All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

Can “RoboTrader” take the emotion out of picking individual stocks?

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | August 29, 2016

My latest Financial Post blog looks at a new term, RoboTrader. You can find it by clicking on the highlighted text: VectorVest-Questrade partnership brings unemotional ‘robo’ to retail investing.

As I point out in the piece, the better-known term robo-advisor is well entrenched as a shorthand description of automated online investment services, and generally refers to semi-automated portfolio management systems built on low-cost exchange-traded funds or ETFs.

The idea is to build low-cost well-diversified portfolios and benefit by gradual dollar-cost-averaging of the underlying ETFs, as well as regular rebalancing. This takes a lot of the emotion out of building and monitoring an ETF portfolio.

By contrast, RoboTrader attempts to do a similar thing in the realm of individual stock-picking. RoboTrader revolves around 23,000 individual stocks rated every day by VectorVest Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., which provides investors with both tools to help them with both technical and fundamental analysis of stocks, as well as ETFs. VectorVest has announced RoboTrader as part of a partnership with Questrade Inc., the Toronto-based discount brokerage service.

VectorVest describes RoboTrader as a “powerful new trading tool that solves the biggest problem for many traders: executing a trading plan without letting emotions cloud judgement.” RoboTrader lets clients implement a trading plan that requires only client confirmation for fast, accurate execution, with results monitored in real time.

VectorVest says RoboTrader leverages the intelligence of its fundamental and technical analysis, making it easier to manage portfolios. RoboTrader sends instant alerts to investors’ VectorVest accounts, phone and email, “letting traders know exactly which trades to make, when to make them and in what order quantity.”

Similar deals with US-based TradeKing and TradeStation

Victory Lap Retirement now available

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | August 26, 2016

Coauthors Mike Drak (L) and Jonathan Chevreau (R).

As the accompanying photograph of me and coauthor Mike Drak shows, the book Victory Lap Retirement has finally come off the printing presses.

It will be a few weeks before it is available in bookstores but it can be ordered and delivered now directly through the web site VictoryLapRetirement.com.

The photo was taken Thursday at Mike’s Toronto home. As you can see from our casual poolside attire, we’re trying to live the lifestyle described in the book, and summarized by the subtitle Work While You Play, Play While You Work.

You can also see the yellow book cover is now in rotation on the front page of the Hub, along with the US and Canadian editions of Findependence Day and the summary Kindle ebooks titled A Novel Approach to Financial Independence.

Retired Money: Why I won’t defer my OAS past age 65

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | August 18, 2016

My latest MoneySense Retired Money column is about when to take Old Age Security (OAS) benefits and has been posted at MoneySense.ca. Click on the highlighted text to access the full version here: Why I’m taking Old Age Security right at 65.

As the piece goes into in more depth, the Government incentivizes those in their 60s (including Yours Truly) to defer the date for commencing receipt of benefits of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security. The longer you delay between 65 and 70 (or in the case of CPP, beyond age 60), the better the ultimate payout: wait till 70 instead of 65 and OAS will be 36% higher and CPP 42% higher.

Reasons for Deferring CPP may not also apply to OAS

However, the circumstances surrounding CPP and OAS are not identical, so in my own case I plan to take OAS as soon as it is on offer, less than two years from now, while I will endeavour to defer starting the receipt of CPP for as long as I won’t need the money.

Sorry Boomers, as FinTech rises, Millennials now main focus of financial industry

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | August 12, 2016

As I recount on page FP3 of today’s Financial Post, the baby boomers are fast becoming supplanted by the Millennial generation when it comes to attracting the attention of the financial services industry and in particular the rise of the fintech industry.

For online version, see Sorry boomers, the focus is shifting: Millennials are fast becoming new apple of financial industry’s eye.

Certainly, much of the action around so-called “Fin-Tech” is oriented to the Millennial market, with many of the firms also founded or cofounded by Millennials. The big three fintech categories are online lending, robo-advisers and payment technology.

Note the New York Times had an interesting piece this week on fintech and blockchain: Envisioning Bitcoin’s Technology at the Heart of Global Finance. Also note my Hub review of Don Tapscott’s groundbreaking book on blockchain, with a link to a video: Book Review: Blockchain Revolution.

YOLO: the new Millennial motto?

Also in the FP package today is a review of a book written by a Millennial that addresses Millennials: You Only Live Once, otherwise known as the popular millennial slogan YOLO.

Working part-time in Semi-Retirement a boon to finances

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | July 28, 2016

I predict that many aging Baby Boomers will — either by preference or financial necessity — delay traditional full-stop Retirement and instead embrace Semi-Retirement.

My latest Retired Money column, which has just been published at MoneySense.ca, explores the positive effect on retirement nest eggs of working at least part-time after the traditional retirement age of 65. For full article and chart, click on Should you work part-time in retirement?

It’s based on an analysis by ETF Capital Management, which showed the powerful impact of earning just $1,000 in part-time income each month between the age of 65 and 75; or in the case of couples $2,000 a month between them.

Not working at all after the traditional retirement age of 65 has financial implications, never mind boredom and lack of social interaction. In the case of a retiree with lifestyle expenses of $60,000 who undertakes a full-stop retirement at 65, and earns no extra income, there is a sharp fall in a $500,000 (combined registered and non-registered) portfolio starting at age 65. By the time they reach their early 80s, the nest egg is depleted to zero.

But a couple earning just $2,000 a month between them part-time after 65 and going until 75 will find the extra income delays the portfolio’s drop below zero beyond their early 90s. Not only does the nest egg not decline the first ten years, but it actually rises! By the time you reach 75 and finally stop working even part-time, the portfolio declines from a higher level and much more gradually.

Of course, the more you work, the better: for a couple earning $3,000 a month between them, the portfolio still has more than $200,000 by their 90s! Similarly, the analysis also shows what happens if you work extra hard, which many might argue wouldn’t even qualify as retirement. At $4,000 a month the portfolio is barely depleted at all by the time they reach 100!

Isn’t this really Semi-Retirement?

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