Topic: How To Invest

Q: Hello Patrick: Some companies were recently added or deleted from the S&P/TSX. Am I correct in thinking that it is a good time to buy stocks prior to them being added and a good time to sell prior to them being deleted, or is the effect too small to bother with? Thank you.

Article Excerpt

A: Typically, changes to the S&P/TSX indexes are announced by Standard & Poor’s and then implemented a couple of weeks later. On September 6, 2024, it announced that on September 23, Bird Construction (symbol BDT) and Triple Flag Precious Metals (TFPM) would be added to the index. At the same time, Africa Oil Corp. (AOI), Ballard Power System (BLDP), Canfor Corp. (CFP), Canada Goose Holdings Inc. (GOOS) and Westshore Terminals Investment Corp. (WTE) would be deleted from the index. Some academics have analyzed past price movements and concluded that after such an announcement is made, and before the listing change takes effective, stock prices typically rise for companies added to indexes and fall for firms dropped from indexes. After the effective date, however, the studies show that the price changes mostly reverse themselves. The added firms give up some of the price gains and the deleted firms regain nearly all of their price declines. Like most factors that investors use to try to predict…