S
superman
agreed, u cant go wrong...some banks are so cheap and will never go bankrupt. so if u hld for a few years, ur gauranteed to make 20%-50%+ over long termTia Phoenixx said:
Investing in Stocks - Where to begin?
- Thread starter Tangwhich
- Start date
A good primer is 'How to make money in Stocks' by William O'Neill along with Investor's Business Daily (Investors.com). Read too Graham's the Intelligent Investor...a real basic conceptual approach to deciding on whichcompanies are worthy of your investing; be very selective about these. Last but not least, try to invest in companies that offer DRIPs, or Dividend Reinvestment programs, which allow you to reinvest your dividends in more of the companie's stock without brokerage fees (and sometimes even at a small discount to the market price)...you get pain free compounding.Tangwhich said:
Only invest money that you're not likely to need in the next five years and nothing else....small investors usually make the mistake of regarding their stock balances as equivalent to cash, and rely on them just when stocks are experiencing a down phase. Treat stock investments as very long term investments.
Finally, look at overseas markets very carefully, as I personally believe that places like Singapore and Hong Kong offer right now some compelling long term opportunities...just put a little bit into ETFs right now.
ETF is all you need, both in Canada and US, equities and fixed income. They are index products that trade like equities and give you comprehensive diversification at low cost. You could trade those at self-directed discount brokerage like TD Waterhouse, BMO Investoronline or itrade (former etrade Canada) at BNS.
If you are really serious to buy and sell stocks, take Canadian Securities Course first. Once you pass and feel comfortable to get additional knowledge, try to write CFA exams.
The downside for both exams though are both are really expensive, tough to pass, CFA in paricular as the passing rate for each level is less than 40% on average and you need licensing and for CFA 4 years relevant working experiences in addition to passing all the exams in order to be a charter holder.
If you are really serious to buy and sell stocks, take Canadian Securities Course first. Once you pass and feel comfortable to get additional knowledge, try to write CFA exams.
The downside for both exams though are both are really expensive, tough to pass, CFA in paricular as the passing rate for each level is less than 40% on average and you need licensing and for CFA 4 years relevant working experiences in addition to passing all the exams in order to be a charter holder.
One thing I hate about those ETF's are the damn T3's they issue each year for tax purposes. Does anybody understand "return of capital", "capital gain reinvested in additional units", etc.? Why is the taxable income on the T3 greater than the actual cash income received during the year?hinz said:
Did you hold XRE or XTR in non-registered/open account? These ETFs hold variable income securities like income trusts and REITs.Rockslinger said:
As far as the reason why the taxable income is greater than the actual cash income is concern, if I am not mistaken, the incomes are reported as "grossed up" per CRA policies in order to get lower tax return but again I am no tax expert.
Rockslinger said:
Rock those etf T3's are a pain in the ass
. Without boring all of terb to death here is what my accountant taught me. Return of capital is simply getting your own money back. Therefore ROC is deducted from the ACB--adjusted cost base of the individual etf that you are dealing with.Simply put the purpose of the ACB is to determine whether you have a capital gain or capital loss when you eventually sell the individual etf. The t3's that barclays--ishares issues each year are the total income that you made from your etf holdings.
Reinvested distributions are basically capital gains or special dividends paid out by ishares. What these re-invested distributions do is to increase your ACB so that when you go to sell your capital gain will be lower etc. These reinvested distributions will show up on your t3 eventhough you didn't get any extra shares out of the deal. This could be one explanation as to why the taxable income on your t3 is so high? Just to repeat. The extra taxes that you pay on your t3's now will benefit you in the long run by increasing your acb on these etfs which will lower the amount of capital gain tax you will pay on the etf when you eventually sell it.
This t3 income can be composed of dividend income, capital gains, other income, return of capital etc. It all depends on what type of etf you own?
I hope I haven't confused you even more---lol. Calculating the ACB on etfs can be very complicated depending if you have set up a synthetic drip program on your etfs or not? Calculating the ACB of an individual etf can be furthur complicated if you have done a lot of buys and sells of the the etfs throughout the years.
Tangwhich, here are my suggestions:
1. Open an account with someone like TD Waterhouse and set up online trading. This investment account can be either a RRSP account or simply a “cash” account. There are restrictions with RRSP account such as contribution limits and withdrawal penalties, etc. Cash account is investing with after tax money. You cannot open a TDW account online (unless procedures had changed since I did this), you have to sign a few agreements in person at a bank branch.
2. It would be preferable to have a TD bank account. This enables easy transfer of funds to and from the investment account. BTW, I use TD as an example but all banks have equivalent services. And there are other online trader websites.
3. Once you are online, you can transfer money into this account for investment. Again, if it is a RRSP account, the money you put in would be your RRSP contribution, so be careful of the amount.
4. You should familiarize yourself with the features on the website. Naturally, you want to know how to navigate to place a buy or sell order, how to get a realtime price quote, set buy price, stop/loss etc. My recollection is that the features are pretty intuitive. If not, call TDW and someone would help you over the phone. The website would also have research materials that you might find helpful.
5. You should also need to know the cost of a trade. It is cheaper to trade directly yourself and would cost more with the help of a TDW person. Typically, the cost of a trade is fixed for a given range. Therefore, a larger buy lowers the cost base and vice versa. Frequency of buying and selling affects the cost.
6. The cost of buy is automatically taken from the investment account and proceeds of sell and dividends are automatically deposited into the same account. You should be able to track all these online.
7. As for which stock to buy, who knows. The more research you do, the better off you are but it means investing lots of time. BNN is a good source of information. Freebie research reports are more readily found on the web on US companies than Canadian companies.
8. Finally, the usual disclaimer and these suggestions are for entertainment purposes only.
Direct investment in the stock market is not for the faint of heart. I had fun doing it but I also paid for the experience. How I wished the money was spent pooning. Hope this is helpful.
1. Open an account with someone like TD Waterhouse and set up online trading. This investment account can be either a RRSP account or simply a “cash” account. There are restrictions with RRSP account such as contribution limits and withdrawal penalties, etc. Cash account is investing with after tax money. You cannot open a TDW account online (unless procedures had changed since I did this), you have to sign a few agreements in person at a bank branch.
2. It would be preferable to have a TD bank account. This enables easy transfer of funds to and from the investment account. BTW, I use TD as an example but all banks have equivalent services. And there are other online trader websites.
3. Once you are online, you can transfer money into this account for investment. Again, if it is a RRSP account, the money you put in would be your RRSP contribution, so be careful of the amount.
4. You should familiarize yourself with the features on the website. Naturally, you want to know how to navigate to place a buy or sell order, how to get a realtime price quote, set buy price, stop/loss etc. My recollection is that the features are pretty intuitive. If not, call TDW and someone would help you over the phone. The website would also have research materials that you might find helpful.
5. You should also need to know the cost of a trade. It is cheaper to trade directly yourself and would cost more with the help of a TDW person. Typically, the cost of a trade is fixed for a given range. Therefore, a larger buy lowers the cost base and vice versa. Frequency of buying and selling affects the cost.
6. The cost of buy is automatically taken from the investment account and proceeds of sell and dividends are automatically deposited into the same account. You should be able to track all these online.
7. As for which stock to buy, who knows. The more research you do, the better off you are but it means investing lots of time. BNN is a good source of information. Freebie research reports are more readily found on the web on US companies than Canadian companies.
8. Finally, the usual disclaimer and these suggestions are for entertainment purposes only.
Direct investment in the stock market is not for the faint of heart. I had fun doing it but I also paid for the experience. How I wished the money was spent pooning. Hope this is helpful.
First off, do you want to invest for retirement or trade to add or replace your current source of income?
For retirement, stick with ETF's and mutuals. I can share what I've learned if you wish to go that route.
In addition to my current job, I've been day trading for the last year or so.
I've made a bunch, lost a bit. So far, my P/L is in the positive. This year, I've cleared $2k USD.
I've just started learning options and I highly highly recommend this route.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/options/
You'll also want to learn your technical analysis if you go with options.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/technicalanalysis.asp
As for brokerages, I recommend the following:
http://www.thinkorswim.ca/
http://www.interactivebrokers.ca/
General sites I recommend:
http://www.bogleheads.org/ - great site, by a bunch of folks which are huge fans of John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Mutual. Excellent resource for those starting out.
http://www.stockcharts.com/ - great charting site. you'll need to learn those candlesticks for options trading.
http://www.marketwatch.com/ - good site to keep on top of news.
http://www.stocktwits.com/ - site that links to twitter. lets you see what others think. sometimes, you need a second opinion.
http://online.barrons.com/public/page/markets_calendar.html - barrons' market calendar. let's you look up conference calls, earning reports, etc on stocks. i use this to find opportunities.
http://online.barrons.com/public/page/barrons_econoday.html - barrons econoday. great site to let you know about meetings, reports, etc that could impact the market. covers each week and details each report. i use this as well to find new opportunities.
http://www.investopedia.com/ - investopedia. great resource to learn the market. whenever i would see or hear something i didn't understand, i went to investopedia to grasp the basics. if i felt i should be doing it, i went to other resources to learn more.
http://www.mffais.com/ - tracks the big money regarding stocks. also another tool in your tool belt.
Books I recommend:
http://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Next-Door-Thomas-Stanley/dp/0671015206 - the millionaire next door
http://www.amazon.ca/Random-Walk-Do...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239685901&sr=1-1 - random walk down wall street
in closing, i'd like to share what i've learned.
- always have a plan.
- always have a open and close position in your plan and stick to it.
- never feel bad about a trade you walked away from profitable, even if the stock continues to go up after you close your position.
- don't listen to the blowhards on cnbc, yahoo boards (damn filthy shorts!), etc.
- when you find something that works, stick with it.
- keep learning
- learn options
welcome to the club. i'm available if you have any questions.
For retirement, stick with ETF's and mutuals. I can share what I've learned if you wish to go that route.
In addition to my current job, I've been day trading for the last year or so.
I've made a bunch, lost a bit. So far, my P/L is in the positive. This year, I've cleared $2k USD.
I've just started learning options and I highly highly recommend this route.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/options/
You'll also want to learn your technical analysis if you go with options.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/technicalanalysis.asp
As for brokerages, I recommend the following:
http://www.thinkorswim.ca/
http://www.interactivebrokers.ca/
General sites I recommend:
http://www.bogleheads.org/ - great site, by a bunch of folks which are huge fans of John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Mutual. Excellent resource for those starting out.
http://www.stockcharts.com/ - great charting site. you'll need to learn those candlesticks for options trading.
http://www.marketwatch.com/ - good site to keep on top of news.
http://www.stocktwits.com/ - site that links to twitter. lets you see what others think. sometimes, you need a second opinion.
http://online.barrons.com/public/page/markets_calendar.html - barrons' market calendar. let's you look up conference calls, earning reports, etc on stocks. i use this to find opportunities.
http://online.barrons.com/public/page/barrons_econoday.html - barrons econoday. great site to let you know about meetings, reports, etc that could impact the market. covers each week and details each report. i use this as well to find new opportunities.
http://www.investopedia.com/ - investopedia. great resource to learn the market. whenever i would see or hear something i didn't understand, i went to investopedia to grasp the basics. if i felt i should be doing it, i went to other resources to learn more.
http://www.mffais.com/ - tracks the big money regarding stocks. also another tool in your tool belt.
Books I recommend:
http://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Next-Door-Thomas-Stanley/dp/0671015206 - the millionaire next door
http://www.amazon.ca/Random-Walk-Do...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239685901&sr=1-1 - random walk down wall street
in closing, i'd like to share what i've learned.
- always have a plan.
- always have a open and close position in your plan and stick to it.
- never feel bad about a trade you walked away from profitable, even if the stock continues to go up after you close your position.
- don't listen to the blowhards on cnbc, yahoo boards (damn filthy shorts!), etc.
- when you find something that works, stick with it.
- keep learning
- learn options
welcome to the club. i'm available if you have any questions.
