Orion Digital launches AI investing platform in Canada

Orion Digital has launched its Intelligent Investing platform for investors in Canada.

The platform combines commission-free self-directed investing with AI-based research and a process designed to record the reasoning behind each investment decision. Members can document their thesis, position size, assumptions, expected holding period, probability assessment and the evidence that would change their view before or after committing capital.

Orion Digital is positioning the product around decision-making rather than trading activity. It argues that many retail investing services focus on executing transactions and tracking holdings, but offer limited ways for users to measure whether the original judgement behind a purchase was sound.

Under the model, users can compare portfolio performance with the S&P 500 and with other measures that fit a portfolio's stated purpose, such as income or lower volatility. The aim is to give investors a clearer view of both returns and the quality of the decisions that produced them.

The service is built on Orion Digital's existing Canadian wealth business, which administers about CAD $500 million in client assets across managed and self-directed investing. That business operates through IntelligentInvesting Securities and IntelligentInvesting Wealth Management.

Business model

Members pay a monthly subscription of CAD $20, and trades are commission-free. Orion Digital also earns revenue from a disclosed spread on currency conversion and a 0.10% management fee on managed portfolios.

The subscription structure is intended to reduce reliance on trading volumes as a source of income. Even so, some revenue still varies with member activity through currency conversion and managed account fees.

The subscription includes access to Fiscal.ai Max, an AI research and analysis product that would normally cost CAD $99 a month. Orion Digital described it as an independent financial analysis service limited to research rather than making investment choices for users.

The company said that distinction reflects its view that general-purpose AI can help with direction but may be less reliable on precise figures. As a result, it has framed the technology as a support tool within the investing process rather than an automated decision-maker.

Decision focus

Intelligent Investing asks users to build an investment case before buying an asset and to revisit that reasoning after results emerge. Orion Digital said that review process is intended to help investors develop what it called calibration, or a clearer sense of where their judgement is strong and where it is weak.

According to Orion Digital, the platform is also asset-neutral, meaning it does not direct users toward specific securities or asset classes. Instead, the service is organised around the conditions in which decisions are made, recorded and measured.

Greg Feller, President & CFO, outlined the company's priorities as the product moves from development to market launch.

"Commercial launch marks the transition from product development to commercialisation. Our focus now is straightforward: introduce Intelligent Investing to customers, learn quickly from how they use it, continuously improve the platform and allocate capital with discipline. We believe that approach gives us the best opportunity to build a large and enduring wealth business over time," Feller said.

The launch also reflects a broader argument from Orion Digital about the next phase of online investing. The company contends that after years in which brokers competed on easier access and lower trading costs, competition may increasingly turn to tools that help investors assess their own decisions.

David Feller, Founder & CEO, set out that view in a separate comment.

"The investing industry spent twenty years making investing easier. We believe the next decade will be about helping investors invest better. Most investors can tell you what they own. Far fewer can explain why they own it - or whether the reasoning behind the decision was sound. Professional investors have long relied on written theses, explicit assumptions and disciplined review. Intelligent Investing brings those disciplines directly into the investing experience for people who believe investing is a skill that can be developed over a lifetime," Feller said.

Orion Digital is listed on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Alongside its Canadian wealth operation, the group also owns Carta Worldwide, a European payments infrastructure business, and a consumer lending portfolio that generates operating cash flow.