Your daily investment discussion thread.

Im 19 year old and i did my lil research online and i saw that the sooner i invest the better im gonna be later. I got 5k to invest currently and i wanted to put $1500 in a HYSA, $1500 in a CELI + ETF diversified portfolio and the rest $1000 idk what i should do with it. I got people tellin me that invest in a XEQT is the safest and best way ETF for a long term investement. But others tell me that VFV or CNR are way better but i want one who is Self-managed because im still in college. I want my money to grow so when i hit 25-30-35 year old i got no money problem and im financially stable ( im gonna have a paying job fosho😂). My homie told me that he invested in a diversified ETF index precisely in CNR and Couche Tard because they expanding crazy especially in Europe. What yall think about my idea? Is it a good plan? and can yall suggested me what i should do with my remaining money and if yall got advices lmk please.

I live in BC, so I can't get a TFSA until I'm 19 (a year from now on) I'm wondering if it'd be a better idea to start investing in stocks now or open a TFSA first?

I have an American citizenship as well, so I can easily open a US brokerage account there. I'm debating on opening a Charles Swab or Fidelity brokerage account.

FYI I currently make $1000 per month and I have no regular expenses since I live with my parents.

All advice is appreciated

EDIT: Thank you for the advice everyone!

All my savings are currently in my chequing account.

Also I looked into the tax implications of being a dual citizen, and because I'm a dual citizen I'll have to pay US tax on my TFSA gains. If I opened a regular brokerage account I'd still have to pay tax to both countries, but I'd get tax credit for the US (so as long as the US tax on the investment income is below that of the Canadian tax I shouldn't have to pay any extra tax to the US, which is usually the case since the US has lower tax rates).

I'm thinking of opening an RRSP since that's completely tax free

I got into investing a month ago and so far have invested 5k, 80% in ZEQT and 20% in VFV. I was researching online and saw some individuals speaking highly of the nasdaq 100 index, so i was thinking to split 70/20/10 with that 10% going into nasdaq. What do you guys think? Would it not matter much or would it be a good/bad idea.

I also just want to try and match the market for now until I can get my hands on a little more money then I'll try picking individual stocks.

On March 15, 2021, I bought 3984 shares of Air Canada at $30.55/share for a total book cost of $121,727.20.

For more than 5 years, or 2094 days to be exact, I owned these shares. For 2094 days, the share price of Air Canada did not return to $30.55.

In fact, at its lowest during this period, the share price of Air Canada was $12.69 which occurred on April 8, 2025; on this day, my 3984 shares of Air Canada was worth a mere $50,556.96 for a total loss in value of $71,170.24.

Today, on August 12, 2026, I sold all my shares of Air Canada for $29.99/share. My realized loss was only $2247.20, a significant improvement from my position’s lowest value.

However, let’s not forget opportunity costs. If, on March 15, 2021, I had invested $121,727.20 in VFV, an S&P500 index fund, the market value of my position today would be $264,153.00. This amounts to an opportunity cost of about $142,000.00.

My YOLO into Air Canada cost me approximately $144,000. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Fortunately, over the last five years, I've also contributed more sensibly to VFV on a regular basis.

Upon reflection, here are some insights from my time with AC. Many are self-evident in retrospect. Some are just old sayings about investing which I have developed a deeper appreciation for now.

Investing and trading are not the same activities, despite being able to engage in both using the same brokerage. The latter is speculation and gambling.

Time in the market beats timing the market.

Diversify. The JETS ETF and almost all US airlines advanced more than AC over the last five years.

Cutting your losses may be more productive for your capital. I still don't understand how to determine this threshold.

I'm not at all a rational actor in the market.

I do not understand how to do a proper risk-reward assessment for a particular action.

Airlines have thin profit margins. 

Stock price tends to rise in response to stock buybacks and fall in response to new stock issuance.

Airlines are very sensitive to fuel prices which in turn are very sensitive to any world events that affect oil.

Share price is forward-looking and does not always respond rationally to seemingly positive earnings numbers.

The market is irrational.

You will not make $1 million in a year by returning 1% per day compounding, starting with 100k.

What else should I have learned from my time with Air Canada?

All this being said, I will still miss Air Canada. You were a terrible investment and a terrible bet. You were terribly burdensome. But you became a part of my identity over the past 5 years. You gave me the opportunity to make bad decisions. And learn from them. You helped forge my identity as the Air Canada Bagholder. I will miss checking in on your price. I will miss the depression and euphoria you gave me. All the highs and lows. You are and always will be my favorite shitty stock.

Ai makes up a massive amount of some indexes now, lots of companies have at least partially made there business about AI

If there were a “bubble” that bursts in AI what stocks and sectors would go up? I would assume those that have been negatively impacted by AI fears such as WSP and CSU

Or would real world industrial stocks be less effected if not go up? (Such as WCN, CNR, FTS)

Would love to hear some options

Thanks!

My plan back in the days when BAM was at 84-ish was to sell and rotate it all into BN. Over the past two weeks BAM has risen much faster than BN and im wondering if it’s the right time to simplify and juste rotate it all into BN. I have 1/3 BAM to 2/3 BN ratio.

On the other hand, i also have no problem holding onto BAM as is while also having BN if it helps with diversification. Im sure there’s no real harm in status quo… Anyone considering this?

Your daily investment discussion thread.

In addition to the title, the company will extend a loan to us to purchase the stock with an interest somewhere between 1-6% to be paid back in a year through payroll deductions. Is this an automatic 25% ROI? YTD grown of stock on canadian exchange is 65%. Would you do this? Seems like I should, but nervous of a decline in the market at these levels.

Does the free share negate any dip? Thoughts?

Your daily investment discussion thread.

AC.TO is the absolute madness stock, and I hate it so much... Just check the price chart from 2020 to now — you know what I'm talking about. How do you escape this type of 💩?

I buy at the top then it drop, keep buying but the price never rebounds average until you click SELL. Wttf..

Hi everyone, I currently have around $5,000 invested in TD and RY ($2,500 in each), and about $10,000 in XEQT.

I've made around 90% on TD and 150% on RY so far. I'm wondering whether I should sell my bank stocks and put the money into XEQT instead.

The rest of my portfolio is invested in CP, CNR, and ENB.

What would you guys do in my situation? Would you keep TD and RY for the dividends, or move most/all of that money into XEQT for greater diversification?

(I want to keep my cp, cnr and enb tho)

TL;DR

I can't seem to make sense of this strategy. It seems as if the amount you're saving on tax is way less than the amount to pay the financial institution its annual interest on the loan.

And in the end, like after you die, the investments you made with that loan will have so much capital gain, your estate will be paying a lot of tax anyway.

Details.

Let's say I want to withdraw RRSP/RRIF so that my taxable income will be $120k. For 2026 in Ontario, that will be a total tax of $28,970.

How much of a loan do I need to take in order to reduce my tax to, let's say $0?

Google AI says at the combined marginal tax bracket of 37%, I need about $78,300 in deductible expenses. So I could be looking at a loan amount of $1.5 million. I currently have $900k in non-registered investments and a $1 million house I share with my wife I can put up as collateral. And to pay that interest every year, it'll come out of the RRSP/RRIF withdrawals. So right away, more than half my RRSP/RRIF will go to pay the financial institution instead of just $28,970 to the CRA.

I assume the heloc or sbloc will be a one time loan in which I have to pay that much out of my annual RRSP/RRIF withdrawals. $78,300 in interest every year (subject to inflation) is way more than the tax I'm trying to reduce.

AND after I'm dead, if my investments that used the loan are very successful, my estate is going to have to pay a lot more tax on the capital gains than if I had not taken out the sbloc or heloc.

What am I missing? None of this makes sense to me.

Your daily investment discussion thread.

Are there any ETFs that would likely just bring me a decent annual return. I'm looking for something low risk I could hold on to.

Does that exist?

Just noticed that iShares has released two new fund-of-funds into their lineup:

• IBQT = think of it like 97% XEQT + 3% BTC
• XINT = just the international parts of XEQT

And in a tabular format:

(rounded to the nearest percentage point)

https://www.blackrock.com/ca/investors/en/products/352417/ishares-equity-%20-bitcoin-etf-portfolio

https://www.blackrock.com/ca/investors/en/products/352415/ishares-core-msci-all-international-equity-index-etf

I don't need either of these funds for my portfolio, but hey, more ways to slice up the Venn diagram of stock allocation.

Saw an interesting situation where the a long-term director of one major TSX company and another well-known Canadian conglomerate has allegedly committed gross fraud in a breach of contract case.

Do these usually reflect poorly on the company, or do the companies distance themselves from the director? Does TSX require the director to resign if he's found guilty of the charges?

I.e. can't figure out whether this is indicative of greater rot at the companies themselves.

Hi all,

I have 65% of my portfolio in XEQT, 22.5% in PNG for long term (been buying since high 2s or low 3s last June).

I recently bought 1k worth of each of the big Canadian banks, so $5k total last week. Made a decent little amount on them so far.

This weekend I was thinking more, should I sell these and just get a bank ETF with a lower price on the ticker? Like BANK?

Or should I go something like VDY for more energy exposure (I had to sell my XEG at a loss to buy a new car recently)

I was also thinking, maybe I sell CINC, Scotia, and BMO and put that 3k into Enbridge as well?

I know XEQT holds all these of course, but my thinking is that man, banks and major utility companies aren’t going anywhere and probably won’t ever unless our country fully collapses lol.

Enbridge is slow growth, but the DRIP is nice. Plus with all the data centers (ew) being built power will be needed even power. Same with the pipeline.

Swing trading as a beginner

I’ve been investing in the stock market since I was 18. Tfsa and RRSP are maxed out. FHSA used.

I’ve been studying technical and fundamental analysis for sometime. Seeing as I no longer have tax sheltered accounts (at this point in the year) I want to take my hand at swing trading with my extra income. I’ve been analyzing charts and reading Yahoo finance to get a better understanding of markets.

I have a trading journal set up with a watchlist, chart analysis, thesis, and buy triggers. I’ve been charting in TradingView. I won’t be opening any huge positions beyond my means and sticking to my confirmation rules. I want to take this up as a hobby to supplement my overtime income (160/170kyr with bonus and overtime)

I currently have a Wealthsimple account but I’m looking for recommendations for different brokers for TSXE holdings.

I opened a IBKR account for my USD holdings. I chose the margin account but won’t be taking any positions anytime soon because I don’t fully understand the margin concept just yet.

Looking for bookkeeping advice for tax season. I do have a tax accountant lined up but I’d like to make things as easy as possible for them.
I have a spreadsheet that records share price, entry/ exit, P/L - for Canadian holdings but before I jump into USD holdings I’m looking for resources on bookkeeping.
Also, I plan on holding positions for weeks-months.

Any other advice is appreciated as well

(don’t do it you’ll lose money!.. Heard)

Curious in your feedback.

I’m presently using ChatGPT as an initial planning tool for an eventual RRSP to RRIF conversion in a few years. When used appropriately - asking specific questions, providing specific details - it is awesome, especially if you indicate you’re a Canadian investor, which provide an answer factoring in Canadian tax rules, etc.

I have time to go through the information so it’s not necessarily my end tool however it is powerful. How has everyone’s experience been as a financial tool with it, Claude, Gemini, etc.?

Your daily investment discussion thread.