How To Invest
In addition, Pat thinks then beginner investors should cultivate two important qualities: a healthy sense of skepticism and patience.
Investors should approach all investments with a healthy sense of skepticism. This can help keep you out of fraudulent stocks that masquerade as high-quality stocks. It will also keep you out of legally operated, but poorly managed, companies that promise more than they can possibly deliver.
If you are a new investor, you should also realize that losing patience can cause you to sell your best choices right before a big rise. All too often, investors buy a promising stock just as it enters a period of price stagnation. Even the best-performing stocks run into these unpredictable phases from time to time. They move mainly sideways in a wide range for months or years before their next big rise begins. (Stock brokers often refer to these stocks as “dead money.”)
If you lack patience, you run a big risk of selling your best choices in the midst of one of these phases, prior to the next big move upward. If you lose patience and sell, you are particularly likely to do so in the low end of the trading range, when stock prices have weakened and confidence in the stock has waned.
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GLOBAL X SILVER MINERS ETF $19.09 (New York symbol SIL; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Silver Miners Index. That index includes 25 international firms that mine, refine or explore for silver. It was developed by Germany-based Structured Solutions AG. Canadian firms make up 58.0% of the fund’s holdings, but it also includes miners in the U.S. (12.3%) and Mexico (11.2%). Its MER is 0.65%....
ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX FUND $9.38 (Toronto symbol XGD; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) aims to mirror the performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index, which is made up of 35 gold stocks from Canada and around the world. The ETF began trading on March 23, 2001. Its MER is 0.61%. The fund’s top holdings are Barrick Gold at 14.3%; Newmont Mining, 13.1%; Goldcorp, 11.7%; Franco-Nevada, 8.6%; Randgold Resources (ADR), 8.1%; Agnico-Eagle Mines, 8.0%; AngloGold Ashanti (ADR), 4.2%; and Gold Fields (ADR), 2.9%. iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold Index is a hold.
GLOBAL X COPPER MINERS ETF $10.06 (New York symbol COPX; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Copper Miners Index, which includes 20 to 40 international companies that mine, refine or explore for copper. Germany-based Structured Solutions AG created this index. Canadian firms make up 38.8% of the ETF’s holdings. It also includes companies based in Australia (15.6%), Mexico (5.5%), Peru (5.4%) and Poland (5.0%). The fund’s MER is 0.65%. Its top holdings are Southern Copper at 6.9%; Oz Minerals, 6.8%; CST Mining Group, 6.4%; Kaz Minerals plc, 5.9%; Sandfire Resources, 5.9%; Grupo Mexico, 5.7%; Glencore plc, 5.4%; Turquoise Hill, 5.4%; Lundin Mining, 5.4%; Jiangxi Copper, 5.4%; Copper Mountain Mining, 5.3%; and Antofagasta plc, 4.6%....
BCE INC. $56.74 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 849.3 million; Market cap: $48.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.6%; www.bce.ca) has formed a new partnership with U.S.-based iHeartRadio, which streams live radio stations and other audio broadcasts over the Internet. iHeartRadio has more than 75 million users in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. BCE plans to use iHeartRadio’s technology to launch a free-to-use, advertising-supported streaming service in Canada in mid-2016. This service will also feature BCE’s 106 radio stations, as well as other content from its TV channels. BCE is a buy....
TRANSCANADA CORP. $48.05 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 709.0 million; Market cap: $34.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.3%; www.transcanada.com) has launched two legal challenges to the U.S. government’s recent decision to block its proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would have pumped crude oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The company spent $4.3 billion on Keystone XL and now expects to write off between $2.5 billion and $2.9 billion of this total. TransCanada plans to appeal the U.S. decision under the North American Free Trade Agreement and will ask for $15 billion U.S. in damages. In a separate case, it will challenge the U.S. president’s authority to deny a construction permit....
MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $30.95 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 79.3 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.2%; www.mts.ca) has completed the sale of its Allstream division to U.S.-based Zayo Group (New York symbol ZAYO). The company received $420.0 million, net of transaction costs. It will probably put the proceeds toward its long-term debt, which was $677.1 million as of September 30, 2015. That’s equal to 29% of its $2.4-billion market cap. Manitoba Telecom is still a hold.
IBM $124.72 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 970.1 million; Market cap: $137.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.2%; www.ibm.com) reported better-than-expected results in its latest quarter. In the quarter ended December 31, 2015, revenue fell 8.5%, to $22.06 billion from $24.11 billion a year earlier. However, that beat the consensus of $22.04 billion. IBM gets 60% of its revenue from outside the U.S., and the higher U.S. dollar hurts the value of these sales. The company continues to expand in fastergrowing areas like cloud computing and analytics software. In the latest quarter, IBM’s cloud and analytics businesses increased their revenue by 16%. That revenue now accounts for 35% of the company’s total. It also helps offset weaker demand for IBM’s consulting services and mainframe computers....
Two fundamental investment tips every investor should know to cut costs and streamline gains
LOBLAW COMPANIES $62.24 (Toronto symbol L; Shares outstanding: 412.8 million; Market cap: $25.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.6%; www.loblaw.ca) continues to benefit from sales of other products beyond food. For example, in 2006 it launched its popular Joe Fresh line of clothing, shoes and accessories. In 2009, Loblaw launched the Joe Fresh Beauty cosmetics line.
Joe Mimran, who co-founded the Club Monaco chain and helped launch the Alfred Sung brand, created the Joe Fresh line.
Loblaw sells these goods in over 330 of its supermarkets and through 17 stand-alone stores in the U.S. and Canada. It plans to open 140 more Joe Fresh stores outside of North America in the next four years.
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Joe Mimran, who co-founded the Club Monaco chain and helped launch the Alfred Sung brand, created the Joe Fresh line.
Loblaw sells these goods in over 330 of its supermarkets and through 17 stand-alone stores in the U.S. and Canada. It plans to open 140 more Joe Fresh stores outside of North America in the next four years.
...
Stock market cycles occur repeatedly—but instead of trying to time them, focus on building a portfolio of high-quality stocks
Stock market cycles occur repeatedly—and there are any number of theories as to which sectors will outperform at any given short term stage of the cycle....