|
I'm trying to understand a bit better exactly what the drop in the value of the dollar means for equities. I assume it wouldn't make sense to buy USD equities at this time since your buying power is lower. If the CAD rises eventually, this would reduce your gains by some percentage when compared back against CAD, right? And what about selling USD equities you have purchased when the CAD was much higher. Would it make sense to sell some of these (and convert the USD gains back to CAD) when the CAD appears to have bottomed out and is rebounding?
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2015 18:42
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:56 |
|
|
Lexicon posted:Just don't. This isn't knowable. Heh fair enough. Thanks Kal as well. Kinda figured with how closely the CAD drop correlated to the oil price drop it should be a pretty sure indicator that CAD should be coming back up after oil shows a few weeks of steady gains. But I guess anytime something like that is looking like a "sure thing" that probably means you should significantly check yourself before wrecking yourself.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2015 21:34
|
|
|
What are the thread's general thoughts on hedged vs. non-hedged US index funds. Currently holding VUN which went way up as the CAD tanked. At this point I believe the CAD has more or less bottomed and will hold around the same or slowly increase. Would it make sense at this time to sell VUN and switch it out for VUS? Or is this too short term of thinking and I should just leave it be? Better in general to go with the hedged or not?
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2015 21:43
|
|
|
Lexicon posted:If you want to make this bet, and a bet is what it is, why not do it via the futures market? It makes no sense to couple this bet on currency with the decision to invest in US equities. Ok fair enough. But what's the thought behind hedged vs. non hedged in general? Why pick one or the other to begin with? The added volatility of currency fluctuations on top of the actual index that's being tracked seems like it should be a bad thing.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2015 22:40
|
|
|
Also a more general "what my next step" questions to run by you wizards. I've only relatively recently starting investing for retirement and didn't have a ton to contribute to my TFSA to start with. Risk tolerance right now is very high so I figured it made the most sense to buy one thing at a time with each lump contribution to eventually reach the diversification balance I'm looking for instead of buying multiple things with each contribution in order to reduce commission fees. As such I'm pretty much all in on a US equity index right now, but now looking to pick the next thing to purchase to start actually diversifying. Having a hell of a time deciding what the next move should be though... Here's my take on things, please let me know if I'm crazy wrong somewhere. Still trying to figure it all out. Canadian equity ETF - I want zero exposure to Canada right now. poo poo's busted. Fixed income ETF - Interest rates are very low, may go lower still. If they do go up, it's going to be very slowly, making bonds unattractive right now. REITs - Probably going to get slammed if CDN economy goes into recession and/or the housing bubble pops. So as far as I can reckon next sensible move would be to get some international coverage, something like VDU, an international developed country index that excludes the US and Canada (since I'm already invested in the US, and I don't want to touch Canada). Agree / disagree / way better idea?
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2015 23:00
|
|
|
Rick Rickshaw posted:I am curious about currency hedging due to the low CAD and I came across this article: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2011/04/04/currency-hedging-in-international-funds/ I've been mulling this one myself. There doesn't really seem to be a hard consensus on it. Looks like you lose 1-2% annually on hedged vs unhedged with the higher tracking error and the slightly higher MER. So if a rising CAD would do more than 1-2% damage in an unhedged fund, it would be better to hold a hedged one. CAD falls further or sits in place, unhedged is better. Definitely a market timing situation.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2015 02:04
|
|
|
Am I correct in thinking that the unused contribution room in an RRSP carries forward year to year, but only from the time you've actually had an RRSP opened? This would be in contrast to the TFSA where everyone has the same max contribution room regardless of when they actually opened an account?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2015 01:14
|
|
|
Kal Torak posted:No, you are not correct. RRSP Contribution room is based on your prior year earned income and carries forward from year to year. It's not based on when you first opened one, it is based on when you first had earned income. The CRA tracks this for you so if you are unsure what your contribution room, they will let you know. It will also be on your prior year Notice of Assessment. Thanks Kal. My Google-fu was weak on this one.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2015 19:04
|
|
|
Ashley Madison posted:• A NEW inactivity fee will be introduced. The inactivity fee will be charged if on your statement date there is a credit balance on your account and there has been no activity (meaning no debits, credits, interests or fees) on your account for the preceding 12 consecutive months. The fee charged will be a fee equal to the lesser of $10 or the credit balance amount. Some years back the government banned the practice of doing this to gift cards (slowly draining the balance if you didn't use it fast enough). Nice to see those rules don't apply to credit cards lol.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 20, 2015 19:50
|
|
|
Rick Rickshaw posted:No downside as far as I know. There's typically no fee with TFSAs, except for transfer-out fees. Confirmed. TD charges a $100 yearly "maintenance fee" on RRSPs but zippo on TFSAs. Just ignore it if you don't need to use it. I'm not exactly sure what they are maintaining to justify that... Does a digital tiny janitor go into their databases and brush the dust off the ones and zeros representing my account every few weeks? Ah well. Must be nice to be a bank.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2016 19:14
|
|
|
What are folks paying for tenant insurance? Just realized I never really bothered to shop around, dunno if I'm getting ripped off or not. Curious if this is at least ballpark average or if I should look into changing it up. In Vancouver though TD I'm paying $50/m for $60k coverage, $1m liability, and includes earthquake coverage. $300 deductible.
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2017 20:34
|
|
|
James Baud posted:My current coverage is through TD but sonnet.ca quotes substantially cheaper and is my current go-to recommendation. Free online quote, etc. Wow those are some way better rates. Pretty steep deductible though, min $1k. Looks like there are some better deals out there to be had for sure. Gonna keep shopping around. Always good to review these kind of "set it and forget it" type expenses every now and then.
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2017 22:15
|
|
|
I would just like to note I am still super happy with Questrade since switching from TD a year or so ago, and highly recommend it for others as well. Decided I wanted to buy some things in USD later, so did the Norberts Gambit. Pop open their chat to request the journaling, connects instantly with a support person, request completed within 2 minutes. Quick and easy. TD has no chat, and if you email them it usually takes 2-3 business days for a reply. Calling them I was usually waiting on hold for awhile, and also forced to talk to a person. Text chat is always preferable to me if it's an option. 
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2018 20:00
|
|
|
Yeah it appears DLR is specifically designed for that purpose. No risk of the stock moving unfavorably while waiting for journaling/settlement.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2018 20:21
|
|
|
Joink posted:I should get around to finally switch switching to questrade. Been with TD since I was born but now that I often do daily trades on the stock market, ive been using TDs advanced dashboard. While it's OK I checked out questrades active investor platform and it's a heck of a lot better. More specifically it has my VWAP technical indicator. Yeah it's real nice. If you're trading on the reg it'd be worth it even just to cut your commissions in half. That poo poo adds up!
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2018 21:04
|
|
|
Now that the Vancouver RE market is cooling, I may want to buy something in a year or two if things keep moving in the right direction and hit the numbers I think make sense. Is there anywhere/any particular vehicle that it would be smart to park the down payment money in, and keep adding to it continuously. I'd probably be starting with about $20k. I've got much more in the market, but would prefer to just leave it be and build a mostly liquid, separate side pile, only touching the investments if needed for extra cash when buying time comes. So basically putting market investing on hold, and just focusing on this for now. Ideally the down payment side pile should be accessible within a week or two without penalty, and lets me keep adding to it once or twice a month. Not sure if anything like that exists or not, and if I'm just best leaving it in a savings account for fast access. I don't really care about total min/maxing poo poo for a .25 percentage point difference, and don't really have the effort to move things around a lot to deal with those couple month promo deals.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2019 02:58
|
|
|
VelociBacon posted:I'm not in this industry but assuming a high interest savings account is like 2% why not do a govt bond ETF? Most of the big bank HISA's are closer to 1%, looks like best is 2.3%, but I don't want to open a new account. Govt bond ETFs seem like an OK option. Dividends around 2% and the price seems fairly stable. VGV seems to bounce between $24-25. Though with a potentially short horizon of 1 year before cashing out, if you were unlucky and bought at the high end and sold at the low, you'd still be eating a loss even after the dividends. Looks like BMO does a savings acct with 1.6% as long as you stick $200 in a month, up to a max of $250k. One free tfer into it per month. Wife already has a BMO account so think will just add that on to hers and use it to keep things as simple as possible here.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2019 18:48
|
|
|
I wasn't really thinking since it's been a fairly smooth thing in the past, but initiated a Norberts gambit two days ago, USD-CAD dropped 2 cents in that time, won't be able to complete it until tomorrow. Looks like it's pretty much going to end up costing the same as just having done the instant conversion with the usual fees, but with a 3 day lag to complete instead. Guess that's why it's call a "gambit" and not a "100% guaranteed easy way to avoid conversion fees". 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2020 21:23
|
|
|
Yeah but usually the rate doesn't move much in 3 days using the DLR ones since most of the time currency fluctuations are pretty minor. You know, when the world isn't in freakout crisis mode and all. I didn't think to check what the exchange rate has been doing so it's on me for not even thinking about the underlying. Live and learn.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2020 22:23
|
|
|
Same risk in either direction as far as I'm understanding it, at least with Questrade. You need 2 days for DLR or DLR.U to settle before they will journal it. As soon as the journaling is done you can sell and the price is locked in then.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2020 23:25
|
|
|
Thanks for the clarification Kal, you're pretty good at this poo poo. I think I get it. Missed the detail of the DLR.U side not changing. Even if you could get the USD instantly, that USD would be worth however much more or less in CAD a few days later. The changing price of DLR in CAD while sitting there waiting to be journaled just reflects that difference. So as long as you don't need the conversion instantly, NG will always be the better choice than a spot conversion? Or is there any way it could end up not working? Ah, like that vvv spoof posted:The Butcher, this is bad news for you because when you bought your DLR (say C$100k worth), by the time you sold your DLR.U and the trade settled, the CAD had weakened so that the USD you received were actually worth C$102k. This means you made a capital gain of C$2k and get to pay tax on that. Fortunately it was not $100k worth lol, but that's helpful to know and a good thing to keep in mind. The Butcher fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Mar 27, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2020 00:53
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:56 |
|
|
Square Peg posted:I don't do hedging, and the couch potato guy says it just doesn't make sense in Canada Efficiency aside I also just don't mentally like it. If the news says the market went up 4% that day, I want the portfolio to reflect that. Sucks to check it and see it not matching, even if big brain knows its a more complex calculation then that.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2020 19:05
|
|