Cutting Through the Noise
April 18, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published April 18, 2009. Let me set the scene. A generic portfolio manager enters a psychiatrist's office and starts talking. Let's be a fly on the wall. Thank you for seeing me, doctor. Sure, I can lie down on the couch...
Read MoreApril 17, 2009
There was great news today. The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) released a proposal to enhance disclosure requirements for over-the-counter (OTC) trades, including bonds. IIROC is one of two regulatory bodies for...
Read MoreApril 15, 2009
More and more commentators and experts are acknowledging that the world has changed. The framework for the future that Pimco’s Bill Gross laid out recently - namely de-levering, de-globalization and re-regulation - encapsulates what I'm reading...
Read MoreApril 8, 2009
My last posting on packaged investment products generated a lot of feedback. There were some great comments posted on the blog, but I received many more emails from readers of the Saturday Globe and Mail. Below are snippets from some of the emails...
Read MoreApril 6, 2009
As the wealth management industry works through this bear market, investment products that promise certainty and limited downside risk are going to be popular. With guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) offering minuscule yields, stock-market...
Read MoreMarch 31, 2009
Recession? Depression? Recessionary depression? Who knows? In the dark moments of an economic and market cycle, I find that everyone becomes an economist. Traders, analysts, portfolio managers, advisors and individual investors all amp up...
Read MoreMarch 27, 2009
Manulife is going to pay its retiring CEO $12.5 million in 2009. Dominic D’Alessandro’s pay cheque for 5 months work will be made up of cash ($2.5 million) and restricted shares ($10 million). To quote chairwoman Gail Cook-Bennett, “[the compensation]...
Read MoreMarch 25, 2009
I received an email from a reader who suggested that someone should offer a balanced fund that is more focused on preserving capital. Rather than being stuck on a set asset mix, as most balanced funds are, the fund would have the scope to move between...
Read MoreMarch 23, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published March 21, 2009. It is hard to find an individual investor who thinks that now is the right time to buy into the stock market. People that are holding cash are happy and have no intention of parting with their...
Read MoreMarch 20, 2009
In the investment business, valuation comparisons are very important. How one security stacks up against another in terms of price to earnings ratio, cash flow multiple or yield is at the core of what we do. CP Rail is cheaper than CN because it has a lower price...
Read MoreMarch 9, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published March 7, 2009. The news media have been remarkably quiet about the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. newsletter this year. And yet, as we go through this historic time, we need its calm, common sense and...
Read MoreMarch 5, 2009
It would be an oversight to do a series of postings on Warren Buffett’s 2008 Letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway and not review some of the great quotes and analogies. On the current investing environment: “Things also went ...
Read MoreMarch 4, 2009
In this, our third posting on Warren Buffett’s 2008 Letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway , there is no introduction or additional explanation required. This is his comment on the current investing environment. “The investment world has gone from ...
Read MoreMarch 3, 2009
One of the recent themes of this blog has been the notion that this economic crisis will cause the ‘strong to get stronger’. Well-financed companies will have unprecedented opportunities to buy assets and attract talent through this period, and will ...
Read MoreMarch 1, 2009
Warren Buffett’s 2008 Letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway was published on Saturday. As usual, it brings a refreshing perspective on topics of current interest. Over the course of the week, we’ll highlight a few. As he does every ...
Read MoreFebruary 27, 2009
With all of us wondering how we’re going to get out of this mess, I thought this month’s Investment Outlook by Bill Gross of Pimco was a good read. Mr. Gross is known as the ‘King of Bonds’ in the U.S. ...
Read MoreFebruary 26, 2009
In the Globe and Mail today, Derek DeCloet wrote an article about the aftermath of Canada’s great ‘hollowing out’ that took place from 2005 to 2007 - the period when foreigners were swooping in to buy our companies. There was ...
Read MoreFebruary 21, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 21, 2009 As regular readers know, some of my best columns are written for the sole purpose of keeping peace at home. If Lori wants me to write about something, the ...
Read MoreFebruary 16, 2009
That’s how one reader felt about my last Globe and Mail column ( Focusing Too Much on the Short Term Can Lead to a Short Career ). I stand by what I wrote about long-term thinking, but in response to that ...
Read MoreFebruary 11, 2009
I own a lot of Cisco shares through my investment in the Steadyhand Equity Fund and Global Equity Fund. It’s a stock that appears in more than one of our funds. I just went through the company’s February 4th investor ...
Read MoreFebruary 8, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 7, 2009 I've been having trouble sleeping, so I dusted off a research report written by my friend, J.J. Woolverton, who is the chairman of Guardian Capital LP (he makes me ...
Read MoreFebruary 7, 2009
“The conduct at issue relates to stock options granting practices at RIM which, over a ten year period from December 1996 to July 2006 were inconsistent with the terms of RIM’s stock option plan and with RIM’s public disclosure.” - ...
Read MoreFebruary 5, 2009
I’ve written about our home team, Teck Corp., in previous postings. This week Rio Tinto is in the headlines. Its situation is similar in the sense that six months ago it was a leading resource company, perhaps the premier one ...
Read MoreJanuary 27, 2009
As I was reading the year-end report from CGOV, the manager of our Equity Fund, I was blown away by the numbers. We’ve talked in the past about the quality of companies in the fund, how well positioned they are ...
Read MoreJanuary 25, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 24, 2009 Readers are quick to point out when they think I am naive, dismissive, misinformed or just plain wrong. No doubt there has been some loose analysis in this column ...
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