Canadian Dollars Blog

There is an article over at Barron 's in which the author feels that Canada's dollar is way overpriced and that forex traders should seriously consider shorting the loonie. I'm very skeptical of this move. Canada is fiscally sound and is currently in the middle of a resource boom. These two things are major reasons why I wouldn't be against our strong loonie any time soon. That being said, our economy is very much tied to the US economy. As a result, should a recession strike south of the border, we will definitely feel more than just the aftershocks. This will probably be my last post for 2007. I want to take this opportunity to thank all my readers for sticking with me and reading my posts. It's really appreciated. Hopefully 2007 was a great year for you guys. Let's hope that 2008 will be even more prosperous!

When neighborhoods and streets are glittering with lights, it's very important to keep saving energy in the back of your mind. A simple way of achieving this is to use LED lights instead of the more traditional decorative lights. Aside from lowering your energy bill, LED lights generally have a longer life than typical bulbs. For example, the average LED light will last approximately 200,000 hours while normal bulbs last between 1000 to 2000 hours. In other words, the average LED light will last 100-200x longer. The only drawback is that these LED lights cost signficantly more than typical bulbs. Fortunately if you use them year after year, you will definitely recoup the initial purchase. All this being said, now that the holidays are almost over, you should start thinking about taking down your xmas lights (to save electricity of course!)

GPS units used to be the territory of the rich and famous. Only available in the upper luxurious cars. A privilege for the few. This has changed very recently with the dramatic drop in prices for GPS units. The price for these portable units have been falling steadily. This past boxing day, there were some that were available in the 150-200 range. Open up a few flyers and you'll see that this isn't just a boxing day one day deal. These are slowing becoming regular every day prices. For the first time in a long time, GPS units are now affordable by ordinary everyday people. So what does this mean for Garmin (GRMN), a company that is arguably at the forefront of hardware innovation when it comes to this field? With more mainstream adoption of GPS units, does Garmin really have more room to go higher? How would a recession impact things? Surely if people become dependent on the GPS, it'll become one of those things that they can't live without like the Internet o

When corporations go private, investors face really high capital gains taxes. The capital gains are often times even greater for stocks that have been owned for decades. For example, stocks like Bell (BCE) may have been purchased at a relatively low adjusted cost base. Unfortunately, investors have no say when corporations go private. The only thing that is certain is a large tax bill. In this post, I will discuss a great technique that will help lessen the tax bill. A recent change in the Income Tax Act now makes donating shares instead of cash a much more worthwhile endeavor. Specifically, I will examine how many shares a person must donate to wipe out the tax on the capital gains on the other shares that one is selling. For example, if a donation is valued at over $200, you can use the following basic formula to determine what fraction of shares should be donated in kind to 'zero out' the tax liability. I will begin first by defining two ratios: g = Gain in shares divi

Intel has been one of those stocks that has been pretty stagnant the last 5 years or so. It survived the first bubble wave (mainly because it has a real tangible product) but the stock really didn't go anywhere fast. Last year when they were restructuring, I decided to initiate a small position in the company. The main reason being was they were still clearly leading in the AMD (AMD) vs Intel (INTC) war and their products, although more expensive than AMD, were justifiable because the performance was higher. Not too long after, AMD decided to purchase ATI and the reaction was mixed on the street. Tackling so much debt in order to purchase a company seemed like a desperate move on AMD's part. In the last year, AMD has still been struggling with a high debt balance sheet and is forecasting that they will return to profitability in 2008. So why do I like Intel right now? They have a lot of freedom. With AMD crippled with massive debt, it leaves Intel the ability to leave A

Here are a few notable links I came across while surfing this morning: The Toronto Star has an interesting article about CEO's to watch in 2008 . Apple's stock traded at 200 for the 1st time . While Apple (AAPL) may have a lot of momentum going for it, I question how long this bull can run. Their stock is basically priced for perfection. Will 2008 be a huge success like 2007? What will be the iPhone of 2008? What happens if there isn't a grandslam homerun out of the park. What if their margins aren't as good for 2008? It should be interesting to see how this one plays out. The pressure is clearly on Apple to deliver results that exceed both their guidance and the street's expectations!

My parents are visiting in town for the week so I probably won't be posting much more in the next couple of days. I'll try to sneak in a few posts when I have some spare time. Anyway, while they were in town we dropped by a very popular mall in the morning. Sounds like a pretty boring post so far right? Well, guess what? The mall wasn't nearly as busy as it was in previous year's Boxing Days. This leads me to believe that there is a serious drop in consumer spending. If you think things are bad in Canada, things are even worse in the USA. I watched NBC news this evening and they talked about how empty the malls are. I can't replay footage of NBC news on here, but picture this. A camera panning left and right in a normally busy mall in suburban USA. The mall is empty. The J Crew on the left and the GAP on the right are virtually empty. It's a ghost town here folks! I know that Americans don't celebrate Boxing Day, but in the past they are known to

Here are the main reasons why I'm bullish on Bank of Nova Scotia. Despite the subprime mortgage problems that we've been experiencing this past year, I am still very much bullish on the stock. Here is a summary of my reasons: a very unique international growth strategy focusing on central and south america and pretty much avoiding significant exposure to the USA - this is a good thing at this time Scotia is Canada's 3rd largest banks by assets and they rank 2nd by market cap in canada Scotia's total returns over the past decade have averaged 20% per anum Steady rising dividend. Boring but stable. Current dividend yield of 3.80% Stock has been unfairly beat up in the last little while I like Canada's Oligopoly. It limits competition and allows the banks here to rake up massive profits

File under: Random unrelated funnies: I saw this on BoingBoing this evening. This is freaking hilarious: For those not familiar, this is a play on words from the infamous and arguably unfunny University of Florida Taser Incident . The image is very creative. I'm very pleased that the creator has made a business out of selling t-shirts and hoodies of this creative picture. Good luck. I hope he gets tons of sales. :)

The GlobeAndMail has an excellent article that details Audi's audacious plans to become the world's largest luxury automaker by 2015. It is currently 2007 (almost 2008). What this means is that Audi will need to transform itself into a mainstream luxury player in order for that to happen. 7 years is not a lot of time, but with the right amount of drive and motivation, it can happen. But I must warn the company. Changes like this don't happen overnight. A company's reputation (good or bad) can haunt them for many years. A genuine turnaround takes a long time to truly make. Take for instance, the Hyundai Motor company. In the 80's and 90's they were a complete joke. When they started to arguably build better cars than Toyota (TM), those feats were met with a lot of skepticism. How good will the cars be long term, people asked? These cars may be fully featured, but will it fall apart 5 years down the road, others inquired. It's not fair to compare Audi

The overall market on Friday was very cheery because of news of some November data showing that consumer spending was surging . Perhaps I am a skeptic, and sure the malls were pretty busy. But was it just me or did everyone else notice that there were tons of promos and increased marketing efforts to lure consumers to shopping centers? In the past 2 months I've noticed an unusually higher than normal push in marketing efforts. More discounts. More sales. What does this all mean? Well Marketing costs money and these costs cut greatly into margin. Sure people are spending at malls but can they really afford to? The average American and Canadian are already overextending themselves. Call me a skeptic, but I predict a short term mini-correction after this mini surge in the markets due to the positively perceived retail news.

Well 2007 was certainly a rollercoaster year for the stockmarket. There were many times when the stock market corrected itself in the beginning part of 2007. By the second half, the impact of subprime loans created a huge tsunami that rippled throughout the world. The feds lowered interest rates and President Bush unveiled a plan to help bail out those with subprime loans. So how did good ol Canadian Dollars do, you ask? Well, this evening I dusted off the old spreadsheet and ran some figures. For the year ending 2007, my savings rate including all capital gains resulted in me having a net savings rate of 36.6%. This is actually much higher than I had originally expected. What this means is that on average, I'm growing my net worth by about 3% monthly. This is pretty decent. I realize that the number may seem high because I'm currently not a high networth individual. My total net worth as of now is just under $90,000. This is a very modest amount when compared w

Apparently Britney Spear's sister, 16 year old Jamie Lynne Spears is pregnant . This is a great thing long term for Blue Nile investors. What's the connection you ask? Read on. Seriously, if you were the Spear's PR manager how could you salvage this situation? Abort the child? Unlikely, at 3 months you'd probably have to use one of those horrific abortion techniques (partial birth I think it was called) too much mess (PR mess). Put the kid up for adoption? Also another unlikely scenario because of the additional PR mess it would create (message: get pregnant, give up for adoption no biggie, have more sex, repeat ...) I know! Get married. it would essentially say "Yes we know that this situation is not favorable, but we're moving forward and doing the responsible thing." This is the lesser of the evils. Or is it? So if Jamie, 16, and her boyfriend 19 get married, it's going to send a message out to the kids that yes it's ok to get married at such

With Christmas right around the corner, procrastinators of the world must now unite and get their presents. I was at the mall today after work and noticed that everywhere was ridiculously busy. Originally I figured that the time between 5-7pm would be less busy as I figured a lot of people would be taking the trains home. Boy was I wrong. My first stop was at Future Shop where I picked up a copy of the new Simpsons movie for a friend. I could not believe my eyes. The line had about 30 people in front of me. Curious, I quickly glanced at what others were buying. A lot of people were buying video games, DVDs, and gift cards. Gift Cards are probably the best present for those that are hard to purchase for as it gives the recipient a lot of options for what they can buy especially at big box chains like Future Shop that have pretty much everything under the sun. After the 30 minutes of waiting in line, I proceeded to visit the Bay to purchase some chocolates. Again I was confronted

I've been recently contemplating purchasing my TTC ( Toronto Transit Commission ) Metropass using their monthly Discount Plan . How it works is the TTC will automatically debit your account for a 12 month cycle and mail you your TTC monthly pass (which is good for unlimited rides with the majority of the Great Toronto Area). So you might be asking, what would I save in doing this? I'd have to give my chequing account details to the TTC. Do I really want to do this? Well, when you sign up for the Discount Plan, you save approxmiately 10%. Which after a 12 month cycle, means you basically buy 11 months and get 1 free (roughly). So it sounds like a really good deal right? Well, being the frugal person I am, I decided to research the topic a little more and wondered what would happen if a pass is misdirected in the mail or never sent. How would their customer service deal with it? Well it turns out the first time a pass doesn't arrive, the TTC will offer you a replace

Apparently cops in a town in California have been instructed by their managers and higher ups to find people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong, and have them pullover and reward them for being good citizens of the law by giving them $5 gift certificates to Starbucks . Seriously. I guess those law abiding motorists will have nothing to fear if they spot flashing red lights in their mirrors in the Sacramento suburb in which the 'reward' is taking place. Supposedly a traffic officer came up with this controversial idea in order to "promote the holiday spirit and enhance goodwill between the traffic unit and the motoring public," police Sgt. Tim Curran said. I don't know about you, but the hassle of being pulled over (not to mention the anxiety that ensues and unfortunate delay) are hardly worth the $5 Starbucks card in my opinion. If, on the other hand, you get pulled over on your way to Starbucks, you might want to be extra kind to the policeman/woman and a

Over at Million Dollar Journey he's got an excellent article about how canceling a credit card affects your credit score. This was actually a question that was posted by me in the comments section in an earlier post about Credit Card Arbitrage . I encourage all my readers to check it out. Thanks Frugal Trader!

I read an interesting article in the Financial Post this morning in which they examined the eating trends of Americans in the last year. In a survey of 7000 people, they found that in 2007 fewer Americans were eating out at Restaurants with nearly 1/3 of the respondents claiming that the high cost of gasoline would curtail their restaurant patronage. They also went on to say that if they had to eat out, they would choose cheaper alternatives like McDonalds once a month instead of twice a month at Chili's. Let's take a comparison at two stocks: McDonald's 2007 Stock : http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1197984030000&chddm=1173&q=NYSE:MCD Ruth's Chris Steak House 2007 Stock : http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1197984086000&chddm=1173&q=NASDAQ:RUTH To put things in per

Okay just got back from shoppers drug mart just now and noticed that they have an awesome promotion going on. Basically they have milk at 3.99 regular price (which is cheaper than everywhere else in toronto). But get this, if you use your optimum card, they reduce the price by another dollar making the deal even SWEETER: $2.99!! Limit 2 per customer. The deal ends this friday! This is easily the cheapest milk I've seen in a long time. Bought two bags. Check it out, I posted a message on RedFlagDeals and suddenly all these anti-milk people come out of the wood work. Hilarious! Good times!

Over at Money Sense , they've recently posted a list of the top 12 U.S. stock picks for 2008. A few of the highlights (in my opinon): CVS Caremark (CVS) (Value A, Growth A) was the only stock to garner a double-A rating this year. CVS is the No. 1 provider of prescription drugs in the U.S. and its chain of drugstores has posted outstanding numbers. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) (Value A, Growth B), one of the world’s biggest agricultural processors, was one of our top picks last year. It continues to show strong growth and is now an even better value than it was in 2006. Bargain hunters will salivate over its low price-to-earnings ratio. Universal Health Services (UHS) (Value A, Growth B), another carryover from last year, owns a string of hospitals and health-care centres. Investors appear to be spooked by the heated debates over reform of the U.S. health-care system and what those reforms might mean to U.S. health-care providers. In response, they’ve driven down Universal’s share

In my daily Internet surfing, I came across some excellent stock screeners for you to use. Check these out. If you like this link, I would recommend that you bookmark this page or subscribe to my feed :) Without further ado, here are the stock screeners Globe and Mail Stock Screener MSN Stock Screener High Dividend Yield U.S. Dow 30 S&P500 TSX Composite TSX 40 60 Mid Small Dividends at Risk U.S. TSX Composite Value Ratio Approach S&P500 Mid Small TSX All Graham's Approach S&P500 Mid Small TSX All The Value 60 Approach S&P500 Mid Small

Today there was news that leaked that somehow links Saputo with the Italian Mafia. As a result, the stock took a bruising and dropped a not so modest 6%. I personally believe that the story is false and that the market beat up the stock based on the allegations. I guess at this point it's a bit of a coin flip whether the allegations are true or not. Only time will tell. I will focus more on their earnings and their recent results: Saputo did will in fiscal 2007. With the recent news aside, their fiscal 2008 looks very promising. In the year ending mar 31, Saputo earned $2.28 a share with operating income rose 21.1% in the big dairy divisions. Although their revenue slipped 0.5 per cent to 4 billion, the higher efficiency cut costs by 2.2% which raised the company's profit margins. With the higher profits and excess cash flows, Saputo has continued to grow dividends year after year. I predict that they will buy back more of its shares particularly on weakness. Saputo is

Effective immediate a select group of Toronto Public Libraries now have free Wi-Fi : The following Toronto Public Libraries effective immediately will have access to Wi-Fi. This is definitely a new thing because I was using the library in the summer and it clearly did not have Wi-Fi access! Users of the wireless Internet service are bound by the terms of Toronto Public Library's Rules of Conduct and Internet Use Policy.Users will not be directed to the wireless network unless they agree to these terms and conditions. The Library's wireless access points are unsecured connections to the Internet. The Library is not responsible for data transmitted or loss of information over the wireless network. Users should be aware that third parties may be able to obtain information about users' activities when using the wireless service to connect to the Internet. The Library assumes no responsibility for the security and privacy of on-line transactions. Check these ones out: Agincourt

It's that time of the year again. If your portfolio is like mine, 2007 was a very volatile year with lots of ups and downs. A few hits mixed with a few misses. If all your stock picks were hits, congratulations - you seem to know how to beat the market well. For the rest of us with mere mortal portfolios, what do you do with your misses. If you believe that the fundamentals of the underperforming stock are still sound, do you hold the stock or do you sell it in the hopes of escaping to greener pastures? It's a tough call but for me if I believe a stock is a long term hold and the stock was beat up over the course of the year due to a temporary blip in bad earnings, I will generally hold on to the stock. However, if the stock's fundamentals has changed so much from the time that I bought it until now, I would definitely consider selling the stock. Stocks that I bought for a quick flip (short term holds) that didn't perform as I expected, I usually sell to offset my

With temperatures in Toronto hovering around -5, I prefer staying indoors as much as possible. This is where brown bagging your lunch has another advantage in the winter - you get to avoid the winter cold. While my friends are out searching for where to buy their lunch, I get to enjoy my home made lunch (very cost effective too) in the comfort of my lunch room without having to brave the cold every time I want a bite. I also try to brown bag all my snacks as well to avoid the temptation of buying candy and snacks from those candy stores. Sure the candy at those stores is cheap - but the problem is those snacks add up. A chocolate bar here, a bag of chips there, next thing you know your snacks are costing you more than your home made meal! It's the same with cookies, I brownbag them from home. We love to back so we bake a batch of cookies and bring them in reusable containers to work.

Today I received the following in my e-mail box: Dear _____ We would like to update you on the status of AGLOCO's operations. We continue to believe in the AGLOCO concept, but our revenue is currently not sufficient to give Members a meaningful distribution. And though there are increases in membership, the resulting revenue is not enough to support operating costs. As a development team we are unable to continue to use our savings to fund the operations. If any Member would like to pursue continuing the operations of AGLOCO, you may contact us at agloco1@live.com . We would like to thank every Member for supporting our effort to bring a piece of the Internet directly to the user. We hope that we can find a way to keep the operations going. AGLOCO Development Team Another one bites the dust I guess....

I've recently received tons of coupons in the mail. My coupon stash had accumulated to the point where I was clearly receiving more coupons than I was using. Worst than that was all the useful coupons I had accumulated and hoped to use were expired. This past weekend I went through my coupon stash and threw out all coupons that had expired or were about to expire. (Eg I just purchased 24 rolls of toilet paper at Shoppers Drug Mart last weekend and this extra coupon for $1 off expiring Dec 31, likely won't be used unless I literally have a crappy holiday). Jokes aside I took all the coupons that I knew I could use in the near future and organized them. I took all my free coupons - free kashi cereal, free live active cheese, $1 off toilet duck and took em all to my grocery stores, zellers and drug stores to redeem. In the end I was able to use a total of 10 coupons. Sure I got a lot of odd looks from cashiers. Note - the younger cashiers are usually better because they don&

The Web 2.0 Song by the Richter Scales - Funny!

Why does the government help people out of their credit problems? Essentially you do something stupid like overextend yourself, and the government bails you out. Stocks ticked higher on this news. Wanna know why I like this news? Read on... The people and companies who got themselves in the rut in the first place, now have no consequences (or less) for their actions and in due time they will repeat the same mistakes (maybe not to the same degree, but they will). Stocks that got battered on credit worries are turning around (as seen today). What does this all mean? Well, for one puts on stocks that should be kissing the ground are cheaper even cheaper now. Some new problem gets uncovered which is not covered (yeah I know bad pun...) by the recent government actions and then financials will get screwed again.

The holidays are approaching. This means that invitations to the annual office holiday party should be arriving any minute. Although the event is in fact called a "party," an office party is really more office than party. Here are some office party dos and don'ts. Show up. This is a must . If you're absent, your lack of team spirit will be noticed. Note you must show up for at least 30 minutes otherwise it looks like you showed up only to keep up appearances! Don't just bring your entire family . Only bring the spouse and children if the invitation explicitly specifies that family are invited. Dress appropriately . Wear what you would normally wear in the office (only a bit dressier). Don't wear anything you'd regret wearing afterwardss :) Don't be a pig . Eat and drink in moderation. Hold your cup in your left hand so you can shake coworkers' hands with your right without it being cold and wet. Network network network ! Use the party as an opp

I had dinner with a friend a week ago who also trades and I was telling him why I like MO (Altria, makers and distributors of tobacco products worldwide) amongst other stocks. I don't think I did a great job that night, but now that I've had some more time to think about it here are my reasons why I am liking MO: Stressful times. Times are getting tough, credit worries surround us. There's one thing you can count on with humans and that is they are creatures of vices. When times get tough what do most people do? Drink, gamble, smoke, have sex (in no particular order either). Which is the cheapest vice? Smoking. The Cause De'Jour is No Longer Smoking. Turn on the television and what do you see? Ads about global warming this and global warming that -- not smoking anymore. The way I gage what the cause de'jour is by watching that Anderson Cooper guy. Whatever he's reporting on in general is the hot topic of today and it ain't smoking. So with the hazards of

Saw this in a magazine this evening: Register today at http://www.financialforum.ca To receive a complimentary pass, enter VIP code: FPNA ($20.00 value) Canadian dates: 24-26, Jan 2008 - Metro Toronto Convention Centre 1-2, Feb 2008 - Calgary Round Up Centre, Stampede Park 8-9, Feb 2008 - Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre 15-16, Feb 2008 - Palais des Congres de Montreal I'll be there. Will you?

For the tech geek/designer in your life.... "We've just just launched our 2007 Designer Gift Guide, filled with 77 totally awesome gift ideas, each for under $77. It's a crazy, eclectic mix -- everything from "Feather Doll Dusters" to "Forearm Forklift Lifting Straps" -- with lots of beautiful design objects, books, and philanthropies to discover inside." More details of these cool gifts are available here ! Check it out!

Brief Excerpt from the following PDF from BMO Nesbitt Burns ( attached ): Impact Neutral. Results were in line. However, we are confused as to why interchangeability (of generics for branded drugs, driven by changes in the Ontario Drug Benefit plan) in Ontario was not a major factor for margin growth as it was in Q2/07. This issue has an important bearing on how investors should view ongoing normalized earnings growth. Forecasts We have increased our fiscal 2007 EPS assumption to $2.26 to reflect Shoppers’ EPS performance in Q3/07 relative to our forecast. We have not made any changes to our fiscal 2008 EPS estimate of $2.54. We are introducing a 2009 EPS estimate of $2.73, representing earnings growth of 7.5%. Valuation We are rolling our valuation one year forward to 2009, but our target multiple of 11.5x remains the same. Based on 11.5x our new 2009 EBITDA estimate, our target price increases to $59 from $54. Recommendation Shoppers remains a Market Perform-rated stock. Howe

I have investments that capture the current online gambling boom, fueled by the poker craze of recent years. I do no think poker is a fad, but rather I believe it is on its way to become a national sport with status similar to, say, NBA. Also, people have been gambling for thousands of years, through good and bad times, and still only a small percentage of that is done online, so there is plenty of room to grow outside of poker. These are good investments to hold regardless of what happens to the economy.

From the Globe and Mail recently : In an about-face yesterday, the Harper government offered an amnesty to 1,100 U.S.-purchased vehicles whose owners had been forced to ground them because they failed to meet new Canadian requirements for anti-theft features. It also said it would allow imports of U.S. cars even if the anti-theft immobilizer they're equipped with only meet less-strict American standards, removing an obstacle that had discouraged Canadians from cross-border shopping for vehicles in recent months... This is actually very welcome news.  It means that as Canadians it's one less obstacle to purchasing a car from the states if the deal is right.  I have a few friends that have recently purchased a car in the states.  They said that they amount of money they saved totally eclipsed the 'hassle' they encountered with filling out the paper work and legal details.  With the Canadian dollars at recent highs, it seems like buying a car from the USA might be worth

I was asked recently in a forum my rationale for choosing a 'cyclical stock' like Honda. Here is my thinking behind why I like this Company a lot ! My rationale for choosing Honda is that they are the world leaders in creating small efficient (and powerful) engines. No other company currently has that skill. Also they will likely be the first company in the world to release a hydrogen car for the every day person in 2008 (read this the other day). Last but not least their product mix is very solid. Very well run company that creates some of the most reliable cars on the planet. Plus they are also diversifying into jet making (see: Honda Jet) and they have a strong motorcycle/atv business.

While it may seem that being green is the new 'in' thing, it also has the added bonus of usually saving one some money.  It's the simple things that one can do to be green and save money at the same time. For example, when brushing your teeth or shaving, make sure you turn the tap off.  In the past, I used to be notorious for doing this.  It's so easy to just accidentally leave the tap on while you're brushing your teeth, but if you think about it, it's a lot of unnecessary wasted water.  Sure one could argue that water is very cheap in our developed nations, but there's no reason to waste it, even if it does cost you literally pennies.  Turn that water off while you're brushing your teeth, it's better for the environment. How about household cleaners?  Did you know that if you create your own household cleaners using a lot of home made ingredients (eg. baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice etc) you can create some really powerful environmentally friend

The Wealthy Boomer has an excellent article about why he thinks the whole USA demise thing has been blown way out of proportion.  Have a read.  He makes some very excellent points in the article! :)

Here's a present for the loyal readers that read this blog. From now until December 9, if you buy a sandwich or pizza from Quiznos, you can get a free bag of chips and 20 oz fountain drink free. Um, if you think Quiznos as much as me, you'll definitely appreciate this deal!!

Onaswarm is a new project from David P. Janes which aggregates various personal rss feeds together to help manage one's micro content. I've played around a bit with the site and have looked at other accounts on Onaswarm and must say that it is a very smart idea. It's inspiring to see cool technology like this launched from Toronto, a top notch creative city. All the best to you David on the new launch!

1. Boeing (BA) The delay of its 747 Dreamliner flustered investors, but is a "non-event". The stock is a screaming buy now. 2. Unilever (UL) is a strong consumer stock at a time when consumer stocks are seen as a safety net in a time of a lof of uncertainty 3. Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) is another "defensive" consumer stock and one with built-in security: its consumer health products act as a hedge against dry spells in the prescription drug business. 4. Anadarko Petroleum (APC) has a lot of properties in the U.S. that look more desirable as "oil-rich nations ratchet up the pace of nationalization." 5. Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP) is the fourth largest coal producer in the eastern U.S. and due to profit from new clean-coal technologies 6. Southwest Water (NASDQ-SWWC) seems an obvious choice at a time of drought and dwindling water supplies. As was mentioned in an earlier post of mine. 7. British Petroleum (NYSE-BP) is starting a clean solar energy camp

Just wanted to give a quick shoutout to PriceCanada and wish them a happy birthday!

So today CIBC announces their subprime debt exposure today. It's anybody's guess as to how big their write down will be. Analysts are predicting upwards of 1 billion dollars. As a result, I'm expecting Canadian Financials to take a moderate beating today. As I stated earlier, I believe you need to pick and choose which Canadian Financial Stocks to be exposed to. Those companies that do not have signficant exposure in the USA are good bets. Scotia Bank is one such bank that comes to mind. They have significant operations in latin America - which comes with more geopolitical risk. However, since the aren't exposed to subprime, when that stock gets beaten down with the rest because of subprime worries, I see it as a prime time to get some BNS action.

I was reading this blog posting this morning about SIRI getting shorted in anticipation that the merger will not go through (which I disagree with). I might be missing something here, but shorting a stock that's $3 doesn't seem to be worth the risk. So fine, if the merger doesn't happen and SIRI crumbles ... yay, you get at max 3 points gain on your end. Unless the SEC changes the rules and starts allowing negative stock prices, you know exactly how much you can possibly make. There's no infinite growth beyond 3 points. Boring. On the other side of the dice, if the merger goes through and Wall Street rallies this sucker to the moon, the level of 'screwing' you (Mr. Shorter) will take is unbounded. Not worth the risk given the reward.

When I was a kid, we used to play this card game called Bullsh*t. Basically a deck of cards is dealt evenly to all players and they begin by putting cards face down in the middle and stating what those cards are. The other players if they don't believe them can call "bullsh*t" and the cards just placed in the middle are turned over. If that player was lying they would pick up all the cards in the middle. Player with the most cards at the end loses. Every now and then you'd get the dumb kid that says "5 Aces" and the rest of the kids believe them :P. What does this have to do with investing? well I think that CFC is playing a round or two of home-loan Q4 profitability Bullsh*t. During their earnings call they said the worst was pretty much over and they would return to profitability in Q4. Riight. Anyway, the world took the bait and CFC moved up... but look at it now.

I am laying low for a little bit for a couple reasons. There is plenty of momentum for stocks like (RIMM), (AAPL), (SPWR), but a lot of it doesn't have anything to do with the actual stock or the companies that are driving those stocks and more about market sentiment and overall industry worries like credit, housing slumps, retail slowdowns -- which makes it difficult to read or at least my momentum model doesn't read very well. Anyway, I've got a couple crazy ideas about what the hot 'item' is going to be this Christmas holiday (and no it's not the iPhone, or is it??). I'll blog about it after I've given it more thought and research.

Over at SeekingAlpha, they have an excellent article about investing in the commodity water through Water ETFs. In the article, the author outlines his reasons for why he is long on water. After reading the article, I have to agree. Good quality sanitized water is definitely scarce and will become more scarce decades from now. The author believes that a water ETF is a great long term hold (decades) For more of his ideas, please click here for the entire article .

This morning I stumbled across a link from Zen Habits that gives 30 frugal gift ideas to show that you appreciate someone. With the holidays about to roll around, this is probably the best time to start thinking about gifts for that special someone before the madness of December rolls around. A lot of the ideas presented in the article are really nice and inexpensive which is perfect for the frugally minded such as myself. For example, you could bake some homemade cookies or give that special someone a framed picture with you and them in the picture. For the other excellent frugal 30 gift ideas, check it out here .

If your only interest in organic is for its health value, then Consumer Reports has a quick list of which products you should dig deep into your pockets for: Apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, and strawberries. For all other fruits and vegetables, it doesn't make much sense. For example with Bananas there is hardly any pesticide residual on the fruit so it doesn't make a huge difference whether you buy or organic or not.

The following frugality tips was forwarded to me this morning. Check 'em out! Want to open a sealed envelope without damaging it? - Put in the freezer for a few hours, then slide a knife under the flap. The envelope can then be resealed. Use Empty toilet paper roll to store appliance cords. It keeps them neat and you can write on the roll what appliance it belongs to. For icy door steps in freezing temperatures: get warm water and put Dawn dishwashing liquid in it. Pour it all over the steps. They won't refreeze. (wish I had known this for the last 40 years) To remove old wax from a glass candleholder, put it in the freezer for a few hours. Then take the candleholder out and turn it upside down. The wax will fall out. Crayon marks on walls? This worked wonderfully! A damp rag, dipped in baking soda. Comes off with little effort (elbow grease that is!). Permanent marker on appliances/counter tops (like store

There is now a program available in the USA only called Clear which allows users to make an online account that gives them clearance at an enrollment location, where attendants verify their identity via government issued id, photographs, fingerprinting and eye imaging. How it works is when the member gets to the airport it allows them to identify themselves quick via finerprint or iris scan and clear card. Those that using this program only have to pass through metal detectors and x-rays without any further inspections. Currently 65,000 people have already joined this program which charges an annual fee of $99.95. Currently it's only available in handful of cities in the USA. Among those that are included include New York JFK, San Francisco, Little Rock, Jacksonville... This is clearly aimed at the frequent business flyer. I'm not sure if ordinary citizens are interested in this. With air flights costing more these days because of the high air fuel taxes, tacking on anoth

Today I went to Loblaws and compared two products: Trail Mix and Granola Bars. Trail mix (in bulk of 800 grams) goes for about $7-8 for a trail mix containing peanuts, almonds, cranberries, banana chips etc. On the other hand, granola bars retail for about $2 on sale for about 175 grams. On a per gram basis Trail Mix seems to be a better deal, and depending on which mix you buy, it may actually be healthy for you as it might not contain as much sugar as granola bars. Still, the best value for buck is fresh fruit - especially fruit that is in-season.

If anyone has any suggestions of topics they want me to discuss, please leave me a note in the comments section. I'm trying to make this blog as useful for everyone as much as possible. As long as it has to do with finance, frugality, savings, and stocks, I would love to have a gander at the topic and discuss it in depth!

the moneygardener: top 5 stock picks - 6 month update I agree with the moneygardener's #1 pick: Manulife Financial. This stock has taken an unfair beating over the last little while. As I am a long term investor as well, this one is a long term hold for me. Good choices. I'll post my current top 5 picks later.

Just read this, HP to buy back $8 billion of stock. Interesting tidbit from the conference call today was that 66% of HP's revenue was from overseas which is great since the Euro is whooping the USD. Note, I read the FinancialWebring forum quite regularly. Instead of sharing my ideas there all the time, I may occasionally post my thoughts here especially if it involves a more indepth analysis. Please check back here periodically as I will have new insights!

Even when granola bars are on sale, they can be expensive. You can make your own at home for less, and they are also healthier but not having all the preservatives in them. You can do what the big manufacturers do: put dried fruits, peanut butter, chocolate chips etc. For ingredients, you will need: 3 cups of dry oatmeal ½ cup butter or margarine ½ cup honey or maple syrup ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup nuts, dried fruit, or whatever you'd like to throw in! Melt the margarine in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the honey and salt. Finally add the oatmeal and whatever you decide to throw in. Turn the mixture onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Spread it out evenly and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow it to cool. To make this into bars, you'll need the following: 3 cups of your oatmeal mixture 3 tablespoons margarine or butter ½ cup peanut butter (obviously don't use if there is a peanut allergy in your household) 2 medium eggs 1-teaspoon vanilla In a 2-quart saucepan, me

The Canadian Government today unveiled that in the first 6 months of 2007, they collected a surplus of 9.3 billion dollars. Sure this sounds like a lot, but how much is 9.3 billion dollars? If you spread it across the entire population est (33 million people), it works out to a surplus of $281 a person. This is hardly a large number at all. Just keep that in mind when you're looking at stats.

Warren Buffett is in the news again. This time he's saying that the Korean Market is undervalued and that it's a good opportunity for everyone to look into this market while there are problems with the U.S. market in general!

#1 You can’t admit it Most people simply refuse to admit when they commit a mistake. This is why they keep their bad stocks until the end. They know they should not have bought this stock but selling it at a loss would confirm officially that they made a mistake. We rarely find people that are able to sell their bad stock in a heartbeat without looking behind them. #2 You are greedy and scared When your stock is going up and up and up, you might think of selling. But are you going to do it? Or are you going to wait for another to gain another five bucks a share? Thinking that you will always make a little bit more might make you lose big time. On the other side, one can sell his stocks after a short gain of 20% in order to cash-in profit right away. If you sell too fast, you might miss a great opportunity. Maybe the stock only starts to rise. The key lies in determining the initial reasons why you made that purchase. Then, you sell only when those conditions are not met anymore. #3 You

This week was especially fruitful for me (YHOO, AAPL), so I decided to toss some back into the water and see what I come back up with. A couple catalysts here: 1. The market is taking a good'ol fashion whopping from almost every angle ... except MSFT. When things go bad, people tend to start looking looking for that "happy place". That place where the party is still "hella crack'in yo" (as some of my friends might say) if you will, and that happy place right now is MSFT. While the market took a 360 point body slam today, little o'Microsoft moved up 0.25. If the market continues to do bad, MSFT will probably move up, if the market turns around MSFT will probably move up more. Read on. 2. MSFT has already got some forward momentum. MSFT has traditionally been known as a piggy bank. You put your money there and it'll stay there, you won't gain or lose. Well with last weeks earnings, people who've seen their money go down, up, down and then

Too many other momentum players in the kitchen and the spread on these are ridiculous. Taking my free lunch and looking at puts (people will be taking profits soon enough). I would be careful if you aren't already part of the action. Sell to Close: 10 calls of SPWR Nov 165 at $3.7 Gain: $1100

It seems the ontario Teachers Pension plan is scooping up tons of U.S. Financial companies lately. Among the companies that they've recently initiated a large position in is Citigroup. I agree with the CEO of the company. Banking will be around in 50 years. Right now is a good time to get into this stocks as they have been depressed and are trading at low P/E ratios. Just buy them and hide them away and check back on the progress in 10+ years and you'll almost be guaranteed to be in the money.

it's dipped about 20% since it's highs at 120. The fear on the street is that with all the financial crisis, it's going to slow demand for their blackberry. Fortunately for Research in Motion (RIMM) this sector only represents 10-15% of it's subscriber base. Looking to pick some up at the open.

Was able to pick up some Morgan Stanley today at an adjusted cost price of 51.26 per share. Purchased 100 shares this morning. I realize there is still quite a bit of risk in this sector but the stock is literally trading at 52 week lows. Note the 52 week high earlier was closer to 90! Again as a long term hold I'm confident that this will make me some money. In the short term, I will ignore any incoming news.

In 2006, there are stats that show that the average Canadian has about 29,000 in non-mortgage debt. Wow that is a lot of debt to have. I'm just happy that aside from my credit card bills (which I pay off monthly anyway) I only have mortgage debt. Astounding.

HP releases their earnings today and showed weakness during the day so I was 'compelled' to buy these. Here were my catalysts: * The big unknown is will HP show growth and what will the guidance look like. For the second part, nobody knows but insiders, but first part I based this on empiracle knowledge. Retailers are getting slammed (known) and so they are going to cut prices AND stock up on the stuff that actually sells. If you look by your local BestBuy, Office Depot and whatever, notice that most of the laptops and desktops are HPs? Just trying to solve an unknown with a known. * Marketing. HP has hired the likes of Serena Williams, Jerry Seinfield, Shrek, Shawn White, Jay-Z, Beyonce, etc. If the world is as weak-minded as marketing people will have you believe, then with that much marketing and brand internalization people will buy. Break down that list into demographics and you'll know why I like HP's marketing strategy even more. * P/E: Low at 20.

It seems the Canadian grocery retailer is still having troubles with restructuring shocking investors with a more than expected plunge in profits tumbling the company's stock down to level's not seen since 2000. Is there still hope for Loblaws? Investors were disappointed sending the stock down over 12% in one day of trading last week. A lot of my peers have purchased Loblaws stock over the last few years when it fell out of favour. I have one piece of advice for anyone out there looking at Loblaws stock - don't try to catch a falling knife. It'll take several quarters before they turn around. This will be a slow one. Don't expect any quick miracles any time soon. It looks like their strategy of lowering prices isn't working too well. While they have weekend only sales lately to drive store sales, what I observed is that a lot of customers were just buying the loss leaders and avoiding other purchases. Definitely not a good sign. I would keep my eyes on

This stock caught my attention today as it is at near it's 52 week low. If their market projections to open 40,000 stores as a long term prediction, this means that over half of their stores will be outside of the USA. If they are able to do this successfully and penetrate the non-USA market, then the growth is certainly in the stock. Unfortunately with dairy prices rising and increased competition from the likes of McDonalds and other discount coffee chains, it's put quite a strain on their earnings in the last year. Hopefully things will turn around in the next year, but right now this stock is on my watch list. Should it dip down to 18-19, I just might purchase some options for a quick short term trade. Until then, I'll be watching patiently on the sidelines.

Morgan Stanley has taken a HUGE beating lately. It now trades at approximately 6x next year's earnings. This is historically cheap cheap cheap. I'm very tempted to dip my feet in and buy some for the long term. It's very rare to be able to purchase a big financial at such a depressed price. You know what they say buy when everyone else is selling. Is there any risk in doing this? Yup! Nobody knows how severe the credit crunch is but I'm in it for the long term. Looking at scooping up 100 shares on Monday around $52. Anything around there is an excellent entry point in my opinion!

The momentum from friday afternoon (which I think again is artificial because I refuse to believe one company's earnings is an indicator of the overall health of unrelated industries) continued onto today -- but barely. I ain't sticking around on the call side. Taking profits. Sell to Close: 10 calls of AAPL Dec 190 at $4.90 Gain: $850 :)

I recently (on friday) initiated a position in General Electric (GE). Like many other U.S. Multi-Nationals, this one I believe has been overlooked. With a below market P/E Ratio I see this one as a definite value play. Because of its size, it's like purchasing a proxy for the entire market which, with the market acting with a lot of uncertainty, seems to be a safer play. On an ethical note, I also like their strong push into ecological infrastructure especially in developing nations where it's even more important. NBC has recently initiated a "go green" campaign which I see as very genuine. They seem to be doing a lot of common good, so I don't see this "go green" campaign as a marketing trick to try to jump on the latest trends. With a company so diversified as GE, it should be a safe place to park my money and earn a nice dividend while we ride this storm out.

Wow the Canadian dollar has been on a tear lately. Right now the Canadian dollar is trading at 1.104 against the USD. This is thanks to China diversifying it's foreign reserves sending international currencies higher against the USD. The move comes after the major surge yesterday in the Canadian dollar after the Bank of Canada did not signal that they would be cutting interest rates anytime soon. With oil approaching almost $100 a barrel and gold prices rushing to new highs, could this be the early stages of an economic slowdown?

A friend of mine recently started trading options. It's definitely not a thing to do for the light hearted, but it is a trading (not investing) mechanism to create leverage when doing trades. Advantages: a/ Somewhat flexible. It doesn't matter whether you are a bull or a bear. There are options for all sorts of different types of traders regardless of whether you wish to take a conservative or high-risk (hedge fund) approach. b/ Leveraging. As I mentioned earlier, if you believe a stock will be going up or down you can gain leverage in that particular stock without the risk of being forced to do a trade! c/ Risk is limited to the option premium paid. You can't lose more than the option premium that you paid. Whereas with a stock you can theoretically lose everything that you invested. Disadvantages of Options Trading a/ Depending on one's brokerage the cost of trading options as a percentage is higher than trading stocks through discount brokerages. As such, if y

I recently bought a condo and put down a sizeable amount of downpayment on the place. Then I was reading some Canadian Financial blogs and came across Frugal Trader's article about credit card arbitrage . While I agree with his assessment that taking a 10K and putting it into a high savings account is likely not worth the pain for the gain. I realized that i am in a slightly different situation and that if I borrowed the 10K (actually 12.5K in my case) to pay down against my mortgage (Aside: my mortgage lender will let me pre-pay up to 10% of my outstanding principle) I could get the money to work seriously well for me. I won't disclose my exact lending rate but basically if I can pay off 12.5K of my mortgage instantly and if I am diligent with saving 12.5K in 1 years time (not to hard to do), I will have an amazing after tax return. What do you think of this idea?

We all know that the rich generally live unassuming lifestyles and don't drive the latest and greatest vehicles. After all, how would they have accumulated their wealth in the first place. MSN Money has an excellent article with 5 lessons the rich can teach you . one of the highlights: so where do the wealthy put their money? Most of their wealth is investments: * 46% in stocks and bonds, managed accounts, IRAs, mutual funds, deposits and alternative investments * 10% in pensions and defined-contribution plans like 401(k)s * 6% in insurance and annuities There are also some indications that wealthier Americans are cutting back their exposure to real estate. The percentage of people with net worth over $1 million who own investment property shrank to 44% in 2005, down from 50% in 2004, according to TNS Financial Services, a market-research company.

If you're anything like me, you like a good deal. Valentine's day is tomorrow and everyone is out making dinner reservations and buying chocolate that will be half price tomorrow. So how does one enjoy Valentine's without breaking the bank? Here's a few suggestions 1. Buy chocolate the day after Valentine's day. All the pleasure with half the cost. 2. If you need to purchase roses, Loblaws has 12 long stem roses for $29.99. 3. From Redflagdeals, there is a promotion going on right where Diners in Toronto will be interested to know that you can get 2 for 1 entrees at any of these restaurants on Wednesdays until March 14, except Valentine’s Day.

CIBC WM made the announcement in its latest Canadian Portfolio Strategy Outlook report (PDF document) that it has made "a significant realignment in [its] equity portfolio this month by reducing [its] position in energy stocks from a 4.5-percentage-point overweight to a 3-percentage-point overweight," citing increasing risks linked to efforts by North American governments to reduce energy consumption and limit greenhouse gas emissions. There will be more buying opportunities later in energy and am keeping an eye on the markets as Energy drifts lower in the coming months.

Most Canadians are aware of the benefits of investing in an RRSP and take advantage of the opportunity to make regular contributions. However, relatively few individuals invest in a Spousal RRSP; as a result, the majority miss out on one of the few income splitting opportunities still available for Canadian taxpayers. So what is a spousal RRSP? It's the same as a regular RRSP, except that a Spousal RRSP is registered in your spouse's or common-law partner's you, as the contributing spouse, take a full tax deduction for all the contributions you make to the spousal plan. Deposits made to a Spousal RRSP cannot exceed your personal contribution limit. Your contribution can be made to a Spousal RRSP, your personal RRSP, or split between the two plans. Deposits made to a Spousal RRSP do not affect your spouse's RRSP contribution limit for the year. Now now you are probably wondering why should one contribute to a spousal RRSP? Well, the primary reason for establishing a Spou