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.

[text_ad use_category="18"]

Read More Close
H&R REIT $21.11 (Toronto symbol HR.UN; Units outstanding: 278.3 million; Market cap: $5.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 6.4%; www.hr-reit.com) owns or has stakes in 506 office buildings, industrial properties and shopping malls in Canada and the U.S. In all, these holdings include 46.6 million square feet of leasable space.

In December 2014, the REIT sold part ownership in 101 industrial properties, or a total of 19.5 million square feet, in Canada and the U.S. for $731 million. The buyers included the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board.

H&R kept a 50% interest in the Canadian properties and a 49.5% stake in the U.S. portfolio. It continues to manage these assets and receives fees for doing so. H&R also held on to full ownership of 14 other industrial properties.

...
CANADIAN REIT $41.74 (Toronto symbol REF.UN; Units outstanding: 72.9 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 4.3%; www.creit.ca) owns 198 properties, including retail, industrial and office buildings, across Canada and in Chicago. These holdings contain 24.9 million square feet of leasable area. The trust’s occupancy rate is 94.7%.

In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Canadian REIT’s revenue rose 4.5%, to $109.5 million from $104.8 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit gained 2.7%, to $0.76 from $0.74.

The trust aims to grow mostly by developing its own properties rather than through large acquisitions. Over the next few years, it’s spending $660 million to add 3.1 million square feet of space. To cut its risk, Canadian REIT takes on partners to help carry out big projects.

...
Invest like fabled investor Warren Buffett by looking for long-term fundamental value.
Canadian Capital Gains Tax

We have just released our special report for the tax-loss selling season—our most popular report on capital gains taxes....
ISHARES MSCI SOUTH KOREA INDEX FUND $ISHARES MSCI SOUTH KOREA INDEX FUND55.29 (New York symbol EWY; buy or sell through brokers) has rebounded from the low of $42.94 it dropped to in August 2015.

That’s because the South Korean economy grew at its fastest pace in five years in the third quarter of 2015, boosted by higher domestic demand after a big government stimulus program. That offset slowing exports caused by slowing demand, particularly in China.

The South Korean government launched the stimulus spending after an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome cut heavily into tourism and consumer spending in the second quarter.

...

ISHARES MSCI JAPAN INDEX FUND $12.34
(New York Exchange symbol EWJ; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com) is an ETF that tries to match the return of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Japan index. The fund’s top holdings include Toyota, 5.8%; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, 2.9%; Honda Motor, 1.9%; Softbank Corp., 1.8%; Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, 1.8%; Mizuho Financial Group, 1.4%; KDDI Corp. (telecom), 1.4%; Takeda Pharmaceutical, 1.3%; Japan Tobacco, 1.3%; and Sony Corp., 1.2%.

Japan’s economy shrank 1.6% in the second quarter of 2015, mostly on lower consumer spending. The government raised the country’s sales tax to 8% from 5% on April 1, 2014, to raise funds to pay down debt. However, its ongoing stimulus package has only partly offset the resulting fall in consumer spending.

...
ISHARES INDIA 50 ETF $27.86 (Nasdaq symbol INDY; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com) is an ETF that invests in the 50 largest, most liquid Indian securities.

The fund’s top holdings are Infosys (information technology), 7.9%; Housing Development Finance, 7.0%; ITC Ltd. (conglomerate), 6.6%; ICICI Bank, 5.7%; Reliance Industries (conglomerate), 5.5%; HDFC Bank, 4.9%; Tata Consultancy Services (information technology), 4.5%; Larsen & Toubro (conglomerate), 4.1%; Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, 3.3%; and Tata Motors, 2.6%. The ETF has a 0.93% expense ratio.

The iShares India 50 ETF rose as high as $30 early this year in the wake of Narendra Modi’s May 2014 election as prime minister. However, it has since moved down to today’s price along with the slowing global economy. Modi has also faced difficulties getting reforms through the upper house of parliament, where he doesn’t hold a majority, These reforms include a bill to make it easier for the government to expropriate land for transportation, industrial and urbanization projects; a goods and services tax; more flexible labour laws; and the sale of state-owned assets.

...
ALGONQUIN POWER & UTILITIES CORP. $10.09 (Toronto symbol AQN; Shares outstanding: 240.5 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.algonquinpower.com) has agreed to jointly develop the 150-megawatt Deerfield wind project in central Michigan with Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc.

In all, Deerfield will cost $303 million U.S. to build.

Wind farms are often risky because they rely on uncertain government subsidies. However, Algonquin only invests in renewable energy projects that have presold their power under long-term guaranteed contracts.

...
VERESEN $10.85 (Toronto symbol VSN; Shares outstanding: 293.1 million; Market cap: $3.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 9.2%; www.vereseninc.com) owns pipelines, power plants and gas-processing facilities across North America.

A major holding is 50% of the Alliance gas line, which runs 3,000 kilometres between Chicago and Fort St. John, B.C. Veresen also owns the Alberta Ethane Gathering System, 42.7% of the Aux Sable natural gas liquids plant and the Hythe/Steeprock natural gas gathering and processing complex in the Cutbank Ridge region of Alberta and B.C. In the three months ended September 30, 2015, Veresen’s cash flow per share rose 31.6%, to $0.25 from $0.19 a year earlier.

In late 2014, Veresen paid $1.43 billion for 50% of the Ruby pipeline, which runs 1,100 kilometres from Wyoming to Oregon. Partner Kinder Morgan operates the line, which generates steady cash flow.

...
PENGROWTH ENERGY $1.36 (Toronto symbol PGF; Shares outstanding: 540.7 million; Market cap: $789.4 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.9%; www.pengrowth.com) continues to sell less important properties and focus on more promising operations. This includes its Lindbergh oil sands project in Alberta.

The company has now agreed to sell its Bodo project in eastern Alberta for $95 million. Including this deal, it has now sold $300 million worth of properties in 2015 and expects to reach its full-year goal of $600 million.

Pengrowth will use the proceeds to pay down its long-term debt, which stood at $1.9 billion on June 30, 2015. That’s a high 2.4 times its currently depressed market cap.

...