2013

On Monday I bought some Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund units based on my update of Friday. I also decided to sell the small holding I had in the Gold ETF, GLD. Gold does not fit into my investment style. Today I placed an order for Bombardier pre...

On Monday, markets were relatively flat. Constellation Software rose 4.4%.
The Canadian dollar rose about a half. This reversed a similar decline on Friday.
Bombardier preferred shares are updated and rated Buy at $22.17.
Bombardier inc. is updated a...

Visa Inc. is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $219.67. Visa is a very unusual company. It is basically trying to insert itself as a substitute for money and to collect a toll on every transaction. And it has had great success in doing so. With it...

On Friday the S&P 500 was basically unchanged while the Toronto Stock index gained 0.5%. I believe the Canadian dollar fell about a half cent which benefits Canadians that hold U.S. stocks and who track their portfolio in Cnadian dollars. It hurt...

On Boxing day the U.S. markets were open ('cause Boxing Day does not exist in the U.S.). The S&P 500 was up another 0.5% to a record at 1842. I'd like to see 2013 slip quietly in the record books before we get any kind of correction. But chances ...

On Christmas Eve we had the S&P 500 up another 0.3% and Toronto up 0.5%. It would be great if the market could just coast through to the end of the year. I believe New York will be open on Thursday while Toronto will open again on Friday.
Wal-Mar...

Having only trimmed 6% of my Toll Brothers this morning at $35.50, I entered an order to trim another similar amount at $36.50. That has now been hit and I have now entered an order to sell the same amount again at $37.50. I still like Toll Brothers....

Checking the markets this morning, I see the DOW is up 63 points. The thought occurs to me, has this market (or at least investors) been drinking? It just seems like a lot of gains in recent days... I certainly welcome the gains but I also know that ...

Bank of America is updated and rated Speculative (higher) Buy at $15.69. It looks attractive on a price to book value basis. The P/E ratio does not look attractive but that may be mostly because of various unusual losses that it is still subject to a...

Dollarama is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $87.78. It's a great company. They have built a fantastic business. But the stock price is high now and does not seem attractive to me.
On Friday the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.1%. M...

On Thursday the markets basically held on to the big gains from Wednesday. The S&P 500 was down just 0.1%. Toronto was up 0.4%.
Today I bought some Wells Fargo Preferred Shares. I have not analysed these, but I do know Wells Fargo quite well.
The...

A P.S. to the post below, I was reading that US. mortgage applications are WAY down. I understand that is mostly due to a lack of refinancings as interest rates are no longer falling. Wells Fargo was making a lot of money on refinancings. All else eq...

The outcome of the FED meeting was surprisingly positive. The FED announced hat it would moderately taper its bond buying reducing it from $85 billion per month to $75 billion. However the FED also indicated that it would be keeping interest rates lo...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was about unchanged.
Constellation Software was up another 5.2% to $217.73. on the same news that I mentioned yesterday.
I first added Constellation Software to this site back on February 4, 2011 r...

It seems like 2013 has been one of the most interesting years in the market in a while (well, then again 2008 was pretty interesting). 2013 seemed to offer excitement in the market almost every week, sometimes every day.
On Monday the S&P capture...

Costco is updated and rated Weak Sell / Hold at $117.91. As a customer I really like Costco. And as an analyst I am a huge fan of its business model. It is a low cost leader that must strike fear into the heart of competitors. As a stock, however, it...

Canadian Western Bank is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $37.77. This is probably still a good long-term investment. But I am not excited by it at the moment as it is not longer clear that it is bargain priced. For more information, as always, refer...

On Friday the S&P 500 was unchanged and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Toll Brothers is updated and rates Speculative Buy at $32.70. It's speculative because it's P/E is still very high at 34. But earnings are set to increase very significantly in the next...

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
I will definitely have some updates to the reports in the next few days.
...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.1%
Toll brothers initially rose on its earnings and then fell 0.7% by the end of the day. The earnings were strong but that was already expected. Canadian Tire fell 2.1%.
Markets are set t...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 1.1% and Toronto was down 1.4%.
Apparently this was due to some disappointing earnings releases as well as fears that the fed would taper its bond buying.
Almost all of our stock picks were down. A notable except...

On Monday the S&P 500 was up 0.3% to a new high closing price of 1808. Toronto was up 0.2%
Toll Brothers was up 2.1% to $33.58. I understand that they will release Q4 earnings tomorrow morning. We might not get much news since they had already pa...

On Friday the S&P 500 was up 1.1% and Toronto was up 0.6%.
Most of our stock picks were up and Canadian Western Bank was up another 3.2%.
Alimentation Couche-Tard is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $77.50. This has been an incredible and somewha...

On Thursday the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
Most of our stock picks were down today. A notable exception was Canadian Western Bank, up 5.6% on strong earnings. I have had lots of good things to say about this bank over the years....

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 0.1% as was Toronto.
For Canadian investors who own U.S. shares the modest market losses this week have been offset to a certain degree by the lower Canadian dollar.
This morning there was news that would normall...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.7%. I never know where markets are headed int eh short term but after weeks of gains it is not surprising to have at least a few weak days.
Most of our stock picks were down but nothing ...

On Monday the S&P 500 fell 0.3% while Toronto was up 0.2%.
Some of the bigger moves included CN rail up 2.9% as the stock split. Stantec up 2.8%. Constellation software was up 5.8% and I have no idea why it has been so very volatile of late. It's...

One more month to go in 2013. I would certainly be happy if we could hold onto the excellent gains achieved so far in 2013.
This month the big market driver may be whether the FED gives any hint of tapering its bond purchases or not.
On Friday the S&...

Stocks are up again this Friday morning.
Canada's GDP grew at 2.7% annualized in the third quarter. GDP numbers are always presented in real dollars so in dollar terms it would have been a little higher than that after adding in the official rate of ...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was up 0.25% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Most of our stocks picks were up and there were no particularly large moves in either direction.
This morning I received an email with a press release indicating that Tim Hortons was ...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was flat while Toronto was down 0.9%.
On the other hand Alimentation Couche-Tard surged 3.0% to $76.17. It's now up 56% this year having started the year at $48.19 and rated Buy. And, it's up 338% since it was first added t...

On Monday, the S&P 500 and Toronto both ended the day down very marginally - basically flat.
Constellation Software fell 3.6% to $186.55. Earlier in the day it got as low at $178.50. This caused me to ponder why I had not sold my shares last week...

On Friday the S&P 500 closed up 0.5% (and closing above 1800 for the first time ever) and the Toronto was flat. There were no particularly note-worthy moves in any of our stock picks.
eBay Inc. is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $50.33. The ...

Well, Thursday was yet another very strong day in the markets. The S&P 500 was up 0.8%, The Dow was up 0.7% and closed above 16,000 for the first time ever. Toronto was up 0.3%.
As for our stock picks we had Bank of America up 3.0% and Toll Broth...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.1%. Markets were initially positive on positive economic news regarding consumer spending but turned negative when minutes of the FED meeting disclosed discussions that tapering of the...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Among our stock picks there was not much excitement although Bank of America was up 1.8%.
I sold the remainder of my Stantec shares today. I was hesitant to do so because it was in a...

On Monday, the DOW pushed over 16,000 for the first time and the S&P 500 pushed over 1800 for the first time. Bu then both fell back and we ended the day with the S&P 500 down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Stantec is a great company. But it...

On Friday the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to another record high. Toronto was up 0.3%. The next update here will likely be for eBay.
...

On Thursday the S&P 500 index rose 0.5% to yet another record high close of 1791. Toronto rose 0.4% to 13,431 which is roughly 6% below its all-time high from 2011.
Most of our stock picks were up today. Notably Toll Brothers rose 2.6% to $33.51....

Today the S&P 500 was up 0.8% and Toronto was up 0.3%
Canadian Tire poked its head just above $100 but closed at $99.74.
Liquor Stores N.A. fell 3.2% to $14.07. I was tempted to buy a bit more. I have thrown in a bid at $13.51. I also threw in bi...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 and Toronto were each down 0.2%
I don't believe markets are predictable in the short term. The strategy is to react to the market. And it is to try to calculate a reasonable value for a selected group of companies that are ...

Stock markets were open on Monday despite Remembrance day. S&P 500 was up fractionally, up 0.1% and Toronto was down fractionally, down 0.15%.
Canadian Tire was up 2.1% to $99.22. It just about cracked over $100 and if it does (which seems likely...

Canadian National Railway Company is updated and rated Weak Buy / Hold at $116.90. This is a great company that has been growing for years and will continue to do so. Right now it just does not look like a bargain.
Here is some history. The stock up ...

Melcor is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $19.71. Basically it looks like a bargain but there is risk because profits would decline a lot if house building activity in Alberta was to take a sudden plunge. It's also thinly traded, therefore be...

Friday was another strong day on the markets with the S&P 500 up 1.3% and Toronto up 0.6%.
Toll Brothers fell 2.3%. This company's earnings have risen sharply this year but because it started out the year with a very high P/E ratio its share pric...

There was additional news on Toll Brothers later last night and this morning. They are making a large acquisition of a luxury home builder in California. They pre-announced Q4 earnings and revenues which were stellar. Unfortunately they also announce...

This morning the good news was that U.S. GDP was strong. But the market decided that was maybe bad news since it might point to an earlier end to quantitative easing. S&P 500 was down 1.3% and Toronto was down 0.6%.
Toll Brothers managed only a 0...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.1% The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.8% to another all-time record high.
Costco was up 3.3% to $124. I have said before it always looks expensive. But what a fantastic operation it...

Markets started out quite negative on Tuesday but in the end the S&P 500 was down only 0.3% and Toronto was flat.
I neglected to mention yesterday that it was nice to see Melcor back over $20. It was up another 2.5% today to $20.70.
Melcor will r...

Stocks were up a bit more today... S&P 500 up 0.4% and Toronto up 0.2%.
Blackberry / Research in motion caused some entertainment and grief in the markets today with a 16% fall. I have no idea what it is worth or what its future holds. Might be w...

Stantec is updated rated Weak Buy at CAN $65.69 and U.S. $62.81.
Stantec's share price has risen a remarkable 65% in 2013. In part this is due to achieved earnings growth in 2013. But in part it is due to investors being willing to pay a higher multi...

On Friday the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.2%.
Stantec was up another 5.7% and is now up a total of 65% this year making it the best performing stock on our list this year.
Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $115...

Thursday saw the S&P 500 down 0.4% and Toronto down 0.7%.
Not a scary day for our stock picks though, not with Stantec up 6.5% to $61.96 on a good earnings release. We rated it Buy in August at $50.46. I'd be more inclined to sell or trim at this...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was up 0.1%. Apparently the FED is less optimistic about U.S. growth. I did not note anything too exciting in the news regarding the stock picks listed on this site. Visa was reported to have suf...

Another good day for the markets on Tuesday with the S&P up 0.6% and Toronto up 0.5%.
It seems that there are times when the market goes down much further than most anyone expects (early 2000's and 2008 into early 2009. Then there are other times...

On Monday I did not note much of interest in the market.
S&P 500 up 0.1%, Toronto down 0.2%.
Stantec was up 2.5%.
Canadian Tire finished flat at $97.90. At one point it touched $99.51 today. There is absolutely nothing special about $100, at leas...

On Friday I sold what amounted to 6% of my Toll Brothers shares at $33.56. These particular shares had been purchased two weeks ago at $30.43. This is a strategy I have been using with Toll Brothers, buying on dips and selling on rallies. I do not ha...

Another day and the markets were up again. This all seems a bit too easy... I am thinking about what positions I might trim...
S&P 500 up 0.3%, Toronto up 0.6%.
As for our Stock Picks, Toll Brothers up 2.3%, Canadian Tire up another 1.0%, Visa up...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and Toronto was about unchanged.
There were a couple of big gainers today, CN up 4.4% and FirstService up 4.9% as both released strong earnings.
I've long considered both to be excellent companies though bot...

Markets were up nicely today.
S&P 500 up 0.6%, Toronto up 0.5%.
The reason the markets were up was because the employment numbers in September int he U.S. were bad enough that the fear of FED tapering is eased. That is not exactly a sustainable r...

The week has started out not too badly on the markets. The S&P was flat awhile Toronto was up 0.4%.
On the weekend there was a report in the Edmonton Journal about a company that owns a facility that loads oil onto trains just outside of Edmonton...

The U.S. markets finished the week at all time highs. Nothing surprising there, stock markets don't reach new all time highs every week or every year, but over time all previous highs do tend to eventually get eclipsed. The major reason for taht is t...

Onwards and upwards (at least for today)
The S&P 500 gained 0.7% on Thursday and Toronto was up 0.6%.
Most of our stock picks were up. The biggest gainer was Toll Brothers up 4.4%.
Canadian Tire was briefly above $95 today but closed at $94.40 up...

Well it appears that the gong show in the U.S. senate and house is about to be resolved positively.
On this news the S&P 500 rose 1.4% on Wednesday and Toronto rose 0.2%.
It's still possible that the deal could hit a snag yet, but it appears matt...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 0.7% but Toronto gained 0.3%.
The big question is what will happen the rest of this week as the U.S. attempts to get past the thatrics of its debt ceiling and budget issues. Futures as of about 10 pm eastern showed...

On Monday the U.S. markets were open while the TSX was closed.
The U.S. market opened in negative territory but in the end the S&P 500 closed up 0.4%.
Until the budget and debt ceiling issue is resolved int eh U.S. we can probably expect markets ...

Wells Fargo is updated and rated Strong Buy. It just reported another excellent quarter of earnings. Revenues did decline in the quarter due to lower mortgage refinancings which generate fees. But overall, the business appears to be still growing. It...

In a remarkably strong day on the markets, on Thursday the S&P 500 rose 2.2% and Toronto rose 1.3%. Apparently this was due to meetings that were expected to take place after the close on Thursday. The rumor was that the Republicans would allow a...

Stocks rose slightly on Wednesday with the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Toronto up 0.3%. Our stock picks seemed to do a little better than that on average. Notably, Stantec was up 3.0%. Very few of our stocks were down today.
My order to add a little to m...

Another down day as the S&P 500 fell 1.2% and Toronto was down 0.8%.
Wells Fargo got down close to buy order of $40.10 but did not quite get there.
Alcoa was out with good earnings to kick off the earnings season today. But it's probably going to...

The S&P 500 fell 0.9% on Monday but Toronto was up 0.2%/.
Wells Fargo closed down 1.7% to $40.62. I have an order in to add to my position in this company at $40.10. I have a few such "stink bids" in but this is the only one that is remotely clos...

This week we should expect more nervousness due to the U.S. government shutdown and the pending debt ceiling limit. As of Sunday night the DOW was projected to open down 74 points.
We should soon hear news about the final prospectus for the Canadian ...

The market and our Stock Picks have weather the first four days of the government shutdown quite well.
On Friday the S&P 500 was up 0.7% and Toronto was up 0.2%
Most of our Stock Picks were up on Friday.
Toll Brothers however was down 3.2% to $31...

And so the market was sweating a bit more today...
S&P 500 down 0.9%, Toronto down 0.8%
Most of our stocks were down a bit. I have some orders in to buy on dips but none of my prices were hit yet. I don't want to get in a big hurry and buy heavil...

It seems the market started to sweat a bit today about the shutdown and the pending debt ceiling issue.
The Dow was down 0.4% although the S&P 500 and Toronto were down only very marginally. Actually a good number of out r stock picks were up tod...

Well, it was another interesting day on the markets. How much more interesting does it get than a U.S. government shutdown? But actually the market just yawned and went up. I suspect the market will gyrate around now, this shutdown may be amusing and...

Given the antics and theatrics to the budget legislation and "government shutdown" in the U.S. the DOW was set to open 142 points down. While anything is possible this is likely to be a temporary situation. It could last most of October giving he pen...

So far the budget show-down and government shutdown theatrics have been something of a non-event for North American stock markets. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% today, so that was not much of a reaction. Toronto fell 0.4%.
Perhaps there will be more reac...

The Dow is down about 100 points or 0.6% this Friday morning. Apparently this is due to concerns about the debt ceiling in the U.S. that needs to be raised. It's basically impossible to know how much the market will decline as this situation unfolds....

On Friday the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and Toronto was about unchanged. U.S. markets have fallen moderately due to concerns that the Congress will fail to pass a budget bill by Monday which would force a shutdown of many government departments. There is...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Most of our stock picks were down.
Canadian Tire was down 1.5% to $92.39. But earlier in the day it reached a new high of $94.93. As mentioned under September 16, I had placed an o...

Tuesday was another decent day for our stock picks.
The S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.3%
We had Toll Brothers up 2.2% after reports that house prices continue to rise in the U.S. and after a home builder reported good earnings. Canad...

Monday was another interesting day in the markets. It seems like it's been a few years since we have had even a week where markets were totally boring.
The S&P 500 was down 0.5%. Toronto was basically flat.
Blackberry / Research in Motion has a t...

My personal portfolio composition is updated. My four largest positions, Wells Fargo, Canadian Tire, Melcor and Toll Brothers make up a hefty 58% of my equities and 46% of my portfolio. There is no doubt that that is risky. If one or more of these ta...

Not to say that markets are predictable at all, but the fact that the market today gave back some of the previous day's gains is certainly not surprising.
The S&P 500 was down 0.2% and but Toronto was basically unchanged.
A notable decliner was T...

Well THAT was unexpected. Fed says slowdown in its bond buying just yet and so the markets rose. DOW and S&P 500 at record levels. Toronto apparently at a two year high.
S&P 500 up 1.2% today, Toronto up 0.8%.
It's another example of how unpr...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
Markets don't move up in straight lines and it certainly would not surprise me to see the market turn down. But, basically the short term moves in the market are unpredictable...
I did s...

Monday was a strong day for the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.6% and Toronto up 0.7%.
Most of our stocks picks were up. Most notably Constellation software was up 4.2% to $181.63. I last rated the stock Weak Buy at $142 on May 18. At that time I ...

As of Sunday night, markets futures were up on news that Larry Summers is out of the running for the Fed chair job. Also perhaps on confirmation that Syria will not be bombed.
The Summers news seems to illustrate that in the markets news often comes ...

On Friday the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.2%
Walmart is updated and rated Buy at $74.36. This is certainly not a stock that is going to double anytime soon. But it's a relatively simple (despite being huge) company that seems relativ...

On Thursday the S&P 500 was down 0.3%. Toronto was down (again) this time down 1.0%.
Almost all of our stock picks were down but Liquor Stores N.A. was up 2.0%.
Toll Brothers was down slightly to $32.47 But earlier in the day it was as high as $3...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and is just a shade under its record high of early August. Toronto was unchanged. The Toronto stock index remains noticeably below its highs of early 2011. It's all time high was back in 2008 before the credit...

And Tuesday was another good day for the U.S. market with the S&P 500 up 0.7%. Toronto managed to be down 0.2%. The Canadian market has seriously under-performed the U.S. market this year.
Canadian Tire released its preliminary REIT prospectus to...

Monday was a good day in the markets with the S&P 500 up 1% and Toronto up 0.3%. Most of our stock picks were up.
Toll Brothers was up a hefty 4.7% to $31.87. Therefore my recent buys of that stock may have been good timing. It certainly has its ...

On Friday the S&P 500 was unchanged and Toronto was down 0.2%.
I entered some orders today to move some cash in my TD Waterhouse investment accounts into TDB 8150. I understand this account pays 1.25% per year as noted int he bottom row of the ta...

On Thursday the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.7%
Our stock picks have done well the past few days.
Canadian Tire is at $91.65. That is a gain of 32% this year. Whenever I mentioned Canadian Tire as a good investment over the past few...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Canadian Tire was up 2.2% and Stantec jumped 4.7%.
Shaw Communications fell 5.8% probably because its wireless spectrum that it plans to sell has declined in value now that Verizon will ...

Melcor is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $19.36.
Toll Brothers is updated and rated Speculative Buy at $30.61. It's a good company but the share price is already pricing in a very large earnings recovery. Given the need for earnings to rise ...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.1%.
A notable gainer was Constellation software up 2.8% to another record high. It's a great company by seems expensive at this point. I will think about reducing my position.
After the cl...

Canadian Western Bank was up 4.7% as fears of insurance losses due to Alberta floods were mostly unfounded. I hope to buy back the shares I sold on that fear but it's hard to buy back at a higher price. I entered an order to buy a bit over $28.
Marke...

With the markets down yesterday, I decided today to enter of a few trades. I bought some Toll Brothers. I also entered hopeful bids on some stocks. Canadian Tire at $83.10, Costco at $105.10, CN at $95.50 Berkshire at 105.10. I just add the 10 cents ...

I have read the Q2 report for Melcor. It continues to do well. I am confident it will continue to be a good investment long term. Shorter term it would drop if house prices drop and especially if new house construction in Alberta slows. There is alwa...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 fell 1.6% and Toronto fell 1.3%. This was apparently due to fears of U.S. involvement in the troubles in Syria.
Such world events have never factored much if at all into my investing. I have never, to my recollection, sold ...

On Friday the S&P 500 was up 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.7%.
Toll Brothers fell 3.9% as a report showed that new home sales fell in July. Mortgage rates are still low but have increased quite a lot in recent months. Still Toll Brothers management w...

On Thursday the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 0.8%.
This week Target's earnings report indicated that its new Canadian stores "contributed" a loss of 21 cents per share. There were also indications that sales were slow and customers were...

On Wednesday the S&P 500 was down 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.8%
Market declines are not all bad news since they provide a chance to buy good companies at more reasonable prices. CN and Costco come to mind.
Toll Brothers released good earnings on...

Liquor Stores N.A. Subordinated debentures are added to the list above rated (lower) Buy at $104. Yielding 4.6% to maturity in April 2018, and fully taxable these are not too exciting but may be a reasonable choice for fixed income. I note that, for ...

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and Toronto rose 0.6%. Canadian Tire rose 2.6%, more than recovering yesterday's decline.
Toll Brothers rose 3.1% ahead of its earnings release scheduled for tomorrow morning. Stantec was up 2.1%.
Seeing these fl...

Liquor Stores N.A. Ltd. is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $15.98. While the yield is quite attractive, keep in mind that a good yield is nether a sufficient nor a necessary feature of a good investment. I'd be willing to take a relatively small pos...

On Friday the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and Toronto was up 0.3%.
Our stock picks were mostly up.
I have read the reports for Liquor Stores N.A. and crunched the numbers and will plan to post the report on Monday. As of right now I would rate it (lowe...

On Thursday the S&P 500 was down 1.4% while Toronto was up 0.5%.
Several companies including Walmart reported weak results which has the market worried about growth.
Most of our stock picks were down. A notable exception was Toll Brothers, up 3.4...

Melcor released earnings this morning. At a quick look I think the earnings are good and the outlook positive. The headline numbers show a drop in earnings due to the costs of setting up the REIT. However I agree with the company that the adjusted ea...

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% on Wednesday and Toronto was about unchanged.
Couche-Tard was down 2.9% to $58.48 and is worth considering.
I expect to have an update for Liquor Stores N.A. and Melcor by about Sunday.
I am off for a family trip early tomor...

On Monday the S&P 500 was down 0.1% while Toronto was up 0.4%. We had Toll Brothers up 1.8%. Melcor was down 2.4% but it is so thinly traded that day to day movements are not very meaningful.
Blackberry was up 10.7% on news that it wants to look ...

On Friday the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.1%. Our stock picks on average were down a bit more than that.
I reviewed the Canadian Tire earnings release and everything seems to be in order. While the valuation is not as compelling ...

Canadian Tire earnings are out and look pretty decent. Announced intention to do something strategic with the credit card operation (they are not selling the operation). I would imagine the stock would rise on this news.
Sure enough TD is showing the...

Excitement about Canadian Tire abating , open now projected at $85.28. Well these things usually take a bit of time to settle out, it looks like the headline earnings growth was 16% but was 4% on an adjusted basis, so okay, but not great as far as ea...

Canadian Tire opened for trading at $86 but then quickly rose to a high of $90.49 and closed the day at $89.45, up 7.1%. The earnings were decent but an added bump came form the fact that they will seek a strategic partner for the credit card operati...

The S&P 500 fell 0.6% today and Toronto fell 1.1%.
Notably we had Toll Brothers down 2.5% to $32.20. I have consistently indicated that Toll Brothers is a speculative pick because it has a very high P/E which mostly reflects that it is still clim...

Today the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.5%.
Almost all of our stock picks were down as well. Constellation Software was an exception and was up 4.2%. Toll Brothers was down 3.0%.
Canadian Tire is expected to release earnings before...

Stantec is updated and rated Buy at $50.46. The stock has risen 13% since we rated it a (higher) Buy on May 25. It is up 27% this year. Incredibly, it is up just over 1900% since we first added it to this site as one of our first ever picks and as a ...

Visa Inc. is updated and rated Weak Buy at $184. (essentially a hold) This is a fantastic company. However its price has already risen spectacularly over the past few years and it now appears expensive and is pricing in a lot of growth. If I still ow...

The first day of August was a strong day in the markets. The S&P 500 was up 1.2% to a new closing record of 1707. Toronto was up 0.9%.
I am feeling a bit Giddy about the performance of our stock picks this year given today's action.
Stantec was u...

Today the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.8%.
Our Stock picks had a better day than that with Toll Brothers up 3.2% and Stantec up 2.0%. Visa was spanked down 7.5% on a court case loss involving debt card fees. I hope to upda...

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.7%
Potash corporation fell 16% on news that a huge Russian Potash producer, the world's largest would exit a pricing cartel. I don't own any potash stocks (or any commodities for...

The most recent of the free newsletter was sent out...
http://www.investorsfriend.com/nl-july-28-2013
On Monday the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was up 0.2%. I did not note anything of much interest happening with our stock picks.
It is in t...

S&P 500 up 0.3%, Toronto flat on the day.
Toll Brothers was down another 1.1% to $31.95 and the low for the day was $31.00.
Visa was up 4.2% to almost $195. Our ratings on this stock for the past few years (as of the start of each year, except as...

S&P 500 down 0.4%, Toronto was down 0.6%.
We had Toll Brothers down 6.2% to $32.31. This is a more speculative stock given its high P/E ratio. The market seems undecided about this one as contradictory news comes in about the housing market. I gr...

Today the S&P 500 was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.1%.
Toll Brothers was up 2.1%. Canadian Tire was down 0.4% despite news that Canadian Retail sales were unexpectedly strong in May. CN fell 3.1% on concern about increased regulations. It's a...

S&P 500 was up 0.2% to yet another record close. Toronto was up 0.6%.
I may sell some or all of the rest of my Berkshire Hathaway. I have a good gain on it and it no longer looks like the bargain that a year ago or even at the start of this year....

Bank of America is updated and remains rated Speculative (higher) Buy at $14.75. As I read the Q22 report, it is clear that many aspects of the operation are improving greatly. I started to plan to buy some more shares. But then spending some time re...

Wells Fargo is updated and remains rated (lower) strong Buy now at $44.45. It seems to be a very well run company. It should continue to do well over the years. From time to time it will likely have a bad quarter or year simply due volatility in cert...

Another good day in the market with the S&P 500 and Toronto each up 0.5%. We had Stantec up 2.8%, Fedex up 4.2% (although we had not rated that one highly), Wells Fargo up 2.1%, Bank of America up 3.2%. Generally most stocks on our list were up.
...

S&P 500 was up 0.3%. Toronto up 0.4% as Fed chair Bernanke sooths the markets.
Our stocks picks had a good day with Bank of America up 2.8%, Toll Brothers up 1.8%, and Wells Fargo up 1.1%. Most of our stock picks were up.
2013 has been a great ye...

The S&P 500 was down 0.4% and Toronto was down 0.1%. None of our Stock Picks moved much and most were sown slightly.
Goldman Sachs and Citigroup both "beat expectations" in earnings releases. Home Builder confidence was higher in a report today w...

The S&P 500 was about flat today but Toronto was up 0.5% as it was boosted by the Loblaws / Shoppers Drugmart deal.
Most of our stock picks were up today but Toll Brothers fell 2.2% to $33.84. They don't report earnings until around August 22. I ...

Alimentation Couche-Tard is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $61.88. This company has rather quietly grown int a giant. It has been a fantastic investment. Thirteen years ago the shares traded under $3.00 and they are now about $62.00. It is very wel...

On Friday, markets were relatively flat. Among our stocks picks most of them fell somewhat on Friday.
Our two U.S. banks stocks were strong with Wells Fargo up 1.8% and Bank of America up 2.0%.
I reduced my position in Berkshire Hathaway. Basically, ...

Ben Bernanke the FED chair indicated that accommodative monetary policies (probably meaning low short-term interest rates) will remain in place for the foreseeable future (even if QE 3 - the bond buying that pushes down longer term interest rates is ...

Markets were about flat in the U.S. and Canada today.
We had Canadian Tire up 1.2% and Stantec up 2.7%. Couche-Tard made a big recovery up 6% and being down 5% on its earnings release yesterday. What this illustrates is that earnings should be releas...

In my July 6 update just below I mentioned that I was thinking of buying some of the oils sands ETF, CLO. I did buy some of that on Monday but forgot to mention that in the update of yesterday.
The S&P 500 was up 0.7%, Yahoo is still showing Frid...

On Monday the S&P was up 0.5%. Off hand I am not quite sure what Toronto did because Yahoo Finance seems to think it last traded on July 5. I have mentioned before that I have used Yahoo Finance for at least 15 years. But lately it slow to load s...

The train derailment in Quebec is obviously very tragic. It seems clear that dozens were killed. (I find it strange that there were no reports of anyone escaping burning buildings with or without injury. It appears that anyone in the burned buildings...

RioCan is updated and rated Buy at $25.49. It seems like a reasonable investment choice. The biggest risk factor is further increases in interest rates.
On Friday I was thinking about the rise in oil prices and noting that the Oil Sands ETF symbol CL...

The jobs report came in at 195,000 which is better than expected. Dow futures up 166 points, interest rates up a little. There is a delicate balancing now as the market decides if the jobs report is "too good" meaning that quantitative easing will be...

U.S markets were closed today. Toronto was up 0.2%. No large movements among our stock picks but it was nice to see Canadian Tire up 1.1%.
On Friday morning we will get the latest jobs report. The hope is that it will be lukewarm. If it is too cool t...

Today the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while Toronto was down 0.3%. Canadian Tire was down 1.1% to $80.62. At one point today it was up to $82.45. Given this is my largest holding I perhaps should have had an order in to sell some at $82 or whatever just ...

This week belatedly starts off with the S&P 500 flat on the day and Toronto up 0.4%. Canadian Tire was up 3.0% apparently for no particular reason.
...

The next update will likely be for RioCan. If you search back in these comments I have not been a fan of RioCan for a variety of reasons. In the last month or so the unit price declined from the $29 range to the $25 range. This was due to higher inte...

On Friday the S&P 500 was down 0.4% while Toronto was up 1.0%.
Interesting moves included Shaw Communications up 5.4% to $25.24 on the release of a good earnings report. I have not mentioned it much lately but our last rating was Buy at $21.06 on...

S&P 500 was up 0.6% today and Toronto was up 0.4%.
Almost all of our Stock Picks were up. Notably, Wells Fargo up 1.3%, Toll Brothers up 2.6%, Canadian Tire up 1.1% and Shaw Communications up 3.7%. It's surprising how the equity market has bounce...

S&P 500 was up 1.0% today and Toronto fell 0.5%.
Most of our Stock Picks were up today. That includes long-time favorite Wells Fargo up 1.8% and relatively recent speculative pick Toll Brothers up 1.9%.
With the recent partial recovery and with s...

The S&P 500 was up 0.9% and Toronto was up 1.4%.
Among the stocks I follow there were impressive gains from Boston Pizza, up 4.1%,  RioCan up 3.7% and Bank of America up 3.0%. Almost everything was up today.
With some good economic figures from t...

It was a negative day on the markets with the S&P 500 down 1.2% and Toronto down 1.3%.
For whatever reason Canadian Tire managed to gain 1.2%.
Despite some recent losses, I don't feel bad about how our Stock Picks have done.
I think it is fair to...

I have updated the article on long-term historical asset class performance for the first half of 2013. Given the weak performance of bonds and especially Gold in the first half of 2013, I thought it was worthwhile to update this article.
FirstService...

The composition of my own portfolio is updated.
On Friday the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and the Toronto index was up 0.2%.
Canadian Tire was down 2.4% to $77.75. Seeing this decline I bought back (at $78.12) some more of the Canadian Tire shares that I...

The S&P 500 fell 2.5% today and Toronto fell 2.4%.
I did a bit of buying in the morning, which was early because the markets fell further in the afternoon.
I bought some Toll Brothers at $31.21, it closed at $31.70
I bought some Canadian Tire at ...

So, apparently the FED has signaled that the "quantitative easing" consisting of the Feds buying $85 billion per month worth of bonds and mortgage securities will taper off sometime this year and end around this time next year. And all this will occu...

It was another strong day on the markets with the S&P 500 up 0.8% and Toronto up 0.6%. Most of our stocks picks were up.
Yesterday I listed the 10-year compound average annual earnings per share growth rates for all the companies currently on my ...

It was a strong start to the week with the S&P 500 and Toronto both up 0.8%. Notably, we had Canadian Tire up 2.5%, and Toll Brothers up 2.4% and Couche-Tard was up 4.25%.
It's worthwhile to think about what kind of stock returns to expect going ...

Markets rose substantially on Thursday but then fell and gave back about half of that on Friday. Still the S&P 500 remains up 14.1%. But Toronto is down 2.0% year to date. With our Strong buys up 17.0% and our overall buy or Strong Buy average up...

The S&P 500 was down 0.8% today and Toronto was down 0.9%.
Almost all of our stocks picks were down today with the Market.
I am fairly certain that Melcor went ex-dividend today meaning that if you bought yesterday you would get the 75 cent divid...

Canadian National Railway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at CAN $100.44 or U.S.$ 98.54. It's an excellent company with excellent economics and well managed. It could be bought for the long term but the share price does seem somewhat high at this ti...

I've completed and update for Canadian National railway and will upload the report tomorrow evening. The rating will be (lower) Buy at $101. It's an excellent company. Possibly worth paying up for but in general seems a little expensive.
The S&P ...

On Friday the S&P 500 rose 1.3% and Toronto fell 0.3%. Given the rise on Friday I considered if I should be trimming some positions. I considered that I have a large percentage of my portfolio in Wells Fargo and Canadian Tire. I then sold what am...

It was not a bad day in the markets. The S&P 500 was up 0.8% while Toronto was down 0.3%.
Toll Brothers was up 4.5% and Wells Fargo was up 2.3%.
As always the market gyrates with each piece of good or bad news.
Apparently Friday's market tone is ...

Okay, so stocks were down two days in a row.
S&P 500 down 1.4%, Toronto down 1.2%. With the U.S. markets up so much this year the notion of a decline two days in a row seems foreign. But really it is nothing more than a small dose of reality. Sto...

Our report on global exchanged traded funds has been updated.
Most of our stocks were down today. The S&P 500 was down 0.6%, Toronto down 0.1%.
Toll Brothers was down 2% to $32.92. We last rated it Speculative Buy at $34.13. And it is speculative...

With Toll brothers down today I decided to buy back 500 shares. As mentioned under May 29, earlier this month I sold 500 at $37. Around May 29 I placed an order to buy 500 at $32.10. But just now I decided to grab them at $33.30. Toll was down as low...

At the end of the day the S&P 500 was up 0.6% and Toronto was down 0.3%.
We had Toll Brothers down 1.7%. But most of the stocks on our list were up.
I like to think that you the customers of InvestorsFriend Inc. are smarter than the typical inves...

On Friday the TSX fell 0.8% and the S&P 500 fell 1.4%. In the U.S. the declines came in the afternoon. For the moment the trimming of positions that I did on Friday morning and in recent days seems to be good timing.
I never claim to be able to p...

A subscriber just emailed and asked me if I would trim Berkshire. On May 11 below I mentioned I would consider that. It was last rated here as (lower) Buy at $111.82 on May 11. Now it is at $114.75.
So perhaps being in a bit of a selling mood this mo...

A note to our American subscribers: Are you able to easily buy stocks on the Toronto stock exchange? Canadians can buy on the major American exchanges as easily as they can on Toronto and for the same low commissions. But over the years I have unders...

I sold what amounts to 54%of my Bank of America shares this morning. It probably still has strong potential for gains because its price to book value is still low. But looking at the comments in the summary of our last rating it, we were considering ...

Markets were relatively flat today. However, several of our Stock picks did very well.
Wells Fargo was up 1.2% to $41.25. Seeing it was up I decided to sell some just to be prudent.  I was not sure I should sell, after all Buffett was still buying fa...

A moderately negative day on the markets with the S&P 500 down 0.7%. But Toronto was down only 0.1%.
Toll Brothers was down 5.2% to $34.47. On May 22 I had sold 500 Toll Brothers at $38.58. With the lower price today I bought back the 500 at $34....

It seems crazy just how good the U.S. market and out stock picks have done this year, especially after doing so well last year. I'd appreciate it if you could spread the word to friends and family about this web site.
It was another strong day on the...

U.S. markets were closed today for Memorial day. Toronto rose 0.2%.
It's interesting that Valeant Pharmaceuticals has risen so much on the announcement it will buy Bausch and Lomb for some $8.7 billion. More typically when one company acquired anothe...

FirstService Preferred is removed from the list because the company has redeemed them. Investors in the preferred shares received cash and or common shares. FirstService common shares remain on the list above. The common shares are a far different in...

Stantec is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $44.50. I have now been watching this company grow steadily for fourteen years. The share price is occasionally volatile but the earnings have been marching upwards at a high and relatively steady rate. In...

Today the U.S. markets showed some resistance to negative manufacturing data from China and worries about a slowdown in the FED's money printing initiative. The Dow was down just 0.1%. Toronto was down 0.7%.
I thought about trimming my large position...

Today started out with markets up substantially as Ben Bernanke signaled he would keep on stimulating the economy. But markets cooled significantly in the afternoon after Fed meeting minutes revealed some Fed members want start to phase down the stim...

Markets did well today with Toronto up 1.0% and the Dow up 0.3%
Toll Brothers will report earnings before the open tomorrow (Wednesday morning). Toll Brothers fell 1.6% today, presumably on nervousness about the earnings.
Toll Brothers is pricing in ...

We've just pretty much ended the annual season for voting our shares. I used to vote my shares years ago. Then I gave up because really it is usually a waste of time since the recommended slate usually gets in with 99% of the votes or something. Also...

Canadian Western Bank preferred shares are updated and rated Sell at $26.38. I believe the bank will redeem these next April 30 for $25, therefore I don't think they are a good investment. Bombardier Preferred shares are updated and rated Buy at $24....

My analysis of the valuation of the Dow Jones Industial Average is updated. It suggests that the DOW is about fairly valued  (3% over-valued as a point estimate). For whatever reason the DOW valuation has generally looked more attractive than the S&a...

Melcor is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $18.62. I may add to my position in this company.
Constellation Software rose 4.5% today. I don't know the reasons that it is has been rising. I will plan to update the report on this company in the next f...

It was yet another day where the American markets did much better than Toronto. The Dow was up 0.4%, the S&P 500 was up 0.5% but Toronto was down 0.8%.
Canadian Tire slipped 1.2%. However Wells Fargo was up 1.4% to a new high.
Our next update wil...

Today was surprisingly strong on the markets. The Dow was up 0.8%, the S&P 500 was up 1.0% and Toronto was up 0.4%
Many of our favorite stocks did well, Bank of America up 2.8%, Toll Brothers up 1.7%, Wells Fargo up 1.5%, Canadian Tire up another...

The S&P 500 ended the day about unchanged while the Dow was down 0.2% and Toronto was down 0.5%
Canadian Tire did okay, up another 0.6%.
 
...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $83.78. It is obviously not the buy it was at my last update on February 24 at $68.65. But it is still not an expensive stock and I am not in a hurry to sell any more at this point. The sale of real ...

Friday was another good day on the markets with Canadian Tire up another 1.7% and Melcor up 1.9% and Bombardier was up 5.4%.
Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $111.82. With the recent strong gains in this stock (it is up 25% this...

As most will have heard, Canadian Tire came out with decent earnings today but more importantly announced plans to spin off the real estate into a REIT which they would continue to own 80 to 90% of. But the existence of the REIT would make the value ...

Another decent day in the markets.
Thursday should be interesting as a some of our companies will report earnings. I believe Canadian Tire and Melcor will report, although Melcor will likely be after the close.
I have not looked at Tim Hortons in qui...

Okay, so I know that technically we are not supposed to get excited about day to day moves in the market. In fact for those still in the early savings phase of life, lower stock prices are what you should rationally cheer for. The ideal scenario is l...

Our stocks picks did better than the market today.
Bank of America was up 5.2% after it settled a dispute with a major credit card company.
However Canadian Tire was down 1.8%. Apparently this was due to an analyst downgrade predicting that the Q1 re...

Weather is always interesting... Here in Edmonton Spring refused to arrive in April and winter hung on strongly. We got a good bit of snow this past Monday and Tuesday and freezing temperatures. Spring then arrived on Thursday and by today we moved s...

Markets were strong on Friday. Our Stock picks have done well year to date, up 11.1% on average. My own account is up 10.6%. This compares to the Toronto market which is "up" 0.0%. In the U.S. the S&P 500 is up 13% and the DOW is up 14%.
I just u...

Markets recovered the ground lost yesterday. Our Stock Picks had a particularly good day with Toll Brothers up 3.1%. Almost all of the stocks on the list were up.
Canadian Western Bank is updated and rated Buy at $28.42. I am comfortable holding it. ...

Markets were down today. They can't rise everyday.
The Melcor Real Estate Investment Trust started trading today. It was issued at $10.
It traded all day around $9.96, $9.97.
It's interesting... With an IPO like this the company and the IPO investors...

Well, today seemed to be another case of another day, another few dollars gained.
S&P 500 at a record high. Most of our stocks were up...
Case Shiller home price index shows U.S. house prices rising.
Melcor had some strange trading today. About 2...

It seems that the Market works in mysterious ways. We see lots of stories warning about slow growth and slowing earnings and too much debt. And yet the DOW rises over 100 points today. And the S&P 500 hits a new high.
Most of our stock picks were...

Toll Brothers rose 2.4% on Friday which was nice to see after my recent comments about it and purchases of the stock. This builds on the bigger gain of Tuesday.
I have updated my article that compares the long-term performance of stocks, bonds, cash ...

Today was another decent day in the markets. There were no big gainers among our stocks but a little bit here and a little bit there and overall a good day.
In the short term our stocks rise because other investors bid up their prices. That always fe...

Toronto had a good day, up 1.5%, while the DOW was down 0.3%. It seemed a decent day for our stock picks with Bank of America up 2.0%. Toll Brothers gave a back 1.35% after its big gain yesterday. It seems I sold my Microsoft too early as it was up 3...

It was certainly a pleasant surprise to see Toll Brothers up over 9% today to $34.13. Yesterday morning it had been under $30 briefly. It seems for a day at least the market shared my enthusiasm for the company. Apparently this move was due to an "up...

On Friday, Melcor's new Melcor Real Estate Investment Trust posted its final prospectus. The REIT will yield 6.75%. It appears that this  Initial Public Offer has successfully closed (has raised the money it was targeting). This created some transact...

Bombardier Inc. is updated and rated Speculative (lower) Buy at CAN $3.89. This is an interesting company that certainly makes fun stuff - It makes Lear jets, other business jets, smaller commercial jets, high-speed trains and subway cars. But the pr...

Our stocks had a good day on Friday. Overall our average Buy or higher rated stocks is up 7.4% this year to date. This beats the TSX by over 10% but trails the U.S. markets by a few percentage points.
Bank of America is updated and rated Speculative ...

Most of our stocks were down today but Canadian Tire was up 0.8%. The company has reached a new 10 year agreement with its dealers. The dealers operate each store as business owners in a manner that is similar to owning a franchise. I thought about t...

Today's market decline seems more sensible than yesterday's gain...
It is perhaps an encouraging sign that Toll Brothers managed a small gain today (0.5%) given the market was down. Canadian Tire was also up (0.6%) despite the TSX being down 1.4%.
Fe...

Well, I don't think too many people were expecting this big rebound (or any rebound for that matter) today. It goes to show markets are very unpredictable, particularly in the short term.
One of the bigger gainers were Berkshire Hathaway up 2.5%. Thi...

It was a nasty day in the markets. The TSX was down 2.7%, the Dow was down 1.8% and the S&P 500 was down 2.3%.
In particular Toll Brothers was down 7.7%. Apparently this was mostly due to a report that home builder sentiment was down.
Higher cost...

Wells Fargo is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $37.21. Although I have a large exposure to this, I may add to my position. There are many companies where it would be difficult to guess if they can continue to grow earnings over the years. But...

MicroSoft was down 4.4% today on news that PC sales have fallen. It has risen about that much in the past few days. I decided to sell my shares and move on. I had been wanting to raise cash anyhow. MicroSoft is a complicated company and basically I d...

So far this year it has certainly been a good time to be in the U.S. market. Despite various worries and warnings the DOW and S&P 500 are up a lot this year and the DOW was up 0.9% today and the S&P 500 was up 1.2%.
Prudence would suggest tri...

After scaring people last week, the markets have surprised with a strong start to this week. A new record for the DOW today. 
Microsoft was up 3.6%. 
I was reading Canadian Tire's annual report which arrived in the mail a few days ago. Management doe...

Monday ended up being a decent day in the markets for our stock picks. Most notably Toll Brothers was up 2.9% and Bank of America was up 2.0%.
Canadian Western Bank was down slightly and closed at $27.63. I am tempted to add to my position at or belo...

FirstService is updated and rated Weak Sell at U.S. $33.50 or CAN $ 34.01. I like it as a company and would be interested to buy on a speculative basis at $30 or less. It announced this week that it would eliminate its preferred shares. This could ca...

Ouch, markets took a drubbing today. Dow down 0.8%, S&P 500 down 1.1% and Toronto down a painful 2.1%.
Our stocks did not escape and almost all were down. Boston Pizza was one of the rare exceptions as it rose a bit more.
My recent purchases of T...

It was another day of the U.S. stock market doing better than the Cnadian market.
A notable winner was Wells Fargo, up 2.0%.
The stocks that I have the most interest in buying at this time are Toll Brothers, Melcor and Canadian Western Bank. If I sol...

As mentioned yesterday I wanted to raise some cash today. sitting at home after my trip I took the opportunity to so some selling this morning. I sold half my Walmart. I then sold my Shaw Communications which has risen about 18% since my last rating ...

I spent some of my travel time carefully re-reading a book called Buffett the Making of an American Capitalist. Buffett's feats of wealth creation are truly extraordinary. And his methods are well chronicled and can be copied. Few bother to try.
A pl...

A  moderately weak day in the markets. Most of our stocks were down. Melcor, Boston Pizza and Walmart were among the winners.
Day 7 in Manhattan
Walked up to see the Touraine a luxury condo building owned by Toll Brothers (units range from $3 million...

Day 6 in Manhattan:
NBC studios tour, SOHO, Chinatown and a show (The Book of Mormon).
One disappointment the green hop-on-hop-off bus service had very poor service. Buy the red hop-on-hop-off by Gray Line or just take taxies and subway.
Another mino...

The stock markets were closed today, but Manhattan was certainly open.
Day 4 in Manhattan:
Short bus tour of downtown... water taxi tour of Statue of Liberty (view only) and several stops of interest. Excellent tour guides. Did some shopping. Grimald...

S&P 500 reached an all time closing high today. And will reach many more in the years to come.
Canadian Tire was up 2.0% and that is on top of recent gains. This seems to be fairly random. Why investors would ignore it for a while and now bid it ...

Markets were a little negative today. My American Banks and Berkshire were down. No big losses overall though.
Day Two in Manhattan... Rockefeller tour, skating rink, buildings, history and art work. Observation deck is better than Empire State but o...

A strong day for the markets. Right now I am just holding and enjoying gains.
As far as my trip to New York I have the following notes.
United Airlines rep in Edmonton was exceptionally good. United Airlines flights were smooth and even arrived erarl...

I leave tonight for a family vacation in New York City. I hope to visit the New York stock Exchange among many other attractions. It's my first trip to New York City unless I count visiting Coney Island and the Bronx Zoo in 1972 when I was twelve yea...

My article on the valuation of the S&P 500 is updated and now suggests that as a point estimate the S&P 500 is about 12% over-valued. Basically the as reported earnings on the S&P 500 have remained stable over the past six months (since t...

Friday was another strong day on the markets with the DOW up 0.6%. Most of our stock picks were up.
Overall, my own account is up 8.5% since January 1. Our average stock that was rated in the Buy or Strong Buy range (everything above Weak Buy) has ri...

Melcor Developments reported today that it has filed a preliminary prospectus for the proposed partial spin-off of its rental properties into a REIT. This will not likely lead to an accounting gain for Melcor since the real estate is already marked t...

Toll Brothers was up an impressive 5.8% today. I added a bit to my Melcor position today based on an order that I had placed a week or so ago. 
...

Our stock picks did okay today. Canadian Tire was up 1.1%. I did not sell any of my Shaw at least not yet and it rose 1.3%.
The whole business with Cyprus is not something that would cause me to sell any stocks but it was a very stupid situation.
Cyp...

As expected, markets were weak today due to the Cyprus bail-out situation. But overall the reaction was modest and not as bad as many feared. I have not seen any good analysis of exactly what was being proposed there or why the banks were involved. W...

As of late Sunday, it appears that the markets will open down 1% or so due to events in Cyprus whereby depositors in apparently insolvent banks will have to give up about 7 to 10% of their savings deposits in exchange for shares in the banks. (Which ...

Toll Brothers is updated and is rated Speculative Buy at $34.13. As the report indicates, this luxury home builder is not an obvious bargain. But as it roars back (in terms of sales) from the depths of the U.S. housing crisis it appears set to show m...

Today, Thursday saw another good day in the markets.
Most of our stock picks were up nicely although nothing spectacular. Boston Pizza certainly had a good gain up 1.9%to  $20.99.
It is amusing watching the stock market television channels attempt to...

The Dow and the S&P 500 were both about unchanged today but the Toronto Stock Exchange Index was down 134 points or 1.0%. For many years I have found that my stock picks tend to move more with the broad U.S. market indexes and not Toronto. I pay ...

Our banks stocks lost some ground today as did Toll Brothers and Canadian Tire. The noise to signal ratio from this as far as I am cornered is a great deal of noise and no signal. I take signal from earnings reports not stock price blips.
As far as C...

Of note today was Wells Fargo up 1.7%. I like the prospects for this bank and also for Bank of America.
I added a small amount to my Canadian Western Bank position today after it fell 1.4%.
 
...

Melcor Developments is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $18.61. This is a very well-managed Edmonton-based company that has traded on the stock exchange since 1968 and which traces its roots back 89 years under the ownership of the same founding fam...

Two of our Stock Picks were down noticeably today. Canadian Western Bank was down 4.8% and Constellation Software was down 4.4%. On the other hand, Bank of America was up 2.8%. 
Canadian Western Bank released earnings this morning and the stock fell ...

Well, it was yet another strong day for our stock picks. But we should not get over confident. There will be down days as well and down months and even down years. But right now, all the painful down days (like 2008) seem like a distant memory.
Bank ...

So the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new all-time high today. Not a big deal, but it does seem an encouraging sign.
I have a very heavy weighting in equities (around 90%). For that reasons I may look to see what positions I should trim a lit...

It was a decent day at least in the American markets with the DOW up 0.3%.
Walmart was up 2.2%.
Some people figure that stocks are expensive simply because the DOW is near its record high. But that is totally normal. The last high was five years ago....

Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $102.05. For the reasons given in the report this rating may be conservative. By my reading, Buffett has hinted (but not stated) that the intrinsic value is closer to the $130 range.
Buffett's mu...

Strong gainers today included Canadian National Railway up 3.0%, Couche-Tard up 2.7% and Melcor up 2.4% (but it is thinly traded and tends to jump around a bit). Also RioCan up 2.8% although that is similar to its price at our last update.
Canadian W...

Markets were very strong on Wednesday with the DOW up 1.25% and Toronto up 0.6%.
Berkshire Hathaway was up 2.5%. Toll Brothers was up 2.0%.
At lunch time on Monday I bought additional Berkshire Hathaway shares paying $99.54. It ended Monday at $98.58...

Markets were generally strong today.
Toll Brothers was up 3.3% on strong reports regarding U.S. housing prices and new home sales. It should really be no surprise that U.S. house prices are rebounding given record low interest rates and given that h...

A graph of today's markets shows that they started out strong, but reversed to losses by mid-day and then fell heavily at the end of the day.
Apparently part of the reason was election results in Italy.
As an investor I pay little attention to thing...

Canadian Tire is updated and rated (lower) Strong Buy at $68.65. There are risks with any investment and I would urge subscribers to read the report. Subscribers may wish to place more emphasis on the risk posed by Target and a more competitive retai...

Canadian Tire earnings came out prior to the opening of trade. The fourth quarter was okay, at best, not terrible, certainly not great. The full year was pretty good. They are doing a modest stock buy back and emphasized that. If the share price drop...

I plan to update a couple of the reports this weekend based on earnings reports. I also plan to update the composition of my own portfolio. It has not changed a lot since the last update and I don't recall any new stocks being added, just additions t...

Markets fell today on fears that the FED would stop buying back bonds and interest rates would rise.
Well, maybe that is a legitimate reason for the market to fall but I am not so sure. Interest rates are at record lows and I don't think the P/E rati...

Well, a pleasant start to the markets this week. 'course we're supposed to be thinking longer term but still a gain always feels good. Stantec up 3.3%, Shaw Communications up 2.5%, almost everything was up, but Constellation software was down 3.1%.
A...

As many of you saw, I sent out an email today intended only for former (not current) customers. The email went to everyone on the free and paid lists by mistake. There was a link there to subscribe at a special price. If anyone who was not a current ...

Berkshire Hathaway A shares closed Friday at a record closing price of $150,141.
This exceeds the previous high close of $149,200 on December 10, 2010. It did however reach $151,650 on December 11, 2007.
Regaining a high from five years ago is nothin...

In today's news, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is partnering with another outfit to buy Heinz. This is not a huge surprise considering it fits much of the profile Buffett likes. It's sells branded consumable products that are not likely to chan...

Today we had a number of stocks falling in price. But that is nothing unusual.
Boston Pizza was up 2.5% to $20.40. It just released earnings last week which at a quick glance were pretty good. I've toyed with the idea of selling some of what I have (...

Markets were higher today... In particular we had Toll Brothers up 4.4%. It looks expensive at this point but I continue to hold it. Also we had Bank of America up 3.2%.
...

Stocks were generally down a bit today. The Q4 earnings for many Canadian companies should be rolling in shortly.
I note today that the former CEO of SNC-Lavalin has been charged.
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/former-snc-head-pierre-duhaime-formal...

Greetings and welcome to a new group of subscribers who joined this weekend after seeing an article in the Edmonton Journal.
For the benefit of the new subscribers I will mention that I usually post some comments here five times per week. Usually it ...

I'm featured in the business section of the Edmonton Journal tomorrow.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Lamphier+sides+coin+this+stock+picker/7940653/story.html
Our stock picks have ended out the week in decent shape.
As always the signals fro...

A notable winner among our Stock Picks today was Alimentation Couche-Tard, up 4.7% to $52.60.  I did not see the news that prompted this. This company is an incredible (and under-reported) Canadian success story. I am not eager to buy at this price b...

Most of the stocks that declined yesterday recovered today. There does not seem to be much sign of fear in the markets.
For the moment my strategy might be described as "Don't just do something, stand there!"
 
...

Markets were negative today. It's certainly not something that worries me. I think any pull-backs right now might prove to be more of a buying opportunity than anything.
...

So, we got a surprise 150 point, 1.2% jump in the DOW today. Which goes to show that in investing half the battle (actually 100% on average) is just showing up. The market tends to rise over the years. A buy and hold index investor can get the averag...

Markets were generally down on Thursday. This hardly seems surprising after all the recent gains.
There was unfortunate news for employees at Best Buy / Future Shop and Sears Canada with layoffs announced.
Sears Canada was smart in 2012 to have sold ...

Markets were moderately down today. Notably (especially to me, since it is my largest position) Canadian Tire was down 1.8%. But I consider that to be basically just normal volatility on a negative day.
U.S. GDP was down 0.1%. I don't know how that i...

Today was another decent day in the markets with modest gains in most of our stock picks.
Dow up a half percent. Doomers are still waiting for end of financial world and have missed relatively massive gains since the bottom in March of 2009. I think ...

Our stock picks lost a modest amount of ground on Monday. Following up on yesterday's comment I added somewhat to my Wells Fargo holdings today.
Moody's debt rating service downgraded six Canadian banks today. I doubt that this is anything to worry a...

Friday was another decent day in the markets. Toll Brothers was up 2.4% to $37.98. That's a 23% increase since we rated it a Speculative Buy on December 8 at $30.77. With a 23% increase our report has effectively become out of date. I have a position...

Not surprisingly, Constellation Software recovered from the little dip it took yesterday, rising 3.7%. Canadian Tire did well, up 2.1%. The lower Canadian dollar has also helped out the value of American stocks when measured in Canadian dollars.
...

Constellation Software was down 3.3% today. This occurred in the last hour of trading and was on relatively small volume. It could well be that someone was just a bit impatient in selling and wanted to sell today and that could have pushed the price ...

Today we had Bank of America up 1.9%, Melcor up 1.6% to $19.75.
CN fell about 1% despite a dividend increase and good earnings released today. I am tempted to buy some CN. It does not look particularly cheap but I am attracted to the quality of its b...

U.S. markets were closed today for the Martin Luther King holiday. The Toronto stock exchange index rose 0.5%.
With Canadian Tire down 1.3% I added a small amount to my position.
Research in Motion was up another 11% to $17.41. Regrettably I had sold...

On Friday we had an okay day in the markets with the Dow and Toronto each up about 50 points. Research in Motion continues as a surprise winner this new year, up another 7% on Friday.
I've been reading a few annual reports and hope to have a new comp...

Toll Brothers was up 3.6% to $36.16.
Bank of America was down 4.3% after a disappointing earnings report. Given the price drop I decided to by back (in a registered account) the 1500 shares I had sold at a slightly higher price when I cleared out my ...

Although the Dow was down we had Bank of America up 2.0%.
We are now entering a period where many U.S. companies are releasing their December 31, 2012 results. Obviously the market will react to those depending if they are better than expected or low...

Today ended up being another good day for our stock picks. Notably, Toll Brothers up 3.8%, Canadian Tire up 1.6%.
I've been thinking about adding to some positions. But overall I am already heavily invested in equities and I am just going along for t...

Shaw Communications announced after the close that it had sold its Mountain Cable franchise in Hamilton to Rogers for $400 million. Also Rogers bought for $50 million an option to buy Shaw's wireless spectrum. Shaw bought the one third of TVtropolis ...

My popular article on the valuation of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is updated. I see the Dow as about fairly valued.
On Friday we had Constellation Software up 3.7%.
I no longer have Research in Motion on the list, but it was up 13%, again indic...

It was another strong day for stocks...
Melcor continues to bounce around.
Yesterday I mentioned that having seen Tuesday's closing price of over $20 most of us would be reluctant now to sell much below that. Of course another option is just to keep ...

Today would have been a mildly negative day for our stock picks except for one stock.
Several alert subscri9bers emailed me this afternoon to report that Melcor shares were up sharply (almost 20%) this afternoon (closed at $20.37) after announcing th...

Melcor gave back 8.2% today closing at $18.70 But it is still up about 19% this brand new year. As I mentioned yesterday the trading is thin and it was not cleat that yesterday's close of $20.37 was where the stock really ought to settle out after th...

Markets gave back a little today after the recent gains. However Melcor was up about 2% on decent volume and Toll Brothers was up 2%. Based on the rating above I would not be an enthusiastic  buyer of Toll at today's $34.35 given it was rated only Sp...

I have updated the table showing the percentage of my portfolio that is is invested in each stock I own and in cash.
...

Friday was another positive day in the markets.
I finished selling out everything in my margin account. 200 shares of Canadian Tire were sold but were replaced with an equal buy in an RRSP account. 3000 shares of Melcor were sold. 500  shares of Shaw...

The TSX finished down 0.6% today. The Dow had been up but finished down 0.2% after the market began near the the end of the day to fear that the FED was going to stop buying bonds. (FED minutes revealed a worry about all this bond buying).
The market...

I don't think too many people expected today's big market rally. After all we already got a big rally on Monday when it looked like this fiscal deal would go through.
Today we had the DOW up 2.3%, Toronto up 0.9%. We had Berkshire up 3.9%, Toll Broth...

Well, the 2012 year is now over. Our Stock Picks this year had an excellent performance. Click to see the detailed performance by company for 2012. The six Strong Buys were up an average of 19.6% each. The 17 Buys were up an average of 14% each. Only...