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Gold/Mining/Energy : Silver prices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gerald Walls who wrote (2697)	3/17/2000 2:16:00 PM
From: Claude Cormier	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8010

Gerald, It is certainly true that it is a bit more difficult for US investors to buy CDN stocks not listed on US exchanges. But when you want an investment for which you cannot find an equivalent on US exchanges (and it is often the case in the mining sector), it is better to go through the little trouble and be right on your investment. As for the commissions and exchange rates, well they certainly are somewhat higher and can increase the costs by 0.5%-2% depending on the size of the transactions. But given that you are going after several hundred percent gains... who cares about the commish being a bit higher. But here again, if you want to save, you have the possibilities. Etrade is not expensive if you know how to do it, from what I am told on the BAY thread. Penntrade offers a flat fee at $29 for $CDN stocks. And I am sure there are other solutions. I remember that Lombard was excellent on CDN stocks. If you are day trading, I will agree with you, you better stay with US stocks especially the high tecks. But if your are investing medium to long term. The argument doesn't hold. Differed quotes are more than enough as you place your bid on the ask or on the bid or wherever you want, and you are patient. But if you absolutely want real quotes, well just take your phone or call your broker, E-trade or else. <<I know I'll get reamed on the currency conversion and since I have no way of telling what a fair price is there's no way to know how badly I got reamed. >> The loss on conversion is no more than a added cost of a few tenths of a percent of the total costs. Place your bet $0.05 lower and be more patient. When you are convinced that a specific stock will perform like no other US counterpart, you should go for it, even if your total costs to get in is 3% instead of 2%. FWIW, I remember someone telling me many months ago he was buying SSC instead of BAY for that specific reason. Look at the results. Transactions costs are a non-issue when you are buying a stock with several hundred percent gains in mind. Period.