Adriano has been investing on his own since 2011 and tried many different investing techniques, eventually focusing exclusively on “Income Oriented” Investing starting in 2018. A major investment in 2019 (Home Sale) led to Financial Independence (FIRE) at 34 years old. In March 2020, Adriano and his wife Erica created the YouTube Channel Passive Income Investing which has over 40k subscribers. This channel showcases their “Income Oriented” approach which is designed to generate high passive income by investing in ETFs and Funds that hold quality companies and use income enhancing strategies such as covered call ETFs.

Paul Riccardella is an Executive Director and Head of Wealth Indexed Investments Coverage at MSCI Inc., a publicly traded company (NYSE: MSCI) and a leading global provider of investment decision support tools including indexes, ESG/Climate, real estate and portfolio analytics. In his capacity at MSCI, Paul leads a team that works with professional investors in North America that use index tracking instruments like ETFs and Direct Index SMAs to build client portfolios. Prior to joining MSCI in 2011, Paul worked at Putnam Investments for seven years, a Boston based asset manager, where he specialized in working with due diligence and research teams at the largest wealth management firms. Paul holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BA from Boston College along with memberships to the CFA Society and CAIA Association of Boston.

Brandon Beavis was one of the youngest people in Canada to become licensed as an Investment Advisor, at the age of 20. After a few years working at his father’s investment firm, he decided to take his knowledge directly to the DIY investor by using YouTube as a platform to share his investment knowledge and expertise. He has grown his channel Brandon Beavis Investing to one of the largest Canadian-focused personal finance and investing channels with over 180k subscribers in addition to educational resources on The Investing Academy, which has empowered over 1,500+ Canadians to educate themselves on personal finance via video courses, live session, Q&As, and community chatrooms.

As the founder and leader of Sparx, Hamish has always been drawn to big ideas and impactful projects. He has a knack for puns: he once convinced a potato to fall in love with an onion – the secret was to teach them how to be mutually a-peeling.

At SparxTrading.com, we believe DIY investors deserve access to quality, objective information about online brokerage industry that services them. By constantly researching, monitoring and compiling data into an easy to access format, SparxTrading.com has become Canada’s leading and most comprehensive website for DIY investors to compare discount brokerages as well as to get the latest information on deals & promotions offered by Canadian online brokers.

Richard Ho is the head of retail, equity derivatives, CRM, at TMX Montréal Exchange and has been in the financial industry for over 18 years. Prior to joining TMX in 2006, he worked at an online brokerage firm executing trades for active and high net worth clients. In his current role, Richard leads various education initiatives and partnerships with brokerage firms. His aim is to help retail investors adapt to the use of options with a focus on developing and strategizing option portfolios for directional trading with predefined risk parameters. He also runs seminars to show investors how to use option strategies to generate consistent income and to hedge their portfolios during times of high volatility. Richard is a derivative market specialist (DMS) by designation and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) charterholder. Striving to help investors elevate their knowledge about options, Richard is a proud member of the Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI®) and shows leadership through various speaking and academic contributions.

Chris has more than 20 years of experience in the investment industry and currently serves as portfolio manager for equity-based and derivative-based mandates. This includes Canadian, US, international and emerging market equities, North American and European derivatives. He also co-manages various cross-asset portfolios, which include Canadian and US fixed income and global equities. In addition, Chris trades foreign exchange contracts and equity options for mandates across the firm. In his previous role, he was responsible for mutual fund manager selection and oversight, as well as management of the currency hedging program across the mutual fund platform. Chris holds an Honors Business Administration degree from York University’s Schulich School of Business and is a CFA charterholder.