Cutting Through the Noise
March 17, 2008
The news just keeps getting worse. Today it’s the announcement that one of Wall Street’s revered investment dealers, Bear Stearns, is being bailed out and shareholders are going to lose almost everything. Despite the fact that Bear was a poster ...
Read MoreMarch 16, 2008
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 ...
Read MoreMarch 14, 2008
I received an email from an investor today relating to my column in the Globe last week . With her permission, I’ve posted our correspondence below. Mr Bradley, Our investment advisor is trying to sell us PPN's which we are ...
Read MoreMarch 13, 2008
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 ...
Read MoreMarch 10, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published March 8, 2008 During the RRSP season we were barraged with ads from the banks and insurance companies. In light of the recent market turbulence, the emphasis has been on their ‘risk ...
Read MoreMarch 7, 2008
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 ...
Read MoreMarch 6, 2008
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.
Read MoreMarch 5, 2008
Inspired by Scott's blog Tax-Free Savings Accounts - the RRSP for the Facebook Generation? , I wanted to see what a 19 year old could accomplish with some discipline. Quite a lot, I found. For instance, a 19 year old ...
Read MoreFebruary 28, 2008
In the investment business, Royal Bank and PH&N stole all the headlines last week (including on our blog), but there was another piece of news that relates closely to what we’re doing at Steadyhand. It was the announcement of a ...
Read MoreFebruary 28, 2008
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 ...
Read MoreFebruary 27, 2008
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 ...
Read MoreFebruary 25, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 23, 2008 It appeared on my BlackBerry screen on Thursday afternoon. Word from the office that Royal Bank was buying Phillips Hager & North. My first reaction was to shrug and ...
Read MoreFebruary 21, 2008
February 18, 2008
Jonathan Chevreau of the Financial Post interviews Tom about Steadyhand (part 1) and five myths of investing (part 2). See the videos here . ...
Read MoreFebruary 14, 2008
I stumbled across a large ad in the Vancouver Sun last week that caught my attention. The headline: Retire 12.2% Faster. How could I not read on! The ad was from the Bank of Montreal and it was referring ...
Read MoreFebruary 12, 2008
Derek DeCloet wrote an article in today’s Globe and Mail that most fund companies probably don’t want you to read. He cites strong net redemptions in January from some of the industry’s "lumbering giants", and concludes that poor markets are ...
Read MoreFebruary 11, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 9, 2008 In 2007, the capital markets were defined by acronyms (CDO, ABCP, SIV, CDS), but the big new word doing the rounds now is "decoupling". Decoupling refers to an economic ...
Read MoreFebruary 6, 2008
In 2007, the total return of the S&P/TSX Composite Index was +9.8%. The MSCI World Index (in Canadian dollar terms) was -7.5%. This divergence of returns means that if you’ve done nothing in the past year, Canadian equities are a ...
Read MoreJanuary 31, 2008
Generally speaking, the financial services industry isn’t known for punchy, let alone creative advertising. Most of the big firms tend to stick to conservative, feel-good campaigns. I came across an ad in a magazine the other day from E*Trade that ...
Read MoreJanuary 28, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 26, 2008 I had a column written for this week on how investors should expect lower returns, lower than what they have achieved in the past 10 to 25 years. I ...
Read MoreJanuary 24, 2008
A friend of mine who lives in the U.S. sent me a comment on my last blog that is worthy of a posting of its own. She is witnessing first-hand the fallout in the housing market and has a few ...
Read MoreJanuary 22, 2008
It’s times like these that test our patience as investors. As of yesterday’s close, the TSX had dropped more than 12% since the beginning of the year. Last year’s gains were gone in a mere three weeks. The S&P 500 ...
Read MoreJanuary 21, 2008
I can’t contain myself any longer. Do people really expect Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and George Bush to come to the rescue of the failing U.S. economy? Are they nuts? Ben’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan, and George ...
Read MoreJanuary 17, 2008
In this podcast, we review the fourth quarter, touch on some of the highlights of our Quarterly Report, and take a closer look at how our funds are positioned for 2008 and beyond. The session was fuelled by Nibs (Steadyhand's licorice of choice) for those wondering about the obscure reference toward the end.
Read MoreJanuary 16, 2008
A friend was telling me about a discipline she enforces in her household - if anyone brings a new piece of clothing into the house, they have to get rid of something. It keeps the drawers and closets in reasonable ...
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