Buying & Tracking Canadian Silver Stocks
Jason Hommel
The United States Government has placed restrictions
on US mining companies that destroyed almost the entire US industry of
precious metal exploration penny mining stocks. This is in part what
helped to open up trading in Canadian mining shares. I don't know what
the regulations were, and it was before my time, but that's what I have
read.
There are also restrictions on US investors. The
"Federal Reserve Notes" we own are not ours to do with as we like. US
investors cannot buy Canadian mining stocks through US brokers--as far
as I'm aware. We have to use international brokers, or Canadian brokers
in order to buy Canadian stocks. A US investor can open up an account
with a Canadian broker, and trade directly on the Canadian exchanges.
One way around this limitation is through trading
the "pink sheets" (PK) which are available for US investors who do not
have a Canadian broker. Most Canadian shares also have a symbol for
trading on the "pink sheets" (PK), which quotes the price in US
dollars, instead of Canadian dollars. When buying a PK stock symbol,
your US broker actually buys from another broker who does both a
currency conversion for you, and he buys the stock on the Canadian
exchanges, and he will charge an additional commission for both
services, which tends to be about 1-3% in my experience. Unfortunately,
the quotes for the PK shares are often updated a day later, or not
updated for a few days. And there is no volume published, nor a bid and
ask to get quotes on the PK shares.
This does not mean there is no volume in the stock,
and this does not mean you cannot get a bid and ask. The stock trades
in Canada, and the volume, and bid and ask are on the Canadian
exchanges, and you can get all this information at yahoo.com for free,
very easily, by looking up the quote for the Canadian symbol. The quote
for a ".V" or ".TO" stock is in Canadian dollars. To translate this to
US dollars, you have to look up a currency conversion chart, and
multiply by about .77 to get the dollar price.
(The Canadian/US exchange rate has been changing a
lot lately. Six weeks ago, it was .73. I wonder if all the people
buying Canadian stocks has had a significant effect? Anytime you go to
buy a Canadian stock, you are selling dollars, and buying Canadian
currency just before you buy the stock. So this puts increased downward
pressure on the dollar, and upward pressure on the Canadian currency.)
When placing an order for a "pink sheets" (PK)
stock, you should also add about 1-3% for the commission, or more if
the stock is tightly held, to help make sure your limit order is
filled. Or, you can just use a market order. I strongly advise against
placing market orders before the market opens, as sometimes stocks can
"gap up" and you won't know what you are paying, especially if a lot of
market orders are placed at once during the night if an article comes
out on the internet.
Not all US brokers even deal with PK stocks, so here is a convenient list:
Brokerages for investors in the USA that handle Canadian issues and/or pink sheets:
www.ameritrade.com Internet, $10.99; Telephone
System, $14.99; Broker-assisted: $24.99 Market orders, $29.99 Limit
orders.
www.penntrade.com online trading, $29.95/trade. no
extra charges for market orders, limit orders, large volume, small
volume, stocks under $1.00, or Canadian, Pink Sheets, or OTCBB. (Get
started with only $500!) www.pennaluna.com --for broker assisted
trades, starting at $45/trade.
www.gril.net Global Resource Investments LTD.. "They
appear to be very knowledgeable in the field and all their brokers are
out of the mining industry."
www.aftrader.com --only $10 in and $10 out. No extra fees. You buy the Canadians PK or OB.
www.etrade.com
www.scottrade.com "will buy Canadian stocks cheap."
To track the price of your Canadian silver stock,
you don't want to look up the price for the PK share, because the
brokers do not update them frequently, and when they do, the
information is a day old at least. The Canadian symbol quotes in
Canadian dollars, and the PK symbol quotes in US dollars. Therefore you
have to convert the updated Canadian quote price to US dollars on your
own.
Click on yahoo finance. Take a minute to register.
Sign in. At the top of the page, click "create" a portfolio. Choose
"track your current holdings". In the large box, copy and paste the
following symbols (Use your mouse to highlight the text, then use
control-C to copy, control-V to paste).
XAGUSD=X BHP GMBXF.PK HL IPOAF.PK CDE GRS GAM.TO MFN
MFL.TO SIL FSR.TO MR.TO METLF.OB CZN.TO CZICF.PK PAAS MAN.TO MMALF.PK
WTZ WTC.TO MGR.V MGRSF.PK GQM.TO GQMNF.PK CFTN.PK KBR.V TM.V TUMIF.PK
SSRI ADB.V SVL.V STVZF.PK DNI.V MAI.V MNEAF.OB ECU.V ASM.V ASGMF.PK
SRLM.PK EXR.V EXPTF.PK FAN.TO FRLLF.PK MNMM.OB UNCN.OB IMR.V IMXPF.OB
VGZ VGZ.TO MCAJF.PK CDU.V CUEAF.PK MAG.V TVI.TO TVIPF.PK MMGG.OB EPZ.V
ESPZF.PK IAU.V ITDXF.PK NPG.V NVPGF.PK HGM.V NJMC.OB MMG.V MMEEF.PK
QTA.V QURAF.PK EXN.V GNG.V SPM.V SHSH.PK ROK.V HDA.V ITRO.OB III.TO
IPMLF.PK EZM.V EZMCF.PK MTB.V MSLM.PK MAR.AX RRM.V SBUM.PK FWGO.OB
MEMLA.PK SLSR.PK SDSI.PK HRNS.PK GPXM.OB TUO.V TEUTF.PK HGM.V HOGOF.PK
GSPG.OB AAG.V ANMCF.PK MVRM.OB
The first symbol, "XAGUSD=X" lets you track the
silver price. These symbols are in the exact order they appear in my
weekly silver stock report, so this way, you can follow along what's
taking place in the silver market on a daily basis. Also, you can
easily access charts for any of these, such as 1 day, 5 day, 3 month, 6
month, 1 year, 2 year, or 5 year charts. You will love being able to
access this information so quickly from your own continually updating
"silver stock page". You will also be able to see, in one place, right
at the end of the list, the news releases for each stock on the list
(if the company has their PR act together).
To get a copy of my free weekly silver stock report, email me at jasonhommel@yahoo.com
28 October 2003
Other essays by Jason Hommel:
25 Reasons To Support The Sound Money Bill - 08 July 2004
I'm Insanely Bullish On Silver - 19 June 2004
Silver Stock Evaluations - 22 May 2004
The Silver Bull Is Back - 04 May 2004
Late April Silver Update - 22 April 2004
Silver Juniors With Cash Flow - 04 March 2004
Major Frauds of the U.S. Monetary System - 26 February 2004
Market Perspective & Cabo Mining - 12 February 2004
Usury Enslaves - 19 January 2004
Sterling Mining - 29 December 2003
The U.S. Trade Advantage With China - 17 December 2003
Rising Gold Prices Will Help The Economy - 02 December 2003
Miners to Use Silver as Cash - 27 November 2003
Private Placements in Silver Companies - 20 November 2003
Is the Silver Market Too Small to Buy? - 13 November 2003
Inflation & Deflation During Hyperinflation - 06 November 2003
Silver Price Expectations of Silver Stock Investors - 30 October 2003
Buying & Tracking Canadian Silver Stocks - 29 October 2003
Canadian Zinc--Silver Potential - 23 October 2003
Silver Stocks--Comparative Valuations - 4 - 13 October 2003
Silver Stocks--Comparative Valuations - 3 - 06 October 2003
Silver Stocks--Comparative Valuations - 2 - 29 September 2003
Silver Stocks--Comparative Valuations - 1 - 22 September 2003
Silver and Cardero Resource - 08 February 2003
The Moral Failures of the Paper Longs - 22 January 2003
CFTC Response to Silver Problem - 14 January 2003
People Talking About $32,567/oz - 10 January 2003
Letter To Authorities of Silver Markets - 06 January 2003
Why no talk of $32,567/oz ? - 02 January 2003
Refuting Myths about Gold - 28 October 2002
Controlling Gold with Paper - 10 June 2002
Impending Gold Futures Default - 29 May 2002
Certain gold stocks are still cheap - 07 May 2002
A Few Supply and Demand Fundamentals of the Dollar and Gold - 06 May 2002
New DROOY Institutional Holdings - 21 February 2002
Hommels View of Gold - 23 March 2001
Gold Price Under Differing Scenarios - 24 June 2000
Goldismoney.com
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