Category Archives: Edge

How to Set Up Market Alerts for CIBC Investor’s Edge Self-Directed Accounts

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You can set Market Alerts for your CIBC Investor’s Edge self-directed account to send you reports on the most active stocks by percentage; the stocks reaching new 52-week highs or lows; the stocks with the largest changes in trading volume and more. These reports can be sent daily at one of three specified times. The Alerts are sent by email.

Here’s how to set up your desired Market Alerts.

Sign in to your CIBC Investor’s Edge Account.

From the menu on the left side of the screen, select Quotes and Research, then My Alerts.

Setting the Preferences for your Investor’s Edge Alerts

Before you can complete any details about the types of Alerts you wish to receive, you must complete the Preferences section.

  1. In the Email Address 1: text field, type the email address at which you wish to have Alerts delivered.
  2. Check the examples of the two message formats by clicking on the Example link beside the HTML and Text format choices. Unfortunately, the two alerts are not for the same type of message, which makes it a bit difficult to see some of the differences.
    After deciding on the desired format for Alerts, click on the appropriate radio button beside HTML or Text.
  3. In the Email Address 2: text field, type a second email address, if desired. It is not required.
  4. Click on the desired Format for Alerts by selecting the radio button beside HTML or Text.
  5. In the Wireless address: field, type the address at which you wish to receive SMS text messages, if desired. It is not required.
    Please note the warning from CIBC that a single alert might result in multiple text messages which might result in multiple charges from your wireless service provider. Please fully explore the costs of text messages before signing up for Alerts on your handheld device.
  6. If you do not wish to receive Alerts during an interval of one or more days, you can set a Vacation Stop. First click on the Suspend From box to select it, then from the appropriate dropdown lists, select the month, day and year for the first and last day of the interval for which you do not wish to receive Alerts.
  7. Review the Alerts Agreement by clicking on the Link in the Please Note section. (At the time of writing, this was a broken link!)
  8. Check your selections. If they are correct, click on the Save button.

There are 6 other tabs in the My Alerts section: Overview; Markets; Stocks; Watch List: Analyst Reports; and Alert History.

The Overview section summarizes which Alerts you have set, and links you to the Markets, Stocks, Watch List and Analyst Reports tabs.

To Set Market Alerts for your CIBC Investor’s Edge Account

On the My Alerts page, click on the Markets tab.

First, you must select from which stock exchange you wish to receive Market Alerts.
From the drop-down list, select: TSX; TSX Venture; NYSE; NASDAQ; AMEX.

Select from the following list of choices for that Exchange.

  • Daily list of most active stocks, Percentage [gainers; losers; gainers and losers] to be sent at [Market Open 10-11 EST; Midday 12-1 EST; After Market Close 4-5 EST]
  • Daily list of new 52-week highs/lows, New 52-week [Highs; Lows; Highs and Lows] to be sent at [Market Open 10-11 EST; Midday 12-1 EST; After Market Close 4-5 EST]
  • Daily list of volume changes, Stocks with the largest [increases; decreases; increases or decreases] to be sent at [Market Open 10-11 EST; Midday 12-1 EST; After Market Close 4-5 EST]
  • Daily list of gaps, stocks that opened at least 1% [Higher; lower; higher or lower] to be sent at [Market Open 10-11 EST; Midday 12-1 EST; After Market Close 4-5 EST]
  • Daily list of breakouts, stocks whose [Low Price is Above Yesterday’s High; High Price was Below Yesterday’s Low; Low/High Price is Above/Below Yesterday’s High/Low] to be sent at [Market Open 10-11 EST; Midday 12-1 EST; After Market Close 4-5 EST]
  • Daily list of stock splits to be sent at [Market Open 10-11 EST; Midday 12-1 EST; After Market Close 4-5 EST]

Review your selections and when they are correct, click on the Save button.

Once you have set a Market Alert It will be listed on the Overview tab page. To Edit or Delete it, you can click on the appropriate link on the Overview page.

Further Information

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Pros and Cons of Setting Up a DRIP for Dividends with CIBC Investor’s Edge ShareBuilder Plan

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One way to use dividends from stocks and ETFs is to reinvest them by purchasing more of the same stock or fund. If this is done automatically it is called a Dividend Re-investment Plan or DRIP. There are pros and cons to setting up a DRIP for your investments in a CIBC Investor’s Edge self directed account. Investor’s Edge calls their DRIP program the ShareBuilder Plan.

Pros of a Synthetic DRIP with the CIBC Investor’s Edge ShareBuilder Plan

No Fee

There is no fee to join or use the ShareBuilder Plan to reinvest dividends earned by the investments in your CIBC Investor’s Edge account.

No Commission

One of the key benefits of a DRIP is that you do not pay any fee or commission to purchase new shares of a stock or ETF that you already own. This saves you the commission, which is often $6.95 or higher for an Investor’s Edge account. This can allow an investor who is starting with a small number of shares to gradually increase their holdings at no cost.

Prompt Reinvestment Puts Your Money Back to Work Fast

For small share purchases the commission can be a deterrent to reinvesting your dividends promptly. The cost-free DRIP program encourages you to get your earnings back to work immediately. This can be an advantage for investors whose dividend payments are so small that paying a commission to buy new stock to reinvest those same dividends would not be practical. For example, if an investor is only receiving $36 from a dividend payment, paying $9.95 to re-invest it might not be reasonable.

Share Price Discounts

Some companies also encourage investors to DRIP their dividends by offering shares at a discount to their trading price. For example, at the time this was written, you could buy Enbridge shares (ENB) at a 2% discount off their trading price. If you use the ShareBuilder Plan you are also eligible to receive these discounts. (Specifically, the Enbridge document states shares purchased “with reinvested dividends will be 98% of the weighted average of the trading prices for Common Shares on The Toronto Stock Exchange on the five trading days preceding a dividend payment date.” This discount is subject to change at any time by Enbridge.)

You Choose to Enroll All or Only Select Stocks in the DRIP

With the ShareBuilder Plan you can choose to enroll at the account level. If you do, all stocks you hold that are eligible for a DRIP will be enrolled in the CIBC synthetic DRIP. OR you can enroll individual securities in the ShareBuilder Plan. That means if you want, you can pick and choose which stocks will DRIP and which stocks will receive cash dividends. (This flexibility is valuable if you need cash flow, or if you do not want to increase your holding in certain specific companies but you do in others.)

You Can DRIP US Securities with CIBC Investor’s Edge ShareBuilder Plan

Unlike BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge allows you to DRIP US securities. For more information, please see Can I DRIP US Stocks from a CIBC Investor’s Edge Self Directed Account?

Dollar Cost Averaging

You don’t hear as much about this investment philosophy anymore, but it might be of interest. The price of a stock may vary both upwards and downwards during the course of a year. If the stock pays dividends quarterly or monthly and those dividends are reinvested through a DRIP, then the investor would be paying both high and low prices. When the price is low, the investor would get more shares for the same amount of money than when the price is high. The idea is that dollar cost averaging reduces the risk that you would buy all your stock at the same moment that the stock is at an all –time high price.

Cons of a Synthetic DRIP with the CIBC Investor’s Edge ShareBuilder Plan

No Fractional Shares

The ShareBuilder Plan offered by Investor’s Edge, like that of most self directed brokerages, is a synthetic DRIP. You can use your dividend payment to purchase new shares but only to purchase whole shares. You cannot buy a fraction of a share within a synthetic DRIP. (If you enroll directly in a DRIP with the transfer agent for a stock as the registered holder of the shares you can actually buy fractional shares.)

So if your dividend pays $176 and the price of a share in the company is $81, you can buy two shares. The $14 balance of your dividend payment will be deposited into your Investor’s Edge account as cash.

CIBC confirmed this in their email response to me stating, “Excess amounts will not be accumulated or carried forward for the next month’s dividend.” So you can’t just hold the $14 until the next dividend date and reinvest it then for free. You will just receive the $14 immediately as cash.

This means if you have a very small holding of stock and it pays a low dividend, you may not be eligible to purchase ANY shares through a DRIP. You might want to do the math to check before enrolling in a DRIP. (Divide the dollar value of a single (not annual) expected dividend payment by the price of a single share to see approximately how many shares you can purchase.)

Only Certain Holdings are Eligible for the ShareBuilder Plan DRIP

CIBC advised me by email that ”Eligible securities include all dividend-paying securities listed on the TSX 300 and S&P 500….[Please] check with us regarding individual securities.”

That means you should be able to DRIP many popular companies including:
BMO, BNS, CM (CIBC), RY, TD
ENB, SU, TRP
HR.UN, REI.UN
BCE. RCI.B, T

Not all companies offer a DRIP through the ShareBuilder Plan. (In fact, not all companies offer a DRIP at all.)

You must have a certain minimum number of shares before enrolling in a DRIP if the company requires this.

How to Enroll for DRIP Using the CIBC Investor’s Edge ShareBuilder Plan

You may enroll in the ShareBuilder plan at the account level. If you do, all eligible securities will be DRIPped.

You may also choose to enroll only select securities in the DRIP ShareBuilder Plan.
CIBC advised in their email to me that, “To enroll in the ShareBuilder Plan, please call our Contact Centre…. at 1-800-567-3343 (Monday to Friday, 8 am to 8 pm ET).”

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