Tuesday, April 17, 2018

50 Best Stocks

Sometime in 2000 I bought a book called The 50 Best Stocks for Canadians, 2001 Edition by Phillip Benson and Gene Walden. I found it in my book shelf recently and I was wondering how these 50 stocks have done since then. I thought it might be an interesting thing to do.

In the book a stock value was given as of a stock's financial year in 1999. But since the book was published in 2000, the price given would not be the price a reader could buy the stock at. I tried to find an end of December 2000 stock price for each stock with December 29, 2000 was the last trading day for the year. I was not always successful in this and had to use the last stock price in the book.

What I found is that it is quite hard to find out information on stocks that are no longer on the TSX Exchange. I found Wiki entries and news articles about the different buyouts but for a lot of the buyouts I could not find historical data for stock price in December 2000. I found some on a site of ADVFN. It was not easy to navigate and I had to google the stock I was interested in with the site name to find the stocks. Then you have to keep clicking on historical data.

Anyone reading this book would not buy all 50 stocks. I read it and then investigated a few, but a lot of the stocks I already know and was following. I figured a person might invest in the top 10 stocks if they were serious about starting to invest. Out of the top 10 stocks, 6 stocks were bought out prior to today dating from 2005 to 2007. The return on the stocks from December 2000 to today would be 3.22% per year or an increase of 73.1%.

Of the 50 stocks 17 stocks or 34% would bought out and 5 stocks or 10% changed their name. If all 50 were bought then a return of 4.52% per year or an increase in value of 114.8% would have been made.

This may seem low as the time period is just over 17 years. However, the TSX Composite has gained just 3.15% per year or 71% over the same time period. Since the book says the best stocks, you might have expected to do better than the TSX. See my Spreadsheet here.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about Canadian Natural Resources (TSX-CNQ, NYSE-CNQ)... learn more. Next, I will write about Barclays PLC ADR (LSE-BARC, NYSE:-BCS)... learn more on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 around 5 pm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter. I am on Instagram. Or you can just Google #walktoronto spbrunner8166 to see my pictures. April 18, 2018

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