Whether you are a new investor or more seasoned in your approach, it can help to have a community or group of investors to bounce ideas off of.
If you have heard headlines about GameStop, you may know that the WallStreetBets online community significantly contributed to the stock’s exponential share price increases. One trader managed to turn $53,566 into over $11 million.
Although the GameStop story was extremely risky and highly speculative, online investment communities and groups can help to expand your portfolio knowledge.
I will cover the best investment groups and clubs in Canada below and expand on each in more detail.
Best Investment Groups and Clubs in Canada
I will focus more on online communities for the purposes of this article, as they are much more accessible to regular investors than groups or clubs in general.
1. Personal Finance for Canadians
Personal Finance for Canadians is a group on Reddit where Canadians can discuss anything related to Canadian personal finance. Topics that are usually covered include taxation, goal planning, budgeting, baking, insurance, credit cards, savings, and many more.
It is less of a community revolving around individual stock picks or investment ideas and more focused on “big picture” thinking.
This community currently has over 1,000,000 followers.
2. Canadian Dividend Investing Group
Canadian Dividend Investing is a group on Facebook where members share dividend strategies and approaches. Dividend investing involves focusing on companies that offer investors a good yield through dividends.
Returns from dividends are typically more stable than those from capital gains (or an appreciation in a stock’s price). Dividend returns also typically make up a large portion of a dividend stock’s total return.
This Facebook group currently has more than 10,300 members.
3. Blossom
Blossom is a mobile application designed to be social media for investors. Having been launched in early 2022, users can share trades, investment strategies, as well as other approaches to investing and planning.
The app currently has over 6,000 Canadian investors that are active on the platform. Among these are several popular bloggers and YouTubers.
If you are looking for a mobile-friendly investment community, I strongly recommend checking out Blossom.
4. Canadian DIY Stock Investing
Canadian DIY Stock Investing is another Facebook group to consider joining, especially if you are looking to learn more about different equities to add to your portfolio.
The group was initially started by its administrators after they had become fed-up with financial advisors that were consistently losing them money. Members can interact similarly to any other Facebook group, including:
- Commenting
- Asking questions
- Posting about stock ideas
The Facebook group currently has over 23,500 members and is constantly growing.
5. Wealthsimple Trading Community
Revolving around Wealthsimple as a platform (in particular, Wealthsimple Trade), the Wealthsimple Trading Community is another Facebook group for investors that are looking to improve their skills.
The group discusses investment strategies mainly revolving around exchange-traded funds and stocks (the main focus of the platform). While it is assumed that you do your trading or investing through Wealthsimple, it is not a hard requirement for joining the group.
As an early pioneer in the commission-free Canadian brokerage space, Wealthsimple Trade remains a top choice for investors that are looking to save on trading commissions. Sign-up for Wealthsimple Trade and earn a free $25.
The Facebook group currently has roughly 32,400 members.
6. Canadian Real Estate Investors Association
The Canadian Real Estate Investors Association is another Facebook group to consider joining if you are looking to expand your knowledge involving real estate. The group is similar to other real estate-focused groups around the world (i.e. the American Real Estate Investors Association).
With a focus on everything involving real estate, it can be an excellent group to join to have multiple opinions on the popular asset class.
Learning more about real estate can complement existing learning that is focused on asset classes such as stocks, bonds, and funds.
The Facebook group currently has over 10,800 members.
7. Canadian Investment Club
The Canadian Investment Club is yet another Facebook group; this time focused mainly on Canadian and US stocks. It takes a much more informal approach to sharing information than other groups on my list.
Members can sometimes post useful information, but you are just as likely to find jokes and memes as part of the group’s content. If you are looking for a more serious, structured, and focused group, the Canadian Investment Club may not be the right fit for you.
The group currently has over 12,000 members on Facebook.
8. Trading and Investing – Canada
A final Facebook group to consider joining is Trading and Investing – Canada. The group shares content designed for both newer and more seasoned investors. Content on the group is frequently shared on a wide range of investment asset classes, including crypto, foreign exchange, and stocks.
The group promotes a robo-advisory service EngineeringRobo. A robo-advisor is designed to replace traditional human advisors for a fraction of the cost and offer services such as investment management and financial planning.
As a much smaller group, it currently has just over 2,300 members.
Frequently Asked Questions
Top Wealth Management Firms in Canada?
If you are looking to partner with a wealth management firm, you will likely want to work with the best-in-class. Wealth management firms typically refer to full-service brokerages or investment advisory teams that can work with a wide range of investment asset classes.
Although firms can be rated on several metrics, I don’t recommend working with a human advisory team because of the high costs that are involved.
If you are looking to work with the largest brokerage by assets under management, this is currently RBC Dominion Securities.
Conclusion
Sharing or discussing ideas in a community or group setting can be very beneficial when it comes to learning about investing and how the market functions.
If you are able to join several groups that cover different investment areas (i.e. stocks and real estate), you may have access to well-rounded opinions on the overall market in Canada.
If you are a beginner investor, I strongly recommend reading my comprehensive guide on how to start investing in Canada. It can help you to avoid rookie mistakes early on.
