Canadian Depository Receipt (CDR)? Or convert CAD to USD, then buy stock with USD on US stock exchange?

External question — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Ty Doyle Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/165925 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. I don't care about hedging CAD to USD. I can't predict forex - or else I'd be a billionaire - so I'm indifferent between holding this stock in CAD or USD. But my income is purely CAD. I wanna buy something that has a CDR - https://cdr.cibc.com/#/cdrDirectory - like Berkshire Hathaway CDR (CAD Hedged) BRK. How do I decide between buying this CDR in CAD? Or converting CAD to USD, then buying Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class B (BRK.B) ? Any evidence, research on which is cheaper for retail Canadian investors?

External answer — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: D Stanley Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/165929 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. Your two options are not equivalent - a "CAD Hedged" ADR means that you will get the same return as the stock regardless of any change in currency value. Meaning if BRK goes up 10%, you'll get a 10% return regardless of any change in exchange rates. If you instead convert your CAD to USD and buy the stock, you are not hedged against currency changes. When you go to sell the stock, you'll have to convert the USD back to CAD at the exchange rate at the time. Or you could leave it in USD and buy something else. Converting to USD might be cheaper since you're not paying for them to manage the currency risk, but it would depend on what exchange rates you get compared to buying the ADR.