PrefBlog

AS I state in the introduction:

In the July, 2011, edition of this newsletter I reviewed some of the more basic concepts surrounding yield calculations, namely Current Yield (CY), Yield to Maturity (YTM) and Yield to Worst (YTW).

In this issue, I will examine the faults of these measures more closely and introduce some of the measures utilized in HIMIPref™: Portfolio Yield, Cost Yield and Curve Yield and examine how each of these measures compares when used as a predictor of future returns.

Part 1 of this discussion is available via THIS LINK.

Look for the research link!

AS I state in the introduction:

In last year’s review of Canadian preferred share funds, I discussed the explosion in the number of decision-makers in the investment market-place; the decline in Defined Benefit pension plans and corresponding increase in Defined Contribution plans and other forms of saving have changed the investment world from one in which the decisions were made by a relatively small group of specialists to a world in which investment management is just another consumer good. This change has resulted in an explosion of consumer choice and a consequent rise in the importance of marketing to the success of any investment product, as opposed to old-fashioned concepts such as risk and return.

In this essay I will discuss

• • the manner in which investment decisions – particularly with respect to index funds – are made
• • the use of derivatives by index funds
• • the explosion in the number of indices in recent years, as the notion of passive investing has become more fashionable

The 2010 comparison is available via THIS LINK.

Look for the research link!

A brief review of different types of yield calculation.

Part 2 of this discussion is available via THIS LINK.

Look for the research link!

CIBC was able to change the status of some of its preferred shares from DeemedRetractible to NVCC without a shareholder vote in 2011. This short essay looked at the implications of this move for other issues.

Look for the research link!

As I state in the introduction to this essay:

Dividend Capture is an investment strategy that is based on the idea that market inefficiencies and differential taxation of capital gains and dividends can be exploited to produce excess returns by owning a security for a short period of time that includes the ex-Dividend date. One recommended strategy is to “Buy the stock the day before it goes X, capture the dividend, and sell it the next day. This is the most common Dividend Capture strategy, and the subject of the most academic research (Campbell and Beranck 1955, Durand and May 1960, etc). While the market is rising, this is the simplest, most efficient and least volatile way to capture dividends.”

I discuss various examples of Dividend Capture and examine the usefulness of the concept in the Canadian preferred share market.

This essay also continues the mathematical work embodied in the June 2010 Prefletter essay “Closed Form Yield Calculation”, using the Exponential Approximation as a simplifying tool.

Look for the research link!

Update 2023-3-28: I hadn’t been aware of the following wrinkle, brought to my attention by the 2023 Federal Budget : Tax Measures : Supplementary Information:

The Income Tax Act permits corporations to claim a deduction in respect of dividends received on shares of other corporations resident in Canada. These dividends are effectively excluded from income. The dividend received deduction is intended to limit the imposition of multiple levels of corporate taxation.

The mark-to-market rules in the Income Tax Act recognize the unique nature of certain property (“mark-to-market property”) held by financial institutions in the ordinary course of their business. Under these rules, gains on the disposition of mark-to-market property are included in ordinary income, not capital gains, and unrealized gains are included in computing income annually (in addition to when the property is disposed of). Shares are generally mark-to-market property when a financial institution has less than ten per cent of the votes or value of the corporation that issued the shares (“portfolio shares”).

The policy behind the dividend received deduction conflicts with the policy behind the mark-to-market rules. Although the mark-to-market rules essentially classify gains on portfolio shares as business income, dividends received on those shares remain eligible for the dividend received deduction and are excluded from income. The tax treatment of dividends received by financial institutions on portfolio shares held in the ordinary course of their business is inconsistent with the tax treatment of gains on those shares under the mark-to-market rules.

To align the treatment of dividends and gains on portfolio shares under the mark-to-market rules, Budget 2023 proposes to deny the dividend received deduction in respect of dividends received by financial institutions on shares that are mark-to-market property.

This measure would apply to dividends received after 2023.

It seems that Dividend Capture has been very profitable for trading desks! The revenue impact of this change is estimated at about $800-million per year.