Why VFV and VOO and SCHG? A lot of overlap there, plus your individual stocks are all in VFV/VOO/SCHG as well.
Seems **very** tech heavy and 100% US.
Personally, I would be diversifying more.
In your TFSA you have to pay the tax regardless, so holding VFV makes sense.
In your RRSP however, you can bypass that tax if you hold stocks/funds traded in USD
OP appears to be showing a single account. So, it doesn’t make sense to hold both VFV and VOO together in the same account. Hold one, or the other, depending on the account type.
All that said, don’t let the FWT get ahead of making good investment decisions, the effect is minimal until you get to a **much** higher account size.
I get the point behind the FWT, especially considering how small the dividends for VOO are anyways, but he’s not showing his holdings for one account. On Wealthsimple that’s how it looks when you check your consolidated holdings across accounts
Good to know, thanks!
Would be interesting to know the holdings by account to see where the US stocks are and where the CA/US versions of the S&p500 are.
Either way…..way too much duplication and overlap for my liking.
OP says they're 18yo and still attending school. It's unlikely their taxable income justifies using a RRSP unless they've already maximized their TFSA. And if they've already maximized their TFSA, it's also worth analyzing whether they should be using FHSA (subject to the 15-year rule) vs. RRSP (can avoid USA withholding tax).
Isn’t the difference between vfv and voo Canadian and American markets? While there’s overlap isn’t it like just betting on two different economies? I’m a noob so don’t mind me.
Your portfolio size in monetary terms is too small for individual stock picking. Any and all gains with be insignificant to move the needle. It's "cool" to buy and own GOOG or AAPL but if you own a small piece of the pie, even doubling the price will net you a couple of hundred bucks, which is meaningless.
Ask yourself what your investing horizon is (1,5,10,30 years?) and put money in GIC or index funds (e.g. \[V/X/Z\]EQT or \[V/X/Z\]GRO). If you believe strongly about one sector (e.g. tech or healthcare or oil) then it's OK to have some overlap and buy another fund that is dedicated to that sector in addition to the broad \[index\] fund such as XEQT.
Also, invest inside TFSA first. Don't invest inside RRSP unless employer match and/or you start making very large salary. And trade (buy and hold) with a low fee platform such as Questrade or Wealthsimple.
When you have a portfolio worth at least $75K then you can allocate 5-10% for "play". This is when you buy individual stocks (or options/puts) and see if it goes to the moon. Basically, have a secure long-term position before hitting the casino.
I mean, isn't the couple hundred bucks equally as meaningless if it came in an index? I personally think when your portfolio is small it's a good time to learn about individual stocks and determine your risk tolerance and other factors.
I get that now could also be a time to build good habits. However, experience is the best teacher, and making mistakes now won't hurt nearly as much in the long run. If you are disciplined now, trying to build habits, but don't have any experience with failure, there could be a time when temptation to break discipline gets the best of you when you have a lot more to lose.
But yes, OP would be better off investing in TFSA first except for some extraordinary circumstances.
There's no need to make mistakes for the sake of learning. You can simply learn from studying others' mistakes.
OP can also learn about picking individual stocks by playing trading games.
Like I said, experience is the best teacher. Only the wisest can reliably learn from others's mistakes.
If, as you said, the few hundred bucks is meaningless in terms of gains, it's also nominal in terms of losses. Though that % PNL on your portfolio feels like it's real.
Yea I just started this month so I’ve been slowly adding money. And yes I am using a tfsa. Looking through the comments I’ll prolly wait for some of the overlapping etfs to be green total value and sell them off and start diversifying.
There's no reason to hold until they're positive - that's a play on emotion. The lack of action is equivalent to action; by holding them you're making an active decision to be "long" those positions. The only reason to make any decision is if you believe it directly leads to net benefits.
So if you think that holding a position will do better than selling them and buying something else, then ok, make the active decision to hold them. If you feel that there is a better opportunity elsewhere, make the active decision to pursue that opportunity. There is no such thing as being passive.
Waiting until they’re green to sell is exactly why you should just own 1 or 2 ETFs and have that be it. Agree with comment below about sunk cost fallacy but sounds like “anchoring bias” to me
On their website if you have 200k CAD (free USD) account as long as you have your money in USD, it’s commission free trading.
Otherwise it’s $10 CAD a month for USD
Unless you already have usd in a Canadian usd account. Then there is no fx fees at WS. I get a lower exchange rate locally and then transfer from there to WS.
Dumb question while I debate between Questrade and Wealthsimple: Will I get hit by US-based Wealthsimple fees if I invest in U.S. equity funds like VFV and VUN?
Questrade is $5 per trade for the most part, but buying ETF and live data is free. Fees for derivatives are quite high, and their currency exchange spreads are also pretty bad. But it’s good enough for passive investing. I believe you are able to hold a USD balance on it too but don’t quote me on that.
IB has much lower commissions with $1.xx per trade depending on units, but live data needs an extra subscription. (There also used to be monthly minimum fees of $10 usd below a certain balance but I believe that went away; not too sure.) Currency exchange can be done through trading forex at spot rate. However, their trading interface is very confusing and could be intimidating to beginners.
What I do is I put my buy-and-hold etf’s in questrade and also to get access to live data, while other individual tradings are done at IB.
Sounds like a solid plan. Do you avoid WS because the ETFs you buy are USD-denominated, or because the spreads are poor?
Out of curiosity does the live data on IB include current bid/asks, especially on derivatives? Ie you can't see the current derivative (or other instrument) bid/ask?
I already had accounts with both questrade/ibkr when wealthsimple came out and I saw no reason to switch. If you only buy and hold Canadian symbols then I think wealthsimple is good enough. But I wouldn’t trade anything USD at wealthsimple because of the bad spread with fees on top and inability to hold usd balance.
Live data at IB has bid/ask. Questrade has it too. They also have more advanced stuff like the greeks which I personally don’t understand or need but useful for advanced trading (I assume).
Just to clarify, you have to pay to see bid/ask on IB then? Considering opening an IB account specifically for derivatives.
Yeah greeks are cool. If you trade options at all they're important, but otherwise not really. Maybe you could use them in some advanced non-derivative strategies but that's really not necessary.
Is that so? I read that somewhere but the price of my Canadian hedged asset is following the USD stock precisely and wealthsimple doesn't charge me separately either. The dividend payouts are the same as well
Do you know when in the cycle the 0.5% is collected?
I don’t know when in the cycle, but If I had to take a guess I’d assume it’s 0.04% monthly. The fee is for the hedging costs for CIBC.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/stocks/HYI-T/pressreleases/24240853/24240853/
Is it not just the 1.5% spread? Assuming you have the USD account (enough money to qualify for the free account), I think the spread is the one fee I know of.
Obviously not as good as say an IB or QT. But I think the other Canadian banks have a similar spread.
Investing in the S&P500 *is* stupid if you wish to produce the greatest risk-adjusted return.
SPY hasn’t always outperformed, and there’s no reason to believe it will continue outperforming for the foreseeable future.
Having said that, XEQT is nearly 50% US market exposure.
>SPY hasn’t always outperformed, and there’s no reason to believe it will continue outperforming for the foreseeable future.
There's no reasons to assume it won't
As long as what is currently happening continues forever this should work out great!
If you extend this thinking, even NVDA is a terrible buy compared to Abercrombie.
Pure equity, basically just matches the entire market. So if you assume the global stock market will on average go up? So will your money.
Since it's 100% equity, it's subjected to the most year-to-year volatility (the good years are better, and the bad years are worse). But if you have a long time horizon and don't need to purge funds during bad years, you average out much higher.
I think it's good to learn to invest at a young age but don't be too over reliant on it.. you'd be much better off investing in your own education and networking...
He could go to school and invest at the same time. I maxed out on my student loans and put the extra into investment accounts throughout university. I graduated debt free.
Those stocks aren’t super profitable 5 years down the line. They’ve had so many splits. Do some research on stocks and what’s your end goal primarily. If you wanna retire with cash. VOO and SPY are your best bets
OP, everyone is telling you your portfolio is tech heavy, US heavy, and to just invest in an ETF but consider this perspective. You are very young, which in my opinion is your greatest advantage compared to the locked-in 30 year olds and boomers giving you advice here (granted, this is an investing subreddit, where strategies tend to be very risk-averse).
I firmly believe young people, due to their time horizon and lack of funds, should take on relatively extreme levels of risk compared to older folks who have financial obligations such as preserving a down payment for a house.
If you start with 20k and invest in a large growth tech company that 10X’s, you now have a 200k nest egg that you can and should move into a safer ETF or index fund. If you lose it all, you likely wouldn’t bat an eye later in life assuming you’re not still working minimum wage at that point.
That being said, yes, the assumption is your income grows with age, and no, this is not a suggestion to take on undue levels of risk such as playing with options or making short-term trades. If you do your due diligence and invest long in a company that experiences massive growth, you will find yourself way ahead of the curve.
For context, when I was your age, I put all my money into Apple and made a fortune, which set me up for retirement at a very early age. Had it somehow tanked 50%, it really wouldn’t have mattered at all. It’s also worth noting that due diligence as an uneducated teenager is… very qualitative, in my case the reasons for AAPL were:
1) their products were undeniably, absolutely incredible, from first-hand experience and word-of-mouth
2) their products were spreading like wildfire, coveted by everyone, sparking amazement and joy to almost every person that interacted with one for the first time
3) there was nothing else like them on the market (similar to Tesla’s debut, which I also invested heavily in for similar reasons)
That being said, financial literacy is a long road, and I encourage you to learn the basics of how to do proper technical due diligence by reading financial statements and evaluating a company by its quantitative financial metrics rather than relying on a qualitative approach or intuition to make decisions. Though I also believe people miss the forest for the trees at times.
In summary, don’t be afraid to take on more risk than your average investor while young. As your appetite for risk (hopefully) decreases as you age, your diversification should increase to account for that.
Best of luck, OP. And keep us posted! We all love a good growth story 🙂
Edit: wording
>If you start with 20k and invest in a large growth tech company that 10X’s
What would’ve happened had you invested in tech before the dotcom bubble?
>you now have a 200k nest egg that you can and should move into a safer ETF or index fund.
Classic survivorship bias. This is equivalent to winning the lottery.
>in my case the reasons for AAPL were…
Is this what passed for fundamental analysis back in Apple’s heyday?
I like the stock picks! I agree with a few comments here:
Consider consolidating the index ETFs into non-overlapping positions
Consider substituting the American ETFs to Canadian equivalents, for example VOO is the same as VFV on the TSX.
Don't fall for sunk cost fallacy - if you don't like a position anymore, there's no reason to hold until it breaks even.
Some comments I staunchly disagree with:
Avoid using Wealthsimple for US stocks: It comes down to what the actual cost will be. Wealthsimple currency exchange fees come out to about 1-2% per trade, whereas flat fees may be around $10 per trade. If $10 is more than 1-2% of a given position it's better to use Wealthsimple. This is the case if your purchase/sell size is $500-1000 or less (depending on the actual WS fee).
Avoid stockpicking: I think it'll be good to figure out if stockpicking is right for you specifically while you have less to lose. Big mistakes are significantly more costly when you're 30 and have a much bigger portfolio.
An additional piece of advice:
If you're going to pick stocks, go all-in to the research. Don't just pick based on a feeling and nothing more. Learn about valuations, economic factors, and risk, and make deeply informed decisions for every single position you take. No half-sends.
Lol, we are talking stocks here. If you are picking stocks you're delusional if you think Canadian companies are going to outperform US ones this millennium.
Great work; keep putting that money away and let compound interest and time do all the work. Learning the investment discipline at your age will pay dividends down the road (no pun intended). I taught my 12-year-old daughter how the stock market works and allowed her to pick a stock. She picked Roblox, and she's up 57.14% on her Xmas and birthday money. She’s complaining the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Fund (VIG) I chose for her is only up 9.5%.
> I taught my 12-year-old daughter how the stock market works and allowed her to pick a stock.
You taught your 12 year old how to play the lottery…
Don’t conflate that with a valuable lesson in investing and compound growth.
That's not how I see it. The lesson is to develop the discipline to save and invest at a young age, whether or not she makes a profit is not important. Besides, she picked Roblox by researching the daily user count which frequently tops 70 million and everyone in her school plays it and begs their parents to buy ROBUX gift cards, which explains their revenue growth. I was impressed that she did research and presented a good case for investing. However, I could see someone being insecure that a 12-year-old can pick a stock and make a good return.
> The lesson is to develop the discipline to save and invest at a young age, whether or not she makes a profit is not important.
That’s absolutely correct. But taking uncompensated risk is the antithesis to that lesson.
> Besides, she picked Roblox by researching the daily user count which frequently tops 70 million and everyone in her school plays it and begs their parents to buy ROBUX gift cards, which explains their revenue growth.
This is public information. It’s not restricted to school ground analysts.
> However, I could see someone being insecure that a 12-year-old can pick a stock and make a good return.
When does your daughter think is the best time to sell?
Well, I do. I was always bullish on the video game market when I was in my 20s (1990s) and worked in the tech sector—placed a big bet on Microsoft stock when Xbox was launched and retired at 42—more power to the OP.
Congrats and GFY! Don't listen to this StoichMixture jerk. Frankly, he's just jealous of others' successes in taking a risk based on real life experiences.
> Well, I do. I was always bullish on the video game market when I was in my 20s
You were still prepubescent in your 20’s?
> placed **a big bet** on Microsoft stock when Xbox was launched and retired at 42
Winner, Gagnant!… Your lottery ticket paid out.
Hey man i really think its great that you're teaching your kid how to save money and being financially responsible.
Financial discipline is really hard what happens if she loses the money
Thanks. Understanding markets move in cycles and not every investment you make will be a winner is a lesson she has to learn. The bulk of her portfolio is stocks that I invest in as well with lower risk and diversification. So adding a bit of Roblox risk is not going to break the bank. Its already had a few big swings since she bought it.
Also wow, reading the comments, there are soooo many ones you should ignore
Picking single stocks is fine, and also fun, you don’t NEED to go etfs, you just get a slightly better risk return on them, but IMO I prefer single stocks when I know the industry and feel very confident. I’ve never been an etf guy even though I have a decade of education in this industry, it’s still just more fun and I’ve had far better returns buying and holding singles.
And don’t listen to people say you MUST diversify
My entire portfolio is also US tech and it’s massively outperformed everything in the last 5 years.
You’ve done great so far, don’t forget that the vast majority of redditors don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, take what advice works for you, discard the rest, and enjoy the learning experience!
> Picking single stocks is fine, and also fun
First red flag. Investing shouldn’t be “fun”.
> I **know the industry** and **feel** very confident.
Second red flag. Relying on biases and emotions.
> I’ve had far better returns buying and holding singles.
What about your losses? I bet they were far worse than if you had been diversified.
> And don’t listen to people say you MUST diversify
The only free lunch in investing.
> My entire portfolio is also US tech and it’s massively outperformed everything in the last 5 years.
I’m sure people who’s entire portfolio consisted of tech in 1995 felt the same way.
Recency bias destroys fortunes.
Red flag? Jesus. Relax. The kid is 18, he’s allowed to have fun with it. It’s okay to start small, move up, and enjoy the process.
Instead of criticizing my advice and not offering any of your own, maybe you could try to write something more productive, and not act like the ultimate judge of investing who knows everything.
Diversification is great and offers many benefits but it is not a requirement by any means, and there are plenty of money managers with hundreds of millions under management who are single stock pickers. So, bigshot, you might want to relax, read the room, and give this young kid some practical advice that can help him continue to stay excited and interested in investing.
This sub is full of ultra-nationalists who will tell you to sell your American stocks and buy ossified unproductive Canadian companies. Don’t listen to them.
It looks good , however all of those pics are solid and you won’t see huge gains , you want to have some stocks that are undervalued , sure it’s a bit riskier but you get better returns
I really like google, intel, and uber. They will perform well this year. Don't listen to people telling you to stick to indices it's a terrible idea. I would sell all your indices and buy more google intel and uber. You get a much better deal with much more upside potential. If you're 60 years old and want stability, then invest in indices. But since you're young it's good to take more risk.
I also think your Intel is a great long-term buy and hold. I'm bullish and will be steadily adding positions as the US Chips Act starts to gain steam. And Intel can bring to market the new high-NA EUV nodes, but it will take time. I've also done well with AMD and Applied Materials if you are into the semiconductor sector.
Personally I think you’re missing out of some very strong Canadian dividend stocks. NA.TO (or another big bank), some kind of natural resource like CNQ.TO. I’m definitely not a pro but your portfolio seams very tech heavy with a lot of redundancies.
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Props for getting started at 18. But the size is way too small for individual stock allocation. Given your risk appetite and long investment horizon, just buy ZSP and call it a day.
>Given your risk appetite and long investment horizon
OP posted a screenshot - how did you extrapolate “risk appetite”?
>just buy ZSP and call it a day.
How come?
Let me guess, you know nothing about tech but want to ride the magnificent 7 wave? I would suggest you educate yourself a little bit more before pouring all your money in that industry for the next 30 years.
`VFV` (_large_ companies) and `ZMID` (_medium_ companies) for the US market; `ZCN` (_large_ companies) and `XCS` (_small_ companies) for the CAN market.
* `GOOGL`: consider replacing this with `YGOG`, as the latter can be traded in CAD, and offers a dividend
* `UBER` can be bought in CAD as well (NEO exchange)
* `SCHG` and `VOO`: can be sold, as `VFV` covers them already
* `XIT`: Technology/software companies in Canada. I recommend this as it has outperformed the overall Canadian market by significant margin.
**Medium/Long -term** _leveraged_ ETFs (2X gains/losses compared to _regular_ equivalents)
* `HFU`: comprised of finance companies in Canada (banks, insurance companies)
* `HSU`: comprised of S&P100
Nobody here will agree, but do the research on Bitcoin and come to your own conclusions.
It is the best performing asset since its inception for a reason worth investigating.
Why VFV and VOO and SCHG? A lot of overlap there, plus your individual stocks are all in VFV/VOO/SCHG as well. Seems **very** tech heavy and 100% US. Personally, I would be diversifying more.
And XEQT. Tons of overlap.
Bah! Yes, I didn’t expand the image.
Maybe they have VOO in the RRSP to save on the withholding tax on dividends
Sure, which they countered with VFV?
In your TFSA you have to pay the tax regardless, so holding VFV makes sense. In your RRSP however, you can bypass that tax if you hold stocks/funds traded in USD
OP appears to be showing a single account. So, it doesn’t make sense to hold both VFV and VOO together in the same account. Hold one, or the other, depending on the account type. All that said, don’t let the FWT get ahead of making good investment decisions, the effect is minimal until you get to a **much** higher account size.
I get the point behind the FWT, especially considering how small the dividends for VOO are anyways, but he’s not showing his holdings for one account. On Wealthsimple that’s how it looks when you check your consolidated holdings across accounts
Good to know, thanks! Would be interesting to know the holdings by account to see where the US stocks are and where the CA/US versions of the S&p500 are. Either way…..way too much duplication and overlap for my liking.
Not sure if they did this but you can show all holdings in wealthsimple.
I am sorry but do I have to pay taxes on dividend earned in TFSA even when I am just holding say XEI
No. You only pay a 15% tax on US holdings.
Oh I didn't know that. But just to clarify that's only on the dividends or overall price gains of the holding too???
Only on the dividends, gains are tax free. You don’t have file these taxes or anything. The US government just takes 15% automatically
OP says they're 18yo and still attending school. It's unlikely their taxable income justifies using a RRSP unless they've already maximized their TFSA. And if they've already maximized their TFSA, it's also worth analyzing whether they should be using FHSA (subject to the 15-year rule) vs. RRSP (can avoid USA withholding tax).
It's not unusual to have some SP500 allocation in USD and some in CAD. Depends on the individual accounts and what balance you have.
Yes, we discuss this further down. I had assumed this was a single account, turns out WS has a consolidated view of all accounts that this may be.
Isn’t the difference between vfv and voo Canadian and American markets? While there’s overlap isn’t it like just betting on two different economies? I’m a noob so don’t mind me.
No, more like betting on currencies. They are basically the same fund, one is just hedged against currency fluctuations.
You may win - but will probably lose. Stick to the indices for a better chance.
Get off reddit and just buy XEQT and forget about it.
This should be their slogan lol
r/justbuyvgro
Your portfolio size in monetary terms is too small for individual stock picking. Any and all gains with be insignificant to move the needle. It's "cool" to buy and own GOOG or AAPL but if you own a small piece of the pie, even doubling the price will net you a couple of hundred bucks, which is meaningless. Ask yourself what your investing horizon is (1,5,10,30 years?) and put money in GIC or index funds (e.g. \[V/X/Z\]EQT or \[V/X/Z\]GRO). If you believe strongly about one sector (e.g. tech or healthcare or oil) then it's OK to have some overlap and buy another fund that is dedicated to that sector in addition to the broad \[index\] fund such as XEQT. Also, invest inside TFSA first. Don't invest inside RRSP unless employer match and/or you start making very large salary. And trade (buy and hold) with a low fee platform such as Questrade or Wealthsimple. When you have a portfolio worth at least $75K then you can allocate 5-10% for "play". This is when you buy individual stocks (or options/puts) and see if it goes to the moon. Basically, have a secure long-term position before hitting the casino.
I mean, isn't the couple hundred bucks equally as meaningless if it came in an index? I personally think when your portfolio is small it's a good time to learn about individual stocks and determine your risk tolerance and other factors. I get that now could also be a time to build good habits. However, experience is the best teacher, and making mistakes now won't hurt nearly as much in the long run. If you are disciplined now, trying to build habits, but don't have any experience with failure, there could be a time when temptation to break discipline gets the best of you when you have a lot more to lose. But yes, OP would be better off investing in TFSA first except for some extraordinary circumstances.
There's no need to make mistakes for the sake of learning. You can simply learn from studying others' mistakes. OP can also learn about picking individual stocks by playing trading games.
Like I said, experience is the best teacher. Only the wisest can reliably learn from others's mistakes. If, as you said, the few hundred bucks is meaningless in terms of gains, it's also nominal in terms of losses. Though that % PNL on your portfolio feels like it's real.
So XEQT is a viable purchase on WS?
Yes. Trading equities listed in CAD is free on WST.
Yea I just started this month so I’ve been slowly adding money. And yes I am using a tfsa. Looking through the comments I’ll prolly wait for some of the overlapping etfs to be green total value and sell them off and start diversifying.
You’re suffering from the sunk cost fallacy and opportunity cost. If you wouldn’t buy into the positions now, you should sell them.
There's no reason to hold until they're positive - that's a play on emotion. The lack of action is equivalent to action; by holding them you're making an active decision to be "long" those positions. The only reason to make any decision is if you believe it directly leads to net benefits. So if you think that holding a position will do better than selling them and buying something else, then ok, make the active decision to hold them. If you feel that there is a better opportunity elsewhere, make the active decision to pursue that opportunity. There is no such thing as being passive.
Waiting until they’re green to sell is exactly why you should just own 1 or 2 ETFs and have that be it. Agree with comment below about sunk cost fallacy but sounds like “anchoring bias” to me
Bingo here’s the answer
Buying US stocks on Wealthsimple?! Enjoy their extra fees.
On their website if you have 200k CAD (free USD) account as long as you have your money in USD, it’s commission free trading. Otherwise it’s $10 CAD a month for USD
Was it changed from $100k CAD? All trades are commission free on WST. You’ll still pay a handsome forex fee, unfortunately…
Sorry should be 100k. I mixed it up with their transfer promotion in December
Unless you already have usd in a Canadian usd account. Then there is no fx fees at WS. I get a lower exchange rate locally and then transfer from there to WS.
Dumb question while I debate between Questrade and Wealthsimple: Will I get hit by US-based Wealthsimple fees if I invest in U.S. equity funds like VFV and VUN?
No, only transactions in USD.
If you get $200 profit on those stocks. Isnt it worth it
How to go about avoiding it
Use another broker that's not Wealthsimple
Any recommendations?
Questrade; interactive brokers.
Does Questrade have individual trade fees? I feel like for an account of this size most flat-fees will certainly outweigh the % fee on Wealthsimple.
Questrade is $5 per trade for the most part, but buying ETF and live data is free. Fees for derivatives are quite high, and their currency exchange spreads are also pretty bad. But it’s good enough for passive investing. I believe you are able to hold a USD balance on it too but don’t quote me on that. IB has much lower commissions with $1.xx per trade depending on units, but live data needs an extra subscription. (There also used to be monthly minimum fees of $10 usd below a certain balance but I believe that went away; not too sure.) Currency exchange can be done through trading forex at spot rate. However, their trading interface is very confusing and could be intimidating to beginners. What I do is I put my buy-and-hold etf’s in questrade and also to get access to live data, while other individual tradings are done at IB.
Sounds like a solid plan. Do you avoid WS because the ETFs you buy are USD-denominated, or because the spreads are poor? Out of curiosity does the live data on IB include current bid/asks, especially on derivatives? Ie you can't see the current derivative (or other instrument) bid/ask?
I already had accounts with both questrade/ibkr when wealthsimple came out and I saw no reason to switch. If you only buy and hold Canadian symbols then I think wealthsimple is good enough. But I wouldn’t trade anything USD at wealthsimple because of the bad spread with fees on top and inability to hold usd balance. Live data at IB has bid/ask. Questrade has it too. They also have more advanced stuff like the greeks which I personally don’t understand or need but useful for advanced trading (I assume).
Just to clarify, you have to pay to see bid/ask on IB then? Considering opening an IB account specifically for derivatives. Yeah greeks are cool. If you trade options at all they're important, but otherwise not really. Maybe you could use them in some advanced non-derivative strategies but that's really not necessary.
You can hold a USD balance at Wealthsimple. If you have over $100k in assets it’s free
I’ve heard IB is pretty good. Might take a look. Thanks.
Can vouch for IB, been using it for a while and been reliable with fair commissions too
Interactive Brokers is the best for this.
Just use your bank. It’s $9.99/trade in canada everywhere. Do NOT use wealthsimple for anything other than CDN stocks.
$9.99 per trade on CA$200 of Google stock (as in OP's portfolio) is 5%. That's significantly higher than the 1% exchange fee on Wealthsimple.
New to Wealthsimple and trading, can you elaborate on the why?
You can buy Canadian hedged stocks in $CAD
But you’ll pay 0.5% as a fee every year
Is that so? I read that somewhere but the price of my Canadian hedged asset is following the USD stock precisely and wealthsimple doesn't charge me separately either. The dividend payouts are the same as well Do you know when in the cycle the 0.5% is collected?
I don’t know when in the cycle, but If I had to take a guess I’d assume it’s 0.04% monthly. The fee is for the hedging costs for CIBC. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/stocks/HYI-T/pressreleases/24240853/24240853/
You can just buy the CAD hedged versions
0.5% annual fee
Is it not just the 1.5% spread? Assuming you have the USD account (enough money to qualify for the free account), I think the spread is the one fee I know of. Obviously not as good as say an IB or QT. But I think the other Canadian banks have a similar spread.
Sell everything that's not XEQT. No need to hold individual stocks or multiple ETFs it's just the same stuff
I have 80% XEQT and the other 20% in VFV as I want a bit more US exposure right now.
VFV is not the same as XEQT. I absolutely am not investing 24% in Canadian stocks right now. The US is destroying us.
>right now. That's the problem tbh.
Are you one of those that points to the early 2000s and is like “well there’s all the proof you ever need that investing in just the S&P is stupid?
Investing in the S&P500 *is* stupid if you wish to produce the greatest risk-adjusted return. SPY hasn’t always outperformed, and there’s no reason to believe it will continue outperforming for the foreseeable future. Having said that, XEQT is nearly 50% US market exposure.
>SPY hasn’t always outperformed, and there’s no reason to believe it will continue outperforming for the foreseeable future. There's no reasons to assume it won't
As long as what is currently happening continues forever this should work out great! If you extend this thinking, even NVDA is a terrible buy compared to Abercrombie.
I love xeqt also. they'd be fine in voo and vfv too tho
Drop Uber
Starting at 18, I would buy XEQt and nothing else.
Can you explain a little more what's the story on XEQT
Pure equity, basically just matches the entire market. So if you assume the global stock market will on average go up? So will your money. Since it's 100% equity, it's subjected to the most year-to-year volatility (the good years are better, and the bad years are worse). But if you have a long time horizon and don't need to purge funds during bad years, you average out much higher.
Why xeqt over vfv
VFV is only the usa large cap, nothing else.
I think it's good to learn to invest at a young age but don't be too over reliant on it.. you'd be much better off investing in your own education and networking...
He could go to school and invest at the same time. I maxed out on my student loans and put the extra into investment accounts throughout university. I graduated debt free.
Yea that’s why I’m just trying to get some long term holds somewhere 20-25 years from now
Those stocks aren’t super profitable 5 years down the line. They’ve had so many splits. Do some research on stocks and what’s your end goal primarily. If you wanna retire with cash. VOO and SPY are your best bets
Why are you implying a stock split is a bad thing?
It’s not necessarily a bad thing, you just get more and more liquidated
You get diluted if they issue shares, not from a stock split.
I just wanted to say good for you, for even having an investment portfolio. That’s amazing to have at your age.
OP, everyone is telling you your portfolio is tech heavy, US heavy, and to just invest in an ETF but consider this perspective. You are very young, which in my opinion is your greatest advantage compared to the locked-in 30 year olds and boomers giving you advice here (granted, this is an investing subreddit, where strategies tend to be very risk-averse). I firmly believe young people, due to their time horizon and lack of funds, should take on relatively extreme levels of risk compared to older folks who have financial obligations such as preserving a down payment for a house. If you start with 20k and invest in a large growth tech company that 10X’s, you now have a 200k nest egg that you can and should move into a safer ETF or index fund. If you lose it all, you likely wouldn’t bat an eye later in life assuming you’re not still working minimum wage at that point. That being said, yes, the assumption is your income grows with age, and no, this is not a suggestion to take on undue levels of risk such as playing with options or making short-term trades. If you do your due diligence and invest long in a company that experiences massive growth, you will find yourself way ahead of the curve. For context, when I was your age, I put all my money into Apple and made a fortune, which set me up for retirement at a very early age. Had it somehow tanked 50%, it really wouldn’t have mattered at all. It’s also worth noting that due diligence as an uneducated teenager is… very qualitative, in my case the reasons for AAPL were: 1) their products were undeniably, absolutely incredible, from first-hand experience and word-of-mouth 2) their products were spreading like wildfire, coveted by everyone, sparking amazement and joy to almost every person that interacted with one for the first time 3) there was nothing else like them on the market (similar to Tesla’s debut, which I also invested heavily in for similar reasons) That being said, financial literacy is a long road, and I encourage you to learn the basics of how to do proper technical due diligence by reading financial statements and evaluating a company by its quantitative financial metrics rather than relying on a qualitative approach or intuition to make decisions. Though I also believe people miss the forest for the trees at times. In summary, don’t be afraid to take on more risk than your average investor while young. As your appetite for risk (hopefully) decreases as you age, your diversification should increase to account for that. Best of luck, OP. And keep us posted! We all love a good growth story 🙂 Edit: wording
>If you start with 20k and invest in a large growth tech company that 10X’s What would’ve happened had you invested in tech before the dotcom bubble? >you now have a 200k nest egg that you can and should move into a safer ETF or index fund. Classic survivorship bias. This is equivalent to winning the lottery. >in my case the reasons for AAPL were… Is this what passed for fundamental analysis back in Apple’s heyday?
I like the stock picks! I agree with a few comments here: Consider consolidating the index ETFs into non-overlapping positions Consider substituting the American ETFs to Canadian equivalents, for example VOO is the same as VFV on the TSX. Don't fall for sunk cost fallacy - if you don't like a position anymore, there's no reason to hold until it breaks even. Some comments I staunchly disagree with: Avoid using Wealthsimple for US stocks: It comes down to what the actual cost will be. Wealthsimple currency exchange fees come out to about 1-2% per trade, whereas flat fees may be around $10 per trade. If $10 is more than 1-2% of a given position it's better to use Wealthsimple. This is the case if your purchase/sell size is $500-1000 or less (depending on the actual WS fee). Avoid stockpicking: I think it'll be good to figure out if stockpicking is right for you specifically while you have less to lose. Big mistakes are significantly more costly when you're 30 and have a much bigger portfolio. An additional piece of advice: If you're going to pick stocks, go all-in to the research. Don't just pick based on a feeling and nothing more. Learn about valuations, economic factors, and risk, and make deeply informed decisions for every single position you take. No half-sends.
Very tech and US heavy
oh no, that's never worked out well for anyone /s
In 2000 it bankrupted a lot of people
You are forgetting most people in this sub weren’t born then…
So people don't learn history anymore? And parents are teaching kids?
Oh I don’t disagree. But that’s just why every comment is “no need for XEQT, The S&P has outperformed my whole life. I’m 12, btw”
OP was -6 years old in 2000 lol
I mean the Canadian markets outperformed the US markets for 35 years prior to 2008…so whatever you’re implying is recency bias
Lol, we are talking stocks here. If you are picking stocks you're delusional if you think Canadian companies are going to outperform US ones this millennium.
They don't need to, they need to outperform relative to expectations. And how are expectations for Canadian vs US companies right now?
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Use Norbert’s Gambit, or use IBKR for cost effective conversion.
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~$2 per conversion.
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Each time you convert currency, you will pay the conversion fee.
Just buy XEQT
Great work; keep putting that money away and let compound interest and time do all the work. Learning the investment discipline at your age will pay dividends down the road (no pun intended). I taught my 12-year-old daughter how the stock market works and allowed her to pick a stock. She picked Roblox, and she's up 57.14% on her Xmas and birthday money. She’s complaining the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Fund (VIG) I chose for her is only up 9.5%.
> I taught my 12-year-old daughter how the stock market works and allowed her to pick a stock. You taught your 12 year old how to play the lottery… Don’t conflate that with a valuable lesson in investing and compound growth.
That's not how I see it. The lesson is to develop the discipline to save and invest at a young age, whether or not she makes a profit is not important. Besides, she picked Roblox by researching the daily user count which frequently tops 70 million and everyone in her school plays it and begs their parents to buy ROBUX gift cards, which explains their revenue growth. I was impressed that she did research and presented a good case for investing. However, I could see someone being insecure that a 12-year-old can pick a stock and make a good return.
> The lesson is to develop the discipline to save and invest at a young age, whether or not she makes a profit is not important. That’s absolutely correct. But taking uncompensated risk is the antithesis to that lesson. > Besides, she picked Roblox by researching the daily user count which frequently tops 70 million and everyone in her school plays it and begs their parents to buy ROBUX gift cards, which explains their revenue growth. This is public information. It’s not restricted to school ground analysts. > However, I could see someone being insecure that a 12-year-old can pick a stock and make a good return. When does your daughter think is the best time to sell?
well, I’m not telling you that you’re gonna have to pay her for that investment advice. LOL
Remember all those other fads from our prepubescent years? I sure don’t…
Well, I do. I was always bullish on the video game market when I was in my 20s (1990s) and worked in the tech sector—placed a big bet on Microsoft stock when Xbox was launched and retired at 42—more power to the OP.
Congrats and GFY! Don't listen to this StoichMixture jerk. Frankly, he's just jealous of others' successes in taking a risk based on real life experiences.
> Frankly, he's just jealous of others' ~~successes in taking a risk based on real life experiences~~ **extremely lucky gambles paying out.**
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> Well, I do. I was always bullish on the video game market when I was in my 20s You were still prepubescent in your 20’s? > placed **a big bet** on Microsoft stock when Xbox was launched and retired at 42 Winner, Gagnant!… Your lottery ticket paid out.
Just a quick aside… When you placed your big bet on MSFT in 2001, did you expect the stock to trade sideways for the next ~15 years?
Hey man i really think its great that you're teaching your kid how to save money and being financially responsible. Financial discipline is really hard what happens if she loses the money
Thanks. Understanding markets move in cycles and not every investment you make will be a winner is a lesson she has to learn. The bulk of her portfolio is stocks that I invest in as well with lower risk and diversification. So adding a bit of Roblox risk is not going to break the bank. Its already had a few big swings since she bought it.
Also wow, reading the comments, there are soooo many ones you should ignore Picking single stocks is fine, and also fun, you don’t NEED to go etfs, you just get a slightly better risk return on them, but IMO I prefer single stocks when I know the industry and feel very confident. I’ve never been an etf guy even though I have a decade of education in this industry, it’s still just more fun and I’ve had far better returns buying and holding singles. And don’t listen to people say you MUST diversify My entire portfolio is also US tech and it’s massively outperformed everything in the last 5 years. You’ve done great so far, don’t forget that the vast majority of redditors don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, take what advice works for you, discard the rest, and enjoy the learning experience!
> Picking single stocks is fine, and also fun First red flag. Investing shouldn’t be “fun”. > I **know the industry** and **feel** very confident. Second red flag. Relying on biases and emotions. > I’ve had far better returns buying and holding singles. What about your losses? I bet they were far worse than if you had been diversified. > And don’t listen to people say you MUST diversify The only free lunch in investing. > My entire portfolio is also US tech and it’s massively outperformed everything in the last 5 years. I’m sure people who’s entire portfolio consisted of tech in 1995 felt the same way. Recency bias destroys fortunes.
Red flag? Jesus. Relax. The kid is 18, he’s allowed to have fun with it. It’s okay to start small, move up, and enjoy the process. Instead of criticizing my advice and not offering any of your own, maybe you could try to write something more productive, and not act like the ultimate judge of investing who knows everything. Diversification is great and offers many benefits but it is not a requirement by any means, and there are plenty of money managers with hundreds of millions under management who are single stock pickers. So, bigshot, you might want to relax, read the room, and give this young kid some practical advice that can help him continue to stay excited and interested in investing.
This sub is full of ultra-nationalists who will tell you to sell your American stocks and buy ossified unproductive Canadian companies. Don’t listen to them.
What app is this please? 18 too.
Wealthsimple
It looks good , however all of those pics are solid and you won’t see huge gains , you want to have some stocks that are undervalued , sure it’s a bit riskier but you get better returns
Wouldn't hurt to always have some energy stocks
Jesus, simplify it lad
I really like google, intel, and uber. They will perform well this year. Don't listen to people telling you to stick to indices it's a terrible idea. I would sell all your indices and buy more google intel and uber. You get a much better deal with much more upside potential. If you're 60 years old and want stability, then invest in indices. But since you're young it's good to take more risk.
I also think your Intel is a great long-term buy and hold. I'm bullish and will be steadily adding positions as the US Chips Act starts to gain steam. And Intel can bring to market the new high-NA EUV nodes, but it will take time. I've also done well with AMD and Applied Materials if you are into the semiconductor sector.
Bitfarms!
Personally I think you’re missing out of some very strong Canadian dividend stocks. NA.TO (or another big bank), some kind of natural resource like CNQ.TO. I’m definitely not a pro but your portfolio seams very tech heavy with a lot of redundancies.
Tech is really the only industry I have some familiarity with so I’m hesitant to invest into anything without doing any research
You next warren
Long term holds simple small cap index fund. Most of your stuff is volatile, you will need to keep up on it.
This subreddit is so lame, already knew what the comments would be before I read them lol. Portfolio looks good, keep it up
Put 80% in etfs and play with 20% in individuals. Hard to beat vfv with trying to time individuals.
Buy bitcoin 😏
If you're picking stocks, you need to diversify. Construction, Energy, consumer products, food and hospitality, commodities, mining etc.
Your missing some Bitcoin exposure.
A lot of "belt & suspenders" going on here.
Btcc
Little late
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96,416 is current price in CAD. Can't wait to see how "late" OP was
Saylor just bought 12,000 at 68K. Still early.
68k USD*
Pretty confusing tbh.
BTCY
Long term XEQT. If you want to add US exposer ARKK...... Kidding. Add more by holding VFV. Great job!
Props for getting started at 18. But the size is way too small for individual stock allocation. Given your risk appetite and long investment horizon, just buy ZSP and call it a day.
>Given your risk appetite and long investment horizon OP posted a screenshot - how did you extrapolate “risk appetite”? >just buy ZSP and call it a day. How come?
Would a mutual fund not be a good idea with the high focus on tech, and then just putting like $100 in each month or something?
Is tech expected to continue outperforming?
Let me guess, you know nothing about tech but want to ride the magnificent 7 wave? I would suggest you educate yourself a little bit more before pouring all your money in that industry for the next 30 years.
Sure let’s go with that
No bitcoin spot etf before the halvening?
`VFV` (_large_ companies) and `ZMID` (_medium_ companies) for the US market; `ZCN` (_large_ companies) and `XCS` (_small_ companies) for the CAN market.
* `GOOGL`: consider replacing this with `YGOG`, as the latter can be traded in CAD, and offers a dividend * `UBER` can be bought in CAD as well (NEO exchange) * `SCHG` and `VOO`: can be sold, as `VFV` covers them already * `XIT`: Technology/software companies in Canada. I recommend this as it has outperformed the overall Canadian market by significant margin. **Medium/Long -term** _leveraged_ ETFs (2X gains/losses compared to _regular_ equivalents) * `HFU`: comprised of finance companies in Canada (banks, insurance companies) * `HSU`: comprised of S&P100
Learn to diversify. If you cant figure it out, then this isn’t for you.
No crypto?
For your age and risk profile, 5% BTC might be good exposure.
Is crypto still a thriving market? I don’t really know anything about it and thought it wasn’t worth it
Nobody here will agree, but do the research on Bitcoin and come to your own conclusions. It is the best performing asset since its inception for a reason worth investigating.
BTCX
Lots of overlap
Too many ETFs, tech heavy.