Blog

Cutting Through the Noise


July 28, 2008

By Tom Bradley

Markets Raining on Your Parade? Weatherproofing Tips to Help Avoid a Deluge

The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 26, 2008 Since my last column, I've been holidaying at the cottage. Normally I disengage from the investment world for these two weeks every year. The message to my partners and ...

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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 22, 2008

By Tom Bradley

The Steadyhand Diaries: Postscript II - Marketing

This posting is a follow-up to The Steadyhand Diaries , which were published in the Globe Investor magazine in May.  These postscripts are focused on things that didn’t get much space in the article.  But let me start with a ...

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July 14, 2008

By Tom Bradley

Things I'd Like to Hear - But Probably Won't - in the World of Business

The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 12, 2008 I've been reading Sports Illustrated for 40 years (since I was minus three years old). There are weeks when I don't get the Economist magazine read, but I never ...

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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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July 6, 2008

By Neil Jensen

The Power of Checklists

I've long had an interest in formal business rules specifications and systems for managing enterprise business rules.  Despite seeing the value in managing business rules explicitly, I've never been able to see how relatively small organizations like Steadyhand would have the ...

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June 30, 2008

By Tom Bradley

Investors Should Know There's Value Coming From Both Sides of the Street

The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published June 28, 2008 “We do our own independent research.” That's what all investment managers tell their prospective clients. It is a point of pride and is meant to distinguish them from other ...

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June 26, 2008

By Tom Bradley

Are Fee Reductions the New Trend?

This week RBC/PH&N announced they are reducing their management fees.  Eight of the funds that are sold directly to investors are affected.  This good news comes from the dynamic duo of low fee mutual funds.  PH&N has been a leader ...

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June 20, 2008

By Tom Bradley

What am I Paying for?

For a firm that prides itself in being transparent, we have been slow in clarifying our message on fees.  There are two questions that come up often, that we can address more clearly. Before I do that, however, I should ...

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June 18, 2008

By Tom Bradley

For the Feedback File

I recently received the following note from an investor: Mr. Bradley – your individual fund financial objectives, the managers, marketing approach, desire to make clarity vs. fund chaos/greed/conformity an objective, and an eMail approach to quarterly/annual data, as so clearly explained ...

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June 18, 2008

By Tom Bradley

Real Estate, Stocks and Chronic Depression

We’ve had a handful of new clients recently that brought money to Steadyhand as a result of a real estate sale. The conversations have been interesting and got me thinking. A majority of the talk has been around asset mix. What makes ...

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June 16, 2008

By Tom Bradley

'New World Order' or Not, Think Twice Before Jumping on the Bandwagon

The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published June 14, 2008 We can't go anywhere or do anything without feeling the impact of high oil prices. It is the topic du jour and we are at the stage where every ...

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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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June 5, 2008

By Tom Bradley

It's Tough Beating the Index

Why do active managers find the S&P 500 so hard to beat? In his book More Than You Know – Finding Financial Wisdom In Unconventional Places , Michael Mauboussin takes a different approach to the question.  He starts by assessing ...

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June 3, 2008

By Tom Bradley

Something to Chou on

I had some interesting feedback on my Saturday column on Francis Chou .  The volume of emails was not noteworthy, but the diversity of views and the temperature level had the widest range I’ve experienced.  There were a few investors ...

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June 2, 2008

By Tom Bradley

Chou Runs His Fund the Way He Runs His Life - and That's a Good Thing

The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 31, 2008 I grumbled as I read Rob Carrick's profile on Francis Chou in the latest issue of Globe Investor magazine. He beat me to it. I had visited Francis a ...

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May 28, 2008

By Tom Bradley

The Steadyhand Diaries: Postscript

We’ve had great reaction to The Steadyhand Diaries published last week in the Globe Investor magazine.  Over the next few weeks we are going to complement the Diaries with a few additional postings.  The original draft of the article was ...

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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 Tom Bradley

Watching if Sprott Can Handle Life in the Heavyweight Class

The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 17, 2008 On my way to a breakfast meeting recently, I walked by the 'Opening Soon' Apple store in Vancouver's Pacific Centre Mall. I know how hot that store is going ...

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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 13, 2008

By Tom Bradley

The ETF Diaries - Part V: All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

JovFunds Management is coming out with three ‘tactical allocation portfolios’ that will invest solely in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).  These growth, balanced and conservative mutual funds will own Horizons BetaPro ETFs and the asset mix will be actively managed by Fiera ...

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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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May 6, 2008

By Tom Bradley

A Belated Response to an Income Investor

Our blog on March 17th ( In Need of a Steady Hand ) generated a large number of hits, which given the investing environment at the time, is not surprising.  The main message in the posting was that investors shouldn’t ...

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