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"]
The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, it must ensure that all sectors are represented, so it holds a few we wouldn’t include.
The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 8.3%; TD Bank, 7.3%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.7%; CN Railway, 4.7%; Suncor Energy, 3.9%; Bank of Montreal, 3.8%; Valeant Pharmaceuiticals, 3.8%; Enbridge, 3.7%; BCE, 3.2%; Manulife Financial, 2.9%; TransCanada Corp., 2.9%; CIBC, 2.9%; Canadian Natural Resources, 2.8%; CP Rail, 2.5%; and Potash Corp., 2.5%.
...
The stock hit a high of $74.93 in November 2014. It has moved down lately with stock markets, but it’s still up almost 8%, including dividends.
Bank of Nova Scotia is the third-largest of Canada’s five big banks, with $805.7 billion of assets.
...
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 Sandfire Resources at 10.4%; Southern Copper, 7.9%; Oz Minerals, 7.7%; Grupo Mexico, 6.9%; Vedanta Resources, 6.8%; Lundin Mining, 6.3%; Antofagasta plc, 5.9%; KGHM Polska Miedz, 5.7%; Turquoise Hill, 5.6%; Jiangxi Copper, 5.2%; and Freeport- McMoRan, 4.4%.
...
GLOBAL X SILVER MINERS ETF $7.41 (New York symbol SIL; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Silver Miners Index. This 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 is a hold.
...
The ETF’s top holdings are Vincom Corp. (real estate), 7.8%; Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, 7.5%; Masan Group (a food, resources and banking conglomerate), 6.5%; Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank, 6.3%; and Baoviet Holdings (insurance), 6.1%.
The ETF cuts risk by investing part of its assets in firms that are based outside of Vietnam but still do business there. That’s a better approach than adding thinly traded or illiquid shares of smaller Vietnamese firms.
...
The partners then bought natural gas gathering and compression assets in northeastern B.C. from Encana and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. for $1 billion.
As well, Veresen Midstream agreed to undertake a $5-billion expansion for gas producers, including Encana. This development would be backed by 30-year contracts that would significantly cut Veresen Midstream’s risk.
...