Blog

Cutting Through the Noise


December 3, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Fund Updates

Suffice to say, we’ve been watching our funds quite closely these days.  We want to make sure that our managers are doing what they do best and are sticking to their investment disciplines.  Following recent calls with the managers of ...

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December 2, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

A Bigg Opportunity?

Aside from having one of the great names in the business, Barton Biggs is a renowned hedge fund manager and author of the popular book Hedgehogging .  Biggs is a great thinker and investor, and in the words of David ...

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November 27, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Is Your Fund Company Betraying Trust?

I recently finished reading Louis Lowenstein’s latest critique of the mutual fund industry, The Investor’s Dilemma: How Mutual Funds are Betraying your Trust and What to do About it .  The book is a great read for investors seeking an ...

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October 3, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

What's Going on Warren?

Warren Buffett was recently interviewed by Charlie Rose. For investors looking for some clarification and insight into what’s currently going on in the United States, the exclusive conversation is an hour well spent. Some advice from the sage: “You want ...

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October 2, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Podcast: Third Quarter Review

The third quarter of 2008 was an extraordinarily volatile period in the equity markets. In this podcast, we review the quarter and touch on some highlights from our Quarterly Report, which we will be publishing next week.

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September 25, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Dusting Off Unconventional Success

Canadian Capitalist, a prominent financial blogger, recently posted a glowing book review of David Swensen’s Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment .  CC followed up the review with another posting today ( How to Pick a Winning Mutual ...

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September 11, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Steadyhand Funds Now Available Through TD Waterhouse

Our five funds can now be purchased in TD Waterhouse discount brokerage accounts.  Trades must be placed over the phone with a representative from TD, and their transaction fee varies based on the size of your purchase. ...

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August 28, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

The Most Interesting Man in the Mutual Fund Business

Inspired by a recent Dos Equis commercial , I'm toiling with the idea of a new Steadyhand advertising campaign - The Most Interesting Man in the Mutual Fund Business . It would go something like this: Tom is out of ...

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August 20, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Olympic Innovation

Many great things come out of the Olympics.  For two and a half weeks, the world turns its attention to stories of athletic passion, determination, and raw emotion.  Billions of people will watch a man dive off a springboard, a ...

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July 23, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Podcast: Income Fund Update - Challenges and Opportunities in the Bond Market

In this podcast, we sit down with Jay Menning, a senior member of the fixed income team at Connor, Clark & Lunn, to discuss the bond market and the Income Fund.

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July 10, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Podcast: Second Quarter Review

In this podcast, we review the second quarter of 2008 and touch on some highlights from our recently published Quarterly Report (available on the Forms & Documents page).

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June 13, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Fees Don't Matter...Wanna Bet?

Will a collection of hedge funds beat the S&P 500 over the next 10 years?  Warren Buffett doesn’t think so.  And he’s willing to bet on it, to the tune of a million bucks. Buffett put his own cash on ...

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June 9, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Hanging with Christine...Again

Christine Montgomery and Cathy Alsop from Edinburgh Partners Limited (EPL) were in Vancouver this week to meet with our clients and other interested investors.  Christine manages our Global Equity Fund.  With Canadian dollar returns from foreign funds being poor for ...

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June 9, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Podcast: Global Equity Fund Update

Edinburgh Partners' Christine Montgomery was in town last week to present on the Global Equity Fund. Tom also had a chance to sit down with her to discuss the fund's performance and some of the investment strategies that our Scottish partners are pursuing.

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May 22, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Thar's Thieves in Them Thar Hills

The price of a barrel of oil recently topped $135.  Get out the balaclava.  It’s time to steal us some crude.  At least that’s the thinking of the opportunistic criminal in Texas. An article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday ...

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May 20, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

The Steadyhand Diaries

The summer edition of Globe Investor Magazine comes out this Thursday (May 22) as a supplement in the Globe and Mail. Watch for The Steadyhand Diaries , a piece written by Tom Bradley that takes readers through the company's first year ...

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May 8, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Investment Blogs

The Globe and Mail published a report on investment blogs in Tuesday’s paper, where a number of their columnists identified some of their favorite blogs. If you’re a fan of our blog, you may want to check out a few ...

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April 25, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

An Intrinsically Attractive and Flexible Vehicle

Jonathan Chevreau’s article in Wednesday’s Financial Post highlights the latest book that bashes the mutual fund industry, The Investor’s Dilemma: How Mutual Funds are Betraying Your Trust and What to do About it , written by Louis Lowenstein. It’s books ...

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April 15, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Podcast: First Quarter Review

In this podcast, we review the first quarter of 2008 and touch on some highlights from our Quarterly Report.

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March 16, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Get in the Pool!

A pool in the spring could only mean one thing – March Madness.  For basketball junkies there’s no better time of year.  Sixty-four college teams vying for supremacy.  The upsets, the Cinderella stories, the raw emotion.  Who could ask for ...

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March 13, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Transparency at its Best

There’s an interesting firm out of London by the name of Bedlam Asset Management.  I read their literature every now and then and although we often don’t share the same views, I’m always impressed by their transparency.  There’s no beating ...

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March 7, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

What were they Thinking?

In his Streetwise blog yesterday, Globe and Mail journalist Andrew Willis highlighted an $8 million fine that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently imposed on Fidelity Investments.  The penalty was imposed to settle charges that Fidelity’s in-house traders ...

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March 6, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Video Blog: Tom's Beef with PPNs

In our first video blog, Tom discusses why investors should steer clear of principal-protected products. He notes that professional investors would never touch these products because the odds are clearly stacked against them. Watch the video to learn more.

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February 28, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Tax-Free Savings Accounts - The RRSP for the Facebook Generation?

In Tuesday's budget, the Conservatives introduced a new savings vehicle that will allow Canadians to shelter investments from tax.  Known as the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), investors over the age of 18 will be able to contribute $5,000/year to a tax ...

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February 27, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

Mid-Quarter Update

We just wrapped up a series of conference calls with our equity managers.  The key message from all three is that they’ve been sitting tight.  None of them have made any material changes to the funds but they all have ...

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