How Can I Move a Stock I Hold from the Canadian Side to the US Side of my InvestorLine Account?

Setting up a US dollar sub-account within my InvestorLine RRSP account was easy. I just had to pick up the phone and speak to an InvestorLine rep. The trickier part was deciding what to hold in the US ledger and how to get it there. As a first step, I decided to test transferring some shares of a stock from the Canadian dollar side of my account to the US dollar side.

Here’s what happened.

Picking a Stock to Move from CAD to USD in my Account

I had some TD shares in my regular InvestorLine account. I had bought them on the TSX using Canadian dollars. They pay me my dividends in Canadian dollars. Since I bought some of them during the recent fire sale, they display a tidy little capital gain in the gains and losses column.

TD is also listed on the stock exchange in New York. If Americans buy it from that exchange, they pay US dollars for their shares. They are paid the quarterly dividend in US dollars. If they sell their holding, they are paid in US dollars.

A stock that is held on two (or more) exchanges like this is sometimes called inter-listed.

But you don’t have to be an American to buy TD shares on the NYSE or to sell them on it. Your self-directed brokerage may let you hold stocks in a US dollar ledger and lets you keep your profits in a US dollar cash account or money market fund. BMO InvestorLine allows this.

So I decided to move some shares of TD from the Canadian side of my account to the US side and watch what happened.

How to Transfer Shares from the Canadian to the US Journal for an InvestorLine Account

At this time (July 2013) to move shares from the Canadian dollar journal for my InvestorLine RRSP to the US dollar journal, I have to phone InvestorLine.

  1. Call InvestorLine at 1 888 776 6886.
  2. Provide your InvestorLine account number and your access password.
  3. Ask the agent to transfer the correct number of shares from your Canadian dollar account to your US dollar account.

Can I Transfer Just Some of My Shares to the US Side of my InvestorLine Account?

Being someone who likes testing things, I requested to transfer only 100 of my TD shares to my US dollar ledger. InvestorLine was quite agreeable and had no problem leaving the rest of the shares in my Canadian dollar ledger.

The agent did warn me, though, that for a day or two I will see the shares listed twice. He cautioned me not to over-estimate my holdings while waiting for the record keeping to straighten out. I assured him I wouldn’t sell shares I don’t have.

Can I Request a Transfer at the Same Time as I Create a US Side to my Account?

Even though I contacted InvestorLine using a toll-free number, and even though there was no wait time (!) to speak to an agent, I still combined my requests into a single call.

So yes, you can request the creation of a US side to your account during the same phone call as you request a transfer of some shares from the Canadian side of your account to the yet-to-be-created US side. How efficient!

What Happened the Business Day After I Requested the Transfer to my New US Dollar Sub-Account

So I made the request to create a US side for my account yesterday, on Thursday.

Today, on Friday, I logged in to my InvestorLine RRSP account to see what had changed. Here’s what I found:

Request made July 11 2013 to transfer 100 shares of TD when I called to create the US ledger.

On the morning of July 12 2013, as warned, I can see two line items in
my Transaction History:

Transaction Date: July 11, 2013
Settlement Date: July 11, 2013
Activity Description: Transfer out
Description: Toronto-Dominion Bank
Symbol: TD
Quantity: -100
Price: blank
Total Amount: 0.00 C

Followed by another line item
Transaction Date: July 11, 2013
Settlement Date: July 11, 2013
Activity Description: Transfer out
Description: Toronto-Dominion Bank
Symbol: TD
Quantity: 100
Price: blank
Total Amount: 0.00 U

NOTE: They BOTH say transfer OUT.

When I look at My Portfolio > Holdings
In the Cash balances section, there is a new line
Description / symbol: U.S. $ Cash
Quantity: 0.00
Average cost: blank
Current price: 1.0380 C
Market value: blank
Unrealized gain/loss: blank
Unrealized gain/loss %: blank
Portfolio %: 0.00%
Details: blank
Action: blank

Not surprisingly, the Cash equivalents and Fixed income sections are the same as always.

In the Equities section, there is a change.
I had requested they transfer only 100 shares of my TD holdings from the Canadian side to the US side of the account.

So this morning there are two lines for TD:

Description / symbol: Toronto-Dominion Bank – TD
Quantity: (original balance less 100 shares)
Average cost: same average cost as all week
Current price: 84.88 (yay! I bought during the dip!)
Market value: an enormous sum
Unrealized gain/loss: another enormous green amount
Unrealized gain/loss %: +4.36% (this is a blended average from multiple buys and sells)
Portfolio %: ***%
Details: two clickable icons
Action: the list is asking me to Select a chosen task if desired.

And the second line

Description / symbol: Toronto-Dominion Bank – TD
Quantity: 100
Average cost: same average cost as all week
Current price: 84.88
Market value: 8,488.00
Unrealized gain/loss: +354.36
Unrealized gain/loss %: +4.36%
Portfolio %: ***%
Details: two clickable icons
Action: the list is asking me to Select a chosen task if desired.

At this point, it looks like I still own 180 shares of TD in the Canadian side of my ledger.
That’s what they warned me when I requested the transfer after phoning in. Apparently on Saturday or Monday (he said “the next day”) I should see the Canadian TD shares vanish and the American TD shares appear.

Stay Tuned!

I’ll update this when the shares appear on the US side and describe how they are displayed and/or where.

Related Reading

Join In
Do you find it tricky to remember you no longer own certain shares in your Canadian trading account because they’ve been journaled to the US side but they are still misleadingly displayed as Canadian? Have you ever sold shares you don’t have? Please share your experiences with a comment.

Stocks are Falling: Buy, Buy, Buy!

Oh I love to see these sudden market drops! There really are no words for the feeling of joyful glee with which I rush to put in my orders. Buy! Buy! Buy! TD is on sale! BMO is reduced! BCE is at a discount! ENB is marked down! Time to dig the annual RRSP and TFSA money out from under the mattress, dust it off, and spend, spend, spend!

Photo of Indigo Bunting Bet Crooks

How to Deal with Markets that Just Keep Falling

The trick is once you buy DON’T look at the market for a few days. You should pick a price you think is reasonable to pay, buy if you get a chance at that price, and then get back to work making money in other ways that don’t involve the stock market.

The market may well continue to plummet AFTER you fork over your hard won cash. It’s kind of sad to realize you could have bought at an even lower price. So don’t look! Once you’ve invested, it’s done. Go away and let the market bubble along without you.

Best of all, get outside and do something real. Play softball. Take a bike ride. Wing a Frisbee for a dog. Swim across a bay. Not only will all those things remind you that money is abstract and you could actually live reasonably well with less of it, these activities will also improve your health. If you drop dead from inactivity caused by staring at your computer screen all day, every day, what good was saving and investing?

Even if Market Values Collapse Often Dividends Don’t

You’ll notice that the stocks I’m chanting about are all blue chip, large cap Canadian stocks. They’re companies I would feel comfortable holding for 3-10 years or longer providing they don’t get into any significant shenanigans during that term. I’m not buying them expecting to make a killing of a capital gain. On the contrary I’m buying them primarily as income stocks. They pay a steady comfortable dividend of between 4-6% at these discounted prices. That’s what I’m primarily after. If there is a long-term capital gain: bonus!

Don’t Invest Everything in Stocks

Everyone says this. I’m one of the few that does this. I don’t have all of our money in stocks. In fact, I don’t even have most of our money in stocks. We sleep well through all the market gyrations because we have investments that are not in the market at all.
I recommend the same.

Have a sturdy solid base of money that is not in the market. Yes, it is not earning much interest. Yes, it may be losing value against inflation. Tough, isn’t it? I figure I can earn enough off the portion that is in the market to cover inflation. If I’m wrong, I’ll just have to cry myself to sleep as I live off my 6-figure cash assets. Something tells me I’ll survive. I actually like beans.

Investing Can Be Fun!

Take some joy in your investments. Everyone seems so depressed all the time. Why? It’s only money! Ask anyone in a palliative care facility if they wish they had agonized more over every financial decision. I guarantee they will look at you blankly. Make the best investment decision you can for today, then get out there and Live! Love! Prosper! Those Vulcans know a thing or two.

Related Reading

Join In
Are you enjoying the current market swoop? Have you taken a refreshing plunge into the market and risen up from the swirling wild waters with a pearl? Please share your experiences with a comment.