Cutting Through the Noise
October 8, 2013
We've added a number of new features to our statements over the past months, notably the Account (or Portfolio) Activity table and Account (or Portfolio) History chart. While they are generally straightforward, I want to spend a bit of time reviewing some...
Read MoreOctober 4, 2013
Let’s pretend it’s two years ago and we’re having coffee. I ask you to predict how your stock portfolio will do over the next two years, but there’s a twist. I have divine insight and can tell you in advance what September, 2013, will look like. As it happens, we're...
Read MoreOctober 2, 2013
Toronto Stock Exchange runs print ads every six months to celebrate/welcome their new listings. I find it informative to see the mix of businesses that are going public. Certainly, it’s changed significantly from the early days of my career. This month’s...
Read MoreSeptember 27, 2013
This week I’ve been seeing and hearing ads from the Federal government defending their cell phone policies. The ads are in response to the telecom industry’s active campaign to discredit those policies. Seeing my tax dollars used to debate policy with a self...
Read MoreSeptember 26, 2013
We think it’s important to check in periodically with our clients to ensure we are on the right track. Recently, we surveyed about half of them to get their feedback. We thank everyone who took a few minutes to participate. The results are overwhelmingly...
Read MoreSeptember 24, 2013
It’s the 20th anniversary of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) in Canada. In the Report on Business today, Tara Perkins goes through their history, from being a accidental solution to a “disaster” to a thriving part of our capital markets today. It’s...
Read MoreSeptember 23, 2013
Bob Farrell is a legendary Wall Street figure. He was Chief Market Strategist at Merrill Lynch for 25 years. One of the things he is well known for is his '10 Market Rules to Remember'. They’re well worth remembering.
Read MoreSeptember 18, 2013
Last week, Vanguard published an article on active management entitled, 'Success factors for actively managed funds'. While this giant U.S. mutual fund and ETF company is known for being the birth place of indexing, it also has a large portion of its assets in actively...
Read MoreSeptember 16, 2013
I’m pleased to introduce our newest member of the team, Cheryl Shkurhan. Cheryl is taking on the role of Investor Specialist and will work closely with Chris, Scott, David, Sher and me in helping our clients build and manage portfolios. Cheryl holds Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) designations and brings a diverse background and skill-set to the firm. She spent the past...
Read MoreSeptember 12, 2013
As we do every year at this time, we’ve updated our figures on co-investment (the practice of investing alongside our clients). We feel there’s no better way to illustrate our commitment to our investment philosophy, approach, and ultimately our clients...
Read MoreSeptember 10, 2013
I wrote last week about Canada’s consumer debt challenge and noted that the scary numbers were a risk to the Canadian economy, but that other factors, including global economic trends, would be more important drivers of our stock market. One...
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 MoreSeptember 6, 2013
In last Friday’s Report on Business, Scott Barlow wrote an article entitled, ‘The Scariest Chart You’ll See all Year’ (it was a price chart showing how the S&P/TSX Composite Index has diverged from the MSCI Emerging Markets Index after tracking it closely...
Read MoreSeptember 4, 2013
In the asset management business, there has to be a balance between the best interests of the clients and those of the shareholders. A manager must make judgments on a number of factors whereby existing clients have different interests than...
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 22, 2013
It’s a sad statement. Glencore Xstrata, the Swiss mining giant, announced that it’s taking a US$7.7 billion writedown on its investment in Xstrata. Writedowns in the resource sector are a daily event right now, but … but … Glencore just bought Xstrata for US$29 billion...
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 MoreAugust 13, 2013
Scott and I met with a client recently who owns a number of commercial buildings. He was telling us a story about his first purchase in the early 1980’s. Along with a few partners, he bought a building at a fraction of its value (in his opinion), but had to finance it with...
Read MoreAugust 7, 2013
Catching up on my reading, I came across Warren Buffett's classic analysis of "Mr. Market" in the Berkshire Hathaway's 1987 Annual Report (it was referenced in Michael Price's weekly letter). Here it is (with the emphasis being mine...
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 22, 2013
I’ve written about RRSP transfers a few times and will continue to do so because the way some large institutions treat their investment clients is ridiculous, abysmal, maddening, inexcusable, disrespectful, unnecessary, unethical, despicable, appalling...
Read MoreJuly 17, 2013
I recently got a new Blackberry Z10. I’m having a lot of fun with it, although it’s been a steep learning curve given that my previous phone was a three year old antique. A combination of the phone and the constant barrage of articles about Twitter...
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...
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