Cutting Through the Noise
April 2, 2013
What came off as a well-crafted April Fools prank (it was Scott’s genius) has inadvertently served as a reminder of what our clients care about. In the Monthly Newsletter we sent out yesterday, we announced that Steadyhand had been sold to the Canadian...
Read MoreMarch 27, 2013
We’ve had a lot of calls lately from investors looking to purchase our funds through discount brokers. The questions often relate to availability, fees and fund codes. There seems to be some misinformation on the topic, so we felt it was a good time to...
Read MoreMarch 26, 2013
It’s stingy times for income investors. Government of Canada bonds are yielding less than 2% (5-year maturities are at 1.3% and 10-year maturities at 1.8%) and high quality corporate bonds are only 1-1.5% higher. Dividend-paying stocks are paying...
Read MoreMarch 21, 2013
Quick background: CGOV Asset Management is the manager of our Equity Fund. The firm has a distinct investment process, one facet of which is that they won’t own more than 25 stocks. We love this discipline as it ensures they focus on their best ideas and...
Read MoreMarch 19, 2013
The latest edition of The Economist has a special report on America’s competitiveness, titled Cheer Up. It examines the areas which are the “source of the most hand-wringing” among observers: innovation, energy, education, immigration, infrastructure...
Read MoreMarch 18, 2013
I recently attended a pension seminar. As part of the program, the organizers used a cool interactive polling system to gauge where the audience stood on certain issues. While there was plenty of good information provided throughout the morning, what stood out...
Read MoreMarch 13, 2013
I’ve been a bit of a downer lately, writing negatively about bonds and real estate, and pointing out that risk premiums (the opportunity to generate returns in excess of government bond yields) have narrowed for many other investment strategies. (Note...
Read MoreMarch 8, 2013
The latest Steadyhand T-shirt minces no words. In bold white letters on a black shirt are the words Scott came up with to describe our philosophy around stock investing – concentrate dammit! We’ve had lots of interesting reaction to the shirt, but the best comes from Winnipeg. Lori and I gave everyone in the family (who we thought might wear it) a shirt for Christmas, including our nephew Branton...
Read MoreMarch 7, 2013
I’ve been highlighting a number of asset classes where the risk premiums - the opportunity to achieve returns above government bonds - have narrowed. My focus has been on income securities, but I’ve poked my nose in on residential real estate as well...
Read MoreMarch 5, 2013
I came across a wonderful piece on the Blackstone Blog last week (I apologize, but I can’t remember who pointed me there). It’s entitled, ‘Byron Wien Discusses Lessons Learned in His First 80 Years’. As the title implies, Mr. Wien is an industry veteran and has lots...
Read MoreFebruary 28, 2013
In a ‘Live from the Desk’ posting on the Vertex website (a Vancouver-based fund manager), readers get to experience a typical day on the bond desk from the perspective of new issues. Bond investors are seeing corporation after corporation coming to market...
Read MoreFebruary 27, 2013
I’m hearing rumblings that the investment industry is going to fight back on some of the new regulations that the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) are proposing around performance and fee disclosure. Last week’s full page ad in the National...
Read MoreFebruary 26, 2013
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are now a fixture on the investment landscape and are among the fastest growing investment products. There’s good reason for their rise in popularity: they’re simple, low cost, transparent and provide market-like returns. But ... they’re not for everyone. In a newly updated paper, we compare the experience of an ETF investor (Jake) to that of a Steadyhand client (Julie). There are notable...
Read MoreFebruary 22, 2013
Mohamed El-Erian, the CEO and Co-chief Investment Officer of PIMCO, is a regular contributor to the Financial Times. In his piece today, he opines that the U.S. Federal Reserve will not seek an early end to quantitative easing (QE). For me, the most...
Read MoreFebruary 21, 2013
The Canadian clients of Ally Financial got news this week that the sale of the firm to RBC has been completed, the interest rate on their high-interest savings accounts is being reduced from 1.8% to 1.2%, and their accounts will be closed on April 30th, as reported...
Read MoreFebruary 20, 2013
As we’ve worked to build our firm over the last six years, one of the frustrations we’ve had is that people don’t know we can manage ‘their’ money. They are aware of us, may follow our writing and even buy into our philosophy, but they think we only work with...
Read MoreFebruary 19, 2013
The team has been working hard to keep client expectations in check. Markets have been good and the Steadyhand funds have performed well, so it’s natural that clients start to expect more from their portfolio. We’re being a particular downer in the area of...
Read MoreFebruary 15, 2013
We wrapped up our cross-country client presentations this month after visiting five cities. If you weren’t able to attend one of our sessions, or are looking to revisit some of the themes we touched on, we’ve produced a summary of the event that hits on the...
Read MoreFebruary 14, 2013
Sher took a call yesterday from a woman who wondered where I’d gone. She was a regular reader of my biweekly column in the Saturday Globe and Mail and noticed it wasn’t there anymore. Indeed, the Globe has been freshening up the Investor section...
Read MoreFebruary 12, 2013
The Asia Pacific is the fastest growing economic region in the world. Not surprisingly, many multinational companies are increasingly focusing on selling their goods and services in countries such as China, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the...
Read MoreFebruary 8, 2013
In the current edition of MoneySense magazine, there’s an article on RRSPs entitled, ‘Surprising Truths about Your RRSP’. There is a ton written about RRSPs at this time of year, but I thought this piece did a good job addressing some key issues. In the...
Read MoreFebruary 5, 2013
In the Report on Business last week, John Heinzl, fondly known as the ‘Yield Hog’, dedicated his column (How a Focus on Dividends Can Transform Your Investing Approach) to a dividend-oriented portfolio managed by a real investor, Rob. It looks...
Read MoreJanuary 31, 2013
Investors have had a real love for income and dividends over the past several years. And for good reason – bonds and high dividend-paying stocks have been stalwart performers. But the quest for yield may be leading to imbalanced portfolios. Investors who...
Read MoreJanuary 28, 2013
It’s that time of year: holiday bills, new diets, bleak weather, and RRSP contributions. Not exactly exciting stuff. Bruce is a little more jazzed than many investors though. He reviewed his account statement last week and found that his portfolio at Steadyhand was up nearly 12% last year (since starting with us two years ago, his portfolio has gained approx. 6.5% per year). “Grinning ear to ear”, he noted in an email. While we love his enthusiasm, we reminded him that many...
Read MoreJanuary 23, 2013
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Winston Churchill. It was a strong year in the capital markets and your portfolio was most assuredly up. Good news, right? Well, probably, but maybe not. A proper assessment of...
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