Cutting Through the Noise
December 16, 2013
It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. “It”, of course, is the Steadyhand Holiday Letter. 2013 has been a memorable year in the markets: Stocks have pushed forward without a flinch. Indeed, there’s been no sign of a stock market Grinch. Bonds were weaker, which is no surprising ...
Read MoreDecember 10, 2013
It’s one thing to explain to investors that capital markets move in unpredictable ways and diversification can dampen a portfolio’s volatility in the short term, but it’s quite another to actually show them. Which is why we’ve built a Volatility Meter for our website...
Read MoreDecember 4, 2013
It’s been a great four years, but let’s not get carried away with this market. It’s time to be patient. This was one of the messages Tom emphasized on BNN this morning. With the strong run in the markets, stock valuations are now at the upper end of a normal range...
Read MoreNovember 28, 2013
At the annual Morningstar Canadian Investment Awards last night in Toronto, Serena Ryder was the star of the show (although it was tragic she only did one song), but Steadyhand did OK too. Our Income Fund was recognized as the Best Canadian...
Read MoreNovember 27, 2013
The year-end distributions for all our funds (with the exception of the Savings Fund) will be declared on December 13th and paid on December 16th. The Savings Fund will pay its regularly-scheduled monthly distribution on December 31st. As a reminder...
Read MoreNovember 25, 2013
I enjoy periodically perusing the list of new investment products, as there’s usually a good laugh in there somewhere (remember the FocusShares ISE-Reverse Wal-Mart Supplier ETF, and my favourite, the HealthShares Dermatology and Wound Care ETF)...
Read MoreNovember 18, 2013
November 7, 2013
We last heard from Emmylou around this time last year, when she needed to set aside some money for a ‘sabbatical’ to Europe. She spent the summer exploring and had a rich experience on the continent. She recently checked in on her Steadyhand portfolio...
Read MoreOctober 24, 2013
The world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is launching its first mutual funds in Canada. BlackRock (the parent of iShares) announced this month a suite of seven balanced funds, the BlackRock Strategic Portfolio Series, which will be built...
Read MoreOctober 21, 2013
Hard assets can be a good source of diversification in a portfolio, as their prices or market values can have a low degree of correlation to stocks or bonds. Commodities like gold and oil can act as a hedge against inflation (although not always). The same goes for...
Read MoreOctober 10, 2013
From our Quarterly Report: Five years ago we were right in the middle of it. Lehman Brothers had gone down and the financial crisis was taking hold. It was a period that will be forever fused in my memory, as I suspect it will for our clients. But even with
Read MoreSeptember 9, 2013
One of the things I love about our office is our neighbours. Situated in the diverse Armoury District, we’re surrounded by art galleries, architects & builders, chocolatiers, the best cheese shop and Belgian waffle makers in the city and numerous European luxury car dealerships. The other day a shiny bright-orange Lamborghini was being unloaded off a flatbed truck in front of our office. I couldn’t resist the opportunity...
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Confusing. Frustrating. Ugly. These were the words we used in our Quarterly Report to describe global stock markets in the summer of 2011. It was a challenging time for investors, as the World Index declined 16% in Q3/2011 and the U.S. market dropped...
Read MoreAugust 20, 2013
I saw the movie Jobs last night in spite of a number of poor reviews. Just like Apple’s first prototype, I’d say it was just O.K. The flick ended, however, with one of Apple’s great commercials (spoiler alert), the 1997 ‘Think different’ ad: Here’s to the crazy...
Read MoreJuly 30, 2013
My wife made the mistake last year of telling my niece and nephews that we’d take them to Playland as soon as the youngest was tall enough to go on the rides. Well, Finn cracked the 48-inch mark recently and has been judicious in his daily reminders of our promise. With amusement park season in full swing, we were on the hook the other weekend for a day of fear, laughs, tears, lineups, mini donuts and stomach aches. Everyone’s heard the analogies about investing...
Read MoreJuly 25, 2013
An essential element to being a better investor is being realistic about the predictability of markets. As taken from our latest paper, ‘Five Essential Elements to Being a Better Investor’: You not only need to be realistic about your own forecasting...
Read MoreJuly 15, 2013
It was an active spring in the capital markets, characterized by a spike in volatility, a run-up in bond yields and a dive in gold and mining stocks. Canadian markets had a rough quarter: the bond market (DEX Universe Bond Index) fell 2.4% - its worst quarterly decline in nearly two decades - and the stock market (S&P/TSX Composite Index) lost 4.1%. Global markets fared better, on balance, with many...
Read MoreJuly 11, 2013
From our Quarterly Report: 2013 has been a year of environmental disasters in Canada, but from an investment point of view, it’s been pretty good so far. You might be surprised to hear me say that because interest rates have moved up and June was a...
Read MoreJune 27, 2013
Along with his Steadyhand assets, Bruce has an RESP and small Investment Account with a discount broker. He takes an aggressive approach with the latter by holding a few small technology companies (recall that he works in the industry), knowing that it’s a minor part of his portfolio and he can afford to take a few flyers. Bruce likes to roll the dice in this account, well aware that they could come up craps more often than not. One of his bets recently paid off, however. Bruce...
Read MoreJune 25, 2013
Google Reader, the popular RSS application that allows you to subscribe to and read blogs, is calling it quits. The service will be shut down on July 1st. Google cited “declining usage” as the main reason why it’s being turfed. If you’re like me and are a fan of...
Read MoreJune 17, 2013
June 11, 2013
We’ve had a cautious view on government bonds for several quarters, as yields are unsustainably low. Our current thinking hasn’t changed. We feel bonds are expensive and have been advising clients to keep them to a minimum in relation to their long-term asset mix. The yield on 10-year Government of Canada bonds has risen over the last six weeks, from under 1.7% in early May to 2.2% yesterday. This is a sharp...
Read MoreJune 4, 2013
It’s spot prawn season on the west coast. The boats are pulling into Granville Island daily (mere blocks from Steadyhand headquarters) and selling their bounty directly to the public. It’s awesome. They’re live, fresh, sweet and local. And you buy them right from the boat. There’s no middlemen. No commissions. No administrative fees. No packaging charges. No transaction costs. For $12-15 a pound, you...
Read MoreMay 23, 2013
Prepare for extremes. This is an essential element to being a better investor, and is particularly topical on a day when the Japanese market is down 7%. Tom expanded on the five essential elements to being a better investor on BNN this morning. You can...
Read MoreApril 19, 2013
We held our annual strategy session on Wednesday afternoon. Every year we lock ourselves in a room for 4-5 hours (or more), tune out the outside world, review the current state of our business and hash around ideas, thoughts and strategies on the...
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