Canadian Stocks

Many of my favorite stocks are Canadian. Part of this comes from a natural resource bias which tends to hold it's value in inflationary periods, and part from the CAD itself, which has recently benefited from a resource-based economy and somewhat less profligate than usual fiscal policies.

Andrew recently commented on the Dow Jones Industrials page that he'd like to see a chart of Toronto Stocks priced in gold, and I thought that was a great idea.

Toronto stocks are somewhat more volatile than the S&P 500, but this can be a good thing, creating tradable bull markets that allow for a positive return in gold terms. The period from 2003 to 2007 was one example. While the S&P 500 fell 15%, the TSX rose by 72%. Even with that bull market though, a buy and hold strategy, while beating the S&P 500 since 2000, would have lost over 50% of your gold invested. Most investors are blissfully unaware of this loss, since over the same period, the TSX has risen more than 50% when measured in Canadian Dollars.

So the key is to be in the right stocks, at the right times – and to track your performance in gold, so you'll know when to buy and when to sell, to keep your wealth growing in gold terms.