Foreign Investing

I invested outside Canada when I first starting investing. A lot of people feel that Canadians should buy some foreign, especially American stock because the Canadian market is so small. However, my experience was not that great. At one time I had American stock and some international stocks.

I had two American companies go bankrupt on me. I do get news online, which includes investment news. However, I had no idea these companies were in trouble. This could be because the US stock market is so big, that you do not get much in the way of news except on the biggest companies.

The Canadian market is a lot smaller. For most of the Canadian companies I invest in, they will be in Canadian news if thinks are going badly for them. For the small companies, that may not be readily in the news, I keep a watch on them. The problems with the US firms that when bankrupt, they were not small ones and I did not think to keep an eye on them.

I should also say that I would never invest my money in any Chinese company. The reason being that I do not trust the Chinese government. Look at what happened to DiDi Global Inc an ADR on the NYSE. One week after it raised piles of money on the NYSE, the next week the Chinese Government basically crippled the company.

Since I have learned a lot about investing since I started, I currently prefer to buy companies rather than Index Funds or ETF. I know that the Investment Reporter recommends that 25% of our portfolio be in US companies. This is the only investment letter I would recommend. They offer their newsletter currently at a low monthly fee and you can try it out. You can buy it for a short time to see what they are like. The link to the Investment Report is here.

I am currently mostly invested in Canadian Companies, but a lot of my Canadian Companies have business in the US, and some outside North America, so my portfolio is not as Canadian as it first looks like. All my Canadian banks do business outside Canada. My stocks such as Saputo Inc (TSX-SAP, OTC-SAPIF) does business internationally and TFI International Inc (TSX-TFII, OTC-TFIFF) does business in the US. So, I do have more exposure to the US and international markets than what it might first appear from my just investing in Canadian companies.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about ATCO Ltd (TSX-ACO.X, OTC-ACLLF) ... learn more. Next, I will write about Capital Power Corp (TSX-CPX, OTC-CPRHF) ... learn more on Friday, August 27, 2021 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.