December 2022 and Telecoms

 

Heading into December, 2022 ... it's quarterly ex-dividend dates for two popular Telecom stocks I own.

Symbol T:TO , Telus on the 8th of December and BCE:TO , BCE Inc. on the 14th of December.

Telecommunication stocks are in the news quite a bit with Rogers bid to buy Shaw and where a Telco wants more of a monopoly in the provinces of Canada. One would like to own all the services country wide but Federal government intervention prevents this. Competition is a good thing but overall ... costs of services are too high and continue to go up. Meanwhile the money flows into these outfits from cellphone, TV and internet subscriptions/contracts.

I own stocks/ETF in the Big Banks, Telecom, Oil. Utilities and Insurance providers after doing due diligence on picks but there's always an element of risk with each purchase. What can go wrong? Eh

If an investor is looking strictly for gains and price action. A lot can happen from day to day, week to week (AQN from my previous post). But, with regards to yield and dividends, I have no complaints over the long term.

However, it's wise to stay informed and one can always sell if not happy with a stock's performance ... and use the cash to buy into more of current holdings or a stock/ETF on a personal Watchlist that's enticing.

They say not to be too loyal or trusting in any one company and be willing to move on but not everybody has the mindset to do that. Like doing business with the same bank for decades and hold stocks in it. Just because of short term price corrections and the financial press coverage on that ... I wouldn't sell. Think long term for the stock choices available in the Big Banks of Canada and their dividend distributions.  

November Shockwaves

 

November has been quite the month both in the crypto and stock world depending what investors are involved in.

It was like a flash bomb was tossed into the crypto market with the collapse of the once giant FTX exchange and the shock waves continue to vibrate into countries, governments, lawyers, upcoming court cases, celebrities, sports stars and the continuing investigations into what happened to billions of dollars worth of crypto all thrown into a blender. I'm suing you and I'll sue back still going on with those involved.

Meanwhile, big and small exchangers out there with no involvement in FTX are felling the fallout either minimally or a lot as billions in Bitcoin, Ether and other coins were and still are being drawn out.

As an example, Kraken ... one of the top US based exchanges sent out updates that it had frozen FTX owned wallets until authorities look into it and has no affiliation or investments with FTX

Eventually this will fade into the past with memories of it surfacing when FTX and court cases are media worthy reminding us of the risk involved.

Overall, some folks lose the fact that crypto remains volatile and high risk with a lot of it built like a house of cards. Just because Tom Brady and others figure it's the next best thing to another Superbowl ring doesn't mean it doesn't come without high risk.

In the early years of the Bitcoin startup, it was exciting via an investor's view and it was easy to just sit and watch the value of Bitcoin go up in cycles for those into Hodling.

These days, not so much as I watch billionaire Whales manipulate the markets and I contemplate any further involvement in that marketplace.

In the stock market, there was and still is turmoil over a once favoured dividend paying stock called Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp. (AQN), paying increasing dividend distributions quarterly since 2017 and appeared to be running smoothly until it's last quarterly report threw a wrench into it all of it and the stock fell from it's average price of $18 per share CDN to $10 so far.

There are many reports, discussion and Blog articles about AQN since it's financial report that things were going sideways for now and expecting more debt while into buying two power outfits in the US to add to the company while selling a couple assets in Canada.

Most of it over ... if AQN's dividend will be cut some which many figure it will be but for now, it's all speculation. 

Although I don't own the stock but have it on my watchlist, this is part of the risk that comes with investing that I accept when buying a stock or ETF/Fund that hit not only DIY'ers broadside but invested institutions as well. 

Matt Poyner from Dividend Strategy has a good read on that subject using AQN as an example.

The Algonquin Problem

It would be awesome to have all winners in a stock portfolio but the reality is that doesn't happen and it's wise to diversify so hopefully overall growth is there in a given year. Writing about these issues that come up keeps me from being too overconfident with my picks. 

What happens in company back offices or boardrooms to a "Bahamas condo" run exchanger like FTX, or those that have no physical office at all ... is unknown to the DIY investor until it hits the media in the form of recent or quarterly financial reports ... or a total meltdown of an outfit.