Didn't see this before but Weitsman apparently offered 46 cents on May 27 don't know why this wasn't reported.

http://www.streetinsider.com/SEC+Fil.../10602856.html

Yeah. Bought MEA at 0.535 which was a great annualized rate. IMO underpriced since it's under most merger arbs radar

JAKK
SHLD
BGC
AOI
PGN
DF
IMKTA
CSAL
VIP,EBR,SID
TEX

some value if you want to play, not doing well lately with these low p/s types but did buy AOI and PGN.
ACI one to watch if coal price rises like it is suppose to. Just scanning low p/s stocks.

any thoughts on SCTY as a long-term hold?

I really don't understand the financial statements thus I put the stock in the re-assess later pile. It seems they are trying to run the stock like a 1998 dot com stock.

Yes, revenues are rising fast, but operating expenses are rising faster. However, what I am missing is the long-term revenue from leases which doubled year over year. I don't see revenue from solar accelerating from here, more just a slow rise. "Solar energy Systems and Components" revenue is actually down year over year.

In summary Expenses are rising faster than Revenues. There is also a large non-controlling interest (this might also be leases). If that is the case losses are down despite the large increase in expenses. So unless I get a better understanding of income statement I will wait.

What factors would most likely lead oil prices to go back to 80+$?

I can think of the following, but that doesn't seem sufficient:
1) Increased consumption -- seems a bit unlikely with increased car efficiency, electric cars, etc. Although I suppose emerging markets' consumption will increase quickly
2) Reduced exploration leading to decreased production as oil rigs eventually deplete.
3) Reduced production as oil producers finish up their hedged contracts -- probably not very significant because it should be priced into current prices
4) Agreements between oil producers to reduce consumption -- shouldn't that be illegal?

So, what's the thesis really for a fast (within 3 years) increase in oil prices?

Seems like TML can force termination without penalty by not paying escrow amount?

what do you guys think of GM? The stock is down 7% in the last 5 trading days, I think it's undervalue for sure.

Glad you guys talked me out of Shake Shack. What a nosedive

Sold AGO, 4 year 150% gain. Will probably jump back in right before earnings, hoping that it'll go down harder.

Bought BLBD.

Current positions: ACAS, ACW, BLBD, CHK, HOS, MCGC, OUTR, PRSC, REGI

I have just taken over my portfolio from my financial adviser and I'm looking for some advice on which Index ETF to buy.
I will be buying in CAD. I've narrowed my options down to: VGG.TO VFV.TO and ZDY.TO



as you can see VFV is up a considerable amount compared to the others. it has a Management fee of only .08% with a dividend yield of 1.46% paid quarterly.
I'm considering ZDY because it pays a 3% dividend monthly. Its management fee is more @ 0.30%.

I'm planning to live off dividends for the next while so the difference in dividends would be a huge difference for me.
the etf I buy will be will be the core position in the stock portion of my portfolio. I will also have some specific stocks that i wont sell that are the leftovers from the positions my adviser bought for me.
which ETF do you would be best for my current situation?
thanks for the help =)

VFV.TO is the only one with even remotely reasonable liquidity. Btw if you're living off the dividends I'm going to guess this isn't a registered account. If it's not a registered account, why not just buy on the S&P and get access to all that liquidity? You're investing in the same underlying stocks (just assuming some currency risk).

No I will probably put my higher yielding investments in a TFSA.
Reason for buying this and not just buying SPY is that 2/3 of my net worth is in USD right now. I'm going convert as much as I can to take advantage of the favorable exchange rate.

You may want to try individual Canadian stocks. UFS I like. I like the Wisdomtree etfs, as they are really diversified. The yield on the 43-member Bloomberg Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust Index is 5.8 percent compared with 3.5 percent for the U.S. Bloomberg REIT index. But if housing is going to crash in Canada, you will get better deals after it happens. Maybe it already has not familiar. After a while in stocks that pay no dividend if good you will get a better deal and you can just sell them to make your own dividends (capital gains). But that comes with time.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-0...as-begun-burst

http://www.gurufocus.com/financials/RIOCF try to avoid things where the rps, eps, seem to be going down. dividends go with these. Even though the yield is 5.6 I would avoid.

I was looking at putting a sizable chunk into DRG-UN.TO. It pays 8.5-9% yield and distributes monthly. It's an equity REIT in $CAD that owns German office space. It has a pretty decent chart compared to almost every other CAD REIT out there right now.
I've been seeing REITs in general being talked about as good buys here after the recent sell off. A lot of them are under book value right now.

As for Canadian housing bubble, economists have been saying that canada housing has been overvalued, Canadians are over leveraged in credit, and that a crash is imminent for the last 5 years now.
This is completely possible but until markets start to turn in Toronto and Vancouver it doesn't mean much.

Calgary is a bit of a microcosm of the Canadian RE market since it's so affected by energy prices. The rest of Canada not so much.

Are you looking for income or income growth? I like VIG (Vanguard Dividend Growth) ETF or VDIGX (actively managed but also dividend growth focused)

With REITs you gotta take into account the tax structure. MLPs/REITs are usually taxed as earned income rather than capital gains

VNQ is the Vanguard US REIT but I don't like how much it weights retail.

Performance chasing is performance chasing.

mostly investing for income to meet my monthly expenses.
REITs income breaks down to 3 different categories and becomes decently tax efficient.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...rticle5575073/

http://dream.ca/global/wp-content/up...2015-Final.pdf

If you look at page 30 and page 31 you will noticed there the NIO is down. You notice share creep and earnings are down. Might be ok but I would not put a large position in it. Seems Germans should own German real estate. The Euro is transferred to CAD so you get same currency risks. Notice some real estate markets are down. If a crash is imminent you will get better deals after crash.

I looked at Vanguard VIG, you could just buy individual stocks and not be bad off. But annual expense ratio is 0.10 so very low and although some of these seem overvalued (JNJ, KO, CVS, MDT) not a bad list.

Microsoft Corporation MSFT 4.34
Johnson & Johnson Common Stock JNJ 3.97
International Business Machines IBM 3.93
Coca-Cola Company (The) Common KO 3.84
Procter & Gamble Company (The) PG 3.74
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Common St WMT 3.59
Pepsico, Inc. Common Stock PEP 3.35
CVS Health Corporation Common S CVS 2.70
QUALCOMM Incorporated QCOM 2.70
Medtronic plc. Ordinary Shares MDT 2.55

Look at what happen to many reits in 2008-2009 in the US. If real estate is overvalued, watch out.

https://www.jpmorganfunds.com/blobco...d_Families.pdf

You can also search hedge funds and etf that consistently beat the market and use them as source.

Dalio liked POT (potash)
Canadian Pacific Railway (wait a year)
Valeant

Search Hedge funds and Canada. Actually search a good manager and look at his/her holdings.
won't be making a big mistake.

https://www.holdingschannel.com/13f/...-top-holdings/
just an example. I like Dalio Icahn Gates.

http://www.gurufocus.com/dividend-stocks.php

OK but your TFSA limit is so small that you won't be able to live of those dividends obviously. If you made a big 5% in dividends on your max 41k you'd be looking at a whopping $2050 of tax free income.

Also you already know this (so I'm saying it more for others), but you pay tax on American dividends in your TFSA, be mindful of that.

@steelhouse Thanks for all the advice its much appreciated.

Thank Raf for the reply. My wife has not opened a TFSA so I was going to open one in her name and max it out.
I believe I can contribute 42k or so at once into her TFSA since she has
Never contributed but I'm not sure what the rules are yet since I just started looking into it.
If that's the case then I would have 84k in my highest yielding investment. You're right, I would mostly be living off dividends in my non registered accounts it it would def help.

Speaking of getting taxed on USD dividends, do you know what the rules are for filing for a tax credit with the CRA are?
Thanks

Investing Team

I'm a long term poker mid-high stakes winner. For the past 1.5 years, I've been spending 50% of time on poker 50% of time on investing. I have one other associate doing the same thing. We're looking to add a couple more people that are willing to spend a large amount of their work hours on investing, to a skype group.

Though we are willing to invest in anything, we focus on micro-cap, often foreign, sometimes illiquid companies. The idea being that a lot of the smart-money is often precluded from investing in this space; and so there is more likely to be discrepancies between price and value.

Anyone interested in working with us would do best to have an informal (or formal) education in value investing: the typical curriculum of Buffet, Graham, Greenblatt, Mecham, accounting, psychology, etc. Active in the investing forums, following the investing blogs and tweets, listening to the conference calls, reading the financial reports, etc.

Please PM if interested.

Thanks.

Lots of change going on with BIOS, which is 18% owned by Coliseum Capital and Shackleton recently joined the board, probably worth looking closer at here.