Search found 324 matches

by drejmd
05 Mar 2012 14:49
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa
Replies: 1785
Views: 325520

Re: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa

It's been a while since my last Gambit. It still makes a little fluttering sensation in my chest as I sit frantically hitting the "refresh" button, waiting for the short sale on TDWH to go from "locked" to "open" to "filled". And then the momentary panic of getting the buy done on the correct account and the correct market. (All in all about 3 minutes, with 60 seconds or so between transactions) Still super cool if you ask me. And I take my reaction (exaggerated for dramatic effect of course), as a clear sign that I'm still alive and since there's no chest pain, a sign that the 50 yo ticker is still healthy! fyi: I use market orders, a TDWH US short account, the highest priced interlisted stock of the...
by drejmd
20 Jul 2011 22:56
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Asset Allocation Strategies of High Net Worth Individuals
Replies: 53
Views: 6693

Re: Asset Allocation Strategies of High Net Worth Individual

Springbok wrote:
I have done some analysis myself, but have not seen anything published that deals with this - For example, a recommended asset allocation at age 71 for both registered and unregistered accounts based on tax bracket, age and reg/unreg ratio. Maybe some other factors too, like health/longevity and single vs couple. If Gummy were here, he would probably produce a calculator :)
What about doing an income projection (complete with detailed cash flows) using RRIFmetic and then matching those predicted cash flows to the fixed income portion of your asset allocation thereby arriving at your ideal asset allocation?
by drejmd
13 Aug 2010 18:26
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Where to park money short-term?
Replies: 51
Views: 14738

Re: Where to park money short-term?

Lazy Ninja wrote:
drejmd wrote:If you were "parking" money that you planned to spend on a down-payment for a house, is there any logic in putting it in XRE. Would XRE fluctauate with real-estate prices and in the meantime provide a yield that is much better than any GIC or HISA?
I would say the short answer is that the correlation is far too weak to make that anything other than a considerably risky strategy. This thread might be worth a look:

http://www.financialwisdomforum.org/for ... ilit=REITs
Thanks, good thread. Personally I am going to go with Adrian and Altared on this one. (ie. REITS donot equal HOUSES)
by drejmd
13 Aug 2010 15:44
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Where to park money short-term?
Replies: 51
Views: 14738

Re: Where to park money short-term?

If you were "parking" money that you planned to spend on a down-payment for a house, is there any logic in putting it in XRE. Would XRE fluctauate with real-estate prices and in the meantime provide a yield that is much better than any GIC or HISA?
by drejmd
09 Jan 2010 12:08
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa
Replies: 1785
Views: 325520

Re: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa

I don't think I'll ever get sick of making these posts, so please bear with me. First of all, thanks again to Norbert for sharing his "gambit". Not only does it work, it's just down right too much fun. This year wasn't quite as smooth as last, but it turns out that it wasn't my fault (I of course assumed it was) After placing the short sell order it "waited"..."locked".... and then mysteriously became "pending cancel". Eventually TDWH called and said the broker forgot to add a notation that they actually had the shares in there drawer, so it flopped in New York. Oh well, the next day I sold some POT in New York and bought it back in Toronto moments later for what appears to be a total cost of ~$100. N...
by drejmd
29 Aug 2009 15:36
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Who's rebalancing?
Replies: 60
Views: 3468

Re: Who's rebalancing?

DanielCarrera wrote:
Norbert Schlenker wrote:With equities up 50% in just a few months, some of you must be overweight stocks, especially Canadian stocks, or close to it. Who's lightening up and where is the money going?
I am in the accumulation phase. Using value averaging has meant that as stocks went down I bought more. Value averaging does something similar to rebalancing, so I guess that the answer is yes, I have rebalanced.
ditto
by drejmd
29 Aug 2009 15:17
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Dogs of the TSE
Replies: 523
Views: 103630

wow its been awhile since anyone has posted on the dogs strategy. I admit that I kind of lost interest in reading or writing about it the last couple of years but I also have to admit that, foolishly or not, I left half of our canadian equity allocation in "the dogs" with a Feb start/re-balance date. Of course this year they are knocking it out of the park, especially since March 1. The banks leading the way (up 50 - 80%) and BCE dragging way behind but still in the black. The purpose of my post however is actually a question. Would anyone who is following this or some other related strategy make an exception to the annual re-balancing rule when one of the constituents does something drastic like cut their dividend in half? A quic...
by drejmd
04 Jul 2009 10:55
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Real Return Bonds
Replies: 1545
Views: 242828

... If inflation is lower than expected, you'll lose more than 0.5% on real return bonds. ... Hey Doug, I'm interested in the above links and not yet had a chance to have a look. Part of my asset allocation called for a stash under my mattress where those dirty rotten financial scoundrels couldn't get at it. That seemed a little kooky so I went with RRBs, directly purchased, not ETFs. Just wondering if you wouldnt mind ellaborating on the above comment that you "lose more" if inflation goes down. Seems to me that if my cash was under my pillow (and I wasnt robbed), I wouldn't "lose" anything, ever. Except purchasing power because of inflation. So if the money under there was protected against the ravages of inflation (i...
by drejmd
07 Jun 2009 23:27
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: How to rebalance foreign currency allocation?
Replies: 10
Views: 1847

Strathglass, For what its worth, I think that once you've chosen the forex exposure you're comfortable with, then you have no choice but to strive to get back to it. Otherwise, by definition, you are ignoring your own investment plan. So the questions could then be, when and how. Do you want to do it annually or based on a threshold? I chose absolute and relative thresholds for me. A time-based strategy seemed too artificial to me and would mean that I would only have to look at my spreadsheet once a year. ( I'm down to weekly or biweekly from daily, but not ready for annual peaks yet) Do you want to sell stuff and buy other stuff, or just stop buying the stuff that's over-weighted until it's back in line? I chose both, but mostly the latte...
by drejmd
04 Jun 2009 22:57
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: How to rebalance foreign currency allocation?
Replies: 10
Views: 1847

Re: How to rebalance foreign currency allocation?

Planning to do my first annual rebalancing, and need guidance on one point: It is about US equity holdings, where I have: -asset allocation=17% of portfolio (in broad market US ETFs). -US$ forex exposure limit=5% (my total forex exposure limit is 15%). So I started with 5% in VTI (US ETF in US$), and 12% in XSP (US ETF hedged to CDN$). Now it comes time to rebalance: if the shift is large enough, I will rebalance back to 17% total US equity. The thing I have been STRUGGLING with is: do I treat the above 5% VTI and 12% XSP allocations as targets that I should move back to? It would seem that is the only sensible conclusion (having set my asset allocation and forex limits). Yet something is making me uneasy about this and I am not sure why. ...
by drejmd
30 Jan 2009 11:17
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Symbol-XSB vs "x" and other questions
Replies: 290
Views: 46230

drejmd wrote:What is the proper way to decide between XSB and a GIC ladder?
...or CLF?


Well, the simplest way I can think of is to compare the average interest rate of the GICs to the yield to maturity of the ETFs, less their mer.

ie.

GIC ladder: 3.15
XSB: 2.77
CLF: 3.35

So on 100K, the GIC ladder apparently beats XSB by $380/year and CLF beats XSB by $580.

?
by drejmd
29 Jan 2009 17:03
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Symbol-XSB vs "x" and other questions
Replies: 290
Views: 46230

Soooo.....

What is the proper way to decide between XSB and a GIC ladder?

GICs of 1 to 5 year maturities from ING are currently 2.00, 3.00, 3.25, 3.50 and 4.00% respectively. (www.money.canoe.ca/rates/gics)

Weighted average yield to maturity for XSB is 3.02%. MER is 0.25%. (www.ca.iShares.com)

Lets assume the time and effort to buy the new GIC every year isn't an issue and the total amount is 100K.
by drejmd
29 Oct 2008 12:51
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Home Insurance
Replies: 42
Views: 7076

Re: House Insurance - rebuilding cost ?

rfis wrote:So, if there was a fire and the house was 'toast' ,.is there insurance that would cover 'rebuild' cost? As building costs go up does insurance coverage need to be adjusted to reflect the increase?

Sorry if these are basic questions !
In Calgary we just had our re-build insurance re-assessed by having an independent inspection. The coverage went up a very modest amount.

In your case it sounds like 290 is in fact the estimated re-building cost and it certainly makes sense for coverage to be adjusted to reflect significant changes in cost.

Probably the easiest way for you to get clarification is to call your insurance broker for an explanation.
by drejmd
25 Oct 2008 15:35
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: 10 Questions for John Bogle
Replies: 175
Views: 83665

Clock Watcher wrote: If I come to the conclusion that timing is not realistic, then I will probably not bother with stocks.
ISTM that the evidence against timing is pretty solid. Which in fact is a huge relief to most DIYers I would think. You can feel comfortable coming up with a plan the suits your time-horizon and forget about it, other than to occasionally re-balance if/when needed.

You will probably also find that most of the advice out there is to have at least 25% of your assets in a diversified low cost stock portfolio even if it seems that stocks just aren't for you. (I'm sorry I don't have a reference at the tip of my fingers)
by drejmd
25 Oct 2008 15:07
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Rookie - First Time Investor - TD Income Fund - I
Replies: 2
Views: 2315

Any time is a great time to come up with a diversified asset allocation suitable to your personal level of risk tolerance and a simple easy to maintain investment plan.

But as far as what to wish for, it's probably fair to say that in an ideal world, the markets would fall and stay down while a person is accumulating the majority of their investments and then rise during the withdrawal phase. :)
by drejmd
25 Oct 2008 14:56
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: challenge - currency VWO, VEA, etc.
Replies: 4
Views: 1037

Isn't it simply the opposite of what the OP concluded?

Recently, as the CAD has fallen, the value of our foreign investments has been propped up. Exactly the opposite of what happened last year as we all watched the value of our foreign holdings fall as the CAD went to 1.10.
by drejmd
25 Oct 2008 14:47
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: 10 Questions for John Bogle
Replies: 175
Views: 83665

Clock Watcher wrote:If there isn't a way for me to do better with stocks than just buying and holding and using low-cost index funds, then I may as well just spend my money, at least I will get some degree of satisfaction.
Keep reading. Hopefully you will realize that doing as well as the market return will put you way above "average".

And besides, if you "just spend" your money, what will you live on when you don't feel like working anymore?
by drejmd
19 Oct 2008 17:32
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Symbol-XSP vs "x" and other XSP questions
Replies: 62
Views: 12876

squash500 wrote:If the canadian dollar continues to fall then imho this would make the xsp and xin an even less compelling alternative to invest in.
This is also my understanding. ie. hedging is only helpful when the canadian dollar is low or likely to go up.

What I meant was that if the Canadian dollar continues to fall, then at some point my foreign currency holdings will likely exceed their target ranges and if/when that happens, I imagine that it would be reasonable to make any further additions to those asset classes (or rebalancing of them) in the form of canadian-dollar hedged investments.
by drejmd
18 Oct 2008 12:31
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Symbol-XSP vs "x" and other XSP questions
Replies: 62
Views: 12876

Re: XSP vs. IVV

What are the pros/cons of buying an S&P500 etf on the canadian market vs. the us? IVV has a lower MER and I assume XSP is hedged against changes in the value of the dollar. Are there other practical differences I should know about such as tax issues or currency exchange issues? I use a TDW account and I like to keep it simple when it comes to my investments. "Norbert's gambit" makes currency exchange a non-issue. The tax issue is probably also a non-issue for most people as a result of the credit for any with-holding taxes on distributions. I look forward to comments on the tax issue from the point of view of US estate taxation. ISTM that the real issue is hedging. We have dealt with this by guessing where we will likely be s...
by drejmd
11 Oct 2008 14:54
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa
Replies: 1785
Views: 325520

queerasmoi wrote:I noticed that the interlisted.doc Norbert referred to upthread is no longer online... there's a Google HTML cache from August but that's it. Any ideas as to how we can get that info up-to-date now?
This one worked earlier this week.
by drejmd
04 Oct 2008 14:31
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: What did you buy? What might you buy? (2008)
Replies: 1488
Views: 37978

a little more PCY and VWO comes up as I plug the quarterly numbers into my spreadsheet :shock:
by drejmd
21 Sep 2008 04:21
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa
Replies: 1785
Views: 325520

Be very careful: Some Canadian financials are on the SEC's short ban list. If you're going to pull a Norbert in the next few weeks, make sure you aren't planning to make a banned short sell. Very careful about what? Lets for sake of arguement say that your screening step turned up one or more financials ( which it never has for me!), what would happen? Well if you are like me and rely on the short technique, your first step would be to place the short order and.... it wouldn't be filled. You would try again but same result,. You might call and say whats up and the nice person would say "i am sorry you can't short ABC right now". So you would pick a different one. If you use the original gambit, there is no shorting involved. Did ...
by drejmd
05 Sep 2008 11:30
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa
Replies: 1785
Views: 325520

pj2004 wrote:Where did you go to get those? I cannot find an option. Did you do it manually?
go here and change the settings to:
  • security: "common"
    country: "canada"
and enter (and re-enter) a minimum latest closing price and a minimum intraday volume until you get a reasonable number of candidates.

Then "google" the interlisted list just to double check your candidates.

Yes?
by drejmd
11 Jul 2008 15:25
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa
Replies: 1785
Views: 325520

Just did the trade. Bought 2400 BCE on TSX and sold on NYSE. I bought the shares just as I spoke to the representative on the phone. The first rep I spoke to wasn't able to help me, but then he transferred me to a more helpful person who knew exactly what to do. He gave me the $9.99 commission without me asking, and helped me pick a money market fund to put the money in after it all settled. After commission, my effective exchange rate was 0.98965 and the actual rate at that time was: 0.99102, costing me 13.7 basis points, 2.2 basis points was the commission, and the remaining I assume was bid/ask spread and small changes in the price of the stock. As a contrast, if I had exchanged about $8000 CAD more, I could have gotten a rate around 20...
by drejmd
11 Jul 2008 14:14
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa
Replies: 1785
Views: 325520

Just did the trade. Bought 2400 BCE on TSX and sold on NYSE. I bought the shares just as I spoke to the representative on the phone. The first rep I spoke to wasn't able to help me, but then he transferred me to a more helpful person who knew exactly what to do. He gave me the $9.99 commission without me asking, and helped me pick a money market fund to put the money in after it all settled. After commission, my effective exchange rate was 0.98965 and the actual rate at that time was: 0.99102, costing me 13.7 basis points, 2.2 basis points was the commission, and the remaining I assume was bid/ask spread and small changes in the price of the stock. As a contrast, if I had exchanged about $8000 CAD more, I could have gotten a rate around 20...