Canadian Capitalist

I found one of the best definitions of IPOs in this SmartMoney column: the author says that IPO stands for “Its Probably Overpriced” rather than “Initial Public Offering”. The trouble with IPOs is that they are lousy investments. I am now reading Contrarian Investment Strategies by David Dremen and he talks about a study (by [...]

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While I love dividend-growth investing and follow the strategy in our retirement accounts, I prefer non-dividend payers in our taxable accounts (discussed in an earlier post). The main reason behind the idea is a preference for businesses that can reinvest earnings and earn a better return than is possible on my own. A secondary reason [...]

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I watched the documentary on Enron over the weekend and a few months back, I had read the book on which it is based. Of all the corporate scandals, Enron is called the corporate crime of the century with some justification. As Bethany McLean, co-author of the book notes (and who originally asked a simple [...]

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Just as a jury convicted ex-Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling of conspiracy and fraud, another corporate scandal is brewing over options granting practices. Some companies are suspected of retroactively dating stock option grants to an earlier date when the stock price was low, so that option holders can make a higher profit. More [...]

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I was chatting with a colleague over lunch and she mentioned that she does most of her investing through mutual funds. I suggested to her that she should closely monitor her holdings and consider replacing the chronic losers with the equivalent index fund.
While there are some excellent fund managers, the vast majority of mutual funds [...]

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The Bank of Canada increased interest rates by another 25 basis points and the banks are increasing the prime rate by a similar amount to 6.00%. The Bank has increased interest rates seven times since last fall but suggested that the tightening phase might be over.
We have heard that it is better to buy the [...]

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I read this column in The Globe and Mail with some amusement. It talks about a new report released today by a “leading economist” that says that the recent federal budget “actually lowered take-home pay for many Canadians”. I have not read the actual report but I don’t think that its contents should be a [...]

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Pretty much every equity market in the world fell last week but emerging markets have been hit especially hard. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (EEM), which closed above $111 as recently as May 9th, closed today just above $94, a fall of 15%. The recent drops also illustrate how volatile these markets can [...]

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Ellen Roseman, personal finance columnist for the Toronto Star, writes that even though the Bank of Canada has increased interest rates from 2.5% to 4% since last September (another interest rate announcement is set for next week), ING Direct has only increased the interest rate on its savings accounts from 2.4% to 3%. The article [...]

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A few years back, the iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index Fund (DVY) was the only ETF available for investors looking to boost the dividend yield of their portfolios. Today, eight dividend ETFs are available in the US market based on various indices from Dow Jones, Mergent, Standard & Poors and Morningstar. Seven of them [...]

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