iShare Blog

Hi iSharers, I have updated the Markets page which is a Google Sheet. Please try it to make sure that it works. There are some symbols on the list that I can't get information for as they are either defunct or Google Finance doesn't have access. Would anyone like a tutorial on how to use the Markets Google Sheet? If so, you can comment here, I think. To post to the blog if you don't have authoring privileges, you can send it as an email to: jcbrown.canada.ishare@blogger.com Make sure to make a relevant subject line, and include your name at the end of the text so that we know who sent it.

From André In our meeting of Oct. 10, we looked at BXMT (Blackstone Mortgage Trust) which offers an unusually high dividend (11.75%) As Eric pointed out, the high dividend could have to do with the drop in market price of the stock price over time (not surprising for a  stock holding fixed rate long term loans in a rising interest rate environment) The attached spreadsheet (using Dividend Channel Total return numbers) confirms it. BXMT fares very poorly in total return compared to the market proxy SPY ETF, both in the long (5-10 years) and the short term (1 year). Maybe there is a way to capture the high dividend by arbitrage timing sales and purchases after each dividend is collected. But, I suspect it is not easy.       BXMT SPY BXMT SPY BXMT SPY Start date: 2013-10-14 2013-10-14 2018-10-15 2018-10-15 2022-10-13 ...

André -  Hi all, I missed the end of the meeting yesterday (May 6). Attached is the material intended to present (see link on Presentations page of iShare site ). Many of us ask: what you we do given the possible upcoming recession? Should we get out of the market and wait it out? The problem with getting out and waiting is one of timing: when to get in again? For those who prefer to invest in broad ETFs like the US SPY, an alternative might be a conglomerate like Buffet's (as his successor) BRK stock. This stock represents ongoing widely diversified businesses which keep generating income during recessions, and therefore are less sensitive to the 'herd mentality' wild panic swings of ETF's like SPY. Attached is a comparative total return spreadsheet of SPY vs BRK over 20,10,5,3 and 1 year. BRKk closely mimics SPY over long periods, but it shines during major recession, like the 2002/2002 and 2007/2008 recessions (orange columns on the chart) . Note also tha...

  Whale watch Shutterstock Growth stocks were among the favorites for hedge fund whales in the second quarter. Monday was the deadline for hedge funds with more than $100M in assets under management, as well as other institutional investors and endowments, to report certain stock holdings through 13F filings. The 13F season gives investors a glimpse into where the big players are betting, albeit with dated information. A number of hedge funds and money managers looked to pick up beaten-down growth stocks, such as tech, in Q2. From April to June, the Nasdaq 100 ( NDX ) ( QQQ ) fell more than 22%, while the S&P 500 ( SP500 ) ( SPY ) was down about 16.5%. Who's buying what? : Among the big-name disclosures, Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway ( BRK.A ) ( BRK.B ) boosted its stake in Activision ( ATVI ) to ~68.4M shares from 64.3M. It also exited its stake in Verizon ( VZ ). Soros Fund Management made a new investment in Tesla ( TSLA ) (~29.9K shares) and disposed...

  Mutual Funds One of the more disreputable episodes in the history of online brokers in Canada is finally close to an end. Brokers got themselves hooked years ago on selling mutual funds that paid them fees they weren’t technically entitled to receive. Quitting these funds has proven to be quite the challenge for brokers, even though they were told 18 months ago to be fully out of this line of business by June 1. To keep the process on track, regulators announced a plan last week that should result in a clear win for investors holding funds at an online broker. Most of these funds’ assets will be moved automatically and at no cost to much cheaper versions of the same or a similar product, with no tax implications. By definition, online brokers execute trades for clients and provide no advice about the suitability of investments. Yet brokers long allowed clients to buy mutual funds with fees that included trailing commissions to compensate the seller for advice and service ...