The September, 2025, 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 September edition contains a brief special appendix containing warnings and discussion about gross mispricing in the SplitShare Preferred sector.
PrefLetter may now be purchased by all Canadian residents.
Until further notice, the “previous” edition will refer to the September, 2025, issue, while the “next” edition will be the October, 2025, issue scheduled to be prepared as of the close October 10, and emailed to subscribers prior to the market-opening on October 14. 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: The prefLetter.com website has seen three recent enhancements:
- All the seminar videos are now free for viewing on the site – please visit https://prefletter.com/videoIntroduction.php
- eMails of download links to clients with a year’s subscription will now include a note regarding how many issues remain to be delivered in that subscription.
- The second download alternative in the eMails with download links has been altered to prevent interference from particularly obnoxious eMail protection systems.
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: There have been problems lately with corporate eMail protection systems that substitute “safe” links for the links sent in the eMails; the problem being that the “safe” links do not work and an error is generated by my software. To avoid possible problems and delays, please subscribe through an eMail account that is not “protected” by such software.
Note: The PrefLetter website has a Subscriber Download Feature. If you have not received your copy, try it!
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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.
very nice write up on Split Shares. interesting topic.. Thanks
Thanks!
I wonder if Quadravest won’t be more generous with FTN preferred holders than James predicts.
The current yield of the capital shares is almost 14%. There appears to be no need (at the moment) to shift more return to the capital holders from the pref holders.
Indeed, the preferred payout remained at a premium when it was adjusted 12 months ago.
Markets are roaring, all FTN holders are happy, why rock the boat?
(Not that I would buy in advance of the dividend reset announcement. I’m just speculating that FTN pref holders might not get clobbered.)
Well, maybe. The final price will probably be comfortably above $10, because they’ve got a lot more incentive to be generous than otherwise – generosity costs customer money, while stinginess will cost company money after retractions.
I’ve always found it profitable to assume the worst for any contractual matters – I have no special insight into their deliberations or into their data regarding market expectations.
I will be extremely surprised, however, if FTN.PR.A has a positive total return over the next three weeks.
I was once RAV4guy.
I would like to ask James to make the SplitShare Preferred information shown in Table SSC-1 available with every issue of Prefletter.
If anyone else likes this idea please let James know your opinion.
I would argue that James must produce this information every month to come up with his monthly recommendations, so it is not that much more work to publish it. I would also argue that with so many fewer preferred issues available readers of Prefletter would benefit from seeing more choices.
While I am asking I would also like to ask for a chart showing the floating resets that reset based on prime. Again, James must already produce this information to come up with his monthly Floating-Reset recommendation. While mostly BN.PR.B gets the nod, I first bought BN.PR.K in 2021 on a recommendation from Prefletter and I would like to see how much the difference is between the two issues on an ongoing basis.
Maybe. I’ll have a look my extant spreadsheet and other material, and see if I can cobble together something that can be sent off to my typesetter without much fuss.
I call BN.PR.B and BN.PR.K (among others) Floaters, not FloatingResets. I reserve the FloatingReset nomenclature for issues that are periodically exchangeable to and from FixedResets.
The difference between the two is minimal as the terms of these issues are identical. BN.PR.K is sometimes – not always – enough cheaper to be worthwhile, as it has much lower liquidity than BN.PR.B
Thank you for the reply James and for considering my suggestion.
I have used your ideas to make three trades this year with my Split Share preferreds:
selling FTN.PR.A earlier in the year,
buying BK.PR.A in April,
switching to LFE.PR.B from BK.PR.A in July,
and there was some recent discussion in Prefblog about ENS.PR.A being a sell candidate which I did earlier in September. Your September issue of Prefblog, Table SSC-1, confirms this. With the proceeds from the sale of ENS.PR.A I bought more of GWO.PR.N (August recommendation and down some in price now) and a new position in BN.PR.N (October recommendation) just this week.
I also own PVS.PR.H which I bought as a new issue. You told me about the early redemption possibility, which is Feb. 28, 2026, and I thank you for making me aware of that. My guess is that it will not be called then but it will mature in 2027 so I continue to hold.
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