Comments on: Tidying up the Sleepy Portfolio

By: Canadian investing made lazy : Mike Cousins

Canadian investing made lazy : Mike Cousins — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:29:06 +0000

[...] Canadian Capitalist [...]

By: Paul M

Paul M — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:57:56 +0000

Hi Jay. I have actually started buying XSB units already. I have bought some $18,000 worth so far. I do realize that the XSB unit price will go down when the interest rates go up but I do not want to buy any more equities. Since no one knows when the interest rate will go up, I want to wait until the rates do start moving up, sell the XSB units and buy GIC’s. I don’t know if my approach is sound but that is the best I can come up with at the moment.
The GIC’s have very low yields now and I do not know what else to do.

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:17:23 +0000

Paul M

You don’t say how much money you are going to invest… Seems most ‘experts’ are predicting interest rates will be rising in next year. You might want to look back and see how much the value/distributions of XBB purchase will go down as rates rise. Maybe this is only a problem if you need to sell. Alternately you go short-term for a few years.

I’m just looking at individual bonds, haven’t bought any yet. I understand if you buy an actual bond and hold it to maturity you won’t loose principal. I suppose you have a missed opportunity of higher interest rates.

By: Paul M

Paul M — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:23:02 +0000

I have never bought ETF’s before and I would like to buy the XIC, XSP, XIN and XBB (50 % of XBB and 16.7% of each of the others). What should I watch out for? Does it really matter when one buys them when one intends to hold them long term (10 – 20 years)? I do not want too much exposure to currency fluctuations. Any advice is appreciated.

By: Rebalancing the Sleepy Portfolio

Rebalancing the Sleepy Portfolio — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:12:27 +0000

[...] more than a year since I tidied up the Sleepy Portfolio and with the recent turmoil in the stock markets, the allocations have begun to significantly [...]

By: 3Q-2007 Report Card

3Q-2007 Report Card — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:28:42 +0000

[...] YTD gains of 2.5%. The results are not exactly comparable to the previous quarter because of the asset allocation changes implemented during the quarter. The Canadian dollar rose about 6% during the quarter decimating returns from US equities, which [...]

By: Costs of the Sleepy Portfolio

Costs of the Sleepy Portfolio — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:28:40 +0000

[...] was curious to see what the blended MER of the Sleepy Portfolio was, ignoring the initial commissions and foreign exchange transactions. In other words, if no [...]

By: Phil S

Phil S — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:43:29 +0000

To CC. I’d have to check the numbers to be sure, but believe that back in the 80′s the yield curve was horribly inverted. I think it was somewhere around a 15% yield on a 1-yr GoC T-Bill, but I believe that the 10-yr long bond was trading way down at an 8% yield. A deep recession followed that period of time (as most inverted yield curves would suggest) and I graduated from university right into that recession. That’s what I remember it – I was a freshly minted unemployed university graduate for a very long time.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:33:08 +0000

Joe: Long bonds do provide slightly higher return than short-term bonds but at a much higher risk. The argument goes that for the the same risk level, it is better to take on more equity risk.

There are times when long bonds would be an excellent choice. Think back to the 1980′s with double digit interest rates. Anyone who bought a 30-year bond then would have done very well.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:20:38 +0000

I don’t buy the fact that ” long bonds do not have an attractive risk/reward profile”..

This may be true in the short-run, but for long-term investors – longer bonds should outperform short bonds – otherwise there would be no reason for investors to lock up their funds for longer..