Cutting Through the Noise
August 29, 2008
I’m not much of a tape watcher or television junkie, but I’ve had the Business News Network (BNN) and Bloomberg News turned on more than usual this week. I don’t know why really, because it has been an incredibly slow ...
Read MoreAugust 28, 2008
I understand “location, location, location” in the real estate business.” What I don’t get is “scale, scale, scale” in the investment business. But “scale” is the word of the week in our industry. Both Rick Waugh, the CEO of Bank ...
Read MoreAugust 25, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published August 23, 2008 For a while now I have been trying to buy my neighbour's property. He hasn't lived there for 15 years, but keeps it as an investment. When I broach ...
Read MoreAugust 21, 2008
Dan Lewin, a friend and former colleague, sent me an interesting piece last week. It is a letter to clients from Howard Marks, the Chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, a U.S. asset manager. It is all good, but I particularly ...
Read MoreAugust 11, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published August 9, 2008 This week, we saw another independent asset manager bite the dust. It was announced that IGM Financial, through its Mackenzie division, has made an offer to buy Saxon Financial. ...
Read MoreAugust 7, 2008
We started Steadyhand last year because we saw an opportunity to work with investors who know what they want, care about fees and are interested in beating the market over the long run. Our target clients make up a tiny ...
Read MoreJuly 30, 2008
Over the last month, my conversations (casual and business) have yielded an overwhelming consensus about the market. The consensus is that we are headed for a meltdown in the financial sector, high oil prices are here to stay, and it's ...
Read MoreJuly 28, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 26, 2008 Since my last column, I've been holidaying at the cottage. Normally I disengage from the investment world for these two weeks every year. The message to my partners and ...
Read MoreJuly 22, 2008
This posting is a follow-up to The Steadyhand Diaries , which were published in the Globe Investor magazine in May. These postscripts are focused on things that didn’t get much space in the article. But let me start with a ...
Read MoreJuly 14, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 12, 2008 I've been reading Sports Illustrated for 40 years (since I was minus three years old). There are weeks when I don't get the Economist magazine read, but I never ...
Read MoreJune 30, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published June 28, 2008 “We do our own independent research.” That's what all investment managers tell their prospective clients. It is a point of pride and is meant to distinguish them from other ...
Read MoreJune 26, 2008
This week RBC/PH&N announced they are reducing their management fees. Eight of the funds that are sold directly to investors are affected. This good news comes from the dynamic duo of low fee mutual funds. PH&N has been a leader ...
Read MoreJune 20, 2008
For a firm that prides itself in being transparent, we have been slow in clarifying our message on fees. There are two questions that come up often, that we can address more clearly. Before I do that, however, I should ...
Read MoreJune 18, 2008
I recently received the following note from an investor: Mr. Bradley – your individual fund financial objectives, the managers, marketing approach, desire to make clarity vs. fund chaos/greed/conformity an objective, and an eMail approach to quarterly/annual data, as so clearly explained ...
Read MoreJune 18, 2008
We’ve had a handful of new clients recently that brought money to Steadyhand as a result of a real estate sale. The conversations have been interesting and got me thinking. A majority of the talk has been around asset mix. What makes ...
Read MoreJune 16, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published June 14, 2008 We can't go anywhere or do anything without feeling the impact of high oil prices. It is the topic du jour and we are at the stage where every ...
Read MoreJune 5, 2008
Why do active managers find the S&P 500 so hard to beat? In his book More Than You Know – Finding Financial Wisdom In Unconventional Places , Michael Mauboussin takes a different approach to the question. He starts by assessing ...
Read MoreJune 3, 2008
I had some interesting feedback on my Saturday column on Francis Chou . The volume of emails was not noteworthy, but the diversity of views and the temperature level had the widest range I’ve experienced. There were a few investors ...
Read MoreJune 2, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 31, 2008 I grumbled as I read Rob Carrick's profile on Francis Chou in the latest issue of Globe Investor magazine. He beat me to it. I had visited Francis a ...
Read MoreMay 28, 2008
We’ve had great reaction to The Steadyhand Diaries published last week in the Globe Investor magazine. Over the next few weeks we are going to complement the Diaries with a few additional postings. The original draft of the article was ...
Read MoreMay 20, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 17, 2008 On my way to a breakfast meeting recently, I walked by the 'Opening Soon' Apple store in Vancouver's Pacific Centre Mall. I know how hot that store is going ...
Read MoreMay 13, 2008
JovFunds Management is coming out with three ‘tactical allocation portfolios’ that will invest solely in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These growth, balanced and conservative mutual funds will own Horizons BetaPro ETFs and the asset mix will be actively managed by Fiera ...
Read MoreMay 6, 2008
Our blog on March 17th ( In Need of a Steady Hand ) generated a large number of hits, which given the investing environment at the time, is not surprising. The main message in the posting was that investors shouldn’t ...
Read MoreMay 6, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 3, 2008 Where were you in August of '82? I will always remember. I was between my years at Western in what is now the Ivey School of Business and was ...
Read MoreMay 1, 2008
The managers of our funds report to us formally once every quarter. In the Income Fund report from Connor, Clark & Lunn, there was a chart that is a great indication of what the capital markets are going through. It ...
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