Im thinking of starting a weekly (or biweekly) round-up of what are, in my estimation, the better investing ideas coming out of the Canadian financial blogosphere. Heres the first installment. If anybody feels I missed a good post somewhere, let me know.
The Todays Economy Bloghas a nifty interview with J. Anthony Boeckh (a veteran deep thinker on financial markets) who says Its not really a buy-and-hold sort of world, meaning investors should buy when the central banks are pumping up the economy and sell when they turning off the taps.
FP Trading Desksamples analysts comments on the tumble in the loonie, highlighting Scotia Capital currency strategist Camilla Suttons view that the loonie should regain parity with the U.S. dollar because the global [and Canadian] recovery is still moving forward, and loose monetary policy should continue to stimulate commodity prices.
Baskin Financial Blogsays its a great time to buy Shoppers Drug Mart stock: the Ontario Governments attack on drug rebates has flattened the price but there is still rising demand from aging Baby Boomers plus the closure of independent pharmacies (80% of revenues from prescriptions) should send customers to Shoppers (50% of revenues from non-prescriptions).
Triaging My Way To Financial Success Blogtalks about his strategy of leaving a few stink bids open on the order books and how it snagged some stocks real cheap during the big sell-off May 6 (another approach would be to sell puts on stocks and thus earn income while waiting).
The Wealthy Boomerreviews John Mauldins Outside the Box, which warns against investing in commodity ETFs for a number of reasons including aggressive stockpiling by the Chinese over the past 12-15 months ( pulls demand out of future periods)
Number Crunchersuggests overweighting European food and drug stocks because they have been dragged down during the euro crisis even though they are typically a defensive industry with little cyclicality.
Streetwise blognotes the banks begin reporting earnings next week and meeting expectations may not be enough to keep investors happy in this unsettled environment.
Humble Student of the Marketoffers another reason why Vancouver houses areamong the least affordable in the world, i.e. a huge underground economy, where “the size of marijuana crop is about the same as the forest-products industry in B.C.” (hence, a good detached house costs $2 million while a good job pays $60K to $70K)
Canadian Capitalisthas an account of his neat little hack for saving money on the conversion of Canadian dollars into U.S. dollars.
Canadian Couch Potatosanalysis of tracking errors in international index funds was quite insightful.
Tech Talk: Timing the Markethas a list of the positive events benefiting Canadian banks: 1) wider interest-rate spreads, 2) growth in mortgage loans, 3) higher commission revenues due to recovery in equity markets, 4) lower loan-loss provisions and 5) rising demand for commercial loans related to economic growth.
Juggling Dynamitenotes in a May 18 post the tendency of the Shanghai Composite Index to lead other equity indexes (canary in the global mine) and says the Chinese markets 25% breakdown since the November high indicates further trouble for global equities.
Moneygardenerlikes Canadian Pacific railway as the Chinese reach for Canadian resources.
Canadian Dream: Free at 45considers diversifying his investment portfolio by adding wagering on sports, something he enjoys following, knows well and finds more transparent than public companies
Bylo Selhipoints– in the “High cost of annuities” entry — to former Bank of Canada governor David Dodges view (via Gordon Pape) that individuals should purchase deferred annuities every year as they go along inside an RRSP — BUT that it would help if there was a system for buying them at the group rate instead of the individual rate (each $1,000 of lifetime annuity income costs a 65-year-old couple $12,000 or $13,000 at the wholesale level compared to $17,000 to $18,000 at the retail level).
Shocked Investordraws attention to Sears launch of a gold buyback program (i.e. the retailer will purchase gold and silver jewelry from customers) and wonders if it signals a top in gold prices (Financial Times also reports that dishoarding of gold is on the rise in India)
Think Dividendscomments on Sun Life Financial raising its dividend (now 4%), and the prospect of a takeover by Scotiabank (which owns 35% of the company)
Michael James on Moneyspots 6% yields on bank preferred shares.
Blogs & Comment
Weekly round-up
By Larry MacDonald
Im thinking of starting a weekly (or biweekly) round-up of what are, in my estimation, the better investing ideas coming out of the Canadian financial blogosphere. Heres the first installment. If anybody feels I missed a good post somewhere, let me know.
The Todays Economy Bloghas a nifty interview with J. Anthony Boeckh (a veteran deep thinker on financial markets) who says Its not really a buy-and-hold sort of world, meaning investors should buy when the central banks are pumping up the economy and sell when they turning off the taps.
FP Trading Desksamples analysts comments on the tumble in the loonie, highlighting Scotia Capital currency strategist Camilla Suttons view that the loonie should regain parity with the U.S. dollar because the global [and Canadian] recovery is still moving forward, and loose monetary policy should continue to stimulate commodity prices.
Baskin Financial Blogsays its a great time to buy Shoppers Drug Mart stock: the Ontario Governments attack on drug rebates has flattened the price but there is still rising demand from aging Baby Boomers plus the closure of independent pharmacies (80% of revenues from prescriptions) should send customers to Shoppers (50% of revenues from non-prescriptions).
Triaging My Way To Financial Success Blogtalks about his strategy of leaving a few stink bids open on the order books and how it snagged some stocks real cheap during the big sell-off May 6 (another approach would be to sell puts on stocks and thus earn income while waiting).
The Wealthy Boomerreviews John Mauldins Outside the Box, which warns against investing in commodity ETFs for a number of reasons including aggressive stockpiling by the Chinese over the past 12-15 months ( pulls demand out of future periods)
Number Crunchersuggests overweighting European food and drug stocks because they have been dragged down during the euro crisis even though they are typically a defensive industry with little cyclicality.
Streetwise blognotes the banks begin reporting earnings next week and meeting expectations may not be enough to keep investors happy in this unsettled environment.
Humble Student of the Marketoffers another reason why Vancouver houses areamong the least affordable in the world, i.e. a huge underground economy, where “the size of marijuana crop is about the same as the forest-products industry in B.C.” (hence, a good detached house costs $2 million while a good job pays $60K to $70K)
Canadian Capitalisthas an account of his neat little hack for saving money on the conversion of Canadian dollars into U.S. dollars.
Canadian Couch Potatosanalysis of tracking errors in international index funds was quite insightful.
Tech Talk: Timing the Markethas a list of the positive events benefiting Canadian banks: 1) wider interest-rate spreads, 2) growth in mortgage loans, 3) higher commission revenues due to recovery in equity markets, 4) lower loan-loss provisions and 5) rising demand for commercial loans related to economic growth.
Juggling Dynamitenotes in a May 18 post the tendency of the Shanghai Composite Index to lead other equity indexes (canary in the global mine) and says the Chinese markets 25% breakdown since the November high indicates further trouble for global equities.
Moneygardenerlikes Canadian Pacific railway as the Chinese reach for Canadian resources.
Canadian Dream: Free at 45considers diversifying his investment portfolio by adding wagering on sports, something he enjoys following, knows well and finds more transparent than public companies
Bylo Selhipoints– in the “High cost of annuities” entry — to former Bank of Canada governor David Dodges view (via Gordon Pape) that individuals should purchase deferred annuities every year as they go along inside an RRSP — BUT that it would help if there was a system for buying them at the group rate instead of the individual rate (each $1,000 of lifetime annuity income costs a 65-year-old couple $12,000 or $13,000 at the wholesale level compared to $17,000 to $18,000 at the retail level).
Shocked Investordraws attention to Sears launch of a gold buyback program (i.e. the retailer will purchase gold and silver jewelry from customers) and wonders if it signals a top in gold prices (Financial Times also reports that dishoarding of gold is on the rise in India)
Think Dividendscomments on Sun Life Financial raising its dividend (now 4%), and the prospect of a takeover by Scotiabank (which owns 35% of the company)
Michael James on Moneyspots 6% yields on bank preferred shares.