Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat, what are we to make of CIBC’s new Canadian Depository Receipts? Is this a better way to hold U.S. investments? What are the pros and cons? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: CIBC’s new Canadian Depository Receipts (CDRs) aim to give investors the opportunity to buy shares and/or fractions of shares in any of a number of U.S. or other foreign companies, in bundles that start out trading at a price of about $20 Cdn. each. CDRs come with a built-in hedging feature that reduces exchange-rate fluctuations. This feature costs you 0.6% of your investment yearly. CDRs let you invest small sums in U.S. or other foreign stocks, some of which have exceptionally high per-share prices. (For instance, Amazon.com currently trades for $3,658.41 a share.) Note, though, that with highly liquid stocks like Amazon.com, or the other shares underlying CIBC’s CDRs, investors can easily buy, say, just one or two shares if they want. CDRs represent shares of U.S. or other foreign companies, but are traded on a Canadian stock exchange in Canadian dollars. More CDRs are planned for the future. The first of them now trade on the NEO Exchange and are listed…