Comments on: Ouch! TSX down 12% in 6 days

By: Making Sense of Personal Finance as Meltdown Continues | Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:24:16 +0000

[...] The world market has been tumbling and its finally hit Canada, Canadian Capitalist highlights that the Toronto Stock Exchange index has been down 12% in 6 days! [...]

By: Ugly Day in the Markets

Ugly Day in the Markets — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 02:28:12 +0000

[...] last week’s market dive in Toronto, today’s mayhem was worldwide: the S&P 500 closed down 4.7%, the TSX Composite was off [...]

By: Weekly Dividend Investing Roundup - September 13, 2008 » The Dividend Guy Blog

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:02:55 +0000

[...] Its not always fun to be Canadian [...]

By: bigasssuperstar

bigasssuperstar — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:50:35 +0000

I’m such an unsophisticated rookie, but I took the chance that this would be a good time to buy a bit more … so I threw a hundred bucks here, two-hundred bucks there into my RRSP each day the TSX took a drop down .. it’s going into RBC Balanced Growth mutual funds, so I’m probably not taking full advantage of the bargains, but — and maybe I’m being naive — it feels like buying more when the price is low is a smart move for me.

By: moneygardener

moneygardener — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:07:31 +0000

The TSX is not correlated with my portfolio whatsoever. I’d love to say that this is bringing out the bargains, but it simply is not the case of a dividend growth investor. Previous months have held better opportunities in the U.S. and Canada.

By: DAvid

DAvid — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:39:10 +0000

Phil S,
The flip side of the Baby Boom retirement, is the huge wealth they have accumulated, their expectations of service, and their willingness to pay for what they want. The retiring boomers do not have the thrift mentality of the previous generation who weathered the depression or the rationing during the wars. Early Boomers stepped on the bottom step of the golden escalator, and while accumulating great wealth, have also created a huge service sector. As capital comes available, and the numbers of individuals available to provide services to those Boomers declines, the value of these currently low-paying jobs will increase, as will opportunity and remuneration.

If you look around many parts of Canada just now, there is a lack of labour available — there are ‘Help Wanted’ signs everywhere. Currently, these are unskilled jobs, but soon, the lack of professional staff we see in the Health Care sector will extend to other areas. Will this help the Auto Worker? I’m not sure, it may depend on the ability they have to adapt their skill set to a different career.

However, one thing is certain — the change we forecast is inevitable.

DAvid

By: Phil S

Phil S — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:52:21 +0000

As a believer in macro as well as micro economics, I personally don’t think we’ve hit the bottom yet… Only today, Ford Oakville just announced another layoff of 500 more people as they got rid of the 3rd shift in their Paint Shop. Yesterday Toyota said they’re scaling back production plans at their new Woodstock plant. Wait until this all starts to hit the Tier 1 & Tier 2 suppliers – every direct automotive job lost is another 12 lost in suppliers and supporting businesses. The Canadian economy is still shedding jobs and this still hasn’t been reflected yet in consumer confidence, consumption, employment figures and the overall economy. Personally, I’m waiting until we see how bad the recession gets… Although I don’t think we’re in for a “dirty-30′s” type of major depression, I do think this recession is going to be much deeper and longer lasting than everybody else seems to think it is…

So, in terms of investing… I’m still stockpiling cash in savings accounts and other short term fixed income securities (GICs, T-Bills, Money Market mutual funds). In fact, I think I’m now sitting on almost 40% cash & short term fixed income. I think the Canadian stock market will get slammed some more before it starts to stabilize…

My thesis? What do you think is going to happen if you and your spouse both get laid off work and can’t find any new jobs? You’re going to draw EI and also off your savings, which would typically support you until EI runs out (1 yr)… What happens after that runs out? Then you start to sell off your stocks, bonds and other relatively liquid investments. What happens after that money runs out? Well, you sell off your house and rent an apartment?

In my humble opinion, we’re still in the part where most of the people who have been laid off work are still living off of EI. Next year, if things don’t get any better and their money has run out, then you will really start to see massive selling. Also, keep in mind that demographics is working against us as the leading edge of the Boomer generation is heading into retirement as well and need to sell off their securities and move to cash and fixed income products. In a traditional supply / demand economic scenario, that is the perfect explanation of why interest rates are really low. There are a lot of Boomers out there buying up T-Bills and GICs, driving up the face prices.

That being said, there are some stocks which are not economically sensitive. Such as biotech research stocks, or junior mining and oil & gas. It can be a great opportunity to pick some of them up when they’ve had the snot beaten out of them if they hit something big. Instant millions, baby! One of my friends’ kid brother retired at the ripe old age of 28 because he hit it big on a junior mining stock.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:20:16 +0000

Russian Capitalist: I waited for what I thought was an attractive entry point in VWO. Yes, I try to time entry by buying on major declines but once I’m in, it’s for the long haul. I’m not sure if there is any great advantage in doing so. At the very least, I want to avoid becoming greedy when most investors are greedy and avoid being fearful when most investors are fearful.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:49:35 +0000

Oil Oil Oil

By: Optionsforstocks

Optionsforstocks — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:59:15 +0000

TSX has covered nicely today. One ETF that is promising in this turmoil is SLX (steel ETF) which touched its 52-weeks yesterday. Other ETFs to keep an eye are USO, VDE and XLF.

Many stocks in material and metals sectors are nearing 52-weeks low with great fundaments e.g., MT (Barron say solid as steel), POT another great potential.

Disclosure: I own MT and other steels stocks individuaaly in my portfolio.