Part 2 of Sales in Q2: TD Share Sell
No, this is not a fraud article.
TD Bank (TD) — Share Sale
In Oct 2024 the Green Machine pleaded guilty to money laundering and got spanked with billions worth of fines. Their US business also got put in jail for, well, who knows for how long. The share price tanked like the Titanic and with no safety jackets insight. Sentiment towards TD was at a low, kind of like 2008. . Based on our Rules-Based BTSX-20 strategy, we saw this as an opportunity to act — not retreat. The strategy called for a tactical overweight, and we increased our allocation to TD Bank(TD) from 3% to 16%. Not going to lie, it was hard to keep our emotions at bay.
Our average cost base for TD is $78.50, with a yield of 5.35% at the time of purchase. On June 26th, we sold a portion of the position at $99.09, reducing the TD weight to lucky number 13%.
Why trim? TD is currently yielding just 4.19%, slightly below its 5-year average yield of 4.20%. While it remains an overweight position, our Rules-Based approach triggered a partial reduction to rebalance capital into other names showing unusually attractive dividend yields relative to their historical norms.
As of June 26th, 2025, TD was up 35% year-to-date, significantly outperforming our benchmark, the XIU ETF (TSX 60), which had gained just 8.71% over the same period.
The decision reflects the spirit of the strategy: stay disciplined, follow the data, and don't fall in love with any one stock —
Of the 8 metrics we follow to over/under weight, TD failed on 6.
Time of writing, TD trades at 100.16.
Conclusion
We continue to hold an overweight position in TD, but are not actively adding at current levels. We view it as a HOLD
So, where did the proceeds from the sale go?
Well — this is where the Rules-Based BTSX-20 strategy gets interesting (yes, rules can be fun… sometimes). At this time, we are not seeing a compelling reason to buy for the sake of buying and therefore based on our rules, to cash it goes.
Food for Thought
Our Rules-Based BTSX-20 strategy guided these moves with zero emotion. We didn’t sell TD because it was no longer a good company. We sold because its yield had normalized, and there were better opportunities elsewhere — based on historical dividend data, not gut feelings.