We continue to get lots of email letters from readers and so we offer this second installment of ye olde Mailbag. As noted last time, the letters are in italics and my comments or reply are in regular type. Some have been abridged. I've put the sender's name as initials in each case to respect their privacy.
Portfolio Tracker That Handles Both Canadian and American Stocks
5/11/99 - My aunt lives in Canada and I am in the US....She uses Canoe for her investment tracking and I use Clearstation... Is there a website that follows both Canadian and American stocks so that we may set up a portfolio of both stocks and follow them together??? Its a little project that we would like to do together!!! Thanks for your help in advance! - D. & I. P.
Dear D. & I., Yes there is a website that lets you track both Canadian and American stocks in a portfolio. It is i|money and I use it to track my Canadian Internet Stock Average as well as my personal portfolios. You'll be pleased to know that i|money is free and that you can create as many portfolios as you like.
Tips on Hot Canadian Stocks Please!
5/10/99 - Please send me information about hot investment in Canada without residing there. - T.C.
I am afraid that I cannot recommend specific stocks to
you. However, you can get ideas from my articles and in
particular, from my Canadian Internet
Stock Average Check out my Newsletter
Net Links and you'll find information about a great many
investment newsletters, many of which do make specific stock
recommendations.
You do not need to be a Canadian citizen or resident to buy
Canadian stocks. A stock broker in your country should be able to
help you. Alternatively, you may wish to consider opening an
account with a Canadian online broker. See my Stock Broker Net Links for guidance.
Good luck on your investing.
VectorVest Handles Canadian Stocks!
In response to a question from a reader in our last Mailbag asking for a website that analyses Canadian stocks the same way VectorVest analyses American stocks, I got the following note from the Internet Program Manager at VectorVest.
5/5/99 - VectorVest tracks several Toronto Exchange stocks. It is necessary with our system to add the .TO extension to the ticker. Although our database carries several of the tickers I am not sure they carry all stocks on the Toronto Exchange. It is possible to request the addition of any ticker, and we will add it if we can get the information. - C.S.
I passed this information on to the reader making the original inquiry.
Know of a Canadian Stock Screening Tool?
4/30/99 - Marco: Do you happen to know of any
sites that offer online or offline stock screening tools for
Canadian companies? I've found Carlson Online,
but their list of screening criteria is too narrow for my
purposes. I'm looking for a tool that can screen by market
cap, P/E, P/S, P/B, SIC code, industry, and other financial
variables. There are a number of excellent (and free!)
products available for the US market, such as Stockquest,
but I haven't found anything that covers the Canadian
market.
Any suggestions? - J.M.
Hi J., I have not come across anything like what
you're asking about. Canada, it seems, is a mutual fund
focused country and the best tracking and evaluation software
seems to be for mutual funds.
However, the Canadian Shareowners Association is now beta
testing new stock evaluation software that may be what you are
looking for. Details are sketchy but you'll find info here.
If any readers seeing this know of some software or an online
stock screener that may fill the bill, please email me and I'll
pass the info on to J.M. as well as add a link in my site.
A Portfolio Tracker That Handles Both Stocks & Mutual Funds
4/26/99 - I've been looking on the internet for a portfolio tracker which will track both stocks and mutual funds, so far without success. Does such a beast exist? Thanks for the help.- M.D.
As with the letter above from D. & I. P., I referred M.D. to i|money, noting that their tracker also converts U.S. stocks to Canadian dollars in coming up with a total portfolio value.
Investing in Canadian Mortgages
4/20/99 - I received information from "Cove Mortgages " regarding investing in Canadian mortgages. Any recommendations on sources of information/reading regarding U.S. investors participation (taxation issues, U.S. Citizen ownership in case of default, foreclosure process in Canada etc.) and is there a Canadian source of company information equivalent to the U.S. Better Business Bureau for reference. Thanks. - W.B.L.
You'll find an extensive list of real estate source information on my Real Estate Net Links page. I don't know if you'll find the info you need there though. You might want to check out the site called Jurock Online and send an e-mail to real estate expert Ozzie Jurock. He is very knowledgeable on real estate investment. You may want to consult the the B.C. Better Business Bureau.
Wants to Buy a House in Canada
4/2/99 - Dear Sir, We live in Holland and we would like to buy a house in Canada (British Columbia). Can you give us a clue concerning the legal aspects. Thank you in advance. W.& Y. S.
Most people in Canada buy their homes through a real estate agent. Both sides generally retain an agent to handle their side of the transaction. The purchaser usually retains a lawyer, particularly if he will be taking out a mortgage for the house. You can find out a lot of information online at the Canadian Homebuilders Association site. If you check out my collection of Real Estate Net Links you will find links to many real estate agents. You'll be able to look at real estate from across Canada at the Multiple Listings site. I currently live in B.C. with my wife and children and it is a very beautiful province and a nice place to live. Feel free to look us up should you move here.
This is just a sampling of letters received. I also get a fair number recommending Net Links to add to my collection. I don't add all recommendations. They have to be relevant to my readers in my opinion. And sometimes I just have to make a hard decision based on logistics. For example, I got a request to add a brokerage office to my Brokerage Links, but that particular office was a branch of a national company that is already listed. I declined to add it because if I started adding every branch office of every company, there would just be too many links to be manageable.
As you can see from this sampling, I answer every letter. If you are looking for an answer to a question or just want to say hello, email me! Or post your questions or comments on the Investing (Canada) Bulletin Board! We look forward to hearing from you!
Email Me!
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Investing:Canada Notes: My apologies, but I will not be to make updates to my site from today until next Monday due to routine server maintenance and upgrading. I will be returning to my regular site update schedule after that. If I am able to update with a new article for Monday I will. Otherwise it will be up on Tuesday.
This means there will be no new article Friday and the Canadian Internet Stock Average update may not be posted until Tuesday (but with Friday's closing prices, of course).
The Monthly Mutuals Analysis will be posted either next Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.