Market Action

July 14, 2015

Many will have heard of the recent attempt to justify the existence of the Senate, a report titledCountering the Terrorist Threat in Canada. This report has attracted some attention for its disgraceful recommendation that “The federal government work with the provinces and the Muslim communities to investigate the options that are available for the training and certification of imams in Canada”, but there was one point of great interest in the report that should be of interest to PrefBlog readers:

The Committee is concerned about the lack of prosecutions in the area of terrorist financing. The Committee learned that between 2009 and 2014, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada identified 683 terrorist financing incidences and we have yet to have any prosecutions under the relevant sections of the criminal code.

Not surprising, really, since the purpose of the terrorist financing laws is to create the illusion of government oversight and create jobs for the otherwise unemployable.

Speaking of job creation for box-tickers:

The Ontario Ministry of Finance has circulated a new consultation document that proposes to overhaul the province’s system of oversight for financial advisers and planners as investors and people saving for retirement trade in a more risky, complex financial system.

There is no general legal framework regulating the titles and designations of people offering financial planning, advice and services, leading to many professionals calling themselves planners or advisers. The Ontario finance ministry’s consultation document, released this month, said the absence of a framework raises questions about “proficiency, quality standards and potential conflicts of interest.”

Ontario is looking at a range of possible changes, including a new legal standard governing conflicts of interest, licensing and registration requirements, the regulation of titles, the possibility of a new oversight body, and a central registry of financial planners and advisers.

The SEC continues to protect the incompetent:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into possible market manipulation over a fake news article that led to a brief spike in Twitter Inc. shares, said a person familiar with the matter.

Twitter rose more than 8 percent in the late morning after the appearance of the article, which claimed the company had received a takeover offer, before losing most of those gains within 20 minutes.

The report, which imitated the form of a Bloomberg News article, appeared on a site called bloomberg.market.

I was taken aback today by a report that Royal LePage is lobbying against a policy rate cut. Royal LePage?:

One of Canada’s major real estate firms is urging the Bank of Canada not to cut interest rates tomorrow.

Royal LePage says it’s worried that a cut in the central bank’s benchmark rate could “over-stimulate” already high-flying markets such as Toronto and Vancouver.

Those are the two Canadian cities deemed the most frothy, with prices running up sharply as consumers add to already swollen debt levels in a low-rate environment.

“While the oil shock has been a troublesome drag on our economy this year, it seems premature to ring the recession alarm bells now, injecting further monetary stimulus,” said LePage chief executive officer Phil Soper.

SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar sees an opportunity to hire more regulators:

Yesterday, staff members of the federal agencies that comprise the Interagency Working Group for Treasury Market Surveillance (“Working Group”)[3] issued a joint report concerning the so-called “flash crash” that occurred in the U.S. Treasury market on October 15, 2014 (the “Report”).

First, the Commission should consider revising Regulation ATS to make it applicable to alternative trading systems that trade Treasuries exclusively.[54] In addition, the Commission should consider how Regulation ATS may need to be tailored to the activities of alternative trading systems that handle Treasuries. Currently, BrokerTec and eSpeed are the two electronic platforms that handle the majority of the dealer-to-dealer trade flow in on-the-run Treasuries.[55] I note that BrokerTec, which trades securities in addition to Treasuries, has filed a Form ATS with the Commission.[56]
• Second, in addition to expanding Reg ATS, the Commission should consider revising Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (Reg SCI) to make it applicable to trading platforms that handle Treasuries exclusively.[57] As the Report makes clear, the majority of dealer-to-dealer trading in the Treasury market is now driven by computer algorithms. In light of this new environment, it is appropriate for the Commission to examine whether additional safeguards are warranted to ensure that the technology used by these entities has sufficient integrity, capacity, safety, and resiliency.
• Third, the Report and other sources indicate that regulators presently lack a comprehensive source of trade data for the Treasury market.[58]

• Fifth, the Commission, as well as the Working Group, should consider ways to enhance oversight of market participants in the Treasury market.[64] For example, some of the most active participants in the Treasury cash market are not registered with the Commission.[65] This hinders the Commission’s ability to monitor and regulate this market effectively. In the context of equity market reform, the Chair called last year for the staff to prepare a rule clarifying that high frequency traders are dealers, and must therefore register with the Commission.[66] In preparing that rule, the staff should consider how it can be made applicable to Treasury market participants, as well.

Meanwhile, in Chinese equities:

China’s stocks fell for a second day after better-than-expected economic data failed to boost investor confidence in the world’s worst-performing equity market over the past month.

The Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 4.2 percent to 3,758.50 at 1:36 p.m. local time. With 689 stocks halted on mainland exchanges and another 790 falling by the 10 percent daily limit, sellers were locked out of about 50 percent of the the Chinese market. The two-day losses pared the gauge’s rebound from its July 8 low to 7.7 percent.

It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts up 7bp, FixedResets gaining 2bp and DeemedRetractibles off 20bp. Floaters were smacked. The Performance Highlights table is as lengthy as we have come to expect. Volume was on the high side of average.

Regrettably, charts of Implied Volatility and Break-Even rates are not prepared today due to problems with the downloading of prices – a separate system from the download used for HIMIPref™ and I don’t have time to input the prices manually.

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -3.2814 % 2,090.1
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -3.2814 % 3,654.4
Floater 3.71 % 3.72 % 60,892 18.05 3 -3.2814 % 2,221.9
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.0939 % 2,771.4
SplitShare 4.59 % 4.87 % 68,602 3.21 3 0.0939 % 3,248.0
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.0939 % 2,534.2
Perpetual-Premium 5.51 % 2.79 % 69,673 0.30 13 -0.0305 % 2,513.1
Perpetual-Discount 5.43 % 5.41 % 92,688 14.81 21 0.0724 % 2,640.3
FixedReset 4.68 % 3.84 % 222,078 15.89 88 0.0204 % 2,247.4
Deemed-Retractible 5.04 % 4.86 % 112,430 3.13 34 -0.2039 % 2,607.9
FloatingReset 2.53 % 3.23 % 51,582 6.06 10 -0.0236 % 2,277.1
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
BAM.PR.K Floater -5.45 % Misleading, since the low for the day was 13.68 on five trades totalling 500 shares, which I suppose overwhelmed the systems. I have not checked whether this is due to inadequate Toronto Stock Exchange reporting or inadequate Toronto Stock Exchange supervision of market-makers.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 13.00
Evaluated at bid price : 13.00
Bid-YTW : 3.86 %
BAM.PR.C Floater -3.36 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 13.50
Evaluated at bid price : 13.50
Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
FTS.PR.H FixedReset -2.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 16.40
Evaluated at bid price : 16.40
Bid-YTW : 3.56 %
IFC.PR.C FixedReset -2.25 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.75
Bid-YTW : 5.36 %
HSE.PR.A FixedReset -2.15 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 15.51
Evaluated at bid price : 15.51
Bid-YTW : 4.25 %
BAM.PR.T FixedReset -2.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 18.45
Evaluated at bid price : 18.45
Bid-YTW : 4.44 %
ENB.PR.B FixedReset -1.83 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 16.06
Evaluated at bid price : 16.06
Bid-YTW : 5.19 %
TRP.PR.A FixedReset -1.69 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 18.59
Evaluated at bid price : 18.59
Bid-YTW : 3.85 %
TRP.PR.C FixedReset -1.46 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 15.55
Evaluated at bid price : 15.55
Bid-YTW : 3.83 %
POW.PR.D Perpetual-Discount -1.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 23.03
Evaluated at bid price : 23.30
Bid-YTW : 5.38 %
PWF.PR.L Perpetual-Discount -1.43 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 23.91
Evaluated at bid price : 24.18
Bid-YTW : 5.28 %
GWO.PR.S Deemed-Retractible -1.24 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.48
Bid-YTW : 5.05 %
BAM.PR.X FixedReset -1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 16.20
Evaluated at bid price : 16.20
Bid-YTW : 4.36 %
SLF.PR.G FixedReset -1.15 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 16.28
Bid-YTW : 7.45 %
IFC.PR.A FixedReset -1.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.30
Bid-YTW : 7.02 %
SLF.PR.I FixedReset -1.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
Bid-YTW : 4.22 %
BAM.PR.B Floater -1.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 13.88
Evaluated at bid price : 13.88
Bid-YTW : 3.61 %
HSB.PR.D Deemed-Retractible -1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.66
Bid-YTW : 5.31 %
TRP.PR.D FixedReset -1.02 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.27
Evaluated at bid price : 21.27
Bid-YTW : 3.93 %
CU.PR.G Perpetual-Discount 1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.89
Evaluated at bid price : 22.20
Bid-YTW : 5.12 %
CU.PR.D Perpetual-Discount 1.08 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 23.14
Evaluated at bid price : 23.50
Bid-YTW : 5.27 %
ENB.PF.E FixedReset 1.08 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 18.65
Evaluated at bid price : 18.65
Bid-YTW : 5.05 %
CM.PR.O FixedReset 1.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.82
Evaluated at bid price : 22.19
Bid-YTW : 3.67 %
CM.PR.P FixedReset 1.12 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.35
Evaluated at bid price : 21.64
Bid-YTW : 3.69 %
ENB.PR.F FixedReset 1.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 17.05
Evaluated at bid price : 17.05
Bid-YTW : 5.09 %
RY.PR.Z FixedReset 1.50 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.94
Evaluated at bid price : 22.35
Bid-YTW : 3.59 %
ENB.PR.Y FixedReset 1.60 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 17.11
Evaluated at bid price : 17.11
Bid-YTW : 4.99 %
NA.PR.S FixedReset 1.79 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 22.21
Evaluated at bid price : 22.76
Bid-YTW : 3.65 %
NA.PR.W FixedReset 1.89 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.55
Evaluated at bid price : 21.55
Bid-YTW : 3.76 %
ENB.PF.A FixedReset 2.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 18.60
Evaluated at bid price : 18.60
Bid-YTW : 5.03 %
HSE.PR.E FixedReset 3.08 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 22.54
Evaluated at bid price : 23.45
Bid-YTW : 4.67 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
ENB.PR.B FixedReset 199,101 RBC crossed 156,000 at 16.35.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 16.06
Evaluated at bid price : 16.06
Bid-YTW : 5.19 %
RY.PR.A Deemed-Retractible 54,134 RBC crossed 49,300 at 25.24.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2015-08-13
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.23
Bid-YTW : 0.81 %
BNS.PR.M Deemed-Retractible 54,095 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2015-08-26
Maturity Price : 25.25
Evaluated at bid price : 25.32
Bid-YTW : 0.34 %
PWF.PR.L Perpetual-Discount 53,100 Scotia crossed 50,000 at 24.48.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 23.91
Evaluated at bid price : 24.18
Bid-YTW : 5.28 %
RY.PR.N Perpetual-Premium 36,006 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 24.60
Evaluated at bid price : 24.99
Bid-YTW : 4.94 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 35,743 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.80
Bid-YTW : 3.85 %
There were 37 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
BMO.PR.T FixedReset Quote: 21.92 – 23.00
Spot Rate : 1.0800
Average : 0.6365

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.62
Evaluated at bid price : 21.92
Bid-YTW : 3.69 %

BAM.PR.K Floater Quote: 13.00 – 13.70
Spot Rate : 0.7000
Average : 0.5381

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 13.00
Evaluated at bid price : 13.00
Bid-YTW : 3.86 %

FTS.PR.G FixedReset Quote: 21.41 – 21.85
Spot Rate : 0.4400
Average : 0.3053

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.41
Evaluated at bid price : 21.41
Bid-YTW : 3.64 %

GWO.PR.R Deemed-Retractible Quote: 23.71 – 24.10
Spot Rate : 0.3900
Average : 0.2601

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.71
Bid-YTW : 5.56 %

HSE.PR.C FixedReset Quote: 22.00 – 22.57
Spot Rate : 0.5700
Average : 0.4489

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 21.66
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 4.64 %

ENB.PR.B FixedReset Quote: 16.06 – 16.50
Spot Rate : 0.4400
Average : 0.3214

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-14
Maturity Price : 16.06
Evaluated at bid price : 16.06
Bid-YTW : 5.19 %

New Issues

New Issue: RY Straight Perpetual, 4.90%, NVCC

The Royal Bank of Canada has announced:

a domestic public offering of Non-Cumulative, Preferred Shares Series BI.

Royal Bank of Canada will issue 6 million Preferred Shares Series BI priced at $25 per share to raise gross proceeds of $150 million. The bank has granted the Underwriters an option, exercisable in whole or in part, to purchase up to an additional 2 million Preferred Shares Series BI at the same offering price.

The Preferred Shares Series BI will yield 4.90 per cent annually, payable quarterly, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of Royal Bank of Canada.

Subject to regulatory approval, on or after November 24, 2020, the bank may redeem the Preferred Shares Series BI in whole or in part at a declining premium.

The offering will be underwritten by a syndicate led by RBC Capital Markets. The expected closing date is July 22, 2015.

We routinely undertake funding transactions to maintain strong capital ratios and a cost effective capital structure. Net proceeds from this transaction will be used for general business purposes.

It’s very nice to see another Straight Perpetual coming out, but disappointing that it has the same coupon as RY.PR.W and RY.PR.N!

Market Action

July 13, 2015

Looks like there’s another politicized white-washing on the way:

U.S. officials have concluded that high-frequency trading contributed to the Treasury market’s wild ride last October, a finding that will probably add to regulatory scrutiny of the industry.

While a soon-to-be-published government report won’t point to just one cause, it will cite speed traders as playing a key role, according to a person with direct knowledge of the study. Treasury yields plunged the most in five years on Oct. 15, 2014, before recovering, fueling a months-long debate over whether something has fundamentally changed in a $12.7 trillion market that most investors consider a safe haven.

One alteration is that almost half the trading in Treasuries is now electronic, according to a 2014 survey from financial research firm Greenwich Associates. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew is among U.S. officials who’ve drawn a link between traders using computers to buy and sell securities at lightning-fast speeds, and changes in volatility and liquidity.

And yes, the report came out today and guess who’s being scapegoated?:

High-frequency trading firms are among the factors “driving markets toward smaller trade sizes,” according to Treasury official Antonio Weiss, a counselor to Lew. These firms are playing a much bigger role as market intermediaries, replacing banks and brokers that pulled back after suffering losses during the crisis, Weiss wrote Monday in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

The report details potential hazards from an increase in automated trading, such as risks to operations, liquidity, transmission and clearing activities. It said speed trading accounted for much of the imbalance in aggressive flows on Oct. 15. Automation can also give traders new tools to engage in unlawful conduct such as spoofing, the practice of placing and then canceling orders to give a misleading impression of the market.

The spike in trading volume and volatility coincided with bank-dealers exiting from the offer side of the cash market for brief periods, according to the report.

The report itself is titled Joint Staff Report: The U.S. Treasury Market on October 15, 2014. It’s very clearly biased against automated trading, skimming over the notion that a thin, brittle market is the logical and frequent consequence of increased transparency, but there was one thing I found interesting:

Around 9:39 ET, the sudden visibility of certain sell limit orders in the futures market seemed to have coincided with the reversal in prices. Recall that only 10 levels of order prices above and below the best bid and ask price are visible to futures market participants. Around 9:39 ET, with prices still moving higher, a number of previously posted large sell orders suddenly became visible in the order book above the current 30-year futures price (as well as in smaller size in 10-year futures). The sudden visibility of these sell orders significantly shifted the visible order imbalance in that contract, and it coincided with the beginning of the reversal of its price (the top of the price spike). Most of these limit orders were not executed, as the price did not rise to their levels.

Meanwhile, HFT traders are eagerly wooed by exchanges:

Despite the often explosive debate over this kind of trading in the U.S., bourses in Mexico, Turkey, South Africa and beyond are trying to lure HFT types to boost business.

The message is clear: whatever the perceived risks, algorithmic robot traders — algobots — are marching steadily across the globe.

“We are welcoming foreign investors, and that includes HFT firms,” says Muammer Cakir, managing director at Borsa Istanbul.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is taking similar steps. TSE officials last month visited New York to let the HFT industry know about upgrades due in September to its Arrowhead trading engine. Arrowhead already matches orders more than 1,000 times faster than was possible five years ago.

In Mexico, the bourse is trying to attract more high-frequency traders to boost volumes, said Luis Carballo, the top information technology official at the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores SAB, which operates the exchange.

JSE Ltd., the company that operates the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, opened a co-location facility in May 2014 that cut the time it takes for data to travel from a trader to its servers and back to 150 microseconds, from 2,550 microseconds. Stock transactions rose 19 percent last year at the exchange and in October it had a record month, with daily average volume close to 400,000, about a third higher than its previous best.

Perhaps the last big obstacle to high-frequency trading achieving global dominance is China, where tight government rules, a stamp duty on stock trades and market inefficiency have so far kept out the algobots. There may be signs of opening up, though: Doug Cifu, CEO of Virtu Financial Inc., one of the world’s biggest computer trading firms, said on an earnings call in May that Virtu was having “very significant preliminary discussions” about entering the Chinese markets.

It proved to be a quiet day overall for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts gaining 2bp, FixedResets off 7bp and DeemedRetractibles down 16bp, but the Performance Highlights table demonstrates that volatility on the issue level remains very high. Volume was average.

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
» based on Implied Volatility Theory only
» are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
» assume constant GOC-5 yield
» assume constant Implied Volatility
» assume constant spread

Here’s TRP:

impVol_TRP_150713
Click for Big

TRP.PR.E, which resets 2019-10-30 at +235, is bid at 21.76 to be $0.27 rich, while TRP.PR.C, resetting 2016-1-30 at +154, is $0.39 cheap at its bid price of 15.80.

impVol_MFC_150713
Click for Big

Most expensive is MFC.PR.F, resetting at +141bp on 2016-6-19, bid at 17.02 to be $0.95 rich, while MFC.PR.L, resetting at +216bp on 2019-6-19, is bid at 20.61 to be $0.59 cheap.

impVol_BAM_150713
Click for Big

The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PF.B, resetting at +263bp on 2019-3-31, bid at 20.03 to be $0.84 cheap. BAM.PF.E, resetting at +255bp on 2020-3-31 is bid at 21.26 and appears to be $0.88 rich.

impVol_FTS_150713
Click for Big

FTS.PR.K, with a spread of +205bp, and bid at 21.21, looks $0.38 expensive and resets 2019-3-1. FTS.PR.M, with a spread of +248bp and resetting 2019-12-1, is bid at 22.66 and is $0.31 cheap.

pairs_FR_150713
Click for Big

The change of scale on the chart means there are no outliers today!

Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of exactly 0.00% (which seems a little extreme!).

pairs_FF_150713
Click for Big

Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 1.5568 % 2,161.0
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 1.5568 % 3,778.4
Floater 3.58 % 3.59 % 61,260 18.33 3 1.5568 % 2,297.3
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.5395 % 2,768.8
SplitShare 4.59 % 4.89 % 69,675 3.21 3 0.5395 % 3,244.9
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.5395 % 2,531.8
Perpetual-Premium 5.51 % 3.82 % 66,260 0.30 13 0.0579 % 2,513.9
Perpetual-Discount 5.43 % 5.43 % 93,389 14.79 21 0.0207 % 2,638.4
FixedReset 4.68 % 3.83 % 223,044 15.83 88 -0.0691 % 2,246.9
Deemed-Retractible 5.03 % 4.86 % 112,169 3.14 34 -0.1569 % 2,613.3
FloatingReset 2.53 % 3.23 % 53,645 6.06 10 -0.1460 % 2,277.7
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
MFC.PR.K FixedReset -3.72 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.20
Bid-YTW : 5.43 %
FTS.PR.M FixedReset -3.53 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 22.11
Evaluated at bid price : 22.66
Bid-YTW : 3.82 %
GWO.PR.N FixedReset -3.47 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 16.12
Bid-YTW : 7.53 %
IFC.PR.A FixedReset -2.63 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 18.51
Bid-YTW : 6.87 %
PWF.PR.P FixedReset -2.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 17.25
Evaluated at bid price : 17.25
Bid-YTW : 3.53 %
PWF.PR.T FixedReset -1.63 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 22.95
Evaluated at bid price : 24.10
Bid-YTW : 3.38 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset -1.55 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.80
Bid-YTW : 3.85 %
SLF.PR.E Deemed-Retractible -1.55 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.25
Bid-YTW : 6.09 %
FTS.PR.K FixedReset -1.35 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 21.21
Evaluated at bid price : 21.21
Bid-YTW : 3.64 %
HSE.PR.C FixedReset -1.18 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 21.55
Evaluated at bid price : 21.85
Bid-YTW : 4.68 %
POW.PR.B Perpetual-Discount -1.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 24.47
Evaluated at bid price : 24.71
Bid-YTW : 5.43 %
IAG.PR.G FixedReset -1.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.41
Bid-YTW : 4.13 %
FTS.PR.H FixedReset -1.12 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 16.81
Evaluated at bid price : 16.81
Bid-YTW : 3.47 %
BNS.PR.M Deemed-Retractible -1.10 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2015-08-26
Maturity Price : 25.25
Evaluated at bid price : 25.26
Bid-YTW : 2.31 %
HSE.PR.G FixedReset -1.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 22.55
Evaluated at bid price : 23.51
Bid-YTW : 4.66 %
MFC.PR.B Deemed-Retractible -1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.66
Bid-YTW : 6.03 %
PWF.PR.E Perpetual-Premium 1.01 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2015-08-12
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.95
Bid-YTW : 4.69 %
TD.PF.C FixedReset 1.08 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 21.45
Evaluated at bid price : 21.45
Bid-YTW : 3.74 %
ENB.PR.B FixedReset 1.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 16.36
Evaluated at bid price : 16.36
Bid-YTW : 5.09 %
ENB.PR.D FixedReset 1.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 16.50
Evaluated at bid price : 16.50
Bid-YTW : 5.06 %
BMO.PR.T FixedReset 1.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 21.41
Evaluated at bid price : 21.74
Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
BAM.PR.K Floater 1.33 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 13.75
Evaluated at bid price : 13.75
Bid-YTW : 3.65 %
PVS.PR.B SplitShare 1.38 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2019-01-10
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.96
Bid-YTW : 4.56 %
POW.PR.D Perpetual-Discount 1.42 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 23.35
Evaluated at bid price : 23.64
Bid-YTW : 5.30 %
ENB.PR.F FixedReset 1.51 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 16.80
Evaluated at bid price : 16.80
Bid-YTW : 5.17 %
IFC.PR.C FixedReset 1.60 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.25
Bid-YTW : 5.06 %
ELF.PR.G Perpetual-Discount 1.63 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 21.59
Evaluated at bid price : 21.85
Bid-YTW : 5.45 %
MFC.PR.M FixedReset 1.63 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.85
Bid-YTW : 5.29 %
ENB.PR.H FixedReset 1.67 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 15.86
Evaluated at bid price : 15.86
Bid-YTW : 4.97 %
MFC.PR.L FixedReset 1.98 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.61
Bid-YTW : 5.88 %
BAM.PR.C Floater 2.72 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 13.97
Evaluated at bid price : 13.97
Bid-YTW : 3.59 %
MFC.PR.N FixedReset 5.77 % An entirely reasonable closing bid; all of the last 25 trades were at or above the quoted figure. This represents only a reversal of Friday‘s silliness.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.80
Bid-YTW : 5.25 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
GWO.PR.R Deemed-Retractible 65,060 TD crossed 44,600 at 24.00.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.90
Bid-YTW : 5.45 %
BNS.PR.Q FixedReset 40,100 TD sold 10,000 to Raymond James at 25.30, then crossed 20,000 at 25.29.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.17
Bid-YTW : 2.95 %
BMO.PR.T FixedReset 33,400 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 21.41
Evaluated at bid price : 21.74
Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
TRP.PR.D FixedReset 33,188 RBC crossed 23,200 at 21.55.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 21.49
Evaluated at bid price : 21.49
Bid-YTW : 3.89 %
MFC.PR.B Deemed-Retractible 31,713 RBC crossed 20,000 at 22.66.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.66
Bid-YTW : 6.03 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 31,213 Scotia crossed 15,000 at 22.75.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.80
Bid-YTW : 3.85 %
There were 33 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
CU.PR.D Perpetual-Discount Quote: 23.25 – 24.27
Spot Rate : 1.0200
Average : 0.6552

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 22.91
Evaluated at bid price : 23.25
Bid-YTW : 5.32 %

PWF.PR.T FixedReset Quote: 24.10 – 24.80
Spot Rate : 0.7000
Average : 0.5202

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 22.95
Evaluated at bid price : 24.10
Bid-YTW : 3.38 %

IAG.PR.G FixedReset Quote: 24.41 – 24.77
Spot Rate : 0.3600
Average : 0.2260

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.41
Bid-YTW : 4.13 %

FTS.PR.K FixedReset Quote: 21.21 – 21.66
Spot Rate : 0.4500
Average : 0.3463

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 21.21
Evaluated at bid price : 21.21
Bid-YTW : 3.64 %

TRP.PR.F FloatingReset Quote: 18.30 – 18.95
Spot Rate : 0.6500
Average : 0.5568

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-13
Maturity Price : 18.30
Evaluated at bid price : 18.30
Bid-YTW : 3.35 %

HSB.PR.D Deemed-Retractible Quote: 24.92 – 25.35
Spot Rate : 0.4300
Average : 0.3466

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.92
Bid-YTW : 5.12 %

PrefLetter

July PrefLetter Released!

The July, 2015, edition of PrefLetter has been released and is now available for purchase as the “Previous edition”. Those who subscribe for a full year receive the “Previous edition” as a bonus.

The regular appendices reporting on DeemedRetractibles and FixedResets are included.

PrefLetter may now be purchased by all Canadian residents.

Until further notice, the “Previous Edition” will refer to the July, 2015, issue, while the “Next Edition” will be the August, 2015, issue, scheduled to be prepared as of the close August 14 and eMailed to subscribers prior to market-opening on August 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: My verbosity has grown by such leaps and bounds that it is no longer possible to deliver PrefLetter as an eMail attachment – it’s just too big for my software! Instead, I have sent passwords – click on the link in your eMail and your copy will download.

Note: The PrefLetter website has a Subscriber Download Feature. If you have not received your copy, try it!

Note: PrefLetter eMails 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 – there are some hints in the post Sympatico Spam Filters out of Control. If it’s not there, contact me and I’ll get you your copy … somehow!

Note: There have been scattered complaints regarding inability to open PrefLetter in Acrobat Reader, despite my practice of including myself on the subscription list and immediately checking the copy received. I have had the occasional difficulty reading US Government documents, which I was able to resolve by downloading and installing the latest version of Adobe Reader. Also, note that so far, all complaints have been from users of Yahoo Mail. Try saving it to disk first, before attempting to open it.

Note: There have been other scattered complaints that double-clicking on the links in the “PrefLetter Download” email results in a message that the password has already been used. I have been able to reproduce this problem in my own eMail software … the problem is double-clicking. What happens is the first click opens the link and the second click finds that the password has already been used and refuses to work properly. So the moral of the story is: Don’t be a dick! Single Click!

Note: Assiduous Reader DG informs me:

In case you have any other Apple users: you need to install a free App from the apple store called “FileApp”. It comes with it’s own tutorial and allows you to download and save a PDF file.

However, Assiduous Reader Adrian informs me in the comments to the January 2015 release:

Some nitpicking for DG:
FileApp costs $1.19 in the Apple Store.

Market Action

July 10, 2015

So the Canadian jobs number wasn’t as bad as expected, because we’re all working for the government:

Canadian employment fell by 6,400 in June on the biggest decline in part-time work in more than four years, sustaining the view the economy is losing steam and may require another jolt of stimulus from the central bank.

The unemployment rate remained at 6.8 percent for a fifth month, Statistics Canada said Friday in Ottawa. Part-time work fell 71,200, exceeding the 64,800 gain in full-time work. Quebec posted a decline of 33,300, the most since May 2005.

Private companies cut 26,300 workers, tempering gains in public-sector employment, which rose by 42,200.

Meanwhile, Yellen continues to expect a Fed hike:

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, speaking after weeks of financial-market turmoil over China and Greece, maintained her call for an interest-rate increase this year as the U.S. economy improves.

“I expect that it will be appropriate at some point later this year to take the first step to raise the federal funds rate and thus begin normalizing monetary policy,” Yellen said in her first public remarks since the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.

Yellen added a note of caution, saying that “the course of the economy and inflation remains highly uncertain, and unanticipated developments could delay or accelerate this first step.” In her only mention of Greece in a 14-page speech delivered Friday in Cleveland, she identified that nation’s debt crisis as one cause of uncertainty.

And worrying about Greece is, like, getting old, you know?

Stock investors got jolted in a zigzag week, with plunges around the world giving way to the biggest rallies in at least three years for China and Europe.

Spurred by optimism on Greece, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 4.3 percent on Thursday and Friday, erasing earlier losses with the biggest two-day advance since 2011. The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index jumped 11 percent in two sessions, the most in almost seven years, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 1.2 percent Friday to wipe out a weekly decline.

It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts off 19bp, FixedResets gaining 45bp and DeemedRetractibles down 21bp. Floaters bounced back from yesterday‘s downdraft. The Performance Highlights table is again very lengthy, but skewed towards positive returns this time. Volume was extremely high.

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
» based on Implied Volatility Theory only
» are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
» assume constant GOC-5 yield
» assume constant Implied Volatility
» assume constant spread

Here’s TRP:

impVol_TRP_150710
Click for Big

TRP.PR.E, which resets 2019-10-30 at +235, is bid at 21.80 to be $0.35 rich, while TRP.PR.C, resetting 2016-1-30 at +154, is $0.42 cheap at its bid price of 15.76.

impVol_MFC_150710
Click for Big

The fit is horrible today, and Implied Volatility has dropped precipitously.

Most expensive is MFC.PR.F, resetting at +141bp on 2016-6-19, bid at 16.96 to be $1.25 rich, while MFC.PR.N, resetting at +230bp on 2020-3-19, and which has a very low bid that does not seem reflective of market conditions (see the Performance Highlights Table) is bid at 20.61 to be $1.17 cheap.

impVol_BAM_150710
Click for Big

The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PF.B, resetting at +263bp on 2019-3-31, bid at 20.00 to be $0.85 cheap. BAM.PF.E, resetting at +255bp on 2020-3-31 is bid at 21.07 and appears to be $0.70 rich.

impVol_FTS_150710
Click for Big

FTS.PR.K, with a spread of +205bp, and bid at 21.50, looks $0.35 expensive and resets 2019-3-1. FTS.PR.G, with a spread of +213bp and resetting 2018-9-1, is bid at 21.31 and is $0.33 cheap.

The calculated level of implied volatility declined today, but is still higher than I would expect; reversion to a lower level will imply underperformance of the lower-spread issues.

pairs_FF_150710
Click for Big

The change of scale on the chart means there are no outliers today!

Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of -0.02% (which seems a little extreme!).

pairs_FF_150710
Click for Big

Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 8.4697 % 2,127.8
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 8.4697 % 3,720.4
Floater 3.64 % 3.69 % 61,973 18.12 3 8.4697 % 2,262.0
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.2422 % 2,754.0
SplitShare 4.62 % 4.98 % 69,071 3.21 3 -0.2422 % 3,227.5
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.2422 % 2,518.2
Perpetual-Premium 5.52 % 3.76 % 65,814 0.47 13 -0.0396 % 2,512.4
Perpetual-Discount 5.43 % 5.38 % 93,279 14.77 21 -0.1940 % 2,637.8
FixedReset 4.68 % 3.81 % 223,542 15.93 88 0.4534 % 2,248.5
Deemed-Retractible 5.03 % 3.76 % 111,462 0.61 34 -0.2139 % 2,617.4
FloatingReset 2.52 % 3.18 % 54,283 6.07 10 0.1226 % 2,281.0
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
MFC.PR.N FixedReset -5.24 % This looks like an effect of a very thin market and shoddy market-making. There are seventeen trades timestamped 3:59, sixteen of which are for 100 shares and one of which was for 30 shares. The selling brokers were Scotia and Anonymous; the selling might have come from either a retail stockbroker who’s not very good at his job or a price-insensitive algorithm. These trades were done in a range of 20.98-21.80; 20.98 was the low for the day. The day’s VWAP, on volume of 14,458 shares, was 21.769583.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.61
Bid-YTW : 5.97 %
MFC.PR.L FixedReset -3.85 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.21
Bid-YTW : 6.13 %
ELF.PR.G Perpetual-Discount -2.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.50
Evaluated at bid price : 21.50
Bid-YTW : 5.55 %
MFC.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -2.48 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 6.26 %
ENB.PR.J FixedReset -2.36 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 17.82
Evaluated at bid price : 17.82
Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
HSE.PR.C FixedReset -2.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.74
Evaluated at bid price : 22.11
Bid-YTW : 4.61 %
POW.PR.D Perpetual-Discount -1.98 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 23.04
Evaluated at bid price : 23.31
Bid-YTW : 5.38 %
SLF.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -1.61 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.94
Bid-YTW : 6.22 %
HSE.PR.G FixedReset -1.57 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 22.67
Evaluated at bid price : 23.77
Bid-YTW : 4.59 %
SLF.PR.B Deemed-Retractible -1.44 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.19
Bid-YTW : 5.85 %
ENB.PR.D FixedReset -1.39 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 16.31
Evaluated at bid price : 16.31
Bid-YTW : 5.12 %
ENB.PR.B FixedReset -1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 16.18
Evaluated at bid price : 16.18
Bid-YTW : 5.15 %
ENB.PR.F FixedReset -1.19 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 16.55
Evaluated at bid price : 16.55
Bid-YTW : 5.25 %
BAM.PF.F FixedReset -1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 22.06
Evaluated at bid price : 22.56
Bid-YTW : 4.25 %
BNS.PR.D FloatingReset -1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.83
Bid-YTW : 3.65 %
PWF.PR.E Perpetual-Premium -1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 24.46
Evaluated at bid price : 24.70
Bid-YTW : 5.57 %
NA.PR.S FixedReset 1.00 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.84
Evaluated at bid price : 22.20
Bid-YTW : 3.76 %
TRP.PR.B FixedReset 1.03 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 14.71
Evaluated at bid price : 14.71
Bid-YTW : 3.58 %
TD.PF.B FixedReset 1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.43
Evaluated at bid price : 21.43
Bid-YTW : 3.75 %
FTS.PR.H FixedReset 1.13 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 17.00
Evaluated at bid price : 17.00
Bid-YTW : 3.43 %
ENB.PF.C FixedReset 1.15 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 18.40
Evaluated at bid price : 18.40
Bid-YTW : 5.08 %
ENB.PR.P FixedReset 1.18 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 17.15
Evaluated at bid price : 17.15
Bid-YTW : 5.09 %
MFC.PR.G FixedReset 1.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.05
Bid-YTW : 3.83 %
HSE.PR.A FixedReset 1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 15.74
Evaluated at bid price : 15.74
Bid-YTW : 4.18 %
FTS.PR.K FixedReset 1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.50
Evaluated at bid price : 21.50
Bid-YTW : 3.59 %
MFC.PR.J FixedReset 1.28 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.70
Bid-YTW : 4.31 %
TRP.PR.E FixedReset 1.30 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.52
Evaluated at bid price : 21.80
Bid-YTW : 3.86 %
TRP.PR.C FixedReset 1.35 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 15.76
Evaluated at bid price : 15.76
Bid-YTW : 3.77 %
BMO.PR.S FixedReset 1.46 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.85
Evaluated at bid price : 22.22
Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
ENB.PR.Y FixedReset 1.51 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 16.85
Evaluated at bid price : 16.85
Bid-YTW : 5.07 %
IAG.PR.G FixedReset 1.60 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.69
Bid-YTW : 3.98 %
BAM.PR.R FixedReset 1.66 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 18.35
Evaluated at bid price : 18.35
Bid-YTW : 4.39 %
SLF.PR.I FixedReset 1.66 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.43
Bid-YTW : 3.99 %
PWF.PR.T FixedReset 1.79 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 23.11
Evaluated at bid price : 24.50
Bid-YTW : 3.30 %
RY.PR.J FixedReset 1.86 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 23.03
Evaluated at bid price : 24.60
Bid-YTW : 3.53 %
TD.PF.E FixedReset 2.03 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 23.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.60
Bid-YTW : 3.62 %
VNR.PR.A FixedReset 2.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 22.23
Evaluated at bid price : 22.55
Bid-YTW : 4.09 %
TRP.PR.F FloatingReset 2.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 18.41
Evaluated at bid price : 18.41
Bid-YTW : 3.33 %
CM.PR.Q FixedReset 2.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 23.07
Evaluated at bid price : 24.76
Bid-YTW : 3.50 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 2.48 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.16
Bid-YTW : 3.58 %
RY.PR.Z FixedReset 2.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.86
Evaluated at bid price : 22.23
Bid-YTW : 3.61 %
TD.PF.A FixedReset 2.62 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.28
Evaluated at bid price : 21.55
Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
RY.PR.H FixedReset 2.78 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.56
Evaluated at bid price : 21.84
Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
PWF.PR.P FixedReset 2.98 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 17.64
Evaluated at bid price : 17.64
Bid-YTW : 3.45 %
FTS.PR.M FixedReset 4.87 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 22.58
Evaluated at bid price : 23.49
Bid-YTW : 3.65 %
MFC.PR.K FixedReset 7.41 % Down 4.65% yesterday.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.02
Bid-YTW : 4.93 %
BAM.PR.K Floater 7.61 % Down 6.59% yesterday.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 13.57
Evaluated at bid price : 13.57
Bid-YTW : 3.70 %
BAM.PR.C Floater 8.80 % Down 7.06% yesterday.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 13.60
Evaluated at bid price : 13.60
Bid-YTW : 3.69 %
BAM.PR.B Floater 8.99 % Down 7.25% yesterday.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 13.94
Evaluated at bid price : 13.94
Bid-YTW : 3.60 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
BNS.PR.B FloatingReset 76,565 Scotia crossed 15,300 at 23.20; TD crossed 50,000 at the same price.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.22
Bid-YTW : 3.35 %
TRP.PR.B FixedReset 74,510 Nesbitt crossed 48,600 at 14.70.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 14.71
Evaluated at bid price : 14.71
Bid-YTW : 3.58 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset 73,624 Nesbitt crossed 49,900 at 22.65.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.16
Bid-YTW : 3.58 %
TD.PR.Y FixedReset 63,240 Nesbitt crossed 10,000 at 25.15; RBC crossed 50,000 at 25.16.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.04
Bid-YTW : 2.99 %
SLF.PR.I FixedReset 59,366 TD crossed 50,000 at 24.45.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.43
Bid-YTW : 3.99 %
MFC.PR.L FixedReset 57,388 RBC crossed 50,000 at 21.24.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.21
Bid-YTW : 6.13 %
There were 60 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
MFC.PR.M FixedReset Quote: 21.50 – 23.00
Spot Rate : 1.5000
Average : 0.8798

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.50
Bid-YTW : 5.49 %

MFC.PR.L FixedReset Quote: 20.21 – 21.70
Spot Rate : 1.4900
Average : 0.8853

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.21
Bid-YTW : 6.13 %

MFC.PR.N FixedReset Quote: 20.61 – 21.85
Spot Rate : 1.2400
Average : 0.7370

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 20.61
Bid-YTW : 5.97 %

IFC.PR.C FixedReset Quote: 21.90 – 22.80
Spot Rate : 0.9000
Average : 0.5474

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.90
Bid-YTW : 5.26 %

ENB.PR.T FixedReset Quote: 17.17 – 17.99
Spot Rate : 0.8200
Average : 0.5026

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 17.17
Evaluated at bid price : 17.17
Bid-YTW : 5.10 %

HSE.PR.C FixedReset Quote: 22.11 – 22.84
Spot Rate : 0.7300
Average : 0.4434

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-10
Maturity Price : 21.74
Evaluated at bid price : 22.11
Bid-YTW : 4.61 %

MAPF

MAPF Performance: June, 2015

The fund underperformed the BMO-CM “50” in June.

ZPR, is an ETF comprised of FixedResets and Floating Rate issues and a very high proportion of junk issues, returned -3.77%, -4.37% and -12.61% over the past one-, three- and twelve-month periods, respectively (according to the fund’s data), versus returns for the TXPL index of -3.78%, -4.50% and -12.34% respectively. The fund has been able to attract assets of about $987.6-million since inception in November 2012; AUM declined by $112-million in June; given an index return of -3.78% a decrease of about $42-million was expected, so there was a significant cash outflow over the month. I feel that the flows into and out of this fund are very important in determining the performance of its constituents.

TXPR had returns over one-, three- and twelve-months of -3.10%, -3.93% and -7.40% respectively with CPD performance within expectations.

Returns for the HIMIPref™ investment grade sub-indices for the month were as follows:

HIMIPref™ Indices
Performance to June 30, 2015
Sub-Index 1-Month 3-month
Ratchet N/A N/A
FixFloat N/A N/A
Floater -0.58% -5.11%
OpRet -0.25% +0.24%
SplitShare -0.16% +1.05%
Interest N/A N/A
PerpetualPremium -0.27% -0.49%
PerpetualDiscount -3.61% -5.75%
FixedReset -2.60% -3.22%
DeemedRetractible -0.60% -1.48%
FloatingReset -0.39% -1.29%

Malachite Aggressive Preferred Fund’s Net Asset Value per Unit as of the close June 30, 2015, was $9.4181 after a dividend distribution of 0.128623

Returns to June 30, 2015
Period MAPF BMO-CM “50” Index TXPR
Total Return
CPD – according to Blackrock
One Month -3.56% -2.73% -3.10% N/A
Three Months -4.12% -3.44% -3.93% N/A
One Year -6.49% -7.44% -7.40% -7.61%
Two Years (annualized) +0.46% -2.17% -2.13% N/A
Three Years (annualized) +2.32% -0.47% -0.61% -1.05%
Four Years (annualized) +1.70% +0.77% +0.51% N/A
Five Years (annualized) +5.07% +3.33% +2.62% +2.08%
Six Years (annualized) +7.53% +4.83% +3.76%  
Seven Years (annualized) +11.91% +4.10% +3.24%  
Eight Years (annualized) +9.73% +3.01% +2.00%  
Nine Years (annualized) +9.22% +2.63%    
Ten Years (annualized) +8.74% +2.64%    
Eleven Years (annualized) +8.84% +2.99%    
Twelve Years (annualized) +9.76% +3.10%    
Thirteen Years (annualized) +9.55% +3.46%    
Fourteen Years (annualized) +9.96% +3.44%    
MAPF returns assume reinvestment of distributions, and are shown after expenses but before fees.
CPD Returns are for the NAV and are after all fees and expenses.
Figures for National Bank Preferred Equity Income Fund (formerly Omega Preferred Equity) (which are after all fees and expenses) for 1-, 3- and 12-months are -2.51%, -2.95% and -4.25%, respectively, according to Morningstar after all fees & expenses. Three year performance is +0.82%; five year is +3.50%
Figures for Manulife Preferred Income Class Adv [into which was merged Manulife Preferred Income Fund (formerly AIC Preferred Income Fund)] (which are after all fees and expenses) for 1-, 3- and 12-months are -3.61%, -4.55% & N/A, respectively.
Figures for Horizons AlphaPro Preferred Share ETF (which are after all fees and expenses) for 1-, 3- and 12-months are -2.58%, -3.27% & -5.86%, respectively. Three year performance is +0.38%
Figures for National Bank Preferred Equity Fund (formerly Altamira Preferred Equity Fund) are -2.63%, -3.55% and -7.22% for one-, three- and twelve months, respectively.
The figure for BMO S&P/TSX Laddered Preferred Share Index ETF is -3.77%, -4.37% and -12.61% for one-, three- and twelve-months, respectively. Two year performance is -5.80%.
Figures for NexGen Canadian Preferred Share Tax Managed Fund (Dividend Tax Credit Class, the best performing) are -3.1%, -3.8% and -1.0% for one-, three- and twelve-months, respectively.
Figures for BMO Preferred Share Fund are -3.72% and -6.81% for the past three- and twelve-months, respectively.
Figures for PowerShares Canadian Preferred Share Index Class, Series Fare -3.32%, -4.45% and -8.76% for the past one, three and twelve months, respectively. The three- and five-year figures are -2.36% and +0.90%, respectively.
Figures for the First Asset Preferred Share Investment Trust (PSF.UN) are -3.47%, -5.32% and -9.19% for the past one, three and twelve months, respectively. The two-, three-, four- and five-year figures are -4.35%, -2.37%, -1.47% and +0.13, respectively.

MAPF returns assume reinvestment of dividends, and are shown after expenses but before fees. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. You can lose money investing in Malachite Aggressive Preferred Fund or any other fund. For more information, see the fund’s main page. The fund is available either directly from Hymas Investment Management or through a brokerage account at Odlum Brown Limited.

A problem that has bedevilled the market over the past four years has been the OSFI decision not to grandfather Straight Perpetuals as Tier 1 bank capital, and their continued foot-dragging regarding a decision on insurer Straight Perpetuals has segmented the market to the point where trading has become much more difficult. Until the market became so grossly segmented, there were many comparables for any given issue – but now banks are not available to swap into (because they are so expensive) and non-regulated companies are likewise deprecated (because they are not DeemedRetractibles; they should not participate in the increase in value that will follow the OSFI decision I anticipate and, in addition, are analyzed as perpetuals). The fund’s portfolio was, in effect ‘locked in’ to the low coupon DeemedRetractibles due to projected long-term gains from a future OSFI decision to the detriment of trading gains, particularly in May, 2013, when the three lowest-coupon SLF DeemedRetractibles (SLF.PR.C, SLF.PR.D and SLF.PR.E) were the worst performing DeemedRetractibles in the sub-index, and in June, 2013, when the insurance-issued DeemedRetractibles behaved like PerpetualDiscounts in a sharply negative market. Nowadays, the fund is ‘locked-in’ to the low-spread FixedResets from these companies: GWO.PR.N, MFC.PR.F, and SLF.PR.G.

In May, insurance DeemedRetractibles performed worse than bank DeemedRetractibles:

DR_1MoPerf_150630
Click for Big

… but better than Unregulated Straight Perpetuals.

insPerp_1MoPerf_150630
Click for Big

Correlations were very poor for banks (-1%; not shown), not much good for insurance (4%; not shown) but quite good for unregulated issues (67%).

A lingering effect of the downdraft of 2013 has been the return of measurable Implied Volatility but given my recent updates in recent daily market reports, I will not discuss them further in this post.

Sometimes everything works … sometimes it’s 50-50 … sometimes nothing works. The fund seeks to earn incremental return by selling liquidity (that is, taking the other side of trades that other market participants are strongly motivated to execute), which can also be referred to as ‘trading noise’ – although for quite some time, noise trading has taken a distant second place to the sectoral play on insurance DeemedRetractibles; something that dismays me, particularly given that the market does not yet agree with me regarding the insurance issues! There were a lot of strongly motivated market participants during the Panic of 2007, generating a lot of noise! Unfortunately, the conditions of the Panic may never be repeated in my lifetime … but the fund will simply attempt to make trades when swaps seem profitable, without worrying about the level of monthly turnover.

There’s plenty of room for new money left in the fund. I have shown in PrefLetter that market pricing for FixedResets is very often irrational and I have lots of confidence – backed up by my bond portfolio management experience in the markets for Canadas and Treasuries, and equity trading on the NYSE & TSX – that there is enough demand for liquidity in any market to make the effort of providing it worthwhile (although the definition of “worthwhile” in terms of basis points of outperformance changes considerably from market to market!) I will continue to exert utmost efforts to outperform but it should be borne in mind that there will almost inevitably be periods of underperformance in the future.

The yields available on high quality preferred shares remain elevated, which is reflected in the current estimate of sustainable income.

Calculation of MAPF Sustainable Income Per Unit
Month NAVPU Portfolio
Average
YTW
Leverage
Divisor
Securities
Average
YTW
Capital
Gains
Multiplier
Sustainable
Income
per
current
Unit
June, 2007 9.3114 5.16% 1.03 5.01% 1.3240 0.3524
September 9.1489 5.35% 0.98 5.46% 1.3240 0.3773
December, 2007 9.0070 5.53% 0.942 5.87% 1.3240 0.3993
March, 2008 8.8512 6.17% 1.047 5.89% 1.3240 0.3938
June 8.3419 6.034% 0.952 6.338% 1.3240 $0.3993
September 8.1886 7.108% 0.969 7.335% 1.3240 $0.4537
December, 2008 8.0464 9.24% 1.008 9.166% 1.3240 $0.5571
March 2009 $8.8317 8.60% 0.995 8.802% 1.3240 $0.5872
June 10.9846 7.05% 0.999 7.057% 1.3240 $0.5855
September 12.3462 6.03% 0.998 6.042% 1.3240 $0.5634
December 2009 10.5662 5.74% 0.981 5.851% 1.1141 $0.5549
March 2010 10.2497 6.03% 0.992 6.079% 1.1141 $0.5593
June 10.5770 5.96% 0.996 5.984% 1.1141 $0.5681
September 11.3901 5.43% 0.980 5.540% 1.1141 $0.5664
December 2010 10.7659 5.37% 0.993 5.408% 1.0298 $0.5654
March, 2011 11.0560 6.00% 0.994 5.964% 1.0298 $0.6403
June 11.1194 5.87% 1.018 5.976% 1.0298 $0.6453
September 10.2709 6.10%
Note
1.001 6.106% 1.0298 $0.6090
December, 2011 10.0793 5.63%
Note
1.031 5.805% 1.0000 $0.5851
March, 2012 10.3944 5.13%
Note
0.996 5.109% 1.0000 $0.5310
June 10.2151 5.32%
Note
1.012 5.384% 1.0000 $0.5500
September 10.6703 4.61%
Note
0.997 4.624% 1.0000 $0.4934
December, 2012 10.8307 4.24% 0.989 4.287% 1.0000 $0.4643
March, 2013 10.9033 3.87% 0.996 3.886% 1.0000 $0.4237
June 10.3261 4.81% 0.998 4.80% 1.0000 $0.4957
September 10.0296 5.62% 0.996 5.643% 1.0000 $0.5660
December, 2013 9.8717 6.02% 1.008 5.972% 1.0000 $0.5895
March, 2014 10.2233 5.55% 0.998 5.561% 1.0000 $0.5685
June 10.5877 5.09% 0.998 5.100% 1.0000 $0.5395
September 10.4601 5.28% 0.997 5.296% 1.0000 $0.5540
December, 2014 10.5701 4.83% 1.009 4.787% 1.0000 $0.5060
March, 2015 9.9573 4.99% 1.001 4.985% 1.0000 $0.4964
June, 2015 9.4181 5.55% 1.002 5.539% 1.0000 $0.5217
NAVPU is shown after quarterly distributions of dividend income and annual distribution of capital gains.
Portfolio YTW includes cash (or margin borrowing), with an assumed interest rate of 0.00%
The Leverage Divisor indicates the level of cash in the account: if the portfolio is 1% in cash, the Leverage Divisor will be 0.99
Securities YTW divides “Portfolio YTW” by the “Leverage Divisor” to show the average YTW on the securities held; this assumes that the cash is invested in (or raised from) all securities held, in proportion to their holdings.
The Capital Gains Multiplier adjusts for the effects of Capital Gains Dividends. On 2009-12-31, there was a capital gains distribution of $1.989262 which is assumed for this purpose to have been reinvested at the final price of $10.5662. Thus, a holder of one unit pre-distribution would have held 1.1883 units post-distribution; the CG Multiplier reflects this to make the time-series comparable. Note that Dividend Distributions are not assumed to be reinvested.
Sustainable Income is the resultant estimate of the fund’s dividend income per current unit, before fees and expenses. Note that a “current unit” includes reinvestment of prior capital gains; a unitholder would have had the calculated sustainable income with only, say, 0.9 units in the past which, with reinvestment of capital gains, would become 1.0 current units.
DeemedRetractibles are comprised of all Straight Perpetuals (both PerpetualDiscount and PerpetualPremium) issued by BMO, BNS, CM, ELF, GWO, HSB, IAG, MFC, NA, RY, SLF and TD, which are not exchangable into common at the option of the company (definition refined in May, 2011). These issues are analyzed as if their prospectuses included a requirement to redeem at par on or prior to 2022-1-31 (banks) or 2025-1-31 (insurers and insurance holding companies), in addition to the call schedule explicitly defined. See OSFI Does Not Grandfather Extant Tier 1 Capital, CM.PR.D, CM.PR.E, CM.PR.G: Seeking NVCC Status and the January, February, March and June, 2011, editions of PrefLetter for the rationale behind this analysis.

The same reasoning is also applied to FixedResets from these issuers, other than explicitly defined NVCC from banks.

Yields for September, 2011, to January, 2012, were calculated by imposing a cap of 10% on the yields of YLO issues held, in order to avoid their extremely high calculated yields distorting the calculation and to reflect the uncertainty in the marketplace that these yields will be realized. From February to September 2012, yields on these issues have been set to zero. All YLO issues held were sold in October 2012.
Calculations of resettable instruments are performed assuming constant contemporary GOC-5 and 3-Month Bill rates. For June 30, 2015, yields of 0.91% and 0.52%, respectively, were assumed.

Significant positions were held in DeemedRetractible, SplitShare and NVCC non-compliant regulated FixedReset issues on June 30; all of these currently have their yields calculated with the presumption that they will be called by the issuers at par prior to 2022-1-31 (banks) or 2025-1-31 (insurers and insurance holding companies) or on a different date (SplitShares) This presents another complication in the calculation of sustainable yield, which also assumes that redemption proceeds will be reinvested at the same rate.

I will also note that the sustainable yield calculated above is not directly comparable with any yield calculation currently reported by any other preferred share fund as far as I am aware. The Sustainable Yield depends on:
i) Calculating Yield-to-Worst for each instrument and using this yield for reporting purposes;
ii) Using the contemporary value of Five-Year Canadas to estimate dividends after reset for FixedResets. The assumption regarding the five-year Canada rate has become more important as the proportion of low-spread FixedResets in the portfolio has increased.
iii) Making the assumption that deeply discounted NVCC non-compliant issues from both banks and insurers, both Straight and FixedResets will be redeemed at par on their DeemedMaturity date as discussed above.

I no longer show calculations that assume the conversion of the entire portfolio into PerpetualDiscounts, as the fund has only a small position in these issues.

Most funds report Current Yield. For instance, ZPR reports a “Dividend Yield” of 4.5% as of August 29, 2014, but this is the Current Yield, a meaningless number. The Current Yield of MAPF was 4.89% as of August 29, but I will neither report that with any degree of prominence nor take any great pleasure in the fact that it’s a little higher than the ZPR number. It’s meaningless; to discuss it in the context of portfolio reporting is misleading.

However, BMO has taken a significant step forward in that they are no longer reporting the “Portfolio Yield” directly on their website; the information is taken from the “Enhanced Fund Profile” which is available only as a PDF link. CPD doesn’t report this metric on the CPD fact sheet or on their website. I may have one less thing to mock the fundcos about!

It should be noted that the concept of this Sustainable Income calculation was developed when the fund’s holdings were overwhelmingly PerpetualDiscounts – see, for instance, the bottom of the market in November 2008. It is easy to understand that for a PerpetualDiscount, the technique of multiplying yield by price will indeed result in the coupon – a PerpetualDiscount paying $1 annually will show a Sustainable Income of $1, regardless of whether the price is $24 or $17.

Things are not quite so neat when maturity dates and maturity prices that are different from the current price are thrown into the mix. If we take a notional Straight Perpetual paying $5 annually, the price is $100 when the yield is 5% (all this ignores option effects). As the yield increases to 6%, the price declines to 83.33; and 83.33 x 6% is the same $5. Good enough.

But a ten year bond, priced at 100 when the yield is equal to its coupon of 5%, will decline in price to 92.56; and 92.56 x 6% is 5.55; thus, the calculated Sustainable Income has increased as the price has declined as shown in the graph:


Click for Big

The difference is because the bond’s yield calculation includes the amortization of the discount; therefore, so does the Sustainable Income estimate.

Different assumptions lead to different results from the calculation, but the overall positive trend is apparent. I’m very pleased with the long-term results! It will be noted that if there was no trading in the portfolio, one would expect the sustainable yield to be constant (before fees and expenses). The success of the fund’s trading is showing up in

  • the very good performance against the index
  • the long term increases in sustainable income per unit

As has been noted, the fund has maintained a credit quality equal to or better than the index; outperformance has generally been due to exploitation of trading anomalies.

Again, there are no predictions for the future! The fund will continue to trade between issues in an attempt to exploit market gaps in liquidity, in an effort to outperform the index and keep the sustainable income per unit – however calculated! – growing.

New Issues

New Issue: TD Straight 4.90%, NVCC

TD Bank has announced:

a domestic public offering of Non-Cumulative Fixed Rate Preferred Shares (non-viability contingent capital (NVCC)), Series 11 (the “Series 11 Shares”).

TD has entered into an agreement with a group of underwriters led by TD Securities Inc. to issue, on a bought deal basis, 6 million Series 11 Shares at a price of $25.00 per share to raise gross proceeds of $150 million. TD has also granted the underwriters an option to purchase, on the same terms, up to an additional 2 million Series 11 Shares. This option is exercisable in whole or in part by the underwriters at any time up to two business days prior to closing of the offering.

The Series 11 Shares will yield 4.90% annually, with dividends payable quarterly, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of TD. The Series 11 Shares will be redeemable in whole or in part by TD on or after October 31, 2020, subject to regulatory consent, at a declining premium.

The expected closing date is July 21, 2015. TD will make an application to list the Series 11 Shares as of the closing date on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The net proceeds of the offering will be used for general corporate purposes.

It’s nice to see another Straight Perpetual on the market!

Market Action

July 9, 2015

What causes high tuition? The same thing that drives high house prices, according to David O. Lucca, Taylor Nadauld, and Karen Shen of the New York Fed:

When students fund their education through loans, changes in student borrowing and tuition are interlinked. Higher tuition costs raise loan demand, but loan supply also affects equilibrium tuition costs—for example, by relaxing students’ funding constraints. To resolve this simultaneity problem, we exploit detailed student-level financial data and changes in federal student aid programs to identify the impact of increased student loan funding on tuition. We find that institutions more exposed to changes in the subsidized federal loan program increased their tuition disproportionately around these policy changes, with a sizable pass-through effect on tuition of about 65 percent. We also find that Pell Grant aid and the unsubsidized federal loan program have pass-through effects on tuition, although these are economically and statistically not as strong. The subsidized loan effect on tuition is most pronounced for expensive, private institutions that are somewhat, but not among the most, selective.

Bloomberg provides estimates of R&D spending by country for the period 2007-12:

RandD
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Way to go, Canada! Significantly below the world average while our biggest trading partner is well above the world average! That’s what I call an economic action plan!

The CD Howe Institute has published Mortgage Insurance as a Macroprudential Tool: Dealing with the Risk of a Housing Market Crash in Canad:

Our recommendations:

  • • Redesign the government backstop to focus on events that include a severe housing crash along with rising unemployment. The backstop should be organized as a standalone fund that accumulates reserves in advance of a housing crisis up to a target level and has the capacity to borrow against future revenue if needed.
  • • The Financial Institutions Supervisory Committee (FISC) should oversee the backstop fund, particularly its pricing policy, accumulation of reserves and target level for reserves.
  • • Mortgage insurance backstop should be available only for the residential ownership market.
    mortgagesOutstanding
    Click for Big

    I can’t say I’m particularly impressed. To me, the most insidious part of government insurance is the bloating of bank balance sheets as illustrated by their chart above. The reduction of the risk-weight assigned to mortgages when they are government insured has contributed to this bloating, but this effect is not discussed in their paper.

    Separately, they are calling for no BoC rate cuts, with a slow rise to 1.00% (from 0.75%) over the next year, but there are some dissenting doves:

    While the majority of Council members called for the overnight rate target to stay at 0.75 percent next week and in September, four called for the Bank of Canada to cut its target to 0.50 percent next week and hold it there in September. By January 2016, five members called for 0.75 percent and three for 0.50 percent, while three called for an increase to 1.00 percent. By July 2016, three members called for 0.75 percent and one for 0.50 percent, with the majority of members calling for an increase (four looking for 1.00 percent and three for 1.25 percent).

    The split between members favouring no change and those favouring a cut, and the gradual pace of increases envisioned even by those favouring rate hikes over the coming year, reflected disappointment about recent Canadian growth, and concern that the disinflationary output gap in the Canadian economy will take time to close. Several members commented on divergent indicators, and although Labour Force Survey measures of employment growth are inevitably volatile, more than one member suggested that Friday’s employment figures should affect the Bank’s interest-rate decision.

    Meanwhile the IMF has cut growth projections:

    In its quarterly World Economic Outlook update released Thursday morning, the IMF forecast that Canada’s real gross domestic product would grow just 1.5 per cent this year, down sharply from 2.2 per cent in its April outlook. It’s the third successive quarter that the global financial body has reduced its 2015 forecast for Canada, and by far its most drastic reduction – reflecting mounting evidence that the Canadian economy dramatically underperformed expectations in the second quarter of the year.

    Thomson Reuters Corporation, proud issuer of TRI.PR.B, was confirmed at Pfd-3(high) by DBRS:

    DBRS Limited (DBRS) has confirmed Thomson Reuters Corporation’s (Thomson Reuters or the Company) Issuer Rating as well as its Unsecured Medium-Term Notes and Unsecured Debentures ratings at BBB (high). DBRS has also confirmed Thomson Reuters’ Commercial Paper rating at R-2 (high) and its Preferred Shares rating at Pfd-3 (high). All trends are Stable. The ratings continue to reflect the Company’s well-entrenched market position, the diverse nature of its customer base and its strong free cash flow-generating capacity. The rating confirmations also consider intensifying competition, the need for constant innovation and the risks associated with the Company’s ongoing acquisitions and divestitures.

    Going forward, DBRS expects that revenue growth will be flat in 2015 as continued weakness in the Financial & Risk segment is likely to offset modest growth across all other divisions. DBRS expects the Company to complete its legacy product and platform migrations in 2015 that are likely to position Financial & Risk to return to a positive growth path in 2016. EBITDA margins are expected to be constrained (around 27%) in 2015 as the Company’s revenue growth from migration of key products and platforms in Financial & Risk is likely to be temporarily curbed by the pricing dynamics of new offerings.

    As recorded in the publication The Dreadful Story of the Preferred Share Market, there was once an investor who hoped the market would be on fire today:

    struwwelPeter
    Click for Big

    Editor’s Note: This story is adapted from The Dreadful Story of the Matches, part of the excellent StruwwelPeter; a collection of cautionary tales for children.

    Managing Editor’s Note: If you liked “The Producers” or other such mockery, you will also enjoy StruwwelHitler, which is not available on-line but can be purchased from Amazon. It’s hilarious 1940 British propaganda.

    Publisher’s note: Hitler and Nazism should be mocked more often. I often think we’re doing ourselves a disservice by demonizing Hitler, for all that he’s the top western candidate from the twentieth century. By demonizing him, we’re separating ourselves from him and we would do better to remember that he was, at bottom, just another politician; one who was able to expose and exploit the demon that resides in all of us to some extent. Golding got it right in Lord of the Flies; but of course there are relatively few people alive today who knew him mainly from newsreels and newspapers of the thirties.

    President’s note: All of this moral philosophy is a whole lot more fun than looking at the preferred share market’s returns, I assure you!

    The Canadian preferred share market got whacked again today, with PerpetualDiscounts down 137bp, FixedResets losing 175bp and DeemedRetractibles off 35bp. Floaters got destroyed – for those who are keeping track, this means that total return since January 6, 2010 has been negative, although there’s a long way to go yet before we hit the depths of the Credit Crunch. As one might guess, the Performance Highlights table is enormous, with five issues losing over 5% on the day – a figure that is normally indicative of a reporting or quotation problem, as opposed to a market problem. Volume was extremely high.

    Who knows how much longer this will last? The market was reasonably firm in the afternoon after a precipitous morning decline, as shown by the chart of CPD for the day:

    CPD_150709
    Click for Big

    … but now I suspect that people are selling simply because the market has gone down. With long corporates still yielding about 3.95%, the Seniority Spread is at about 300bp, which makes PerpetualDiscounts look cheap … and yet TD came out with a new issue today!

    For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

    Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
    » based on Implied Volatility Theory only
    » are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
    » assume constant GOC-5 yield
    » assume constant Implied Volatility
    » assume constant spread

    Here’s TRP:

    impVol_TRP_150709
    Click for Big

    TRP.PR.B, which resets 2020-6-30 at +128, is bid at 14.56 to be $0.36 rich, while TRP.PR.C, resetting 2016-1-30 at +154, is $0.50 cheap at its bid price of 15.55.

    impVol_MFC_150709
    Click for Big

    Another excellent fit, but the numbers are perplexing. Implied Volatility for MFC continues to be a conundrum. It is still too high if we consider that NVCC rules will never apply to these issues; it is still too low if we consider them to be NVCC non-compliant issues (and therefore with Deemed Maturities in the call schedule).

    Most expensive is MFC.PR.F, resetting at +141bp on 2016-6-19, bid at 17.00 to be $0.94 rich, while MFC.PR.K, resetting at +222bp on 2018-9-19, is bid at 20.50 to be $0.94 cheap.

    impVol_BAM_150709
    Click for Big

    The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PF.B, resetting at +263bp on 2019-3-31, bid at 19.96 to be $0.92 cheap. BAM.PR.X, resetting at +180bp 2017-6-30 is bid at 16.47 and appears to be $0.76 rich.

    impVol_FTS_150709
    Click for Big

    FTS.PR.K, with a spread of +205bp, and bid at 21.24, looks $0.48 expensive and resets 2019-3-1. FTS.PR.M, with a spread of +248bp and resetting 2019-12-1, is bid at 22.40 and is $0.44 cheap.

    Note that there has been a very sharp rise in calculated implied volatility lately; that is that the lower-spread issues strongly outperformed their higher-spread siblings. The current calculated level of implied volatility is currently unreasonably high; reversion to a lower level will imply underperformance of the lower-spread issues.

    pairs_FR_150709
    Click for Big

    I’ve had to change the scale on the chart since so many of the break-even rates went negative today!

    Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of -0.02% (which seems a little extreme!). On the junk side, one of the six pairs is an outlier, with an implied rate exceeding 1.00%.

    pairs_FF_150709
    Click for Big

    Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

    HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
    These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

    Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
    Index Mean
    Current
    Yield
    (at bid)
    Median
    YTW
    Median
    Average
    Trading
    Value
    Median
    Mod Dur
    (YTW)
    Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
    Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -6.9710 % 1,961.7
    FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -6.9710 % 3,429.9
    Floater 3.95 % 3.98 % 59,130 17.50 3 -6.9710 % 2,085.4
    OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.4324 % 2,760.7
    SplitShare 4.61 % 4.90 % 68,816 3.22 3 0.4324 % 3,235.4
    Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.4324 % 2,524.4
    Perpetual-Premium 5.51 % 3.74 % 66,320 0.08 13 -0.2673 % 2,513.4
    Perpetual-Discount 5.42 % 5.35 % 92,475 14.84 21 -1.3662 % 2,643.0
    FixedReset 4.70 % 3.82 % 219,660 16.10 88 -1.7469 % 2,238.3
    Deemed-Retractible 5.02 % 3.68 % 106,150 0.79 34 -0.3477 % 2,623.0
    FloatingReset 2.53 % 3.18 % 56,355 6.07 10 -1.3034 % 2,278.2
    Performance Highlights
    Issue Index Change Notes
    BAM.PR.B Floater -7.25 % This is reasonably accurate; the low for the day was equal to the close at 12.95, with most of the last twenty-five trades being a few pennies above 13.00.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 12.79
    Evaluated at bid price : 12.79
    Bid-YTW : 3.92 %
    BAM.PR.C Floater -7.06 % This is also reasonable, as late-afternoon weakness took almost all of the last twenty-five trades of the day to or below 12.75.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 12.50
    Evaluated at bid price : 12.50
    Bid-YTW : 4.01 %
    BAM.PR.K Floater -6.59 % Reasonable, given that the low was also the close for the day at 12.82, although there were few trades in the afternoon when the price of Floaters (see above) simply collapsed.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 12.61
    Evaluated at bid price : 12.61
    Bid-YTW : 3.98 %
    NA.PR.S FixedReset -5.46 % Nothing wrong with the closing bid of 21.98; a lot of trades in the late afternoon were well below this figure, with a low for the day of 21.76.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.68
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.98
    Bid-YTW : 3.76 %
    ENB.PR.N FixedReset -5.42 % Yep, there were lots of trades in the last two minutes near the closing bid of 17.45, and the low for the day was 17.22.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 17.45
    Evaluated at bid price : 17.45
    Bid-YTW : 5.12 %
    ENB.PR.P FixedReset -4.83 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 16.95
    Evaluated at bid price : 16.95
    Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
    TD.PF.A FixedReset -4.76 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.00
    Bid-YTW : 3.80 %
    NA.PR.W FixedReset -4.73 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 20.96
    Evaluated at bid price : 20.96
    Bid-YTW : 3.82 %
    MFC.PR.K FixedReset -4.65 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 20.50
    Bid-YTW : 5.82 %
    ENB.PR.Y FixedReset -4.60 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 16.60
    Evaluated at bid price : 16.60
    Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
    BAM.PR.M Perpetual-Discount -4.56 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 19.90
    Evaluated at bid price : 19.90
    Bid-YTW : 6.02 %
    BAM.PF.E FixedReset -4.53 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.07
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.07
    Bid-YTW : 4.28 %
    RY.PR.Z FixedReset -4.49 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.38
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.69
    Bid-YTW : 3.67 %
    MFC.PR.J FixedReset -4.14 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.40
    Bid-YTW : 4.44 %
    BAM.PF.D Perpetual-Discount -4.06 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 20.57
    Evaluated at bid price : 20.57
    Bid-YTW : 6.01 %
    CU.PR.E Perpetual-Discount -3.91 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.78
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.11
    Bid-YTW : 5.35 %
    RY.PR.H FixedReset -3.89 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.25
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.25
    Bid-YTW : 3.81 %
    BAM.PR.N Perpetual-Discount -3.85 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 20.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 20.00
    Bid-YTW : 5.99 %
    BAM.PF.C Perpetual-Discount -3.79 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 20.30
    Evaluated at bid price : 20.30
    Bid-YTW : 6.03 %
    CU.PR.D Perpetual-Discount -3.78 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.81
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.14
    Bid-YTW : 5.35 %
    ENB.PR.T FixedReset -3.71 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 17.15
    Evaluated at bid price : 17.15
    Bid-YTW : 5.06 %
    VNR.PR.A FixedReset -3.66 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.66
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.10
    Bid-YTW : 4.12 %
    BAM.PF.B FixedReset -3.62 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 19.96
    Evaluated at bid price : 19.96
    Bid-YTW : 4.49 %
    BAM.PF.G FixedReset -3.53 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.91
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.39
    Bid-YTW : 4.27 %
    BAM.PR.R FixedReset -3.48 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 18.05
    Evaluated at bid price : 18.05
    Bid-YTW : 4.41 %
    HSE.PR.E FixedReset -3.46 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.39
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.17
    Bid-YTW : 4.70 %
    TRP.PR.A FixedReset -3.37 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 18.94
    Evaluated at bid price : 18.94
    Bid-YTW : 3.74 %
    TD.PF.E FixedReset -3.25 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.81
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.11
    Bid-YTW : 3.69 %
    BAM.PR.X FixedReset -3.12 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 16.47
    Evaluated at bid price : 16.47
    Bid-YTW : 4.22 %
    PWF.PR.P FixedReset -3.11 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 17.13
    Evaluated at bid price : 17.13
    Bid-YTW : 3.50 %
    TD.PF.B FixedReset -3.02 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.21
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.21
    Bid-YTW : 3.76 %
    TRP.PR.F FloatingReset -3.01 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 18.04
    Evaluated at bid price : 18.04
    Bid-YTW : 3.40 %
    HSE.PR.C FixedReset -2.96 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.07
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.61
    Bid-YTW : 4.46 %
    IFC.PR.A FixedReset -2.91 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 19.00
    Bid-YTW : 6.49 %
    ENB.PR.H FixedReset -2.79 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 15.70
    Evaluated at bid price : 15.70
    Bid-YTW : 4.97 %
    ENB.PR.F FixedReset -2.73 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 16.75
    Evaluated at bid price : 16.75
    Bid-YTW : 5.13 %
    ENB.PF.C FixedReset -2.73 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 18.19
    Evaluated at bid price : 18.19
    Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
    SLF.PR.H FixedReset -2.71 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 20.10
    Bid-YTW : 5.79 %
    MFC.PR.M FixedReset -2.59 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.48
    Bid-YTW : 5.48 %
    ENB.PF.E FixedReset -2.40 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 18.30
    Evaluated at bid price : 18.30
    Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
    SLF.PR.I FixedReset -2.36 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.03
    Bid-YTW : 4.16 %
    BNS.PR.D FloatingReset -2.26 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.06
    Bid-YTW : 3.48 %
    IAG.PR.G FixedReset -2.25 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.30
    Bid-YTW : 4.15 %
    BAM.PR.T FixedReset -2.16 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 19.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 19.00
    Bid-YTW : 4.25 %
    TD.PF.C FixedReset -2.13 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.09
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.09
    Bid-YTW : 3.77 %
    IFC.PR.C FixedReset -2.13 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.02
    Bid-YTW : 5.15 %
    ENB.PR.D FixedReset -2.13 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 16.54
    Evaluated at bid price : 16.54
    Bid-YTW : 4.99 %
    BMO.PR.T FixedReset -2.11 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.32
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.32
    Bid-YTW : 3.78 %
    SLF.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -2.11 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.30
    Bid-YTW : 6.00 %
    ENB.PF.A FixedReset -2.04 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 18.22
    Evaluated at bid price : 18.22
    Bid-YTW : 5.09 %
    CM.PR.Q FixedReset -2.02 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.86
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.20
    Bid-YTW : 3.58 %
    MFC.PR.L FixedReset -2.00 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.02
    Bid-YTW : 5.59 %
    BNS.PR.B FloatingReset -1.99 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.19
    Bid-YTW : 3.37 %
    BAM.PF.F FixedReset -1.98 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.21
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.80
    Bid-YTW : 4.16 %
    ENB.PF.G FixedReset -1.91 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 18.44
    Evaluated at bid price : 18.44
    Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
    GWO.PR.I Deemed-Retractible -1.90 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.77
    Bid-YTW : 5.77 %
    TRP.PR.G FixedReset -1.82 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.88
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.30
    Bid-YTW : 3.78 %
    MFC.PR.G FixedReset -1.79 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.75
    Bid-YTW : 3.95 %
    PWF.PR.T FixedReset -1.76 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.93
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.07
    Bid-YTW : 3.35 %
    TRP.PR.C FixedReset -1.58 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 15.55
    Evaluated at bid price : 15.55
    Bid-YTW : 3.76 %
    BMO.PR.S FixedReset -1.57 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.62
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.90
    Bid-YTW : 3.75 %
    SLF.PR.B Deemed-Retractible -1.51 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.53
    Bid-YTW : 5.65 %
    SLF.PR.E Deemed-Retractible -1.48 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.66
    Bid-YTW : 5.84 %
    HSE.PR.A FixedReset -1.46 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 15.55
    Evaluated at bid price : 15.55
    Bid-YTW : 4.17 %
    BMO.PR.W FixedReset -1.45 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.10
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.10
    Bid-YTW : 3.79 %
    BAM.PF.A FixedReset -1.43 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.73
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
    Bid-YTW : 4.33 %
    SLF.PR.D Deemed-Retractible -1.33 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.31
    Bid-YTW : 5.99 %
    TD.PR.Z FloatingReset -1.30 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.45
    Bid-YTW : 3.16 %
    PWF.PR.L Perpetual-Discount -1.25 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 24.21
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.50
    Bid-YTW : 5.20 %
    CM.PR.O FixedReset -1.18 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.41
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.74
    Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
    SLF.PR.G FixedReset -1.15 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 16.40
    Bid-YTW : 7.32 %
    PWF.PR.R Perpetual-Premium -1.13 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Call
    Maturity Date : 2020-04-30
    Maturity Price : 25.25
    Evaluated at bid price : 25.46
    Bid-YTW : 5.20 %
    MFC.PR.H FixedReset -1.12 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Call
    Maturity Date : 2017-03-19
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 25.51
    Bid-YTW : 3.52 %
    CU.PR.F Perpetual-Discount -1.12 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.67
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
    Bid-YTW : 5.16 %
    RY.PR.K FloatingReset -1.12 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.93
    Bid-YTW : 3.17 %
    BNS.PR.A FloatingReset -1.11 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.95
    Bid-YTW : 3.18 %
    BNS.PR.Y FixedReset -1.07 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.26
    Bid-YTW : 3.69 %
    BMO.PR.R FloatingReset -1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 23.60
    Bid-YTW : 3.12 %
    RY.PR.J FixedReset -1.02 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.85
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.15
    Bid-YTW : 3.59 %
    PVS.PR.B SplitShare 1.02 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2019-01-10
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.77
    Bid-YTW : 4.78 %
    HSE.PR.G FixedReset 1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.84
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.15
    Bid-YTW : 4.47 %
    GWO.PR.N FixedReset 1.09 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 16.70
    Bid-YTW : 7.03 %
    FTS.PR.M FixedReset 1.82 % YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.94
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.40
    Bid-YTW : 3.83 %
    Volume Highlights
    Issue Index Shares
    Traded
    Notes
    BMO.PR.S FixedReset 223,171 RBC crossed six blocks totalling 145,200 shares, all at 21.90.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.62
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.90
    Bid-YTW : 3.75 %
    TD.PF.D FixedReset 146,020 Desjardins crossed 29,700 at 24.10; RBC crossed blocks of 50,000 and 25,000 at the same price.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.77
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
    Bid-YTW : 3.62 %
    TRP.PR.D FixedReset 131,131 RBC Crossed three blocks of 25,000 each, all at 21.55.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.31
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.31
    Bid-YTW : 3.88 %
    FTS.PR.M FixedReset 82,714 RBC crossed blocks of 23,800 at 24,500, both at 22.85.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.94
    Evaluated at bid price : 22.40
    Bid-YTW : 3.83 %
    CM.PR.O FixedReset 79,049 RBC crossed 46,700 at 21.65.
    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.41
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.74
    Bid-YTW : 3.72 %
    RY.PR.Z FixedReset 70,757 YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 21.38
    Evaluated at bid price : 21.69
    Bid-YTW : 3.67 %
    There were 70 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
    Wide Spread Highlights
    Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
    MFC.PR.K FixedReset Quote: 20.50 – 22.64
    Spot Rate : 2.1400
    Average : 1.2800

    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 20.50
    Bid-YTW : 5.82 %

    SLF.PR.I FixedReset Quote: 24.03 – 24.90
    Spot Rate : 0.8700
    Average : 0.5897

    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.03
    Bid-YTW : 4.16 %

    TRP.PR.F FloatingReset Quote: 18.04 – 18.82
    Spot Rate : 0.7800
    Average : 0.5253

    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 18.04
    Evaluated at bid price : 18.04
    Bid-YTW : 3.40 %

    PWF.PR.P FixedReset Quote: 17.13 – 17.70
    Spot Rate : 0.5700
    Average : 0.3623

    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 17.13
    Evaluated at bid price : 17.13
    Bid-YTW : 3.50 %

    SLF.PR.H FixedReset Quote: 20.10 – 20.75
    Spot Rate : 0.6500
    Average : 0.4463

    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
    Maturity Price : 25.00
    Evaluated at bid price : 20.10
    Bid-YTW : 5.79 %

    RY.PR.J FixedReset Quote: 24.15 – 24.75
    Spot Rate : 0.6000
    Average : 0.4000

    YTW SCENARIO
    Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
    Maturity Date : 2045-07-09
    Maturity Price : 22.85
    Evaluated at bid price : 24.15
    Bid-YTW : 3.59 %

Market Action

July 8, 2015

The NYSE was not open for much of the day:

A computer malfunction that knocked out trading at the New York Stock Exchange for more than three hours Wednesday probably stemmed from a software update that went awry, said two people briefed on a preliminary review.

The NYSE must now verify the cause and report its conclusions to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said the people who asked not to be named because the inquiry isn’t public. The SEC will use those findings to investigate whether any rule violations occurred, the people said.

Fortunately, the accidentally distributed architecture of US equity trading saved the day:

While often the focus of criticism, the fragmented nature of the U.S. equity market helped shares keep trading on NYSE competitors such as Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and Bats Global Markets Inc. No single market handles more than 16 percent of overall volume. Farley used this as part of his decision-making today.

“My first concern was, do no harm during the day — those stocks continue to trade elsewhere — get the problem fixed and get it back up and running for the close,” he said. The exchange also chose not to shift operations to its disaster recovery center because that would’ve required customers to connect to that venue, [NYSE President Tom] Farley said.

“We chose the least disruptive option for customers,” he said.

Fortunately, the inherent robustness of distributed architecture has been noted:

The New York Stock Exchange halted trading for 3 1/2 hours because of a computer malfunction, forcing traders to route orders elsewhere in a drama that also highlighted the resilience of U.S. market structure.

The suspension, lasting from 11:32 a.m. to just after 3 p.m. New York time, dropped the largest U.S. share platform out of the network of trading systems that make up the American equity market. That network kept running, however, as exchanges such as the Nasdaq Stock Market and Bats Global Markets Inc. picked up the runoff.

“That’s one of the things to ponder from this, to see the robustness of how the system works when you knock out one critical component,” said Thomas Caldwell, chairman of Caldwell Securities Ltd. in Toronto. “We do have more than one exchange, and that means that if the major market is closed, the orders typically get rerouted to others.”

However, I do not expect the regulators to take any account of this lesson when considering bank holdings of other banks’ paper and central clearing; they will continue their headlong accentuation of vulnerability to single-point-failure because, you know, regulators are pretty damn stupid. And with a distributed system they have to send out more resumes when they seek to leave government employment.

Speaking of stupid policies, how about those electricity rates, eh?:

Soaring electricity rates in Ontario are threatening industries and businesses across the province, with one in 20 reporting they expect to shut down in the next five years, according to a major study by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC).

Businesses can’t grow, make improvements or investments or even hire new workers because of the increasing rates, which are among the highest in the country and expected to continue to rise over the next 20 years, says the report, Empowering Ontario: Constraining Costs & Staying Competitive in the Electricity Sector, released Wednesday.

Jamey Heaton employs 21 people at his North Bay business, Bavarian Link Meat Products Ltd., which he has owned for three years. They produce and sell premium deli meats, sausages, smoked items, specialty bacon and meat snacks.

His electricity costs are more than $110,000 a year – the second-largest cost after salaries. He calls the high electricity prices a “huge burden.”

He says the rates have “slowed our expansion.” “If we spent 50 per cent less, I would invest the $50,000 in new equipment, which would lead to new jobs,” he says. “We have already grown by 25 per cent a year every year over the last three years and could grow more if there were additional funds.”

To keep costs down, he says, they cook mostly with natural gas, but he still has to rely on electricity as the 15,000-square-foot plant is refrigerated.

“We also, as industrial consumers, don’t benefit from time-of-day usage, whereas, if you’re a consumer, you get that time-of-day usage,” he says. “I can switch some of my production to do things at nighttime but there is no advantage for me to do it.”

He wonders why he can’t take advantage of the lower costs.

But China wins the prize:

China’s securities regulator banned major shareholders, corporate executives and directors from selling stakes in listed companies for six months, its latest effort to stop the nation’s $3.5 trillion stock-market rout.

Investors with stakes exceeding 5 percent must maintain their positions, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement. The rule is intended to guard capital-market stability amid an “unreasonable plunge” in share prices, the CSRC said.

While China has already ordered government-owned institutions to maintain or boost their stock holdings, the CSRC’s directive expands the ban on sales to non-state companies and potentially foreign investors who own major stakes in mainland businesses.

Chinese authorities have also suspended initial public offerings, restricted bearish bets via stock-index futures and encouraged financial firms to buy shares. In perhaps the most dramatic effort to prevent investors from selling, local exchanges have allowed at least 1,331 companies to halt trading in their shares.

The new initiative was met with well-deserved scorn:

Templeton Emerging Markets Group calls it an act of “desperation.” UBS Wealth Management labels it “extreme.” And Wells Fargo Funds Management says it just “postpones the inevitable.”

China’s decision to ban major stockholders from selling stakes in listed companies has drawn skepticism from foreign investors. The money managers, with combined assets of almost $4 trillion, say the latest step to stem the country’s equity rout is just another measure to meddle in the market and won’t be enough to restore investors’ confidence.

“It suggests desperation,” Mark Mobius, chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, said by phone. “It actually creates more fear because it shows that they’ve lost control.”

“The measure can be effective in the short term because you are not going to allow people to trade,” said Jorge Mariscal, the emerging-markets chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management, which oversees $1 trillion in invested assets, said by phone. “But they are undermining the credibility on the soundness of the regulatory framework going forward. Things are a little extreme and counter-productive.”

As the record-breaking boom goes bust, President Xi Jinping is intervening in an attempt to prevent the rout from eroding confidence in his leadership. The moves have cast doubt on the Communist Party’s pledge less than two years ago to give market forces a bigger role in the economy, which is part of its largest reform drive since the 1990s.

Fed minutes show the FOMC was worried about this:

Federal Reserve officials in June saw the economy moving toward conditions that would support an interest-rate increase, while also expressing concern about weak consumer spending and risks from China and Greece that have since intensified.

Policy makers “saw economic conditions as continuing to approach those consistent with warranting” tighter monetary policy at some point, according to minutes of their June 16-17 meeting released Wednesday in Washington. All but one “indicated that they would need to see more evidence that economic growth was sufficiently strong.”

The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee showed several officials “mentioned their uncertainty about whether Greece and its official creditors would reach an agreement and about the likely pace of economic growth abroad, particularly in China and other emerging-market economies.”

Separately, Fed Bank of San Francisco President John Williams Wednesday maintained his call for two rate increases this year.

“We will get greater clarity, hopefully, on what’s happening in Greece and the euro area,” by September, Williams, a voting member of the FOMC this year, told reporters after a speech in Los Angeles.

In the Canadian markets were affected by a slow pace of construction:

Canadian building permits fell more than economists forecast in May, with declines across all major types of projects from hospitals to condominiums and industrial sites.

The value of municipal permits fell 14.5 percent to C$6.7 billion ($5.27 billion), giving back part of the gains recorded over the prior two months, Statistics Canada said Wednesday in Ottawa. Economists forecast a 5 percent fall according to the median of 11 responses to a Bloomberg survey.

and there were calls for a policy rate cut:

Bank of Montreal’s Doug Porter and Royal Bank of Canada’s Mark Chandler joined a growing list of economists calling for Canada’s central bank to cut interest rates next week on signs of a faltering recovery.

Porter and Chandler predicted Wednesday the Bank of Canada will reduce its overnight rate to 0.5 percent at the next decision July 15. They changed their predictions after a report Tuesday showed a drop in non-energy exports pushed Canada’s trade deficit to the second-largest on record.

exacerbated by a flight to Treasuries:

Call it trading places in the financial markets. Treasuries are up for the year and U.S. shares are down — an about face from just a few weeks ago.

After a weeklong rally through Wednesday, the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bond Index has now returned 0.7 percent for 2015. That’s a relief for investors in the world’s biggest bond market following three months of losses from April through June. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is down 0.6 percent for the year, with the gauge falling from a record in May.

What changed? Greece is struggling to stay in the euro currency union and Chinese shares are plunging, driving demand for the relative safety of U.S. government debt. The Federal Reserve acknowledged the potential risks from overseas crises, boosting speculation it will delay increasing interest rates until next year.

Five year Canada’s dropped to 0.65% compared to 0.82% on July 2.

So according to the preferred share market …

apocalypse
Click for Big

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!

It was an appalling day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts down 46bp, FixedResets losing an incredible 171bp and DeemedRetractibles off 10bp. The Performance Highlights table is as lengthy as one might expect given the overall numbers, dominated by losing FixedResets with ENB issues particularly notable amongst the worst of the losers. Volume was extremely high.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.37%, equivalent to 6.98% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates now yield about 3.95%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (in this context, the “Seniority Spread”) has rocketed up to about 305bp, an immense leap from the 260bp reported June 24.

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
» based on Implied Volatility Theory only
» are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
» assume constant GOC-5 yield
» assume constant Implied Volatility
» assume constant spread

Here’s TRP:

impVol_TRP_150708
Click for Big

TRP.PR.A, which resets 2019-12-31 at +192, is bid at 19.60 to be $0.59 rich, while TRP.PR.D, resetting 2019-4-30 at +238, is $0.57 cheap at its bid price of 21.30.

impVol_MFC_150708
Click for Big

Another excellent fit, but the numbers are perplexing. Implied Volatility for MFC continues to be a conundrum. It is still too high if we consider that NVCC rules will never apply to these issues; it is still too low if we consider them to be NVCC non-compliant issues (and therefore with Deemed Maturities in the call schedule).

Most expensive is MFC.PR.F, resetting at +141bp on 2016-6-19, bid at 17.11 to be $0.64 rich, while MFC.PR.M, resetting at +236bp on 2019-12-19, is bid at 22.05 to be $0.67 cheap.

impVol_BAM_150708
Click for Big

The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PR.R, resetting at +230bp on 2016-6-30, bid at 18.70 to be $0.88 cheap. BAM.PF.E, resetting at +255bp 2020-3-31 is bid at 22.07 and appears to be $1.05 rich.

impVol_FTS_150708
Click for Big

FTS.PR.G, with a spread of +213bp, and bid at 21.53, looks $0.48 expensive and resets 2018-9-1. FTS.PR.M, with a spread of +248bp and resetting 2019-12-1, is bid at 22.00 and is $0.66 cheap.

Note that there has been a very sharp rise in calculated implied volatility today; that is that the lower-spread issues strongly outperformed their higher-spread siblings. The current calculated level of implied volatility is currently unreasonably high; reversion to a lower level will imply underperformance of the lower-spread issues.

pairs_FR_150708
Click for Big

Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of 0.21%, including the outliers BMO.PR.M / BMO.PR.R at -0.09%, BNS.PR.Q / BNS.PR.B at -0.24% and BNS.PR.R / BNS.PR.C at -0.12%. On the junk side, three of the six pairs are outliers, two pairs with break-even yields above 1.00%, and one below 0.00%.

pairs_FF_150708
Click for Big

Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -2.9538 % 2,108.7
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -2.9538 % 3,687.0
Floater 3.67 % 3.71 % 59,105 18.07 3 -2.9538 % 2,241.7
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.7777 % 2,748.8
SplitShare 4.63 % 5.10 % 67,011 3.22 3 -0.7777 % 3,221.4
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -0.7777 % 2,513.5
Perpetual-Premium 5.50 % 3.71 % 66,921 0.08 13 0.0185 % 2,520.1
Perpetual-Discount 5.35 % 5.37 % 92,460 14.89 21 -0.4596 % 2,679.6
FixedReset 4.62 % 3.73 % 217,199 16.13 88 -1.7053 % 2,278.1
Deemed-Retractible 5.00 % 3.11 % 107,173 0.79 34 -0.0999 % 2,632.1
FloatingReset 2.49 % 2.99 % 53,571 6.08 10 0.1212 % 2,308.3
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
FTS.PR.M FixedReset -7.17 % Very misleading, as the low for the day was 23.01 on volume of 70,503 shares, so this is just more Toronto Stock Exchange nonsense. I have not checked whether this is due to inadequate Toronto Stock Exchange reporting or inadequate Toronto Stock Exchange supervision of market-makers.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.66
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 3.91 %
ENB.PR.B FixedReset -5.07 % This one, on the other hand, is quite real: the last twenty-five trades of the day (commencing at 3:43pm) were below 16.60 and it touched 16.47 at one point.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 16.47
Evaluated at bid price : 16.47
Bid-YTW : 5.00 %
ENB.PF.A FixedReset -4.86 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 18.60
Evaluated at bid price : 18.60
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %
MFC.PR.M FixedReset -4.34 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.05
Bid-YTW : 5.14 %
ENB.PF.G FixedReset -4.33 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 18.80
Evaluated at bid price : 18.80
Bid-YTW : 5.00 %
BMO.PR.W FixedReset -4.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.41
Evaluated at bid price : 21.41
Bid-YTW : 3.73 %
ENB.PR.D FixedReset -4.25 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 16.90
Evaluated at bid price : 16.90
Bid-YTW : 4.88 %
ENB.PR.J FixedReset -4.14 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 18.31
Evaluated at bid price : 18.31
Bid-YTW : 4.91 %
ENB.PR.F FixedReset -4.01 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 17.22
Evaluated at bid price : 17.22
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %
BMO.PR.S FixedReset -3.97 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.87
Evaluated at bid price : 22.25
Bid-YTW : 3.68 %
BAM.PR.T FixedReset -3.91 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 19.42
Evaluated at bid price : 19.42
Bid-YTW : 4.16 %
ENB.PF.E FixedReset -3.90 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 18.75
Evaluated at bid price : 18.75
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %
ENB.PR.T FixedReset -3.73 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 17.81
Evaluated at bid price : 17.81
Bid-YTW : 4.86 %
BMO.PR.T FixedReset -3.71 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.51
Evaluated at bid price : 21.78
Bid-YTW : 3.67 %
ENB.PF.C FixedReset -3.71 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 18.70
Evaluated at bid price : 18.70
Bid-YTW : 4.95 %
TD.PF.B FixedReset -3.61 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.59
Evaluated at bid price : 21.87
Bid-YTW : 3.61 %
CM.PR.P FixedReset -3.55 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.46
Evaluated at bid price : 21.46
Bid-YTW : 3.70 %
MFC.PR.L FixedReset -3.51 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.45
Bid-YTW : 5.33 %
BIP.PR.A FixedReset -3.48 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 22.12
Evaluated at bid price : 22.73
Bid-YTW : 4.80 %
BAM.PR.B Floater -3.43 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 13.79
Evaluated at bid price : 13.79
Bid-YTW : 3.64 %
MFC.PR.N FixedReset -3.40 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.91
Bid-YTW : 5.16 %
CM.PR.O FixedReset -3.30 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.68
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 3.67 %
ENB.PR.H FixedReset -3.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 16.15
Evaluated at bid price : 16.15
Bid-YTW : 4.82 %
MFC.PR.K FixedReset -3.28 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 21.50
Bid-YTW : 5.21 %
BAM.PR.R FixedReset -3.16 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 18.70
Evaluated at bid price : 18.70
Bid-YTW : 4.25 %
TD.PF.C FixedReset -3.02 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.55
Evaluated at bid price : 21.55
Bid-YTW : 3.68 %
RY.PR.H FixedReset -2.94 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.76
Evaluated at bid price : 22.11
Bid-YTW : 3.63 %
TRP.PR.C FixedReset -2.89 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 15.80
Evaluated at bid price : 15.80
Bid-YTW : 3.70 %
BAM.PR.C Floater -2.89 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 13.45
Evaluated at bid price : 13.45
Bid-YTW : 3.73 %
NA.PR.W FixedReset -2.65 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.65
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 3.61 %
TRP.PR.D FixedReset -2.61 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.30
Evaluated at bid price : 21.30
Bid-YTW : 3.88 %
ENB.PR.P FixedReset -2.57 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 17.81
Evaluated at bid price : 17.81
Bid-YTW : 4.85 %
BAM.PR.K Floater -2.53 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 13.50
Evaluated at bid price : 13.50
Bid-YTW : 3.71 %
BNS.PR.Z FixedReset -2.52 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.81
Bid-YTW : 3.80 %
ENB.PR.N FixedReset -2.48 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 18.45
Evaluated at bid price : 18.45
Bid-YTW : 4.83 %
BAM.PR.X FixedReset -2.41 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 17.00
Evaluated at bid price : 17.00
Bid-YTW : 4.08 %
BAM.PF.B FixedReset -2.40 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 20.71
Evaluated at bid price : 20.71
Bid-YTW : 4.32 %
PWF.PR.S Perpetual-Discount -2.38 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 23.18
Evaluated at bid price : 23.52
Bid-YTW : 5.09 %
BAM.PF.C Perpetual-Discount -2.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.10
Evaluated at bid price : 21.10
Bid-YTW : 5.80 %
BAM.PR.N Perpetual-Discount -2.12 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 20.80
Evaluated at bid price : 20.80
Bid-YTW : 5.76 %
RY.PR.Z FixedReset -2.11 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 22.18
Evaluated at bid price : 22.71
Bid-YTW : 3.48 %
HSE.PR.G FixedReset -2.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 22.73
Evaluated at bid price : 23.90
Bid-YTW : 4.53 %
PVS.PR.B SplitShare -2.08 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2019-01-10
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.52
Bid-YTW : 5.10 %
BAM.PF.D Perpetual-Discount -2.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.44
Evaluated at bid price : 21.44
Bid-YTW : 5.76 %
ENB.PR.Y FixedReset -2.03 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 17.40
Evaluated at bid price : 17.40
Bid-YTW : 4.85 %
HSE.PR.E FixedReset -2.00 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 22.79
Evaluated at bid price : 24.00
Bid-YTW : 4.51 %
BAM.PF.A FixedReset -1.98 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.97
Evaluated at bid price : 22.32
Bid-YTW : 4.26 %
TD.PF.A FixedReset -1.96 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.70
Evaluated at bid price : 22.05
Bid-YTW : 3.59 %
TRP.PR.A FixedReset -1.95 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 19.60
Evaluated at bid price : 19.60
Bid-YTW : 3.61 %
TRP.PR.E FixedReset -1.81 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.37
Evaluated at bid price : 21.68
Bid-YTW : 3.84 %
FTS.PR.K FixedReset -1.45 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.03
Evaluated at bid price : 21.03
Bid-YTW : 3.63 %
BAM.PR.M Perpetual-Discount -1.42 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 20.85
Evaluated at bid price : 20.85
Bid-YTW : 5.74 %
HSE.PR.C FixedReset -1.35 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 22.47
Evaluated at bid price : 23.30
Bid-YTW : 4.30 %
BNS.PR.Y FixedReset -1.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.50
Bid-YTW : 3.51 %
TRP.PR.B FixedReset -1.21 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 14.70
Evaluated at bid price : 14.70
Bid-YTW : 3.53 %
BMO.PR.Q FixedReset -1.18 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.50
Bid-YTW : 3.37 %
MFC.PR.C Deemed-Retractible -1.17 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.73
Bid-YTW : 5.81 %
IFC.PR.C FixedReset -1.10 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.50
Bid-YTW : 4.88 %
SLF.PR.A Deemed-Retractible -1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.67
Bid-YTW : 5.52 %
MFC.PR.F FixedReset -1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 17.11
Bid-YTW : 7.02 %
MFC.PR.I FixedReset -1.03 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.10
Bid-YTW : 3.81 %
BAM.PF.G FixedReset -1.02 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 22.39
Evaluated at bid price : 23.21
Bid-YTW : 4.08 %
SLF.PR.G FixedReset 1.84 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 16.59
Bid-YTW : 7.18 %
TRP.PR.H FloatingReset 7.17 % Basically a reversal of yesterday‘s nonsense.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 14.20
Evaluated at bid price : 14.20
Bid-YTW : 3.19 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
ENB.PR.N FixedReset 169,275 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 18.45
Evaluated at bid price : 18.45
Bid-YTW : 4.83 %
BNS.PR.L Deemed-Retractible 87,850 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2016-04-27
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.20
Bid-YTW : 3.11 %
TRP.PR.D FixedReset 86,567 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.30
Evaluated at bid price : 21.30
Bid-YTW : 3.88 %
RY.PR.C Deemed-Retractible 81,469 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2015-11-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.30
Bid-YTW : 2.91 %
CU.PR.C FixedReset 72,954 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 23.85
Evaluated at bid price : 24.17
Bid-YTW : 3.35 %
ENB.PR.F FixedReset 64,324 YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 17.22
Evaluated at bid price : 17.22
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %
There were 66 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
FTS.PR.M FixedReset Quote: 22.00 – 23.70
Spot Rate : 1.7000
Average : 1.0370

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.66
Evaluated at bid price : 22.00
Bid-YTW : 3.91 %

RY.PR.H FixedReset Quote: 22.11 – 22.85
Spot Rate : 0.7400
Average : 0.4450

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 21.76
Evaluated at bid price : 22.11
Bid-YTW : 3.63 %

BAM.PF.G FixedReset Quote: 23.21 – 23.64
Spot Rate : 0.4300
Average : 0.2869

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 22.39
Evaluated at bid price : 23.21
Bid-YTW : 4.08 %

ENB.PR.F FixedReset Quote: 17.22 – 17.73
Spot Rate : 0.5100
Average : 0.3695

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 17.22
Evaluated at bid price : 17.22
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %

HSE.PR.G FixedReset Quote: 23.90 – 24.29
Spot Rate : 0.3900
Average : 0.2501

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-08
Maturity Price : 22.73
Evaluated at bid price : 23.90
Bid-YTW : 4.53 %

GWO.PR.H Deemed-Retractible Quote: 23.80 – 24.23
Spot Rate : 0.4300
Average : 0.2903

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.80
Bid-YTW : 5.55 %

Market Action

July 7, 2015

Pressure on the loonie may lead to pressure on Canadian policy rates:

The outlook for the Canadian dollar just got worse.

The currency has slumped to a three-month low amid declining prices for oil, the nation’s largest export. That’s adding to pressure on the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates after a report Tuesday showed the country posted its second-largest trade deficit ever, led by tumbling exports.

Twenty-eight percent of economists surveyed by Bloomberg June 30 to July 2 see the Bank of Canada lowering its benchmark rate from 0.75 percent when it meets next week. That up from 6 percent of participants in a survey conducted June 5-10.

Matt Levine complains that front-running is a phrase that is losing all meaning and points out that it is really … selling liquidity:

The people who bought the stock on Tuesday and sold it to the index funds on Friday performed a market-making function: They knew that there would be a lot of concentrated demand for stock on one day, they knew there wouldn’t be enough “natural” supply to meet that demand, and so they spread that demand backwards in time by buying ahead of the big demand event. They — it’s become a dirty phrase by now, but here it is — supplied liquidity. And they got paid for doing it.4 But trading ahead of anticipated demand looks a lot like front-running, for some definition of front-running,5 so they look a little like villains. Even if they actually helped their supposed victims.

One of my little stock-market obsessions is that index funds free-ride on the work done by active investors. Someone needs to make decisions that allocate capital to businesses. A world in which everyone indexes, and in which no one thinks that active managers should be able to charge for their services, is a world that will spend too little time and effort on allocating capital to the right businesses.

The index funds have the advantage of free-riding, but the disadvantage of being predictable. Stocks should go up when they join an index. That’s the price that the index funds pay to active traders for picking stocks. Stock picking is valuable; active investors pay for it in fees, while passive investors pay for it in, you know, front-running or whatever.

I have often written about a so-called ‘meta-index’ which would include issues on their announcement date, rather than their effective date. Stocks added to indices tend to rise during the interim period, while deletions fall. The purpose of having the intervening time is to smooth the trading through the change, in order to give index funds a better chance of equalling their benchmark; a side effect is that the index itself underperforms its meta-index through this period. And, it would seem, this has finally attracted some notice:

The traders are simply buying stocks before they’re added to the indexes that, by definition, index funds must track.

As the popularity of index investing soars to new heights, the emergence of index front-running is raising fundamental questions about so-called passive investment strategies, as well as how indexes are compiled and the role the funds themselves play in elevating costs. By one estimate, it gouges owners of funds tracking the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the tune of $4.3 billion a year, a sum that can double or even triple the cost of such investments.

“Portfolio managers are aware of it, but some of them will say ‘My clients demand an index fund, and I’m going to give it to them come hell or high water,’” Michael Rawson, an analyst at Morningstar Inc., said from Chicago. “Yes, you matched the index return, but the investor is now worse off. You don’t hear about that as much.”

Over a course of a year, front-running — of stocks going into and coming out of indexes — costs investors in S&P 500 tracker funds at least 0.2 percentage points, according to research published last year by Winton Capital Management Ltd., a quantitative hedge fund that analyzed data from 1990 to 2011. That’s equal to $4.3 billion in lost income in 2014.

A study in 2008 by Antti Petajisto, now a money manager at BlackRock Inc., estimated the impact could boost the expense of owning an index fund by as much as 0.28 percentage points.

Petajisto and Morningstar’s Rawson also suggest passive funds that buy the entire market can minimize the damage of front-running. By owning almost every stock, there’s barely anything for arbitragers to buy first.

Vanguard’s $411 billion Total Stock Market Index Fund is the most prominent example. In the past decade, it has returned 8.2 percent a year, beating the firm’s own S&P 500 tracker fund by 0.4 percentage points, data compiled by Morningstar show.

The Greek situation looks like it’s passed the table-thumping stage and has reached the ‘take it or leave it’ stage:

After five months of drama, false dawns and unpleasant surprises, Europe’s leaders are finally ready to show Alexis Tsipras the exit.

Behind the doors of the Justus Lipsius building in the heart of the political district in Brussels, the euro-region’s leaders rounded on the Greek prime minister for destabilizing the currency union before Germany’s Angela Merkel emerged to deliver an official ultimatum.

In a tense and at times emotional meeting, Tsipras’s European peers told him he’d failed to appreciate the efforts the continent’s voters and taxpayers had made to help the Greek people and blamed him for escalating tensions across the region.

The Chinese have developed a novel method of preventing stock market declines:

A wave of Chinese companies halted trading in their shares and regulators unveiled new measures to prop up the value of small-cap stocks in the latest attempts to stem a rout that’s wiped more than $3.5 trillion of value.

At least 1,249 companies have halted trading on mainland Chinese exchanges, locking up $2.2 trillion of shares, or about 33 percent of China’s market capitalization.

It didn’t help much:

China’s Shanghai Composite Index plunged amid concern a raft of measures to stabilize equities is failing to stop the bear-market rout as traders unwind margin bets at a record pace.

The Shanghai Composite tumbled as much as 8.2 percent, the most since 2007, before paring losses to 4.8 percent to trade at 3,549.92 at 9:56 a.m. local time. There were four gainers among the 1,106 stocks that trade on the benchmark gauge, which has slumped 28 percent since the June peak. PetroChina Co., the biggest stock, tumbled 4.9 percent as nine out of 10 industry gauges dropped at least 4 percent in the CSI 300 Index.

In the latest attempts to stem losses, the government raised margin requirements for CSI 500 Index futures, while the China Securities Finance Corp. will buy more shares of smaller companies. About 43 percent of the stock market is frozen after more than a thousand companies suspended their shares.

It was a violently mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts up 25bp, FixedResets off 53bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 23bp. Floaters got hammered. The lengthy Performance Highlights table is dominated by losing FixedResets, with a few winning Straights mixed in. Volume was above average.

For as long as the FixedReset market is so violently unsettled, I’ll keep publishing updates of the more interesting and meaningful series of FixedResets’ Implied Volatilities. This doesn’t include Enbridge because although Enbridge has a large number of issues outstanding, all of which are quite liquid, the range of Issue Reset Spreads is too small for decent conclusions. The low is 212bp (ENB.PR.H; second-lowest is ENB.PR.D at 237bp) and the high is a mere 268 for ENB.PF.G.

Remember that all rich /cheap assessments are:
» based on Implied Volatility Theory only
» are relative only to other FixedResets from the same issuer
» assume constant GOC-5 yield
» assume constant Implied Volatility
» assume constant spread

Here’s TRP:

impVol_TRP_150707
Click for Big

TRP.PR.A, which resets 2019-12-31 at +192, is bid at 19.99 to be $0.59 rich, while TRP.PR.C, resetting 2016-1-30 at +154, is $0.47 cheap at its bid price of 16.27.

impVol_MFC_150707
Click for Big

Another excellent fit, but the numbers are perplexing. Implied Volatility for MFC continues to be a conundrum. It is still too high if we consider that NVCC rules will never apply to these issues; it is still too low if we consider them to be NVCC non-compliant issues (and therefore with Deemed Maturities in the call schedule).

Most expensive is MFC.PR.J, resetting at +261bp on 2018-3-19, bid at 24.60 to be $0.33 rich, while MFC.PR.K, resetting at +222bp on 2018-9-19, is bid at 22.23 to be $0.29 cheap.

impVol_BAM_150707
Click for Big

The cheapest issue relative to its peers is BAM.PR.R, resetting at +230bp on 2016-6-30, bid at 19.31 to be $0.81 cheap. BAM.PF.G, resetting at +284bp 2020-6-30 is bid at 23.45 and appears to be $0.70 rich.

impVol_FTS_150707
Click for Big

FTS.PR.G, with a spread of +213bp, and bid at 21.54, looks $0.19 cheap and resets 2018-9-1. FTS.PR.K, with a spread of +205bp and resetting 2019-3-1, is bid at 21.34 and is $0.12 rich.

pairs_FR_150707
Click for Big

Investment-grade pairs predict an average three-month bill yield over the next five-odd years of about 0.15%, including the outliers TRP.PR.A / TRP.PR.F at -0.07%, BMO.PR.M / BMO.PR.R at -0.01%, BNS.PR.Q / BNS.PR.B at -0.21% and TRP.PR.B / TRP.PR.H at -0.67% (note that the bid price for TRP.PR.H is silly). On the junk side, three of the six pairs are outliers, two pairs with negative break-even yields, and one above 1.00%.

pairs_FF_150707
Click for Big

Shall we just say that this exhibits a high level of confidence in the continued rapacity of Canadian banks?

HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices
These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices

Values are provisional and are finalized monthly
Index Mean
Current
Yield
(at bid)
Median
YTW
Median
Average
Trading
Value
Median
Mod Dur
(YTW)
Issues Day’s Perf. Index Value
Ratchet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -1.8700 % 2,172.9
FixedFloater 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 -1.8700 % 3,799.2
Floater 3.56 % 3.62 % 59,926 18.28 3 -1.8700 % 2,309.9
OpRet 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.0537 % 2,770.3
SplitShare 4.59 % 4.96 % 62,085 3.23 3 0.0537 % 3,246.7
Interest-Bearing 0.00 % 0.00 % 0 0.00 0 0.0537 % 2,533.2
Perpetual-Premium 5.46 % 3.61 % 64,464 0.31 13 0.1298 % 2,519.7
Perpetual-Discount 5.31 % 5.21 % 93,109 14.85 21 0.2454 % 2,691.9
FixedReset 4.54 % 3.58 % 213,378 16.30 88 -0.5323 % 2,317.6
Deemed-Retractible 4.99 % 3.15 % 106,291 0.79 34 0.2349 % 2,634.8
FloatingReset 2.50 % 2.95 % 52,719 6.09 10 -0.6437 % 2,305.5
Performance Highlights
Issue Index Change Notes
TRP.PR.H FloatingReset -7.99 % Very misleading, as the low for the day was 14.35 on volume of 3,140 shares, so this is just more Toronto Stock Exchange nonsense. I have not checked whether this is due to inadequate Toronto Stock Exchange reporting or inadequate Toronto Stock Exchange supervision of market-makers.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 13.25
Evaluated at bid price : 13.25
Bid-YTW : 3.42 %
ENB.PF.G FixedReset -3.20 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 19.65
Evaluated at bid price : 19.65
Bid-YTW : 4.77 %
BAM.PR.Z FixedReset -2.52 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.41
Evaluated at bid price : 22.86
Bid-YTW : 4.23 %
TD.PF.A FixedReset -2.34 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.49
Bid-YTW : 3.50 %
MFC.PR.L FixedReset -2.29 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.23
Bid-YTW : 4.87 %
BAM.PR.B Floater -2.19 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 14.28
Evaluated at bid price : 14.28
Bid-YTW : 3.51 %
HSE.PR.A FixedReset -2.09 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 15.92
Evaluated at bid price : 15.92
Bid-YTW : 4.07 %
ENB.PR.J FixedReset -2.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 19.10
Evaluated at bid price : 19.10
Bid-YTW : 4.69 %
NA.PR.S FixedReset -1.93 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.58
Evaluated at bid price : 23.40
Bid-YTW : 3.48 %
BAM.PR.C Floater -1.91 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 13.85
Evaluated at bid price : 13.85
Bid-YTW : 3.62 %
MFC.PR.K FixedReset -1.77 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.23
Bid-YTW : 4.78 %
VNR.PR.A FixedReset -1.63 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.85
Evaluated at bid price : 23.15
Bid-YTW : 3.94 %
PWF.PR.P FixedReset -1.59 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 17.91
Evaluated at bid price : 17.91
Bid-YTW : 3.43 %
ENB.PF.E FixedReset -1.56 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 19.51
Evaluated at bid price : 19.51
Bid-YTW : 4.77 %
GWO.PR.N FixedReset -1.54 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 16.58
Bid-YTW : 7.12 %
BAM.PF.A FixedReset -1.51 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.27
Evaluated at bid price : 22.77
Bid-YTW : 4.16 %
BAM.PR.K Floater -1.49 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 13.85
Evaluated at bid price : 13.85
Bid-YTW : 3.62 %
ENB.PR.P FixedReset -1.46 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 18.28
Evaluated at bid price : 18.28
Bid-YTW : 4.72 %
BMO.PR.W FixedReset -1.45 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 21.92
Evaluated at bid price : 22.37
Bid-YTW : 3.53 %
ENB.PR.F FixedReset -1.43 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 17.94
Evaluated at bid price : 17.94
Bid-YTW : 4.78 %
BAM.PF.B FixedReset -1.39 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 21.22
Evaluated at bid price : 21.22
Bid-YTW : 4.21 %
IFC.PR.C FixedReset -1.34 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.75
Bid-YTW : 4.73 %
ENB.PF.C FixedReset -1.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 19.42
Evaluated at bid price : 19.42
Bid-YTW : 4.76 %
TRP.PR.G FixedReset -1.32 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 23.02
Evaluated at bid price : 24.67
Bid-YTW : 3.71 %
BAM.PF.F FixedReset -1.27 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.49
Evaluated at bid price : 23.30
Bid-YTW : 4.05 %
ENB.PR.N FixedReset -1.20 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 18.92
Evaluated at bid price : 18.92
Bid-YTW : 4.71 %
BMO.PR.T FixedReset -1.18 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.10
Evaluated at bid price : 22.62
Bid-YTW : 3.51 %
SLF.PR.J FloatingReset -1.17 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 16.01
Bid-YTW : 7.21 %
TD.PF.D FixedReset -1.10 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.85
Evaluated at bid price : 24.18
Bid-YTW : 3.58 %
CU.PR.C FixedReset -1.10 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 23.31
Evaluated at bid price : 24.27
Bid-YTW : 3.29 %
ENB.PR.Y FixedReset -1.06 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 17.76
Evaluated at bid price : 17.76
Bid-YTW : 4.75 %
MFC.PR.N FixedReset -1.05 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.68
Bid-YTW : 4.71 %
CM.PR.O FixedReset 1.02 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.19
Evaluated at bid price : 22.75
Bid-YTW : 3.53 %
RY.PR.N Perpetual-Premium 1.04 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2024-11-24
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 25.37
Bid-YTW : 4.79 %
HSE.PR.C FixedReset 1.07 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.64
Evaluated at bid price : 23.62
Bid-YTW : 4.23 %
PWF.PR.S Perpetual-Discount 1.08 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 23.99
Evaluated at bid price : 24.40
Bid-YTW : 4.98 %
TRP.PR.B FixedReset 1.22 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 14.88
Evaluated at bid price : 14.88
Bid-YTW : 3.49 %
GWO.PR.I Deemed-Retractible 1.31 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 23.20
Bid-YTW : 5.52 %
CU.PR.E Perpetual-Discount 1.86 % YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 23.63
Evaluated at bid price : 24.04
Bid-YTW : 5.14 %
Volume Highlights
Issue Index Shares
Traded
Notes
BNS.PR.A FloatingReset 123,950 TD crossed 119,400 at 24.20.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2022-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.21
Bid-YTW : 2.99 %
ENB.PR.H FixedReset 78,000 TD crossed two blocks of 35,000 each, both at 16.80.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 16.70
Evaluated at bid price : 16.70
Bid-YTW : 4.66 %
RY.PR.G Deemed-Retractible 46,951 RBC crossed 41,400 at 25.50.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Call
Maturity Date : 2015-08-06
Maturity Price : 25.25
Evaluated at bid price : 25.47
Bid-YTW : 0.38 %
TD.PF.E FixedReset 45,330 Raymond James bought two blocks of 10,000 each from TD, both at 25.05.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 23.14
Evaluated at bid price : 25.00
Bid-YTW : 3.51 %
CM.PR.Q FixedReset 40,836 Raymond James bought 13,500 from anonymous at 24.75.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 23.06
Evaluated at bid price : 24.71
Bid-YTW : 3.48 %
RY.PR.J FixedReset 38,473 Raymond James bought 16,300 from TD at 24.65.
YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 23.03
Evaluated at bid price : 24.60
Bid-YTW : 3.50 %
There were 39 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares.
Wide Spread Highlights
Issue Index Quote Data and Yield Notes
SLF.PR.G FixedReset Quote: 16.29 – 16.70
Spot Rate : 0.4100
Average : 0.2874

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2025-01-31
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 16.29
Bid-YTW : 7.40 %

TRP.PR.E FixedReset Quote: 22.08 – 22.68
Spot Rate : 0.6000
Average : 0.4882

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 21.73
Evaluated at bid price : 22.08
Bid-YTW : 3.77 %

TD.PF.A FixedReset Quote: 22.49 – 22.85
Spot Rate : 0.3600
Average : 0.2482

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 22.00
Evaluated at bid price : 22.49
Bid-YTW : 3.50 %

BAM.PF.B FixedReset Quote: 21.22 – 21.64
Spot Rate : 0.4200
Average : 0.3126

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 21.22
Evaluated at bid price : 21.22
Bid-YTW : 4.21 %

PVS.PR.D SplitShare Quote: 24.52 – 24.85
Spot Rate : 0.3300
Average : 0.2292

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Hard Maturity
Maturity Date : 2021-10-08
Maturity Price : 25.00
Evaluated at bid price : 24.52
Bid-YTW : 4.96 %

TRP.PR.G FixedReset Quote: 24.67 – 25.00
Spot Rate : 0.3300
Average : 0.2312

YTW SCENARIO
Maturity Type : Limit Maturity
Maturity Date : 2045-07-07
Maturity Price : 23.02
Evaluated at bid price : 24.67
Bid-YTW : 3.71 %