It's Been A Lazy Summer...

With the majority of my stuff in the Canadian Bond Fund I haven't had much to either worry about or pay attention to for the past while.

On the trading account side I've only made four trades this year and two of those were the purchase and the sale of Apple shares. As usual, I should have held on to Apple. Even though I did all right, buying for $535.00 and selling for $610.00, they closed at $696.00 yesterday. Enough said.

I'm still liking my Canadian Bank stocks. I'm holding BMO, RBC & TD. The big five turned in combined earnings of $7.9B for the most recent quarter. Yep, that's B for Billion! I remember back in '94 or '95 when RBC first reported ANNUAL earnings exceeding a Billion. It was considered almost obscene and RBC engaged in a huge advertising campaign to tell Canadians what good corporate citizens they were, how much they paid in taxes, how many people they employed, how much they donated to charities etc. Now, QUARTERLY profits of a Billion plus are the norm.

As usual, I'm in a bit of love/hate relationship with the banks. A couple of recent trips to the US once again reinforced why I wrote Canadian Banks - We Love 'Em and Hate 'Em...for the same reason back in May, 2011. You just can't do anything relating to exchanging Canadian and US funds without feeling like you're getting royally $crewed. Doesn't matter if you're buying or selling US or making a purchase on you credit card you always get hosed for about 2.5%! It may be possible to determine a value for the time spent when an actual person does calculations when you're exchanging funds but just making a credit card purchase...come on now. You gotta figure they hose the merchant at least 1.5% and then they charge you 2.5% for a forex transaction. What a racket!

More about the US travels and possible investment opportunities in an upcoming post. In the meantime;

Good Luck and Happy Investing!

Just In Case You Were Thinkin' Things Are Okay...

Over the past six years, the TSX is off 16.45%. The DOW fared better. It's only down 4.52%. The broader US market, the S&P 500 is down 8.27% in the past sixty months. Yup, all three major North American markets are down for the past five years. And you're wondering why finance guy says you're not ready to retire.

Don't like to be a pessimist but I just don't see things improving with the conditions around the world.  Maybe I should change the blog title to "The Pessimistic Canadian Investor".

To end with something on a positive note, since doing this chart I checked out the NASDAQ exchange. For the same period it's up 6.2%...so, if you're into tech (Apple) you might be celebrating.

Gotta mention. I sold my Apple shares last week at $610.00. Nice gain from the $535.00 purchase price. They're down to $574.00 today.

Bouncin' Along The Top

We've all heard the expression "Bouncing along the bottom" with regard to individual stocks and even portfolio values. In this flat, volatile market I'm sure anyone who's down a bit feels like they've been bouncing along the bottom for many months now.

Me, I'm a little different. My stuff hit a multi-year, in fact, an all time high on April 1 of this year. Since then, it's been down a bit, up a bit, back and forth etc. etc. If I was a TA guy, which I'm not, I might say my portfolio value has been range bound for some time. For my thoughts about about TA guys see my post of March 17, 2010. TA Guys Make Me Crazy!

Like I said, April 1 was the all time high...then, today my stuff reached up once again, surpassed the April 1 mark and hit a new all time high.  What I find interesting is that the low point since April 1 was a mere 2.2% off the April 1 high. Now, that's been recovered and then some. All-in-all I can't complain. This tight range, touching a new high now and then is why I refer to my portfolio value as Bouncin' Along The Top!

Good luck and Happy Investing!

8% Annual Return

A while back a friend said how happy he was with a basket of seg funds he and I both got into a few years ago. I questioned this as I'm not so happy with mine. He explained that regardless of the market value of the funds, he was pleased with the 5% annual guarantee that keeps piling in. Sure, I said, but you only get that 5% if you stay with the seg funds and ultimately purchase a retirement income product with the same company. He said that was fine with him, he's stay the course and take full advantage of the 75% gain after 15 years, no matter what the market value happens to be. We both agree that we have little faith in the markets for the coming years. As I suggested in my post of July 10, 2010, if the next ten are no better than the last ten, those playing the markets may get screwed!

I've written extensively about my decision of last June to put the majority of my investments on hold and tuck them away in a Canadian Bond Fund. Well, that was a year ago today and I'm pleased to say that the market value of my Bond Fund units is up 8.22%. Yup, 8.22% in exactly one year. Two factors, the value of the units has risen fairly steadily with the occasional step back when equities jumped and I've benefited from four quarterly distributions each of which added a considerable number of units to my account...all without investing another penny.

Oh, and by the way, because of the timing of the original investment, on June 22, 2011, I will receive another quarterly distribution in eight days. Yes, by the time I've been in for 373 days, I'll have received five quarterly distributions. Sometimes things work out.

As Always, Good Luck & Happy Investing!

Things I Wonder About

I posted this a couple of years ago on the old Daily Squawk page when I was trying to post each day. Since then I've taken the page down. I was thinking about this the other day and after looking it up, I figured I'd update the info and move it to this page.

The price of gold. Why is gold so valuable? I recently found an article that helps put it perspective. This is one of those Believe It Not things. All the gold in the world for all time would fit into a 66 foot cube. Yup, ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD would fit into a smallish six storey office building or would cover a Canadian football field to a depth of 3.27 feet.

The price of oil. Compared to gold at about $1,640. an ounce, what is the value of an ounce of oil? Well, Professor Google tells me that a barrel of oil weighs about 305 pounds, give or take for purity. That's 4,880 ounces. At the current price of $98. per barrel, an ounce of oil is valued at about 2 cents.

The volume of each. Another bit of math for gold is that all the gold in the world would fit into 8,187 cubic meters. That's all the gold for all time. By comparison, the world's daily consumption of oil at 80 million barrels would fill 12,718,400 cubic meters. That's every single day! ...just in case you were wondering too.

April Showers Bring May ???

Who the heck knows where this crazy, volatile market is heading?  Is this the May to go away?  I dunno.

What I do know is that the TSX has become a real laggard. It's up .69% to the end of April. In the US, the DOW 30 is up 6.58% and the broader S&P 500 is up a whopping 9.46%. This might be the year to have a little faith in the good ol' US of A. Might be. Me, I'm not so sure. Corporate earning seem to be ticking along, but is this sustainable?  With deficit and debt levels at all time highs? Some believe that individual states may eventually default. I suppose the ultimate pessimist may even believe that the whole US may some day soon crash and burn. Me, I doubt that but still am happy to keep my investments here in Canada.

By the by, my stuff is up 3.92% YTD. Not a bunch, but 3.92% for four months annulizes to 11.76%. I'd be happy with that. I'll report back at year end and let you know how that worked out.

As Always, Good Luck & Happy Investing!

Lookin' In The Rear View Mirror...

I know, I know, everyone has 20/20 hindsight.  Still, it doesn't hurt to look back at past decisions, review them and see if they still make sense.

It was June 22, 2011 when I sat across the desk from the new finance guy here in Carman and stood my ground.  A week or so earlier I had declared that when my money arrives from the former fund company it was to be invested in the Canadian Bond Fund.  He sent me home with some reading material.  Surely I might consider the Select Conservative Fund...or at the very least their Select Very Conservative Fund.

So, I took the stuff home, reviewed it and did my own research using Globefund & Morningstar.  The money arrived in very short order.  Almost had the impression that the other guys were glad to see me go.  I headed down to finance guy's office to sign the final forms.  "Well, what did you decide?" he asked.  I answered that I wanted the summer off from watching the markets and wished to park everything that wasn't in my trading account in the Canadian Bond Fund where it would sit until such time as I see some return of normalcy and stability to the markets.  I'm still waiting!

Just the day before, June 21, 2011 the TSX closed at 13,060.  Monday 12,018.  Down a full 8%...Yikes!  Yesterday 11,935.  Double Yikes!  A quick look at Globefund reveals that my Canadian Bond Fund has returned 9.22% in the past year.  The Select Conservative Fund 2.04%. The Select Very Conservative Fund 3.32%.

Yes, sometimes it's nice to look back.  Speaking of looking back, my Apple shares which I bought at $535 on March 7 closed at $628.44 yesterday.  Gotta love that!

As Always, Good Luck & Happy Investing!  

Apple Inc.

Juggernaut: in colloquial English usage is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as mercilessly

destructive and unstoppable.

Well, I don't think "mercilessly destructive" applies but "unstoppable" certainly seems an appropriate way to describe Apple Inc. (AAPL).  Apple's shares opened the year at $411.  I bought them on March 7 for $535. Today $617.62!

With a market cap of $575 Billion Apple is way ahead of No. 2 which is Exxon Mobile (XOM:NY) at $404 Billion. Astounding!

DOUBLE! DOUBLE!!

No, this isn't a post about Canada's iconic Tim Hortons coffee.  Who puts double cream and double sugar in coffee anyway?  Yuck!

On November 8, 2010 I wrote Thank You Mr. Bridger!!! It was the story about my first ever, and still only, double on an individual stock. Today I'm writing about a different kind of double. As of today the total value of my stuff has doubled since the low of November 20, 2008. Yup, 834 days since doomsday when my stuff and the holdings of many others hit rock bottom. Some of us cashed out, no longer able to live with the stress of the markets spiraling downward. Some of us held on hoping upon hope that things would somehow stabilize and we'd claw our way back.

Me, I held on, continued to ignore finance guy, watched a ton of business television, read a lot, tried to learn a bit and continued with the strategy that I'd begun a few years earlier. With today's double I can honestly say that things did work out.

Where do I go from here? Can I double it again in another 834 days? I doubt that. No, I'll continue the present course and hang in there with the Canadian Bond Fund as my largest holding. Up 6.37% since last June and looking forward to yet another nice quarterly distribution at month end. Regular readers know what I think is likely to happen over the next ten years. Volatility with a capital V!  I stand by my belief and that of the Wealthy Barber, you've got to pick a time as retirement approaches and get the heck out. Too many retirement plans were shattered over the past few years and I'm not part of the goofy majority who actually plan on a lottery win to make things right.

Oh, by the way, my Apple shares purchased six days ago at $535 closed over $568 today! How badly do I wish I'd bought those shares a long, long time ago?

As Always, Good Luck & Happy Investing!

This Apple Shines!

Spent the past week in Cuba but this isn't a travelogue.  Rather, it's about a book I read while away. Started the Steve Jobs biography on the plane on the way down and finished it the day before heading home.  The book was two stories in one.  First, the biography of the genius perfectionist, Steve Jobs.  Secondly it was story of Apple Inc., the company that Jobs co-founded, was squeezed out of, then returned to work for a dollar a year, while he re-invented the company and in the process turned Apple Inc. into the world's most valuable corporation.

In the read, I finally got a sense why so many are so crazy about all things Apple.  The hardware, software, apps and content be it music, books, movies, TV shows, newspapers or magazines, come together in a way that no other platform comes close to.  And I thought my Blackberry and PlayBook were cool.

I've been tracking Apple's (AAPL) share price for a few years.  Every time they'd reach a new high I'd declare, "too rich for me" or, "this can't be sustainable".  Then Apple would churn out another record breaking quarter or a whole new product that nobody wanted because nobody had ever thought of it before and away we'd go again!  Onward and upward!  Heck, Apple shares started this year at $411 and peaked on March 2 at $545.  If you want to get real sick, have a look at a 10 year chart for Apple.  From $12 to $545 with a 2 for 1 split in February of 2005 thrown in for good measure.

The worst kept secret for the past while was that Apple would unveil a third generation iPad at a planned "event" today.  I had a bit of cash in my trading account that had been there since selling Cisco in January but not a lot when considering shares at something over $500 apiece! I looked up and down my list and there is was, my long held aggie ETF, COW.  I pulled the trigger, placed a sell order, unloaded COW and placed and order for Apple shares.  All this was in a rush as I figured if the noon (CST) announcement was great the price would soar  later in the day.

I bought Apple shares at $535 just before noon.  Well, the announcement was pretty much as expected, another great product, but it seems that the market had already run up in anticipation so as the day wore on the share settled back to close at $530.69.  What, me worry?  Not a chance!  I figure not owning Apple is akin to not owning real estate.  I'm very happy to be "in the market" with my newest holding.  Guess I'll just have to wait another quarter or two..maybe.  But maybe not.  Who knows, with this company they may announce that today's pre-orders topped a gazillion units and anyone who waits until they actually go on sale on Friday will have to wait three months for delivery.

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Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice, research or a suggestion or invitation to buy or sell any securities.  Every investor should do their own research and consult their own finance guy.  See full DISCLAIMER.

As always, Good Luck and Happy Investing!