On September 7, the Investor Office at the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) released results of its research assessing financial knowledge of Canadian retail investors. The level of knowledge was evaluated according to five critical areas relating to:

1. OECD core questions

2. Investing principles and concepts

3. Investment costs (fee characteristics)

4. Key features of registered accounts

5. Investor portfolio protection (rights and responsibilities)

The report revealed that on average, fifty-three percent of the questions were answered correctly. Broken down into the different question categories, topics related to investment costs had the lowest level of correct answers compared to the others at thirty-six percent.

These rates were lower than how respondents perceived their overall knowledge level. Thirty percent considered themselves as having “high” or “very high” knowledge, while fifty-six percent ranked themselves as average.

The report helps understand the investing knowledge of Canadians, including gaps and areas of improvement.