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Lexicon posted:Respectfully, I don't think you've thought this through. That USDCAD fluctuates is irrelevant. The point is to be diversified across many industries and countries - so you're an owner of many businesses and placing lots of small bets. The currency is simply a unit of account; an implementation detail. You can't do a good job of diversifying if you're too heavily weighted in Canada. Canada is a poorly diversified place. This really isn't true. Currency loss or gain is a real cost (or benefit) to portfolio performance unless you hedge it out. Alkaiser posted:Hello, Inserted letters to make it easier to reply. A) whether you can do a cashless exercise depends on the terms of your brokerage account. Unless it specifies cashless exercise is available you need to have the cash on hand to pay the strike price. Usually selling your options before export is better than exercising because exercising loses the time value embedded in the option value. (Value = intrinsic value + time value) B) you can't use margin in registered accounts. If you want to use leverage you can borrow outside to meet your cap. This has to do with restrictions on taking security against registered accounts. C) margin accounts use the securities in them as security. Your bank is allowed to lend to you up to a specified percentage of the value of those securities. They may select to lend less than that amount. You will have a specified amount you need to keep in cash in the amount, if the stocks decline in value below that amount the brokerage had the right to sell your shares at whatever price to cover your obligation. If this drives other questions post them and I'll answer.
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Apr 29, 2015 11:02
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Kalenn Istarion posted:This really isn't true. Currency loss or gain is a real cost (or benefit) to portfolio performance unless you hedge it out. You're either misrepresenting or misunderstanding my position. Of course currencies matter. Just like of course taxes matter. But having decided to allocate a portion of a long-term portfolio to 'equities' - it's ludicrous to remain within Canada either because (a) it's priced in CAD, or (b) it's taxed more favourably. Those items are concerns, to be sure, but to let them override the equity exposure desire or diversification would be to let the tail wag the dog. As for hedging, I'm not sure there's much your average retail investor can do on that front. The only sensible hedge is diversification, IMO.
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Apr 29, 2015 16:09
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So I want to stick with these TD e-series funds but man is it a pain getting money from my coast capital account to the TD account, and the TD interface is pretty bad. I'd so love to keep everything within my credit union. They were trying to talk me into switching my mutual funds over to them giving me the whole eye-rolling speech about how banks are evil and greedy and charge crazy fees while credit unions are all about serving the members and give sooo much money to charity. My TD e-series dudes have .33 to .5% MER while, from what I can tell reading the prospectus for the coast capital options (and I don't even know if they are any good) they are closer to 1-3% depending on the fund, but I'm not quite literate enough to fully understand this pdf let alone judge if the funds are any good. https://www.coastcapitalsavings.com/Resources/Documents/Prospectus/SEI_SimplifiedProspectus.pdf Are any of these coast capital funds at all competitive with the couch-potato recommended TD e-series funds? I'm fine dealing with a bad interface and doing pre-authorized withdraws from my coast capital to TD every month if it means squeezing a few more percent of interest out of the funds, or a few percent less in MER robbery. Advice? \/ The fees are on page 21, allegedly. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 00:38
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Baronjutter posted:So I want to stick with these TD e-series funds but man is it a pain getting money from my coast capital account to the TD account, and the TD interface is pretty bad. I'd so love to keep everything within my credit union. They were trying to talk me into switching my mutual funds over to them giving me the whole eye-rolling speech about how banks are evil and greedy and charge crazy fees while credit unions are all about serving the members and give sooo much money to charity. My TD e-series dudes have .33 to .5% MER while, from what I can tell reading the prospectus for the coast capital options (and I don't even know if they are any good) they are closer to 1-3% depending on the fund, but I'm not quite literate enough to fully understand this pdf let alone judge if the funds are any good. Holy poo poo, that document is 136 pages long and someone had to loving write all that confusing poo poo.
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Apr 30, 2015 00:43
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@Baronjutter - you can move money pretty easily from a non-TD institution either with a automated buy or a one time transfer initiated from the TD [terrible web app] end. I have my siblings set up this way - it was originally configured by providing TDMF with a void cheque, as I recall. Don't for gently caress sake trade e-series for some terrible credit union mutual fund just because of a mild logistical hurdle with money transfer.
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Apr 30, 2015 00:47
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Lexicon posted:@Baronjutter - you can move money pretty easily from a non-TD institution either with a automated buy or a one time transfer initiated from the TD [terrible web app] end. I have my siblings set up this way - it was originally configured by providing TDMF with a void cheque, as I recall. The guy was going on and on about how there's NO WAY TD isn't charging me huge fees for the account or to manage the funds and just because they list the MER at .33% doesn't mean they aren't getting their cut somewhere because banks are evil and always trying to screw you. He guaranteed coast capital's funds would be cheaper. From what I'm reading about their funds, this teller was talking out of his rear end. He also kept going on about how much more socially responsible credit unions are and how much they donate. Made me keep thinking back to the canadian politics thread today where a canagoon found his credit union was giving massive donations to the Alberta PC's and wild rose. I love my credit union for daily banking, the banks do try to gently caress you over for that. But unless coast capital offers something like TD's e-series they can go gently caress them selves in a democratic socially responsible way. Also jesus christ, Coast capital has gobbled up countless Vancouver island and Vancouver credit unions and is lobbying to be allowed to spread nationally. They want so bad to become as big as the banks.
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Apr 30, 2015 00:55
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TD's All-Inclusive Banking Plan is pretty good, why not just dump your lovely credit union.
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Apr 30, 2015 01:22
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Kalenn Istarion posted:This really isn't true. Currency loss or gain is a real cost (or benefit) to portfolio performance unless you hedge it out. Thank you, I don't understand though what's the appeal of margin, in that if I have the money to front it, how is it more desirable to make the investments with borrowed money than to just use that money in the first place? Is it essentially doubling down? Or are there any safety advantages for using a margin account that I'm not seeing?
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Apr 30, 2015 02:06
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Alkaiser posted:Thank you, Well you don't always have liquid cash available, and even if you do, it might be several days hops away from your investing account in a savings account elsewhere or whatever. Margin has a lot of value for that reason alone.
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Apr 30, 2015 02:25
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Baronjutter posted:The guy was going on and on about how there's NO WAY TD isn't charging me huge fees for the account or to manage the funds and just because they list the MER at .33% doesn't mean they aren't getting their cut somewhere because banks are evil and always trying to screw you. He guaranteed coast capital's funds would be cheaper. From what I'm reading about their funds, this teller was talking out of his rear end. He also kept going on about how much more socially responsible credit unions are and how much they donate. Made me keep thinking back to the canadian politics thread today where a canagoon found his credit union was giving massive donations to the Alberta PC's and wild rose. Am I the only one who doesn't give two shits about this nonsense? I want companies to focus on their job, obey the law and act in good faith, pay their taxes, and leave the philanthropy to individuals, charities, and foreign aid. These things are only ever the most token of efforts, which they go on to promptly tax-deduct and then use as interminable advertising fodder until the next big initiative kicks off. You can make a pretty good case that individuals' donations shouldn't be tax deductible, but corporations' absolutely loving shouldn't be </ old man rant>
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Apr 30, 2015 02:30
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Lexicon posted:@Baronjutter - you can move money pretty easily from a non-TD institution either with a automated buy or a one time transfer initiated from the TD [terrible web app] end. I have my siblings set up this way - it was originally configured by providing TDMF with a void cheque, as I recall. Personally I just entered my RSP and TFSA accounts as bills. Pay TFSA bill, money shows up in TFSA account a couple days later. And if I wanted, could set them up as regular bill payments. Using PC financial for my regular banking.
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Apr 30, 2015 03:10
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Alkaiser posted:Thank you, Speculation!  Think of it as buying a house for 5% down. That 10k gain you made on your initial 20k deposit is a sweet 50% gain because you weren't floating the full cost. It works well until the market goes the other way, at least. Then you short!
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Apr 30, 2015 03:17
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Just wanted to post my annual gently caress you cra and your loving t1135.
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Apr 30, 2015 03:38
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blah_blah posted:TD's All-Inclusive Banking Plan is pretty good, why not just dump your lovely credit union. Yeah I'm not paying $30 a month for the honour of a debit card. All the major banks want some ridiculous minimum or huge fees.
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Apr 30, 2015 04:29
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Baronjutter posted:Yeah I'm not paying $30 a month for the honour of a debit card. All the major banks want some ridiculous minimum or huge fees. $5000 minimum is not really ridiculous but to each their own. No one in their right mind would pay the $30 fee.
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Apr 30, 2015 05:09
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blah_blah posted:$5000 minimum is not really ridiculous but to each their own. No one in their right mind would pay the $30 fee. It's not, but if you throw that $5k into any broad market index fund, it has a higher return than $30/month (long term obviously), so why bother?
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Apr 30, 2015 05:20
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The 5000 include mutual funds, not just savings account? Nah none of this would work, I'd have to have my wife transfer to TD as well, and my work pays me easily because they use the same credit union so just transfer the money. I'll just keep TD for investing and coast capital for daily banking.
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Apr 30, 2015 05:30
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rhazes posted:It's not, but if you throw that $5k into any broad market index fund, it has a higher return than $30/month (long term obviously), so why bother? 7% on 5k is $350 so that's not even true assuming no expenses. I keep a completely liquid emergency fund of much more than $5k anyways so there's effectively no opportunity cost. A better comparison is the 1 or 2% you'd make on a 'high interest savings account' at a credit union or something like PC Financial. Are the benefits of that plan worth over $100/year to me? Easily (arguably the CC alone is close, as are things like the safety deposit box if it has any value to you). I mean, having the network of branches of TD versus a credit union alone is worth $100/year to me.
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Apr 30, 2015 05:39
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Yo blah_blah, first tech federal credit union in da hous
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Apr 30, 2015 05:42
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Cultural Imperial posted:Yo blah_blah, first tech federal credit union in da hous I'm sticking with Chase until I finish churning through all their credit cards. If not for that I'd probably bank with First Republic. e: but that name is pretty great
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Apr 30, 2015 05:44
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blah_blah posted:I'm sticking with Chase until I finish churning through all their credit cards. If not for that I'd probably bank with First Republic. Founded by Tektronix employees.
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Apr 30, 2015 05:48
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blah_blah posted:7% on 5k is $350 so that's not even true assuming no expenses. I keep a completely liquid emergency fund of much more than $5k anyways so there's effectively no opportunity cost. A better comparison is the 1 or 2% you'd make on a 'high interest savings account' at a credit union or something like PC Financial. Still comes out ahead, if you're only comparing the min balance to the fees for not maintaining it. Equity returns going forward are estimated to be approximately 7% in real terms, or 9% pre-inflation. You may hold an emergency fund more than 5k, yes, but in my experience, for every seriously disciplined saver I know, they don't even count that minimum balance as part of the emergency fund, so comparing it to investments directly is a fair comparison.
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Apr 30, 2015 06:01
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rhazes posted:Still comes out ahead, if you're only comparing the min balance to the fees for not maintaining it. Equity returns going forward are estimated to be approximately 7% in real terms, or 9% pre-inflation. This is some pretty  stuff ('every seriously disciplined saver I know'?). I optimize my invested assets, which represent well over 90% of my net worth, for high returns/low fees. I optimize my emergency fund/chequing account for liquidity and convenience, because $100/year is completely inconsequential to the big picture of my financial situation, and because saving time is worth money to me. The minimum is irrelevant because if you needed to draw down your emergency fund entirely you'd just switch to a lower-cost account and get rid of the benefits.
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Apr 30, 2015 06:45
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Lexicon posted:Am I the only one who doesn't give two shits about this nonsense? I want companies to focus on their job, obey the law and act in good faith, pay their taxes, and leave the philanthropy to individuals, charities, and foreign aid. These things are only ever the most token of efforts, which they go on to promptly tax-deduct and then use as interminable advertising fodder until the next big initiative kicks off. I actively avoid contributing to this poo poo, and charities. I pay taxes to balance out my privilege and make life better for everyone, especially people who need help. If a charity takes some of the load off of government services - which is what charities are designed to do since they come from the traditions of a pre-social safety net world - then the government can wash its hands of responsibility for the failures of that service. For example, if we didn't have such a powerful and well established network of food banks, and people started starving in the street, we would turn to the government to help fix the problem. Fixing the problem probably involves a huge reordering of education, labour laws, food subsidies, and municipal zoning practices. Instead, we can make ourselves feel a little better about the structural nature of developed world hunger every Christmas with a few cans of loving tomatoes in a box, and the government(s) can cut education, labour protections, practice free market nonsense, and render our cities even more uninhabitable. This effect is directly observable, if only tangentially related, in the use of lottery funds to subsidize social services. Poor people get taxed for their misunderstanding of math, those taxes go towards social services needed by the poor and corporate taxes get cut to make up the balance.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:26
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tuyop posted:I actively avoid contributing to this poo poo, and charities. Just send all the unemployed into the military, that seems to sort things out. Then they can invest in their truck equity while looking down at the disabled who couldn't make it in. I personally have full confidence in government agencies not spending significant portions of their budgets on an extremely well-paid, inefficient, corruptible bureaucracy. Another thing I believe is the rational examination and implementation of effective education systems by tribal democracies. That's why I don't believe in charities, and tell everyone else that they shouldn't either.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:44
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bzw posted:Just send all the unemployed into the military, that seems to sort things out. Then they can invest in their truck equity while looking down at the disabled who couldn't make it in. I personally have full confidence in government agencies not spending significant portions of their budgets on an extremely well-paid, inefficient, corruptible bureaucracy. Another thing I believe is the rational examination and implementation of effective education systems by tribal democracies. Yeah, you're right. Privatize welfare, what's the worse that could happen!
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Apr 30, 2015 18:23
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tuyop posted:I actively avoid contributing to this poo poo, and charities. I think we agree directionally, but you opinion is of a much stronger magnitude, and I disagree with you beyond a certain point. There's a role for charities to exist as a component of civic society – individuals working in support of a cause they feel passionate about. It should not replace the societal improvements done collectively through government/taxation (hence the point about tax deductibility), but as a purely augmenting force, I see it as a good thing. The risk, of course, is that this patchwork of tokenistic efforts placates the desire for real action to solve problems done by governments. And you're totally right about that - it's a huge problem.
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Apr 30, 2015 18:53
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Biggest problem is that charities have biases, direct or structural. Governments do a better job of ensuring that all hungry people are fed, rather than people in a certain location of a certain race or language for whatever reason. Same thing with international charities, they don't often have unbiased penetration. Often it's the easiest groups to help that are helped, especially when relying on volunteers.
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Apr 30, 2015 22:19
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cowofwar posted:Biggest problem is that charities have biases, direct or structural. Governments do a better job of ensuring that all hungry people are fed, rather than people in a certain location of a certain race or language for whatever reason. Same thing with international charities, they don't often have unbiased penetration. Often it's the easiest groups to help that are helped, especially when relying on volunteers. Agreed. That's why charity should be augmentative, not a replacement.
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Apr 30, 2015 22:23
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blah_blah posted:This is some pretty I hate our banks as a rule, but this philosophy is spot on. No matter what the financial blogosphere tells you, no one ever got rich through penny-pinching, especially at the expense of their own time.
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Apr 30, 2015 22:26
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Lexicon posted:Well you don't always have liquid cash available, and even if you do, it might be several days hops away from your investing account in a savings account elsewhere or whatever. Margin has a lot of value for that reason alone. I guess it doesn't make sense to me in that the small differences in the margin rate interest rates don't seem to make it worth it for all the hoops you go through i.e. margin calls; as opposed to getting some form of traditional loan and investing with that if you want to play with leverage.
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May 1, 2015 01:46
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Alkaiser posted:I guess it doesn't make sense to me in that the small differences in the margin rate interest rates don't seem to make it worth it for all the hoops you go through i.e. margin calls; as opposed to getting some form of traditional loan and investing with that if you want to play with leverage. What are you talking about? You think there are less hoops in getting a third party loan, transferring money in, making payments etc. rather than just using margin with a broker?
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May 1, 2015 02:19
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Kal Torak posted:What are you talking about? You think there are less hoops in getting a third party loan, transferring money in, making payments etc. rather than just using margin with a broker? Exactly. Getting any sort of loan except for credit cards or CMHC riskless mortgages is a tremendous loving hassle - even, astonishingly, at banks with whom you have extensive relationships, and who ought to know you're good for a $10k unsecured LoC.
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May 1, 2015 03:12
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Funny enough, PC just recently offered me an unsecured LoC for 10k. Prime + 3.25%. I still wouldn't want to carry a balance on that, but it's a lot better than 20% on a CC. All I can really think of using it for is a boosting my RSP contributions and paying it off quickly after. But then my emergency fund is plenty for that. I guess it could take over for the brief period my emergency fund is low.
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May 1, 2015 03:28
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Kal Torak posted:What are you talking about? You think there are less hoops in getting a third party loan, transferring money in, making payments etc. rather than just using margin with a broker? For me that was easier, particularly as the payment schedule was easier for me to psychologically commit to saving to rather than to regularly contribute. If I have a non registered investment, I can use that to secure a conventional loan, I would assume that if they are approving you for margin that you are jumping through the same hoops anyway to get that same amount approved as credit. As an aside to all of that margin seems to be playing with money that you can't afford to lose? Though I can understand how that can still be a relatively thing.
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May 1, 2015 03:40
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Anyone know anything about MSP in BC? After finding various ways to weasel out of it for years, my girlfriend and I became common law as of Jan 1 2015. This has really screwed her over (we don't combine our finances at all for personal reasons). She lost her GST/PST rebates, and will lose her MSP assistance completely once they pull her tax return. MSP has yet to start issuing her bills though, and we're wondering if they bill people retroactively when they see that somebody is no longer eligible for premium assistance? (Like the CRA does for GST/PST rebates, already got that bill) Should she be saving up her $72/mo in preparation for a huge bill sometime this year? I can't find any outrage on the internet about people receiving retroactive bills the way you can for GST rebates or hydro bills or whatever. Kreez fucked around with this message at 03:46 on May 1, 2015 |
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May 1, 2015 03:43
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Golluk posted:Funny enough, PC just recently offered me an unsecured LoC for 10k. Prime + 3.25%. I still wouldn't want to carry a balance on that, but it's a lot better than 20% on a CC. All I can really think of using it for is a boosting my RSP contributions and paying it off quickly after. But then my emergency fund is plenty for that. I guess it could take over for the brief period my emergency fund is low. Prime +3.25% isn't a great rate for a LoC. You might be able to negotiate that down although I guess it depends on your credit.
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May 1, 2015 03:46
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Alkaiser posted:For me that was easier, particularly as the payment schedule was easier for me to psychologically commit to saving to rather than to regularly contribute. If I have a non registered investment, I can use that to secure a conventional loan, I would assume that if they are approving you for margin that you are jumping through the same hoops anyway to get that same amount approved as credit. It sounds like you've never used a margin account. Anyone can open one and the margin requirements are dependent on the stock you are buying or the strategy you are using, not your credit rating. Saying that getting an external loan is easier or less hoops is mind boggling to me. Maybe you should try it because dealing with an external lender, payments, credit approval, etc. compared to simply "BUY STOCK" is a ridiculous idea. Also, saying that margin is playing with money you can't afford to lose is ridiculous as well. There's no difference on a profit/loss basis. If you have 10K, you buy 20K worth of stock, it drops 50%and you are left with 10K, does it matter whether that other 10K was an external loan or on margin? Either way, you are out the 10K. Just because you have margin doesn't mean you have to use it. You only pay for it when you do. And I wouldn't recommend maxing it out. Then yes, you could run into margin call issues. But for traders, or those using strategies like shorting and selling options, margin and leverage is a huge advantage and downright necessary at times.
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May 1, 2015 03:58
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Kal Torak posted:It sounds like you've never used a margin account. Anyone can open one and the margin requirements are dependent on the stock you are buying or the strategy you are using, not your credit rating. Well I do have external loans, I have a pretty good relationship with my bank and I have a better than average income which may be why my experience is different. What I'm saying and correct me if I'm wrong, if my credit rating wasn't good enough to borrow say 10000 dollars by putting up a account with 20k in GICs as collateral, why would the bank be anymore interested in letting me have up to 10k in margin to borrow if I put up the same GICs in a trading account? As for the risk part, with an external loan I know what I'm paying monthly without any surprises and have more flexibility with long positions, with margin if I take heavy losses I'm potentially at the mercy of margin calls to maintain my position, that being said I can appreciate that being less of an issue if I'm only using a portion of my margin. I guess I perceive the availability of margin as being more tempting for risk taking behavior vs leaving a cash position for all the activities you would otherwise want to do.
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May 1, 2015 04:30
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What are the thread's general thoughts on hedged vs. non-hedged US index funds. Currently holding VUN which went way up as the CAD tanked. At this point I believe the CAD has more or less bottomed and will hold around the same or slowly increase. Would it make sense at this time to sell VUN and switch it out for VUS? Or is this too short term of thinking and I should just leave it be? Better in general to go with the hedged or not?
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May 1, 2015 21:43
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