Search found 5269 matches

by newguy
30 Oct 2015 20:06
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: [options] strangle tax - cost basis
Replies: 5
Views: 468

Re: [options] strangle tax - cost basis

drm509 wrote:How did you get $61 and $21. Did you split the commissions evenly among the legs?
0.5 * 100 + 11 & 0.1 * 100 + 11. You make it sound like $11 commission for each.

newguy
by newguy
30 Oct 2015 00:19
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Flying
Replies: 809
Views: 23900

Re: Flying

Then there is the difficulty of breaking in with an airline once you are qualified. My daughter spent the best part of 10 years as an instructor starting as a Class 4 instructor and moving up to a Class 1 instructor and assisting in management of a flying school. Why didn't she work as a bush or cargo pilot? Why not go to Asia or the middle east for entry level jobs? How many women students were at the school? These are all factors why there are so few female airline pilots. Instructors don't have their time valued as highly as other jobs so it takes longer to move on. It's really just the same thing over and over again with another student. She could have had 1500 hrs PIC just doing circuits. I think she must have had some luck actually g...
by newguy
29 Oct 2015 23:41
Forum: Taxing Situations
Topic: [options] strangle tax - cost basis
Replies: 5
Views: 468

Re: [options] strangle tax - cost basis

Cost basis for the strangle is 120-12=108.
When writing you have a cost base of 0. In this case you have a gain of 108.
Say I buy back the call for 0.5 and pay $11 commission and the put for 0.1 and also pay $11 commission.
When buying back the option you have a capital loss in the year you buy it back. So $61+$21 loss.

You don't track the cost base on the options but the effect is the same.

https://www.m-x.ca/f_publications_en/br ... pmg_en.pdf pg.5

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it479r/it479r-e.html par. 29

newguy
by newguy
16 Oct 2015 11:44
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Lottery tickets as investments
Replies: 69
Views: 3059

Re: Lottery tickets as investments

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/record-64- ... -1.2612964

$64 million payout, if there's one winner. It costs around $28 million to buy all the tickets. Who wants to help double their money overnight?

newguy
by newguy
15 Oct 2015 22:58
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Clippings 2015
Replies: 388
Views: 36218

Re: Clippings 2015

I came across a good blog today that covers much of what we talk about. Don't know the best place but... http://www.salientpartners.com/epsilontheory/?page=4 Yes, unlike a mutual fund you CAN buy and sell an ETF just like a single name stock, but that doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Like so many things in our modern world, the exchange traded nature of the ETF is a benefit for the few (Market Makers and The Sell Side) that has been sold falsely as a benefit for the many (Investors). It’s not a benefit for Investors. On the contrary, it’s a detriment. Investors who would never in a million years consider trading in and out of a mutual fund do it all the time with an exchange traded fund, and as a result their thoughtful ETF allocation becomes just ...
by newguy
15 Oct 2015 20:22
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Veganism
Replies: 133
Views: 2630

Re: Veganism

I'm not sure that there's any suffering during the slaughter, it's pretty quick. Maybe it's the conditions during life that cause the most suffering, but that means a vegan should be allowed to eat ethically raised and killed fauna. Another thing is (ethical)hunting is by far the most ethical way to kill a wild animal. You may have noticed the lack of deer old folks homes in the wild. However there are you tube videos of animals being eaten alive by predators. So is it ok for a vegan to hunt in order to reduce suffering? Another thing is species survival. If the dodo had been factory farmed then we'd be having that for thanksgiving. Most of our morals should be about human species survival and we can help other species to survive by eating ...
by newguy
15 Oct 2015 20:10
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Electronic Medical Records
Replies: 5
Views: 149

Re: Electronic Medical Records

What doctor? I live in Qc. The last remaining doc (stubee) is retiring. :rofl: My child's pediatrician uses paper totally. The clinic has all those color coded folders and when we show up the folder goes to the doctor's inbox. The doc may read it for a bit before we go in but I think it's mostly in order of what she needs to see. She always asks pertinent questions, but they may be similar for all kids. I watch her fill out the growth percentile chart by hand every time and wonder if there's a better way. She also reads the measurements to me so I can fill them out in my kid's vaccination booklet (it has spots for height and weight). All blood tests need a permission slip with tests filled out and results are mailed or faxed back to the doc...
by newguy
04 Oct 2015 14:04
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Home Bias Strategy
Replies: 22
Views: 1403

Re: Home Bias Strategy

Norbert Schlenker wrote:The outside Canada piece should probably be reversed, i.e. 20% US and 40% ex-NA. You want to own uncorrelated assets. Canada and US equity returns are too well correlated to get much benefit out of a mix that is all or mostly them. (Historical return correlations between Canada and US equities are >90% on an annual basis, better than 80% for shorter time frames. Even for shorter time frames, you'll get >90% correlation if you add oil prices in as a dependent variable.)
Not that this disproves your thesis on longer time frames, but I was looking at this earlier and wondering if the lines would ever meet.
Capture.PNG
Probably even more reason to buy eafe.

newguy
by newguy
08 Sep 2015 20:46
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Inflation insights
Replies: 44
Views: 4072

Re: Inflation insights

So I'm shopping today and the prices have definitely gone up a lot in the past year. Probably mostly CAD related. I wonder if it will ever show up in the official numbers? Then I started wondering how the lowest quintile manages since all they can afford is food. I can't find any measure of inflation by income level. I guess I could go through CPI data and make a guess. But even then it will misrepresent the situation since the poor are already buying the cheapest stuff. Their basket doesn't switch from filet mignon to hamburger. And hamburger has gone up a lot. Anyway I found this one report, http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/measuring-poverty-inflation Between 2002–03 and 2013–14, the bottom quintile experienced an annual average inflati...
by newguy
08 Sep 2015 20:22
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Vanguard coming to Canada
Replies: 492
Views: 49021

Re: Vanguard coming to Canada

gsp_ wrote:Newguy is right that XAW also holds all ETFs but its superiority doesn't only rest in its 5 bps MER advantage. It also holds a Canadian listed EAFE ETF(XEF) which reduces the lost FWT.
So you're suggesting the FTC amounts can flow through Cdn ETFs but not US ones? The law, of course, is ambiguous but it makes sense, especially if it was all internal to one company.

What's to stop VG (whom I love with all my heart :roll: ) from flowing through the tax credits in VT to a Cdn wrap? That would be nice.

newguy
by newguy
08 Sep 2015 20:03
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Conditional Drawdown in excel
Replies: 10
Views: 4099

Re: Conditional Drawdown in excel

It sounds like a rather arbitrary way to calculate drawdowns. I'm not sure of the information content of the results, ie what do they tell you?

I like the chart that shows all 20% drawdowns in SPY eventually became 40% +.

Also the description is ambiguous, when has a 20% drop bottomed? What defines the local maximum?

Either way, it's too complicated to do in Excel without VBA programming.

newguy
by newguy
08 Sep 2015 19:57
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: BMO Investorline
Replies: 1278
Views: 198095

Re: BMO Investorline

eulogy wrote:I've had my eye on BMO IL ever since TDDI doesn't allow me to do Gambiting in registered accounts without a call + call sell fee.
Whaaat? I've read here that it's just an instant online buy and sell on the other side. Maybe things changed after they finally got USD accounts.

newguy
by newguy
08 Sep 2015 19:30
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Vanguard coming to Canada
Replies: 492
Views: 49021

Re: Vanguard coming to Canada

gsp_ wrote:
Shakespeare wrote:Is VXC still holding other VG ETFs? The website lists the stocks.
Yes.

XAW is a superior alternative.
I just checked and XAW holds etfs as well. It's also much smaller than VXC. That may allow VXC to hold more individual stocks eventually. Since US stocks are 50%+ anyway the withholding issue is only half as bad as it sounds.

newguy
by newguy
01 Sep 2015 19:00
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Conditional Drawdown in excel
Replies: 10
Views: 4099

Re: Conditional Drawdown in excel

gauravks3 wrote: For ex. on May 19, 2008, S&P 500 was 1423 and it went down by more than 5% by June 23, 2008 to reach 1318.

IN the calculation suggested by you data points like these are missed. IN the attched excel for S&P 500, in 2008, there were 24 such 5% drawdowns but by this method only 12 data points get reflected.
There were way more than 24. Consider that it also dropped by more than 5% from May 20,21,22,etc... You have to have a way to define drawdowns as a single event. I say it's one 5% that turned into a 10% that turned into a 15% etc..

newguy
by newguy
31 Aug 2015 22:11
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Conditional Drawdown in excel
Replies: 10
Views: 4099

Re: Conditional Drawdown in excel

To hopefully provide more clarity, suppose a stock fells by 5% from its Peak and stay under water for next 60 days. If I do a frequency, countif etc. it counts all the days the stock is under 5% drawdown i.e. 60 days which is not what I want. The formulas I showed you would only count it as one. =IF(AND(NOT(R8=1),R9=1),1,0) means If the 8th row is not a drawdown and the 9th row is, then 1. Daily or monthly(Shiller's is monthly) doesn't make a difference. To get double 20% drawdowns, just check for about 40% (actually 36%). I included a small sample using daily SPY data just to show the formulas but I rearranged the formulas to make drawdown look negative. Copy as many columns as you need for the specific % drawdowns you'd like. You'll have...
by newguy
30 Aug 2015 22:29
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Decaffeinated Coffee
Replies: 11
Views: 481

Re: Decaffeinated Coffee

Solo wrote: And, I also agree that the key is to grind the beans just before brewing.
Grind? I want to roast mine just before brewing.

Maybe not the answer you're looking for but I just used 1 g/L less each day until I can drink coffee continuously all day long.

Recipes on the internets say about 1:18 (by wt). I'm at about 1:50 and never noticed the difference.

newguy
by newguy
30 Aug 2015 21:35
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Conditional Drawdown in excel
Replies: 10
Views: 4099

Re: Conditional Drawdown in excel

I can't open xslx, save it as office 2000 or open office.

Your rules sound too complicated to easily do in excel. You may be better off with Python or R.

newguy
by newguy
30 Aug 2015 16:39
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Windows Update
Replies: 466
Views: 10767

Re: Windows Update

I heard MSFT Money stopped working in 10 but I kept reading and found a scraping tool for TD.

https://github.com/nicbou/td-canada-par ... -parser.py

Any brave souls want to automate downloads?

newguy
by newguy
30 Aug 2015 16:28
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Conditional Drawdown in excel
Replies: 10
Views: 4099

Re: Conditional Drawdown in excel

Go get the data from Shiller. http://www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/data.htm

Make a columm of the max price in col B (or real price in h, or make a total return col with divs included). Calc the drawdown, check if it's more than x and not a new high yet, count all the times it starts as you'll spend many months at > x drawdown. Note. I put 0.2 in R7. The number of > x drawdowns is the sum of col S, =SUM(S9:S2000).

Code: Select all

col P              col Q               col R                                  col S
=MAX($B$9:B9)  =(P9-B9)/P9    =IF(OR(Q9>$R$7,AND(R8=1,NOT(Q9=0))),1,0)     =IF(AND(NOT(R8=1),R9=1),1,0)
I get 12 > 20% drawdowns that recovered to a new high.

newguy

ps. welcome to fwf!
by newguy
10 Jul 2015 17:55
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Anyone familiar with Zag Bank?
Replies: 10
Views: 4108

Re: Anyone familiar with Zag Bank?

Shakespeare wrote:Try Zig. :wink:
I have it on good authority that ZigZagZoo sucks.

newguy
by newguy
10 Jul 2015 17:19
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Anyone familiar with Zag Bank?
Replies: 10
Views: 4108

Re: Anyone familiar with Zag Bank?

Awesome, a Quebec based online bank. I was getting jealous of the RoC since it's rare they allow Quebecers to open accounts.

newguy

ps. just checked, Zag doesn't allow Quebec accounts. :rofl:
by newguy
18 Jun 2015 22:18
Forum: Financial News, Policy and Economics
Topic: Greece
Replies: 397
Views: 43212

Re: Greece

nisser wrote:I don't agree that a default is the best option. They use up 60% of their GDP on public pensions. Let that sink in for a minute.
No way! Check those numbers somewhere. Maybe 60% of revenue.

newguy
by newguy
16 Jun 2015 13:46
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Windows Update
Replies: 466
Views: 10767

Re: Windows Update

Shakespeare wrote:Interestingly enough, the W10 reserve icon just showed up on the 8-year-old dual core previously-XP system in the basement, which I just upgraded to an, er, copy of W7 professional and an on-sale 120G SSD.
http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... -it-seems/

newguy

ps how does 7 compare to xp in terms of performance on old h-ware?
by newguy
15 Jun 2015 17:41
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Value investing is a mistake
Replies: 47
Views: 6138

Re: Value investing is a mistake

I wouldn't go so far as to see why it doesn't work when it so obviously does. I would try and see if it's really value investing or maybe cyclical investing or even something else??.

You need a baseline to judge a system. With TA, you can use random entries and you'll usually find it's the exit rules that make the money (momentum effect). I would try and compare your valuation metrics to buying stocks that are at a cyclical low regardless of the valuation and use a similar holding time or cyclical high or even the same exit rules you use now.

You might just find out that you're an elliot wave theorist :D

newguy
by newguy
14 Jun 2015 09:03
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Computer problems
Replies: 2750
Views: 79493

Re: Computer problems

Bylo Selhi wrote:Get something refurbished from http://www.nmicrovip.ca/, e.g. an Asus RT-66U for $120. It will run circles around your WRT-54g and you'll wonder why you waited do long to replace it.
I don't get why they're so cheap, or how you always find this stuff :?:

I wanted the 802.11ac to try the beam forming so I could save on pringle's cans but here's the best explanation I can find which makes me think it's useless today for most things. I think the nexus 5 is one of the few phones that support beam forming so it might help.

http://theruckusroom.typepad.com/files/ ... 0521-1.pdf

Do you use voip over wifi with your nexus 5 and an n or ac router?

newguy