Well, your government gutted the old energy trusts (the ones that weren't sold to China anyway). They were a nice source of income and appreciation.
Not sure what the new rules are, I haven't looked back but I do hear they are having a bit of a resurrection.
If I had to keep it short, I think I can distill it down to three things. The first two are pretty common bits of advice:
1.
Invest in what you know.
I don't mean only invest in tech if you're a tech guy. I mean if you invest in pharmaceuticals, you should have a general idea about the pharma sector. What the FDA hurdles are, how drug trials work, etc. You don't have to be an expert but you should know enough to feel comfortable reading through an SEC filing or a prospectus. Anything you don't understand, research. FWIW, I have a pretty good handle on a lot of that, work in health care, and I still don't feel comfortable with pharma stocks.
This also goes for the basics. For example, if you don't know the difference between a stock and a bond or a 8K and a 10Q, you shouldn't be investing in companies just yet. Once you know how publically traded companies are...publically traded, then you can go on to the task of picking a particular investment or fund.
Now mind you, you don't have to be an expert, just well informed. I don't know how the Terga chip works but I know enough about chips to understand what nVidia is talking about on an earnings call. Likewise, I know enough to know that I don't know enough about the LCD/TFT business so that when someone tells me I have to buy NTE on a 5% pullback, I stick it in the "to be researched" pile. Don't go in unprepared. It's better to let 'er go than to stumble in after it.
Which kind of leads into #2, pretty much stolen straight from Warren Buffett.
2.
There are no called strikes.
Everyone has the one that got away. I think I had 3 last week alone. But here's the thing about the market, there's a new opportunity every day. You lose nothing by passing on an investment. If you're not sure, don't jump in blind. You can sit there all day with the bat on your shoulder waiting for the perfect pitch. You still might swing and miss but at least you stacked the odds more in your favor.
A trap a lot of people get into is being guided that burning sensation in the pit of their stomach caused by thinking about the 82% gain they just missed out on either by not buying or selling early. That's not missed opportunity, that's data. Learn from it. At the very least, tally it because once you've seen it 20 times it doesn't seem like such a life changing event.
The third is pretty much my own, though I'm sure it's not all that original:
3.
You are a small mongrel grabbing scraps from the table of gods.
Don't forget that. The game is set up for them to win, no matter what. Take what you can get. Don't try to beat the elite sitting at the table. Try to beat other investors. Or better yet, just try to get a little nibble here and there and let someone else get bloodied fighting for the scraps. And realize that, no matter what, the whole time you are also tithing to the gods of the table. You cannot avoid this. Consider yourself fortunate that you aren't outside in the cold. Don't get me wrong, I don't worship them but it is foolish to think that the retail investor isn't at a huge disadvantage. If you accept this it will avoid the futile act of trying beat the ones who make the rules.
Imagine a competitive FPS shooter. Imagine that one group of players sits at home and uses the internet to connect to servers to duke it out. That's us.
The other group of players sits in the server room, playing directly on the servers. They also write the code, design the levels, have admin powers, and get special unlocks. And a lot of times they even decide to run
trainers. That's the investement banks and professional traders.
You can't expect to be in the same league as them, but you can still have a good K:D ratio if you pick your battles. The old cliche still works, "Bulls make money, bears make money, hogs get slaughtered."
Try reading
this. A report like that is recommended reading for any stock you invest in. If you manage to read it to the end (or if you don't want to wast time on ATVI,
pick the most recent annual report for a company you're interested in) with a fairly high rate of comprehension, have the basics.
Finally, since you're in Canada, you may be better off in Canadian markets. Not sure with your tax rate up there. If so, the specifics might be different but the same general principles apply.
Preferably non EU as well, but that really really narrows it down. Some of the larger Brazilian commodities companies look good to me, for instance, or even some Chinese telecom companies maybe.
. DIS, yes. Also SIRI, UTX, and GOOG. I think SIRI wasn't eligible for CAPS because of its sub-dollar price. If I could have put it in there at $0.14, man.
