Posts made in September, 2007

$2 Billion Lawsuit against Car-Makers for "tinkering" with natural market forces…

Posted by Preet on Sep 28, 2007 | 0 comments

I seem to be writing in two’s lately.  I wrote that guest article for the Million Dollar Journey on Convertible Bond Arbitrage as a two part series, I wrote two consecutive articles on illegal broker activities, and now this article follows on the heals of yesterday’s article citing a 10% drop in prices by Porsche on it’s Canadian lineup due to the strength of the loonie… You see, a law-firm and four plaintiffs in Ontario have launched a Class-Action lawsuit against Honda, GM, Chrysler and Nissan alleging that they have "tinkered" with natural market forces in order to essentially gouge the Canadian consumer. As you know, even...

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Porsche Canada drops prices by 10%+ for 2008

Posted by Preet on Sep 27, 2007 | 1 comment

Porsche Canada announced two days ago that they are dropping the prices on their 2008 model lineup by 10% or more (depending on the model) over the 2007 versions.  Why? Because with the Canadian dollar now at par with the US Dollar, it is cheaper to cross the border and purchase the same car from the States. The Toronto Star has a great article on this, and even though Porsche has dropped prices it STILL makes more sense to buy a Porsche in the States – in other words, the prices should be the same as in the States and that would require a much more significant price drop! :)  Doesn’t really matter – I still can’t afford a...

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Convertible Bond Arbitrage Part 2 of 2

Posted by Preet on Sep 27, 2007 | 0 comments

As mentioned yesterday, Part 2 of the two part series I wrote as a guest author for another personal finance site is up today.  The articles are on Convertible Bond Arbitrage and you find the second part by CLICKING HERE. If you would like to start from the beginning, you can find Part 1 here. If there are any visitors coming FROM the Million Dollar Journey: Welcome! Please click on The Archives in the navigation menu, and if you scroll down to the bottom of the archives page, you will find a list of ALL articles I have written for this blog so far. Thanks everyone – I hope you are enjoying my writings. Preet If you found this article of interest, please...

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Convertible Bond Arbitrage Part 1 of 2

Posted by Preet on Sep 26, 2007 | 0 comments

Hi everyone! FrugalTrader of the Million Dollar Journey has graciously asked me to guest author an article on his personal finance blog.  It’s all about Convertible Bond Arbitrage and is split into two parts.  Part 1 appears today in his blog and Part 2 will appear tomorrow. I highly recommend reading both parts as this strategy is a very thought provoking one – especially for experienced investors.  It is an advanced level topic – so if you are not yet comfortable with the basics, you may want to bookmark it for later. Part 1 is a description of a basic convertible bond – but Part 2 (tomorrow) is where it REALLY gets...

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Front Running: Another illegal broker activity

Posted by Preet on Sep 25, 2007 | 0 comments

You would think that after two consecutive posts on illegal broker activities we might just have had a compliance presentation at work… and you would be right. :) But nonetheless: Front running is another bad behaviour that carries stiff fines from the regulators but there is almost no way of knowing when your broker is doing it.  Fortunately not many brokers can get away with it as this is another activity that is monitored by internal surveillance teams and the broker’s branch manager as well. It basically involves the broker entering in trade orders for their own account before entering similar orders for his clients.  For example, if a broker...

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Churning: Sometimes constant contact from your advisor is a BAD thing…

Posted by Preet on Sep 25, 2007 | 0 comments

Most investors who are looking for the services of a financial advisor would expect a certain level of constant communication: Quarterly portfolio or market reviews, annual face to face meetings to update financial plans and the odd unscheduled phone call if market conditions warrant it. But there are some advisors out there who maybe call their clients too often and who are constantly suggesting changes to their clients’ portfolios.  If that is happening to you, you need to be looking out to see if your advisor may be "churning" your account. Churning is defined as the excessive trading in a client’s account in order to increase the...

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Recommended Articles from August

Posted by Preet on Sep 22, 2007 | 0 comments

I’ve noticed that most blogs will periodically list the top posts at the end of a month for anyone who missed out on catching them the first time by.  This is a little late in coming but the following are some articles for August that I think are worth looking at: Closed-End Mutual Funds versus Open-End Mutual Funds discusses the differences between the two major types of mutual funds out there.  Seeing as how most people use mutual funds I think it’s important to look at this article – there are many advantages of Closed-End funds over Open-End funds, yet most people invest in Open-End funds. Limited Partnerships with a Flow Through Share...

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