Gold Shortage Coming

Both Ivanhoe (IVN) and Kirkland Lake Gold (KL) are smart bets in my opinion.

Why?

Because demand for gold is going up, and both of these stocks have a proven track record.

China is a growing economy and their thirst for gold jewelry is skyrocketing, but so is the demand for consumer electronics (which uses gold in the microchips).

The global demand for gold continues to grow. This is a supply and demand issue. There simply isn't enough gold to go around, but there are two Canadian companies which are plentiful with the stuff.

Nor are these the only gold mining companies I have invested in. There's about 20 different mining companies I have invested in, with many of them dealing with gold, silver, copper, rare earth metals, lithium, and basically anything that is useful for making either batteries or for electronics.

Because that is something else that people often forget. Our consumption of electronics goods continues to soar, globally, and those electronics need metals that are hard to find and mine.

Which means they end up being valuable and the mining companies extracting them from the earth are likewise profitable and worth investing in.

I am also invested in companies which deal in mining exploration, which means they are dealing with finding new places to mine such metals, and then sell their finds to the government or mining companies for a hefty profit. 

And like always, I only invest in those companies with a proven track record, and I am investing long term.

 

Energy Stocks

Algonquin Power (AQN) and Ballard Power (BLDP) are two energy stocks worth researching and investing in, in my opinion.

AQN has nice steady growth over the past 5 years, so definitely a strong contender.

You can see a blip from March 2020 for the start of the pandemic, but it had a very quick recovery.

This is a company which will continue to grow in my opinion, as they are expanding into renewable energy production and solar/turbine energy production is going to become a huge business during the next 30 years. Definitely a smart long term investment.

Nor are they limited by that. They are already a huge company that deals in both production, transmission and distribution of energy across Canada and the USA.

Ballard Power meanwhile is really banking on renewable energy. Hence the big spike in their stock price during the past year, followed by a calmer period.

BLDP as you can see has lots of room to grow, having gone from $2 per share 5 years ago and is now over $20.

I wouldn't be surprised if BLDP was worth $100 to $200 per share by the end of the decade.

Buying both of these stocks to me is a no-brainer. You buy both and you hedge your bets.

There are other energy stocks to consider, but I haven't seen any yet that are performing like these two.

Nor am I worried about BLDP's upward blip. That to me is a sign that this stock is ready to go even higher.

It will be interesting to come back a year from now or 5 years from now and see how well these stocks are doing.

I put my money where my mouth is. I bought both of these stocks, and I believe you should too while they're still affordable.

HAPPY INVESTING!

Two ETFs Worth Researching

 ETFs is something to definitely consider if you're looking for stocks, but you're not sure what to invest in.

An ETF (exchange traded fund) is when an investment company or investment bank creates a fund which people can buy in a manner similar to buying a stock, and then that company/bank uses the money from the fund to invest in other companies which they think will go up in value (and/or provide dividends).

The company or bank managing the ETF takes on the responsibility of managing the money/trading stocks of a variety of companies for you, and you don't have to worry about doing it yourself.

However not all ETFs actually have that nice "Darling Curve" that I am looking for.

Take XIU (from BlackRock) for example. You can see that big dip from March 2020 when the pandemic happened and how it hurt a lot of the stocks that the ETF was invested in. This wasn't that unusual however. A lot of stocks took a nose dive in March 2020, and as you can see many of them also recovered.

XIU has seen soared to record highs, which tells me that this is an ETF that is recession resistant and recovers quickly.

Did it take a few months to pull off a full recovery? Yes, it did. But did it pull it off? Yep. Yep, it did.

What I also like about ETFs is that they're stable. They're basically guaranteed to go up in value. Eventually. Not always right away. You just have to be patient, which makes them a good candidate for long term investments.

The other thing I like is that they invest in companies that I might not otherwise consider investing in (or can afford to invest in). Thus it allows me to diversify my portfolio more, with less research required on my part, while still hedging my bets.

Overall, a smart investment.

The next one I want to talk about is WSRI (Weathsimple's North America Socially Responsible Index ETF).

WSRI is a relatively new ETF. It has only been around for a little more than a year, hence why the chart shown on the right is set to 1Y (one year).

But during that one year you can see the ETF went up in value by almost 25%, and that it is very consistent about going up in value.

That is a very sexy Darling Curve in my opinion.

So if you want to hedge your bets by investing in ETFs I recommend starting with these two ETFs.

Any other ETFs you come across you should definitely research, but when researching these two I think you will find them to be very smart choices.

Definitely worth researching AND investing in.

HAPPY INVESTING!

Shopify will set record high before Xmas

I am predicting that Shopify (SHOP) will go to a new record high sometime in the next 4 months, likely before Christmas.

The stock is currently trading at around $1937 CDN, and set a record high back in July when it reached $2075.88.

My prediction is that it will top $2200 or more before xmas. Or more. And then stay in the $2100 to $2600 range during 2022.

Which means buying it right now is kind of a no brainer. Stocks like Shopify always go up before the Christmas shopping season, and because of COVID's continuing effect on online shopping, this effect should see a boost since Shopify is geared exactly towards that. Facilitating online shopping.

Shopify is also one of those Darling Stocks that I recommend just buying and keeping. Buy, keep, collect dividends.

Furthermore, you can buy fractional shares of SHOP via Wealthsimple. So you don't need to shell out $1937 to buy stocks in it, you can buy $1 or you can buy $100 or a $1000 worth. Whatever amount suits your fancy.

So let's say you buy $1000 worth when it is worth $1950 or less. Enough to buy 51.28 fractional shares.

Then the stock goes up $2200.

You sell your fractional shares for $1128.20.

Certainly a better move than keeping your money in the bank where you are getting in 0.05% in a TD High Interest savings account. Seriously. The interest rates are so low that even the "High Interest" savings accounts are giving you almost nothing.

0.05% interest over a 4 month period on $1000 is... 16 cents.

So you have to ask yourself, do you want to earn 16 cents of interest from your bank, or at least $128?

Or do what I do. Buy Shopify stock and then just keep it.

Right now it is my "Go To Stock" for whenever I have money leftover in my Wealthsimple account. Any extra money leftover from my other investments gets put into Shopify. That is how confident I am in it. I want to invest in other things, of course, in order to diversify my portfolio (I have a lot of stocks in Canadian gold, silver, copper, lithium and mining operations) and I need to offset my other investments with tech stocks and other topics. Shopify is one of the best Canadian tech stocks you can invest in right now.

The only real trick is that it is so expensive that many people have to buy fractional shares instead of whole shares. Hence why having a Wealthsimple account comes in handy.

The History of a Darling Stock: McDonald's (MCD)

If you had invested $100 USD in 1981 in McDonald's stock it would have been an extremely safe bet that it would go up in value over the next 40 years.

That $100 investment, back when MCDs was worth $0.71 per share, would now be worth about $33,447 + 40 years worth of dividends.

Wait another 19 years and by 2040 it is a fairly safe bet MCD stock will be worth about $400 per share. The company continues to expand into foreign markets.

The only problem, in my opinion, is that it is an American stock, and I don't invest in American stocks because of the exchange rate.

But also because there is a 15% withholding tax on foreign investors.

If I was an American however, that would be a very smart investment.