Bulk commodities and products will continue to be moved across the continent in large quantities by the only cost-effective method as rail offers producers a fast and efficient method of transporting inventory across borders and to ports. My exposure to these industrial companies is adequate for the moment and I expect them to be successful investments over the long-term with strong dividend growth.

Manulife Financial (MFC): After publishing Confessions of a Value Investor II, I found myself staring at Manulife with the option of topping up my weighting in the company to 5%. After reviewing my analysis on the company and considering the current risks I added to my position at $21.50.

Power Financial (PWF & PWF.PR.H): PWF is a unique stock as it owns controlling interests in Great-West Life GWO) and IGM Financial (IGM) as well as some attractive European industrial assets through Pargesa Holding S.A. I was looking to add to my position to balance my position in IGM and after purchasing more common shares in PWF I looked through my watchlist of preferred shares and suddenly noticed an issue trading at a YTW (yield-to-worst) of 9.58% (13.4% pre-tax equivalent). While I normally would avoid purchasing a preferred in the same company I hold common equity of the investor willing to part with their shares at the price I paid was a difficult investment to ignore.

Westcoast Energy (W.PR.J): this preferred gem comes with a tax-advantaged yield of nearly 9.5% and has cumulative dividends to boot. This is another non-financial perpetual preferred that I've added to my portfolio for additional income. In 2002 US based Duke Energy bought Westcoast Energy and left their preferred share issues (H & J series) in the open market and remain rated at Pfd-2 (low) by DBRS.


RSP:

SPDR Technology ETF (XLK): This is an ETF I’ve been waiting to initiate a position in for quite some time during this market decline. Technology is a sector I want exposure to over the long-term and rather than buying individual positions in large-cap software and hardware companies I get very cheap exposure to some of the best technology companies out there.