All posts by Pat McKeough

Here’s how Dividend Capture Strategy Returns work—and whether you can realistically profit from them

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Aiming For Dividend Capture Strategy Returns May Look Like A Sure Way To Make Money. But There Are Risks You Need To Watch Out For

“Dividend capture strategy returns are the trading technique of buying a stock just before the dividend is paid, holding it just long enough to collect the dividend, then selling it. If you can sell it for as much as you paid, you have “captured” the dividend at no cost, other than the transaction costs.

This strategy is executed by buying a stock just before the ex-dividend date, so that you will be a shareholder of record on the record date, and will receive the dividend. Because the stock falls by the amount of the dividend on the ex-dividend date, the strategy then calls for you to wait for the stock to move back to the price where you bought it before the ex-dividend date. At this point, in order to benefit from the dividend capture strategy returns, you sell the stock for a break-even trade.

Here are key dividend payment dates you’ll need to know to aim for dividend capture strategy returns

The declaration date is the date on which a company’s board of directors actually sets the amount of the next dividend. Typically it is a number of weeks in advance of the actual payout date.

The record date is the date on which a person has to actually own shares in the company in order to receive the declared dividend.

The ex-dividend date is typically the last business day before the record date. The ex-dividend date is in place to allow pending stock trades to settle. In short, the security trades without its dividend any day after the ex-dividend date. If you buy a dividend-paying stock one day before the ex-dividend you will still get the dividend; if you buy on the ex-dividend date or after, you won’t get the dividend. The reverse is true if you want to sell a stock and still receive a dividend that has been declared: you will need to sell on the ex-dividend day or after.

The payable date is the date on which the dividend is actually paid out to the shareholders of record.

Profits may prove very elusive for small investors looking to profit from dividend capture strategy returns

A dividend capture strategy can pay off when stock markets are rising. Of course, any strategy that leads you to buy can pay off when stock markets are rising. However, you have to pay a brokerage commission to buy the shares and a commission to sell. The commissions can eat up much of the dividend income. They may exceed the dividend income. Continue Reading…

Buying Stocks without a Broker: Here’s how to pick the best investments on your own

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A growing number of  Investors like buying Stocks without a Broker because they’re able to  avoid possible Conflicts of Interest and Save on Broker Fees. However, it’s especially important to know what to Buy if you’re not using a Broker

Many investors assume their broker is honest and has their best interests at heart; if this proves to be untrue, they will shop for better stock trading advice from a new broker. Of course, many investors decide on buying stocks without a broker. That can be a successful strategy if you choose the best options for your investment temperament—using our Successful Investor approach.

Buying stocks without a broker: Why it might be a smart move for some investors

As any good stock broker or experienced investor can tell you, bad brokers are all too common. By “bad brokers,” we mean those who put their own interests above that of their clients. Keep in mind, however, that most bad brokers do this in a perfectly legal fashion, by catering to their clients’ whims and weaknesses.

Here are three main practices that bad stock brokers often practice:

  • Aiming for stability rather than growth
  • Double dipping
  • Stressing low-risk, low-return, high-fee structured products in client accounts

Additionally, you may have noticed that your broker sometimes uses unfamiliar words and phrases to describe investment concepts. Some of this stock broker jargon is simply shorthand that brokers use among themselves, to refer to familiar situations without having to go into any detail on the underlying concept. However, the concepts that these “broker-ese” words and phrases represent also serve to further the goals of the brokerage business.

If you find yourself thinking in broker-ese, you’ll naturally make assumptions that are in tune with the goals of your broker. They may be out of tune with yours.

Here’s one example: from time to time, your broker may advise you to sell a particular stock you own because it represents “dead money.” This doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the stock, or the company. Instead, your broker simply thinks the stock may only go sideways for a period of months or longer, producing no capital gains for you. So they naturally feel you should sell it and buy something with better short-term capital-gains potential. Continue Reading…

Real-Return Bonds and How They Compare to Regular Bonds

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Real-Return Bonds Pay A Return Adjusted For Inflation. But When You Buy A Real-Return Bond, You Are Only Protecting Yourself Against Unanticipated Rises In Inflation.

Real-return bonds pay you a rate of return that’s adjusted for inflation, but that’s not always as promising as it seems.

When a real-return bond is issued, the level of the consumer price index (CPI) on that date is applied to the bond. After that, both the principal and interest payments are typically adjusted every six months, upwards or downwards from that base level, to compensate for a rise or fall in the CPI. In general, Government of Canada real-return bonds pay interest semi-annually, on June 1 and December 1.

Look at this theoretical example to understand how a real-return bond works

The Bank of Canada issues $400 million of 30-year bonds maturing on December 1, 2049. The bonds have a coupon, or interest rate, of 2%.

If after six months from the date of issue, the new CPI level is, say, 1% above the level of the CPI on the issue date, then each $1,000 of bond principal is adjusted to $1,010 of bond principal ($1,000 x 1.01). The semi-annual interest payment is then $10.10 ($1,010 x 2% / 2).

If after 12 months, the level is 2% higher, then the bond principal is adjusted to $1,020 ($1,000 x 1.02), and the interest payment rises to $10.20 ($1,020 x 2% / 2).

Consider these three important factors to realize benefits with real-return bonds

  1. The price you pay for real-return bonds reflects the anticipated rate of inflation. In other words, if investors feel that inflation will rise 2% over the long term, the price of the bond will reflect that future inflation increase and its effect on the bond’s principal and interest payments. So, when you buy a real-return bond, you are only protecting yourself against unanticipated rises in inflation.
  2. When the inflation rate falls over a six-month period, the principal and interest payments of a real-return bond fall. In times of deflation, the inflation rate turns negative. In a prolonged period of deflation, the principal of a real-return bond could fall below the purchase price. Interest payments would fall, as well.
  3. As with regular bonds, holders of real-return bonds must pay tax on interest payments at the same rate as ordinary income. That income gets taxed at the investor’s marginal rate. In addition, holders of real-return bonds must also report the amount by which the inflation-adjusted principal rises each year, as interest income, even though you won’t receive that amount until the bond matures. That amount is added to the bond’s adjusted cost base.

Continue Reading…

Is a higher dividend yield better? Not Always. Learn how to spot the good from the bad to avoid this costly mistake.

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Investors Interested In Dividends Should Only Buy The Highest-Yielding Canadian Dividend Stocks If They Meet These Criteria—And Don’t Have These Risk Factors

Dividend yield is the percentage you get when you divide a company’s current yearly payment by its share price.

The best of the highest-yielding Canadian dividend stocks have a history of success

Follow our Successful Investor philosophy over long periods and we think you’ll likely achieve better-than-average investing results.

Our first rule tells you to buy high-quality, mostly dividend-paying stocks. These stocks have generally been succeeding in business for a decade or more, perhaps much longer. But in any case, they have shown that they have a durable business concept. They can wilt in economic and stock-market downturns, like any stock. But most thrive anew when the good times return, as they inevitably do.

Over long periods, you’ll probably find that a third of your stocks do about as well as you hoped, a third do better, and a third do worse. This is partly due to that random element in stock pricing that we’ve often mentioned. It also grows out of the proverbial “wisdom of the crowd.” The market makes pricing mistakes and continually reverses itself. But the collective opinion of all individuals buying and selling in the market eventually beats any single expert opinion.

Canadian dividend stocks and the dividend tax credit

Canadian taxpayers who hold Canadian dividend stocks get a special bonus. Their dividends can be eligible for the dividend tax credit in Canada. This dividend tax credit—which is available on dividends paid on Canadian stocks held outside of an RRSP, RRIF or TFSA—will cut your effective tax rate.

That means dividend income will be taxed at a lower rate than the same amount of interest income. Investors in the highest tax bracket pay tax of around 29% on dividends, compared to 50% on interest income. At the same time, investors in the highest tax bracket pay tax on capital gains at a rate of about 25%. Continue Reading…

Why this portfolio manager isn’t buying Bonds, and hasn’t for decades

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Recently a friend asked, “Pat, I see that several prominent Canadian investor advisors recently wrote articles that said it’s a bad time to buy bonds right now. Do you agree?”

He was surprised when I told him I haven’t bought any bonds for myself since the 1990s. I haven’t bought any for clients in the last couple of decades, except on client request.

In the 1990s, I used to buy “strip bonds” for myself and my clients, as RRSP and RRIF investments. This was the Golden Age of bond investing. Back then, high-quality bonds yielded almost as much, pre-tax, as the historical returns on stocks. In addition, they provided fixed income that simplified financial planning.

Bonds have tax disadvantages, of course. But you can neutralize those disadvantages by holding your bonds in RRSPs and other registered plans.

The big difference back then was that bond yields and interest rates were much higher than usual. That’s because we were still coming out of (or “cleaning up after,” you might say) the inflationary bulge of the 1970s and 1980s.

In the 1980s, government policies pushed up interest rates and took other measures to hobble inflation, and it worked. But interest rates stayed high for a long time after the government polices broke the back of inflation: kind of like finishing the antibiotic after the infection goes away.

High-quality stocks vastly superior to Bonds

Long-time readers know my general view on the stocks-versus-bonds dilemma. When interest rates are as low as they have been in recent decades, high-quality stocks on the whole are vastly superior to bonds. (See below for a further explanation). However, you have to understand the differences between the two. For one thing, stocks are more volatile than bonds. But volatility and safety are two different things.

Volatility refers to sharp price fluctuations, often due to short-term uncertainty and the randomness of short-term market movements. Safety refers to the risk of permanent loss. Continue Reading…