AV's Coin

The Hand of God giveth, The Hand of God taketh away

I felt like he should have shot that one... Anyhow, unselfish, pass first, two way payer will work great on Bo's line.

do you wear cardigans as well?

Anyone want to discuss some of their views on stocks and investing. I am in the process of maxing out my TFSA in a self directed account. I have dabled in stocks before and made a "little" but I am starting over after a few years hiatus. I would call myself an amateur - intermediate investor. I have a few shares in some "steady" dividend stocks: Toronto Dominion - TD: I chose this bank for its larger exposure to the US which has one of the better economies currently. Its down a little now but I am getting a decent dividend - close to 4%. I am hoping that if the FED increases their rates this stock will go up. What do you think? Manulife - MFC: I made money on this before so picked it up again in the hopes that it will also go up in the event interest rates rise. Insurance companies should bring in more revenue with higher rates when they invest their premiums. Even in down economies people still buy insurance. Its down a little right now. What do you think? Bell: I picked this up during the recent volatility in the market when it was down. Its dividend is close to 5%. Its up a little. I will be watching what the stock price does if and when the rates go higher as this stock may be affected negatively as people might sell to get a safer return elsewhere. The other possible issue I see is with "cable cord cutters" or in Bells case "Satellite TV" as people move to streaming media such as Netflix. However with Bell they have their mobile and internet business so I am not sure this is a problem. They also own part of the Maple Leafs so not sure how I feel about that!!! I also will sell call options on these stocks to get a few extra bucks every other month along with my dividends. It seems to add at least 1% to 2% more annual return. I have only had a stock called away once when the stock went slightly above by call price so I did not miss out on too much return. I bought the stock again when it went down. So far this strategy is working for me but I only use this strategy on stocks that I dont think will rise significantly above the call price and subsequently get called away and I miss out on the gains. If you have any tips on options let me know. Some other trades I have made: Apple: I bought an option on Apple stock (could not afford 100 shares in apple at the time) around the beginning of the year and made a little when Apple was breaking records with IPhone 6 sales. I subsequently bought another option with a strike price of 120 and set to expire in January 2016. Currently the stock price is off its high of around $130 and sits at around $110 mainly do to the downturn in the Chinese economy; a key growth area for Apple, but also due to the perception that there is no way they can top the revenues they had in 2015. Needless to say I am down quite a bit at the moment and am not sure the stock will recover quick enough before my option expires. I am hoping that the latest Apple products, iPhone 6S, Apple TV, iPad Pro etc, introduced at tomorrows conference will push the stock up at which point I might sell and get as much as I can out of it. I do believe the stock will go back up eventually on the backs of continued iPhone sales - apparently only 30% of iPhone users have upgraded to the iPhone6, the new and improved Apple TV, and increased revenues from greater adoption of Apple services such as Apple Music, Apple Pay, the App Store and down the road subscription TV. Most analysts have a target price around $145 but I am not sure if this will happen before my option expires in January? Facebook: Again I bought an option on 100 shares in Facebook. This does not expire for two years so I will leave it for now. I do believe they have fantastic growth potential as more and more advertisers start to use social media and recently it was reported that one billion individual users used Facebook in one day! I believe they will start to monetize Instagram soon so revenues should increase from that as well. If they continue to sign up more users then the stock should do well. If you have any thoughts on Facebook let me know? Let me know your thoughts on oil. I had Crescent Point Gas which had a dividend over 10%. I picked it up in December 2014 while the stock was low. It went back up and then as you know dropped like a stone with the price of oil. I got out early and did not lose much when you factor in the dividends. I would like to purchase an oil stock at some time (not necessarily CPG again) but not sure it has bottomed even though the price of oil had gone up recently. I believe there is still an oversupply of oil with the new technologies for drilling such as fracking. Iran will be flooding the market again with their oil. Summer driving season is over. Chinese economy tanking. All these factors lead me to believe that the price of oil will stay low unless OPEC cuts their supply. What do you think? What are your thoughts on these stocks: Netflix: It has gone down recently - I believe it may be related to the rumors of an Apple TV subscription service as well as the possibility of Apple creating their own content. Netflix is a pricey stock although the price is based on a lot of growth potential and that they are currently a leader in subscription TV and have produced some award winning shows. I would be worried about the increase in competition what with Apple, HBO, Shaw, Amazon etc all coming out with subscription TV and some of them have their own award winning exclusives. Unless they change their monthly plans or change the way they release shows for example to stop binge watching by releasing episodes more slowly, I can see myself switching subscription plans between companies frequently as shows become available on their platforms. For example I might sign up to Netflix for a month and watch House of Cards or Narcos! then switch to HBO to watch Game of Thrones. What do you think about Netflix. If it continues to go down would you buy? Amazon: Any thoughts? I will leave mine for another day. Google: same as above?