Blog

What are stocks?

Stocks or shares represent ownership in a company. For example if Company XYZ has 100 shares, and you buy 1 share you own 1% of the company. If you purchase all 100 shares you would own the entire company. A company like Walmart currently has 3.26 billion shares, and each share sells for $79.81. Once you buy shares you become part owner of the company, and as an owner you are entitled to share in the profits of the company. Profits of the company are distributed to shareholders…

For those who bank with CIBC, please consider making a trade on December 4 2013, to show your support for children across Canada!

CIBC Miracle Day is an employee-driven fundraiser that started at a Wood Gundy branch in 1984. Every year, on the first Wednesday in December, CIBC’s wholesale banking employees and participating CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisors donate their fees and commissions to help kids in need.

Since its inception, Miracle Day has raised $69 million for children’s charit…

At today’s price of $41.75 a share the company is valued at $22.7 billion. Is Twitter really worth $22 billion?

This 7 year old company has yet to be profitable but investors have driven up the stock price by over 60% in 12 days. On Thursday November 7, 2013 Twitter became a public company, and its share price skyrocketed. The initial share price was set at $26 but closed at $44.90 on its first trading day, a 73% increase!

Should you go out and buy shares in Twitter now? I had the honor of bei…

Why should you care about dividends? Simply put, dividends add money to your portfolio, they directly contribute to your net worth. A dividend is a cash payment made to shareholders. For example if you own 1000 shares in company XYZ and the company pays a dollar dividend per share per year, you will earn $1000 (1000 shares x $1) in cash every year as long as you own those shares and the company continues to payout the dividend. Over time the dividends can add up, and provide you with financial f…

Ever hear Warren Buffett talk about a castle and moat? Why does he look for companies with large moats? Mary Buffett in her book "The New Buffettology” describes the castle concept quite nicely:

“When explaining the concept of the competitive advantage, Warren (Buffett) likes to use the castle-and-moat analogy. Pretend that the business in question is a castle and the surrounding the castle is a protective moat we’ll call its competitive advantage. The competitive-advantage moat protects the ca…

A habit is something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way. There are certain habits that can ruin your portfolio.

Make sure you aren’t following these habits:

1. Paying too much in fees. Mutual fund fees can ruin your portfolio. Always know how much you pay in fees. In a previous blog post I showed you how to figure out the true cost of owning your mutual funds.

2. Buying high, this applies both to stocks and mutual funds. When the stock market is riding high, everyone and t…

Do you know which of the 20 most valuable brands in the world pay dividends? Interbrand recently announced their list of the 100 most valuable brands in the world. I thought it would be interesting to view the top 20 in the list and see which ones pay a dividend. After all dividends are the key to successful investing.

Here are the top 20 brands (dividend payers in green):

1. Apple
2. Google
3. Coca-Cola
4. IBM
5. Microsoft
6. GE
7. McDonald’s
8. Samsung
9. Intel
10. Toyota
11. Mercedes-Benz
12. BMW
13. Cisco
14. Disney
15. HP
…

Wise words from great investors…

"Dividend increases are a sign that companies are comfortable their future profit will be resilient."

Tom Connolly, Founder Connolly Report

"Look to add quality, dividend-paying, blue chips when they become irrationally oversold and undervalued. That is how and when experienced investors create blue chip investment portfolios which serve them well throughout their entire lives with growth of capital and growth of dividend income. The process is called 'inves…

Wise words from great investors...

"Dividend stocks have several advantages, since 1926 dividends have accounted for about 42 per cent of investor returns, while being less volatile than the market. To some extent the dividend acts like an anchor, slowing the stock down. The beauty of dividends is that you get paid, whether or not the market is up."

Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst with Standard & Poor’s

"Don't get the wrong idea about dividend mutual funds and ETFs. They're still a…

 Michael over at Michael James on Money recently posted a great article on the cost of your investments. Rather than looking at the top ten attributes of a great financial adviser, or top ten ways to invest, you should be able to answer this question first and foremost:

How much are my mutual funds costing me each year?

You can read the complete article here, however I’d like to share with the first two paragraphs from Michael’s blog post: “Despite my enthusiasm for do-it-yourself investing, I…