While the school year is well underway, Canadians may want to consider going back to the classroom to brush up on the basics of investing. According to a recent TD survey, 41 per cent of Canadians don’t know where to start when it comes to investing. An even larger majority (58 per cent) admit they don’t know the difference between a mutual fund and an exchange-traded fund (ETF), and 38 per cent are unclear about the difference between a stock and a bond.

While those are not very encouraging statistics, fortunately, October is Investor Education Month; an ideal time for Canadians to focus on upgrading their investing knowledge and skills.

“Canadians are ambitious about their financial futures – that’s evident in the conversations we have with our clients every day,” says Paul Clark, President, Direct Investing and EVP, TD Bank Group. “But there is a disconnect between the number of investing tools currently available and investor knowledge and confidence.”

In fact, Canadians rank themselves poorly in several key areas of investing:

• 55 per cent don’t know how to make an investment trade online
• 25 per cent don’t believe that investing small amounts of money can bring any benefits – and only 30 per cent know you can start investing with less than $100
• Nearly 40 per cent (39 per cent) don’t know where to find free educational resources to help them with investing

When asked to rank their investing confidence level, only six per cent of Canadians identified themselves as “rock star investors.” To help address this large gap, TD Direct Investing recently launched Learning Centre, a centralized learning hub filled with educational content, available via the WebBroker platform. Learning Centre features an array of on-demand videos, daily live and archived Master Class workshops, webinars and reports.

“We wanted to create a one-stop, easy-to-navigate online resource to help clients expand their investing knowledge, whether they’re just getting started or a seasoned pro,” says Clark. “Combined with the recent launch of GoalAssist, Learning Centre is another example of how we’re increasing our focus on education to help empower clients to become confident investors.”

Canadians who fall short of making the grade when it comes to DIY investing can find homework help from the TD Direct Investing Learning Centre at any time of day and can also participate in a number of educational events offered by TD Direct Investing throughout Investor Education Month.

About the TD Direct Investing Investor Education Survey 
TD Bank Group commissioned Leger to conduct an online survey of 1,500 Canadians, using Leger’s online panel. Responses were collected between March 20, 2019 and March 27, 2019. The margin of error for this survey was +/-2.5%, 19 times out of 20.