Wednesday was a case of another day and another few dollars made. The S&P 500 was down 0.1% but Toronto was up 0.6%
Gainers included Canadian Tire up 1.7% to $126.00. Agrium. up 2.3%.
I noticed an offering today of Melcor REIT convertible debentures at 5.5%. I got an alert email from TD Waterhouse. It looked somewhat tempting. One of the problems with new issues is there is usually zero time for analysis by the time the alert comes out. There may have been a preliminary prospectus filed earlier but few investors would be aware of it. If I am not mistaken, the institutional investors do get time for analysis. This takes place in a “road show” process that follows strange archaic rules. I believe it is an instutionalized form of legal selective disclosure. Whatever, there are alwys parts of the market that are unfair to retail investors. On the other hand there are PLENTY of opportunities for retail investors. Institutional investors are usually somewhat forced to go along with the crowd where as retail investors are free to be contrarian whenever they wish. Ultimately, one does not beat the market (the crowd) by following the crowd.
This particular convertible debenture sold out quickly. All else equal a convertible option on a REIT may not be as attractive as a convertible option on a more normal corporation. REITs dividends all their earnings and so can have a hard time growing the unit price. Perhaps Melcor will grow but it does not have the advantage of retained earnings to add to the growth in price per unit.
With the lack of time for any analysis and with the fact that I am already hugely exposed to Melcor I decided not to grab any of this convertible debt.