The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, May 31, edition that National Bank Direct Brokerage became the first Canadian on-line broker to eliminate commissions for trading stocks and ETFs. The Globe's Rob Carrick writes that NBDB was followed by Desjardins Online Brokerage. After that, silence. No other traditional on-line broker has felt the need to eliminate commissions to stay competitive. Mr. Carrick says that is all you need to know about the level of fee competition in the Canadian on-line investing market right now. In its latest brokerage customer satisfaction ranking, J.D. Power found that 23 per cent of investors surveyed said the fees they pay are higher than those of other companies. For all this awareness of fees among Canadian investors, they are not switching to zero-commission brokers in sufficient numbers to upset the pricing status quo. Beyond NBDB and Desjardins, free trades can only be found in trading apps such as Wealthsimple, MogoTrade and TD Easy Trade. In all, zero-commission trading is just a niche. This means that most investors pay as much as $9.99 to buy or sell a stock. J.D. Power's customer satisfaction rankings put Desjardins Online Brokerage on top, with NBDB not far behind.