Cutting Through the Noise
July 31, 2007
I’ve admitted before that I am a Jeremy Grantham junky. He’s not ahead of Steve Nash or Lucinda Williams, but he’s in the running. He’s often accused of being perpetually bearish, as am I, but both of us are able ...
Read MoreJuly 25, 2007
In this podcast, Dr. Sandy Nairn, the chief executive of Edinburgh Partners, discusses his firm's history, investment philosophy, approach to global equity investing, and why "this time it's different" are the four most expensive words in the investing language.
Read MoreJuly 24, 2007
Shares of the world’s largest specialty retailer were recently added to the Steadyhand Equity Fund. Why? Because Starbucks is now a “franchise” company – that is to say, a great business , run by great people , trading at a ...
Read MoreJuly 23, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 21, 2007 My first gig in the investment industry in the early eighties was as a conglomerate analyst at Richardson Greenshields. It was while doing that job I first became sensitive ...
Read MoreJuly 19, 2007
Chris, Scott and I have had ample opportunity to see what’s going on out there in investor land as we’ve each had a chance to work with a number of our new clients. We have done enough portfolio reviews and ...
Read MoreJuly 16, 2007
Posted by Scott Ronalds I must admit that before I started working at Steadyhand last year, the term blog was pretty much a foreign concept to me. ‘Blogging’ sounded more like a slang term or a new extreme sport from ...
Read MoreJuly 12, 2007
We're proud of our first version of client statements, in particular the portfolio summary page at the beginning of every statement. The first attached image is for a fictitious client, Jim Smith, who has three accounts: an Investment account, RSP ...
Read MoreJuly 12, 2007
[update: As of November 2009, our performance calculation methodology changed. Individual account performance is still calculated using the time weighted rate of return (daily valuation); however, it is now calculated in our wealth management platform, rather than the recordkeeping system. ...
Read MoreJuly 9, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 7, 2007 Avner Mandelman's column in this space last Saturday featured the investment philosophy of Warren Buffett. If you've been reading this column or my blog, it's obvious that I also ...
Read MoreJuly 3, 2007
We're pleased to present the inaugural Steadyhand Top Ten List. We've faced a lot of great - and not so great - questions in our first few months of business. Here are our top picks: 10. Is this the place ...
Read MoreJune 28, 2007
We read in Larry MacDonald’s blog ( Avalanche of New Exchange Traded Funds ) on the Canadian Business site that there have been 18 new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) created this year in Canada. Horizons BetaPro has been the most active ...
Read MoreJune 27, 2007
We’ve written about fund manager changes a couple of times this year ( When a Manager Moves, Be Prepared and Knowing When to Sell is Key to Smart Investing ). Needless to say, we think that the person pulling the ...
Read MoreJune 25, 2007
There has been lots written about the impact that hedge funds and private equity firms are having on the stewardship of public companies. There is a concern, which I share, that with these deep-pocketed players hovering, it is more difficult ...
Read MoreJune 25, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published June 23, 2007 When it comes to distribution, the investment management business is remarkably similar to the media industry. The number of distribution channels is growing rapidly and change is the only ...
Read MoreJune 21, 2007
My wife tells me I can be a real downer at parties. There are lots of reasons why she says that, but one is that I just can’t help myself when people start telling me how well they’ve done on ...
Read MoreJune 18, 2007
Early on in his book Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment , David Swensen talks about market timing and asset allocation. His words reinforce how we feel about the topic. After writing about how market timing has had ...
Read MoreJune 14, 2007
I came across an article on Yahoo! Finance last week that profiled the Fidelity Advisor Mid Cap Fund (the fund is only available in the U.S.). The author led off with a quote from the fund’s manager: “ The way ...
Read MoreJune 12, 2007
I’ve shown great restraint. It’s been seven months since I wrote specifically about principal-protected notes (PPNs). But I came across two things last week which reinforced that the structured product lunacy (including PPNs) continues unabated in the Canadian wealth management ...
Read MoreJune 11, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published June 9, 2007 One of the reasons I’ve recently focused my career on the individual investor, after years of working with pension clients, is because there is a huge disconnect between their ...
Read MoreJune 6, 2007
Steadyhand has a very definite investment philosophy. We believe our funds should be (1) absolute-return oriented; (2) concentrated on the managers’ best ideas; (3) unconstrained; and (4) have low turnover (i.e. tax efficient). The least understood of these four tenets ...
Read MoreJune 4, 2007
Hewlett Packard’s quarterly earnings came out recently and the firm continues to do well. Profits are rising based on cost reductions and modest revenue growth. Mark Hurd, the President and CEO, is receiving all the credit for HP’s turnaround and ...
Read MoreMay 30, 2007
There is a personal situation that I want to apprise our clients of, as well as investors that are following the progress of Steadyhand. I’ve had a long-standing liver condition called primary schlorosing colengitis (PSC). It goes back to my ...
Read MoreMay 30, 2007
Because of my liver condition , we’ve had to assess how Steadyhand’s business plan will change. The reality of the situation is that (1) I can’t travel outside the province until I get the transplant and (2) after my beeper ...
Read MoreMay 27, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 26, 2007 I started out writing this column about the most overused maxims in the investment business today. I had lots of examples to discuss. “ The massive amounts of capital ...
Read MoreMay 23, 2007
Investment Lunch/Breakfast Tired of high fees? Want to learn more about direct investing? Curious about the Steadyhand funds? Join us for lunch on Thursday, June 7 th , or breakfast on Tuesday, June 12 th , for an intimate and ...
Read More