I really could use some feedback and help...

Asset allocation, risk, diversification and rebalancing. Pros/cons of hiring a financial advisor. Seeking advice on your portfolio?
frankrom
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I FINALLY DID IT!

Post by frankrom »

After months of thinking about... dealing with Manulife to cash out my mutual funds etc... switching banks, opening up all my direct investing accounts... come up with a plan... Learnt Norbit Gambits and turned the majority of my funds to USD etc.

I FINALLY DID IT.

I officially taken a position in the market and allocated the majority of my funds... with the exceptions of an RESP and a small ITF account (which hasn't been transferred over yet)

VTI
VEA
XEF.TO
VCN.TO

Couch potato my way to wealth hopefully!

Thanks to all who chimmed in on my posts the last few weeks!

Frank
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Peculiar_Investor
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Re: I really could use some feedback and help...

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Late to the discussion but
frankrom wrote: 04 Aug 2017 12:40 I FINALLY DID IT.

I officially taken a position in the market and allocated the majority of my funds... with the exceptions of an RESP and a small ITF account (which hasn't been transferred over yet)

VTI
VEA
XEF.TO
VCN.TO

Couch potato my way to wealth hopefully!
Congratulations. Lots of good discussion here from both the OP and the FWF community! Well done all.
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frankrom
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Re: I really could use some feedback and help...

Post by frankrom »

I logged in today to start a topic on another area of the forum and figured i'd revisit this post as this was ground zero for me.

Just wanted to say thanks to all who helped. I have taken a lot of enjoyment out of managing my own investments. I have been very disciplined thus far and haven't over reacted to small blimps in the market. I have found it really rewarding managing my own funds and I am happy I did not hired a financial manager.

I have decided to mix in some stock picks with my ETFs which add a little excitement for me. I have added margin money to amplify my gains which has been fantastic thus far (I am not overly leveraged). I built my portfolio surrounding ETFs such as VTI, VEA, VCN... I added onto that foundation with some high yield dividend stocks to coverage some of the margin interest specifically IPL (My biggest winner... up almost 20% with a 7% yield when I bought it, ENB, CNQ, and TRP, I also added some AAPL and Tencent Holdings (I was itching for a little of this China tech craze going on).

ENB took a kick in the nuts for me dropping 10% but bounced back today and now down only 2.5%.... I now hold ENB in both of my TFSAs (and in non-reg) as I believe this is a great long term, high yield, good growth play.

I am not looking to add some US bank stocks... I am thinking of going with an ETF for this move... probably Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF)

Anyhow... I am not certain I would have been confident enough to take the plunge without help from you guys... I am very happy I did.

Cheers!

Thx
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Re: I really could use some feedback and help...

Post by AltaRed »

Late to this thread, and happy to hear your (short) investing history is going well. It's always nice to start with some wins. Just remember you are participating in a "raging" bull. Almost any decent ETF/stock selection is making you (paper) money without even trying. Your ENB blip is only noise. Your groin will hurt a lot more with a 20-40% kick...that WILL happen at some time down the road, maybe across all your equities. In the meantime, have fun and stay with the program.
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frankrom
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Re: I really could use some feedback and help...

Post by frankrom »

Thanks AltaRed... appreciate the help along the way.

I am also trying to stay neutral and uninfluenced from all the noise. I realized its common place to find 5 bull articles a day and another 5 bear articles a day. One saying we are looking at another 20% upside and another saying we are going down 50%...

I am just reminding myself this is long term and stay with it and don't get into day trading.

To prove this to myself... late last year I put a calendar reminder in my phone for a future date... I read a bear article who indicated the market was heading for a massive correction around a specific date... apparently this individual has predicated numerous crashes in the past.

Needless to say absolutely nothing happened (which i obviously expected).

News is so common place and readily accessibly t is easy to get influenced by a fancy piece of writing.
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Re: I really could use some feedback and help...

Post by Quebec »

frankrom wrote: 30 Nov 2017 23:34 I have added margin money to amplify my gains which has been fantastic thus far (I am not overly leveraged).
In another thread you ask about fixed income. Using margin is kind of the opposite of investing in fixed income. If you want to transfer some of your portfolio into fixed income (which is recommended for almost everyone), the 1st step is to stop using margin.

A real life example might help. The current interest rate on margin loans at Questrade is 3.20%. Meanwhile the highest yielding five year GIC available at the same discount brokerage is 2.95%. So if you borrow X dollars to leverage your stocks, but simultaneously purchase the same amount of this GIC (for illustrative purposes), you are loosing money.
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Re: I really could use some feedback and help...

Post by simms »

Quebec wrote: 06 Dec 2017 16:22
<snip>
A real life example might help. The current interest rate on margin loans at Questrade is 3.20%. Meanwhile the highest yielding five year GIC available at the same discount brokerage is 2.95%. So if you borrow X dollars to leverage your stocks, but simultaneously purchase the same amount of this GIC (for illustrative purposes), you are loosing money.

What about factoring in that the margin loan interest is tax deductible?
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Re: I really could use some feedback and help...

Post by Quebec »

simms wrote: 18 Dec 2017 11:46 What about factoring in that the margin loan interest is tax deductible?
Sure. But you have to factor in inflation too. My point is that margin should be used to by stocks, not F.I.: the expected return of the investment should be significantly more than the interest rate on the loan. Not many people should have 100% stocks, IMO, and even fewer should employ margin.
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