Full Disclosure Finance

by Justin

Well, I must admit that I’ve not been making adequate time for FDF lately as a combination of travel and settling in from a move are my best excuses.  A ton has happened since I was last writing about Real Estate comparisons and getting into detail regarding a few stocks.

Most recently, I had an article in the pipeline on Labrador Iron Ore (LIF.UN) because a major expansion of the Iron Ore Company of Canada (of which LIF owns 15.1%) was announced in September.  The USD exchange rate was also turning in their favour amounting to a great buying opportunity at $45 a share.  During the process of researching and analyzing future cash flows for LIF, iron ore prices promptly shrunk with the commodity slide.

Now trading at $19.32 as of Dec 9 they don’t seem like such a great deal in the short term as IOC has just announced major scalebacks in production which will hamper distributions.

With the new information, I have to do more investigation into the potential of ore prices to recover (some say by 2010 when China gets back on track) because there is a lot of guessing going on.

I do think there are some great long term buys out there and will be looking to sniff some out over the next quarter.

I am also interested in the direction of the real estate market, especially in Southwestern Ontario.  Data keeps suggesting that sales are down and we are moving into a buyer’s market.  I have been looking at some properties in Waterloo that are cheaper than ever and have excellent cap rates (near 8.5%).  Given the direction of interest rates as well, this could be a great time to go shopping.

The wonders of Small Claims Court have been taking up a chunk of time also.  After a terrible group of tenants, I have a substantial amount in damages that need to be recovered.  I find this process both intimidating and chock full of learning opportunities. I will be keeping you posted on the process to give some insight and so you can learn from my experience.

Andrew has also been a busy man over the last 4 months and is taking in the entertainment (aka volatility) of the markets like most of us.

So bottom line, we’re back and ready to go. Look for continued writing on our activities and the lessons that can be had!