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Questrade Just Went "Agentic" — What It Means For Your Trading Account

Published July 30, 2026 If you have money sitting in a Questrade account, the platform you log into is about to change more than it has in years. On July 30, Questrade unveiled its biggest product push since it eliminated stock trading commissions in 2019 — and this time, the headline feature isn't a lower fee. It's letting an AI assistant place trades for you. Questrade now manages roughly $100 billion in client assets, up from about $9 billion in 2019, and it's using that scale to go after Canada's increasingly crowded self-directed investing market. Here's what actually launched, and what it means before you touch any of it. What's actually new AI assistants can now trade on your behalf. Questrade is the first Canadian financial institution to officially connect client accounts directly to AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT through something it calls Questrade MCP. In practice, that means you can ask an AI to pull up your account information, research a s...

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Canada’s economy shrinks in Q3 amid export and consumer woes

 


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Canada’s economy shrinks in Q3 amid export and spending woes

Canada’s economy contracted by 1.1 per cent on an annualized basis in the third quarter of 2023, according to Statistics Canada. This was a much weaker result than expected by analysts and the Bank of Canada, which had forecast a slight growth of 0.1 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.

The main factors behind the economic decline were a drop in exports, a slump in business investment, and a stagnation in consumer spending. Exports fell by 5.1 per cent, reflecting lower shipments of energy products, motor vehicles, and aircraft. Business investment decreased by 10.1 per cent, as firms reduced their spending on machinery and equipment, intellectual property, and non-residential structures. Consumer spending was flat, as households saved more of their income amid rising interest rates.

The only bright spots in the third quarter were government spending, which increased by 7.3 per cent, boosted by a one-time GST/HST credit payment, and residential housing investment, which rose by 8.3 per cent, driven by a surge in new construction.

The Canadian economy also performed poorly compared with the U.S. economy, which grew by 5.2 per cent in the same period. Canada has been more sensitive to the impact of higher interest rates, which have been raised by the Bank of Canada to 5 per cent from 0.25 per cent since early 2022. The central bank has recently signalled that it may pause or reverse its tightening cycle, as inflation has eased and economic growth has faltered.

Some economists believe that the third quarter contraction was a temporary setback and that the economy will rebound in the fourth quarter and beyond. Statistics Canada estimated that GDP grew by 0.2 per cent in October, indicating a modest recovery. However, others warn that the economy may face more headwinds in the new year, such as the ongoing supply chain disruptions, the spread of the new COVID-19 variant, and the uncertainty over the federal fiscal policy.

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