No. of Recommendations: 9
Higher today than most days in 2023? Yes.
Higher than my purchase days? No.
July 6, purchased half the position at $49.515
December 1, purchased a quarter of the position at $56.2977.
December 10, purchased final quarter of the position at $56.79.
It does look like a currency effect; the US dollar is up a fair bit since then. About 5.8% versus the Canadian dollar.
Looking at the Canadian dollar prices on those days, you'd be up about 2.4%.
As an aside---
Strange as it is to contemplate for Americans (and many professional investors), the US dollar is one of the more volatile majors. e.g., standard deviation of FX for USD versus CAD or EUR or GBP since 1999 is about 13.6%. By contrast, standard deviation of CAD versus EUR is about 6.6%.
When I want a quick and dirty "currency adjusted" return, for a constant yardstick I use a synthetic currency that's measured in "buckets". Each bucket is 15 Canadian dollars and 10 pounds sterling, because those two seem to be more like steady landmarks in the last quarter century, and even more steady when considered together. In the last decade, one "bucket" would buy you between (US) $21.60 and $28.29, quite a range. The current number is $22.94. As the steady(ish) bucket is currently buying fewer US dollars, that shows that the US dollar is at the high end of that decade's range.
The US dollar index is the usual way to measure this, but it is weighted based on US trade flows, which doesn't consider the steadiness or global significance of the currencies to which it's doing the comparisons. Some volatile, and (more importantly) some pegged or semi-pegged to the dollar, so US dollar movements are shown as smaller than they really are.
Jim
