📊 Long-Term Investing: The Power of Thorough Analysis When it comes to long-term investing, understanding the fundamentals of a stock is crucial. It’s not just about jumping on trends; it’s about making informed decisions based on solid data. This chart breaks down the essential financial statements—Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement—that every investor should analyze before committing to a stock. 🔍 Balance Sheet: This tells you about the company’s financial health, specifically its assets, liabilities, and equity. A healthy balance sheet is a sign of stability and resilience. 💸 Income Statement: This shows the company’s profitability by detailing revenue, expenses, and profits. A strong income statement indicates a company that’s generating profits, a key factor for long-term growth. 💰 Cash Flow Statement: This reveals how the company manages its cash, from operations to investments and financing. Positive cash flow is essential for sustaining operations and fueling future growth. By mastering these fundamentals, you can make smarter investment choices that stand the test of time. Remember, successful long-term investing isn’t about timing the market; it’s about time in the market, supported by thorough analysis. $VGT$TXN$QQQ$AAPL$META #InvestSmart #LongTermInvesting #FinancialLiteracy #StockMarketAnalysis
Covered call ETFs might be the most divisive topic on this app. Half of you are collecting monthly income and loving life. The other half say it's a yield trap that's quietly eating your capital. So instead of picking a side, I spent the week actually researching how $QYLD, $HHIS, $ZWB, $HDIF and friends work under the hood. Sharing what I learned — and where I'm still genuinely unsure 👇 ⸻ 1️⃣ First thing that clicked: the yield is manufactured, not earned 🎯 The fund owns stocks, then sells someone else the right to buy those stocks at a set price (a "call option"). The cash premium it collects is a big chunk of your monthly distribution. The trade-off: if the stocks rip past that price, the fund doesn't participate. It sold that upside. Once I understood this, the whole debate made more sense. It's not free money vs. scam — it's cash today in exchange for growth tomorrow. ⸻ 2️⃣ The distribution isn't all "income" 🧾 This one surprised me. A 12% yield doesn't mean the fund earns 12%. Distributions are a mix of: -Option premiums -Dividends from the underlying stocks -Sometimes return of capital (ROC) — some of your own money coming back to you From what I've read, ROC isn't automatically bad (can even be tax-efficient in Canada), but if a fund keeps paying out more than it earns, the NAV grinds down over time. That's the "NAV decay" everyone argues about. The gut check I've started using: pull up the max chart of the fund's PRICE, not total return. If it only goes down and to the right… the yield is partly being funded by capital. 📉 ⸻ 3️⃣ The total return numbers were the eye-opener 📊 $QYLD holders collected 10%+ yields for a decade. Sounds amazing. But people who just held $QQQ ended up way ahead on total return (price + distributions), because markets make most of their money in a handful of big up-months — exactly the months covered calls cap. That said… QYLD holders also had a smoother ride and got paid through every drawdown. Which brings me to 👇 ⸻ 4️⃣ Where I've landed (so far): it depends what job the money has ✅ The "covered calls are a trap" crowd seems right IF you're young, accumulating, and DRIPing distributions back in — you're paying 0.65–1%+ MER to convert growth into income you don't need yet. The income crowd seems right IF you're retired or actually spending the cash flow — getting paid without selling shares in a down market is a real psychological and practical benefit. So maybe both sides are correct… for their own situations? 🤔 ⸻ 5️⃣ My checklist before I'd buy one 🕵️ Still learning, but here's what I'm now checking on any covered call fund: -Distribution breakdown — premium vs. dividends vs. ROC (fund's website) -Total return vs. the plain underlying index over 3–5 years -NAV trend — stable, or melting? -MER — often 3–10x a plain index ETF -Coverage — 100% covered, or partial (~50% like some BMO funds) that keeps some upside? -Leverage — some funds (like $HDIF) layer on ~25% leverage. Bigger yield, bigger risk. ⸻ Where I'm still stuck 🚀 The question I keep coming back to: "Do I want to be paid now, or paid more later?" I don't think either answer is wrong — but I want to actually choose it, not just chase the biggest number on the yield screen. ⸻ So, to both camps: what am I missing? 👇 If you hold CC ETFs — what convinced you, and has the income held up? If you avoid them — is there ANY situation where you'd own one? Genuinely want to hear both sides. That's why I'm here 🌸 Not advice — just my research notes. DYOR!
Tomorrow at 1 pm EST, I’ll be live with @maxstocks and Global X for a conversation on: • SpaceX • Satellite communications • Defence and space technology • Public vs. private space companies • The evolving space economy • Opportunities and risks investors should be watching And more! https://m.youtube.com/live/nkNkEU4Jmrs
U.S. markets ended the week lower as technology shares came under pressure. Concerns around AI spending increased after China’s Moonshot AI introduced a new model it says can outperform some U.S. systems. For the week: S&P 500: -1.55% Nasdaq-100: -4.13% Dow Jones: -0.93% Technology was the weakest sector, while Energy and Real Estate led the gains. Economic highlights U.S. data was mixed, but several reports pointed to resilient activity. Retail sales rose 0.2% in June, while weekly jobless claims fell to 208,000. Manufacturing data was also stronger than expected, with the Philadelphia Fed Index rising to 41.4 and the Empire State Index climbing to 15.6. Producer inflation increased 5.5% year over year, below expectations. Housing starts jumped 19%, although building permits declined 3%. Consumer sentiment also improved to 54.4. Earnings to watch Alphabet (GOOGL) reports Wednesday after the close. Expected move: ±6.9%. TC Quantamental Rating: 52/100, supported by strong momentum, quality and growth, but held back by valuation. Tesla (TSLA) also reports Wednesday after the close. Expected move: ±7.4%. Rating: 34/100. Momentum remains strong, but valuation, growth and quality are weak. Intel (INTC) reports Thursday after the close. Expected move: ±14.8%. Rating: 33/100. The stock has strong momentum, but profitability and valuation remain concerns. RTX (RTX) reports Thursday before the open. Expected move: ±5.2%. Rating: 55/100, supported by growth, quality and income factors.
TCUS maintains a steady course in July The July rebalance of the Trading Central Quant U.S. 50 Equity Index ETF (TCUS) resulted in turnover of just 12%, with only six of the portfolio’s 50 equal-weight holdings changing. The relatively limited rollover indicates that the Quantamental model continues to find attractive characteristics among many of the existing holdings. Technology and health care remain the portfolio’s largest sector allocations, accounting for 34% and 32% respectively. The portfolio also retains a meaningful mid-cap orientation, with mid-sized companies representing 50% of holdings, compared with 26% in large caps and 24% in small caps. From an investment-style perspective, TCUS remains broadly diversified. Value stocks represent 44% of the portfolio, followed by growth at 38% and income at 18%. Among the highest-rated holdings for July are AMN Healthcare Services, Innoviva, Encore Capital Group and Teradata, each supported by strong combinations of valuation, growth, momentum and quality factors. Overall, the July portfolio reflects a consistent model signal, with limited turnover and continued emphasis on technology, health care and attractively rated mid-cap companies. https://www.longpointetfs.com/etfs/tcus
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
