gokou3

I live in a suburb of Vancouver. 20%+ price increase in my neighbourhood yoy.

Like this? https://www.borntosell.com/search

The 2016 edition is now available: http://robgrayassetmanagement.com/content/uploads/prefGuide2016.pdf

Bam

I believe Interactive Broker has CNH (offshore RMB) option contracts, but I was too lazy to do further research on it. Seems very low liquidity too.

Seems like the small brokerages (dundee, canaccord, gmp) have very low preferred prices? I know dundee has some resource assets which may need to be written down, can the same be said for the others?

This document from Scotia McLeod is a very good resource too. It seems to be updated every year. http://beltramewealthmanagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-Guide-to-Preferred-Shares.pdf

I am long the series 4. Got pretty lucky with the timing. I actually bought @$17.xx before they announced the amendment proposal, thought it was shitty but was able to sell at breakeven. Later, the market agreed with me on the shittiness of the deal and the price dropped drastically. I decided to buy again in mid-Dec at $14 and on the EOD the price fell to $13 (ouch). However, at $14 I figured the YTM is 14%+ which is even higher than their perpetual issues. Beats me why I didn't buy a lot more than I did. Anyways, enough bragging (rest of my portfolio went down the drain today). Here's a pretty good blog on pref shares and this article discusses the amended proposal. The author still recommends to vote NO. http://prefblog.com/?p=31896

Definitely. Basically anything fundamentally priced in USD became more expensive in Canada. Bought a higher-end watch recently and the sales guy told me (i would believe him) the manufacturer will rise price starting in the new year because of the CAD weakness. Said the same thing re: diamonds. Apple.ca is now selling the iphone 6 for a higher price than when it was first released last year! Wife said vegetable prices have gone up significantly, but that may be due to the weakness in harvest.

How do you short cnh? I have been looking for an asymmetric way to do this.

BMO says the return in my main account is 13.3% but it certainly felt a lot less. Got a huge tailwind from the weakening of CAD vs USD. Some winners in BAC leap, AIG leap, FIATY, and GM-WTB. Offset by a practically wipeout loss in KMI-WT. ??? Some big losses (e.g. CHK) in my smaller accounts as well, so I would say I am at about flat for 2015. Thanks for the board for another year of good research.

What about the preferred? Dundee series 3 is trading at 40% of par.

Meanwhile.... How mortgage fraud is thriving in Canada's hot housing market http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/housing/mortgage-fraud-on-the-rise-among-brokers-trying-to-help-clients-qualify/article27051297/

Small bet on FCAU Nov $14 call... betting good earning news next week and support from continued strength in RACE.

I am up more than 20% from Jan. to July... then gave most of it back in August. Also, my holdings are mostly in US stocks but my performance is shown in CAD. ::)

Added to KMI, yesterday.

may i ask why you prefer bep over bam? In the back of my mind, I do think BAM would have higher total return over the long term, but BEP's higher and growing dividend stream give me a peace of mind. Note though on both BAM and BEP (in fact, BIP and BPY as well) presentations, management guides 12-15% annual total returns over the long-term. Agreed with an earlier poster that recent weakness is attributed to interest rates. Btw, lower water level is confirmed yesterday by this BEP PR: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/brookfield-renewable-provides-q2-preliminary-212714394.html

BEP.un (Brookfield Renewable Power). Not sure why it has dropped >10% off its recent high -- perhaps forex, brazil drought, low oil prices, etc? Anyways, company with good capital allocation, long-term track record, and a 6% current yield. Management promises 5-9% annual distribution increases.

Bought a small position in CHAD yesterday for a bearish view on the Chinese market. This is after seeing that the chinese government implemented various desperate / foolish policies to try support the stock market index values with muted effect. The retail investors which constituted 80% of the Chinese stock market will continue to exit their (margined) positions. Up 10% today.

May I ask your rationale for buying SDRXN? Also, did you consider SDRXP as well? I am currently looking into buying SDRXP. Do you worry about them suspending the common-stock dividend altogether?

Al, When you said "good to be in Canada in this case", are you referring to the tax-advantaged treatment of dividends from Canadian companies? I would really love to know some good Canadian dividend payers; I have a pretty bad record investing in Canadian companies in general. Yes. I have held in the past and rebought recently: Russell Metals -'its running back up fast; Seaspan (US) see thread - its running up again; Mullen Transport - I love this company - got hammered down late in 2014 with oil panic; Newer: First National - my mortgage lender and the biggest in Canada. My Equifax score is 850 out of 900 to give you an idea of their customers - < 5% subprime. Closely held. Bird Construction - small position - I am still studying it. Royal Bank - small position - not especially cheap but they have never, ever cut their dividend bought some AT&T today (US obviously) - small - a work in progress. Sirius XM Canada - xsr - held by Sirius XM. This one pukes cash. I am a little hesitant here as I dont completely grasp the business, and the potential competition from streaming. The biggest positions are SSW, MTL, and FN. The conversion of US dividends to CDN is working really well in RRSP accounts. JPM and WFC common - more for cap gains potential than dividends. .thats about it. Thanks Al. Good list of companies to study on. I have had some successes with the Brookfield group of companies. Management guys are shrewd value investors. Pays about 4-5% dividends (technically distributions of various sorts) with annual group of 5-9%. They target 12-15% total return. Of course talk is cheap, but they have a long track record to back it and they seem to still have a long runway ahead. I have not put in a lot of money with them because I aim for even higher returns, but if I ever want to put my portfolio on autopilot I would commit a substantial % of money to Brookfield.

Al, When you said "good to be in Canada in this case", are you referring to the tax-advantaged treatment of dividends from Canadian companies? I would really love to know some good Canadian dividend payers; I have a pretty bad record investing in Canadian companies in general.

I read the IB Canada page about RSP account: https://www.interactivebrokers.ca/en/index.php?f=13406 On the other hand, IBC does seem to accommomdate asset in-kind transfer from a RSP account at another bank to IB:

This ad is for a development in a bad area of Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver. The developer is Concord Pacific which is famous for making cookie cutter condos. The price is probably for a 300-400SF studio unit. As for 12% yield, the investor will consider himself lucky if he can gross half of that figure.

Except if there's a prolonged downturn in oil prices, the other top-ranked industries would suffer too. Think RE, finance, construction, oil & gas, related manufacturing. I would really love to see a US chart for comparison.