Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

Bruce: RRSP & TFSA Contributions

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on February 1, 2012

We last spoke with Bruce in September, when he acted on our counsel to trim his weighting in bonds and add to equities. Bruce and Courtney’s portfolio rose roughly 2% in 2011 (its aggregate value at year-end was approx. 346,500). While Bruce isn’t popping any champagne, he realizes that their portfolio fared quite well considering its bias towards equities (which had a weak year). At the end of December, their asset mix was...

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Balanced Income Portfolio: A Performance Assessment

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 26, 2012

Last week we published a report on how to assess your portfolio’s performance (How is My Portfolio Doing?). Today we’re releasing a supplementary report that uses the framework to assess the performance of the Steadyhand Balanced Income Portfolio...

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Here's to the Geeks

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 25, 2012

I’ve read a few interesting books lately on some of the top technology visionaries of our time. They include Paul Allen (Microsoft), Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google) and Steve Jobs (Apple). The books were all good reads (Idea Man, In the Plex, and Steve Jobs)...

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How is Your Portfolio Doing? Version 2.0

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 18, 2012

Early last year we published a report on how to assess your portfolio’s performance. The paper laid out a framework for evaluating your investments, focusing on five areas: gathering the facts, reviewing the market environment, analyzing the numbers...

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Podcast: 2011 in Review

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 12, 2012

2011 was a great year for bonds and a not-so-great year for stocks. Interest rates declined further (10-year government bond yields ended the year below 2% for the first time in a century) leading to strong price gains in government bonds, and to a lesser extent corporate bonds. Debt concerns in Europe and political lollygagging weighed on investor confidence and most stock markets...

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Bradley's Brief - Q4 2011

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 11, 2012

From our Quarterly Report: It’s a remarkable time to be an investor. After decades of overspending in the Western world, we’re watching Europe melt down and the American empire decline faster than expected. The debt burden is slowing the world economy...

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Not Another Top 10 List

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 5, 2012

As we start a fresh new year, there’s no shortage of Top 10 Lists (we’re guilty, too). They can get annoying and repetitive, even for a David Letterman fan. But some are worthy of passing on, even posting on the fridge. Here’s one you should staple to the front...

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Readers' Choice - Top Steadyhand Blog Postings of 2011

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 4, 2012

Another year, another 120 blog postings. We had some thoughtful, informative, helpful, useless, controversial and scathing posts last year, based on the emails and comments we received. Below is a list of our most popular posts in 2011, as...

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A Gift From Risky Markets

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on December 29, 2011

Michael Nairne, president of Tacita Capital, wrote a good piece in the Financial Post last weekend, titled A Gift From Risky Markets, which looks at historical stock market returns and valuations (dating back to 1825) and provides some perspective on the...

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National Regulator? Bah, Humbug!

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on December 22, 2011

From today’s Globe and Mail: “Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says Canada will not move ahead with its proposed Securities Act in light of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision to declare it unconstitutional ... The Supreme Court unanimously declared the...

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The Steadyhand Holiday letter

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on December 15, 2011

Is it over yet? It was a rough year for the stock markets, as ugly economic headlines, debt problems, and political gridlock instilled fear in many investors. Bonds were once again the asset class of choice, despite their scrooge-like yields. Here at Steadyhand, we’re feeling a little merrier than the average investor – and it’s not just...

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Year-end Distributions

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on November 28, 2011

The year-end distributions for all our funds (with the exception of the Savings Fund) will be declared on December 15th and paid on December 16th. The Savings Fund will pay its regularly-scheduled monthly distribution on December 31st. As a reminder...

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