beerbaron

Who was early on this one? Harry, were you still short? BeerBaron

The only way to get the annuanized returns is to use the xIRR function in excel. You need to have the cash flows included in the calculation. BeerBaron

I had a quick look (very quick look) and what I saw was: small profit margins, fairly stable revenue over the past 5 years, not much cash on the balance sheet, and declining operating cashflow. That sector is pretty competitive without much competitive advantage for any store (they mostly compete on price), and at a PE of 14, it doesn't seem particularly cheap. Am I missing something? Why this when there are such great bargains right now? Is there a hidden asset that I'm overlooking? It,s all about the moat, they compete on pricing but nobody could build mega warehouses anymore in their area. It's pretty close to a grocery type of business, there should be 2-3 players in the market with no new entrants since the land is already taken. It's still a little bit overpriced for me but it's on my watch list. Totally agree, US business are much better buys right now.

Ahh... Glacier Media is there a value investor in Canada that did not look at it? Good company in a misunderstood market. Thanks for you insight for the other 3 ideas uncommonprofit, especially IDG. Their sales is shrinking so fast it's quite scary. BeerBaron

For those canadian fellows, anybody looked at Rona? It's starting to look deecent for a canadian equity. BeerBaron

Viking, I've been finding for the last few years that all Canadian equities are overpriced: -No good operating companies trade below 10x earnings. Most US ones do even for companies in the same fields and international sales. -Stock market to GDP is much higher in Canada then USA. -Financials in Canada have not been hit by any crisis... can you just imagine the impact if RB failed for some reason? When Lehman failed in the US and it killed the markets imagine an equivalent failure in a market 10 times smaller. I like your CN idea, but way too defensive compared with other defensive US stocks like WINN. I also been a very big fan of RCH, as it's one of the only operating company that I've seen in Canada with a consistent unlevered ROE in the 15%. It sucks to be Canadian these days. BeerBaron

Canadian dollar went down too much for me to invest in US right now. What's is everybody looking at in the canadian equities? It was a good day indeed, lots of my trigger prices happened. I feel like a kid in a candy store again. 20% Cash still. BeerBaron

Dam is their main business getting killed, it's been on my watchlist since Vito Maida disclosed he owns it. I bough books from Indigo and Amazon and Amazon is usually cheaper. Altough if the canadian dollar continues to drop it might change the trends... BeerBaron

Lol... if it were that easy! BeerBaron

How about investing on S&P puts yourself if you can't sit on too much cash? BeerBaron

I've been buying BRK since it hit 73$ a few months ago. When Charlie Mungers tells us that he never expected BRK to sell that cheap (around 76$) and you can get a 20-30% discount from munger's "deep cheap" you know you have a winner. It's about 20% of my portfolio and I'm very happy about it. BeerBaron

It's true that the disclosure is horrible on FX spreads with canadian brokers. Nowhere in the sites you can find it. I'll have to call tomorrow and start arbitraging currencies trough dual listing stocks. There is quite some differences in stock arbitrages. I took all the canadian listed companies on the NYSE and made a dynamic list. And one could see that Hudbay Minerals would actually bring an arbitrage profit. Which I find too good to be true... What should I be looking out for? Minimum 1.18% HudBay Minerals Inc. Maximum 3.99% North American Energy Partners Inc. Average 2.96% Current 1USD-1CAD= 3.04% BeerBaron

Who's you broker?

Consider using Norbert's Gambit. Pick a crosslisted stock. Say, Royal Bank. Buy X shares in Toronto in CAD, quickly sell the same X shares in New York in USD. CAD->USD for the cost of the commissions/spread/timing. (Reverse for USD->CAD) Generally a good deal for larger amounts. Welcome to the wide world of arbitrage. :) Depending on the broker, you may have to call them to make sure they journal over the shares from the CAD to USD account properly. How can I sell on a different exchange then I bough at? BeerBaron

I am a Canadian investor and I convert quite a bit of CAD to USD. I'm with Questrade for their low comissions and low monthlee fees but as my portfolio gets bigger it is starting to look attractive to consider currency conversion fees. On my last conversion I calculate that Questrade made a spread between 1 and 1.5%. What are other board member's brokerate spreads? BeerBaron

Maybe inflation expectations went down.

Looks like a run on the bank. How come we allow banks to do it but not poker site is just a matter of perception... BeerBaron

Maybe you could ask him if decreasing the Jackpot payout has no influence on patrons attendance and how come a casino rarely runs at the regulatory limit payout ratio. Make sure you CC Harry with the answers, if I remember correctly he had some stakes in a casino. BeerBaron

I'm with Questrade. Their interface was crappy and it's slowly getting better. Their prices are really low for someone that does not do much trades. There is more details in another thread. BeerBaron

Methanex has returned lots of money in buybacks. Pre-Paid Legal Services did an incredible job at buybacks before they were taken private. BeerBaron

I agree, but I don't see it like that. If I buy USD I will not convert back to CAD until I'm forced to convert of the CAD dollar trades at 0.60USD again. For me having a broker capable of holding USD and CAD in all my accounts was important. At least you don't pay spread everytime you do a conversion. BeerBaron

Look at ishares. They have some value index and growth index ETF. BeerBaron

I'm curious to see that new corporate tax package presented on monday. It seems we don't get the repatriation tax levy for now... BeerBaron

So Comb did not make you look but this guys does... I think you have Canadian investor bias ;) BeerBaron

I refinanced last week. 3.89% for 5Y, Canada is so expensive compared with US rates >:( I almost tough of getting a US loan and hedging the currency, I think it would come cheaper then using a Canadian bank. BeerBaron