Canadian Dollars Blog

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...