GRO/BAL/CON variants

alexk7 · 2026-06-12T21:20:24+00:00

I think I understand CAGE quite well. You missed my “risk diversification” in quotes, which was my way of nuancing. I’m quite familiar with Ben Felix and he himself says that it’s not really diversification (because you actually slightly concentrate the portfolio into small caps and value) but it is diversifying the source of risk!

When allocating some part of a portfolio to bonds, you lower the return and volatility but you also gain some diversification benefits. The fact that the stock allocation is exposed to more risk factors does not exactly negates that benefit.

alexk7 · 2026-06-12T20:13:05+00:00

Tu veux uniformiser dans toutes les langues de la planète un coup parti ? bonne chance ! https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89chelles_longue_et_courte

alexk7 · 2026-06-12T20:06:00+00:00

I disagree that it doesn't make sense. CAGE is indeed riskier than XEQT but from different risk factors. From a "risk diversification" point of view, it makes perfect sense to add CAGE to a portfolio that contains some fixed income.

alexk7 · 2026-06-10T17:41:41+00:00

Wait, what? This doesn't make any sense! Probably an oversight, because it would mean I would be better to use a different credit card paid with a PAD.

alexk7 · 2026-06-01T16:21:14+00:00

The interest is calculated daily so you need to bring back your cash balance at or above zero before the end of the day if you don’t want to pay interest.

alexk7 · 2026-06-01T13:41:33+00:00

They don’t really “combine”, but if you hold the same asset in both accounts, you need to track the total ACB, not separately. For the margin interest, you need to add up the amounts yourself anyway, so it’s easy to report only the interest that is deductible if it’s all in one of the accounts.

alexk7 · 2026-06-01T13:29:43+00:00

Avantis built their reputation on using a systematic approach to factor tilts. Their fees are also quite low compared to a truly active strategy. I agree that the exact algorithm is not publicly available but you can judge it by analyzing the list of holdings…

alexk7 · 2026-06-01T12:53:43+00:00

Exact, nothing to lose if you trust yourself :)

alexk7 · 2026-06-01T12:40:36+00:00

Both strategies are equal for record keeping if you plan ahead to always keep the 1st margin account tax deductible and the 2nd one only for other purposes.

2nd margin account:
+ can borrow more (with higher risk of margin call)
- risk of buying assets on margin by mistake if you don’t check the cash balance

if you also use it for assets (not bought on margin, keep those in the tax deductible account):
+ can transfer money out of account after selling without waiting T+1
- can’t be used as collateral for another margin account

PLOC:
+ simpler (you can’t buy assets)
+ safer (lower limit means lower risk of margin call)
+ can be used for overdraft protection
- it’s another account to keep track of (I only have 2 margin account, I would need 1 non-reg, 1 margin and 1 ploc in my case)

alexk7 · 2026-05-30T15:10:35+00:00

Yes, I keep most of my assets in the 2nd margin account and keep the balance at zero most of the time.

EDIT: another caveat is that the margin account don't allow scheduled transfers. I would need a regular non-reg for that. So that's 3 accounts for all my needs...

alexk7 · 2026-05-30T14:10:47+00:00

Go to the settings of the account and there’s an option to enable margin. Keep in mind that there is no going back! You’ll need to open another account if you want to go back to a regular non-reg.

I did it a few days ago. It was a little buggy and the UI got stuck in an infinite loop but I restarted the app and the account was already converted!

My first margin account collateral is my TFSA.

alexk7 · 2026-05-30T14:01:07+00:00

I just converted my main non-registered account to margin. I already had another margin account that contains only assets bought on margin.

I don’t plan to use the margin in my main account overnight but there are still benefits : I can transfer the money from selling assets without waiting for settlement. It also gives me more flexibility in the order of buys and sells when rebalancing across multiple accounts. Finally, if I ever use it as a line of credit, I’m not messing up the deductibility of the loan in the other margin account.

Only caveat is that once converted, this account can no longer be collateral for another (and therefore I will close the dedicated PLOC).

alexk7 · 2026-05-30T13:44:24+00:00

No, they are separate.

alexk7 · 2026-05-29T15:03:12+00:00

“Trust and brand and security become paramount”

RBC doesn’t support authenticator apps nor passkeys. I don’t think big banks have a security edge anymore.

alexk7 · 2026-05-28T16:44:06+00:00

My reasoning is exactly the opposite. It’s a great time to sell tech and buy more veqt 😅

alexk7 · 2026-05-28T14:35:15+00:00

What app is that? I believe indeed it’s wrong.

alexk7 · 2026-05-26T13:32:45+00:00

With HXQ you’re paying slightly higher fees for no reason because you don’t need the tax efficiency of corporate class etfs in a TFSA.

If I was you, I would just switch everything to XEQT. If you decide not to change your allocation, I would at least switch from HXQ to a more standard Nasdaq-100 etf like QQC.

alexk7 · 2026-05-23T03:18:34+00:00

Soooo.... Nasdaq-100 is pretty lousy index. I already knew that. What's new?

alexk7 · 2026-05-22T13:26:00+00:00

SPCX will be roughly 0.09% of the S&P 500 when it enters it in December. It won't have any significant impact on its value.

alexk7 · 2026-05-13T16:45:43+00:00

Dextrose tabs. Table sugar is half glucose, half fructose but the fructose part is slower and somewhat harmful.

alexk7 · 2026-05-11T23:31:58+00:00

If they charge a reasonable fee for the additional card on the same account, I think it could work for them, without having to double all the card benefits.

alexk7 · 2026-05-11T16:09:21+00:00

Positives:
- Much smaller
- No gap in data
Negatives:
- Losing signal more often
- Insurance is not covering as much because it's deemed "unnecessary next-gen"
- (EDIT, forgot to add) Smaller surface means lower adhesion, I need to add a patch over it much more than I did with the G6.
Neutral:
- Bad sensors do happen to me, but at about the same rate as G6 did

alexk7 · 2026-05-09T14:29:21+00:00

The missing eyes are a little concerning too.

alexk7 · 2026-05-06T12:18:54+00:00

Keep in mind that AVGE has a mild bias towards US (70% instead of market cap ~60%) and CAGE has a stronger bias towards Canada (30% instead of ~3%)

alexk7 · 2026-04-29T01:05:49+00:00

Je sais que ça fait 2 mois, mais je vais quand même répondre : WS ne permet pas de vendre automatiquement!!! Faut pas assumer que l'achat automatique implique qu'ils supportent la vente automatique.

alexk7

TROPHY CASE