Cutting Through the Noise
October 21, 2010
We sent our Director of Business Development, David Toyne, to the Money Show in Toronto yesterday to get a reading on what the competition is pushing and the sentiment among investors right now. With his iPhone in hand, he covertly captured...
Read MoreSeptember 30, 2010
As part of the Globe & Mail redesign, my Buy Side column will appear in the Friday paper (as of October 1st). It's published every second week. As always, the columns will be posted on the Blog later the same the day.
Read MoreSeptember 28, 2010
Through the market’s ups and downs over the last few years, one area of stability has been dividends (for investors in Canadian stocks at least). With few exceptions, companies have maintained or increased their dividend payouts, providing...
Read MoreSeptember 21, 2010
I admit it. I occasionally read Vanity Fair. This month’s edition is worth picking up. Not because Lindsay Lohan is on the cover, but because there’s an interesting piece by Michael Lewis on Greece. For those who aren’t familiar with Lewis...
Read MoreAugust 31, 2010
Roger Lowenstein’s latest article in The New York Times is a must-read. In Taking Stock, Lowenstein (a financial author and journalist) draws parallels between the investment environment and mindset of individual investors today to that of the 1970s...
Read MoreAugust 30, 2010
I recently finished reading False Economy – A Surprising Economic History of the World. Along with its New York Times Bestseller status and praise from all the usual suspects (The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, etc.), I was intrigued...
Read MoreAugust 26, 2010
This week’s rerun comes from April 2007. Foreign buyers were on the hunt for Canadian assets, which was stirring emotions and politics at home. Tom weighed in with some unique perspective on the issue. With Potash Corp. now in play, it's...
Read MoreAugust 18, 2010
Flashback to February 2007. It was the middle of RRSP season and Tom Bradley penned a Globe and Mail article that would, in turn, prompt numerous investors and advisers to share stories of their RRSP nightmares. How many funds do you...
Read MoreAugust 12, 2010
This week’s rerun comes from April 2009. The stock market had recently bottomed and investors were particularly fearful of risk. Not surprisingly, investment products with special features that promised certainty or limited downside were gaining...
Read MoreAugust 3, 2010
In this week’s rerun we flip the calendar back to September 2007. The loonie had recently hit parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time in over 30 years. Predictions were widespread on which direction it was headed next. As for our forecast? (see the last...
Read MoreJuly 30, 2010
Investors have learned to deal with a lot of anxiety over the last couple of years, what with a severe credit crisis, major bank failures, derivatives gone bad and gyrating stock markets. Indeed, stress is becoming the new buzz word. Below are some stress-related observations and musings on the week that was. Stress tests: European banks were recently subject to a health check in the form of stress...
Read MoreJuly 27, 2010
This week we look back to the summer of 2006. The U.S. housing market was at a turning point. The consensus view was that it would be a soft landing. Tom disagreed. Four years later, prices are still down 40-50% from their peaks in some markets...
Read MoreJuly 26, 2010
The latest acronym in the investment world smells a little funny. The STINC countries (Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile) are meant to represent export-oriented nations that have shown good fiscal restraint and infrastructure investment...
Read MoreJuly 20, 2010
In this week’s rerun, we revisit the asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) debacle as a reminder of a key lesson in investing – if you don’t understand what you’re getting into, don’t buy it. Purdy, what were you thinking? Didn't you know how complex and...
Read MoreJuly 15, 2010
The second quarter of 2010 was a challenging period for equity markets, as investors focused on the European debt problems and the sustainability of the global economic recovery. In this podcast, we review these issues and highlight some of the key messages from our Quarterly Report. You can subscribe to our podcasts via iTunes...
Read MoreJuly 8, 2010
In our discussions with investors, we’ve found there are a few misconceptions surrounding the deductibility of investment management fees. The most common misunderstanding is that mutual fund investors are at a disadvantage (from a tax...
Read MoreJuly 6, 2010
Who doesn’t love summer? Sunshine, BBQs, lounging, water sports...it’s all good. And then of course, there’s the other summer ritual – reruns. We thought we’d build on the tradition by re-publishing a blog each week from the Steadyhand archives. For our...
Read MoreJune 25, 2010
Below are some observations and musings on the week that was – a new feature that we’ve aptly coined The Back Hand. The world’s eyes are on Toronto this week as the G20 Summit nears. While the thought of a weekend of politics and bureaucracy...
Read MoreJune 24, 2010
In his latest interview with Independent Investor (a U.K. publication), Sandy Nairn, the CEO of Edinburgh Partners (the manager of our Global Equity Fund), provided his views on the global economy and capital markets. After being cautious in late 2007...
Read MoreJune 22, 2010
Financial Post journalist Jonathan Chevreau wrote an interesting piece yesterday on Morningstar Canada’s new Stewardship Grades. The article highlights an attempt by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) to discourage Morningstar from...
Read MoreJune 17, 2010
Morningstar Canada, a mutual fund research firm, recently introduced Stewardship Grades for over 25 fund companies. In their words, the Stewardship Grade “goes beyond the usual analysis of strategy, risk and return. It is intended to assess...
Read MoreJune 16, 2010
The Globe and Mail recently reported on an issue that all investors who own a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) should be aware of – over-contribution penalties. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has informed 70,000 investors that they may have to...
Read MoreJune 14, 2010
Small funds produce better returns. This is the conclusion of a recent study, titled Pension Fund Performance and Costs: Small is Beautiful, which looked at the performance of U.S. pension funds from 1990-2006. Published by a trio of...
Read MoreJune 2, 2010
Preet Banerjee is an industry insider who runs a blog titled Where Does All My Money Go? (his blog was ranked Canada’s #1 investing blog by the Globe and Mail last month). Preet recently developed a resource for investors called the Know Your...
Read MoreJune 1, 2010
I was having dinner with my dad the other night and we got on the topic of credit cards. We both have cards that reward us with air miles (in one form or another) for all our purchases. And importantly, we both pay our cards off each month. Somewhat proudly...
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