Cutting Through the Noise
June 11, 2013
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been writing about housing because it’s a big part of our clients’ net worth, it's great fodder for a devoted student of market cycles and ... it’s just so darned interesting. In the first of three posts this week, I’ll try to bring some...
Read MoreJune 7, 2013
In his June Investment Outlook, PIMCO’s Bill Gross says that the Quantitative Easing policy (QE) of the U.S. Federal Reserve hasn’t worked. He points out that over the last 5 years there hasn’t been a 12-month period when the economy has grown faster than...
Read MoreJune 6, 2013
It’s confirmed. We have the healthiest banks in the world. They’ve all reported their second quarter earnings and the numbers are spectacular. Industry leader RBC had a return on equity of 19%, while CIBC and National Bank were over 20%. Yes, 20% in a...
Read MoreMay 30, 2013
Last year we blogged about bank CEO’s compensation (Can I Join the Club?). We took issue with the fact that they all made about the same last year, despite the fact that the performance and positioning of their respective banks were quite different. We...
Read MoreMay 28, 2013
On June 7th in Toronto, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is hosting a roundtable on mutual fund fees. It is open to the public and will follow the agenda outlined in this invitation. We have been a regular contributor on the topic of fees and recently made...
Read MoreMay 27, 2013
Lately I’ve been part of too many conversations that go like this. What brings you to Steadyhand? “I haven’t been happy with my existing advisor. The returns have been lousy and the service has fallen off to the point where I never hear from him." Do you...
Read MoreMay 24, 2013
Should you rent or buy? There are all kinds of reasons to buy a home – making it your own, establishing roots in the community, good schools, basketball hoop on the driveway – and they should be at the top of the list. From a financial perspective, however...
Read MoreMay 21, 2013
May 13, 2013
"Should I get out of the market?" I'm finding this question is coming up again, prompted either by the Dow hitting all-time highs or the central bankers' perilous high wire act (performed without a net). It depends on the week. But, while we know all...
Read MoreMay 6, 2013
In Saturday’s Report on Business, there was a remarkable table embedded in Rob Carrick’s article (How to Shelter Your Portfolio from a Housing Decline). It showed the top 10 Canadian equity funds (by assets) and the top 10 Canadian dividend income...
Read MoreMay 3, 2013
I thought a recent report from Mawer Investment Management captured well the opportunity, challenges and complexity of investing in the Asian markets. A paragraph from the conclusion summarizes their balanced optimism. Overall, we find ourselves...
Read MoreApril 29, 2013
Lori and I attended a Celebration of Life for Art Phillips last Friday. (There was a wonderful obituary in the Globe and Mail last week.) Art founded Phillips, Hager & North in 1965 with the help of Bob Hager and Rudy North. It was Art’s reputation and wallet that got...
Read MoreApril 26, 2013
I’m pleased to introduce our newest member of the Steadyhand team, Jennifer Lacuesta. Jennifer is taking on the role of Client Service Administrator. She has close to 10 years of industry experience, having worked at Deutsche Bank (in the Philippines), GrowthWorks, and Haywood Securities. Jennifer will be playing an important role in many of our client service and trading functions, from processing...
Read MoreApril 25, 2013
My last post on gold spoke to the impact of investor sentiment on security prices. In the case of the shiny metal, sentiment is everything. As for other securities, such as bonds and stocks, it’s a secondary factor - economic fundamentals (profits)...
Read MoreApril 22, 2013
I’ll never forget an interview I did with Michael Hainsworth on BNN. It was almost exactly two years ago. Michael started the interview very directly, “Tell me, why no gold?” After I explained why our managers didn’t own any gold stocks, he then asked, “And no interest in base metals?” When I said we had no mining stocks in our funds, Michael was beside himself. “Do you at least own some energy stocks?” ...
Read MoreApril 17, 2013
It’s a sunny, spring day. The cherry blossoms are at their peak on West 3rd Avenue. Bob Hager’s daffodils are bursting out of our garden. David (in from Toronto for our annual strategy session) greets prospective clients with an enthusiastic, “Welcome to Steadyhand World Headquarters.” And the gentleman says, “Isn’t it a wonderful...
Read MoreApril 15, 2013
Last week, we filed a submission to the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) on their Discussion Paper on mutual fund fees. If you have an interest in this topic, we’d encourage you to give it a read. If you’re a Steadyhand client and don’t have...
Read MoreApril 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 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...
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