You won’t know it from the wild swings experienced by the stock markets in the recent past but the Sleepy Mini Portfolio gained 1.65% since my previous update. To be fair, it should be pointed out that the portfolio showed gains for the last quarter only after the significant rally of the past couple of [...]
[Note: The following post was originally published on May 18, 2010. Recently, I noticed that TD Waterhouse now offers a lot more high interest savings accounts than they used to and I have extensively revised and updated the original post with new information. I intend to keep this post current, so feel free to have [...]
It is a mystery to me why Ally, which consistently offers better savings and GIC interest rates isn’t as popular as ING Direct. Take high-interest savings accounts: Ally has long offered a 2.0% interest rate compared to ING Direct’s 1.5%. And here’s how Ally’s GIC rates compare with ING Direct: Ally ING Direct 1 Year [...]
The top bid in Bloggers for Charity is now $250. The top three bids were made by Glenn of InsuranceSquared, Dale Rathgeber ($200) and The Cynical Investor ($88.88). Thanks guys! Do I hear a bid for $300? Events in European financial markets continue to dominate the headlines. It appears that the contagion is spreading now [...]
Before we dive into today’s post, a quick update on the Bloggers for Charity drive. The Cynical Investor kicked off the bidding process with a $88.88 bid. Dale Rathgeber quickly topped the initial bid with an offer of $200. Do I hear $250? A recent study provided some insight into yet another way the deck [...]
Around this time every year, workplaces across Canada organize a number of events to raise millions for the United Way. One such event is a charity auction to which clients, suppliers and even employees themselves donate goods or services which are then auctioned off to the highest bidder and all proceeds go to charity. Mark [...]
In a recent post, Thicken My Wallet argued that even though some ETFs may be cheaper, they are thinly traded which means that investors are taking on liquidity risk — the risk that a security cannot be quickly converted to cash. Here are the trading volumes of the Canadian dividend ETFs that were examined in [...]
TD Waterhouse used to be a leader at offering innovative features at least among bank-owned brokerages. They were the first to offer wash trading as a way around avoiding forced currency conversion charges in RRSP accounts. They were also the first to lower trading commissions to $9.99 for clients with accounts above a certain threshold. [...]
Last week, Vanguard Canada announced the management fees and ticker symbols for its initial line-up of six Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). Staying true to its low-cost philosophy, Vanguard priced the ETFs cheaper than existing comparable products. While I’m very excited about the lower fees charged by Vanguard ETFs I think that any decision to switch out [...]
Thinking, Fast and Slow: Michael Lewis has high praise for Prof. Daniel Kahneman’s new book saying that it seeks to explain the research of the past few decades into what appears to be “permanent kinks in human reason”. A Financial Advisor Makes a few Blunders: In a New York Times article, a financial advisor explains [...]
