Category: PrefLetter

The markets have closed and the Update to the October edition of PrefLetter is now being prepared. I noted in the notice that the October edition had been released that there would be an update … and it’s almost on its way.

PrefLetter is the monthly newsletter recommending individual issues of preferred shares to subscribers. There is at least one recommendation from every major type of preferred share (two of them recently added); the recommendations are taylored for “buy-and-hold” investors.

The Update to the October issue will be eMailed to clients and available for single-issue purchase with immediate delivery prior to the opening on Monday 20th. After sending the update to clients, I will:

• write a post advising that it has been sent
• attach it to the October issue so that future “previous issue” buyers will receive it as well

Assiduous Readers will recall that October 10, the scheduled date of preparation for the October edition, was a catastrophic day for PerpetualDiscounts – and other types, notably SplitShares – with bid/offer spreads and relationships between issues at, shall we say, highly unusual levels. The market has become somewhat more rational in the four trading days since, gaining 4.27% on the week. This does not completely erase October 10’ths 5.05% loss, but the main thing is that the market is more internally consistent.

The October, 2008, edition of PrefLetter has been released and is now available for purchase as the “Previous edition”.

Until further notice, the “Previous Edition” will refer to the October, 2008, issue, while the “Next Edition” will be the November, 2008, issue, scheduled to be prepared as of the close November 14 and eMailed to subscribers prior to market-opening on November 17.

PrefLetter is intended for long term investors seeking issues to buy-and-hold. At least one recommendation from each of the major preferred share sectors is included and discussed.

Note: PrefLetter, being delivered to clients as a large attachment by eMail, sometimes runs afoul of spam filters. If you have not received your copy within fifteen minutes of a release notice such as this one, please double check your (company’s) spam filtering policy and your spam repository. If it’s not there, contact me and I’ll get you your copy … somehow!

Note: Due to extreme market instability, there will be an update to PrefLetter, prepared as of the close on October 17 and eMailed to clients prior to the opening on October 20. This attachment will be sent to all clients who receive the October issue, either as a separate PDF or appended to the October issue once it is available.

The markets have closed and the October edition of PrefLetter is now being prepared.

PrefLetter is the monthly newsletter recommending individual issues of preferred shares to subscribers. There is at least one recommendation from every major type of preferred share (two of them recently added); the recommendations are taylored for “buy-and-hold” investors.

The October issue will be eMailed to clients and available for single-issue purchase with immediate delivery prior to the opening bell on Tuesday. I will write another post on the weekend advising when the new issue has been uploaded to the server … so watch this space carefully if you intend to order “Next Issue” or “Previous Issue”!

This is probably the worst of all possible times to be preparing the monthly newsletter. Bid/Offer spreads are enormous and the situation is extremely fluid, to say the least. But I have to keep my customers satisfied! At this moment, I am leaning towards the idea of sending out an update next weekend – just a badly formatted one-pager – to update the recommendations. Subscribers may contact me if they wish to suggest other solutions to this problem.

The September, 2008, edition of PrefLetter has been released and is now available for purchase as the “Previous edition”.

Until further notice, the “Previous Edition” will refer to the September, 2008, issue, while the “Next Edition” will be the October, 2008, issue, scheduled to be prepared as of the close October 10 and eMailed to subscribers prior to market-opening on October 14 (October 13 is Thanksgiving).

PrefLetter is intended for long term investors seeking issues to buy-and-hold. At least one recommendation from each of the major preferred share sectors is included and discussed.

The winner of the Win a PrefLetter Contest was Assiduous Reader adrian2, who must have done all kinds of work to dig up an old post regarding BMO.PR.G. I will review the situation regarding ACO.PR.A in the near future. Congratulations adrian2!

Note: PrefLetter, being delivered to clients as a large attachment by eMail, sometimes runs afoul of spam filters. If you have not received your copy within fifteen minutes of a release notice such as this one, please double check your (company’s) spam filtering policy and your spam repository. If it’s not there, contact me and I’ll get you your copy … somehow!

The markets have closed and the September edition of PrefLetter is now being prepared.

PrefLetter is the monthly newsletter recommending individual issues of preferred shares to subscribers. There is at least one recommendation from every major type of preferred share; the recommendations are taylored for “buy-and-hold” investors.

PrefLetter is being expanded commencing this month! Two additional classes of recommendation will be included::

• Fixed-Reset: My disdain for Fixed-Reset issues as currently priced is well known, but some people like them! Clearly, some of these issues will be better investment choices than others. Now that the asset class has been added to HIMIPref™, a recommendation from this class of preferred share will be included with the other recommendations.
• Short-Term: I do not usually recommend short-term issues for preferred share portfolios, due in part to the fact that the relatively low level of price volatility gives little opportunity for trading; also due to the idea that the recommendations are for long-term buy-and-hold investors. However, there is public demand for short-term issues. While I will not create a specific asset class for these issues, I will henceforth recommend at least one issue from the combined OpRet / SplitShare indices that would otherwise be ineligible for recommendation due to shortness of term. Note that by “short-term”, I generally mean (as is usual in the bond world) “less than five years”.

There is still time to enter the contest to win a PrefLetter!

The September issue will be eMailed to clients and available for single-issue purchase with immediate delivery prior to the opening bell on Monday. I will write another post on the weekend advising when the new issue has been uploaded to the server … so watch this space carefully if you intend to order “Next Issue” or “Previous Issue”!

The September issue of PrefLetter will be prepared as of the close on September 12 and eMailed to subscribers prior to the opening on September 15.

Two new classes of recommendations will be included:

• Fixed-Reset: My disdain for Fixed-Reset issues as currently priced is well known, but some people like them! Clearly, some of these issues will be better investment choices than others. Now that the asset class has been added to HIMIPref™, a recommendation from this class of preferred share will be included with the other recommendations.
• Short-Term: I do not usually recommend short-term issues for preferred share portfolios, due in part to the fact that the relatively low level of price volatility gives little opportunity for trading; also due to the idea that the recommendations are for long-term buy-and-hold investors. However, there is public demand for short-term issues. While I will not create a specific asset class for these issues, I will henceforth recommend at least one issue from the combined OpRet / SplitShare indices that would otherwise be ineligible for recommendation due to shortness of term. Note that by “short-term”, I generally mean (as is usual in the bond world) “less than five years”.

The August, 2008, edition of PrefLetter has been released and is now available for purchase as the “Previous edition”.

Until further notice, the “Previous Edition” will refer to the August, 2008, issue, while the “Next Edition” will be the September, 2008, issue, scheduled to be prepared as of the close September 12 and eMailed to subscribers prior to market-opening on September 15.

PrefLetter is intended for long term investors seeking issues to buy-and-hold. At least one recommendation from each of the major preferred share sectors is included and discussed.

Note: PrefLetter, being delivered to clients as a large attachment by eMail, sometimes runs afoul of spam filters. If you have not received your copy within fifteen minutes of a release notice such as this one, please double check your (company’s) spam filtering policy and your spam repository. If it’s not there, contact me and I’ll get you your copy … somehow!

Errata, 2008-8-13: Typographical errors on page 2 have been found. The price for BNA.PR.C is 17.20-99; the price for BCE.PR.Z is 24.00-25.

The markets have closed and the August edition of PrefLetter is now being prepared.

PrefLetter is the monthly newsletter recommending individual issues of preferred shares to subscribers. There is at least one recommendation from every major type of preferred share; the recommendations are taylored for “buy-and-hold” investors.

The August issue will be eMailed to clients and available for single-issue purchase with immediate delivery prior to the opening bell on Monday. I will write another post on the weekend advising when the new issue has been uploaded to the server … so watch this space carefully if you intend to order “Next Issue” or “Previous Issue”!

The July, 2008, edition of PrefLetter has been released and is now available for purchase as the “Previous edition”.

Until further notice, the “Previous Edition” will refer to the July, 2008, issue, while the “Next Edition” will be the August, 2008, issue, scheduled to be prepared as of the close August 8 and eMailed to subscribers prior to market-opening on August 11.

PrefLetter is intended for long term investors seeking issues to buy-and-hold. At least one recommendation from each of the major preferred share sectors is included and discussed.

Note: PrefLetter, being delivered to clients as a large attachment by eMail, sometimes runs afoul of spam filters. If you have not received your copy within fifteen minutes of a release notice such as this one, please double check your (company’s) spam filtering policy and your spam repository. If it’s not there, contact me and I’ll get you your copy … somehow!