Canadian Capitalist

Obvious prospects for physical growth in a business do not translate into obvious profits for investors. — Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor
Ending months of speculation, Wendy’s (NYSE: WEN) announced its plans to offer part of its Tim Horton’s in an IPO. Tim Horton’s is enormously profitable, earning $247 million (US) on revenue of about $1 [...]

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For technology workers like me, layoffs are almost a way-of-life. I’ve been laid off from my job once and I know plenty of friends who went through many layoffs in succession. That is why, I read the column, 14 tips for living through a layoff, with great interest.
I agree with all the tips, but I [...]

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A TD Bank report finds that except for Vancouver and Victoria, there is very little evidence of a housing bubble in Canada.

There is another glowing mention of Pat McKeough’s Successful Investing newsletter in a MarketWatch.com article. Mr. McKeough was a previous editor of The Investment Reporter, ranked one of the top newsletters, according to the [...]

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Investing in companies with a history of increasing dividends is a winning strategy. The strategy works even better when the dividends are reinvested. Entire books have been written on the subject and even Standard and Poors has designed an index to track the dividend aristocrats.
A new blog by The Dividend Guy is devoted to building [...]

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The Globe and Mail and The Financial Post both reported on an analyst recommendation that a high-yield doesn’t automatically mean a stock’s inclusion in an income-oriented portfolio. George Vasic of UBS Securities calculates a security’s “true yield” by adding the annualized net share shrinkage to the actual dividend yield. He notes that TransAlta (TSX: TA) [...]

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Today’s Financial Post features a column on Coattail Investing, which is mimicking the moves of investing greats. An example would be Warren Buffett’s recent buy of Anheuser-Busch. Like most investing fads, this approach is fraught with risks. Something suitable for Mr. Buffet may not be suitable for me.

Fortune magazine asks if America can Compete? [...]

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Recently, we bought a cooking range that cost us in total $1,171.85. The appliance store delivered and took away the rusty old range for free. They also gave us a four-month price guarantee. Just the other day, while running some errands, I decided to drop into the nearby appliance store and check the price again. [...]

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As a novice investor, I bought JDS-Uniphase (TSX: JDU) and Nortel (TSX: NT) just as the tech bubble was bursting. In hindsight, buying these companies with no profits in a highly competitive business was a big mistake. I kept these losers only because selling them would have triggered penalties for exceeding the foreign property content.
The [...]

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I’ve been extremely busy at work, but I have the following books on my summer reading list:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt

The Future for Investors by Jeremy J. Siegel

I have almost finished Freakonomics and have just started reading Prof. Siegel’s book. I plan to write a short review [...]

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There is a controversy going on over how expensive average auto insurance premiums in Ontario are compared to other provinces. Consumer’s Association of Canada claims that premiums in Ontario average $2,384 per annum compared to $1,325 in British Columbia and $1,715 in Alberta. The Insurance Bureau of Canada, an industry association, on the other hand [...]

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