Please forgive me for doing a straight paste from the Canada Revenue Agency page:

"In kind" contributions:

"You can also make "in kind" contributions (for example, securities you hold in a non-registered account) to your TFSA, as long as the property is a qualified investment.

You will be considered to have disposed of the property at its FMV at the time of the contribution. If the FMV is more than the cost of the property, you will have to report the capital gain on your income tax and benefit return. However, if the cost of the property is more than its FMV, you cannot claim the resulting capital loss. The amount of the contribution to your TFSA will be equal to the FMV of the property."

You hope you'll get an answer, otherwise you can always crosspost to !personalfinancecanada@lemmy.ca, they might be able to help you better

The only thing you would really stand to lose from selling then buying from within the TFSA vs. transferring directly (in-kind) is the difference between price when that happens and transactions fees that you pay for each. (If you pay $0 in fees then it's not that big of a difference). And you would need to have or move in the right amount of cash first, if your broker gives you back your funds back slowly.

The advantages with having stock in TFSA is you pay no tax if it grows, but you get no tax break if it shrinks.