Cutting Through the Noise
October 29, 2010
Whenever one investment theme, strategy or person is in the spotlight, it’s important to look in the shadows for a different perspective. That’s because as voices get louder and more confident, a consensus emerges that makes it harder to find the...
Read MoreOctober 22, 2010
David Rosenberg, the economist, is bearish on the economy and he’s very persuasive. His view is that we’re heading into a period of subdued growth at best, and another recession at worst. His 2011 earnings estimate for the S&P 500 is $75, well below...
Read MoreOctober 18, 2010
“I’ve been shaking all night long, but my hands are steady” - from ‘Three Pistols’ by the Tragically Hip. David and I have been doing presentations over the last few weeks and we’ve talked about the notion of a ‘steady hand’. The company name came...
Read MoreOctober 15, 2010
When investors open their quarterly statements this month, they’ll be pleasantly surprised. Despite all the doom and gloom, the last three months have brought a year’s worth of returns. But despite the fact that the most recent quarter will bring...
Read MoreOctober 12, 2010
Michael Nairne of Tacita Capital recently published an interesting piece on inflation. He pointed out that the bond market has been a lousy predictor of where inflation is going. He showed that the holders of both long and medium-term bonds failed to...
Read MoreOctober 1, 2010
“Maybe you might have, some advice to give, on how to be insensitive.” The chorus from this great Jann Arden song speaks to where the investment industry has gone over the last 20 years. I’m not referring to touchy-feely, relationship stuff, but rather a hard...
Read MoreSeptember 30, 2010
It’s not very often that we get to say we’re #1 at anything, whether it be on a personal level or as an organization. In this regard, we’re having an unusual year. In June, Steadyhand was at the top of the list on Morningstar’s Stewardship Grades. In...
Read MoreSeptember 24, 2010
Writing about the unfairness of closed-end funds has been a lonely vigil. Despite the fact that the last year has been a robust period for new issues of these funds, there have only been a few other commentators taking on this egregious industry practice. In...
Read MoreSeptember 23, 2010
ING has a TV ad running right now on their Streetwise mutual funds. I don’t have any issue with ING or the funds (quite the opposite), but I do think the messaging is misleading. Before I go there, I should provide a little background. Since...
Read MoreSeptember 20, 2010
To me, the media coverage on the new banking regulations laid out by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision misses the point (Basel was established in 1974 to improve the quality of banking supervision worldwide). The commentary has focused...
Read MoreSeptember 18, 2010
Every summer Lori and I make a pilgrimage to the famous Highland Cinema in Kinmount, Ont. This summer’s movie was Inception. While I had mixed feelings about the film (movie – 2 stars; conversation after – 4 stars), I found the...
Read MoreSeptember 16, 2010
We continue to be barraged with negative news. Even the most positive economists are projecting slow growth for the next few years, and the bearish ones, whose names all seem to start with ‘R’, send chills down my spine. One sentence in Connor...
Read MoreSeptember 13, 2010
At Steadyhand, we’re big on client-manager alignment. We think it’s important that investors work with professionals who share their interests. As clients and regular readers know, we walk the walk in this regard. Each year we publish the...
Read MoreSeptember 7, 2010
It was revealed last week that regulators are looking into potential conflicts of interest between the banks and their clients. According to the Globe and Mail, the enforcement division of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada...
Read MoreSeptember 4, 2010
One of the joys of my day job is talking with smart, turned-on people from all aspects and levels of the investment business. My good fortune comes from having a long and diverse career (as Woody Allen put it, 90 per cent of life is just showing...
Read MoreAugust 30, 2010
t was reported this week that millionaires are feeling more bearish. The Spectrem Millionaire Investor Confidence Index fell to -18, which represents “mildly bearish territory”. Prior to the August score, the index had been in neutral range (-10 to +10)...
Read MoreAugust 21, 2010
Portfolio management is both a science and an art. The science can be learned from finance professors and investment books. The art part, however, comes from years at the school of hard knocks. Like every grizzled money manager who’s...
Read MoreAugust 9, 2010
In my last column I talked about fear and investors who wanted to get out of the market. My advice (don’t do it) was based on valuation, investor sentiment and the difficulty of timing the market. It was aimed at helping the investor make the best decision. But...
Read MoreAugust 6, 2010
Everything we read about the economy these days is depressing – too much debt, scary demographics (with regard to social security and healthcare), weak political leadership and a warming planet. As an antidote to this macro gloom, there were lots of positives...
Read MoreJuly 24, 2010
In my quarterly letter to clients I used the word “discouraged” to describe investor sentiment. In the few days since we published it, however, I’m starting to think a better word is “despair.” Too regularly I’m being asked whether it’s time to get out of the...
Read MoreJuly 13, 2010
In this week’s rerun, we travel back to May 2008 for a brief look at the negative sentiment and opportunities in the corporate bond market at the time. As it turns out, the soil was fertile indeed. The managers of our funds report to us formally...
Read MoreJuly 10, 2010
I’ve had a bias to owning higher quality companies since 2007. In a challenging economy with unpredictable credit markets, it seemed reasonable to pay a premium for stable profits, excess cash flow and strong balance sheets. I knew the companies...
Read MoreJuly 9, 2010
Below are some observations and musings on the week that was – a recent feature that we’ve aptly coined The Back Hand. The Next Wall Street? – I’m desperately trying to come up with an investing analogy for the LeBron James signing with the Miami Heat
Read MoreJune 27, 2010
There has never been more investment information available to investors, so it’s frustrating to see the release of the Morningstar Stewardship Grades, the most useful piece of research to come out in decades, slide by with little or no coverage from...
Read MoreJune 12, 2010
We’re starting to see stories about a softening real estate market in Canada. Listings are up, sales are down, and even the always bullish industry executives are predicting lower prices in the coming year. It reminded me of a quote I saw recently: “Real is...
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