Are Canadians able to purchas Auction-Rate securities down south?

[alanbrenton]

Just read a snippet from the wsj.com:

Are we able to buy these high yield securities?

'Auction-Rate' Freeze Thaws a Little
By Gregory Zuckerman and Karen Richardson
Word Count: 811 | Companies Featured in This Article: PMI Group
One crisis-plagued corner of the credit markets shows glimmers of healing a little.

As more conservative investors shun "auction-rate" securities -- debt from municipalities and other issuers with rates that reset on a frequent basis -- some hedge funds and other sophisticated investors are nibbling, seeking bargains and opportunities amid the market's difficulties.

The allure: Debt from some relatively safe issuers has been carrying super-high yields, tempting investors to take a chance. "Everyone is looking at the market; it makes a tremendous amount of sense buying" AA-rated debt that sometimes is yielding about 20%, says Steve Tananbaum, chief executive officer ...

[BTron]

A good rule of thumb I recently heard from a mutual fund manager at RBC is if you're chasing yields of anything more than 2X prime, you're taking on more risk than it's worth. We all saw how accurate AA ratings actually are during this last little mess.

[HammerRFDer]

Well, at some point, the interest rate has got to exceed the default rate + prime rate, resulting in a return above prime.

Of course, the problem is that we can't just apply historic default rates to figure out what is the expected default rate based on the credit rating.

So... at some point, it is profitable. Is now that point? Who knows.