Borrowing money to invest is a VERY BAD idea for amateur investors.
Buying preferred shares at or above par value is NOT a good idea according to Graham. The two reasons are:
1. Preferred shares lack covenant protection that exists in bonds.
2. Preferred shares lack potential for principal appreciation that exists in common stocks.
Therefore, the only time to buy preferred shares is at a big discount to par, the condition of which existed back in 2008 amid pinnacle of the financial crisis.
People might be thinking of preferred shares of major Canadian banks. Currently, they are yielding at around 4.5% and selling price is normally above par (say $26 for $25 par value).
The idea might be that buying preferred shares from all five banks have little risk of default.
While the default risk is low, all bank preferred (except a few at high price with floating rate) shares are PERMANENT. In other words, there is no maturity date (except those few at very high price) and the banks have NO obligation to redeem them.
Therefore, the interest risk of these issues is real.
An interesting thing now is that ry.to is yielding 5%, which is higher than almost all of its preferred shares. Same condition exists for other bank shares. So, an interesting time ...