A man waits near an electronic quotation board displaying the Nikkei 225 stock prices on the Tokyo stock Exchange in Tokyo on Nov.5, 2025.GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images
Hello again, Trade Off friends!
Can you believe there’s just a month to go in the Globe’s stock picking contest? Let’s get you up to speed on game play. Plus, as always, we’ve got lots of helpful investing tools to share below.
And don’t forget to sign up to receive the Trade Secrets newsletter in your inbox.
The Leaderboard
One of the most fun things to track so far in this competition has been league play. Contestants have created more than 150 private leagues to challenge friends, family and colleagues.
As for the standout performers in those leagues, tech continues to be a dominant theme. For example, stocks such as Micron and Celestica have helped propel portfolios for the top performers in some of the most popular leagues, such as RedFlagDeals and 🦕 Dinos Only.
Good luck in these final weeks of battle!
Tech stocks keep getting bigger
It’s interesting to see Nvidia as the top holding across all competition portfolios. Surprising? Perhaps not. It’s the most valuable company around. But it definitely highlights how the big stocks keep getting bigger.
Google’s parent Alphabet recently joined the US$4-trillion club. That exclusive group also includes Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft. Market-cap milestones might seem like just business banter, but these trillion-dollar names show a key reality in the stock market today: we all have a lot of direct or indirect exposure to Big Tech.
Take the S&P 500. You might think an ETF tracking it gives you broad exposure to 500 companies. But in a market-cap weighted index, those four giants now make up more than 25 per cent of the index.
Canada’s market has less tech exposure, not because the sector is weak, but because we have fewer homegrown tech champions. Shopify went public in 2015 with a valuation of roughly $2-billion. Today, it is worth more than $300-billion and regularly vies with RBC for the title of Canada’s most valuable company.
Being comfortable with your tech exposure depends on your investing goals. Since its initial public offering, Shopify has been the Toronto Stock Exchange’s best-performing stock, outpacing the index by more than 30-fold, an eye-popping return for growth investors.
Trade Secret Tips
U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent threat to crack down on credit card costs is a healthy reminder to all of us to review the pros and cons of the cards we use. Luckily, The Globe has created a comprehensive guide to help Canadians. Meanwhile, if you’re racking up debt on your credit card, what are the pros and cons to paying down debt versus investing? Some great perspective here.
And on the subject of investing, if you’re starting to think about the upcoming RRSP deadline, here’s a great tool to determine your contribution limit.
Happy Trading!
Jon
Jon Erlichman is the founder of Ticker Take on YouTube and a contributor to BNN Bloomberg.