# Can you share your top holding to date



## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

I kind of held this for a long time

LIQ


----------



## yyz (Aug 11, 2013)

BCE bought it back when it went on sale with the Verizon coming to Canada BS.Probably should have sent James Moore a thank you card but never got around to it.


----------



## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

Just purchased car.un long time hold


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

oh i can share. The answer is so boring nobody will notice.

my three canadian banks. The 3 musketeers. The 3 stooges.

i've held em forever. I don't think it matters which 3 since they all compete so closely. If one bank falls behind in one sector - say it lags in underwriting for example - it'll bust itself over the next few years catching up.

i don't believe it's necessary to hold all 5 leading chartered banks. I certainly don't believe in holding XFN or any other finance sector ETF, not when their dividend yields are somewhat below what one can collect from the actual bank stocks themselves.

me i juice the can by selling strangles on the bank stocks as well, but a body doesn't have to do anything like that.

canadian bank stocks are ultra-low-maintenance investments. Docile. Uncomplaining. Profitable. Cost-free. Workhorses.

i even like the fact that one can't quite totally trust banks. Yes their treasury floors are unfathomable ziggarats of swaps & derivatives, just as james3 keeps telling us. This keeps us on our toes.

.


----------



## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> oh i can share. The answer is so boring nobody will notice.
> 
> my three canadian banks. The 3 musketeers. The 3 stooges.
> 
> ...


Kind of like I only hold FTS,EMA and AQN

I dont hold any banks as I sold out of all my financials recently 

Nice to hold banks i believe you can do no wrong there

I have a co worker that all his investments are in BNS,BMO,TD and RY as I suggested for the long term Divs,,,with no trading,,,he build into EFUNDS when he reaches 5k ,he sell and buys Banks


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

1980z28 said:


> I dont hold any banks as I sold out of all my financials recently



this might be quite a good idea at the present time.

a by-product of option trading is that one becomes married to the underlying stock. It's necessary to hold stock to secure the option position. 

one can, of course, hold other options against one's short/long option positions, but when it comes to canadian stocks paying significant dividends, such as bank stocks, i will normally choose to hold the stock itself in order to capture the dividends.

.


----------



## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> this might be quite a good idea at the present time.
> 
> a by-product of option trading is that one becomes married to the underlying stock. It's necessary to hold stock to secure the option position.
> 
> ...


IMHO you will with a buy and hold on Canadian banks not go wrong,,you may trade sideways for some time to come,as i do not see much upside to the banks after this rate hike to come,i wish i could hold,but with my bug to trade in my working years,i am sure in 2017 i will try to stop trading in retirement

Always nice to read you posts,enjoy your weekend


----------



## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

These Canadian companies have been paying dividends for well over 100 years.

Bank of Montreal (BMO) – paid dividends since 1829.
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) – paid dividends since 1832.
TD (TD) – paid dividends since 1857.
CIBC (CM) – paid dividends since 1868.
Royal Bank (RY) – paid dividends since 1870.

Happy to own all 7 major banks.

Largest holding? KO.


----------



## birdman (Feb 12, 2013)

RY and TD are about the same and followed by CM and FTS. About 50% in Canadian Banks.


----------



## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

Largest holding is BCE followed by EIF. But as a group, largest are banks.


----------



## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

CNR. I've done ok trading it a wee bit here and there too.


----------



## Sm5 (Nov 2, 2014)

If we are including ETFs, IVV. If just individual stocks, BMO.


----------



## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

IVV is a great product.


----------



## Argonaut (Dec 7, 2010)

Setup my portfolio in early 2011 with additions along the way. CNR has done the best since then and is the top holding.


----------



## doctrine (Sep 30, 2011)

TRP is one of my best year to date. About a 38% return. 10% annual dividend growth until the end of the decade is realistic, even without Energy East.


----------



## hboy54 (Sep 16, 2016)

Depending on the day, the following have been top holding recently: ECA, TCK.B, OSB.


----------



## Koogie (Dec 15, 2014)

Largest single holding is VXUS. 
Largest individual stock is BNS.


----------



## Jaberwock (Aug 22, 2012)

BIP.UN is my top holding and one of my best performers.
I also own a lot of bank stocks and REITs because I am retired and looking for a steady income.
My best performer recently has been SIS.
My best ever was HCG which I bought at $3 and rode up to over $100 (after allowing for a stock split)


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

BRK.B and CEF.A have always been my largest holdings since I first bought them in late 2007. BRK.B returned 8.9% annually in CAD and CEF.A returned 6.5% annually in CAD (about double the total return of TSX).

I bought them because I fundamentally liked the investments. I fell in love with them when I saw how well they handled the 2008 bear market. There are not many equities which responded well in the bear market, so this is rare.


----------



## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

FC. Appreciated by about 20%, excluding monthly dividends. The hot housing market helps.


----------



## Nerd Investor (Nov 3, 2015)

Is this just your largest current holding? If so, mine is AAPL. I'll be looking for a strong Q1 to significantly trim or possibly even get out completely.


----------



## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

^ I'm assuming here you're asking me and the answer is no. Any almost equivalent largest holding is RPI.UN ... capital has doubled since purchase about 4.5 years ago (dividends excluded here). I go for small caps as I have time for my registered accounts to appreciate.


----------



## mars (Mar 11, 2014)

My best performing stocks were AGT, PBH, and MG. I ended up getting a double in MG, 2.5 in AGT, and a triple in PBH. I sold MG last year and AGT this year. I sold most of my PBH this year, only have a 100 shares remaining. I like the consumer goods area, most of my work experience comes from that area so I have a good feel for the companies when I am looking at them.


----------



## atrp2biz (Sep 22, 2010)

I hadn't loooked at my portfolio allocation since May, so this thread provides a good opportunity to do so.


----------



## damaaster (Mar 27, 2015)

My biggest % return has been Organigram +255% and Caledonia Mining +212%.

Long term, I think I'll probably be happiest with AQN or CWB.


----------



## Islenska (May 4, 2011)

Gosh I haven"t been on for ages. but....

Best holding to date is Cineplex, buying this way back and dripping, followed closely by Interpipeline

Wish Baytex was in that group!


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Like others, I'm not clear of whether the question is largest holding today or longest held.

If it's largest holding today, 
Taxable ... pretty much a tie between NWH.UN and EMA.
RRSP ... no tie, cash.
LIRA ... pretty much a tie between TRP and a low cost Canadian Index fund.
TFSA ... no tie, XIC.

It will take a while to figure out the longest held.


Cheers


----------



## Canuck (Mar 13, 2012)

Biggest holding - BCE
Biggest % gainers -KEY and PBH almost 3X on both


----------



## Mortgage u/w (Feb 6, 2014)

Biggest: FN.T

Rest is an equal balance in the top banks, oils and telecoms. 

All top gainers.


----------



## Dilbert (Nov 20, 2016)

Hi, just joined up. Largest holding BCE followed by TRP.


----------



## thetank85 (Dec 10, 2013)

CNR.TO


----------



## londoncalling (Sep 17, 2011)

Not sure if the responses here can be used for any purpose other than idle chit chat. Without knowing what top holding means (largest holding vs. biggest gainer) as well as several other things (duration of hold, entry price, was the size of holding achieved through capital gain, DRIPs etc) I am not sure how this information can be utilized. Regardless, My largest holding is Chemtrade Logistics CHE.UN @ 10.5% of portfolio. It was once way higher but contributions as well as gains in other stocks have brought the allocation down. Largest gainer excluding Divvies (too lazy to update Total return at the moment) is Royal Bank at 92.25%

Cheers


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

My Own Advisor said:


> IVV is a great product.


Yes, definitely. But for Canadian traded ones, I prefer BMO's *ZSP* as the best Canadian domiciled S&P 500 index fund because

* ZSP is the largest at $2.8 billion fund size, far bigger than XUS and VFV
* Significantly better volume than XUS and VFV, usually a million shares a day
* ZSP holds stocks directly whereas XUS is a fund-of-fund, an extra level of abstraction


----------



## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

^ with ETFs the trading volume isn't all that important. Size only matters in as much as really tiny funds could be problematic if they don't attract business or don't have enough to buy all securities in the index. What defines liquidity is the trading volume of the underlying securities. All S&P 500 ETFs are highly liquid.


----------



## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

Right now my top holding is VBR, about 40 percent of the total.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

james4beach said:


> I prefer BMO's *ZSP* as the best Canadian domiciled S&P 500 index fund because ... ZSP holds stocks directly whereas XUS is a fund-of-fund, an extra level of abstraction



jas4 i can't believe that you of all people would say something like the above.

have you examined the ZSP prospectus carefully? i'm willing to bet that it contains the same infamous language as the vanguard & black rock prospectuses, namely, that the ETFs are holding & trading derivatives such as options, swaps & index proxies & are engaging in representational "sampling" rather than actual holding of named securities. Not to speak of the loaned-out samples, which earn the revenue that pays the costs that support the house that jack built.

SPY is the easiest index in the world to replicate with derivatives. It's ludicrous in this day & age to believe that any ETF manager is prepared to buy, hold, re-balance, pay professional custodial fees for, a long list of hundreds of individual stocks tracked by the S&P 500. The custodial fees alone for real stocks - if paid - which they are not - would run 5 to 10 times the MERs of those artfully marketed funds.

watch, now. The ETF industry salesmen in cmf forum are going to go ball-iss-tickk once again.

but don't blame me. I'm only the advanceman. As haroldCrump said more than a year ago, none of this will really become clear to mister & missus average investor until a giant moneycentre bank collapses. Something like deutsche bank, one of the biggest providers of ETF proxy indexes in the world.

.


----------



## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

It's very simple:

Go to ETF's website and check out the holdings. Here: https://www.bmo.com/gam/ca/advisor/products/etfs#fundUrl=/fundProfile/ZSP#holdings

Surprise! No swaps, options or proxies. 

Does not mean that no ETF ever holds swaps or options, but only an ignoramus would confidently claim that vanilla S&P 500 ETF like ZSP holds anything but shares except for a tiny portion of its portfolio at very specific times during changes.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

^^


it's not simple at all. Although an ETF salesman will of course pretend that the fund lists are honest & accurate.

did you know that, in canada, regulators do not even require ETF fundcos to indicate which among their listed securities have been loaned out to hedge funds in return for revenue? IE such securities are no longer in such funds' custody. However, canadian investors are deliberately prevented from knowing this, by the kind of dishonest fund holdings reports that mordko is extolling.

in the US, regulators so far do require loaned securities to be minimally indicated in the annual financial statements. Unfortunately these indications consist of faint asteriisks, with no nearby legend to explain what the asterisks mean, the whole being buried dozens or even hundreds of pages deep in financial statements. Such a minimal declaration is useless. No investor will ever be able to find it or understand it.

in both canada & the US, regulators are not yet requiring fundcos to declare honestly the swaps, options, proxies, samples & other derivative positions in their annual financial statements. All that is required, as of yet, is that the ETF prospectuses declare that such positional representation is indeed taking place. The fundcos are not yet required to show actual details in the financial statements.

the fact that all prospectuses admit that sample & proxy representation is indeed occurring, while no financial statements ever show evidence of the same, should act as red flags showing consumers that the facts do not add up.


* * * * * 


at this point, we need to remember that the "regulators" are, in fact, the industry itself. Finance is a self-regulated industry.

if consumers are not asking for the truth to be reported - because the consumers don't know yet what truth to look for - then the self-regulators are never going to rock the boat.

historically, the same thing happened with the revelation of fund trailer fees in canada. It took more than 20 years of hard work for investor fair practice organizations such as FAIR canada, to cause fundcos to disclose trailer fees in a more transparent & up-front manner.

turning now to an issue that is ongoing at present, I & many others have played roles in forcing the disclosure of FX fees by financial institutions. Only upon persistent consumer demand - alerted by the journalists - did canadian regulators cause credit card companies, brokers & other financial institutions to reveal their ugly 2% FX fees on numerous hidden transactions in a more transparent manner. This story is still breaking.

as for ETF fundco holdings & their false "holdings" lists, this story is still very deeply concealed. The former mutual fund salesmen who now populate the ETF sales ranks have succeeded in brainwashing an entire generation of mister & missus retail investor that their life savings are *safe* & *guaranteed not to fail* in ETF & index proxy funds.

so far, not enough journalists have yet taken up this story. But over time, they will. Such a huge scandal cannot remain buried for decades.

when representatives of the big 5 chartered banks are telling branch clients directly to their faces, that the ETFs & the index funds do not own the individual securities which they are still allowed by regulators to pretend that they hold ... when the truth has managed to work its way so close to the surface ... then widespread media investigation cannot be far away.


.


----------



## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

Sure, BMO is just straight up lying on their website. And it's doing it so that the fund tracking performance can be deliberately damaged because clearly the best tracking can be achieved by holding the 500 shares. 

Also Elvis is alive.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

humble_pie said:


> jas4 i can't believe that you of all people would say something like the above.


Even if, as you say, there is some trickery going on (which I agree is possible) ... ZSP still has fewer layers than XUS. The latter iShares one is explicitly a fund-of-funds, and ZSP _does_ cut down the structure a layer, so I see it as better.

XUS definitely holds another ETF inside, whereas
ZSP holds individual stocks or whatever the regulator is allowing them to report as individual stocks

And humble_pie, I agree with you that the regulator is the same as the industry.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

james4beach said:


> Even if, as you say, there is some index sampling or derivative business going on (which I agree is possible) ... ZSP still has fewer layers than XUS. The latter iShares one is explicitly a fund-of-funds, and ZSP _does_ cut down the structure a layer, so I see it as better.
> 
> XUS definitely holds another ETF inside, whereas
> ZSP holds individual stocks or whatever the regulator is allowing them to report as individual stocks
> ...



the above - other funds held within funds - was not really my topic. But since you have taken that route, might i mention that reputable fund companies will cancel the extra layers of MER. Mawer is one whose popular Balanced fund is actually an aggregate of other specialized Mawer funds, the whole providing a balanced equity/fixed income approach.

Mawer, i believe, takes care to reduce or remove other sub-fund fees so that the total MER for the Balanced fund is something like .95%.

however i don't believe that all fundcos follow this ethical example, so parties considering the purchase of a fund-of-funds should examine a prospectus in depth or inquire elsewhere if necessary, to make sure that they are not paying duplicate MER fees for each sub-fund in the array.

.


----------



## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

Except that the issue with indirectly held ETFs isn't at all about fees. They could be cheaper than the alternatives. It's about taxation.


----------



## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

james4beach said:


> Even if, as you say, there is some trickery going on (which I agree is possible) ... ZSP still has fewer layers than XUS. The latter iShares one is explicitly a fund-of-funds, and ZSP _does_ cut down the structure a layer, so I see it as better.
> 
> XUS definitely holds another ETF inside, whereas
> ZSP holds individual stocks or whatever the regulator is allowing them to report as individual stocks
> ...


What "trickery"? I am confused. Are you also of the opinion that S&P 500 ETFs don't hold shares (and I don't mean swap ETFs like Horizon).


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

mordko said:


> Except that the issue with indirectly held ETFs isn't at all about fees. They could be cheaper than the alternatives. It's about taxation.



good for you !
spoken like a pro ETF/fund salesman !!

.


----------



## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

Again... LOL.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

mordko said:


> What "trickery"? I am confused. Are you also of the opinion that S&P 500 ETFs don't hold shares (and I don't mean swap ETFs like Horizon).




here's just one simple level of fundco misrepresentation. There are other levels that are more complicated. But every mom & pop should be able to recognize this one.

since the prospectuses soberly recite how a fundco's ETFs all trade swaps, options, futures, derivatives & representational samples, plus they engage in securities lending to a degree that is not reported, then how is it that the fundco's lists of holdings in the annual financial statements *never* show these non-standard holdings?


where are the post-it notes on each appropriate security with messages such as This Security is Not Here, It is Out on Loan to a Hedge Fund;

where are the post-it notes on each appropriate security saying This Security is Not Here, It is instead being Represented by a Tracking Sample;

where are the post-it notes on each appropriate security saying This Security is Not Here, It is instead being Replaced by a Combo of Options & Futures.




.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

mordko said:


> Again... LOL.



exactly

LOL

face it mordko, you come across here as a whitewashing propaganda machine for the ETF finplan industry

your very fury & your insults & your refusal to reasonably discuss the troubling aspects of fundland that are being raised in a most lucid & reasonable manner, mark you as _un parti pris_. Bref, a salesman.

me, i'm not against the fact that the ETFs are holding proxies instead of real stocks. After all, everybody knows that the banks aren't holding our bank deposits dollar-for-dollar, either. 

what i do question is the too-high level of obfuscation which regulators are still permitting for these somewhat-new fund products. There is a deliberate absence of clarity. Consumers are not being told the truth.

this is going to break down, though. When branch bank representatives start telling their clients directly that ETFs don't hold the stocks they are allowed to claim they are holding, one knows that the truth is working close to the surface.

.


----------



## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

I liked the way this thread started...now not so much.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I'm going to suppress my urge to keep talking about that ETF topic, we should really open a dedicated thread for that purpose. Is there one already perhaps?

Getting back on topic, what other major holdings do people have?


----------



## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

One of my top holdings is NFI.DB.U which I bought for US$41,540 and is currently trading for US$168,231 in my RRSP. It pays 6.25% dividend. A rare success story.


----------



## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Since we sold our business 3+ years ago we have been rolling money into non registered plans and currently hold TD,FTS,ENB and DIS equally.We sold CAD stocks in registered plans and acquired the DIS there.


----------



## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

My largest single taxable holding is still BNS385 -- SCOTIA CDN DIV -- I have been chiseling away at that and a large pile of cash-like holdings to form a dividend portfolio. Within my direct-held dividend portfolio, my largest single holdings are FTS, T, BCE, SJR.B, SU, BNS, BMO, RY, RCI.B, MFC, NA, CM, CWB, TRP.

I believe I am too heavily weighted towards Banks and insurance at this stage. I think I have about the right amount of utilities and telecoms.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

my top holdings are my children. They're growing up/pretty near all grownup now, so as with stocks, my challenge is letting them go.

.


----------



## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

gardner said:


> My largest single taxable holding is still BNS385 -- SCOTIA CDN DIV -- I have been chiseling away at that and a large pile of cash-like holdings to form a dividend portfolio. Within my direct-held dividend portfolio, my largest single holdings are FTS, T, BCE, SJR.B, SU, BNS, BMO, RY, RCI.B, MFC, NA, CM, CWB, TRP.
> 
> I believe I am too heavily weighted towards Banks and insurance at this stage. I think I have about the right amount of utilities and telecoms.


Nice CDN portfolio....

Any U.S. stocks?


----------



## familyman (Apr 6, 2015)

My top holding is Dollarama. They don't have much in terms of dividends, but 100K invested in 2009 would be worth over 1.2 million today. It's worst year ever has returned 28%, and best year, 55%. They have about 1090 stores, and room for another 500 or so by most estimates. Can't help but love a store that people go into to buy 2-3 items and come out with 2-3 bags of goods!


----------



## Van Couver (Nov 24, 2016)

familyman said:


> My top holding is Dollarama. They don't have much in terms of dividends, but 100K invested in 2009 would be worth over 1.2 million today. It's worst year ever has returned 28%, and best year, 55%. They have about 1090 stores, and room for another 500 or so by most estimates. *Can't help but love a store that my wife goes into to buy 2-3 items and come out with 2-3 bags of goods, which I have to replace a week later because it's all broken!*


Fixed your post.


----------



## Van Couver (Nov 24, 2016)

My largest holding atm is RY, followed closely by AAPL, which I've held for nearly 10 years. I've done really well on it overall, but it's been fairly unremarkable for a while now. If it wasn't for the dividend and exchange rate, I would probably seriously consider exiting the position.


----------



## Islenska (May 4, 2011)

Good point humble, important to keep that perspective, so easy to forget how invaluable family really is.

Our 2 lads (31 and 29) are doing well, seven hours away in Winnipeg, not multi millionaires but I sure cherish our time with them and we are very close.......


----------



## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

kcowan said:


> One of my top holdings is NFI.DB.U which I bought for US$41,540 and is currently trading for US$168,231 in my RRSP. It pays 6.25% dividend. A rare success story.


Some of our best performances recently have come from Convertible debentures. But very few with decent yield to choose from at present. Tried to buy more DH CDs when they dipped on bad news, but others must have had same idea and CD has partly recovered. Our best ones have been from EIF. One was called, but I bought EIF.DB.F at about 89c and it is now at 1.12. Those plus our EIF stock largely (bought when it was under $10.00) have now reached 5% of portfolio and are our largest single company holdings. Also a rare shorter term success story! Nice to get CGs at same time as 5+% yields!


----------



## familyman (Apr 6, 2015)

Van Couver said:


> Fixed your post.


You may be partially right, but then again, isn't that the point? Then you go and buy the same items again  Works for my stocks!


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

gardner said:


> I believe I am too heavily weighted towards Banks and insurance


You and everyone else buddy  The TSX 60 index is now 40% financials.


----------



## mordko (Jan 23, 2016)

^ part of the problem is that non-financial companies see excessive regulations and reporting requirements on public companies as too burdensome. They are staying private and get capital by other means. We will soon have more ETFs than we have public companies.


----------



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

james4beach said:


> gardner said:
> 
> 
> > ... I believe I am too heavily weighted towards Banks and insurance at this stage ...
> ...


Aren't you assuming everyone is slavishly following the TSX 60 or only buying investments that mirror the TSX 60?

Granted there are other accounts as well as investments to factor in for a final number but for me the biggest account is my RRSP which the last I checked was at 12% of FMV for financials.


Cheers


----------

