Cdn. Mutual Funds I own, silver coins, another seminar scam

[selkirk]

Had the monthly shareclub meeting this past week, and a few topics were covered:

1. Mutual Funds, what to look for ect.
here are some I own. (well most of them)

as reference1 yrGIC returns 1yr 1.78% 3yr 1.53%

Mawer New Canada 1yr 18.18 3yr.28.66
Saxon Small cap 1yr 25.5 3yr 30.59
Saxon world growth 1yr 15.31 3yr 19.31
TD Monthly 1yr. 16.81 3yr 17.44
BNS Dividend 1yr 20.16 3yr 21.04
Altamira Growth and income 1yr 18.36% 3yr. 18.13%
RBC Oshaugnesy US growth 1yr. 37.05 3 yr. 31.99%

RRSP
RBC cdn. index 1yr. 27.49% 3yr. 25.34%
RBC cdn. O Shaugnesy Fund 1yr. 20.26 3yr. 26.86%

Comments
Mawer New Canada and Saxon Small cap are Cdn. small cap funds, the managers use a value approach. both are no loads and require $5000 to start.

Mawer New Canada is closed to new investments that oftens happens to small and mid cap funds when they get to big.

RBC o shaugnesy US growth is a small / mid cap US fund that has done great min $1000. this fund will also be capped so if you want in, you have about 3 months.
Saxon World Growth is a good value international fund.

hard to go wrong with funds from Saxon or Mawer both good fund families, with on average lower mers.

BNS dividend fund is a good way to play financials and other dividend stocks, so is td monthly but they have more expsosure to income trusts.
fact most of the big 5 banks have good monthly income funds.

Altamira growth and income is a small holding and will probably always keep it, was the first mutual funds, and one of my first investments. Altamira use to be riding high with Equity fund, resource, income, bond, and their tech fund which was a great performer once. now an average fund family but maybe turning around.

RRSP/IRA is mostly in stocks and bonds but own RBC index (better if you own XIU), and o shaugnesy cdn; equity.


the returns are the average so for 3yr. each year that was the average return.

Mutual funds are not a bad way to diversify in a sector, along with stocks.



biggest mutual fund holding is a closed end fund called Cdn. General Investments

this is a closed fund that trades on Toronto, used to have a 30%+ discount, in the 90s you could buy it when the discount got over 30% and sell when the discount went down to around 22%.

avg. cost $7.50, now around $28. return was 72% for the year.

great year and great results from this fund, would expect the returns to be more in the 15% range from here out....but you never know.....


thanks
selkirk

 

[selkirk]

Coins, seminar scam

Coins, seminar scam

Coins, someone in the club took $800 worth of 1960 coins, and got $9000.

silver coins are now trading for around 10X face value. so if you have say a ton of 1967 cdn. coins, maybe do not take them to the bank....

actually heard two stories, around the holdiays seems to happen every year,

one a man came in with 9000 (face value ) in 50 cent pieces to the bank. was not interested in selling for silver could have got over 40,000 instead of 9K.

someone else traded in a $20 gold coin for you guess it;$20 dollars. even though the teller told him it was 1 ounce of gold. people do some dumb things around the holiday season. :shrug:


someone I know paid $8,300 for a coarse, they guarantee 30% a year. if someone has a system they can make 30% a year; know matter the conditions they would never sell it.....

will have to wait to see how this plays out, hopefully the person will learn from this event, (maybe even the coarse). chances are though what they are selling is not worth 83 cents.

most of these seminar systems are ripoffs, scams, jokes....ect.

thanks
selkirk

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Interesting Kirk-- I have some silver bars I ought to unload---might just break even after holding 20 years plus.

 

[s_dooley24]

selkirk are there tickers for these funds? or how would I (US investor) acquire one?

 

[selkirk]

DTB silver has moved up quickly, well most metals have. Zinc which just never moved for years has moved up well. also at the recent moves the silver and gold bugs are stating to appear.

going to sell some of the silver I have collected but will keep half; for the most part 1985 cdn. silver dollar coins bought them for $5 US 18 months ago. should have bought more but you never know; thought silver was cheap but thought it was cheap in 98,2000,ect.

Dooley most of these funds can only be bought in Canada, however O Shaughnessy is a US mutual fund manager. I know he mangages other mutual funds in the US.

So you should be able to find a good fund he manages in the US using Morningstar, ect.

Cdn. General Investments trades on Toronto (CGI) for over $28 cdn. and yields over 4%. currently most of the holdings are in resources, in 1999 it was in techs.

the main worry would be if they do not get out of these sectors fast enough when they roll over.

another fund will get the symbols is First Australia (FAP/Toronto), believe they trade on a US exchange.
made nothing on this fund the past year, however has been a good investment to exposure to Asia fixed income.

most of the bonds are rated A or better. more than half of the bonds are in US dollars, which hurt returns since cdn. $ has gone up against the US dollar 14 year high.


so O Shaughnessy manages funds in the US.
CGI Toronto
FAP (US symbol ?) in the US.

thanks
selkirk

 

[s_dooley24]

thanks will check out O Shaughnessy...as for precious metals i still like gold as I have previously stated. Would not be suprised to see it around $700 by the end of the year.