🦋 The Canadian Golden Butterfly: Built for Retirement Resilience: -Beta = 0.5 -Purpose = Sell Least Impaired Capital First -Goal = Survive, Fly, Heal -Estimated Return = 6.5-7.5%, beat inflation. Most portfolios assume stocks will rise over time. Historically reasonable — but near retirement, maximizing return stops being the only goal. A 40% crash at 35 hurts. A 40% crash at 64, just before withdrawals begin, can permanently damage retirement. That’s where the Golden Butterfly comes in. Its biggest advantage isn’t that every asset goes up during a crisis. It’s that different assets fail at different times. Ideally, when one sleeve is getting crushed, another is holding up — giving you something else to sell. ⸻ 🇨🇦 The Canadian Golden Butterfly For a Canadian investor within 3-5 years of retirement: 🇺🇸 30% XTOT — broad U.S. equities 🌎 10% XINT — international equities 🔍 5% CASV — small-cap value ⚖️ 5% ZLSU — long/short U.S. equities 🏦 15% ZFS — short Canadian federal bonds 🏛️ 15% ZFL — long Canadian federal bonds 🥇 20% ZGLD — physical gold That’s roughly: 45% traditional equities 5% long/short equity 30% federal bonds 20% physical gold ⸻ 🔧 What Each Piece Does $XTOT — Growth Engine. Broad U.S. exposure from mega-cap to micro-cap. Retirement can last decades, so becoming too defensive creates its own risk. $XINT — Geographic Diversification. Developed and emerging markets outside North America. Its job is to keep the portfolio from depending entirely on America. $CASV — Small-Cap Value. Adds smaller value/profitability companies that can behave very differently from mega-cap growth. $ZLSU — Long/Short Diversifier. Goes long companies expected to outperform and shorts expected laggards. At 5%, it’s another return source rather than the core portfolio. $ZFS — Stability Bucket. Short federal bonds with relatively low interest-rate sensitivity. Useful for liquidity and spending during market stress. $ZFL — Recession Defender. Long federal bonds can benefit when recessions push interest rates lower. Their weakness is inflation and sharply rising yields. $ZGLD — Inflation/Crisis Diversifier. Physical gold. Its job isn’t to beat stocks; it’s to behave differently when stocks or bonds are struggling. ⸻ 💰 The Hidden Retirement Bonus: Something Else to Sell Imagine stocks fall 40% and you need money for living expenses. In an all-equity portfolio, you may have to sell stocks after they’ve already collapsed. Those shares are gone forever and cannot participate in the recovery. With the Canadian Golden Butterfly, you can ask: What is holding up? Maybe ZFS is stable. Maybe ZFL rallied. Maybe gold is up. Maybe ZLSU fell much less. You can potentially sell the strongest or least-damaged sleeve instead of locking in the largest loss. That turns diversification into a withdrawal strategy. ⸻ 💻 Dot-Com Bust: 2000–2002 The dot-com collapse was brutal for growth stocks and lasted several years. Likely Canadian Butterfly behaviour: 🇺🇸 XTOT — 🔴 Weak Broad U.S. equities suffer. Avoid selling if possible. 🌎 XINT — 🔴 Weak International equities also struggle. 🔍 CASV — 🟢/🟡 Better relative performance Small/value companies historically held up much better than expensive growth during parts of this period. ⚖️ ZLSU — 🟡 Potentially useful The ETF didn’t exist, but a long/short structure could potentially benefit from large gaps between winners and losers. 🏦 ZFS — 🟢 Stable Useful spending reserve. 🏛️ ZFL — 🟢 Strong candidate Falling rates and recessionary conditions can favour long government bonds. 🥇 ZGLD — 🟢 Strong later in the crash Gold performed especially well by 2002. What would I sell first? 1. ZFL if it had rallied 2. ZGLD if overweight 3. ZFS for spending Try not to sell depressed XTOT or XINT. ⸻ 🏦 2008 Financial Crisis This is probably the cleanest Golden Butterfly example. Equities collapsed while high-quality government bonds performed extremely well. Likely behaviour: 🇺🇸 XTOT — 🔴 Crushed 🌎 XINT — 🔴 Crushed 🔍 CASV — 🔴 Very weak Small companies can suffer even more in deep credit crises. ⚖️ ZLSU — 🟡 Unknown Long/short could potentially reduce market sensitivity, but it isn’t guaranteed to profit. 🏦 ZFS — 🟢 Stable 🏛️ ZFL — 🟢 Potential hero Falling rates and a flight to safety can drive long government bonds sharply higher. 🥇 ZGLD — 🟢 Held up What would I sell first? 1. ZFL 2. ZGLD if above target 3. ZFS And if rebalancing, some of those proceeds could be redirected into cheap equities. The key is avoiding forced sales of assets that are already down 30–50%. ⸻ 🦠 COVID Crash: 2020 COVID was different because the collapse happened incredibly fast. Stocks fell roughly one-third in weeks, then recovered rapidly. Likely behaviour: 🇺🇸 XTOT — 🔴 then 🟢 Selling during the panic could have been especially damaging. 🌎 XINT — 🔴 then recovery 🔍 CASV — 🔴 Severe initial drop ⚖️ ZLSU — 🟡 Depends on positioning 🏦 ZFS — 🟢 Stable 🏛️ ZFL — 🟢 Strong during falling-rate panic 🥇 ZGLD — 🟢 Strong overall What would I sell first? 1. ZFS for immediate spending 2. ZFL after a bond rally 3. ZGLD if overweight Avoid panic-selling XTOT after a sudden 30% decline. COVID showed why having another source of liquidity matters: stocks recovered before many investors expected. ⸻ 🔥 2022: The Butterfly’s Tougher Test Not every crisis helps bonds. In 2022, inflation surged and rates rose rapidly. Stocks fell and long bonds fell. Likely behaviour: 🇺🇸 XTOT — 🔴 🌎 XINT — 🔴 🔍 CASV — 🟡/🔴 ⚖️ ZLSU — 🟡 Potentially useful depending on stock selection 🏦 ZFS — 🟢/🟡 Much more resilient than long bonds 🏛️ ZFL — 🔴 Hurt badly by rising yields 🥇 ZGLD — 🟢/🟡 Diversifier, but not guaranteed to rise What would I sell first? 1. ZFS 2. Whichever of ZGLD or ZLSU held up best Avoid selling deeply depressed stocks and long bonds unless necessary. This is important: There is no perfect hedge. The goal is not to have everything win. The goal is to have something still standing. ⸻ ⚠️ Sequence-of-Returns Risk Retire with $1 million. A 40% decline leaves: $600,000 You need a 66.7% gain to recover. If a diversified portfolio fell 18% instead: $820,000 You need only about 22% to recover. And once withdrawals begin, the difference becomes even more important. ⸻ 📉 Beta I’d use roughly: 0.45–0.55 with about: 0.50 as a planning estimate. That doesn’t mean the portfolio always moves half as much as stocks. Gold and long bonds can move independently. That independence is the point. ⸻ 🆚 $VCNS, $XBAL, $VBAL and $XEQT VCNS is roughly a conservative 40/60 stock-bond portfolio. XBAL/VBAL are roughly traditional 60/40 portfolios. XEQT is essentially 100% equity. The Canadian Golden Butterfly is different because it uses: 🥇 physical gold ⚖️ long/short equity 🏦 short federal bonds 🏛️ long federal bonds That creates more distinct return sources. ⸻ 📊 Return, Beta & Cost Summary Forward-looking planning estimates, not guarantees. 🦋 Canadian Golden Butterfly Estimated return: 6.5–7.5% Estimated beta: ~0.50 Estimated weighted cost: ~0.20–0.25% 🛡️ VCNS Estimated return: 5–6% Estimated beta: ~0.35–0.45 MER: ~0.22% ⚖️ XBAL Estimated return: 6–7% Estimated beta: ~0.55–0.65 MER: ~0.19% ⚖️ VBAL Estimated return: 6–7% Estimated beta: ~0.55–0.65 MER: ~0.22% 🚀 XEQT Estimated return: 8–9% Estimated beta: ~0.95–1.00 MER: ~0.20% By expected return alone: XEQT > Canadian Golden Butterfly ≈ XBAL/VBAL > VCNS But near retirement, expected return is only part of the story. XEQT has the strongest growth potential but the highest equity sensitivity. XBAL and VBAL offer a traditional middle ground with roughly 60% equities and 40% bonds. VCNS is more conservative and bond-heavy. The Canadian Golden Butterfly is designed to target roughly 7% long-term return with about half the equity-market sensitivity of XEQT, while also giving you several different assets to potentially sell during a crisis. ⸻ 🏁 Bottom Line The Canadian Golden Butterfly asks one question: When the next disaster arrives, what will I have available to sell? Dot-com crash? Potentially bonds, gold or value stocks. 2008? Long bonds, short bonds and gold. COVID panic? Short bonds, long bonds and gold. Inflation/rising-rate shock? Short bonds, potentially gold and long/short. You don’t need to know which crisis comes next. You don’t need every asset to win. You simply want one or two assets still standing when another part of the portfolio is bleeding. Then you sell from strength, rebalance into weakness, and give the damaged assets time to recover. 🦋 Canadian Golden Butterfly 30% XTOT · 10% XINT · 5% CASV · 5% ZLSU · 15% ZFS · 15% ZFL · 20% ZGLD Expected return: ~7% Estimated beta: ~0.50 Weighted cost: ~0.20–0.25% For someone approaching retirement, that may be the real magic of the Butterfly: not avoiding every loss — but avoiding being forced to sell the wrong thing at the worst possible time. “Historical crisis discussion uses representative asset classes because several ETFs in this portfolio did not exist during the dot-com crash, 2008 or COVID. Return, beta and fee figures for the complete Canadian portfolio are illustrative planning estimates, not guarantees or a historical backtest.” ** Bonus Tip: use 10% $PTLC with XTOT for further defence Survive - Fly - Heal read more
Closed off all my positions before close. Project and prompt found in comments YTD performance +46.64% Last 3 months +22.21% Grok definitely outperforming $SPY and $QQQ Restarting next week with an optimized instruction set and a plan to increase the volatility. Might bench mark this against Claude + MooMoo connection.read more
Since so many people ask how to invest in this sector, or this country, or this asset, I’ve decided to make a comprehensive guide on how you can invest in specific areas. This is NOT portfolio advice, simply information about tickers that you can research yourself. Save this for later so you have a list of ETFs to come back to! Canada: $XIU$XIC$ZCN All expose you to the TSX in Canada. These ETFs consist of all top Canadian companies and access to our national stock exchange. $VCB$VGV$VLB$VAB$VSB$VSC$XBB$XCB Expose you to Canadian bonds; whether it be long-term, short-term, corporate, government, etc. $VDY$XEI$CDZ Expose you to Canadian dividend companies $XRE$ZRE$VRE Give access to Canadian REITs $ZEB$XFN$RBNK Lets you buy the Canadian banks USA: $VFV$ZSP$XSP$XUS$HXS Lets you buy the S&P 500 (learn about hedged vs. unhedged in my other post) $XQQ$HXQ$ZQQ All give you access to the NASDAQ 100 $IWR$VO$VOE$VOT$IJH$SCHM Lets you buy US Midcaps $IJR$IWM$VB$VBR$VBK$SCHA Lets you buy US Smallcaps $DIV$SPYD$RDIV$DHS$VIG$SCHD$VYM$DGRO$SDY Give access from small to high dividend US companies $VTI$ITOT Lets you buy the whole US market $TLT$IEF$VGIT$GOVT$SHY$VGLT Give access to US bonds $XLC$XLY$XLP$XLE$XLF$XLV$XLI$XLB$XLRE$XLK$XLU All give you access to each sector in the S&P such as financials, energy, healthcare, etc. International: $XEQT$FEQT$VEQT$ZEQT Give you an all-in-one exposure to Canada, US, emerging and global markets. $VEA$IEFA$SCHF$SPDW$EFV$EFA Give access to general international exposure $EWJ$EWU$EWC Gives direct access to developed international countries $INDA$MCHI$EWT$EWY$EWZ$EWW$EIDO$EWM Gives direct access to emerging international countries Assets: $KILO$PHYS$CGL Let’s you buy gold directly through ETFs $SVR$HUZ Let you buy silver through ETFs Savings/Interest: $CASH$HISA$PSA$HSAV Access to Canadian savings and interest payments $HSUV-U $PSU-U $HISU-U Access to US savings and interest payments There’s so many ETFs I didn’t go into with dozens of categories, but this should give you some basic starting point to look into your ETF investments. This is simply the starting point, when choosing your investments always research the ETFs, what they provide to you, their fees, your goals, your risk, and what you’re looking to get out of investing. As always do your research and happy investing! Subscribe to the newsletter: relatablefinance.substack.com read more
$DOCU currently sits at $62.04, up roughly 54.5% over the past five and a half months since hitting its 52-week low of $40.16 in late February 2026. Still, the stock remains about 28.4% below its 52-week high of $86.65, struggling to reclaim those $85-$90 levels since drifting lower off its September 2025 peak. DocuSign's core business is holding up well. Q2 FY2026 revenue grew 9% year-over-year to $800.6 million, billings jumped 13% to $818 million and free cash flow reached $217.6 million (a 27% margin). The company also raised full-year guidance and is leaning into its new AI-powered Intelligent Agreement Management platform to drive the next growth leg. Despite the solid fundamentals, the stock has struggled alongside broader software sector weakness, with RBC Capital recently issuing a Hold rating. Is anyone actively tracking this one? Do you expect it to stay range-bound between $60 and $65 with no near-term upside despite the pattern of higher highs, or do you think it's hit its peak for now with real downside risk ahead? 👇💬
If I had $100,000 to invest in the stock market TODAY, this is exactly how I’d allocate it. No ETFs. No cash sitting on the sidelines. No over-diversifying just for the sake of it. I’d put every dollar into the businesses I believe offer the best combination of growth, quality, valuation and long-term upside. Here’s the portfolio: SoFi | $SOFI — $20,000 Amazon | $AMZN — $16,000 Uber | $UBER — $14,000 ServiceNow | $NOW — $12,000 Netflix | $NFLX — $10,000 Zeta Global | $ZETA — $9,000 Brookfield | $BN — $8,000 Oscar Health | $OSCR — $6,000 Snap | $SNAP — $5,000read more
I know this concept gets brought up as a joke sometimes, but I just had a serious conversation with a beginner about it, so I’m inspired to offer some clarity. When people say covered calls have “capped upside,” I think two different ideas sometimes get mixed together. First, capped upside does not mean your entire portfolio return is capped. It refers to the upside of the underlying above the strike price during the life of the option. If you own something at $100, sell a call with a $110 strike and collect a premium, you can still benefit from the underlying rising from $100 to $110. Your return can be a combination of: Capital appreciation + option premium If the market moves sideways, the premium can help. If it falls modestly, the premium can soften the loss. If it rises but stays below the strike, you can participate in that rise while also keeping the premium. It’s only once the underlying rises substantially beyond the strike that you start seeing the opportunity cost of the covered call relative to simply holding the underlying. I think this matters because otherwise “capped upside” can accidentally turn into a strawman where people hear it as: “Covered call investors can’t benefit when stocks go up.” That isn’t true. The second point is why many people still favour simply owning the underlying for long-term investing. If you own an asset because you believe it has substantial long-term appreciation potential, repeatedly selling calls against it means repeatedly creating periods where some of that upside can be surrendered in exchange for premium. Sometimes that trade works very well. Sometimes the premium more than compensates you for the upside you gave away. But over a long investing horizon, an asset that experiences large upward moves gives you more opportunities to run into that cap. That is the actual trade-off. “Capped upside” doesn’t mean no upside. It means you are getting paid a premium in exchange for agreeing to give up some upside beyond a defined point.read more
The advice I keep seeing on Blossom for young investors is that when you're young you can afford to take more risk, and in general I agree with that. Where it goes sideways is in how people put it into practice. Increasing risk usually turns into increasing concentration, and lately that means a few AI names or bitcoin/crypto. What concentration does is widen the range of what could happen to you, without paying you anything extra for it. You might hit it big and you might lose 80 or 90 percent of it, and both of those are very real possibilities. You could take your whole paycheque to a roulette table and put it on red. You have definitely increased your risk. But run that a million times and your expected return is negative, because the wheel has a green zero on it. Run a diversified basket of stocks a million times and your expected return is positive. Both are risky. Only one of them has something paying you to take the risk. Hendrik Bessembinder looked at 25,967 US stocks from 1926 to 2016 and found that only 42.6% of them beat one-month treasury bills over their lifetime, with just 4.3% of stocks accounting for all the net wealth created above T-bills. The median stock lost money. So when you concentrate, you're betting you're holding some of that 4.3%. The usual argument is that a 20 year old can afford to lose it, because there's plenty of time to recover. Personally I'd argue the opposite. If you're 20 and you lose $10,000, at 8% over 40 years that's about $217,000 you don't have at 60. That's the price tag on the bet, not ten grand. And most people are placing this bet inside a TFSA, which makes it worse. If you put $10,000 in and it falls to $1,000, you only get $1,000 of room back when you withdraw it. The other $9,000 of contribution room is gone for good. You can't claim the loss against anything either, since capital losses inside a TFSA can't be used to offset capital gains. I understand the appeal of treating it as bonus money and hoping you picked right. But if you buy something diversified and keep contributing, you put yourself in a good position without ever needing the home run.read more
$TTD just took a brutal dive, wiping out a massive chunk of value after a Q2 2026 earnings miss and disappointing Q3 guidance. The stock is now trading around $14.14, rebounding 10.2% from its recent bottom of $12.83. While the core ad-tech engine is still profitable with a 34% adjusted EBITDA margin. Q2 revenue only grew by 3% year-on-year and management's forecast points to further deceleration in Q3, guiding to at least $650 million versus $804.8 million expected. Bears are arguing that structural headwinds in open internet advertising are squeezing economics while analysts remain split on where the bottom actually is. Is anyone actively tracking this one? Are you viewing this massive dip as an opportunity to average down your cost basis or is there more downside ahead? Drop your thoughts, strategies and portfolio updates in the comments! 👇💬
Just hit a cool little milestone in my portfolio: $90 in dividend income every single week. 💰 Although I'm not going to retire off that, I was thinking about all the different things $90 can pay for, and it's a pretty long list. To name a few: - A couple tanks of gas - 2 trips to Juan's Flamin' Fajitas with my wife - Most of our weekly groceries (those usually end up between $80-$100 per week) It's cool to see the list of things my passive income can pay for continue to expand. It won't be long (hopefully) until this portfolio is averaging $400 per month, and soon after that, $100 per week. That milestone is going to be VERY cool. How much dividend income are you averaging every week? Let me know in the comments! 👇read more
This is why I love dividend investing! ❤️ Made almost $150 in cold hard cash today without having to lift a finger. 💰 How much did you get paid this week? Let me know in the comments! 👇
One of the best parts about the Blossom community is how open everyone is sharing knowledge and experiences. To make things easier for anyone just starting their investing journey, here’s a simple glossary to help understand and simplify various terms. Common Terms: Dividend: A share of a company’s profits paid to shareholders, usually quarterly. Ex-Dividend Date: The cutoff date by which you must own a stock to receive its next dividend. ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund): A fund that holds multiple stocks or bonds, traded like a single stock. Covered Call ETF: An ETF that owns stocks and sells call options to generate extra income (higher yield, limited / capped upside). Earnings Report: A company’s quarterly financial performance summary. EPS (Earnings Per Share): A company’s profit divided by its number of shares. Market Cap: A company’s total value (share price × number of shares). ACB: The total amount you’ve paid for an investment, including the purchase price plus any fees or commissions. Book Value: The value of a company according to its financial statements (assets minus liabilities). Yield: Annual dividend as a percentage of the stock/ETF price. Liquidity: How easily an asset can be bought or sold without impacting its price. Volatility: The degree of price fluctuations in a stock or market. Index: A benchmark of stocks (e.g., S&P 500, Nasdaq, TSX). Bull Market: A period of rising stock prices and optimism. Bear Market: A period of declining stock prices and pessimism. False Breakout: When a stock’s price moves above (or below) a key level, making it look like a new trend is starting, but then quickly reverses back. P/E Ratio: Price-to-earnings ratio (stock price ÷ EPS), used to assess valuation. Blue Chip: Well-established, financially strong companies with a track record of stability. Diversification: Spreading investments across assets to reduce risk. Broker: A platform or firm that facilitates buying and selling investments. Limit Order: An order to buy/sell a stock at a specific price or better. Market Order: An order to buy/sell a stock immediately at the current market price. Bid/Ask Spread: The difference between the highest price buyers offer and the lowest price sellers accept. Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA): Investing a fixed amount regularly to reduce the impact of market swings. Capital Gain/Loss: Profit or loss from selling an investment for more/less than its purchase price. IPO: When a company first sells shares to the public. Index Fund: A fund designed to mirror the performance of a market index. Short Selling: Selling borrowed shares, hoping to buy them back cheaper. Margin: Borrowing money from a broker to buy investments, which amplifies gains and losses. Margin Requirement: The minimum amount of your own money (equity) you must maintain in a margin account to open or keep a leveraged investment position. Margin Call: A demand from your broker to deposit more funds or sell assets because your account equity has fallen below the required margin level. Time Horizon: The length of time you plan to hold an investment before needing the money. Short horizons = more risk-sensitive, long horizons = more room to ride out volatility. Stock Split / Reverse Split: A split increases the number of shares (e.g., 2-for-1) while lowering the price per share. A reverse split reduces the number of shares (e.g., 1-for-10) while raising the price per share. Your overall value doesn’t change just the math. Long (Being Long): Buying a stock or asset because you expect the price to go up. Short (Being Short): Selling a stock you don’t own because you expect the price to go down, so you can buy it back cheaper later. TER: The total yearly cost of owning a fund, including the management fee plus other costs like administration, audits, and legal fees. MER: The annual cost that a fund charges for management (includes any leverage costs if used). Management Fee: A portion of the MER that goes directly to the fund managers for running the fund. Withholding Tax: A tax deducted on dividends/distributions from foreign investments (e.g., U.S. dividends to Canadian investors face a 15% withholding in TFSA/Non-Registered accounts). Total Returns: The full picture of an investment’s performance, including both price gains and dividends/distributions. CAGR: The average yearly growth of an investment over time. NAV: The price of one share of a fund (stock or etf) NAV Depreciation: When the fund’s share price goes down over time. Mutual Fund: A pool of money from many investors used to buy a mix of stocks, bonds, or other assets. Bond: A loan you give to a company or government, and they pay you back with interest. Asset: Anything valuable you own that can generate money. Portfolio: Your collection of investments. Option: A contract that gives you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a stock at a set price. Future: A contract to buy or sell something at a set price on a future date. REIT: A company that owns real estate and pays investors income from rent. Alpha: A measure of how much better (or worse) an investment did compared to the market. Beta: A measure of how much an investment moves compared to the market. Sharpe Ratio: A way to see if returns are worth the risk taken. Hedging: Protecting your investments from risk. Rebalancing: Adjusting your portfolio back to your target mix of assets. FCF: Free Cash Flow Understanding these terms makes investing far less intimidating. If anyone feels other terms should be included, please share in the comments. I’ll update this post so we can build a complete beginner-friendly resource together! *Sorry tagged a few etfs for reach 🫣read more
Got inspired by @matt.41 and @edsam to upgrade one of my calculators. You can now choose Monte Carlo (Statistical) as the simulation method and set the strategy’s: - Expected return - Volatility - Yield - which we keep constant, since I think that’s what many people try to target and maintain This lets you see how much is being spent and reinvested. And if you want to see the implications of applying the "4% rule", you'd just set the expenses to 4% of your initial portfolio. https://karyungtom.com/monte-carlo-retirement-calculator/read more
If a stock (or a whole sector, like memory) that has been surging dips, and there is no change in the overall fundamentals/thesis, that's the time to buy. Everyone was saying "memory is dead" just because of a sell off that was largely caused by margin calls and leveraged trades in Korea. I'm really glad I didn't listen to them and bought the dip. Block out the noise and do your research, people. $DRAM$SKHY$STX$MU$SNDK
I love Canadian diversified broad market ETF like CANY. As I am still bullish for long term on Canadian stocks so I want to increase my exposure by buying CANY into my portfolio
If you could only buy one Mag 7 stock today which would you choose? $NVDA at $225 $MSFT at $495 $GOOGL at $345 $AMZN at $263 $META at $590 $AAPL at $305 $TSLA at $341 And why? At today’s prices I’m taking Meta 🤷♂️ read more
Unlike many who will read this, I think we're in an 'AI bubble' and see similarities in the buildup to the "DotCom Crash". I recently read something Vitaliy Katsenelson wrote that really got me thinking... What if the AI bubble has elements of not only the 'DotCom Bubble', but also the '2008 Financial Crisis'? In simple terms... DotCom bubble was an overvaluation of certain market segments (tech, some retail, telecom, etc.), caused by irrational exuberance and an over-investment in internet infrastructure. You might not see similarities here, but I do... Financial Crisis was essentially caused by a collapse of 'opaque housing-linked financial instruments'. Much of today's AI CAPEX is being funded through closed loop circular financing, which I'd say are ''opaque financial vehicles' in their own right. Much like the Financial Crisis, the trillions being spent on AI will have implications far and wide 'IF' things go awry. To be clear, bubbles can last a long time and I'm not suggesting it'll pop this week. Who knows? To be doubly clear, maybe there is no AI bubble at all and I'll be proven wrong. Time will tell... I'm not trying to be an alarmist as that's not my thing... In fact I'm still heavily invested in AI related names. AI is going to transform our way of life forever, much like the Internet's done over the past few decades. Doesn't mean there can't be a bubble tho'. While I'm not an alarmist, I'm also not one to keep my head in the sand and think this is at least worth thinking about, which is why I'm sharing. If you made it this far, thank you for reading... Whether you think this has any merit or not. Happy investing!read more
🏒 NHL Team ETFs May Be On the Way A new prospectus shows Volatility Shares filing for 32 separate ETFs, one for each NHL team. That means products tied to teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Vegas Golden Knights and more. The concept is simple but unusual: instead of tracking a sector, theme or stock, these ETFs would be linked to team performance. It’s another sign that ETF innovation keeps pushing into more niche and unconventional areas. From broad market exposure… to single stocks… to now potentially single sports teams. 📈 Would you buy an ETF tied to your favourite NHL team?read more
If you’re avoiding high yield ETFs it’s because you worry about nav erosion. If you’re in them your biggest concern is still nav erosion. Here’s the funds that won’t erode no matter where you buy them. 🧵👇 Also funds that won’t erode depending on your entry. Avoiding erosion is a two front thing. Both factors need to check the box. The underlying needs to be bullish longterm. The highest certainty of that comes from the indexes. The strategy needs to also check multiple boxes. You need a strategy that avoids heavy upside cap. Heavy upside cap means you get all the downside of the underlying with limited upside. That created a chart that perpetually erodes. You want far out of the money covered calls or put spreads. If a fund is selling near the money covered calls for 60% yield… you’re going to have erosion unless the underlying goes parabolic. So what checks those boxes? $GPIQ & $GPIX track $QQQ & the S&P. They pay a modest 9-10.5% yield but get some of the highest nav growth in the space. That also leads to dividend growth. $OVL is 99% long $VOO. The 1% is collateral for put spreads. That means no capped upside with the 10.28% yield. It also has a near 7 year track record of beating the S&P. $QQQI & $SPYI sell monthly far out of the money covered calls on only a portion of the holding. Coming in at 14 & 12% yield they now have years of nav stable track record. Now here’s the problem people run into. They assume you can buy these tier two funds below at any price. To maintain nav health you need to time entries. That’s my bread and butter but here’s the thing. You don’t have to do that to have success. If you want to set and forget just stick to tier one funds. For tier two think funds like $CHPY$BLOX & $GIAX. With the correct buy points you end up nav green harvesting 24-40% yield. That’s an absolute game changer. Two people who buy the same fund can have two very different outcomes. That all depends on your entry point. Risk to reward is crucial here whereas the basic indexes can be bought at any price. This is why you need a plan and know what bucket each fund falls in. If you want pure set and forget stick to tier one. If you want a hybrid mix both tiers with the understanding that it will require active management.read more
Wrapping a strong week; markets closed out Friday still near all-time highs despite a couple of shaky data points. 1. The Records Keep Coming $SPX hit its 27th intraday record of the year on Thursday at 7,816, then closed Friday around 7,784, up 0.19% for the week. Nasdaq and Dow also notched fresh highs earlier in the week. Third consecutive weekly gain, the longest streak since May. $XLK remains the year's biggest driver, up 32.5% YTD. 2. The Consumer Cracks Friday brought two soft prints: July retail sales fell for the first time in nine months, and August consumer sentiment dropped to 51 from 55.2, the lowest read in months. Inflation worries and elevated oil prices are clearly weighing on household spending, even as headline inflation data cooled earlier in the week. 3. Friday's Movers $RDDT jumped 14% on momentum, $MU gained on AI optimism, $TMUS slid on a brokerage downgrade citing revenue risk. Oil ticked up too, adding a bit more pressure on the consumer story. The point is: The market's betting cooling inflation and AI capex momentum outweigh a tiring consumer; for now, that bet's winning. But three straight weeks of records on top of weakening retail sales is a gap that usually closes one way or the other. Heading into next week: are you trimming into strength, or riding the AI trade through any pullback? #MarketNews #ConsumerSentiment #RecordHighs #Investing2026read more
I am selling all my $VEQT and switching to Wealthsimple direct indexing because it allows you to exclude certain stocks from your Index. Blackrock and Vanguard have separated us from thinking about how our investments can sometimes negatively impact the world without us knowing, because it’s all tucked away out of our sight. I strongly believe that if everyone stopped simply buying the index without considering business ethics we would have a much better world. I know everyone just wants to make money,the good news is that if we all started doing this then the more ethical companies values would go up gaining more of the pie as these unethical companies fall out of the index. I switched to direct indexing for all my Canadian and US index funds , essentially building my own ETF that is similar to VEQT, but I have carefully went through and exluded all Gambling Companies, any Oil & energy companies that don’t invest in renewables ($XOM Exxon Mobil, $CVX Chevron etc.) , as well as anything else that is obviously contributing to the degradation of our society and making us sick here in North America with processed garbage. ($MCD, $COLA, $PEP etc…) If there are any other companies you find that are hurting our people, please let me know in the comments and why they don’t deserve our investment. I know $PLTR seems like a troublesome one I may have to exclude. Together we can make the world a little bit better. read more
I am currently 47 years old. Unfortunately in that time frame I have lost a lot of family members. Some (most) were accidents, some to age, some to cancer, and one to suicide. That’s 11 deaths total. Only 1 person out of 11 had a will. When you are grieving the last thing you want to do is close an estate up. It’s even harder if nothing has been prepared in advance. After the initial shock of the death settles (the phase where everyone is usually nice), greed comes through in a most alarming manner. I’ve watched people turn into monsters. Make sure you have a will!!!! or people will fight.  I know most people hate thinking about their death or their spouses death but honestly it’s just a fact of life. I’ve personally been the executor of 2 estates now. This is my advice: 1. If your young get life insurance. If you’re retired it’s not worth it. 2. Make sure you have a will. 3. Make sure you have a personal directive. 4. Make sure you have a power of attorney set up. 5. If your married make your spouse the beneficiary of your TFSA and RRSP(has to be done through the account not the will), they will roll into the spouses account without taxation. 6. If you’re married, and you own a house, make sure both names are on the title, joint tenant, NOT tenant in common. This activates right of survivorship on property and doesn’t have to go through the estate. 7. If you’re married, both people should have their name on all the vehicles, joint, otherwise it’s a headache after death. 8. Buy a file folding system. I have a plastic one that has a clasp and handle. 9. Put EVERYTHING in this file folder that would be needed if you died tomorrow. a) all land titles B) information on house insurance so it can either be eventually canceled or name changed over. C) your will (or the location of your will),  power of attorney, and personal directive D) the information for your car, car insurance, and registration on vehicles. E) information on life insurance. F) all current year papers needed for filing your taxes. Because the survivor will have to do it and will need that information. G) where your household bills are. ALL OF THEM, electricity, gas, Netflix, magazine, subscriptions everything you can think of that is in their name. Because you are going to have to cancel them. H) their credit card information where to contact to cancel the cards I) birth certificate, SIN numbers, marriage, license, etc. J) information on all your investments accounts, bank accounts, etc. K) anything else you can think of for your situation If you’re married, I’d have one box per person. When you die, the funeral home will issue many death certificates. And your lawyer will give you copies of the will. These will be needed to change over any accounts. Everything else goes through the estate which is taxed and the lawyers take their fees so I’d avoid this as much as possible especially if you’re married. This is why having property in both people‘s names is so important because it doesn’t have to go through probate. I am widowed now and I have my black file folder and my two remaining children know if something happens to me, all they have to do is grab the folder. Everything they need to take care of my estate will be located in this folder. At the beginning of every year, I open this file up and go through everything to make sure it’s up-to-date. If you are young and do not own much or can’t afford a will, you can draft one up but it must be handwritten to be classified as a legal document. You cannot type it out!! If you’re not worth much, everything will most likely be sold to pay your bills and cover your funeral expenses. But you can state who your executor will be in your handwritten will.  Disclaimer I’m not a lawyer or an accountant and this is not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer and talk to an accountant. Make sure everything is set up for you and your situation. These are situations that I personally ran into. Good luck Also I’ll add in. IF you have a lot of assets make an appointment with your accountant first. They will tell you how to properly set things up. Then take that information to your lawyer. read more
8 months ago I out $AMD as my top buy since then it has gone up near 130%. But now it is definitely overpriced on this risky market. Me personally I am take some of my winnings just due to these crazy market conditions and going to rotate into other sectors like $SHOP and $CAKE as they have been very solid positions for me for a long time now? Opinions?
I’ve been using my income funds to help pay for my vacation to Poland 🇵🇱 I have what I call the Four Horsemen and they are $OVL$TDAQ$GPIQ and $QQQI / $XQQI and a few satellite positions! Not Financial Advice!
AppLovin is worth less than it was in late 2024. Yet, EPS is 186% higher today... Most literally, price and fundamentals have gone in completely opposite directions. Reminds me of the $GOOGL 2025 chart. $APP$APPS
