NOOB alert: How does one purchase preferred shares?

[pepperbird]

So I was reading about Canaccord's preferred share offering here:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/9423...eferred-shares

And I'm honestly such a newbie that I don't know whether this is a good deal or not, but then I realized even if I thought it was a good deal I wouldn't even know how to buy it. Could I purchase this at TDW?

I've been reading lots of theory, all of it pointing to indexing as being the way to go (would like to read more about dividend stocks being the way to go, or day trading even, just for differing opinions). For example, I'm just finishing up the Four Pillars of Investing. But I still feel a bit lost on the HOW part.

So if anyone would be so kind as to type slowly and venture an answer? Or links to something really basic?

[SlowandSteady60]

Here's a link for you to view. Best bet is to really do your homework, read a lot on the subject and really educate yourself before you do anything. Going in blind is very costly.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...rticle2001747/

As for indexing, perhaps you should look at ETF's and the Couch Potato portfolio to get you started. Good luck

[Potato]

I realized even if I thought it was a good deal I wouldn't even know how to buy it. Could I purchase this at TDW?

Yep, you can buy it at TDW when it starts trading: you would execute the trade just like for a stock or ETF, you just need to look up the ticker. It looks like that particular preferred series will trade as CF.PR.C (you shouldn't see it in TDW now since I don't think it's started trading yet). That's the general schema for preferred shares: company ticker dot PR dot series letter. The scheme could be different elsewhere though (google finance tends to use company ticker hyphen series letter).

I've been reading lots of theory, all of it pointing to indexing as being the way to go [...] I'm just finishing up the Four Pillars of Investing. But I still feel a bit lost on the HOW part.

If I can do a bit of self-promotion, I wrote a short guide book specifically to answer that how part.