[Jaye101]

Didn't see a thread for traders, didn't really look too hard though.

What are you currently investing in?

Currently holding FLT.V, VERY.CN, GEVO, MMED, and a halted SHRM

 

[Towered]

I'm brand new to investing and really don't know where to start yet.

 

[ushahid]

i do stocks and currently learning Forax.

 

[WislaHD]

I am basic so I put my money in ETFs and mutual funds capturing technology, health care, finance sectors.

Since real estate is not one of the sectors those above securities include in their portfolios and I am a big believer in real estate (naturally as a UT member!), I have diversified by buying REIT stocks, but I am a little aghast that investors don't value the development potential and future potential earnings of REITs at all (some of which own huge amounts of land in urban areas!). I clearly see them differently than the investment community does and have adopted a long-term hold + collect dividend strategy with REITs.

 

[Northern Light]

I'm brand new to investing and really don't know where to start yet.

Not a bad idea to talk to an investment advisor.

If you're starting small and moderately conservative, one of the advisors at your local bank branch, who you can see for free would be perfectly fine.

I wouldn't necessarily go with what they recommend.

But its a good way to acquaint yourself with different options.

***

It would be my suggestion that before worrying about the details of where to put your money, you think carefully about your goals; your needs and your risk tolerance.

What are you investing for? (short-term, medium-term, long-term, to buy a car, a house, or your retirement)

What's your time horizon? (when do you need the money and any return back)

Can you and are you prepared to risk a serious loss in the near-term?

Broadly speaking, higher risk, higher reward.

But higher risk means you could be out some or all of your investment.

For most people, a diversified mix of low-medium risk ETFs, Mutual Funds, Bond/Money Market Funds etc. is about the right speed; but everyone will differ.

 

[TrickyRicky]

I really think it’s a matter of what you are interested in.

I’m interested in learning about active investing. I still consider myself a beginner. My first stock trade was in 2002 buying and selling Nortel like a scared-rabbit, grinding out a few hundred dollars.

I find overall a diversified portfolio will trend around the performance of the index, with actively-managed accounts (professionally and unprofessionally managed) tending to (fee’s all in) generally underperform the index.

So unless you are interested in the “game” indexing is best, although I sense the rise of indexing portends the future underperformance of indexing relative to conventional norms.

If you are interested in the game it’s best to just start investing small amounts in a few or all of the major economic sectors. Like pick a stock you like in each sector, put a real amount of money in it and watch what happens over time.

This is really a specialized knowledge that takes a long time to study. There is no right or wrong niche to look at but keep in mind everyone says diversify but people who make real money are often the least diversified.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Another thing I notice is people talk about investments like they talk about lottery or casino gambling. Talking about "picks" etc. There's nothing wrong with talking about picks but it blinds people to the whole process of investing. The reason we are probably talking about this now is that there has been a historic rebound in stock markets meaning that anyone with skin in the game just made (or made back) a bucket of money. After a crash it's like crickets out there.

Fundamentally, I think the first most important investment decision is not what you invest in, it's how you drop money in buckets. Deciding how to allocate capital into different buckets is much more important and fundamental. You're probably in the top 25% if you can just decide to drop money into different allocations, one of which is an investment account. Like for example come up with a plan to drop money into three buckets: savings, investing, and spending. Boom. Instantly you are a comparatively brilliant investor.

If you can come up with multiply sources of re-occurring income and stick to our three bucket plan: Boom multi-millionaire.

If you can string together 10-12 good investment decisions in a life-time you're a billionaire (Seymour Schulich came up with that one). One of those decisions is getting an education, one is who your life-partner is going to be, another is where you live. That leaves 7-8 investment decisions left.

 

[Undead]

Any idea where the USD-CAD exchange rate is heading?

 

[junctionist]

I invested in Allied REIT at the height of the downturn. I think their business of revitalizing heritage buildings into high-end office space with attractive contemporary additions is both inspiring and good business. A lot of startups and growth companies love their restored turn-of-the-century warehouse spaces. It's a smart company in how they grow, and I feel good about not investing in REITs making money on suburban sprawl plazas. There's still a lot of investor uncertainty about the future of the office market on account of all the working from home going on, though.

With that said, in the worst case scenario, a lot of their buildings could be used for other purposes if the office market permanently declines like apartments, condos, retail, studios, and perhaps even light manufacturing. They pay a dividend on a monthly basis, which is good.

 

[TrickyRicky]

The other thing I like to do as I learn more is set benchmark goals.

For instance I’m an incrementalist so I like to set timelines to increase the single transaction amount I’m comfortable making.

I also set a rough annual return expectation and total asset value goal. These are internal benchmarks independent of “the market”. Basically, it’s about paying attention to what’s going yes but focusing on what I’m doing not what other people are doing.

 

[thaivic]

I buy blue chip stocks that pay a good dividend for my regular portfolio, the big 5 Canadian Banks pay a good dividend and rarely have they cut it, BMO 4.32%, TD 4.46%, RBC 4.11%, CIBC 5.27%,Scotia Bank 5.33%, Enbridge is paying 7.60%, i was very fortunate to buy these and some other stocks in May of this year that were paying almost 7% average dividend due to the prices being beaten up, since then with dividends and the price appreciation in the stocks i am up 33%, in my RSP i have 40 different stocks between Canadian and US markets, best performers have been Apple, Microsoft, Google, Honeywell, Dollarama, Thomson Reuters,Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, Carrier Global ,Costco ,Union Pacific, United Health, Visa, MasterCard, Toronto Dominion, Royal Bank, i also have part of my portfolio in Bonds and short term US IG Corp BD Hedged to CAD Index ETF CAD Unit. I tend to stick to value stocks and i like the dividends but depending on your age you can take more risk.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I am basic so I put my money in ETFs and mutual funds capturing technology, health care, finance sectors.

At 49 I’m about ten years from retirement. My portfolio is mostly bank stocks, ETFs and Vanguard’s US market ETF. The latter I like as it trades in 3,000 US companies and uses Canadian dollars so I can avoid currency risk. And my number one rule as a longterm holding investor, don’t buy any stock or ETF unless it pays a dividend. If there’s no income from the stock, you’re just gambling that someone in the future thinks your stock is worth more than what you paid.

 

[AlbertC]

Peter Thiel, Tobi Lütke among backers of $25-million funding for Calgary bank challenger Neo

Dec 16, 2020

A Calgary startup led by two SkipTheDishes founders has raised $25-million from some of North America’s top investors including billionaires Peter Thiel, Peter Thomson and Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, to build a digital challenger to Canada’s big banks.

Neo Financial Technologies Inc. said Wednesday it had raised $25-million in equity led by Mr. Thiel’s Valar Ventures and backed by funds including Montreal’s iNovia Capital, Mr. Thomson’s Thomvest and Dragons’ Den star Arlene Dickinson’s District Ventures. Other investors include past backers of SkipTheDishes, the Winnipeg-based food delivery service bought by Britain’s Just Eat PLC in 2016, including Toronto’s Golden Ventures, Mr. Lutke and FJ Labs, as well as Afore Capital and Maple VC.

Neo has also secured a $25-million debt facility from ATB Financial, one of two financial institutions – the other is Concentra Bank – with whom Neo is partnering to offer high-interest savings bank accounts backed by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corp.

Neo chief executive Andrew Chau – who, along with chief merchant officer Jeff Adamson were senior executives with SkiptheDishes – said his two-year-old company has built the infrastructure to offer a savings account accessible by smartphone and a Mastercard credit card. It has also signed up 2,000 merchants including e-scooter company Bird, Esso and Guardian Drugs to join a loyalty points program. This week, Neo began formally signing up customers from a waiting list the company says numbers in the tens of thousands.

“We’re here to build a meaningful company and get to millions of users,” Mr. Chau said. “The Canadian banking industry is massive, yet the last meaningful challenger was ING Direct,” which launched in the 1990s and is now called Tangerine Bank and owned by Bank of Nova Scotia. “There is such a huge opportunity to layer technology and essentially rebuild the entire banking stack from the ground up.”

Neo’s savings account pays 1.55 per cent annually – much higher than the big banks – and comes with unlimited transactions and no monthly fees. The company claims it takes customers just three minutes to sign up. Mr. Chau said the company plans to expand its offerings to include mortgages, loans and investing products.

Peter Thiel, Tobi Lütke among backers of $25-million funding for Calgary bank challenger Neo

Venture funding comes as Borrowell acquires B.C.’s Refresh Financial amid a flood of capital to the fintech, payment sectors

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

[Admiral Beez]

Peter Thiel, Tobi Lütke among backers of $25-million funding for Calgary bank challenger Neo

Dec 16, 2020

Peter Thiel, Tobi Lütke among backers of $25-million funding for Calgary bank challenger Neo

Venture funding comes as Borrowell acquires B.C.’s Refresh Financial amid a flood of capital to the fintech, payment sectors

www.theglobeandmail.com

If the money is not protected by the CDIC we should all be wary.

 

[AlbertC]

If the money is not protected by the CDIC we should all be wary.

That's already covered in the article:

Neo has also secured a $25-million debt facility from ATB Financial, one of two financial institutions – the other is Concentra Bank – with whom Neo is partnering to offer high-interest savings bank accounts backed by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corp.

And further referenced at the bottom of their website:

Neo Financial | Spending, Savings & Rewards

Earn rewards at hundreds of stores with Neo's no annual fee credit card, plus get a high-interest savings account that actually pays. Sign-up for Neo today.

www.neofinancial.com