The Transparent RRSP: A Year in Review

January 22, 2018jeana2deal Leave a comment

It has been just over a year since I started the Transparent RRSP challenge. It was an experiment in which I started with $1000. I didn’t have much of a plan going in – the only thing I could say with certainty is that I would deposit $150 a month. I also said that I would discuss my investment choices and decisions, which I have faithfully done.

In my heart, I was hoping for through-the-roof results. However, I knew it wasn’t going to be one of those markets where I could easily get a significant mid-to-long-term move like there was in 2016. My main challenge was to beat the market. If I couldn’t, then my ultimate advice for my readers would be to buy the market via index ETFs.

Since many of us don’t have the time to make such decisions, it’s still my recommendation to buy a market ETF such as the XIU or XIC. Last year, the total return for the XIU was 9.57% and the total return for the XIC last year was 9.05%. It was a lot less than the US market returns, but that’s still not bad. If you had only invested in either of these and regularly deposited money each month, you’d be much further ahead.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I am not a financial expert. I’m just a trader – a super lazy one! You know how some people like shopping but they don’t put their stuff away or take care of what they have? That’s me. I like buying stocks. I like selling them at a profit or watching them grow. I also ignore them when they’re in the negative. I even ignore them when they’re in the positive because I have other stuff going on. Lazy!

Okay, so where am I getting at? I don’t do math of any sort, not even financial math. I tried to figure out the ideal way to calculate my RRSP’s portfolio performance. I looked at the time-weighted rate of return, the Modified Dietz method, and a few other methods. It’s been a frustrating odyssey. In the end, I simply input my numbers into the Investment Performance Calculator available on moneychimp.com/.

The numbers that I used are the following:

Starting balance: $1000.00
Ending balance: $3319.89
Months elapsed: 12
Total additions: $2100
Total withdrawals & dividends: $92.04 (there were only dividends and no withdrawals – it gets taxed as income!)

The calculation gave me 15.57%. This looks amazing, but this is not an accurate comparison to the market ETFs as we don’t have the same inputs.

If I were to do a simple ROI calculation where I divide the gains of $219.89 by the cost of the investment $3100, I get 7.09%. This is closer to how the portfolio performance feels like. It’s great that most of the stocks in the portfolio pay a dividend. In the long-term, this is a good thing. It goes to show you that even with unimpressive to mediocre stock performance, you can still make money in your portfolio.

Do I have any regrets? Yes. One of my readers made a strong point about adding weed stocks to my retirement account. I even blogged about buying ACB.TO. But I didn’t buy it! A part of me wanted the portfolio to be more conservative and less aggressive. In other words, boring. I bought a number of weed stocks for my TFSA and it’s been an exciting time for my TFSA. Boy, I love logging an watching it grow like a proud mama. I might have to revisit my strategies for the RRSP.

It’s currently just over a year’s time by a couple of weeks and the RRSP portfolio is actually looking pretty good compared to how it was a couple of weeks ago. It will be interesting to review these numbers in 6 months to a year.

I deposited $150 and there is currently $180.51. I am checking out CRH.TO. I love the chart setup and I love the price. This could be good for a mid to long-term trade. We’ll see how it opens tomorrow.

CRH.TO price chart on freestockcharts.com

Stock Picks

January 8, 2018jeana2deal Leave a comment

Market ETFs: SPY, QQQ, DIA, and XIC on freestockcharts.com

The US market is making me nervous as the charts get higher with bigger candles. At some point, it’s gotta sell off, right? I notated on the charts the last months where the most selling happened.

Market cycles can either be four months for the shorter term, or eight to ten months. The SPY and DIA show their last major sell-offs were in March of last year. The Canadian market, on the other hand, looks like it could be halfway through its current move up. It could pause for a bit at the current highs before continuing its move. If the US market pulls back, it’ll be interesting to see how the Canadian market will react.

It’s been a hectic week for me and I’m gearing to go back to work tomorrow. I managed to do a quick search and I found some decent charts to check out:

BB.TO
PD.TO
ACBN.TO (watch for a consolidation setup on the daily chart)
ENB.TO

Be sure to check the sector and do your necessary research and take the right amount of risk so that you can feel confident in your trades/investments.

Oh, and happy new year!

Cannabis Stocks: If You Don’t Smoke It, Own It

December 31, 2017jeana2deal 2 Comments

My Liberty Leaf Toque

Board members and shareholders

I’m a shareholder too!

Anyone who owns stocks gets the plastic covered notices in the mail from Computershare, the transfer agents who communicate with shareholders on behalf of the corporations. For years, I would just automatically recycle what came in the mail. This year was the first that I actually started glancing at what came my way because I had finally become interested in attending an AGM of any company that I owned shares in.

It’s been my ongoing effort to get people interested enough to take action in the stock market. Weed stocks are the ones I get asked about the most. Whether you like pot or not, Canadian investors should have some weed stocks in their portfolio. Let’s put it this way: the market barely nudged the last week, but my portfolio’s value went up by nearly 5% because of my weed stocks. I’ll say it now and I’ve said it before: When it comes to cannabis stocks, if you don’t smoke it, own it.

One of my brothers was motivated by an investor buddy of his to invest in a company called Liberty Leaf based out of Vancouver. He told me he was going to sink a whack of dough into it – we’re talking MUCH MORE risk than I’d ever take on anything. I was just so happy that he was finally investing in stocks. I wanted to join him in his first purchase, so I bought some shares to be a part of his journey. I bought shares at $0.20 in November 2016 and more shares at $0.17 in March 2017. I learned later that my brother’s wife and her family members also bought large amounts of shares. LIB is the only stock I’ve ever bought that wasn’t yet trading on the TSX. It trades on the CSE (the Canadian Securities Exchange), but buying it was no different than buying any other stock.

LIB stock chart from Google Finance

Both times I bought shares, the price immediately went down afterward. I wasn’t sweating it, but I was sure my brother was. We didn’t talk about it again. I didn’t bring it up because it was his trade and I didn’t want to influence him one way or another. It wasn’t until early December when the price doubled that the texts starting coming in from him. This exponential climb has definitely brought about Christmas cheer to this household. It’s now the end of the year and the price closed at $0.80.

I was booked to visit my family in Vancouver over the Christmas holidays and it was great to read from my plastic covered notice that I was actually going to be in town for Liberty Leaf’s AGM, my very first for a publicly traded company. Of course, I didn’t read the information properly until I was on my way to the AGM; I learned that I was supposed to sign in up to three days prior to the AGM if I planned to attend in person. Otherwise, I could vote on the AGM items online.

Well, I’d crashed four weddings before (but who’s counting?). What could happen if I crashed an AGM? I was once a board member for a Vancouver theatre company, how different could this be? Was there going to be wine and cheese? Would someone bust out and perform a sonnet or break into song from a popular Broadway musical? Would the board directors be like the artistic directors of the theatre company and get into a dramatic quarrel? I didn’t know what to expect.

The folks at Liberty’s sleek company headquarters were extremely inviting. They checked with the official scrutineer from Computershare if I could attend. He was down with it, and the kind Liberty Leafers – including the magnetic President & CEO Will Rascan – seemed sincerely relieved that I could remain present. As much as I felt like an interloper with the few shares that I owned, I was glad to represent my family of shareholders.

There was no wine, cheese, drama, song, or even weed. It’s a corporation, after all. It was all business, which I can really appreciate. The meeting was over and done within an impressive 10 minutes (whoa, Kelly!). After, I had a nice chat with Will Rascan who was genuinely interested in my family of investors. They even let me take a group selfie for my blog and encouraged me to help myself to the table of Liberty Leaf swag to spread the love to my family. As short as my visit was, I felt warmly welcomed as a special guest. It was a privilege being able to interact with a company that I own a piece of at its earlier stages of growth. I’m sure that the next time I have a rare chance to attend a Liberty Leaf meeting, the stock price will be much higher and its operations will have expanded considerably.

If you don’t own any weed stocks yet and don’t know which ones to buy, you can always consider the Canadian ETF, HMMJ, for a starter. It started paying a dividend last quarter. I don’t see a good entry at the moment as things have gone ballistic for weed stocks. I’d rather wait for a bit of a pullback before scaling in and buying more shares. I will cover more on this topic in the new year. This is an exciting time for the cannabis industry and I’m proud that Canada is at the forefront of it.

The Transparent RRSP: Breakout, Breakdown

December 23, 2017jeana2deal Leave a comment

The week of December 18

I bought 35 shares of TPK.V at $6.55 on December 18. It cost $229.25 plus $0.35 in commissions. There is $11.86 in cash left in the RRSP account.

TPK.V price chart on freestockcharts.com

Last Monday, I put in a limit order to buy 35 shares of TPK.V at $6.55 and it was filled at that price. I was so glad as it went straight up right after…until it did a reversal on Wednesday. It’s now back to my entry price.

I did the above screenshot the day I bought the shares. I commented on the monthly chart that this stock could trade sideways even longer. Sometimes with these bottoming patterns, you’ll find that there are a few false takeoffs before it really takes off. My hope is that it continues to trade sideways for longer, offering even more entry opportunities to add to the position. That way, if and when it does take off, the upward move will have a better chance of being sustained even longer.

The market didn’t budge much this week and I don’t expect it will next week. Trade volume between Christmas and the new year is usually quite low. There might be a bit of selling, but I don’t plan on making any trade decisions within the next week.

Already people are posting with glee that they’re on vacation. I wish you all happy and safe holidays! I hope to catch up again next week when I’ll be in Vancouver.

The Transparent RRSP: Decisions by Intuition

December 18, 2017jeana2deal Leave a comment

The week of December 4

I bought 15 shares of TA.TO at $8.00. Commissions were $0.15. This cost me $120.15 altogether.
There is $241.46 of available cash in the RRSP account and an overall total value of $3308.64.

I apologize for not writing about this trade sooner. I blogged instead about Costa Rica.

TA.TO stock chart on freestockcharts.com

At the time, this seemed like a good entry. I was seduced by the monthly chart with rising bottoms and a big area above for the trade to move into – accompanied by increasing volume as seen on the daily chart.

I originally planned to buy 30 shares to make my position 75 shares. Remember, I bought 25 shares at $7.63 in April and then another 20 shares at $7.74 in June. I put the order in, but then I changed it. I just wasn’t sure about the market and the energy sector. Instead, I changed the order to 15 shares. I didn’t want to not take the trade in case it did work. I would have been hugely upset. Reducing the share number was my compromise. Boy am I glad because it plunged right after!

A lot of energy stocks were hit around this time. It might be just a temporary correction, or maybe it will be another while before this sector gets going again. We’ll see.

The Canadian market had some strong selling recently. It’s still holding, but if this keeps up, we might finally get the correction I’ve been waiting for.

I’ve got some charts to check out:

FR.TO (I already own this stock.)
ABX.TO
BB.TO
OTEX.TO
TPK.TO

The metals could be making a comeback. They’ve been quiet/trading sideways all summer and fall. This could be their chance to shine. I really like the charts for FR and ABX. A couple of these tech stocks look interesting too. JP found TPK and I really like the monthly chart on this. The one I most likely will buy is TPK. I’m not sure yet.

I tend to be more cautious towards the end of the year as there tends to be a lot of selling as people start to offload their positions. You might want to just hang tight until the new year after you see how the year closes out.

The Transparent RRSP: Vacay

November 27, 2017November 27, 2017jeana2deal Leave a comment

The week of November 27

I deposited $150 into the RRSP ahead of December. There is $351.89 cash in the RRSP account.

JP and I are going away for a week to Costa Rica (we’re going to the Pacific side). We decided to only bring our tablet and phones. Neither of us has plans to trade while we’re away. Our main focus is to relax, enjoy the warm weather, check out the real estate situation there, and read and swim at the beach. I might squeeze in some study time whenever I can. Derivatives and options have my brain turned in on itself – to take a week off could mean excruciating reviewing when I return.

The airfare was too hard to turn down: $770 CAD for both our tickets! Yes, we’re travelling at a time when the weather isn’t totally unbearable in Ontario yet. We do, however, plan to go to Florida in late February. That’s usually when the cabin fever is at its most intense and could use a warm disruption. Before I take off, I must, of course, look at the markets.

SPY, QQQ, DIA, XIU ETF charts on freestockcharts.com

I don’t know how the market will trade after the US Thanksgiving holiday. December could be positive because of a stronger retail sector around this time. The bearish correction in the fall that I was bracing/hoping for never came. (And that is why we trade the trend, even if we don’t believe it’s still there.)

The trade volume in the US markets seems to be coming down while the prices are going up. The confluence of those two factors often means that: 1) savvy investors start to take profits, and 2) the public starts asking those investors if it’s a good time to buy Apple. The best thing to do is wait for 3) to happen, which is an actual correction.

I was in the Caribbean on my first and last cruise in early 2015 when this happened:

XIC ETF on freestockcharts.com

When JP and I checked our email for the most expensive 10 minutes of our lives, we also checked the markets. At the time, we were only day trading, which meant we were holding no positions in our accounts. Although we weren’t losing money, we figured good opportunities would be short-lived. We were concerned about entering a more hostile trading environment in which small fish like us would get eaten by the bigger, well-funded fish.

After we returned and got our sea legs back, we looked at Canadian companies that traded on both Canadian and US stock exchanges. We discovered they were CHEAP. We bought just a few to hold long term and had a gangbuster year. I doubt the market will do that in the week that we’re gone. Perhaps next January?

I have some stock charts worth checking out:

FIRE.V (New and risky, but cheap. Take fewer shares.)
IMH.V (Same as above.)
TCW.TO
SSL.TO (I already have this in my RRSP.)
SMF.TO

Please check the company, the sector, the earnings, the market, and the fundamentals that you think are important. Always do your due diligence to trade with confidence while respecting your risk tolerance. I do think that the market could pull back early in the new year. You could wait until then before buying or take fewer shares now and more later.

‘Tis the Season to Spend Wisely

November 19, 2017jeana2deal Leave a comment

Holiday Shopping 2

Make a shopping list and start early

This is the time of year when the shopping frenzy begins; what follows is the eating and drinking. It’s all a big winter feast, after all! The easiest thing to do is close your eyes and just run with it knowing that in the new year, you can promise to make amends to your suffering bank account and bulging waistline. This frustrating cycle happens each year for so many of us.

I started doing my Christmas shopping about two months ago. Beforehand, I created a rough shopping list. I was able to keep an eye out for when these items went on sale. Seasonal items, like fudge, are typically more abundant and therefore cheaper closer to Christmas. I’m okay with getting these in December. This is a saner and more budget-friendly way to shop. It’s an easier way to monitor spending and not lose sight of financial goals.

I’m not always this ready and organized. Last year was unusually busy for me. I only managed to do a quarter of my shopping online ahead of the holidays. The rest I bought at Metrotown and Downtown Vancouver the few days leading up to Christmas. For anyone who lives in Greater Vancouver, you know that these shopping areas are already super busy on a slow day. Big crowds mean it takes forever to get anywhere. Buying presents at the last minute left me feeling stressed out and under pressure. I was exhausted and frazzled by the end of it. The part I dreaded most was returning home and having to add up all my receipts. The final total caused me enough grief and gave me the motivation to plan ahead this year.

I know that a lot of people are drawn to the bustle of holiday shopping. The inviting Christmas displays that retailers put up invoke warm fuzzy feelings of generosity and make you want to give to others as well as yourself. A lot of awesome things go on sale at this time. We just have to remember that sales happen all year round. It’s not the only time that we can do our Christmas shopping. Although I handled last year’s Christmas differently than other years, I am aware that I’m prone to making bad, desperate choices if I don’t plan ahead.

I’ve got some big financial goals that I want to follow through with over the next year. I can’t let overspending in one season delay my long-term goals. I recognize that I typically spend more this time of year, but the important part is that I budgeted for it.

Stock Talk

I keep saying this like a broken record: I find this toppy market quite dodgy to trade in. I usually can tell when my best trading ideas are higher risk, lower odds. I did, however, still look through the market. Here’s a list of stocks with decent charts:

UR.TO
POT.TO
BB.TO (Aggressive entry for a possible swing trade.)
CIX.TO
G.TO
WPM.TO

It looks like the precious metal charts are starting to shape up, although I’m just not interested trading the metals right now. Weed stocks have been getting a lot of recent action. As tempting as it is to jump into these, I would wait until they settle down and consolidate before buying. I’m watching and waiting for these to take shape again, so I’ll keep you all posted on new trade ideas for weed stocks. I might still trade some of the stocks listed above, but I’d take fewer shares and keep my outlook shorter term.

The Transparent RRSP: Taking Some Action

November 12, 2017jeana2deal Leave a comment

The week of November 6

I didn’t do anything for the RRSP. There is currently $194.64 of cash in the account.

I did, however, pass my Technical Analysis exam. I certainly didn’t do as well as I wanted to though! I carried on by buying some shares of H.TO and ATZ.TO for my TFSA. I already own these stocks in the TFSA so I was just scaling into what looked like some (aggressive) buying opportunities. I also signed up for the Derivatives Fundamentals & Options Licensing Course and the Futures Licensing Course. (Talk about intense content!) I hope to finish these courses early in the new year.

I’m still not a fan of this market and entering any new positions makes me nervous. I am considering making a move this week, though, depending on how my idea performs alongside the market.

TA.TO price chart on freestockcharts.com

The daily and weekly charts aren’t great for TA.TO; however, the monthly is appealing to me. It’s making higher lows and demonstrating a trading range that is tightening. This could lead to a really good long-term trading opportunity with so much room to move into the upside. I wouldn’t mind owning more shares of this stock should this move actually occur.

Last Thursday and Friday experienced heavier selling in the U.S. and Canadian markets. If the selling continues and the market starts to correct this week, I’ll be watching this stock to see how it performs against the market. TA is in the energy sector which has been showing more strength than other sectors. If energy keeps going, scaling into this could be a good idea.

I would only scale in with a few shares (5 to 15) as I think the market will still endure a larger correction. I don’t know if energy’s strength will outlast or outperform the overall market correction. There are times when the right thing to do is sit on your hands and wait, while other times you should take full advantage of great opportunities. I feel that right now, I should find some balance in taking some action with little risk as opposed to doing nothing.

The Transparent RRSP: A Beauty Swing Trade

November 5, 2017jeana2deal Leave a comment

The week of October 30

I deposited $150.00 into the RRSP account. There is 192.17 in cash now.

I’m still waiting for the market to correct, even by just a little on the weekly chart before I do anything. My focus is also elsewhere as I have an exam tomorrow for my Technical Analysis Course. Even though technical analysis is my ‘thing,’ it would be totally humiliating if I didn’t pass. I’m actually studying much more for this exam than I did for my last one. This also means I’m putting in zero effort in looking presentable around the house. JP drew this picture of me this morning:

This is me.

If this is how I look right now, JP must really love me for what’s inside!

I haven’t been interested in opening any new positions in the last little while because I’d rather wait until the market has had a correction. For JP, his strategy in trading an extended market is to trade this bullish sentiment with shorter term trades. He took a beauty trade last week worth talking about.

MOGO on freestockcharts.com

JP bought shares of MOGO.TO last Thursday. Then on Monday, KABOOM! He sold 2/3rds of his shares. On Tuesday, he sold some more shares. Now he has a small number of shares which he’ll keep in for a longer time period.

The thing is, MOGO has been on JP’s radar for quite some time now. It’s had a number of breakouts (November 2016, January 2017, February, and April). He either missed the breakouts or wasn’t paying close enough attention to during those times.

MOGO had been building a base over the last two months. It had consolidated, trading sideways with the price range tightening up on less volume. In a bullish market, this is a money setup. JP’s patience paid off with a handsome profit made over just a few days. He also bought shares of PUR.TO and DRM.TO. I hope these trades work out too!

Sector Action

October 27, 2017jeana2deal Leave a comment

The Canadian and U.S. markets closed strong this week. There was a bit of weakening on Wednesday, but some big moves for Microsoft and Amazon last night helped the NASDAQ as well as other tech stocks. The energy sector just had a strong couple of days which helped the rest of the market.

Oil/energy ETFs HOU.TO and XEG.TO on freestockcharts.com

A lot of Canadian oil stocks were in play today. Here are a few:

RRX.TO
CPG.TO
CVE.TO
CFW.TO
TCW.TO
TOG.TO
ERF.TO

The charts for these either had good daily, weekly, or monthly charts – but none of them had great setups on all three of these timeframes. I decided to take a look at a couple of the energy ETFs, the HOU.TO and XEG.TO.

While it looks like the recent surge could take the sector higher, I checked to see if there is room to move up. The bullish move had already started in September, now nearing previous resistance as marked off on the charts. If the sector moves sideways a little longer with more buying and less selling, it could result in a more substantial move up.

This weekend, as you attend your costume parties and chat about the markets with your friends, try not to get too swept up in all the hype. It’s tempting to get really excited over all the market action that’s happened in the last while. Before you start buying up tech and energy stocks, watch how the market digests this over the next week or two.

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The Transparent RRSP: A Year in Review

Stock Picks

Cannabis Stocks: If You Don’t Smoke It, Own It