Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of July 27, 2021

Article Excerpt

If you are Canadian and you buy or sell U.S. stocks, you need to remember that arbitrage is your friend, all the more so when it has an assist from AI, or Artificial Intelligence. Arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset in different markets, to exploit tiny differences in prices. We take advantage of it for our clients whenever we can, to cut their trading costs. Here’s how it works: If we’re selling a Canadian stock for a client and plan to use the proceeds to buy a U.S. stock, we offer the Canadian stock (on a Canadian or U.S. exchange) for sale in U.S. funds. When we want to sell a U.S. stock to buy Canadian, we reverse the order and offer the U.S. stock for sale in Canadian funds. Now that you can buy and sell in either currency on both sides of the border, arbitrageurs (also known as “arbs”—traders who buy and sell in two different currencies…