and Dump

In a typical pump and dump scheme, an investor is approached and offered an incredible deal on a stock described as a once-in-a-lifetime investment. There is an artificial market that drives the price of the stock up, only to have the value of the stock fall dramatically soon after. You could lose all your money. Find out how you can protect your money

 
OBSI JRC Annual Report
 

OBSI JRC Annual Report

The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) is a free, independent service for resolving investment disputes between participating firms and their clients if they can't solve them on their own.

The Joint Regulators Committee (JRC), the committee of securities regulators that provides oversight of OBSI, recently published its 2018 annual report.

 
 

WARNINGS/ALERTS

 

Always know the 10 most recent OSC investor warnings and alerts by bookmarking this Fact Card or embedding it on your website or blog.

 

Maxi Platinum Ltd., Strategy One Ltd

Strategy One Ltd. and Maxi Platinum Ltd., doing business as www[dot]superbinary[dot]com (together “Superbinary”) appears to operate an online binary options trading platform. Advertising, offering, selling or otherwise trading binary options by any entity, is prohibited in Ontario as specified in CSA Multilateral Instrument 91-102, Prohibition of Binary Options which was implemented on September 28, 2017. Learn more

 

XCoin Broker

XCoin Broker, also doing business as www[dot]xcoinbroker[dot]com is not registered in Ontario to engage in the business of trading in securities. Learn more

 

HB Global

The OSC is warning investors that HB Global (HBG) is not registered to deal or advise in securities in Ontario. Learn more

 

IOSCO Investor Alerts

Stay informed about the latest international investor warnings and alerts by visiting the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Investor Alerts Portal.

 

KEY DATES

 

OSC in the Community

OSC staff are taking the Commission's regulatory mandate from Bay Street to Main Street with seminars on preventing fraud and making informed investment decisions.

  • September 9, 2019 - Mississauga
  • September 17, 2019 - Holland Landing
  • September 18, 2019 - Brampton
  • September 19, 2019 - Toronto (Scarborough)
  • September 24, 2019 - Toronto (Scarborough)
  • September 25, 2019 - Collingwood
  • September 26, 2019 - Mississauga

Learn more

 
oscar - owl

Here are 7 things to know about Registered Education Savings Plan (RESPs).

 
 
Investor News icon

Visit InvestorOffice.ca to find past issues of Investor News.

 
 
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