The Most Bought Stocks by Canadian Investors

[00:00:00] This is the Canadian Investor where you take control of your own portfolio and gain the confidence you need to succeed in the markets.

[00:00:10] Hosted by Braden Dennis and Simon Belanger

[00:00:15] The Canadian Investor podcast, welcome into the show.

[00:00:20] My name is Braden Dennis.

[00:00:21] As always joined by the exquisite Mr. Simon Belanger.

[00:00:27] Today on the show, you're going to talk about Canadian investor sentiment, what they're buying, what they're selling, what's moving, what's hot.

[00:00:37] And then I'm going to talk a little bit about a personal finance poll I took, which is basically what are low effort, high reward personal finance hacks.

[00:00:47] You're going to talk about the valuation of intuitive surgical and then I'm going to round out today's show with battleground stocks at the end.

[00:00:54] And if you're not familiar with what a battleground stock is, then make sure you keep tuning into the show.

[00:01:02] Simon, kick us off here with the first segment of the day.

[00:01:07] Yeah, so this segment, I think it'll be fun.

[00:01:09] We've done it quite a bit.

[00:01:10] So it's the TD Direct Investing Index.

[00:01:13] For those who are not familiar with it, I'll just kind of recap what it is.

[00:01:17] It's essentially just a way for them to direct investing for their clients.

[00:01:22] They'll look at what is the most bought, sold, how people are trading, all different kind of things.

[00:01:28] A bit more short term, but I find it pretty fascinating just in terms of what it tells us of what Canadians specifically because it's TD Direct Investing, what they're doing.

[00:01:39] And it kind of aligns with what we've been saying for the last little while in terms of the top names that have been bought at the very least.

[00:01:49] So I'll go over the list and then I'll provide some of the takeaways here.

[00:01:53] So first of all, dirt index, like I said, measures whether people are falling bullish or bearish.

[00:01:59] To my surprise, they have it pretty neutral right now.

[00:02:04] I don't know about you, but are you surprised to see that it is kind of a neutral sentiment?

[00:02:09] I thought it would be just with the way markets are going.

[00:02:12] I thought it'd be a bit more bullish to be honest.

[00:02:15] Are we not at all-time highs right now?

[00:02:17] Pretty close to it.

[00:02:18] So that's why like I...

[00:02:19] If not right now, a few days ago, like I'm just going to go on to SPY and go on price.

[00:02:27] And yeah, we're at all-time highs as of recording today.

[00:02:33] I don't know what's more...

[00:02:39] How is this not extremely bullish?

[00:02:43] If it's not now, when is higher than neutral?

[00:02:47] Yeah, I mean it could be right.

[00:02:49] Like obviously depending on who you follow on FinTwit, for example, what kind of media,

[00:02:54] like I follow a lot of people, I would say sentiment is definitely more bearish than bullish overall.

[00:02:59] But again, I'm also aware that that's not all of the investing population

[00:03:04] and just based on what the markets are doing at least the indices

[00:03:08] and we've talked about clearly it's being driven by a handful of stocks.

[00:03:13] But I thought it would have been a bit higher and this is actually literally slightly

[00:03:19] in bearish territory.

[00:03:21] So it may be people that are seeing what worse we've been saying and just saying that look,

[00:03:27] things look a bit dysfunctional right now in terms of hitting these all-time high

[00:03:35] just driven by just a handful of companies.

[00:03:37] Maybe people are just kind of seeing that it could take a turn for the worse at any moment.

[00:03:43] I'm not quite sure but it is a bit conflicting.

[00:03:46] Now I'll continue here, go over the name.

[00:03:49] So the most bought securities and this is for June 2024 so pretty recent.

[00:03:54] So the first one, are you surprised when I say NVIDIA?

[00:03:57] Shocker.

[00:03:59] Shocker.

[00:04:00] So up from number two here, GME is up from number four at number two.

[00:04:06] Keep in mind this is June ending data.

[00:04:09] June ending data, so this one was a bit surprising I didn't think it would be that high up

[00:04:14] but I guess Roy and Kitty is just making Canadian investors fomo a little bit into GME.

[00:04:22] The next one TD kind of it's always in the top 10 I would say.

[00:04:27] Number four is Tesla, number five BC and I'll give my comments on that kind of domain take-aways in just a minute.

[00:04:35] Number six Shopify, number seven Apple.

[00:04:38] Apple actually up from number 18 so quite a big jump here.

[00:04:42] We have Telus here at number eight, up from number 15, that's pretty big jump.

[00:04:48] Super micro computer not surprising in the number nine spot again AI related and then AMD I think writing the AI hype as well.

[00:04:58] So those are the companies.

[00:05:00] I have four big takeaways here. So first of all sentiment neutral like I mentioned surprising I won't elaborate anymore but it is a bit confusing to me just seeing how markets are doing and versus the sentiment.

[00:05:15] The most bought stocks are definitely a mixed bag so I kind of put two and I would say two and a half categories here.

[00:05:23] So AI infrastructure slash tech.

[00:05:26] So whether you want to lump in here kind of Nvidia, Supermicro, AMD feel free to put in you know Apple if you think it could be there.

[00:05:35] I mean it's less of an AI play although I think they're trying to push it with putting AI on the iPhone coming up but I think we've talked about that before.

[00:05:47] The next group here is high dividend yielders I would say slash laggards or deep value.

[00:05:54] So in this group you have BC Telus and TD BC we've talked about it at like recently it's yielding over 9% Telus is yielding over 7% TD is yielding over 5%.

[00:06:06] The reason I'm talking about yields here is I have a feeling the yield is what is driving investor interest in these stocks.

[00:06:15] Do you agree with that? You disagree, brain?

[00:06:18] Those names are always popular with this group of self-directed accounts almost always.

[00:06:25] Some of these names are like just commonly found on this list.

[00:06:30] It's like some of these high yielders, some of the big banks always TD is very high on the platform of TD from potential bias from customers being familiar with their own bank.

[00:06:44] Exactly not surprising obviously if you're familiar with a bank you know you've had let's say relatively good experience you're probably you know more open to owning this dog versus other banks.

[00:06:56] And then I guess the last group here is just the rest which is a bit of a mixed bag.

[00:07:01] You know we talked about GME being in their Shopify Tesla those two tend to be on the list.

[00:07:07] Tesla is maybe a bit more of an AI play but again it's been up and down they've been facing a lot of margin pressures.

[00:07:14] So it's still interesting to see them there you have Apple whether you want to put that in the AI infrastructure tech or not.

[00:07:21] But that's kind of the three big categories that I thought and then the most sold stocks it's pretty interesting.

[00:07:28] Again this is more like what I wouldn't say like probably what people are doing that are not long-term investors would be my best guess.

[00:07:37] I don't think they're owning these stocks for like five, ten years I think is just a lot of people trading in and out.

[00:07:44] But the most sold stock I won't go into super detail for each but number one again Nvidia kind of shows the trading aspect GME again that trading aspect

[00:07:55] Tesla TD Apple Shopify number six you have super micro computer at number seven AMD at eight Hut eight at nine which is up from number 30 and I'll mention why here.

[00:08:10] And then you have Amazon that again not overly surprising up from number 13 that's rounding up the top 10 here.

[00:08:17] I'd hate I didn't expect to see it but as I saw it and made a little bit of sense I haven't dug into the company lately but they had a huge jump in price in June.

[00:08:28] So I would think this is probably people just taking profits off the table that I've been holding it for maybe just a few months or something like that.

[00:08:37] So just taking profits off that would be my assumption but overall I mean it's just interesting to look at what we saw.

[00:08:45] I did find something else but that data point I think there's an error in it.

[00:08:50] So in terms of the asset and how it's allocated you'll notice Braden now probably jump out as you as well.

[00:08:56] So they're saying that cash and cash equivalents represent 35% of the portfolio.

[00:09:02] I think there's an issue with that part of their reports because if you go back it's actually been 35% since March but February was at 6% and the previous months were all 5% 6%.

[00:09:17] And the jump between February and March they give the month over month change and was like less than 1%.

[00:09:25] So I feel like there's probably a little bit of an issue with the data there so I wouldn't draw too much conclusion without whether you know the 6% was inaccurate back then or the 35 now.

[00:09:36] I'm not quite sure so I wouldn't draw any conclusion in that.

[00:09:39] One of them is wrong.

[00:09:41] One of them is wrong exactly because they're saying the month over month change is less than 1% and clearly it's going from 6 to 35 so clearly something's not lining up.

[00:09:50] Yeah very interesting.

[00:09:53] I wonder which one it is.

[00:09:55] Yeah I do wonder like I was kind of looking to contact them and just ask like so what is the right figure here because 35% is extremely high.

[00:10:05] I mean I think I have a pretty high allocation to cash and cash equivalents and I have between 10 and 15%.

[00:10:12] So 35% is very high especially when you're looking at a direct investing an online broker account because that's what it is.

[00:10:20] If you're looking at other types of TFSA accounts or stuff like that may not be that surprising we know the stats.

[00:10:28] Yeah because we've seen that time and time again especially in big banks you'll have a registered account like a TFSA people hoarding it like a piggy bank in cash.

[00:10:38] Getting waxed by inflation every year.

[00:10:41] That's a terrible way to use contribution room but it's happening at scale due to maybe a lack of education but also the fact that some of these banks are pretty pushy that you should open up an account, throw a bunch of cash in it and they can go make their margin on it.

[00:10:57] So whatever one it is with this direct investing account I'm going to assume the previous lower number is the right one.

[00:11:05] That's what I would think that would be my guess but if I find a way to contact them and ask them to clarify it I'll talk about it again on another podcast.

[00:11:14] I'm not just saying this because they're a sponsor of the show although they are a sponsor of the show.

[00:11:19] I keep all my cash like liquid bank account cash in EQ Bank because it's just so easy and the interest they pay you is just so much better than the big five whatever you want to categorize in there.

[00:11:37] Yeah exactly I mean their rates are some of the best out there.

[00:11:42] I am going to switch up the order of the show because

[00:11:47] Listen to your heart go for it.

[00:11:50] Because a lot of those stocks are battleground stocks in the top 10 of trading in a retail broker typically a pretty good list of battleground stocks not all of them but some of them for sure especially the ones that are basically always there like for years.

[00:12:09] Those those feel like battleground stocks so I'm going to do our last segment second here because it was so relevant to the conversation that we just had.

[00:12:20] What is a battle battleground stock now the Google search definition is these stocks are characterized by their high volatility popularity among investors and short interest by usually professional investors.

[00:12:38] Personally my thoughts on battleground stocks usually feel like they have cult like retail followings yet high institutional short interest does that.

[00:12:50] Does that feel like a good definition cult like retail following high institutional short interest.

[00:12:58] Yeah I mean they're not necessarily meme stocks they're not like they don't have to be a meme stock to be a battleground.

[00:13:04] Chad GPT agrees with you so I'll just say that.

[00:13:08] Okay diverging oh yeah this actually get diverging opinion opinions substantial divide between bullish and bearish yes okay exactly what my notes are on here.

[00:13:18] I don't necessarily mean they're meme stocks but they certainly have a similar feel with cult like followings and a lot of short interest.

[00:13:28] There are battleground stocks because they're fought over by bulls and bears regularly and sentiment can swing and shift like the seasons and my mind no stock characterizes a battleground better than Tesla since it's been public.

[00:13:45] Tesla went public in 2010 it's felt like a battleground stock ever since it's a stock that everyone has an opinion on and during the business is rise to popularity that's typically a battleground stock.

[00:14:01] Everyone has an opinion and the volatility certainly checks out I mean drawdown history since they went public in 2010 you had let me just count the peaks on the drawdown so I went on finchat I went on Tesla.

[00:14:14] I went to the price chart I punched in the drawdown view you had one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen thirteen that I can just see right now we're over 30% a couple over 40% were you know we were in a 60 plus percent drawdown in most recent years.

[00:14:38] So this is not to say the stock hasn't done well over that time you know if you zoom out since IPO investors made a boatload of money but it is characterized by extreme drawdowns and frequent drawdowns.

[00:14:51] So my opinion on the run up in 20 from 2018 to 2021 for Tesla was that the stock was valued like something it's not and hey I was wrong I mean I'm happy to admit that.

[00:15:04] Don't worry I was wrong too.

[00:15:06] Yeah a lot of people were that's the thing about battleground stocks there is passionate and intense feelings from both bulls and bears the problem is one side is usually mega right and one side is usually mega wrong.

[00:15:23] That's usually how these things go Uber when it went public felt like a battleground stock a lot of hard opinions not so much anymore it's pretty consensus that it's pretty hard business to compete with Google in 2023 was a battleground.

[00:15:40] Palantir most definitely defined by passionate shareholder base to say the least do don't ruffle the Palantir shareholder feathers.

[00:15:50] I have never really understood the business really hard to learn about it that it's very big picture big defense big AI in their sales decks and transcripts that I'm just like OK but like explain it to me like I'm five Disney maybe right now is a bit of a battleground.

[00:16:09] It doesn't matter like I has no real comment on these stocks but back to the Tesla example.

[00:16:16] I've learned a lot about battleground stocks from this example and I've come down to three lessons that have learned one having no opinion is completely fine to you most definitely don't have to participate in the battle with your capital.

[00:16:30] And number three probably the most important learning for me is bulls have some valid points re rooted in the extreme optimism.

[00:16:40] There's a lot of valid points and bears have valid points rooted in their deep conviction and pessimism hence why they're usually you show short stock.

[00:16:50] The truth is somewhere in the middle of the battleground but that's what makes them so hard.

[00:16:57] Now the problem for them and for my strategy personally lies in what I said early or which is usually one side is going to be mega right and usually one side is going to be mega wrong bear short the stock get wrecked.

[00:17:12] They get wiped out we've seen this time and time again like how many hedge funds had to shut down with GameStop huge ones.

[00:17:18] At least one yeah but at least one but I know a lot of them had like pretty big losses they weren't shut down but had big losses.

[00:17:26] Yeah so if they were shut down they were like basically never going to raise another you know good amount of financing.

[00:17:33] We've seen that time and time again and then bulls have to face getting waxed constantly in these huge drawdowns and their conviction tested what and what feels like quarterly at the minimum.

[00:17:44] So that's why they're difficult. They're difficult ones to own and that's why they're traded so much because they're difficult to own and they're difficult to be short.

[00:17:56] And there's extreme pessimism extreme optimism on both sides and maybe the truth somewhere in the middle but they're difficult to own for that reason and I just try to stay away from them.

[00:18:08] And they're usually culty and very popular and a lot of them usually end up on that TD list that you just showed.

[00:18:16] They're great for trading so if people are traders I mean they tend to be very liquid.

[00:18:21] Very liquid and have a ton of volatility.

[00:18:24] Yeah exactly so that's a trader's dream right there but yeah I mean for Tesla specifically I mean there were so many things that could have happened that would probably have put the money.

[00:18:37] I mean there was a company in bankruptcy.

[00:18:39] Like who could have thought that Elon would have like worked himself over there slept on the floor for a few hours kept working like who does that like literally aside from Elon like who would be that dedicated.

[00:18:54] I mean they had debt that needed to be refinanced and they won the verge like so many times and they Elon managed to find a way and my conclusion from all that is you just don't bet against Elon.

[00:19:07] Yeah whatever you think about him and I have mixed feelings about him and sometimes I agree with him sometimes not so much.

[00:19:14] I just would not bet against a guy.

[00:19:16] And I came from in kind of I did it I did three or four internships with Magnant International the car company.

[00:19:25] I was involved in being on the corporate side doing plant inspections all over Canada or all over Ontario and then also I did eight months in the manufacturing plant on the engineering side.

[00:19:37] During my my undergrad and I saw firsthand how complex that business is both from the OEM side but also on the supplier side and how difficult it is to get right.

[00:19:50] And how not only the capex but also operationally to get to all use the software word like feature parody for these cars is very very hard.

[00:20:02] Like I was so bearish on the execution and you got to give it to them like they did.

[00:20:10] Well even Elon has said the exact same thing he was I was listening to him a few months back on Joe Rogan and he said the exact same thing talking about the cyber truck is like designing the truck and getting a prototype is not the hard part.

[00:20:23] The hard part is getting it into production that's the hard part.

[00:20:26] And I mean that's what you're saying and that's Elon said the exact same thing.

[00:20:32] Sourcing all the parts with tier one tier two tier three how it all flows together.

[00:20:38] I would I would be just amazed at how some of it was all pulled together and I'm just like you know 20 year old eager ambitious engineering student like just amazed at how this is all happening and like the plant floors like all robots these robots are pain.

[00:20:56] Painting the cars with they have like all these axes of rotation and I'm just like that.

[00:21:02] I don't think Tesla is going to be able to pull this off like they got there too far behind right.

[00:21:06] And so that was that was where I came from it right and so I guess where this comes from is you had a lot of people who are like very very bullish on the name and had all these kind of aspirations about what the business could become in the future.

[00:21:20] And some of them are right some of them were wrong depending on when they stated that claim.

[00:21:27] But at the end of the day it's just a not a type of a type of equity I particularly like to hang out in because of all those things.

[00:21:36] Yeah no I mean I think that was a good segment and I mean for the most part I agree with you it's just yeah they're battleground stocks for a reason and very difficult oftentimes to hold and value and try to establish or go into future.

[00:21:51] Let's go to intuitive surgical here from this listener question.

[00:21:55] I'll read the question then you can take it over.

[00:21:57] Sure.

[00:21:59] Are you a shareholder of intuitive surgical?

[00:22:00] No I'm not so I'm hoping you'll chime in a little bit.

[00:22:03] I just kind of answered more the question on a high level basis.

[00:22:07] Listening to the latest episode and since you brought the subject of high multiples when do you consider trimming a core position due to valuation.

[00:22:16] I'm looking at intuitive surgical trade at 250 times free cash how do you weigh decades of 10 to 15 percent growth runway versus 250 X free cash flow multiple.

[00:22:28] Yeah so obviously the stock definitely looks expensive when looking at it on a trailing basis because when I was looking at the 250 times multiple that JF send us the question referencing it.

[00:22:42] It's definitely on a trailing basis not forwards on a forward looking basis.

[00:22:45] It's more reasonable and air quote I would say at around 71 but it's still still not cheap and that's obviously based on analyst forecast so you know you always have to take those with a grain of salt.

[00:22:58] There's nothing wrong in my opinion to looking at trailing metrics you just have to understand that you're looking backwards and just to factor that in I actually personally like often times just to look at both and just get a sense of it.

[00:23:11] I know some people just look at the forward ones.

[00:23:14] The problem is you know analysts are known to be wrong so I think you have to you know do your due diligence as well free cash flow has been steadily declining since 2021 which is clearly putting pressure on the price of free cash flow along with the stock price going up so it's kind of a combination of both here.

[00:23:33] So of course you know when looking backwards it can look a bit crazy but I'm not sounding the alarm or anything but I would want to understand why that's the case and maybe Braden you know but free cash was definitely been trending down for intuitive surgical.

[00:23:51] It's pretty right like since I have it here since essentially 2021.

[00:23:56] Yeah I'm going to look this up while you speak keep going.

[00:24:01] I'm going to have a look at the CapEx.

[00:24:04] Okay so yeah and look and going on a going forward basis the valuation doesn't look it's not cheap obviously but it's not out of whack if you're comparing it with what has happened over the last five years for intuitive surgical for joint TCI listeners you'll be able to see it like it's not you know it's definitely at the higher end for intuitive surgical but it's not going to be a good one.

[00:24:26] But it's not crazy so I definitely would want you know you'll have to figure out where the growth is going forward.

[00:24:34] I know the company a little bit I don't own it I know Braden knows it a lot better than I do but that is something you'll want to be aware of where is it going forward because it's going to impact the prospects and if it's trading at trading at a high multiple but it has a lot of growth going forward.

[00:24:51] It's one thing if it's trading at high multiples but doesn't have a lot of growth then it's another and one other thing I notice is the prize the free cash flow per share is another thing that has been trending down so pretty much in line with the free cash flow.

[00:25:06] It kind of peaked in 2021 and then at $4.80 per share and then has been trending down most recently in the last 12 months to $1.07 per share so these are all things I would definitely you know want to get some context on before I would make the decision to trim or not.

[00:25:26] Yeah I just I just graphed this out so I graphed out R&D expenses that's been steadily rising to almost 300 million a quarter and in those recent quarters with free cash flows down CapEx was up significantly in the previous three quarters compared to previous before.

[00:25:44] And so this is a business in growth mode looking to continue to horizontally expand their offering of robotic surgeries and so to me this is it's a land and expand model like the KPI that matters the most for me is the number of installed systems in hospitals.

[00:26:04] And so that number continues to climb up and a little bit at an accelerated pace too. So we're up to nearly 9000 installed systems in hospitals and those once those are installed they're very sticky all the surgeons love it they don't want to switch they they don't go back to the traditional scalpel surgery once they're on this and it has I think like 30,000 peer reviewed R&D.

[00:26:34] And so I think that's a good thing to do is to get the data out of the hospitals from surgeons talking about how to use it why they love it etc. And so when you're talking about this company in terms of valuation.

[00:26:50] It's expensive but it's always been expensive and I have not realized I've owned the stock for quite some time now.

[00:26:59] The balance sheet is wonderful you know net cash position the growth is fantastic they're in a truly market leading position for a sector and industry that the market and the world is very excited about.

[00:27:15] That's basically all you need to know why it trades so high you have this like growth name no does it grow 80% a quarter no does it grow at Nvidia levels no.

[00:27:25] But you have really really steady growth over time with a really really long runway because you know 9000 installed Da Vinci base might turn into 30,000 in the next decade and then you're churning out tons of recurring high margin revenue off of all the services and software that you need to run it over time.

[00:27:49] So it's a true razor and blades model so if I'm a shareholder I'm not looking for them to spit out free cash.

[00:27:57] So that that leads me to the question around valuation is that the metric that makes sense to use for this business probably not I'd be looking at valuing it over EBITDA or operating income sales or enterprise value to growth profit.

[00:28:12] Anyway you slice it you can't find this thing cheaply doesn't matter how you slice it it's an expensive stock.

[00:28:19] Yeah exactly and I think you have to keep in mind that whenever a stock is expensive and I think Braden explained why you know the future likely looks very bright for a company like intuitive surgical.

[00:28:32] I mean you always have to keep in mind that there's nothing without risk right so you have to when you have a high valuation and intuitive surgical whichever way you look at it it's not cheap.

[00:28:45] You know if something goes wrong there is more risk effective with that because the valuation is so high even though the risk of something going wrong might be quite low.

[00:28:54] I mean if something does go wrong or maybe they just their earnings are a bit below expectations you could see some big movements in the stock price if they don't kind of at least meet if not beat guidance so that's always something to keep in mind in terms of.

[00:29:10] You know whether you know how do you decide to trim or not I mean at the end of the day this is something that's a bit more personal if you still believe in the prospect of the business like Braden explained I mean you have to look at how large that position is.

[00:29:24] Is as a percentage of your portfolio because you know a core position for you I don't know it may be 510 15% I have no idea right so what are you comfortable with is is it preventing you from sleeping at night are you stressed out that I could lose.

[00:29:40] You know a significant chunk of its value and affect your portfolio in a big way you know if the stock has a big drawdown say 50% which is not impossible right if markets there is a big correction in you know let's see him in video drops by 50% for whatever reason.

[00:29:58] I have a feeling that overall the markets will probably have a pretty pretty bad time at the same time I'm not saying it's necessarily what's going to happen but just be a cognizant of that that there could be things that happen that have nothing to do with intuitive surgical that can create some big price wings in the actual price so are you able to deal with that is probably my question for you and if you trim.

[00:30:25] You have a plan to what to do with that money are you going to use that money to buy another company are you going to use it to buy an index fund are you going to put it in cash that's going to give you 5% until you find something so having a plan I think is a good thing and the last thing I would say is for some people having rules really helps them.

[00:30:48] Kind of you know I've heard I know a lot of investors that have strict rules so let's see a core position for them is let's say you're they're fine up to 10% so that their role is 10% once it gets 11% or more they just trim it back to 10%.

[00:31:05] Some people you know it works best for them because they have a rule they don't have to overthink it it reaches that threshold they trim it back they take some profits off the table and that's how they do it they've had great success doing that so maybe that's an option that works well for you.

[00:31:21] Braden and I don't do that but I know some investors do that and it works very well for them and that's something else you could consider.

[00:31:29] I think this is yeah this is a question around investing style I tend to really really fight of at all costs avoid selling winners.

[00:31:39] Especially yeah as you mentioned around like how big is that position intuitive stills are still small position for me even though it's done well.

[00:31:47] Yeah it's a baby position I looked I knew you owned it.

[00:31:51] How big is it?

[00:31:52] I think it's like 1% the last I checked.

[00:31:55] It's been one of those workbench positions where I added to it and I like the valuation and it's gone up significantly and it's really hard to keep it.

[00:32:06] It's the Chuck Acre workbench position where it's like we love the company but we haven't continued to acquire more shares because it's really hard to underwrite them at that valuation.

[00:32:19] But that doesn't mean I'm a seller.

[00:32:21] No exactly.

[00:32:23] And you know you can argue you can debate the point around you know every decision to not buy is a decision to sell.

[00:32:28] I don't buy that.

[00:32:30] I've never really liked that way of thinking.

[00:32:33] I found that when I think like that I end up over trading.

[00:32:37] I end up doing things that are silly when I should have just let this thing ride and that's exactly what I've done and that's been probably the right move.

[00:32:45] Yeah.

[00:32:47] Yeah but at the end of the day it really depends on your like you said an investor style right because some people it really helps them having hard rules.

[00:32:57] Because that's the way that works best for them.

[00:33:00] It reduces stress they know they can rely on their rules they follow them and Braden and I will tend to let our runners run and we're comfortable with that but there is risk to that as well right you could do a round trip which is never fun so keep that

[00:33:15] Keep that in mind too.

[00:33:17] It's just some of the question asking like we can't answer that for you but you have to think these are all things that you should be considering when assessing whether you should trim or not that position.

[00:33:27] When do you have to go? Do we have time for one more segment?

[00:33:31] We can do it in 10 minutes yeah.

[00:33:34] 10 minutes alright let's do it.

[00:33:36] The countdown is on.

[00:33:38] Tick tock on the clock here.

[00:33:41] I did a poll to my Twitter audience and I just basically said what's the best personal finance hack that follows the Pareto principle basically like what's the 80-20 of your personal finance hacks?

[00:33:53] What's the like super low effort but big result thing you can do?

[00:33:57] I got some seriously helpful ones I got some ones that are really not easy to do.

[00:34:02] And I got some funny ones so I'm going to go through a couple that got the most likes in order.

[00:34:08] So I don't think that this is particularly low effort but it was the most liked response from Arena Man Capital.

[00:34:15] Marry someone who shares your financial goals.

[00:34:18] This resonated the audience the most it appears and just on that same note the Twitter algo had me from Doug Pohnparth tweeted.

[00:34:26] It's okay if one spouse handles the family finances but it's unacceptable if the other spouse has no idea what's going on.

[00:34:35] That's a recipe for disaster.

[00:34:37] Both are responsible for understanding where they stand financially even if someone's handling the day to day.

[00:34:44] Pretty good advice.

[00:34:46] Yeah definitely that's what I do with my wife I manage most of it.

[00:34:50] I try my best to keep her up to date because she doesn't have she just trusts me but I still won like every so often I kind of show her where everything is at our budget you know the investments we have.

[00:35:04] Basically I don't force her but I strongly encourage her to look at it especially when you have a daughter like I do and you know if anything were to happen to me I want her to at least have a decent understanding.

[00:35:16] She doesn't need to be an expert but at least know where everything is.

[00:35:20] I think I'll put this one second because this is the far most input at one.

[00:35:26] It's probably the most you know popular if I include the like 30 people that all said something along the lines of direct automatic contributions to your investment account.

[00:35:38] For me that's in the form of automatic bill payments to my account 20th a month and invest on the last Tuesday of the month when I do my brokerage again activity.

[00:35:45] But the point here is forced savings and forced dollar cost averaging into your investments.

[00:35:53] Yeah yeah I'm nothing down there just pay yourself first.

[00:35:57] So many of my European friends wrote you don't need a car I can save so much and it's like my buddy from London said that my other buddy from Europe said that lives in a major city.

[00:36:10] It's like that does not compute with the American brain but it doesn't compute with a lot of Canadian brain as well if you're not in a metropolitan city.

[00:36:19] So yeah you know where I need where I live you don't need one.

[00:36:22] I typically just only drive my car in the summer like I drive my car like three times a week in the summer and like once a month in the winter because I drive it to go up north to my cottage and play golf like that.

[00:36:34] That's pretty much it.

[00:36:36] Yeah.

[00:36:37] Sure maybe that's a good recommendation but for so many folks listening that's like OK thanks that's not realistic.

[00:36:44] I'd say along that same line is drive used reliable cars.

[00:36:51] Nothing flashy and you don't need you don't need to finance a fancy brand new Mercedes.

[00:36:57] Yeah yeah totally agree.

[00:36:58] I mean if I could I would we would only have one car but again with a young child where you have to drive her to places and logistics logistics.

[00:37:08] It's not always easy but I totally agree.

[00:37:10] I mean if you live in a major city oftentimes you can just deal with public transit and Uber and then that'll be still but that second car because you guys had one car for a while.

[00:37:19] You bought a second car and you bought like a used very modest.

[00:37:23] Oh yeah yeah like I forget what you bought.

[00:37:26] Bob is like a Jetta. Yes.

[00:37:29] Jetta.

[00:37:31] Like I'm not trying to like pump your tires here but many people in your financial position would be buying the average person in your financial position which is quite good would be buying something fancy and nice and you're just like nah use Jetta A to B let's go.

[00:37:49] Yeah.

[00:37:51] My way was like the ideal price point where I paid the cheap it.

[00:37:55] Yeah still get reliability.

[00:37:58] That was like the intersection of the two and I have a great Volkswagen mechanic so that's why we stayed in Volkswagen so that was the second reason.

[00:38:07] One thing that I really liked was always wait a day or two before checking out when online shopping.

[00:38:11] I do this just with stuff that I'm like do I really need this.

[00:38:16] Another person wrote if you don't check out on the shopping cart and they have your email most e-commerce sites will email you a promo code to complete your checkout after like 12 hours.

[00:38:29] Oh really OK.

[00:38:31] That's kind of funny too.

[00:38:33] Yeah I mean you can do all that stuff with email automations now at this time.

[00:38:36] Some talk about credit card points and the old classic make coffee at home.

[00:38:42] You know the usuals.

[00:38:44] Yeah the next one is my favorite but this one took the crown.

[00:38:50] Mitchell C.

[00:38:52] Right.

[00:38:54] Balding you don't have to do anything and you cut out your monthly haircut expense.

[00:39:00] Just go bald.

[00:39:02] Yeah I can vouch for that.

[00:39:03] Yeah.

[00:39:06] It's too bad you're losing hair but again I same for me like I just shave my head like with the raised electric razor the shortest I can.

[00:39:15] I do it myself and saving like probably like 50 to 70 bucks on average a month because often times I would go every three four weeks so yeah.

[00:39:24] Yep I'm spending that but you know what I used to get I had a while there my girlfriend was cutting my hair.

[00:39:33] Yeah but yeah it's one of those things where it's like it's good to it's good to look good feel good type of thing with the haircuts but it's just outrageous like the prices around especially in like these major metro cities.

[00:39:48] I got a haircut in San Diego maybe I don't know how long ago that was now it's it's a blend of all my work trips but I got a haircut there and I think it was 70 US.

[00:39:59] Oh but was the best haircut you ever had and did you get like a shampoo and all that look like a scalp massage.

[00:40:06] He he did give I guess on paper one of the better haircuts that I've ever gotten it really took his time but I was I was almost there for too long you know it's like I don't want you to rush it but like why am I still here it's been a while it's been a while.

[00:40:24] I guess they just want they charge that much like this you got to be in the chair for a while.

[00:40:31] Yeah I know at least women for the most part I know my wife and I've talked to other girls about that like the 10 especially if you have longer hair they'll go like every three four months or so.

[00:40:41] So yes it's more expensive one shot but at least they don't have to go as often as a guy like for us if you have shorter hair I mean if you're not going for more than three four weeks like you know it starts like curling up near your hair and your ear and stuff like that.

[00:40:57] It really shows pretty quickly.

[00:40:59] Well round out today show by letting you know here on the podcast you know that I just got another cold email from Constellation Software to buy Finchette perfect.

[00:41:10] And operating hits it's breaking my heart.

[00:41:14] Yeah.

[00:41:16] They're just so on it they have like they have quite the sales machine in terms of like making acquisitions.

[00:41:23] It's amazing.

[00:41:25] It's so impressive.

[00:41:27] I just see these.

[00:41:29] I just laugh I go thanks but no thanks.

[00:41:31] Like I'm a shareholder keep keep it up.

[00:41:33] Keep blasts the emails.

[00:41:35] Keep blasting those emails out.

[00:41:37] I'm not your right target but keep blasting those emails out.

[00:41:39] Thank you for listening to the podcast folks.

[00:41:43] We really appreciate you tuning in here.

[00:41:45] We are Mondays and Thursdays on the show.

[00:41:48] The show goes on and if you haven't gave the show five stars or followed it on your podcast player.

[00:41:56] It's the lowest.

[00:41:58] It's the Pareto principle.

[00:42:00] It's the growth hack of our podcast the Pareto principle.

[00:42:04] It takes you very low effort but it makes a huge impact for us.

[00:42:09] So that's probably the easiest way to support the show is five star on your podcast player

[00:42:16] and then leaving a little written review and boosting our dopamine levels.

[00:42:22] Thanks for listening we'll see you in a few days take care bye bye.

[00:42:25] The Canadian investor podcast should not be construed as investment or financial advice.

[00:42:31] The hosts and guests featured may own securities or assets discussed on this podcast.

[00:42:36] Always do your own due diligence or consult with a financial professional before making any financial or investment decisions.